What I Need From Marvel in 2019

You might have noticed I began to cover more comic book related media and less about the actual books themselves. I have kept reading them, but did not feel inspired enough to write about them.  They have not been bad per se , in fact they have improved now that we have corrected problems like Steve Rogers not behind the shield, Banner not as Hulk, Jane Foster the impostor Thor and Toney Stark being MIA. So going back into finishing what is less of a review and more of an over view, we will look back to see what they have done so far and where it needs to go.The Avenger's book has been treading water , Ghost Rider doesn't fit on the team. I am also fine with Dr. Strange not being on it despite him being one of my favorite characters I think he works better in the context of the Defenders. I liked when they brought Namor in , but that story kinda fizzled. We know the Squadron Supreme is showing up and Coulson is a bad guy now.This year will bring the Avengers into 3 big events . The War of the Vampires, No Road Home and a big Asgard themed event the War of Realms . At present they are no faring as well in their solo books. Thor has gone in a weird world direction. The last issue of Captain America focused too much on the side story of the bad guys, while he is being framed for the murder of Gen. Ross, I think they could do better than recycle this tired old spin,  Iron Man's current conflict with the Controller might be the most interesting story of the big 3 Avengers with proven track records for holding their books down.

Black Panther is hit or miss with his inter-galactic story arc, but at least they have him out of Wakanda,because when he is stuck there they tend to tell the same stories over and over again and due to his limited rogues gallery it gets boring quick. While we are on Avengers with limited Rogues galleries it looks like the newest run of Captain Marvel, is resorting to alternative universes and even then she has Spider-woman tagging along. I think Jessica Drew holds her own book down better than Capt. Marvel which is going to prove a detriment to trying to mine sequels out of a Capt . Marvel movie. The same thing could be said for Black Panther.


The Immortal Hulk is being praised as horror book, but I am not sure it's much different than any other version. He is in Hell at the moment, which lends it self to Clive Barker like dark streak, but I am not sure I am totally sold on the direction they are taking it. I did like the ass kicking he gave the Avengers a few months ago.The first issue of the new Guardians Of the Galaxy worked for me. I am fine with Moondragon and Beta Ray Bill on the team. It looks like Gamora is going to be pulled in at some point. When it comes to the cosmos, the return of the Fantastic four should find Marvel's first family, pulling it all together if they are smart. They have gone right for Galactus and Doom, which you can guess will be the focus of any movie coming down the road. The key to their success lies in getting Dr Doom. right. Spider Man Far From Home could have also served as a place to introduce Doom. Spider-man 's book as long as they stay away from convoluted plot points with clones are fairly consistent. It is too bad Miles did better in Into the Spiderverse than in his own book.

X-men are trying to shake things up with almost another no more mutants trick.  I like the fact two of the New Mutants, Magick and Wolfsbane are on the main team.Though the New Mutants are not that new any more. It seems like a very contrived way to bring  Cyclops back. Matt Fraction is coming back to Marvel and may or may not be on an X-book. An Eternals vs X-men books could be cool as you know with a movie pending they are going to need more fleshing out. If they are planning to make Ikaris gay, though most people have assumed it will be him though it could be Sersi, which I would find more interesting, though Ikaris' Prince Valiant hair cut is kinda gay . Also we can expect more Nova and Shang -Chi in the coming years . It will also be interesting to see how they blend Conan into the universe proper.

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Film Review : "Captain Marvel"

So when I reviewed "Black Panther" there was the out cry that comes when you say the Emperor has no clothes of people saying "That movie is not for you" . To which I replied "You mean a comic book movie isn't for someone who reads comics?" That is what this is coming to now. So I will first give you the review of someone who this movie is for ... a 9 year old girl. After all they are making GoFund Me's for this movie so they can go see it. Or perhaps that is all in the hype , and if you can sell this as something that a cultural even rather than a super-hero movie then perhaps we don't notice when the movies take on the same formula. But I digress here is what a 9 year old girl thought of it.

