Spider-Man Is Dead. Long Live Spider-Man.

This Wednesday saw the release of the 700^th issue of the Amazing Spider-Man and the ending of the series. Writer Dan Slott has been teasing for months of the big reveal ending of this issue since it leads into the new series the Superior Spider-Man whom readers has known for months NOT to be Peter Parker. A week ago I read the issue myself, but waited to voice my opinion to prevent spoilers. Here’s the kicker though; there are no spoilers. Spoilers are something that occurs when you don’t know what’s gonna happen; anyone with half a brain would’ve seen this outcome. I’m just gonna go right out and say it before going any furtherer: Doctor Octopus, Otto Octavius is the new Superior Spider-Man!!!

Now how did this happen you might ask? Well, I could take you through the whole shebang of *cough* “story”, but I’ll keep it short. Through Spider-Man’s recent and repeated interaction with the hive mind of Ock’s octobots, the villain obtained access to Spidey’s mind and was able to swap mindframes with him. Dr. Octopus now had Peter Parker’s body, memories, mind and worst of all, all the powers of Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Peter is trapped in the dying body of his enemy and makes one last desperate attempt to win back his body and life. With the help of some villains, Peter in Octopus’ body tries to lure “Spider-Man” in a trap to switch back their minds. In the end though, when the transfer is supposed to happen, it’s revealed that Ock has imbued the Spidey outfit with carbonadium, making the swap impossible. He deals Parker in Ock’s body one final blow, but as our hero is dying in the body of his enemy, something happens. Dr. Octopus experiences Peter’s memories fully; the loving home and childhood provided by Uncle Ben and aunt May, the loss of his uncle Ben, Captain Stacy and Gwen Stacy’s deaths. He feels how all the things Peter’s ever done took immense amounts of courage, will and determination. The scope of Spider-Man’s entire existence and willingness to do it all over again, including saving Octavius’ life even after all that’s happened overwhelms Otto.  He’s reluctant, scarred of the unimaginable task he has taken upon himself by stealing Peter’s identity and asks his dying archenemy HOW he can do this to which Peter answers: “Because you have to. Because with great power…” “… Must come great responsibility, I understand” Octavius finishes. As Peter is dying in Octatvius’ arms, the former villain promises to carry on the mantle of Spider-Man and protect New York. At the same time he proclaims to become an even better Spider-Man than Parker was, with his intellect and powers he proclaims himself the Superior Spider-Man.

And that’s it. Apparently, all it took to change YEARS of evilness in Dr. Octopus was experiencing Peter Parker’s memories. Finally, he understands how precious a life really is and how with great power comes great responsibility. Give me a fucking break; Octavius already HAD great powers and he had decided to squander them and become a supervillain, because he was selfish and small-minded, end of story. Slott calls this “giving Dr. Ock a new lease on life” and that, I can be just fine with. It’s the fact that he has to take over Spider-Man/Peter Parker’s identity in order to obtain this lease. I find it ridiculous and I find it extremely out of character for Octavius to make this switch to the “good side” that fast. I mean, it happens in less than 3 pages?

I will admit it, I’m an old school Spidey fan so of course I prefer Peter Parker to be Spider-man, but that’s not the main reason I’m unsatisfied with this turn of events. It’s just really bad storytelling. I won’t really loose anything because of these changes since I haven’t been reading Spider-Man ever since Dan Slott took over as writer. I gave the man a shot, found it terrible and decided not to go on reading it. But since this would be the last issue of the Amazing Spider-Man and it was well known somebody would replace Parker, I had to check it out. It was as bad as the rest of Slott’s writing and most of all, it simply made me appreciate that I hadn’t spent any money on Amazing Spider-Man issues for the past 2 years. The fact that Peter Parker dies isn’t really that significant; comic book characters die every now and then and returns as well and I find it doubtful we won’t see PP again one day. It might be a while, my money is on somewhere between 1-2 years, but we’ll see. Should it happen that the new Superior Spider-Man becomes a complete failure the status quo could be reversed sooner than planned. In any case, it’s not as if anything is ever truly permanent in the comic industry, no matter what the writers or companies might say. All of this can also be attributed to the value of shock. The “oh NO, they did NOT” effect is a good way of increasing sales and it’s been seen before in comic books.

According to Slott, one of the exciting things of this new Superior Spider-Man is that we get to see a more dark and gritty Spider-Man, although still a hero; a more Batman-like Spidey. My answer to that is if I want to read Batman I’ll read Batman. Which, I might add, I do and do you know why? Because it’s actually worth reading. We already have a VERY Batman-like comic; it’s called Batman and there’s only one.  Spider-Man is and has always been a more light-hearted comic. Somehow, this seems sort of as an attempt to make Spidey appeal more to older readers, but GOD I hope that’s not the case. Simply because an awesome writer already did that with the character and he did it with the real Spider-Man, Peter Parker, and that man was Joe Michael Straczinsky. And some idiot boss at Marvel decided to erase all of that and have Dan Slott and a bunch of other mediocre writers do the Brand New Day stories which basically saw Peter Parker reduced to the nerd/looser he used to be as a teenager. Of course, it’s a matter of taste in these things, but if the desire is to have a more mature audience read the comic, why the fuck would you go along with this new lame approach? “Archenemy takes over hero’s mind/memories and hero dies in archenemy’s body”? Wow, that’s really a weak move in my opinion, simply because it seems to depend on the reader finding it believable that a villain changes his life perspective in a matter of mere minutes. How is this a better way of going about it than having the original hero character, in this case Peter Parker, evolve as a person/hero/character? That’s exactly what Straczinsky did and it was awesome.

