For The Love of Comics

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting and don't forget to tip your waitress!!

If you’ve been reading the comments on Mike Haynes’s Countdown posts over at Panels of Awesome, you’ll have noticed that I’m a big fan. His most recent post on the Top 5 Comic Book Rivalries has really captured my interest, though. I’ve been running over what I think the greatest rivalries are and then I got to thinking about what exactly makes a good rivalry.

This is what I have so far:

They need to have a fairly even balance of power, or way to counteract each other’s power.

This is why, not matter how many times Reed Richards scares off Galactus or talks him into leaving, the Fantastic Four and Galactus aren’t considered “rivals”. If Galactus so chooses, he could eat each and every one of them like candy.

Human Torch? Hot fry.

Mr. Fantastic? Gummy worm.

The Thing? Jawbreaker.

Invisible Woman? I… I got nothing. But trust me, she’d go down smooth as the mountain streams.

As a matter of fact, this is why Galactus has no real rivals. This rule is also why it’s so hard to have a real rival to Superman and consequently why I’m not much of a fan of Supes. He’s a great guy, but there’s no real dramatic tension for me.

The one real, consistent rival I can think of for Superman is Lex Luthor. His cunning, ruthlessness, and intelligence allows him to give Superman a run for his money, which satisfies this requirement, but there is another reason that this rivalry is so great, and to me this is THE rule…

The opposing forces are, for the most part, defined by their conflict.

Without Superman, Lex Luthor would be just another Donald Trump. Rich, famous, but not nearly as driven as he is by his need to bring Superman down. That drive is what has made Lex great and possibly THE leader of the criminal element of the DCU. Without Lex Luthor, would there be nearly as much corruption and strife for Superman to fight against, especially in Metropolis? In his constant battle to maintain “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” against Luthor’s grabs for power, Superman has been defined as THE defender of “Truth, Justice, and the American Way”.

Batman and Joker are another example of this. Batman is the grim, serious defender of Gotham city. Joker is the psychopathic, always laughing mass-murderer of Gotham City. Joker is defined by his need to break Batman, to prove that all it takes is one bad day to make you just like him. Joker represents the worst of the crime that Batman has dedicated his life to ending. In some continuities, Joker MADE Batman. In some other continuities, Batman MADE Joker. There are very few characters as intertwined as these two. Joker is so obsessed with Batman that he has killed those who planned to kill Batman, believing that honor to be his alone. Joker realizes how much he needs Batman, but does Batman realize how much he needs Joker?

All the great rivalries fit this rule. Wolverine despised Sabertooth because he represented what Wolverine fights becoming; Sabertooth constantly came after Wolverine to remind him what he “really” is. Kingpin represents the crime and corruption that Daredevil must clean up off of the streets of Hell’s Kitchen. Spiderman and Green Goblin are essential to most of each other’s defining moments. The major tragedies of Peter Parker’s life, other than the deaths of his parental figures, are because of Norman Osborn. All Norman Osborn ever wanted from Peter Parker was for him to look at Osborn as a father figure. Thor and Loki’s conflict has raged for ages – can you really think of one without the other? Professor X and Magneto are two sides of a coin – they don’t hate each other, they only wish the other shared their dream. And if either joined the other permanently they just might be unstoppable. But both are defined by their respective versions of “the dream” and thus by their conflict.

Speaking of two sides of a coin, possibly the most interesting rivalry/conflict in comics to me is between two characters that really do hate each other - The Hulk and Bruce Banner. Both are defined by their loathing and wish to be free of the other. They would each kill the other if there was any way to do it. The short time that Banner gave into Hulk’s rage against the Illuminati is the exception to this, obviously, but for the majority of their history, each has striven to be rid of the other. Theirs is the ultimate story of self-loathing and this is why I love The Hulk.

Okay, so in the end I only came up with two real rules for a good rivalry:

There must be an equal distribution of power or reasonable way for each to counteract the other; otherwise it’s not a rivalry but more like a Chihuahua barking at a Rottweiler

And they each must be, to a large part, defined by their conflict or it’s just a good fight, not a rivalry.