First she has seen other super hero movies in theaters ... Spider-man, Wonder-woman, Ant-man, and Avengers. She did not make it through Aqua-man,got bored fast. She loves Suicide Squad and I think if you ask her will tell you she prefers Harley Quinn over Captain Marvel, a fact also substantiated by the fact she has watched Suicide Squad multiple times. So she can sit through a super-hero movie. Another point is considering she is my daughter she has grown up around comics. She knows who the Sentry is as well as Satanna, so might even be more well versed in them than many of today's fair weather Marvel movie fans. Since she knows the comics and not just the movies,  Today she asked is Captain Marvel the greatest super hero ever before we watched the movie and I told her well...probably not, but that can be a matter of taste.  So the heavy sci-fi shoot outs at the beginning between the Kree and the Skrulls , began to lose her, she wanted super-heroes not star wars. Then 30 mins later she was falling asleep.  When I asked her how did she like what she saw she liked Ant-man and Wasp better.

I think that is a fair assessment of where this movie falls. I was surprised the girl power was not more heavy handed. There was only one montage like scene where she gets up after being knocked down that put it in your face. I will also say , the cgi was not as bad as what they showed in the commercial. Not on Infinity War level or even Dr. Strange. I like the fact that it felt more like a super-hero movie than Black Panther and more fluidly flowing into the Marvel Universe. That is the movie's strong point. There was a lull midway into it, but it was not as slow going into as I had expected. So points for that too.

Where the movie was a train wreck was doing things like making the Skrulls good guys. I went in thinking it would make for a great entry point for the Fantastic Four. Boy did they fuck that up. I did like the little Kirby looking servant skrulls though. Visually they were handled pretty well. The Kree have appeared on Agents of Shield before which is part of the cinematic universe. Anette Benning as Mar-Vell was another place they dropped the ball. Mar-vell as a conspiring bad guy? Give me a fucking break. Ronan was hardly used. The cat everyone was talking about, underwhelming. I agree that the 90s thing seemed forced. Brie Larson's Captain Marvel, lags behind Scarlet Witch or Wasp in terms of convincing me, though she was better than anticipated, but my expectations were pretty low. I am all for female super-heroes...She-Hulk could carry a movie better. Mantis could be a bad ass instead of a Pokemon. Where is Tigra? If they left an easter egg for Kamala Khan it was buried. Decormick kinda killed Danvers for me in the comics, I think I prefer the yellow and black suit.

As a movie stripped of any Trojan Horse agenda, I liked it better than Black Panther , the Andrew Garfield Spider-man movies and think it has a better ending than Wonder-woman. But if they try to sell us The Eternal with this same hype machine, Marvel is going to have ruder awakenings in store.

The Top 30 Marvel Movies

When Marvel started making movies we were just glad to see these characters on the screen. Now it's a billion dollar hype machine. People need to attach things to these character that just isn't there. Fuck the politics of what Hollywood wants them to  promote on any given day and lets look at how these movies stack up against one another. Ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of faithfulness to the comics , acting , cinematography these qualities put them where they sit on this list. Since after all those are the most important elements of a movie about super-heroes, story wise they already have it laid out for them.



1-Dr. Strange

Faith-9

Act-10- The best cast yet

Cine-10

29...the best of the bunch.



2-Captain America Winter Solider

Faithful-9

Act- 9

cine- 9

27

This movie had the most heart Marvel has committed to film so far



3-Iron Man

faith-8

Act-9

cine 9

26

Kicked off the concept of a shared universe. Rober Downey jr, became Stark.

4-Captain America

faith -9

Act- 8

Cine-9

26




5- Captain America Civil War

Faith - 7

Act-9

cine-9

25

The most heroes they have had on screen up until this point, Spider-man and Ant-man stole the show.


6-Blade

Faith 8

Act- 8

Cine- 9

25...Black Panther might have been created by some white men in 62 making him the first black Marvel hero, but Blade was the first black hero to hit the big screen. If he is not a hero then neither is Bat-man. Some classic scenes in the movie that was really well done considering when it came out.

7-Incredible Hulk


Faith - 8

Act- 9... thanks to Ed Norton

Cine-8

Norton is probably the best Banner yet.



8-Guardians of the Galaxy

Faith -8

Act- 8

Cine 9

25... Groot and Rocket stole the show.

9-Deadpool

Faith-7

Act- 8

Cine- 9

24...Rated r super hero movies became a thing, tone was better than their faithfulness or lack of to the books



10-Logan

Faith- 6

Act - 8

Cine -8

24...Gritty in all the right ways even though it never touches the Old Man Logan Story.




11-Punisher War Zone


Faith - 9

Act- 7

Cine- 8

24...as violent as it should be.



10- Spider-Man 2

Faith - 8

Act-8

Cine- 8

24- Molina's Dr. Octopus was great and Mcguire got comfortable with the role.