What bothers me the most though, and I should properly say that I really am pissed at how shitty a story issue 700 was, is something the writer said about writing Dr. Octopus as Spider-Man:

"Doc is kinda like me: He's short and schlubby. This is a guy who now gets to be in the body of Peter Parker.”
Read more at http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JoshWildingNewsAndReviews/news/?a=71777#MvB1tJDvauXcyFOO.99 

I’m sorry, but seriously? Is that what all this is about? Gee, poor Dan Slott, he couldn’t see himself in Spider-Man, only Dr. Ock. So now he went and got the opportunity to turn Ock (Himself) into Spider-Man. This whole horrible parody of a story is really about a case of the grumpy kid tantrum. Well I’m sorry mr. Slott, you’re still a terrible writer and you killing off Peter Parker just proves how little understanding you’ve ever had of this character.

In the end, no matter how long Slott or anyone else claims this new stat quo will last, I will at this moment swear to you on my life: Peter Parker will be back.

Star Wars ep. 7 - House of The Mouse

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away… STAR WARS.

And the familiar yellow letters keep rolling up the screen. The last time any of us saw this phenomenon in the cinema, at least as introduction to a new film, was back in 2005 when Revenge of The Sith premiered. This third and final part of the new trilogy was supposed to be the last SW film we would ever see.  As fate would have it though, the Disney Corporation recently bought Lucas Arts and with that the rights to any former and future SW films and announced that a sequel to the original intended ending of the saga would be released in 2015. Oh, but the madness doesn’t end there, no no. Disney simultaneously proclaimed that a new SW film would be released every 2-3 years. Now, what I’m missing in that statement is an add-on to that last sentence “released every 2-3 years… If there is a story worth telling”. 

Tilføj billedtekst

So, what’s a geek like me to think of all this? Well first of all, let me make it clear that to me, Star Wars is over.  At the end of Return of The Jedi, Luke managed to reach whatever was left of the good in his father Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader.  As we all know, Vader at the last minute turned to the light side of the force and destroyed the Emperor, thus fulfilling his destiny of bringing balance to the force, THE END. The story of the Skywalker’s is over as far as I’m concerned. So if that devil mouse absolutely has to keep making films within the SW universe, they should focus on different characters. Sadly, that is not the case as far as we know. Even though this isn’t for sure, it seems that Luke, Leia and Han Solo might return for episode 7. Nothing is set in stone, but all three actors, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fischer and Harrison Ford has expressed their willingness to return for the new film. Only problem is that it’s been 29 years since ROTJ was released which mean the actors has quite a different look than the characters they last portrayed in SW. Because of these age issues, I find the idea that the new trilogy will focus on these characters ridiculous. I could go along with them showing up, cameo style (or Luke as a Jedi ghost, giving advice to his descendants much like Obi-Wan did with him) with no more than a few lines and minutes on-screen, but that’s it. There is also a rumor of Darth Vader making a return and that… Well that would mean I’d have to off somebody at Disney, doesn’t matter who, as long as they’re affiliated with the mouse. Because that would be an atrocity; a heresy; blasphemy. There is NO story to justify the return of Vader and bringing him back would be to take a giant dump on the sacrifice Anakin Skywalker made and the role he played in the Emperors downfall.  Again, this is still just a rumor, but Darth Vader is THE most well-known icon of the Star Wars universe. Therefore, there is plenty of reason to believe that this might happen, no matter how much it might piss off some of us older fans. 

Image via TheEvilNae on deviantart.com

Little has been revealed about this new saga’s story. All we know for a fact is that there is a screenwriter attached to pen the entire trilogy of episodes 7, 8 and 9, but so far no director is locked in. Michael Arndt is the man who’ll be responsible for the writing and I can’t stress enough how much of a burden there is on this guy’s shoulders. Not because the last three films were anywhere near as great as the original ones, but whether each of the previous films was a masterpiece or not, Star Wars is a huge responsibility for any filmmaker to undertake. Arndt has previously written the screenplays for Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine; both of which received much critical acclaim. I myself have only seen the former of the two and found it a disappointment to be frank. Since I to this day still consider the first TS a great film, I can’t help but wonder if Arndt’s script in the third is to blame. That being said, I’m trying to keep an open mind on this whole new saga and pray to god that the house of the mouse won’t completely destroy what I consider to be one of, if not the, greatest cinematic epics ever. Lucas did a great job trying to do so with the new trilogy and enough damage has been done; either bring back the glory of the original saga or leave the whole damn thing alone. 

