Thursday Con Round-up!

Overall it has been a quiet convention so far without too many big new announcements. Most of the panels have focused on material already released or coming very soon. But a few announcements did make it out.

The final variant has been announced for the upcoming Spider-Man: Shattered Dimension video game. Joining the already announced 616 Spidey, Spider-Man Noir, and Spider-Man 2099 will be the black-costumed Ultimate Spider-Man. I am thoroughly excited about this one. Hopefully it plays as good as it looks. Video below.



Marvel also announced several new series: Power Man and Iron Fist by Fred Van Lente and Wellington Alves (featuring Iron Fist and the newly debuted Power Man), Ultimate Thor, Mark Waid back on Cap with Captain America: Man Out of Time, DNA producing Rocket Raccoon and Groot (with a cover by classic Rocket artist Mike Mignola), indy creator anthology Strange Tales II, a new ongoing in Captain America: Fighting Avenger treading the same all ages ground as the recent Thor the Mighty Avenger, and Atomic Robo’s Brian Clevinger writing Captain America: Hail Hydra. Does Cap have a movie coming out or something?

Mike Mignola returns to his second greatest work!

Apparently it wasn’t official yet, but it is now. Joss Whedon is the official director of Avengers.

DC has a “hardcore violent” Suicide Squad game in the works as well. A movie is in development as well, so whether or not they are related is still up in the air. In related news, who decided Suicide Squad was this strong of a franchise?

Super-Powered Comics: Diamond Destinations June 2010 (for August)

Not the cover to Guardians of the Globe

p. 68: Superman Earth One HC: First announced around New Years, DC finally brings one of its two Earth One books to fruition. This hardcover by the team of J. Michael Straczynski (also the regular Superman writer) and Shane Davis promises to recreate the origins of the Man of Steel for the twenty-first century. I don’t know quite what to expect here. We have had at least three different origins of Superman in the last twenty-five years, and that’s not counting Smallville. But we will see how this “Ultimate” Superman takes off in the long run.

p. 87: Superman: The Last Family of Krypton #1 (of 3): Outside of surprise to see Elseworlds back at DC, I am excited to see more Cary Bates comic writing. The classic Superman scribe and more recent writer of Marvel’s excellent True Believers has shown that he has really stepped up his A-game in recent years. it will be interesting to see how this one plays out.

p. 145: Dungeons & Dragons #0: IDW has picked up the D&D license now and I have no idea how good or bad it will be. But I do know one of the two universes they are debuting is a new Dark Sun book (to tie in to the re-release of the setting this year). Dark Sun is easily the most original (and over-powered) D&D setting ever and I am excited to see it in comic form for the very first time.

p. 168: Guardians of the Globe #1 (of 6): Robert Kirkman finally gives Invincible’s super-team a brand spanking new book of their own. With co-writer Benito Cereno and artist Ransom Getty, I trust these characters are in good hands. Now if we can just get an ongoing....

p. 172: Morning Glories #1: Nick Spencer really impressed me with his recent series Forgetless and this series about a private academy with hidden secrets and the six troubled kids that must unlock them looks to be one of the most promising new comics of the year.

p. M34: Avengers & The Infinity Gauntlet #1 (of 4): Normally a retelling of the Infinity Gauntlet as an all ages title would probably not appeal to me. But when written by Brian Cevinger (Atomic Robo) and drawn by The Anchor’s Brian Churilla, my interest rises. And unlike most Marvel limiteds, this one still runs only $3, so I’ll be sure to pick it up.

p. M44: Shadowland: Power Man #1 (of 4): I know nothing about this new Power Man, though his costume reminds me a little too much of Rocket Racer for my taste. Still the creative team of Fred Van Lente and Dynamo 5’s Mahmud Asrar has potential. Unfortunately for my budget, the book runs $4.

p. M71: Namor: The First Mutant #1: I have been a big Namor fan ever since I discovered John Byrne’s book in 1990, followed shortly by back issues of Invaders. Normally, I would be all fired up for a new book starring the character. But his new X-universe book written by Stuart Moore, a solid but as yet unimpressive writer to this reader, and drawn by Ariel Olivetti, an artist whose current style I am less than fond, dampens my mood a little bit. The $4 price tag doesn’t help much either.

p. 252: Dracula: The Company of Monsters #1: Boom continues its attempts to expand its marketshare with this series developed and plotted by Kurt Busiek. The high concept is that it’s Dracula vs an evil corporation. If actually scripted by Busiek, I would almost certainly give this one a try despite the somewhat tired concept. Instead I’ll probably be giving this 4 buck book a once over at the store first.

p. 264: The Last Phantom #1: Dynamite’s take on Lee Falk’s Phantom debuts this month. And outside a lackluster cover by Alex Ross(!), I see very little to sell me on this book. I’m honestly a little disappointed to see the company let this book’s debut go so unheralded.

