Marvel Comics in 2026

It's been four years since I last posted about the comic books. They seem to be almost forgotten by Marvel themselves as the company shifted the brand's focus to movies, which did make them huge amounts of money, well...Disney perhaps is the man behind the curtain on this. Yet comics keep being made, and I keep reading them, but it is hard for me to imagine buying a physical copy of one at this point, as they are so inconsistent. To keep abreast of what was really going on, you would be blowing a hundred dollars a month on what?  Characters that are not being respected? 

How is this disrespect to the characters happening? Well, their stories are being bastardized. How many people have worn the Spider-Man mask in the past year? Wel that first requires you to answer the next stupidest question, who is Spider-man? If the answer is not Peter Parker, then the legacy of this character is in trouble. When I tell you, Norman Osbourne was wearing the red and blue suit while Parker was in space recently, then you might understand how sharks have been jumped, and poor editorial decisions have been made, and they are affecting most characters. This bleeds over into their delusion of what will work on the big screen or television, and things compound. 

I am going to look at 10 other comics aside from Spider-Man, featuring the 10 charaters that matter the most to me aside from Parker, and see where the problem lies. It makes sense to give my favorite character a look first, so let's see how ole Bruce Banner is doing.

The Hulk

Just got finished reading the lastest issue of the Infernal Hulk. The latest gimmick.  I approve of taking the Hulk in a more horror-oriented direction, and like the Immortal Hulk series, some of those books would have been worth buying. Maybe one day I will grab a trade paperback. For Infernal, I will break it donw like this an Anicent demon , yanked Banner from Hulk and now wears the Hulk as it has possessed him to wage war against god, not a bad concept in theory I am not opposed to it the execution is jumping ahead of it self as it has this Infernal Hulk taking on the Marvel Universes incarnation of God, the One Above All, or so the fight was billed but it was reallyu for of an Arch angel andd the Infernal Hulk crushed it, not Stark is about to put on some fancy armour and right him. It's dark, reminds me a little of Alan Moore Swamp Thing days when it comes to the art. Give it a B+

The Sentry

He just got a new series. It is not clear where this falls on the timeline in terms of  Canon; it looks like  New Avengers' era or an alternate Universe, he did get ripped apart by Knull a while back, and I do not recall reading an reasonable explanation for his reincarnation, but as his power set, I am not asking too many questions. Jenkins wrote this, so it should come together it seems the Void is acting on its own accord at times. I will see where it goes. Give it a C+

    Thor

Well, his book is now called Mortal Thor, so you can guess he came back from the dead with no powers, does not remember that he is Thor, nor does anyone really remember him as Thor, so magic is afoot in this regard. His son is about to take the throne in Asgard. It is a case of writers who should not be writing a character that they do not know what to do with at full power, as this has been done before, so why recycle the story? The art is decent. Give it a D +

Doctor Strange

He is in Asgard, being a wizard with Angela in tow. The writer is obviously into Dungeons & Dragons, it would be nice to see him more grounded in a 9th Gate type story, moving in a more Lovecraftian direction, but here we are, give it a C

She-Hulk 

She is now on Skaar, Planet Hulk, in a more involved soap opera of a storyline; they brough her boyfriend Jack of Hearts to fight her. It looks like after six issues, she might be heading back to earth as they milked it for all it was worth, very Star Wars-like story and action, give it a C

the Punisher

Another reboot finds Marvel repenting for being apologetic for the character after his iconic symbol was almost cancelled by stupid Millennials. He is back in the proper costume being treated the right way with great art. The first issue of the new series is some of their best work in years. Give it an A

Iron Man

Only on the 2nd issue of the new series so too hard for them to screw it up, but they are working with what is tried and true, which is the formula they should stick with. Give it a B

Captain America

With the Avengers disbanding their current roster, it means we have to use Steve Rogers, the heartbeat of what is going on at the center of the Marvel Universe. He does have General Ross (the Red Hulk) in the periphery of his stories, but things have not really come to a head with that. Seems like he has just been on an endless mission the past few years that digs deeper into things, but there is no clear story. Give it a C

Scarlet Witch

Not the best at holding down her own series, she is now the Sorceror Supreme, not the first time. The art is very 90s, and in some ways it works, but we got her fighting Agatha for four issues, and that got old. Not a fan of how she is drawn, not really as hot as she used to be in the 80s and 90s, she can still be curvy and powerful, it kind of kills their whole feminist vibe by not letting this happen ou are saying that those concepts are mutually exclusive- give it a C

Will try to get more regular with writing about the comic books, but the comic books should be more inspiring and not a second thought to the movies. 

Film Review : "Avengers End Game"

If you think anything you could read about Avengers :End Game “ is going to be a spoiler then you did not pay attention to the other movies. It was all foreshadowed if not outright telegraphed, Not to mention the fact that most of the characters are getting either tv shows or sequels so how much in question can the fates of Spider-man, Dr. Strange, Winter Soldier, Vision , Falcon, Scarlet Witch and Black Panther really be ? Did this movie need to be 3 hours ? No. It does drag some in some of the laboratory scenes and when everyone's is getting into their feelings about the post-snap world the movie starts off in.  Despite juggling the story-lines for the 6 original Avengers, it does stay on track, there is still plenty of fat that could have been trimmed. Perhaps it’s this fat, along with the performances of the veteran core, that hides the fact plot which has less surprises than plot line of your average video game that is high on the quest mode.