On a more positive note, Disney did also buy Marvel Comics a couple of years ago and while I’ll always be able to find something wrong with the films based on my beloved comic book characters, I’ve been mostly satisfied with Marvel studios’ productions. So maybe all hope isn’t lost, maybe these new SW films will bring back some of the magic from the original ones. Still, the first thing that came to mind when I heard that Disney now owned Star Wars, was a scene from episode 3, only with Mickey Mouse replacing Emperor Palpatine. I’m talking about the scene in which the Emperor murders Mace Windu. Imagine Mickey in his place, saying the same lines in his high pitched voice “POOOWEEEER, UUUNLIMITED POOOOWEEEER”. Pure evil is all I’m saying, gave me chills as fuck.

Above is the end scene of episode 6, the original conclusion of the SW series. One of my favorite endings of all time.

May the force be with us all!

Mo

The Dark Knight Rises Review

So, it’s finally here; the last installment in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. The Dark Knight Rises premiered in most of the world Friday the 20^th and I went to see it that evening. Now, unlike with The Avengers, my expectations weren’t as high for this one. Not because I’m not a Batman fan, huge fan right here, that’s for sure. It’s just that as a reader of the comics you’ll never be able to overlook some of the changes Nolan has made to the characters, the dark knight in particular. Mind you, I’m not saying that the two previous films weren’t great entertainment. Batman Begins stands out as my favorite of the two even though it’s in this film that the worst and biggest change occurs. Joe Chill, the man that shot and killed Bruce Wayne’s parents is caught the very same night of the crime, in effect removing the original desire for vengeance and fighting crime. The thing is that the fact that Chill was never caught is what creates the obsession that drives Batman in his fight. Deep down, he’s still looking for the man responsible for making him an orphan.  That being said, I did enjoy the film, just like I did with The Dark Knight. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about TDKR… I was extremely disappointed to be honest; I hardly know where to begin with this. But first things first, the 8 year gap between TDK and TDKR; I don’t find that believable at all and I think it’s due to me obviously disagreeing completely with Nolan on how Batman as a character should be interpreted. As I mentioned, his crime fighting is basically an obsession which means there’s no way he just stops being Batman all of a sudden, it’s simply not in his nature, but more on that later. There is of course a very good reason why the Joker isn’t featured in the movie, since Ledger sadly died from an overdose of sleeping medicine shortly before TDK premiered. That’s a reason for him not being physically in the film, it’s certainly no excuse not to make one single mention of him in TDKR at all. The Joker escaped custody within 30 minutes or so in TDK. Are we really supposed to believe authorities were capable of holding him for 8 years, much less catch him without Batman when he did escape? Not plausible in my opinion. I’m aware of the fact that Nolan has said it is due to respect of Ledger that there’s no mention of the Joker in TDKR. Personally I disagree and thinks the character would’ve been done more justice with a sort of easter egg, perhaps in the form of a news headline declaring “Joker escapes custody – Last seen leaving Gotham” or whatever, the point is that the Joker should’ve been mentioned in some way, not included for real, but not ignored either.  

TDKR’s main villain was the character known as Bane, infamously known in the comic book world as “the man who broke the bat”. This isn’t the first time we’ve had an interpretation of Bane on the big screen; Jeep Swenson portrayed him in Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin from 1997. Possibly the worst Batman film EVER in history, I sincerely doubt that there will never be a worse Batman film. In any case, this version, while it might have been more faithful to the characters original design, was basically a braindead goon acting as a bodyguard to Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman).  In TDKR, Tom Hardy delivers a Bane that is very much different from aforementioned version and even though the character is different in appearance and origin, in other ways it is a much more faithful interpretation than seen before. Hardy definitely manages to make Bane a brutal looking villain, but also an intelligent one which is what Bane really is. Aaaaandd that was the positive things; his voice…! I don’t know who had a mental breakdown at the studio when they decided it was a good idea to make him sound like a poor Sean Connery parody, but the people in question should be fired; that voice was nothing less than laughable.  

Now on to “Catwoman” or Selina Kyle since she is never addressed or titled as Catwoman in the movie itself. I’m not really sure how I feel about her in the film. I love the character of Catwoman as she is seen in comics, but this was something else. Anne Hathaway portrayed a good cat burglar/femme fatale, but it wasn’t Catwoman.  Catwoman is sexy as hell, simple as that and I know that Nolan has proclaimed that his films take their depature in realism which certainly means a female cat burglar most likely wouldn’t run around half naked. Then again, realism isn’t much of an issue in lots of other aspects of this film so I don’t really think his arguments hold tight, but I’ll get back to that.  Conclusive, I think Hathaway’s acting is fine, but ultimately, she isn’t Catwoman which is what I expected and wanted and her inclusion in the film seems mostly to be just to have her there. 