Do you have something to add? Do you have some more essentials for a decent rivalry, or a reason that mine don’t fit?

What are your favorite rivalries?

Do you think Mike Haynes will ever let me be his nemesis?

Comment away!

Also, if you’re not reading Panels of Awesome, you should be!

tag: Comics, Rivalries, Battles, Comic Books, Nemesis, Nemeses, Mike Haynes, Panels of Awesome, Hulk, Bruce Banner, Batman, Joker, Fantastic Four, Galactus, Superman, Lex Luthor, Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine, Sabertooth

Share

Popularity: 12% [?]

You may remember my review of the Messiah CompleX one-shot, which was Chapter 1 of the Messiah CompleX crossover.

It’s been a long time, but I’m going to try to catch up with the reviews now, but first I need to say a few things.

First, I haven’t paid much attention to the X-Men in the past ten years or so, mostly because they reached a point where it all felt very chaotic with everyone going off in their own direction. There was no real cohesion to the X-Teams or their books, and the focus seemed to be much more about action and pissing contests than any kind of storytelling and teamwork. I’ll tell you now that this doesn’t seem to be a problem so far in Messiah CompleX; if this keeps up I may become an X-Fan again.

That said, over a decade away from the X-books has hurt my understanding of the continuity and dynamics in their world, so please forgive me if some of the things I say seem stupid to someone who’s kept up with them for all these years.

Second, since all of these issues (except for the last few) have been out for a while, I’m not going to go out of my way to avoid spoilers. I’m not going to go out of my way to include spoilers, either, but I’m sure there will be some minor ones, so if you’re a spoiler-phobe, you may want to go read the issues then come back. I’ll still be here, I promise.

Actually, I lied. As I wrote this review, it turned into a stream-of-conscious commentary piece more than anything. I’d recommend reading this along with the issues or after you’ve read the issues. If you read this before you read the individual issues, I still recommend you pick them up; you’ll get a lot more enjoyment out of the actual crossover than you will my commentary, I guarantee.

Chapter 2: Uncanny X-Men #492

A good example of that lack of understanding is that I assumed that Predator-X was known to all of the team-members, and thus Cyclops wondering what happened to the Marauder’s bodies seemed to be an attack of his secondary mutation of brain damage. Wikipedia has shown me how wrong I was.

Speaking of that secondary brain damage mutation, Cyke seems to have gotten that under control. This is the most in-charge I can remember him being, he’s got schemes on top of schemes going and he seems to be in control of all of them. He also seems to have finally grown some balls in respect to Professor X, which is nice to see no matter how much I like the Professor. I’m only aware of what happened to prompt the dropping of Scott Summers’ balls, but I’m beginning to think I need to go back and pick up those issues.

“Help by letting me do what you trained me to do… to lead.” may be the greatest line from Cyclops that I’ve ever read. Whatever else Brubaker does with this series, he may have finally turned a lifelong Scott Summers hater into a Cyclops fan, or at least someone who respects the character.

Ok, back to the story

The artwork is very nice; we get some cool shots of Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Angel hunting some ex-Acolytes to get information on Exodus, who is working with Sinister and the Marauders. The tactical planning comes in again when we realize that this strike team is composed of those with powers that counteract the people they are hunting, particularly Nightcrawler teleporting Neophyte all over the place so that he could not phase.

Cyclops pulling in Madrox, Rictor, and Layla Miller AND finally going for full disclosure is an example of the improved tactics and unity of vision I mentioned. It’s a new turn that I really like… they’re all in this together, for once.

While I was looking at the excellent artwork here, I noticed Layla’s choker. Then I remembered reading when Malice possesses someone, she manifests as a choker. The previews for the upcoming issues mention a traitor in the X-Men’s ranks. I don’t remember ever seeing Malice’s choker, so I have no idea what it looks like and could be way off base, but what if…?