11- the Avengers

Faith - 6

Act- 9

cine-8

23- Their chemistry worked despite the cgi vomited ending that became an unfortunate super-hero staple.





12-Spider-Man Homecoming

Faith 7

Act-8

Cine 8

Thankfully spared another origin story, Holland is the best of the three Spider-men


13- X-men First Class

Faith -6

Act- 8

Cine- 8

22...guess they didn't know who was actually in the first class, it was the most fun I had in an X-men movie up to this point.



14-Iron-Man 3

Faith - 5

Act-9...thanks to Robert Downey jr

Cine 8

22...the movies villains were a little weak, but Downey pulled it together.

15-Amazing Spider Man

Faith - 8

Act- 7

Cine-7

22...too soon for a reboot, the mask came off way too much.

16-Blade 2

Faith -  8

Act-6

Cine - 7

22...still fun, they should have ended it here and not made the third movie


17-Guardians of the Galaxy 2

Faith - 5

Act-8

Cine 8

21...Mantis was a Pokemon and it was way too goofy.

17- Avengers Age of Ultron

Faith - 4

Act- 8

Cine-8

20...at least we got Vision and Scarlet Witch though way too far from the source material.

18-Ant-man

Faith 4

Act-8

Cine 8

20...This should have been Pym,

19-Iron - Man 2

Faith - 4

Act-8

Cine-8

20...not sure what didn't work about this movie, maybe it way when Whip Lash got armor.

20-Spider-man

Faith-8

Act-6

Cine-6

20...why was the Green Goblin a Power Ranger?

21-Thor the Dark World

Faith - 3

Act-8

Cine - 8

19...why were elves in space ships?



22-Thor

Faith - 4

Act-7

Cine-7

18...He didn't have his powers half the movie and they were too apologetic about him being a god not an alien.



24- Amazing Spider man 2

Faith-5

Act- 6

Cine- 7

18...Electro was terrible

25-Black Panther

Faith- 6

Act-5

Cine - 6

17...the acting was terrible with accents that came and went scene to scene, supporting cast was either wooden or acted like teenagers, we are too far into this to have cgi of this low quality.

26- Fantastic four 2 rise of Sliver Surfer

Faith - 4

Act-5

Cine- 7

16...might have been better if Galactus was not a purple cloud.

27-Daredevil

Faith- 6

Act- 4

Cine-6

16-acting was as stiff as Affleck looked in that suit.

28-Punisher


faith-6

Act-5

Cine   - 4 

15...I tried really hard to like it when it came out.

29-Spider-man 3

faith-3

Act-4

Cine -7

14...Venom was horrible

                                           

30- Man-Thing

Faith 4

Act4

cine 3

Worse than the second Swamp Thing , but we did get titties for this b-horror movies right from the jump.

Marvel the Summer of Discontent

I have been sitting on this one for awhile and need to just get it out so I can move on. I think if it took my all summer to get this post out then it is obvious that Marvel has been less than inspiring considering when I started this blog I wrote once a week about comics. So this is a collection of various glimpses into the releases of the summer as well as a grim look at the big picture. Secret Empire continued to suck as well as Marvel comics in general. This isn't just me, I went to a panel of comic retailers and they all agreed , Marvel might have you fooled when it comes to the movies , but the books are not selling. People are pissed and want their characters back I am not sure Marvel has had an event worth a shit in past few years.The best part was bringing back Banner for an issue and watching him plow through everyone.  X-men even with it' overly cerebral slant is one of the best books going since Dedato is doing the art. Not my favorite team of all time, but I'll take it. Mighty Thor 22 issues later is even worse of a mess, like when they had Hulks of too many colors now there is Volstagg as a war-Thor. Speaking of Hulk the Hulk Generations was ok and brought Banner Hulk back, but I am unsure what is really the point of this the Generations Wolverine book was about the same quality, no real point considering those two had already met, it just looked like something else to mess with the time line. Speaking of messes the Infamous Iron-man's 11th issue seems like something that should have gone down in either the Fantastic Four who needs a return to comics or in Dr.Strange. Nothing to do with Iron Man at all.