I could go on for a long time about the things wrong with this film, but I honestly don’t want to spend all my time bitching. A couple of things more that needs mentioning  of which the first one is closely related to that whole “Nolan’s universe being a realistic one”  is Bruce Wayne’s healing his broken back. Apparently, it’s not considered unrealistic that all you need to do, to fix a broken back is slam the broken bones back into place and hang in a rope for a mere couple of months. Plus, once the back has healed it has no effect despite his fragile state, that Wayne climbs the prison wall to escape and repeatedly falls down a distance that looks like 10-15 meters and ending in a snap from the rope tied around him. No effects on a former broken, newly healed (how exactly?) back whatsoever? Seriously? This wouldn’t be as much of an issue if the argument of realism didn’t cause other things in the film being changed for the worse, such as “Catwoman’s” costume. The broken back thing is just one of several plot holes in the story, but the only other one I personally want to address is Bruce’s dismissal of his faithful servant and friend Alfred Pennyworth, also the closest thing he has to a family. Upon being told that Alfred hid Rachel’s choosing Harvey Dent over Bruce and that Alfred think he can’t be Batman again, Bruce banishes Alfred and 5 minutes later he seems to have forgotten so. This is an unjustified treatment of these two characters relationship and seems extremely forced, presumably to create a sense of Wayne being alone, even though this is hardly the case.

Left to right: Robin John Blake, Jim Gordon, Batman, Bane, "Catwoman"

Last, but certainly not least is the ending of the film which is what bugs me the most. Batman does not; I repeat DOES NOT retire… There’s no discussion in this matter, the character of Batman is as mentioned obsessed with his mission and would never retire, let alone trust others to do the work for him. Bruce Wayne would never be able to be at peace with himself without being Batman due to the simple fact that he is first Batman, second Bruce Wayne. The “revelation” that Miranda Tate was in fact Talia Al Ghul, daughter of Ra’s Al Ghul whom we all remember being excellently played by Liam Neeson in BB, was predictable to be frank and just as indifferent as Bane and Batman’s “final battle”. What the #%%# was that about? Catwoman coming in to save the day and blast Bane away because Batman doesn’t kill, that’s just weak. Sure, the caped crusader doesn’t kill, Nolan got that right, but then he should’ve beaten Bane to a bloody pulp; it should be Batman’s victory, there’s no other way for him to come back from being beaten by Bane in the first place. Speaking of the fighting, the fighting scenes in the film were really disappointing as well. Most of them seemed visibly fake, the acting and choreography was waaay off, which is too bad since this worked fine in the previous films. Last bit of critique I have is about the character John Blake and the way he worked in the ending. All I have to say about that is “Robin John Blake? Are you fucking kidding me?” and that’s the last I’ll ever talk about him, gone and forgotten.

The most positive I myself can say about the ending of Nolan’s take on one of my favorite comic book characters is that even though I’ve been somewhat happy with two out of three, I’m happy to see him go. It’s time to see someone else’s vision of what a Batman film should be. There’s absolutely no rush, Sony sure as hell rushed along with their Spider-Man reboot which was completely unnecessary and I think WB should give it some time now. And hey, just so there are no misunderstandings about things, even though I myself was disappointed in TDKR, I’m very happy that most everyone else, critiques and audiences alike loves the film. Lots of money made from one comic based film ensures better opportunities for other adaptations being made. I might give TDKR another shot at some point, but I have no need to hurry it, I understood and followed the story fine the first time and I’m not impressed, but there’s also such a thing as films that “grows on you”

Sadly, I'm ending this on a quite different note: at the midnight screening of TDKR, a man shot and killed 12 and injured 59 people in a theater in Aurora, Colorado. My Thoughts to those related to or otherwise familiar with anyone involved in this meaningless tragedy.

MO

Marvel NOW! Relaunching The Marvel U

Left to right: Spider-Man, Hulk, Cable, Thor, Iron Man,
Nova, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Invicible Woman, Cyclops,
Wolverine, Captain America, Nick Fury jr. and Rocket
Raccon at the bottom 