There’s not much else to mention in this issue… Wolverine and Co. got the info on Exodus that they wanted, Emma likes Scott taking charge in ways other than I do, Scott feels like he’s missing something big, that something big is Predator X, who (which?) is running through Canada looking for some of that other other white meat, and the story will continue in…

Chapter 3: X-Factor #25

I’ve been reading X-Factor for awhile and I should probably mention that I never really cared about any of these characters, and thus don’t know much about them, before I started reading this incarnation of X-Factor, which is a testament to Peter David’s writing on this series.

Rictor “helps” the Purifiers try to capture Rahne in order to gain their trust, according to Cyclops’ plan.

Layla and Madrox go to see Forge and send dupes to travel along alternate timelines, again following a Cyclops plan. When is the last time we saw Forge, anyway? I thought he was dead. And if he isn’t, shouldn’t he have been there in the last issue, helping fix Cerebro?

Wolverine walks in front of a car to get admitted to a hospital and question Amelia Voght, who is apparently another former Acolyte, to find the other former Acolytes. Of course, they anticipate her running and have Storm and Nightcrawler waiting for her on the outside of the hospital to make her recondense from mist.

Back to Madrox and Co, where I have a point of confusion – Why did dumbass Layla hitch a ride with one of the Madrox dupes, why didn’t Forge just tell Madrox that the plan was for his dupes to kill themselves, and how in the hell can Forge include “psionic commands” to the people he transports in his “Chronal GPS unit” thingy? Madrox is going to be even less inclined to trust Cyclops after this, so much for full disclosure. Anyway, Madrox passes out when he finds out that his dupes and Layla may be lost.

Cyclops tell the New X-men to sit the heck down, shut the heck up, and wait their damn turn, which maybe needed to be said. (Originally, I used much stronger language here)

God, when did I become such a supporter of frickin CYCLOPS?!?

Back with the Purifiers, they scan Rictor with what I assume is Nimrod tech. He scans as human and is, apparently, in like Flynn. Which raises an important question – exactly who is this Flynn and why is he so in? No, seriously, I would like to know where that saying came from.

Rictor finds out that not only does the Purifier base extend under and beyond the small New York church that he found them in, the New York base is one of the smaller ones. DC is apparently HUGE.

Which brings us to…

Chapter 4: New X-Men #44

I’ve been trying to read New X-Men for the past few months, at least as long as Endangered Species - that total waste of time – ran, and I just could not get into it. I don’t really find any of these characters – other than X-23 – remotely interesting and I could care less if the entire team was killed, so I went into this issue expecting nothing more than 23 pages that I’d have to get through in order to advance the story. I was wrong…

I counted only 22 pages I had to get through, not counting all the filler thrown in on the backend.

That’s being a bit overly harsh, actually. This is not a bad issue, really. The art is nice, and I’d likely have a higher opinion of the writing if I actually cared about these characters but, like I said, I don’t.

I did like the twist at the end, but more because of the return of Lady Deathstrike and implication that she and the Reavers have joined up with the Purifiers than the possible death of Hellion. Like I said, I just don’t care about the New X-Men.

Anyway, on to the pseudo-recap. Prof. X is apparently the communal punching bag these days, I’m starting to think he needs to lay a psychic smack down on some of these kids. Although Surge does raise a good question: Where was Professor X during the aftermath of House of M when all those kids got massacred? I obviously wasn’t reading.

Madrox is still in a coma, and Scott’s a stone-cold determined mofo. I kind of like this new side of him, the idea that he’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish this mission, but I’m curious to see if he’s as willing to sacrifice those who are closer to him or just those he didn’t like very much anyway, like Madrox. I still say that he should have explained the plan fully to Madrox in the first place – your soldiers need to trust you, and I don’t see how anyone on X-Factor will trust Scott if he needs them for any further missions.

The X-kids decide to go after the Purifiers. I can understand why they want blood so bad, but they’re acting like dumb kids. Of course, they are dumb kids, so I guess this is pretty true to character and I have no reason to gripe.

Wolverine’s strike force has gone to Antarctica after the Marauders. Have I mentioned that it’s cool to see Wolverine not only functioning as part of a team, but actually leading that team? I know that there’s a common perception of Wolverine as terribly overexposed, but I still love the little furball.

