Tag Archives: Avengers

Four Color Forum

Avengers Complete! Now What?

For some time now I’d been trying to transition from straightforward weekly new release bulletins to something a little more bloggy (read: pathetically self-indulgent), but related to comics all the same. That War of the Realms rundown really burned me out. Not just with writing brief four-color reviews either — I was worried that I needed a real break from superhero books. I’ve been reading and collecting comics pretty much nonstop for over thirty years and, for whatever reason, these last few months had seen my unread stacks pile up to unprecedented heights (save for the stupid WotR tie-ins, given my stubborn insistence that I read every damn page in order and on time) and my enthusiasm for reading the latest installments of some of my favorite capes n’ tights books had stalled considerably.

Then Comic Con happened.

It was another joyful blitz of pop culture enthusiasm, this time accompanied by more friends and family than any prior year. It was particularly fun to finally be able to share this experience with my kids, knowing full well that they’d find something to gravitate towards and get excited about. JDG spent a lot of time nerding out in gamer panels and demo-ing upcoming releases, and LDG drank a lot of margaritas and joined SS for a marathon of high-profile animation spectaculars.

We had our share of celebrity run-ins too. Aisha Tyler served us beer; RF and Chip Zdarsky are basically dating now; MMJ spent the weekend thinking she posed with Mark Hamill (before the Fluke Skywalker news broke). Speaking of my dear MMJ, without whom I don’t know that I would have ever been talked into this craziness in the first place, all she talked about for days leading up to Con was all that Peanuts swag. And we nailed it. She got it ALL. And, thanks to Preview Night, we got into that Star Trek transporter experience without spending half a day in line.

And I did all the fantastic things that I love about Con. I sat through all four hours of the Eisners (dominating the pool; it’s like the other four people I was with weren’t even trying) and several more hours of scholarly Comics Art Conference discussions. I met Tom King & Mitch Gerads. Bill Sienkiewicz and I reminisced on a mid-80’s convention in San Francisco (he held up the signature line that I accidentally cut by regaling me with stories of a drunken James Doohan and foul-mouthed Mel Blanc). I got books signed by Seth and Gilbert Hernandez. Two new commissions for our coffee gallery came home courtesy of Andrew MacLean and Nooligan. And I roamed the exhibit floor for days buying so. much. stuff.

Continue reading Avengers Complete! Now What? →

Four Color Forum

Avengers: No Road Home

The War of the Realms, Jason Aaron’s epic Thor-rooted conflict encompassing every corner of Norse cosmology, has been building for years, and is now mere months away. All the banners atop my comics tell me so.

But in another mythological corner of the Marvel Universe, conflict has already come and gone. The hallowed spires of Olympus lie in ruins and the Greek-inspired gods and demigods who inhabited that otherworldly paradise have been slaughtered. Time to assemble the Avengers B-team!

Towards the end of Marvel’s problematic Legacy initiative, Mark Waid, Al Ewing, and Jim Zub bravely embarked on the highly ambitious Avengers: No Surrender project, a weekly Avengers story that hearkened back to some of the greatest adventures of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. There was cosmic gamesmanship courtesy of the Grandmaster; a journey through the team’s storied past via the introduction of Voyager; and classic character team-ups, combining long-time fan-favorites and new blood alike. It was solicited with minimal fanfare (especially as preparations were in place for the “Fresh Start”), and ended up being a rousing success.

One of the reasons No Surrender seemed to worked so well is because these writers were each able to bring to the party a special affinity for certain B-list heroes. So, as an encore, while Jason Aaron is busy putting together the single most powerful iteration of the Avengers ever conceived (granted, with his own curious collection of fun also-rans — I see you, Agents of Wakanda), Waid, Ewing, and Zub embark on another self-contained epic involving an oddball assemblage of some clearly personal faves. The weekly Avengers: No Road Home premieres this week.

Continue reading Avengers: No Road Home →

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The Best of Marvel’s Fresh Start #3 – Avengers

The whole world is on the brink of destruction again and only the combined forces of the greatest caped heroes can save the day. Some assembly required.

Cue the new roster of the Avengers, 2018, and they’re staring down the barrel of a very large and very old gun in the shape of the Celestial Final Host. You got your standard members like Cap and Shellhead, but neither of them are leading the charge this time around. That honor goes to the King of Shiny Things, the Cat with the Vibranium Gat, the Wakandan who needs no Palm-frondin’ – Black Panther. Seems like a promising move in new leadership especially with the added angle of the US government rejecting the Avengers as a domestic asset. A foreign national leading the Avengers?! Ooooh we’re gonna have some great issues surrounding sanctions and tariffs for sure.