A couple of weeks ago, I read the news that author Ed Brubaker,  who’s work include runs on titles such as Uncanny X-men,  Daredevil and Batman, would end his current work on Captain America in the near future. Now, Brubaker’s been writing Cap since 2004 and fans, myself included, all over the world are sad to see him leave this title and to some extent, I think a lot of us also worries about who is going to take over the series?  Brubaker’s decision to leave the title gave the idea to do a piece on his work on Captain America and his work in general. But let me tell you right now, the topic of this piece is so much more than one author’s departure. Shortly after the news of Brubaker’s farewell to the star-spangled Avenger, rumors about some sort of reboot or relaunch at Marvel started stirring. Talk like this has been going on for some time, rumors about various authors of Marvel books rotating aren’t exactly news, but now it’s confirmed: Marvel NOW! has been announced and to make sure there are no misunderstandings, this is a relaunch and not a reboot. Which means that unlike DC’s New 52, no continuity will be erased, but some authors and artists will rotate between titles, new titles will emerge and a number of titles will be renumbered starting out with Uncanny Avengers in October. Other confirmed titles so far are All New X-men written by Brian Michael Bendis (Avengers, New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man) and artist Stuart Immonen (New Avengers, Fear Itself, AvX), Avengers written by Jonathan Hickman (Secret Warriors, Fantastic Four, FF, S.H.I.E.L.D.) and the art will be handled by Jerome Opena (Uncanny X-Force, Punisher), New Avengers also by Hickman and with Steve Epting (Captain America, FF, Avengers) on art. These four are the ones confirmed, but news regarding several more titles is to be expected.
Remender is best known for his, in my opinion, great work on Uncanny X-force, Venom and Secret Avengers and Cassaday for his art on Astonishing X-men, written by Avengers director Joss Whedon. This new team/title will consist of members from both the Avengers and the X-men with Captain America, Wolverine, Thor, Havok, Scarlet Witch and Rogue as confirmed members so far and a couple of more has been promised. According to Remender, Uncanny Avengers will be a bridgebook, giving the reader the best of both worlds and since members come from both sides in the currently running Avengers vs. X-Men storyline, some tension will still exist between the members.  Personally I think it sounds good, great writer/artist and awesome characters, plus it addresses an issue that was brought up in AvX # 1. When Cap confronts Scott Summers/Cyclops about the coming of the phoenix force, Summers accuses Cap and the Avengers of never standing up for mutants. Cap. America argues that he kept a distance due to respect of Cyclops, the latter being the leader of the X-men and sort of a spokesperson/”leader” to Mutants.  To a certain degree, there’s some truth in his accusation which is why it does have an impact on Cap and results in him forming the new team.
It’s definitely a book I’m going to check out and the same can be said about the rest of the confirmed titles I mentioned earlier. Both Hickman and Bendis are some of my favorite writers, with Hickman probably being the best. His work on Secret Warriors blew me away; it was the kind of story that keeps building itself up to something more and bigger than you originally thought.  Anybody interested in a comic with a little less bright-colored superheroes   and a little more spy/conspiracy/thousand-year-old-secrets kind of story, should definitely give it a read. But be sure to include his S.H.I.E.L.D. series if you do pick up Secret Warriors. It’s not mandatory, but it will make the experience even better. That and it’s really fun seeing people like Leonardo Da Vinci, Isac Newton, Nikola Tesla, Nostradamus and Michelangelo alongside Nathaniel Richards and Howard Stark (fathers of Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic and Tony Stark/Iron Man), agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as part of a superhero/secret agency comic book. Hickman on two Avengers titles is, in short, a dream come true. There’s no one better to take over the title after Bendis and I can’t wait to see where he’ll take the team.

As I said, more announcements are expected to come on other titles and rumors say these might include Iron Man getting a new creative team, same with Captain America of course since Brubaker is leaving, Fantastic Four and Wolverine too as well as new runs of Guardians of The Galaxy and Nova.  In general, this relaunch sounds exciting to me, I think it’s unnecessary to change the numbering of the titles, but it doesn’t really matter to me. It might attract new readers, which is great and the most important thing is that no continuity is erased. Costume designs are also going to be different on a lot of characters as seen in the top photo. Except for Rocket Raccoon looking pretty damn ridiculous, I think most of it looks good, but I’ll need to see more to tell for sure of course.  Marvel NOW! will be a progress that takes place from October and continuing into February so there’s probably a lot more of new stuff to come and I’ll write about whatever I find interesting in here.

Mo

Thoughts on The Avengers! Spoilerfilled!!!

I’m back! It’s been a while since my last entry here, been busy with exams and the likes, but it’s all done now, school is officially out for summer as far as I’m concerned. Which means now, I have the time to talk a little about some of the stuff that’s happened the last month or so, things like the long awaited premiere of Marvel’s The Avengers. I naturally made sure I had a seat in the first screening of the day on the premiere and ever since, I’ve been pondering what to write in a review of it. Since it’s been so long since it premiered, I decided not to do a review per se, but just run through a couple of the things that really got my attention. My expectations for The Avengers have been high to say the least and thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. It was awesome; it was pure comicbook-superhero-geek awesomeness. Everyone’s been talking about whether director Joss Whedon could make this work, if he could make these totally different characters believable as a team, if they would all be given enough screentime, would they work as a group etc. And, well, as far as my personal take on those issues, I think the picture below says it all: yes, yes he could!!! Whedon manages to make The Avengers accessible to a stranger to the Marvel U, but at the same time makes it a joy watching it to any geek familiar with the MU. If there’s anything to complain about as a fan, it’s only that the movie wasn’t twice as long. I can’t help but feeling that it only just got started after those little under 2,5 hours, I was definitely craving more at that point. But hey, that’s a positive thing, wanting more at the end of the movie, thumps up for that. 