Rictor finds out that the Purifiers don’t have the baby, but do have far more resources than the X-Crew ever imagined, including new, “mysterious” allies, whose identities I already spoiled. YAY ME!

Layla and one of the dupes are eighty years in the future of an alternate timeline, bickering just like Madrox Prime and Layla. Layla using her “amazing common sense powers” to use the library to figure out what happened to the mutants was very snicker-worthy.

The X-Kiddies infiltrate the Purifier’s DC base and I still don’t care.

Back in Antarctica, the Marauders – most of whom I don’t recognize – are about to relocate right before Wolvie’s crew throws one of them through a wall. Way to make an entrance. I noticed that Wolverine’s biceps are as big as his torso and his forearms are as big as his thighs here, but who am I to judge art when I have trouble drawing stick figures?

X-Kids. Church in DC. Still don’t care.

Rictor tells the scaly green kid to quit being a dumbass and to get his friends and get the heck out of there. Scaly green kid and his friends don’t listen, of course. And for that, Hellion gets Deathstruck.

Bringing us to…

Chapter 5: X-Men #205

Layla and Madrox dupe, 80 years in an alternate future. Apparently there was a war between mutants and “flatscans” that the mutants lost. Now the mutants are in internment camps. I didn’t say this two chapters ago, because I figured it would explain itself, but I really don’t see the point of exploring these alternate futures. How is that going to help them find the baby mutant or save the mutant race? Did I miss something or should I just shut up and keep reading? I’m still loving the banter between Layla and Jamie – it’s cool that all the writers have picked up on that dynamic so far.

Back to Antarctica, where Sinister is hooked up to some kind of machine and is talking six kinds of smack. I was about to wonder when Sinister started reading minds and then realized that the X-Men were being clever by suggesting he read their minds; Emma hitched a ride with them, which explains Scott telling Forge she was “unavailable”. Nicely done, writers!

Ok, apparently, Sinister DOES have psychic ability that I never picked up on, but this is still good writing – “A good idea is worth stealing” indeed, I’m loving this tactical genius side of Cyclops. I’m guessing that taking out the psychic advantage has given the X-Men an edge, because they are kicking some Marauder butt, but Sinister doesn’t seem to be impressed.

X-Chillens. Church in DC. Hellion maybe dead. Still don’t care. They hold their own long enough for Rictor to save their butts. Pixie freaks out, teleports her team all over the country, and her psychic scream distracts Emma enough to get her blocked out by Sinister. Someone’s going to get a spanking.

Wolverine guts Gambit, Sinister leads the Marauders in a comeback, and just before Wolverine can pass on the information that there is an X-traitor to Nightcrawler, they teleport and Kurt is shot at the same time. Logan does get the information to Emma once they’re away from Sinister, and I notice that he specifically says an X-Man took the baby from Cooperstown, which kinda invalidates my Layla choker theory.

Some kind of weird crap infects one of the Sentinel O.N.E. pilots and he attacks the X-Mansion, or did the Sentinels just go back to the robot-style? I’m a bit confused on that one.

Final panel and we see that the X-Man who has the baby is….CABLE?!

WTF?

Anyway, on to….

Chapter 6: Uncanny X-Men #493

Annnnd my comics guy evidently didn’t put this one in my pull stack. It looks like I’ll have to head back over there and this issue will get its own post in a day or so. Sorry, folks.

If you couldn’t tell by my above comics, I’m very impressed with this crossover so far. The writing is solid, even for the characters I don’t really care about, and some of these characters are having their finest moments that I can remember, especially Cyclops, who I distinctly remember hating and considering the most boring X-character ever.

If you haven’t been reading Messiah CompleX, I recommend in the strongest possible terms that you go to your local comics retailer right now and pick it up. I will commit right now to continuing to read the X-Titles well into the next year, just based on the strength of this crossover.

Comments? Criticisms? Concurrences? Contentions?

Let ‘er rip!!

tag: Comics, Marvel, X-Men, Messiah Complex, X-Factor, New X-Men, Crossover, Review, Cyclops

Share

Popularity: 80% [?]