My costume is blood! I'm so 90's!

p. 298: Airfighters #2: Just when I was afraid we had seen the last of this great anthology book, Moonstone gives me issue two. Let’s hope it is 72 pages of awesome just like issue one.

p. 360: “Multiple Mang” t-shirt: Is this the first time Madrox has had a t-shirt, at least in this design, the same as the characters regular t-shirt. If so, isn’t that really strange?

p. 436: DC Adventures RPG: Hero’s Handbook: DC returns to table-top RPGs and it does so with the Mutants & Masterminds game system. I still am known to play the occassional game of the classic DC Heroes game from Mayfair, so I am more than interested in this combination of my two favorite super-hero RPGs.

p. 437: Smallville RPG Core Rulebook: And the same month the DCU gets a new RPG, the CW series based on the Superman mythos gets its own game as well... from a completely different publisher. Margaret Weis Productions brings this game to the market. They are known for high production values, and it should be interesting to see how they play out the show’s combination of superheroes and normal mortals.

Super-Powered Comics: Diamond Destinations April 2010 (for June comics)

p. 35: King Conan Volume One: The five over-sized issues of King Conan in this book are my favorite Conan comic of all time. From a person that once ran a Conan comic website, that is strong praise. Everyone should read it.

p. 79: Batman Beyond #1: Terry McGinnis returns in comic form. I have no idea how good this book will be, but the return of the future Batman is definitely reason to celebrate.

p. 87: The Spirit #3 and Doc Savage #3: It’s Pulp Month here, so I think its would be best to cover these two new pulp-oriented ongoings. The first issues hit in the next couple weeks so be sure to check them out.

p. 107: Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom #1: It is without original co-creator Alan Moore, but Chris Sprouse’s always gorgeous art returns to Tom Strong. Peter Hogan wrote the amazing Terra Obscura for the ABC line, so I think this book has tons of potential to be a really great sleeper hit, Alan Moore or not.

p. 140: Jurassic Park #1: IDW moves to the front of the catalog and this book leads it off. I am not sure how big a deal a new Jurassic Park comic really is, but this will certainly be an interesting read. The concept takes the movie through real time and makes Tim and Lex Murphy the now adult leads. Should be interesting to see how this one plays out. And the Frank Miller dinosaur cover doesn’t hurt either (though I am pretty sure it comes from an old JP card set and isn’t original to this book.)

p. 173: Hack/Slash: My First Maniac #1: Hack/Slash has definitely had its ups and downs as a series, but with a move to Image, this book should be sitting in a lot more solid place for many months to come. If you enjoy slasher movies, you should definitely be reading this book, as it gives an interesting new and heroic twist to the genre.

p. 174: Dynamo 5: Sins of the Father #1: I am a huge fan of Jay Faerber’s little corner of the Image universe. While his artists are now working over at DC, he has teamed with Julio Brilha to bring back Dynamo 5 in limited series form. And to up the fun, he has brought in Invincible’s Omni-Man and Rob Liefeld’s Supreme to up the ante! This one should be a lot of fun and I highly recommend it.

p. 180: Brigade #1: Speaking of Rob Liefeld, here he has the return of Brigade! I always liked the team even through the pains of their original limited series, only to see them all slaughtered in the ongoing book. Here, Liefeld teams with the original artist Marat Mychaels to reboot the concept. Say what you will about Liefeld, but I am on-board for this one.

p. 181: Sea Bear & Grizzly Shark: Let’s just let the cover do the talking for this one.

p. 189: God Complex #7: I don’t think I have mentioned this well-written new book by Daniel Berman, John Broglia, and Mike Oeming yet. The basic concept is simple: Apollo decides to stop being a god and live as a mortal. Zeus and the rest of the family become less than happy about it. And the adventure begins! A great fun book that never takes itself too seriously. Anyone who enjoys fun comics should give this one a try.