Black Panther 17 was the best yet from the new writer, but I have a hard time seeing how he can hold up a movie on his own. Speaking of movies bound to flop based on the comics , the Mighty Captain Marvel is an even more contrived space opera that is hard to care about even with the Alpha Flight involved. Now to further clutter things up we have Hyperion and the Ultimates. Granted the latter at leastw works with Danvers current mythos. When it comes to Avengers there does seem to be some hope for the Uncanny Avengers who find Scarlet Witch back in their ranks in the 26th issue. I think this book would work better with Beast in it instead of Rogue. Johnny Storm as needs to go. The team doesn't need two magic users, ask anyone who plays D&D so get rid of Brother Voodoo. That would leave us with Quicksliver, Wasp, Scarlet Witch and Synapse. Bring in Beast and another odd Avenger from the past like Jocosta, Mantis or Tigra and it would be a great book. See I just named off three more female super-heroes so I am all for girl power. Just not a she-Thor.

X-men Blue is decent in it's 10th issue . None of the X-books have really been that great though I am glad that Daken is back.Jean Grey finds it 6th issue being much better than you would ever imagine her being able to hold down her own book. Granted each issue has guest ranging from Dr. Strange to Thor to Scarlet Witch, you might notice I just named some of my favorite characters to I am sure that factors into the equation, but I think this book pays homage to the canon that came before it. So lets hope the fall finds them making some better choices with Legacy.

How Does Ant-man Measure Up?

Marvel is aware that despite being one of the founding Avengers they now Ant-man is about as well known to the general public who doesn't read the comics as Rocket Racoon and the concept is just a s willy to some people, so they tried to take a similar tone as Guardians  of the Galaxy. One of the things Marvel is doing since they are also aware if they approach the basic origin superhero formula in the same say it will accelerate the fatigue of the trend they are riding so they have tried to make each film fit a different mold, the first Capt America really stated this as that was their war film, Thor their epic Fantasy, the second Captain America, was their espionage movie, Guardians there space opera, with some of the other movies in-between those being allowed to be more comic centric. One can assume Dr. Strange with also be set aside in that way , but after that they might be in trouble. So Ant-man is their heist film. This Ocean 11 type element injected into the movie takes itself pretty seriously and the supposed humor that apologizes for being about a man makes himself the size of an ant is often counter balanced by this.

The humor really isn't that funny, I don't think I laughed the entire film, granted I generally did like comedies because much like Ant-man they try to hard to make you like and it ends up feeling very contrived.The huge Thomas the Tank Engine or the pet ant, seem to be a bit of a reach. For me where the film works is they allow Lang to keep his mask on. They do acknowledge that Hank Pym was originally Ant-man and they even show Wasp for about ten seconds as a flash back sequence. I am not sure why they didn't allow Hank Pym to be Ant-man rather than going with Scott Lang. Its another way Marvel has screwed themselves from being able to connect the dots with their own mythos. How can Wonder Man ever show up ?

Paul Rudd gets the job done. Douglas is also pretty decent as the aged Pym. Every one else is a little stiff. It takes thirty minutes before he gets the costume on, and while I like how that comes about , I think all origins should take place in the first ten minutes and then it's go time. I liked how it connected to Avengers two, Falcon's appearance was cool, and was it me of did his costume look a little red white and blue, which could lead to one of my fears about the prophetic tone the comics could be taking in order to work around actors contractual obligations and give Marvel a loop hole out of the Disney deal.

In the new politically correct world of geekdom, there have been questions about how Wasp was sidelined, how black and Hispanics are portrayed and I think if any stereotypes were played into it was done so with a reason that made sense for the story and you have to remember stereotypes get played into because there have been enough examples to justify them.  Hollywood works off archetypes, Yellow Jackets plays into some of the most run of the mill villain cliches.  He just hops into his suit and they  are at it , so I am not sure why Rudd had to train to used his and Yellow Jacket was able to pop it on and go. I am not sure why Marvel didn't show Pym as Giant Man  rather using the particles to make inanimate things bigger.

Quality wise some of the cgi did't hold up to the other movies when they are small everything is not as blended. They have elluded to the fact that the astral world of Dr strange is going to be like sub atomic world, which I hope is not the cas as it looks like a darker version of the dreamier Fortress of Solitude sequences from the Reeve era Super-man films.The ants at times were a little suspect and I was surprised that that element of his powers took so much focus , so I give them props for at least not downplaying that.

Was it fun? Sure and it didn't come across to much like "Honey I Shrunk the Avenger".  It was a pretty mixed bag and I am glad I didn't throw down the twelve bucks to see it in the theater and you should only do that if you have nothing better to do and too much money or a bug Scott Lang fan. As Superhero movies go I think it's better than Spider-man 3, Iron Man 2, Daredevil, the first Punisher, Catwoman, Dark Knight Rises, Electra, most of the Blade Sequels and Fantastic Four so use that as your barometer , after Dr. Strange it's only going to get worse from here as Captain Marvel comes across like My Super Ex Girl Friend and Black Panther the Captain Africa.