Ok, just a few quick links and blurbs here…

Geekanerd has compared some promo shots from the upcoming Watchmen movie with corresponding panels from the comic.

Here’s my favorite, even if it doesn’t have a direct counterpart in the comic:

Newsarama has an interview with Mike Carlin and Tony Bedard about DC’s Countdown and has some preview images of what’s coming, most notably this:

Rich Johnston has a new rumor regarding a new series being spawned:

Look for a new “Gotham Girls”-style series to spin out of “Countdown,” starring Harley Quinn and Holly Robinson. And on art, none other than Stephane Roux.

I’m sure I heard one fangirl out there go “squee.”

That squee was me, actually.

Back to Newsarama, who has new preview pages for Fantastic Four #554 (I don’t care) and the new X-Force #1, which is kinda awesome.

Here’s their pitch:

X-Force, Party Patrol?

Comic book crossovers are like a party. Characters come over, hang out, have a good time, put their feet up on the furniture, and then after leaving a mess for the host to clean up, they go their own way. Marvel, because of the leaving-the-mess-behind part, had not done an X-Men crossover in over a decade until this fall’s cataclysmic “Messiah Complex.” But even that storyline left a mess behind that had to be cleaned up. The X-Men were on the hunt for the first mutant child born since House of M depopulated Marvel’s mutant population. Not everything went well, and that’s where February’s X-Force #1 comes in!

In the aftermath of “Messiah Complex,” Cyclops comes to realize that there are some problems the X-Men simply aren’t equipped to deal with. Special circumstances call for special operatives, and he assembles a new X-Force team — Wolverine, Warpath, X-23, and Wolfsbane — to handle the dirty jobs, the questionable jobs that no one else can handle — or be trusted to handle! New X-Men writers Craig Kyle and Chris Yost and artist Clayton Crain open a new chapter in X-Force history in the first part of “Angels and Demons” as the team comes together for their first assignment, one that the X-Men can never know about!

No Marvel mutant fan will want to miss this high-octane team book. With a line-up of some of the X-Men’s most feral characters, X-Force #1 promises action and excitement as the team takes on the dirty missions — and the post-crossover-party clean-up! Look for X-Force #1 in this month’s Marvel Previews, and catch the excitement!

Finally, MTV Movies Blog reports that eagle-eyed viewers of I Am Legend will catch plenty of inside jokes and shoutouts, including a fake movie poster for my favorite film that will never be made:

Sometime around the turn of this century, movie geeks began buzzing over a proposed showdown between the two biggest icons in comic book history. Now, a new movie poster is advertising 2009 as the release date for the long-awaited “Batman vs. Superman,” and the flick is finally coming to a theater near you.

Annnd I’m spent. Back to Heroes and my comic book backlog

tag: Batman Beyond, Batman vs Superman, comics, Countdown, Cyclops, Feral, I Am Legend, Warpath, Watchmen, Wolverine, X-23, X-Force, Movies, Countdown, Harley Quinn, Holly Robinson, Batman, Superman

Share

Popularity: 9% [?]

Marvel has released new preview images from Hulk #1.

First the images then my speculation:

Okay, the solicitations and interviews regarding Hulk have stated that the initial arc will involve a mystery surrounding the murder of one of Hulk’s oldest cast members, the investigation being led my Doctor Leonard Sampson, and Hulk being the prime suspect.

It’s hard to tell without dialog balloons, but these appear to be images of Doc Sampson and She-Hulk trying to retrace the steps of a battle between Hulk and (I think) The Abomination, which leads me to the following question:

Is the murdered cast member The Abomination? If so, is that really a good idea, considering Emil Bronsky/The Abomination is going to be one of the main villains in the upcoming Incredible Hulk movie?

I say it’s a horrible idea, for many of the same reasons that the rumored plan to kill Bruce Wayne was a terrible idea.

You don’t kill the cashcow, kids.