p. M19: Deadpool: Wade Wilson’s War #1 & 2: Normally I am not much of a fan of Marvel’s current Deadpool titles. But you get Jason Pearson on art and my opinion can quickly change. This book is sure to be beautiful, even though the solicitations don’t really clear up what it is about. I think it is supposed to be his origin story, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

p. M27: Spider-Ham 25th Anniversary Special #1: I do not know what is more amazing. Is it the return of Peter Porker, Spider-Ham? Or is it the Joe Jusko cover it is wrapped in?

p. M31: Avengers Academy #1: I have no idea how this book differs from the original concept of Avengers: The Initiative, but I am happy to see it has new characters and excellent art by Mike McKone. Could be a winner.

p. M51: Hawkeye & Mockingbird #1: I am more of an indy comics buyer, but Marvel has guaranteed I will regularly be buying at least two of their regular titles with this book. Atlas was already a guaranteed sell, and I am nothing if not an unrepentant Hawkeye fanboy. Jim McCann wrote a pretty decent limited for these two last year and this one has the potential to be a great book as well. And it has Crossfire and Phantom Rider!

p. 218: The Royal Historian of Oz #1: While I don’t know the names Tommy Kovac or Andy Hirsch, I can’t argue with a new Oz comic for only a buck. Amaze Ink has me for at least one issue with this one.

p. 218: Shadoweyes: Also from Amaze Ink this month is a new graphic novel featuring the beautiful art of Ross Campbell. Campbell has previously drawn the gorgeous Wet Moon and The Abandoned, so I am guessing this future superhero tale will almost certainly be gorgeous.

p. 250: Pale Horse #1: One of my biggest complaints about Boom as a publisher is their lack of previews. While I am curious to learn more about this Western tale of an ex-slave, previews are nowhere to be found. Michael Alan Nelson has been more miss than hit for me as a writer, so I am going to pass it up. Hopefully I am not missing out on a good book do to bad marketing.

p. 252: Darkwing Duck: The Duck Knight Returns #1: On the other hand, Boom’s other new book pretty much sells itself. Darkwing Duck has a definite cult following and should make a big splash at Boom. Now if they can just get the continuance of Greg Weisman’s Gargoyles....

p. 290: Ghostopolis: Doug TenNapel, creator of Earthworm Jim, has produced some great comics over the last few years like Earthboy Jacobus and Iron West. He has left Image for his latest OGN, a kids book called Ghostopolis. It looks like an interesting dark fantasy, which isn’t typical kiddy fare, but neither was Harry Potter a little over a decade ago.

p. 292: Unfabulous Five: The Greasers From the Black Lagoon #1: Humanoids is back to self-publishing in America and part of the deal is the return of this great series (formerly part of Image’s Lucha Libre anthology) to print. Hilarious pseudo-super hero tales of washed-up luchadores. What more can you ask for?

p. 300: Super Pro K.O.! volume 1: It is an unwritten rule that wrestling comics fail. They fail hard. But this cartoony, over the top series by Oni Press might actually manage to make wrestling comics cool.

p. 324: Battle Smash vs. Saucer Men From Venus: And wrestling may be a them of this month’s previews with this lucha superhero series from Viper Comics.

p. 337: Alter Ego #94 and Back Issue #41: Two new issues of Twomorrow’s great comic history magazines. And they both now feature sixteen color pages, which ups their greatness that much more. Back Issue is a guaranteed buy from me ever six weeks, while this issue of Alter Ego looks good as it continues the magazine’s look at DC’s Earth Two.

p. 369: Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose Minimates boxed set: This may be the officially oddest Minimate set ever.

p. 388: Tonner Tomb Raider: Amanda Evert Doll: I haven’t played a Lara Croft game in years, but when did she get an evil goth enemy? And now that figure has a Barbie-style doll!

That’s it for this month. We will leave you with one last terrifying look at the Tarot minimates.

April is Pulp Month!

Starting Thursday we begin a month long celebration of pulp fiction in honor of the newest site in the Metahuman Press family: Pulp Empire!

So stay tuned as we bring you reviews of everyone from the Avenger to Tarzan and beyond!

Super-Powered Comics: Avengers the Initiative: Secret Invasion

I have meant for a couple of years to share my opinions about the Marvel crossover Secret Invasion. It is the only one of the big two comic publishers’ crossovers I have bought in the last decade. I never got around to it for a variety of reasons, though it is still floating around my stacks of comics I want to review.