If you had not read the comics then I am sure the ending of the last movie seemed like a cliffhanger. This all culminates here, the final fruits of the movies picking and choosing what parts of mainstream continuity and the ultimate universe they want to pick from , we see how if they had stuck closer to the source material they would not have to jump the shark so hard. So without characters like the Sliver Surfer and Adam Warlock we are left with Stark having to do a bunch of tinkering and coming up with “Legends of Tomorrow “ like narrative. None of which is really spoiler heavy if you have already seen the movies they revisit. You are going to regret not seeing Dr. Strange.

While it does get mired down in sentiment it is the sense of humor that helps balance the pace and once they get on their respective missions, the movie is certainly fun. It focuses largely on the 3 core members  Cap, Thor and Stark. This makes sense as they have been the 3 who have held up their own trilogy of films .All the actors from the first film have really settled into their roles so it’s hard to not see them s these characters. I think Paul Rudd once again steals the show with conviction, so I am hoping they make an Ant-man 3. There are plenty of mis steps that are balanced out by the heart of the performances. The big cgi battle at the end feels a kid just dumped all their action figures on their bed to see what would happen.

One thing I do like about this movies is it is aimed at the fans who have stuck by these movies and not the fair weather fans only there for the diversity marketing in fact  Black Panther only gets a few passing glances and Captain Marvel get much less screen time than most predicted. . While there are easter eggs at the end that give nods to certain shifts in the comics, since they were largely short lived when b - list characters proved unable to support their own series, I can see this transitioning into another Avengers movie , though he next Spider Man movie it is going to be a rough ride for Marvel until they are able to dust off the Fantastic Four and the X-men.

Spider Man - Home Coming

So this is Marvel Studios first shot at a stand alone film with arguably their most beloved hero. What worked with Holland's portrayal of the character in Civil War still works here. The movie is flawed, but fun. Where the other actors fell flat Holland excels, but he still has a script to adhere to and it's the writing where things get a little iffy. The twist with Keaton's Vulture and how he was mixed into his life on a few levels was clever even with it's deviation from the source material. However the biggest flaw was the lack of Spider sense. Spidey senses tingling is almost a part of the pop culture surrounding this character so why is it not a part of the character? Would this have really messed up the twist with Keaton before the third act ? No.

What did they get right? I thought Keaton did a good job as the Vulture. I liked the easter eggs they dropped for the Sinister Six and making it obvious Scorpion is going to be at least one of the villains in the next movie. I still want to see Black Cat on screen and they could have laid the ground work for that without making her seem like a Cat-woman rip off which she is but some how it's still ok with me , must be the boobs. But I digress. I had heard going into this it was more of a comedy than a action movie. This is not true it was a good balance. I think one of the things I was most greatful for was that it was not another origin story. There was still that Greatest American Hero moment with the hi tech suit which, I know Spider-man has now in the comics thanks to Parker Industries , but he did not have it back then.

Sure some of the casting was flawed. An Indian Flash Thompson was a stretch, how many Indians do you know with the last name of Thompson? But it was the fact he was on the debate team and not the football team that really fumbled. They missed a great chance to throw in some anti-bullying social justice bull shit here which I would have still rolled my eyes at , but it would be in proper context and was part of Parker's mythology. Tomei as Aunt May still worked. So that was a casting oddity I was fine with so I am flexible to certain extent. I was also fine with the alien tech from the first Avengers being used to make things like the Shockers gauntlets. So it did not seem forced. What did seem forced was Parker's relationship with Stark. Aside from that I think it's on the tier under Dr. Strange, Captain America and Iron-Man, so maybe number five in the Marvel movies...are we counting Logan in that ? Oh yeah I would review it but it's been out so long I'll just say I liked it and put it in the top five Marvel movies

The State of Marvel

Ok, it's getting harder and harder to write about comics as the characters I have grown up with are slowly getting edged out so here is this week and last week. Obviously this week is a big one and I'll get into it more in depth as the death of Bruce Banner deserves it's own post. There was not much else going on with Civil War three, they had Hawkeye take the fall for it. New Avengers caught up with the story the quickest. Hawkeye's team mates over there are tied up with this battle going on with SHIELD. But we know it's going to be AIM not SHIELD that comes out on top in the governments eyes. In Agents of SHIELD's 7th issue Coulson gets canned. Stark tried to recruit them. I am not sure at this point how can anyone not be on Stark's side, each week Danvers is made more of a bitch and who really gives a fuck about War-Machine at this point?

The 2nd issue of Spider-man's Civil War book, was a little meh, it focused on this Clash guy who is really a c-list villain at best. The second of Choosing Sides  was pretty much a waste of time with Nick Fury or some version of Nick Fury pretending to be Moon-knight. The Gods of War book was fun and I am looking forward to seeing a rampaging Hercules fuck some people up. The 10th issue of Gaurdians of the Galaxy might have seen the return of Angela, but it was just a jumbled mess of fighting with the Badoon, that felt like the end of the first Avengers movie. The 9th issue of Vision continues to take the book in a darker direction. Silk's 10th issue was a little bit of a letdown. She really was getting her but kicked by Black Cat, so not sure how her powers ebb.  The 8th issue of Old Man Logan was young Jean trying to show him everything is o.k. Things are not as fine in the all new X-Men even though that book is getting bogged down with the young Apocalypse.

Iron-Man's 11th issue was a little bit of a let down despite the art. At least this arc which really felt like it had nothing to do with Civil War is over . In other news, Marvel finds themselves once again at odd with the fans while trying to push their agenda, in a survey in regards to Iron-Man being replaced 62 percent were against it, with 19 on the fence and less than twenty percent in favor, once again proving how out of touch Marvel is with their fan base.

The first issue of Kingpin's Civil War book is pretty decent , even though the art leaves something to be desired. I like Fisk more than any of the heroes in the book.