What do you think? Am I way off base, is that even the Abomination in those images? If it is, do you think I’m reading too much into it by thinking The Abomination will be killed? Am I wrong that it’s a horrible idea? Am I the only one to notice that the Hulk in those images is NOT red?

Or am I a mad supergenius who is reading Jeff Loeb’s mind and should be granted an exclusive contract writing for Marvel?

tag: Abomination, Doc Sampson, Emil Bronsky, Hulk, Jennifer Walters, Leonard Sampson, Marvel, Red Hulk, She-Hulk

Share

Popularity: 100% [?]

Image from Wikipedia

Comics Should Be Good! has a guest interview by Rohan Williams with Sam Raimi and his partner in Ghost House Pictures production studio, Rob Tapert.

They briefly discuss how they came to produce 30 Days of Night, but it looks like the meaty parts of that subject will be in the upcoming second part of the interview.

The interesting part (to me) concerned Raimi’s future role and opinions regarding the Spider-man movie franchise:

Do you have any inclination yet towards whether you’d like to produce or direct the next Spider-Man movie, or is too early to call?

Sam: I think that’s going to be up to Sony Pictures, and I think that it’s too early for them to say, actually. But currently I’m working on… well, not now, but as soon as the writers strike’s over… I’m going to begin working with a writer on the screenplay.

Is it important to you that the story follows on from the first three? I mean, how important is internal continuity to you? Can you go Evil Dead-style and change details a little bit, maybe change the story up a little bit?

Sam: If I was writing it I would have a very strong opinion about that, but we’re hiring a writer to come up with his own take. Sony was willing to go either way, we’ll just have to wait and see what the writer comes up with. I think anything’s possible, though.

I mean, there’s been so many different versions, it doesn’t have to follow the movies that we’ve made. I’d very much like to see Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, so I have a personal interest in that, but certainly anything’s possible. Spider-Man’s such a big character in the comic books that he could endure a lot of different interpretations. You could start over or you could start with a different aspect of the story than I’ve focused on in the pictures I’ve made, we’ll just have to wait and see what the writer comes up with.

Do you think the story will still be interesting if Spider-Man moves on and gets married? Because within the world of comics, a lot of writers complain that once he got married the stories weren’t as interesting, and the movies seem to be heading towards that. As someone who’s a married man and has a family, what do you think of this idea that he can’t be interesting once he’s married?

Sam: He’s most powerful to me as an adolescent. The thing that Stan Lee created that was so special was that he was a very young character, and he’s a kid trying to deal with these fantastic powers. The idea of being married counters that a little bit. It’s a place of accepted responsibility versus being on the road to learning responsibility. It’s associated with adulthood versus being the ultimate kid who’s a superhero. So it’s not that you couldn’t tell a good story with a married Spider-Man, but my favorite Spider-Man is the unmarried one.

Far from a commitment to the next movie, but it sounds like he’s leaning towards coming back.

Raimi also stated that it will be left up to the writer to decide what villains will appear in Spiderman 4

Go check out Comics Should Be Good! to read the full interview.

tag: 30 Days of Night, Ghost House Pictures, Rob Tapert, Rohan Williams, Sam Raimi, Spiderman, Spider-Man, Spider-man 4

Share

Popularity: 7% [?]

Marvel has released two new alternate covers for the upcoming Hulk#1, both featuring the mysterious Red Hulk.

The first, by new Marvel exclusive Daniel Acuna, I’m not too sure how I feel about :

The second, by regular Hulk artist Ed McGuinness, I’m kinda in love with:

Also, I still stand by my most recent Hulk predictions.

tag: Comics, Daniel Acuna, Ed McGuinness, Red Hulk, Hulk, Alternate Covers, Marvel

Share

Popularity: 12% [?]

Image from Wikipedia

I have returned from my Thanksgiving feasting and I’m still working through my email and news backlog here, so I have nothing much to say at this point.

It seems that most of the web is caught up with Marvel and DC’s attempts to shut down ZCultfm, and I may have something to say about that later, but I’m still trying to decide just where I stand on the whole issue.