More Marvel April 1st 2015

Things got a little better  with Marvel this week so we will get the bulk of the bad news out of the way first  first which is I am not sure why i decided to read Operation S.i.N issue 4 as it was bad all the way around. Agent Carter bored me to tears I couldn't get through an entire episode which should make people scared for Captain Marvel if that is the best they can do with a female hero in a solo outing. I think Skye from Agents of Shield is way more interesting than Carter. Not sure why I bothered with Cyclops 12 the whole black vortex thing is what happens when comic book writers try to write the X-men into star wars , the idea sounds good sitting around the bong but put into motion no so much. The art is decent , but way too happy. Darker inking might have helped put lead into that pencil.Speaking of lead the Punisher has plenty of it, while the art is not my favorite it is drawn using some creative camera angles. The Punisher vs Sam Wilson fight was entertaining , but not as accurate as that might go down considering Wilson is not as experienced as Castle, I won't spoil the outcome, but it is resolved in the milk toast way most battles of this sort turn out... and no Doctor Octopus doesn't show up causing them to team up. The Punisher also popped up in Spider-Gwen 3  the first issue that was worth the paper it was printed on. I like the look of her costume, but can't stand how the book is drawn, the use of the gas in this issue seemed like it was creating a smoke screen for the bad art, story wise vast improvement, I'll keep reading and give it another chance...see I'm not so harsh after all. I love comics and want to like them, the quality has just slipped in recent years.

The Guardians of the Galaxy team up was cute, I love She-hulk, but she has become was too focused on her career and not busting out of her clothes enough. This issue was inconsistent in her size. She teamed up with Gamora of course. Vs Drax would have been more interesting.She-Hulk like punisher made multiple appearances this week as she was in Wolverines 13, the re-creation of Hulk 181 was pretty funny even if the fight with Deadpool as short lived...of course he didn't win. Avengers the Rage of Ultron assembled a jumbled mix or varied version of Avengers, but when a character slices off the Hulk's head with Captain America's shield then it was clear the writer had never cracked open and issue of Hulk or really researched the character since that would never happen. Of course there was no blood so it could be android, but despite decent art it was a flop went put against Uncanny Avengers or Avengers 43. Uncanny keeps it's High Evolutionary story line going and Avengers is just setting up Secret Wars, which I will give a run down of what looks to be the winners and losers of that debacle next week.

Book I avoided this week was Rocket Raccoon, since it's largely drawn like Calvin and Hobbs.

The Week in Marvel

This week in Marvel Hulk  12 was the best of the bunch. Mark Bagley seems to be the only one really knocking it out of the park. It  sucks Dr. Green had to de-power the Gamma Corps. I thought Gray was Glen Talbots, and a peek a Marvel's very own wiki confirms this, so how is he black when he gets de-powered ? Under stand they want diversity in comics, but changing some one's race when it's established canon they are white is poor editing. As for the other Avengers. Avengers World 18, felt more like an X-men book. On the better side of mediocre . Avengers 42, continues to set up the Secret Wars, about as good as that book as going to get with the story they are choosing to tell.

The Guardians of the Galaxy team up was fun. The art looked like it came right out of the 90s. Guardians of the galaxy have to be every where they are like the new- X-men there appearance in Angela, helped an other wise dull book, the whole Black Vortex thing is a lot of hype about nothing.
I dislike the art in Wolverines 9, but I like Daken even without his arm, but it has flipped the character around and now he doubts himself.

People whine about wanting more female-centric comics, but X-men is boring as all hell, so not making a great case for that argument.Speaking of female comic books, Spider -Woman 5 , was not bad , but what happened to her powers? Shouldn't it only take her one hit with a sledge hammer to knock a hole in the wall? I can knock hole in a wall with one hit and no powers, so should she since she's in the 5 to 7 ton rage. I would think she would knock the whole wall down. The motorcycle thing, seemed a little CW.

The books I passed on this week were  Rocket Raccoon, Original Sin, Iron Fist and Hawkeye, because they have been so terrible I can't even bring myself to flip through them anymore. Why some of those are big sellers is beyond me I think they are geared towards hipsters who want to be geek-chic by reading a comic, but don't really care for super-heroes. I salute  them with my middle finger for their efforts.