But my local library did have the trade of the Avengers: The Initiative issues that tied in to Secret Invasion. So after reading it, I decided it was worth a review. Maybe it will get me off my butt to review the actual core limited. That being said, I think this work may actually be much better done.

One of Marvel crossovers events’ weaknesses are their need to try to cover the over-arcing storyline only. Character pieces are left by the wayside as they become plot driven pieces of boredom. Avengers: The Initiative: Secret Invasion provves to be the exact opposite. It tells the complete tale of the invasion, while putting its focus on three leads, all regulars in the series.

The 3-D Man (the former Triathlon) is the true star of these six issues as he gets the goggles of the original 3-D man. With them, he learns about the skrull forces just before the invasion begins. The skruls have infiltrated the teams of the Fifty States Initiative, a project designed by Iron Man and Yellowjacket (secretly a Skrull himself) to put super-teams in every state. 3-D Man sets out to stop them all.

Meanwhile at the Initiative’s home, Camp Hammond, two Robert Kirkman creations, the Crusader and the “Irredeemable” Ant-Man, both become embroiled in the invasion as well. Crusader is a Skrull himself, but with no link to the invasion and a love of Earth. When he realizes that Yellowjacket is a Skrull, he is left to question what action to take. He loses his choice when the invasion begins. He travels to New York with the base’s other heroes to join in the massive battle between Earth’s heroes and the Skrulls.

Ant-Man cowardly avoids going in to battle, only to be at Camp Hammond when the Skrull armada arrives to take control of the base. He helps his allies in the Shadow Initiative fight the base’s invaders. They fail, but Ant-Man escapes to give 3-D Man’s forces information on a Skrull secret weapon based in the Fifty States Initiative’s bases. My only real gripe comes with the writer’s scripting of Ant-Man’s personality. While his actions mirror his behavior in his own series, his dialogue often proves way more crass. But Robert Kirkman and Phil Hester created a unique character with their Ant-Man. His voice is almost certainly hard to nail.

The story spans dozens of characters (even reintroducing the Skrull Kill Krew), but never loses focuses of a narrative driven by its main three heroes. It works wonderfully at continuing the story’s forward momentum.

What doesn’t work as well is the art. Marvel has become much like the later years of the otherwise solid Ultraverse of late, with each issue seemingly by a different art team. “Regular series artist” Stefano Caselli provides art only for the first and third issue in the trade. Harvey Tolibao (whose art does resemble Secret Invasion artist Leinil Yu’s work) does the second and fourth. The fifth is by Steve Kurth and the sixth is by both Tolibao and Bong Dazo. So no two issues look the same. It is truly a credit to writers Dan Slott and Christos Gage that the art doesn’t completely derail the rest of the project.

Despite its flaws, Avengers: The Initiative: Secret Invasion shines past what a usual crossover tie-in would give us. It is truly a story in its own right while still dovetailing perfectly with the book it spins off from. Even without reading Secret Invasion, I think readers could find a lot to love with this book. Recommended.

Super-Powered Comics: Dark Avengers Assemble

Thanks once again to the fine folks at my local library, I have had the chance to check out the beginning of Marvel’s “Dark Reign” from its focal point, Dark Avengers. Specifically the trade of the first six issues, titled “Assembled”.

The first issue is spent just assembling the new team. In case you haven’t heard, the Dark Avengers are sort of a reverse Thunderbolts, a bunch of criminals dressed up as heroes but still distinctly evil. Two members of Iron Man’s Mighty Avengers hold over, the war god Ares and the Sentry, a character too messed up in the head to go anywhere else. In addition, we have Spider-Man (really the Venom symbiote wearing Mac Gargan), Hawkeye (the assassin Bullseye), Ms. Marvel (former Thunderbolt Moonstone), Captain Marvel (Noh-Varr, the former Marvel Boy), and Wolverine (Logan’s son Daken). Led by new head of HAMMER Norman Osborn in his guise as the Iron Patriot, they are the new generation of Avengers.

Never do we really get an explanation of why Norman decided to go this route. He may have had to work for it, but other Marvel books clearly show that he could have formed a team of less famous but more stable (and manageable) actual heroes. He could probably still keep Moonstone and Daken around with little or no trouble and avoid the high probability of Venom or Bullseye going crazy. But clearly the concept is more important than the reasoning, as we quickly move on to the team’s first (secret) mission: to save Doctor Doom from a crazed Morgan Le Fey.