And it was at that point my favorite scene of the entire movie came in to save the day. Had I hated the entire movie, the mid-credits scene would’ve saved the whole thing anyways. Rumors had been circulating in regards of a second villain besides Loki in the movie and a lot of us comic geeks was expecting this moment. Ever since we glimpsed the item known as the infinity gauntlet for a millisecond in the beginning of Thor, we all expected a certain someone to show up sooner or later. I’m referring of course, to Thanos the Mad Titan, who is revealed to be the one that lend Loki the chitauri army. In the mid-credits scene, we see The Other reporting to his master that the invasion of Earth failed and that humans aren’t as weak as they thought. The other goes on to state that “To challenge them would be to court death” at which point Thanos rises from his throne, turns to the camera and smiles. I can’t stress enough how amazing this is to a fan. Bringing Thanos into the Marvel cinematic universe is the kind of thing you always hope for, but never really dares to expect. But who is Thanos? I could spend a lot of room here explaining his origin, but I’d rather recommend you google him for extensive information. In short, he’s an intergalactic warlord and worshipper of death, who by any means seeks to impress the embodiment of death (mostly depicted as a female figure, Mistress Death, sometimes as a little girl) with whom he is in love. He is one of the few to ever collect the infinity gems and assemble them in the infinity gauntlet (the six infinity or soul gems mind, soul, time, space, reality and power grants their wielder immense god-like power and basically ensures absolute dominion over the universe). To sum up, Thanos is one of the biggest bad-asses in the MU and since we can more or less assume he’ll be the main villain in the sequel, we as an audience are in for something way way way better than the first one. There IS a chance he won’t be in Avengers 2, maybe he won’t show up until the third one. Again, Thanos is a freaking big deal, there WILL be casualties. In my opinion, the Avengers can’t face him without one of them dying; it’s just not going to happen. Also, there’s a need for more firepower on the team before they are capable of fighting the Mad Titan, so we might have to wait a bit, giving the opportunity of introducing additional members to the team before having to face this major threat. And yes, I know it might seem presumptuous to talk about a third movie already at this point, but since The Avengers is currently the third highest-grossing movie ever, I’d say things are looking pretty good.

There are seriously a million things I could talk about that I like about this movie, it’s overwhelming… I think that’s what describes it best, it was overwhelming. To have ones expectations met, seeing these characters that you know and love coming to life on the screen was truly amazing. Before I finish, or try at least, I really could go on and on about this movie, there are a few more things I need to mention.

Everyone talks about the Hulk and how he steals the picture entirely… And the reason for this is its true; the Hulk/Banner absolutely stands out as the one that really succeeds of these characters. The reason for this is simple, actually; we never had a Hulk/Banner on screen that worked before. All of the other characters has been handled well in their respective movies. The first Hulk movie was terrible, pure and simple. Don’t’ care how critically acclaimed Ang Lee is, keep your crouching Hulk, a hidden Hulk, the movie sucked and Eric Bana just wasn’t a believable Bruce Banner to me. The second Hulk movie was slightly better, still not really worthwhile though. This time, Edward Norton took over as Banner which didn’t exactly help things. Norton is usually a good actor, there’s just one problem; he’s Edward Norton! And that’s who he was in that movie, himself as opposed to being Bruce Banner whom he was supposed to portray. Now, in The Avengers, Mark Ruffalo has taken over as Banner/Hulk and I must say the result is impressive. I have a hard time deciding which I love the most, Ruffalo as Banner or as the Hulk because he’s remarkable as both. From depicting the nervous and uncomfortable genius Bruce Banner to the brutal god-smashing green giant, Ruffalo IS both.

Finally, I just need to highlight the effort of actor Clark Gregg whom we’ll have to do without from now on. His character, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson, died at the hands of Loki in the movie. At least that what it looked like, you never know with Marvel. A lot of fan speculation has him returning as the Vision (synthezoid android member of the Avengers), but it’s important to remember that this is just fans talking and has been refused by both Gregg and Marvel. Naturally, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen and Coulson could really return any number of ways, we’ll just have to wait and see. I’m good either way. Coulson was an awesome character and I’d love to see him return if there’s a good story behind it. But on the other hand, he died a hero; ordinary human agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. taking on Loki the god of mischief, it takes balls.

The Avengers was great, it’s that simple and I can’t wait to see the next step in the Marvel cinematic universe. Until then, we’ve all got The Dark Knight Rises to look forward to. While I’m not nearly as enthusiastic about this one as I was about The Avengers, I’m very much starting to look more forward to it now that I feel safe about Avengers. The last (maybe) of Nolan’s trilogy, rumor has it he might kill off the dark knight? I doubt it, even though it could prove a great emotional way to finish his take on the character… If you haven’t seen The Avengers yet, stop being a retard and get going and remember TDKR July 20^th.