Now What Marvel?

Marvel has been so focused on movies it seems the quality control of the comics has slipped in the past couple of years. It seems half the books are cleaning up the messes made in Marvel's so called "big events"  or the are ramping up to make another mess. If you have heard anything about the up-coming Secret Wars event, then this catastrophe on the horizon is pretty evident. The worst thing about these events is every since Avengers vs X-men, they have been pretty anti- climatic. From the snooze fest that was Age of Ultron  to garbled story-line of the recent "Spider-verse".

Clean up from Axis is still under way in Superior Iron Man, this book is drawn better than most, it would take another column to go into the downfall of the companies art. 5 explores the origin of the Teen Abomination, who proves to be even more connected to Stark's past. Almost devoid of any action except a flash back scene that is kinda cool as it goes back to the 70s and shows Iron-Man fighting Whiplash for a few panels, even though that a fight we have seen almost too many times at this point. Then on the Avengers side of the fence we have the New Avengers ramping us up this week for Secret Wars, but not a punch is thrown. Secret Avengers is so poorly drawn it's hard to digest the story. When M.O.D.O.K became and Avenger I was pretty much done with that book. The Thor annual was three terrible stories , Thor is in my top five favorite Marvel Heroes ( the other four are the Hulk, Dr.Strange, Scarlet Witch and Vision)  so for me to not have any investment in the book is a sad state of affairs , not asking for Marvel to wow me with every book, but at least don't make me loose interest in my favorite characters.It looked like Invaders is coming to a close in this weeks issue, no one is shedding  any tears from that one with out Steve Rogers as Captain America that team has no point.  S.H.I.E.L.D. was one of the weeks best books it felt like one of the Spider-man team up books from the 80s. The story worked and good things are happening all around on this one.

That was almost the only Spidey book worth buying. Amazing Spider-man has so of the company's better art work, but every Spider- was saying good-bye. Peter Parker and Otto the Superior Spider-man had a throw down. Then in a step down in the art department is "Spider-man and the X-men"  which feels like the Ultimate Spider-an cartoon. the book teams him up with the kids from Xavier academy. The fight solid holograms of Spidey's foes.  Who would  have thought that Spider-man 2099 would be one of the weeks best comics. It was fun watching him get his butt beat by the Maestro Hulk.

The first issue of Spider-Gwen debuted. Boy was it a stinker. The art was marginal. Story thin a rice paper and I could not find myself caring about a single character in the book. Sure the Vulture showed up, the voice he was written with did not even seem like the same character. Marvel is trying to be diverse, but can't seem to get a grip on a female super-hero in her own book. Capt. Marvel might be the best of the bunch, but more often than not it bores me to tears. I like Carol Danvers, but I have a feeling her solo movie will make Halle Berry's Cat-woman seem like a good idea.

Wolverines was the best of the X-titles. It feature Fang from the Imperial Guard, who opening a six-pack of kicked butt on Wolverines foes and family. Amazing X-men, was half-way decent, the Living Pharaoh becoming the next Juggernaut took me by surprise. All- New X-men was a book I really enjoyed and now barely has a story line worth following. It crosses over into their Black Vortex event, featuring Nova and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Rounding out the week in Marvel is Fantastic  Four, this issue was more build up though I was pleased that the Hulk was throwing down against some monsters with Ben Grimm and Dare Devil which was another transition issue. Inhuman was well drawn, but Blackbolt giving up his thrown to Medusa who he let slap him around is not in character at all.  Well better luck next week...books to buy  this week... Spider-man 2099, S.H.I.E.L.D and Wolverines. If you are a huge Juggernaut fan then Amazing X-men is a must.

Scarlet Witch Found Dead

Scarlet Witch was found dead in the pages of Uncanny Avengers issue 14.While tragic and raising many questions this also might be one of my favorite books of the year. Also among the casualties were Rogue and possibly Daken, though no word yet on if the healing factors of either will counter act this dramatic turn of the murderous writer Rick Remender. The where abouts of Wonder-Man are also unknown as it appeared his ionic form dissipated , when Wanda finished a spell to raise mutants before she died.

The issue which was penciled by one of Marvels best artists Steve Mcniven, was full of action and blood shed, with a really cool plot development of Kang going into future time-lines to build a team of future Villains to take on the Avengers , the team looks to include Iron-Man of 2020, Venom-girl, and future Doom.