The Celestials were first introduced by Jack Kirby who was inspired by the almost-definitely true theory that ancient aliens visited earth before we were smart enough to write anything down and kick-started our development. Was Kirby himself a direct descendant of a Martian genetics experiment to produce advanced illustrations of perspective and action? Ancient astronaut theorists saaaay yes. There’s a great collected timeline of this developing hypothesis through sci-fi books and comics for your further edification.

I’m a fan of the retro-cool style of these new god-like threats as well with their 70’s jagged metallic patterns and circuit board chic. Thankfully it’s the 70’s and not the 90’s or these gods would be descending with giant shoulder pads and even gianter shiny guns. Also swords probably. The 70’s still looks cool – everything but the boots. What the hell is going on with that oversized floppy boot cuff that every superhero just kinda has for some reason? What are these modeled after? Did boots come in one-size-fits-all styles where you just pulled the excess boot over itself? Thankfully these Celestials have fastened metal boots with no extra material.

Continue reading The Best of Marvel’s Fresh Start #3 – Avengers →

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West Coast Avengers

I’m honestly surprised it took this long. With the whirlwind international acclaim that Marvel’s film universe has brought to this brand, making The Avengers the kind of household name a teenage me hadn’t ever even imagined, why have we waited until 2018 for the return of the title’s first spinoff? We’ve had Initiative, Academy, Young, Solo, and Spotlight. World and Secret, New and Mighty, Assemble and A.I. And most of that was just in the last decade. Hell, even the Great Lakes Avengers have had their own title in the interim! Finally, almost thirty-four years after Clint Barton first put out the call to assemble a California-based branch of Earth’s Mightiest, West Coast Avengers is back on the stands, courtesy of Kelly Thompson and Stefano Caselli.

Refreshingly, this reboot of the Hawkeye-led best-coasters seemingly has nothing to do with editorial mandates or higher-ranking media imperatives. There wasn’t an earth-shattering crossover event that necessitated a tie-in title. In fact, the impetus behind Kate Bishop’s “heroes wanted” rally is a Santa Monica infestation of a random horde of mindless landsharks. Apart from Clint Barton, AKA the original Hawkeye (who’s really more of an adorable mascot), this goofy ragtag lineup doesn’t feature a single character with an MCU counterpart. Quentin Quire, in fact, after somehow avoiding being drafted into one of the seventeen X-teams falling off the racks, gets to shackle his irascible punk apathy to the meta-fictitious fangirl enthusiasm of Gwenpool. Wonderful. You can get away with anything in the Golden State.

It might also help when you’re Kelly Thompson, and your fan-favorite Hawkeye series recently leaped over the radar and onto the Eisner list of best series nominees. I’d like to imagine the conversation went something like…

“Kelly, the world wants more Hawkeye! How do you feel about bringing back the West Coast Avengers?”

“I feel great about it! Can I pick the team?”

“Of course! So long as it has Deadpool.”

“Fuck that. Never mind.”

“No no no it’s fine. Any team you want. (But you’re going to have to put him in your Rogue & Gambit book…)”

Continue reading West Coast Avengers →

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Avengers #1

Marvel’s Fresh Start initiative kicks off this week with a book seemingly “one million years in the making.” Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness debut Avengers #1, and, for the first time since last fall’s Marvel Legacy one-shot, we are re-introduced to Earth’s Mightiest of one million B.C. We’ve been clamoring for more of these guys — a Mjolnir-wielding Odin, Agamotto, Ghost Rider atop a mastodon, and predecessors to the Iron Fist, Black Panther, Phoenix, and Starbrand — since that teaser by Aaron and Esad Ribić soooo many months ago. And although, at the time, I had promised that I’d catch myself up on Kirby’s Celestials, I apparently was too busy being distracted by behind-the-curtain Marvel drama to read any of The King’s Eternals saga. And I’m guessing Marvel was too busy screwing shit up to worry about it either; we still don’t have a decent collected edition, other than a long out-of-print omnibus that is scarce even among the price-gouging eBay resellers.

But one way or another, I’m going to make it happen. Because along with rumors of the Eternals joining the MCU, Aaron and McGuinness seem boldly intent on adding significantly to a carefully curated Marvel mythology that, after Kirby, has pretty much only been trusted to the likes of Roy Thomas and Neil Gaiman. And this first issue of Avengers definitely feels significant.