The Avengers Anticipation

Hello there wonderful world, yes I said wonderful…! It’s shocking, I know, but I’m just extremely happy and damn near jubilant over the fact that in less than a week, I’ve had seen The Avengers at least once. And when I say it like that, it’s because I expect to leave after the first time, run to the ticket booth and scream “WHEN CAN I SEE IT AGAIN???? Okay, so maybe my expectations are a bit high to say the least, but I have a lot of faith in everything and everyone involved with that film. From the director to the cast to everything I’ve seen, heard and read about it. I’ll admit it, I’m the kind of guy who can’t help himself when it comes to spoilers, so I’ve already read a lot of the “surprises” from the film. But honestly, it’s only going to make it even more awesome to me because all of it is stuff I expect, NAY, demand of an Avengers film. If what I’ve read is true, a lot of the things I’ve hoped for and liked to see are going to come true, which makes the waiting freaking excruciating. Sucks though, that I’ll have to see it in 3D to begin with. I don’t give a ¤#¤¤% if anybody likes 3D and wants to pay extra money for what can only be considered a minor and designed for easily-impressed people effect. Seriously, how can it keep being cool that “it looked like that arrow/laser beam/freaking butterfly came flying at me.. uuuhhh pretty”? Its fine for those that like it, but ridiculous that the 2D version is released later than 3D presumably to give the latter an advantage in terms of sales. And there’s such a thing as people who can’t even see 3D and are then either forced to pay extra money for nothing or wait longer. It might seem extreme not to be able to wait an additional two weeks, but personally, I’ve been waiting like 15 years, two weeks is NOT an option. 

Okay, so I was a bit negative anyway, but only a little. Really, I’m damn ecstatic to see that movie, even in 3D. I decided not to spoil anything here about the film myself. Even though I’m pretty certain about a lot of awesome details and surprises, I’ve got to see it myself to be a 100. My review though, when I’ve seen the film, will be spoiler filled; now you’re warned. There are simply too many things that needs mentioning in a review like that, pointers at things some people might miss. One thing I will say is this: do NOT leave the cinema until the credits are COMPLETELY done… There is always an after-credits scene in these Marvel studio’s films and if what I’ve read about this one is true, that alone will make this movie legendary to me. One thing I will say, having mentioned it earlier, is the identity of the alien army Loki brings to earth. They have been revealed to be the Chitauri, an alien race from the ultimate version of the Marvel universe. They are in fact, the Ultimate version of the Skrulls from the main universe and also appeared as protagonists in the Ultimates animated movies. As it turned out, it didn’t really matter that much, which race the aliens was. But it did work as a hell of a discussion builder and I’m sure they’ll work great. The important thing isn’t really what they are, but whom Loki “borrowed” them from… Again, stay until the credits are done.

If you haven’t seen them already, I added a couple of the tv spots for the film. If you have, see them again, you know you want to… Less than a week to go, nothing left to say but AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

The DC New 52 Justice League 1-6 Review

So, last couple of things I put up in here was a little less comic book like than this one, though related to them at least. Now, it’s pure comic awesomeness and for a change, not Marvel ComicsJ. Though I prefer Marvel, it doesn’t mean I don’t keep a look on other stuff as well and I doubt it needs saying, but the Justice League and Batman in particular is of course an item of interest. I’m pretty sure I knew of and liked Batman even before any of the Marvel characters. I remember some Danish TV channel showing the Batman series starring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman & Robin, way back when I was a kid. Since then, I’ve never really gotten into reading Batman or any other DC comics book. DC comics have for the most part been superior to Marvel in the animated universe (Batman, Superman and the Justice League animated series), but as far as comics, I never gave them much attention. Recently, DC decided to do a so-called reboot of their entire multiverse, calling this move/event The New 52. Roughly put, that meant erasing 70 years of continuity and starting from scratch with new numberings, origins and costumes.

Some would consider a move like this, to say the least extreme, maybe even disrespectful to those fans that have followed the characters for a long time. Something I would agree with, had I been a devoted DC comic’s reader. I know for sure it would piss me sincerely off if Marvel decided to simply erase everything I’ve read for the past 20 years and start over. But hey, this isn’t Marvel, it’s DC, lucky for me. And the very positive side of DC’s move to a non-reader/non-knower of their universe like me, is that it’s a great jumping-on point. 

Left to right: Aquaman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, Flash & Cyborg

I’ve read the first 6 issues of Justice League and am currently getting through the same first of Batman. But I thought I’d give JL a short review here, from the perspective of a, relatively, stranger to the DC universe. Written by Geoff Johns and with art by Jim Lee, the first issue kicks off with blow-it-out-of-the-sky action as the Gotham city PD is hot on the trail of Batman who in turn is chasing some alien looking creature. Eventually joining the fight is the emerald knight Hal Jordan AKA Green Lantern. The two of them tracks the alien creature to the sewers of Gotham in which they, upon finding the creature, are too late to prevent it from detonating what seems like a bomb. Before the explosion, the creature cries out “for Darkseid”, letting us know who/what the main villain of this first story arch is. Since they are dealing with aliens Batman and GL decides to go to Metropolis, to question the vigilante known as Superman, rumored to be an alien.  They find him, but this being 5 years prior to “current” multiverse continuity, Supes isn’t his usual friendly self and greets them by knocking GL down and the issue ends with a cocky Superman posing as Mr. tough guy (which I guess he is, still annoying though) and asks Batman “so.. What can you do?” leading to next issues promise of Batman vs. Superman. And well, basically, that’s the first six issues… Not, of course, this fight in particular, but the pattern of these heroes running into each other (besides the mentioned, also the Flash/Barry Allen, Wonder Woman and Aquaman appears), having their arguments and then agreeing to stand together against the common threat of Darkseid. During and eventually clashing with our main heroes’ story, is the origin of Victor Stone/Cyborg. This part of the story seems to be an attempt to add an emotional side to the story and does so indeed, though only slightly. The relationship between Victor and his father could’ve been explored more to add further depth to the characters. But instead, Cyborgs origin and the inclusion of this ends up looking like it was only added for the heroes to have an advantage over Darkseid. 