As you may have guessed from some of my statements concerning Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited service, I’m a big fan of downloading digital comics and it has led to a fairly large increase in the money that I spend on trades, so I obviously think that ZCultfm benefits the comics industry in the long run. That said, I support DC and Marvel’s right to protect their intellectual property.

So I don’t really know what to say at this point. This actually might be my final word on the subject.

Anyway, to tide you over until I actually have something of substance to write about, I give you links to two articles from Newsarama that made me happy in my pants.

First, Rob Schrab will finally begin releasing the end of Scud: The Disposable Assassin in February. I have waited ten years for these issues. There are not words for how happy I am that I won’t have to go to jail for abducting Mr. Hollywood Schrab and doing terrible things to his scrotum until he gave me the end of Scud.

Second, Newsarama has a 20 Questions interview with Garth Ennis about my absolute favorite current series, The Boys. Ennis talks a bit about themes, inspirations, the benefits of publishing through Dynamite Entertainment over Wildstorm, character motivation, and other fun things. While the language is totally work-safe, you may want to be careful with some of the page previews, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who has read The Boys.

And I believe that’s all I have for tonight. Hopefully we’ll be back to the meatier stuff tomorrow.

tag: Comics, DC, Digital Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Garth Ennis, Marvel, Rob Schrab, Scud, The Boys, Wildstorm, ZCultfm

Share

Popularity: 8% [?]

I’m sure many of you have seen this image on Superhero Hype:

It’s from the new Incredible Hulk movie, and Hulk looks pretty damn cool, but what really caught my eye was the word “Sakar” in the lower left corner of the poster:

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, especially because of the different spelling, but I still found it kinda interesting

tag: Hulk, Incredible Hulk, Sakaar, Sakar

Share

Popularity: 12% [?]

Image by fengschwing via Flickr

Contrary to the slanderous disinformation spread by Tony Stark and perpetuated by the propagandists at Marvel and my well intentioned, but misguided friend The Mike Haynes from Panels of Awesome, Hulk is NOT to blame for the issues Marvel.com had on Tuesday, Nov. 13th.

The perpetrator was actually Iron Man, who decided to crash Marvel’s website for “the people’s own good.” Because Stark is incapable of taking responsibility for his own actions and must use others for his dirty work (see Harry Osborn and the Atlantean Ambassador), he tried to set up a defenseless man who is currently buried under the desert and unable to defend himself to take the fall.

This is typical behavior for Mr. Stark and I encourage you all to spread the truth about this out-of-control fascist gearhead, before he decides that breathing is not in our best interests, either.

tag: Death to the Initiative, Hulk, Iron Man, Marvel, Tony Stark, Digital Comics Unlimited

Share

Popularity: 8% [?]

Blog@Newsarama (who, incidentally, quoted me awhile back regarding Batman’s maybe-death), has a Day-One report from Wizard World Texas written by Aron Head from EvilBastard.net.

The highlights (for me) include:

• Greg Pak’s favorite line from World War Hulk was “I didn’t come to hear you whisper, I came to hear you SCREAM!” Yeah… mine too. That shit was hardcore.
• Senor Pak also says that Hulk’s son, Skaar, will have plenty of adventures on his home planet, but will eventually have an impact on the Marvel Universe as a whole.
• One more from the Pak - he is working on “the most disturbing and challenging project [he has] worked on in any medium,” but is not at liberty to announce it yet.
• Dan Didio says Bart Allen’s story is not yet over. This excites me, since Bart had the most heroic scene in my recent memory; it made me sad that it was his death scene.
• Connor may also be back. Didio’s answer to a question about any plans for the Superclone was “maybe”, which is pretty damn cool, but I wonder what they’ll call him. I’m willing to let DC have “Superclone”, royalty-free, as long as they bring back Conner.

Damn, I can’t wait for Megacon!

tag: Bart Allen, Connor Kent, Dan Didio, Flash, Greg Pak, Hulk, Incredible Hulk, Kon-El, Megacon, Skaar, Wizard World Texas, World War Hulk, WWH, Superboy, Superclone

Share

Popularity: 7% [?]