Continue reading Avengers #1 →

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Avengers: No Surrender

Lost amid the tumult of retailer backlash, public relations nightmares, and declining sales, Marvel Comics has been soldiering forth with its Legacy initiative, boldly releasing books that apparently only a select few of us want to read. And although the bulk of the work on Avengers: No Surrender had been completed well before Axel Alonso was fired and shortsighted readers across the country demanded “recognizable superheroes,” I rather like to think that Mark Waid, Al Ewing, and Jim Zub got together and said: “You know what? Fuck those guys. They want a white Captain America and boy Thor, they can buy a ticket to the movies.” Then they pulled a shit-load of B-listers together for a weekly Avengers event.

Avengers #675 marks the first issue in the No Surrender event, and, with the coordinated cancellation of the surprisingly entertaining Uncanny Avengers and charmingly goofy U.S.Avengers, this is the only regular title for Earth’s Mightiest for the time-being. So, naturally, we’ll get a team with a three-headed leader of Sam Wilson, Roberto DaCosta, and Rogue. Take that, MCU.

It gets better. The premise of this storyline is that the planet has been stolen by an unknown force (and will soon be the battleground for two teams of villainous cosmic heavyweights), and the majority of the Avengers (that is, guys most people have heard of) are trapped in stasis. That leaves the avenging duties to folks like Hercules, Brother Voodoo, Cannonball, and, I shit you not, Living Lightning.

Continue reading Avengers: No Surrender →

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Avengers #672

Last week’s opening shot into Marvel’s Legacy initiative was a surprise-laden tour de force featuring a main story peppered with enough coming attractions trailers to put a Hall H Saturday to shame. And while we’re eagerly awaiting developments in Thor’s story (well, not eager to see Jane Foster edge ever closer to death, but the Mangog business is exciting) and wondering what the hell is going on with this Black Panther planet, Legacy Week 1 begins with a gem from another segment of the Marvel Universe. Avengers #672, by Mark Waid and Jesus Saiz, kicks off “Worlds Collide,” the highly anticipated crossover between two of the best team books going. With the fates of multiple earths on the line, the Champions attempt to make nice with their former mentors, The Avengers.

The issue opens with simultaneous debates in both camps regarding the same impossible claim: a “counter-earth,” run by the High Evolutionary, exists on the opposite side of the sun, completely invisible to detection by anyone here on normal earth. Of course, those of us familiar with decades of Marvel legacy, know this to be true, and we’ve enjoyed numerous storylines involving the home of that unhinged scientist and his hordes of crazy animalmen. And in wonderfully adept adherence to the premise of this publishing initiative, Mark Waid uses the new generation of Marvel heroes as a sounding board for a modern understanding of physics and comic book plots anchored in a proper respect for scientific fact.

But then you’d be missing the point, Amadeus and Nadia! You operate in a universe of impossibility, and the last thing any one of us Marvel fans wants is to retcon away the marvelously campy and cosmically inaccurate tales from those halcyon days of 70’s four color fantasy! Give us counter-earth! And save Kentucky, while you’re at it, because a meteor just belched into the atmosphere and is rocketing towards the planet.

Continue reading Avengers #672 →

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The Best of Marvel NOW! #1 – The Avengers

A little over five years ago, few people outside the comic book fan community knew who or what The Avengers were. Since then, the team has starred in one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, and the property is far and away the most profitable superhero film franchise going. I’ve got Black Widow on a Kleenex box. Hawkeye Nerf bows fly off Target shelves. Iron Man and Captain America bobbleheads are given out at Giants games. So when it came time to relaunch the flagship series for Marvel’s latest NOW! initiative, Mark Waid obviously assembled a team that no casual fan would recognize: the sole member with a recognizable movie counterpart is The Vision.

Before even reading a single page of Avengers #1, I applauded the direction. Too many editorial mandates – from both DC and Marvel – have muddied the waters in our monthly titles. I’ve always felt that the comics, the source material, should be informing the greater media output, and not the other way around. Movies and television shows should absolutely develop plots and characters as they see fit; I loved the humanoid Ego in Guardians 2, and I’m onboard for a revised origin story for Adam Warlock. But when an intrigued moviegoer wanders into a comic shop to gaze upon the four-color finery, let him or her marvel at a vast and varied superhero foundation, a tapestry of wonderment that stretches back decades, and not just to the most recent season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Mark Waid gets it. This team, even moreso than the all-new all-different assemblage he debuted over a year ago, offers comic book fans both new and old something unique, while simultaneously resonating with historical familiarity. The result is one of the best superhero books on the shelf.