The deaths that dominated the violence, even after Wolverine said no one dies, occurred in the books second act, Wanda and Simon, engaged in a ritual to raise mutants , but Rogue thought it was another no more mutants thing, so she kills Wanda, using claws she borrowed from Logan. Rogue was then killed by Grim Reaper shortly after wolverine went berserk and killed his son.

So much like the Peter Parker less Spider-man , does anyone think that Scarlet Witch is going to stay dead when she is being introduced in the Avengers 2 ? Of course if Rogue had absorbed Logan's claws then she had his healing ability. Daken was a Horseman of Apocalypse so he had his healing amped up if not immortalized. So what does this death filled issue really mean? It was entertaining, and I don't like knowing I am going to say good by to Wanda even if it just for a year as she is one of my favorite Marvel characters, but hasn't she already died before, is Marvel giving all heroes a Buffy " I've Died Twice" cards?

In other news Paul Rudd is days away from signing the paper work on becoming Ant-man, leaving Gordon Joesph Levitt in the Dr. Strange slot and Rashida Jones remains the contender for the part of Wasp.
             

Post- Age of Ultron

You know we are dealing with the same mess we had a few weeks ago, there isn't really anybook I'm finding that entertaing though the Avenger's Enemy Within book was the best of the bunch, Iron-Man being a cosmic character seems like they are reaching, Thor has great art but is an obtuse read that suffers from the time travel plague sweeping across the company as a whole. Can you think of any book where it's not mucked up with time travel, body swtiching or alternate reality? Daredevil is the only one that pops into my head, though the rather underwhelming Thunderbolts counts. The Hulk will end up in some sort of return to the savage land with the Raw Hide Kid showing up and riding dinosaurs so that sounds like another time slip of a mess.

Defenders now has a Wonder=woman knock off, why not make Valkyrie your Wonder-woman kncok off? Then bringing in Neil Gaiman's Angela character to end the Age of Ultron, is Joss Whedon in charge how did we end up with so manny warrior women, not that I havea problem with them, some of my favorite marvel characters are women,...She-hulk, Tigra, Wasp and Scarlet Witch. Why not further develop those?

So we can agree Age of Ultron is a flop, it should have taken place in the Ultimate Universe, so looking ahead we have this Infinity which will be rehash of the Infinity Gauntlet story, bringing Thanos in and ramping up Guardians of the Galaxy for the big screen, we know Captain America,Thor and Spider-man have movies coming out so expect them to be spotlighted.So Captain America should have his other worldly adventures wrapped up by septemeber, according to sollicts the God-slayer thing gets drug out in Thor til August, and Expect Peter Parker to be back by the time the sequel hits. So with Movies and now ..television entertwined with who gets a push, expect more from SHEILD, the rumors of Luke Cage debunked so J August's character will get a push who ever it might be. Then on Marvel's slate it's Ant-man, Dr.Strange and Black Panther, so by the fall the seeds will start being sewn to increase awareness of those characters. Falcon should get more face time since he is in Cap 2, he is already being shocased on the Avengers Assembled Cartoon, Winter Soldier...well he has had his own book and since he is the villain in this then, I don't know. He seems a weird choice for a villian to me.

Speaking of Villians , the other heroes aside from Dr.Strange have a fairly weak rogues gallery and Black Panther barely has one at all, I mean Klaw? Man-Ape, though I suppose they could take him to the Savage Land or something. Ant-man has ...Ultron, then Egg Head and I suppose any of the masters of evilm I think he would be a good gateway to bring in Vision and Wonder-man. Joss confirmed this week that yes, Scarlet With and Quicksliver will be in the Avengers sequel, I thin this will help phase Rober Downey jr out. I'm fine with an Iron-man less team. They will more than liely follow the books and have the team drop down to Cap, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Quicksliver and bring in Black Panter though Captain Marvel is suppose to show up.

Marvel studios has an aversion to characters keeping their mask on so hows that going to work with Black Panther? Will Dr.Strange be in Blu pajamss? At 45 MArk Ruffalo knows the clock is ticking on him as Banner in a stand alone and just think how bad an Iron-man four without Downey will flop as they are saying the character is enough like James Bond that anyone can play him. How long with the Comic book movie trend last? Regardless Marvel needs to step up to the plate and start writing books that have me looking forward to my weekly comic book store run rather than just me making it out of obligation, because once we reach that level of apathy do you think we will pay for movies?