Now as far as I know the last time we saw Morgan was in the first few issues of Kurt Busiek’s Avengers relaunch in the late nineties. That story gave us a near pitch perfect story starring every Avenger on the roster facing an epic time-warping threat. Here we get some demons and an unkillable woman hellbent on Doom’s destruction. She does a lot of damage, the Avengers kill her repeatedly, and a few issues are wasted on what is basically an extended fight with the team’s own idiocy. I suppose this is supposed to show the team’s inability to work together, but all it shows me is that anyone who bought this wasted $12 for these three issues.

Issue five is straight forward Bendis at work. Norman goes on television for an interview about his history as the Green Goblin and the identity of his Avengers. The other team members interact, mostly like twelve year old schoolboys, with the exception of Noh-Varr and Moonstone, who retreat to her bedroom. Noh-Varr learns that the other “heroes” are really villains and leaves.

Issue six closes the trade with the Sentry murdering an entire legion of Atlantean dissidents. We get another brief meeting of Osborn’s Cabal and hints that Osborn’s Green Goblin persona is pushing for control once again.

Writer Brian Michale Bendis likes his decompression, but I have to say that I would feel gypped if I spent $4 an issue for this at their LCS. Even with my library grab, I feel like I am not getting as much story as this trade should have. The story here seems pointless and far from the flagship of an entire line of titles. If this was my only view of Dark Reign, I would say “:No thanks”. Even though Mike Deodato produces art far and away better than anything he has done before, this book still falls flat on its face. Not Recommended.

Super-Powered Comics: Young Avengers

I picked up the original two Young Avengers trade well after the book finished its original (and notoriously slow) run. I expected to hate it, quite honestly, as the concept seemed like a cheap knock on the original Teen Titans concept. What I got in its stead was a rather complex look at young super-heroes that owed as much to the New Warriors as it does to the Avengers.

Allan Heinberg, writer of such (loathed) shows as The OC and Grey’s Anatomy builds the initial arc of the book around an intriguing premise: What if you found out you were destined to become time’s greatest villain? A young Kang the Conqueror’s answer is simple: he travels back in time to gather the help of the Avengers, only to find the Avengers no longer exist. So he does the next best thing and gathers a team of young heroes mentioned in the Avengers files, all with ties to previous members. Kang takes the name Iron Lad, and alongside Patriot, Asgardian, and Hulkling they act as a new generation of Avengers.

The initial six issue arc brings them in to conflict with Iron Man and Captain America as well as the fully grown version of Kang. One large irk builds as the story progresses, as we break Marvel’s rules of time as the universe shifts again and again as history alters. (Mark Gruenwald establish the rules of time in the Marvel Universe along time ago, and ever since he died the company have stomped all over them.) The arc ends with one Young Avenger gone, three others arrived in his place, and the temporary disbanding of the team. It is all brought together beautifully by Jim Cheung, an artist I still remember from his sketchy styling on (ironically) the teenage incarnation of Iron Man a decade back. His style developed exponentially through his work on X-Force and especially on Crossgen’s Scion.

A two issue arc follows (with not quite as good art by Andrea DiVito) that starts to re-establish the team. We learn the origins of Patriot’s powers, get some tidbits on the home life of Stature, and establish Kate Bishop’s new heroic identity. The guest art filled Young Avengers Special features some of the biggest comic artists alive: Neal Adams, Gene Ha, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jae Lee, Pascual Ferry, and a framing sequence by Michael Gaydos. Jessica Jones (of Alias fame) delves in to the histories of the team, all as a lead in to the final four issue arc.

Jim Cheung returns to illustrate the best issues of the book, as the team reunites in an attempt to prevent a new Kress Skrull War, all revolving around team member Hulkling. They end up caught between the Kree, the Skrull, and the Avengers, but the new and improved Vision aids them in finding another new member: Speed. Apparently the lost soul-brother of Young Avenger Wiccan (formerly Asgardian), Speed is a temperamental speedster able to project explosive blasts.

The series ends with the team as a unit, but come Civil War and Heinberg’s inability to keep up with the series, the book came to an end.

All in all, Young Avengers gives us a good look at what could have been in the Marvel Universe. But with several team members popping up in the rosters of the new Avengers teams over the next few months, I doubt we will see them as a cohesive unit again. It’s a real shame, as this team has more potential than any other corporate produced title outside of Runaways.

Both books can be picked up now in one affordable trades (containing all 13 issues). I highly recommend any reader of great comics go out and pick them up.