Continue reading The Best of Marvel NOW! #1 – The Avengers →

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Marvel NOW! – Week 5

With yet another reboot of one of their flagship titles, this week’s Avengers #1 by Mark Waid and Mike Del Mundo nonetheless represents a return to the fundamental series name and identity. This isn’t “All-New All-Different,” or even “New” for that matter. They aren’t “Mighty” or part of an “Initiative.” There’s nothing “Secret” about them, much less “Uncanny.” These are the freaking Avengers, a team that resonates with historical familiarity, despite a roster unlike one we’ve ever seen.

Of course things can’t be completely the same, not after the events of Civil War II (whose full aftermath has been pieced together from clues and NOW! references, since the perpetually late series still hasn’t actually concluded). But the world still needs Avenging, and an interesting cast of superheroes has assembled to pick up the mantle. With founding member Tony Stark out of the picture (assumed to have died at the end of CW II), funding responsibilities fall to another scientific genius – Peter Parker – whose Parker Industries, in the All-New All-Different era, has the clout and wherewithal to not only bankroll a super-team, but to headquarter in the FF’s old Baxter Building as well. And Spider-Man, of course, was once a protege of Iron Man’s, during the first Civil War event. In fact, even though none of the founding members are part of this new team, the legacy of each of them has been cleverly honored.

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Instead of The Hulk (who we did see die in Civil War II #3), Hercules steps into the muscle role. This isn’t the first time that the Prince of Power has subbed in for Bruce’s angrier alter ego; Herc took over the Green Goliath’s comic as The Incredible Hercules after the events of World War Hulk. Replacing original member Janet Van Dyne, the Winsome Wasp, is the new Wasp, Nadia Pym, long-lost daughter of another founding member, Ant-Man. Then there are the three veteran carry-overs from the ANAD iteration: Jane Foster is the current Thor; Sam Wilson still has the shield and still goes by Captain America (Steve Rogers may not have been a founding member, but issue #4 is close enough); and The Vision connects back, once again, to Ant-Man, Hank Pym. So that’s all well and good and fun. But is the book going to be any good?

Mark Waid barely got a head of steam going before Marvel hit the reset button again, after a Kang dilemma, an Annihilus escapade, and a smattering of requisite CW II tie-ins. The kids have peeled off to become Champions and the shattering impact (just look at that NOW! logo) of Civil War II is (soon to be) in the rear-view mirror. Time to let the man get to work. In case you haven’t had enough Kang (who also dicked around with The Inhumans just last year), he’s back and he’s pissed. Makes sense, since The Vision recently abducted an infant Time Conqueror in a bizarre go-back-in-time-and-kill-Baby-Hitler maneuver (All-New All-Different Avengers #13). So Waid has some unfinished business to address.

But what really gets me excited for this newest volume of my favorite comic is the art. Mike Del Mundo wowed us on two volumes of Weirdworld before throwing in with Totally Awesome Hulk. His incredible painted style, luminescent and dynamic, is unlike anything on the stands right now. Not what you’d expect to see on a focal team book. Props to Marvel’s comic division for continuing to take the kind of chances that we’re not likely to see from Marvel Studios anytime soon, or ever from their counterparts at DC. The Avengers, despite being steeped in familiarity, is about as innovative and, really, weird as we’ve ever seen them.

Continue reading Marvel NOW! – Week 5 →

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Free Comic Book Day 2016

This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of Free Comic Book Day, easily the best name for a very straightforward attempt at getting folks into comic shops and seeing what all the fuss is about. On the first Saturday of May, a variety of publishers, from big names like Marvel and DC to smaller outfits like Nobrow Press and Th3rd World Studios, partner with shops to offer a wide range of exclusive comics. Some books contain all new material, others are mixtape-style samplers of previously released work, and still others offer extended excerpts from new graphic novels. But the one thing that all these comics have in common is that they’re offered 100% free of charge.

one of the many All Ages titles, DC Super Hero Girls
one of the many All Ages titles, DC Super Hero Girls

While supplies last, obviously. And different stores have different policies limiting the number of giveaways. Check out the FCBD website for details on participating stores and, this Saturday, plan on visiting as many as you can! Most shops plan related events, contests, and other frivolity around FCBD. Drag along your uninitiated friend who loves Firefly but won’t pick up a funnybook and stick that Dark Horse freebie in her hands. Dress the kids up in their favorite superhero t-shirts and load them up with All-Ages books like Image’s Oddly Normal or DC’s Super Hero Girls. That guy in your office who won’t shut up about Enter the Dragon and wants to know if you caught this weekend’s UFC bloodfest? There’s a Bruce Lee treat for him as well.

Like music, movies, and ice cream flavors, there’s a comic book for everyone. Here are the FCBD offerings I’m most excited about, including the Previews solicitation information. Continue reading Free Comic Book Day 2016 →