On the positive side, the art is amazing. Jim Lee is an artist I am well familiar with and his work in this book is great. A lot of people consider the creative team of Johns & Lee to be THE dream team of a Justice League book. And while I enjoyed these first 6 issues, it was mostly due to the fantastic art and the fact that I’m new to most of these characters and as such don’t need much to be intrigued perhaps. This first story is mostly composed of big fighting scenes and while that is entertaining at times, the book will need to deliver more deep and character focused stuff to keep me on. The story has got humor, action and a fast paced narrating style, which some might claim is what can be demanded as well as expected from a flagship team-up title such as JL. I see the point of starting out like that to catch new readers, but the style has its faults. 

For instance, the villain Darkseid simply isn’t done justice in this story. We’re talking one of the most powerful and evil villains of the DC universe and he does kick some ass, but is still taken down fairly quickly (doesn’t even show up for real until the end of issue 4 and has no lines at all until issue 6), he almost has no dialogue/monologue except stating the obvious fact: “I am Darseid”. He does state that he is looking for someone when being asked by Wonder Woman why he is there. Darkseid simply replies he is there “for her”, assumingly his daughter, whom is mentioned by his servants elsewhere. To my knowledge Darkseid has never previously had a daughter, but several sons who were important/semi important characters of the DC multiverse, such as Orion and Kalibrak, but no daughter. The JL of course defeats Darkseid, aided by Cyborg and subsequently being recognized as heroes by the goverment. 

The issue ends with a short story about a mysterious, new to the DCU, female character called Pandora. She first appeared in the final issue of the Flashpoint storyarch, which launched the New 52 and have since appeared in every single one of the new 52 DC issue 1’s, mostly in the background. In this story, she is confronted by the Phantom Stranger, who warns her to stop whatever she’s doing. He references a lot of things that I personally don’t know of, maybe because I’m new to that world or maybe it’s all new stuff since this is a reboot. Either way, the stranger accuses Pandora of rewriting reality, implying that she is responsible for the changes in the DCU. I myself, along with several other fans, wonder whether this Pandora might be the daughter that Darkseid is looking for. 

It all reeks of a larger conspiracy-ish scheme, just waiting to be revealed, which is probably what’s going to keep me reading, at least for now. So my first encounter with the Justice League has been with mixed experiences, but overall, satisfying enough for me to read more. 

Smoking in comics and how fiction might/might not affect readers

So, smoking in comics? Let’s start with Captain Archibald Haddock of the Tintin comics. The first full length film premiered last year and it showed a drunken, swearing Haddock as we know him… Well almost at least. See in the comics, Haddock is a smoker, not cigarettes though, but he smokes a pipe. In the adaptation this was left out and sure, one can claim that it might not be a defining characteristic. There’s no doubt that part of the reason he doesn’t smoke in the movie is to make it more “child friendly”. And hey, great job, because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a complete drunk that can’t function without a buzz. There’s a war on smoking everywhere these days and there’s nothing wrong with alerting people of the dangers of smoking or decreasing the chance of non-smokers getting sick from second-hand smoking by illegalizing smoking in many public areas. Personally, I think the problem starts when what should be a matter of awareness becomes a witch hunt instead. The government deciding that they make the rules of private establishments such as a restaurant or bar is bordering on fascism in my opinion. It may be harsh, but if you don’t like the smell of smoke in the kitchen, get out. That’s what smokers have to do, let’s make things 50/50. 

Okay, I need to be careful not to stray too far from the comic book angle of this… the center of the universe in this blog is comics after all. There have been many characters through the years, good guys and bad guys alike smoking, cigarettes, pipes, cigars and whatnot. In some cases, it’s a defining characteristic and in others it might just be a prop of sorts. Lucky Luke, the poor lonesome cowboy of Belgian cartoonist Morris’ famous comic by the same name, was originally a smoker. Although eventually changed to better win acknowledgement, specifically in the American market, Morris’ defended the critique of his character’s habit, by stating it was a part of his profile same as Popeye’s pipe. Furthermore it can be argued that:

"Lucky Luke's famous cigarette not only identifies a profile but allows the tempo to be modified and extended, expressing a feeling: in Le Pied-tendre (The Tenderfoot), Morris shows Lucky Luke's feelings at the death of a friend in a series of three frames in which the hero rolls and spills a cigarette” (World Health Forum vol 11 1990).

Today, you’ll have to look for older versions of both the comics and the cartoons to find those with Luke smoking a cigarette. Newer versions will most likely show him chewing on a straw and one cartoon even depicted him using a nicotine patch, which left me personally with a feeling of “really? A cowboy of the old west using a fricking nicotine patch? That’s just demeaning to the character in my opinion, not to mention completely ridiculous. 

There are without a doubt several more characters to use as examples, but the last two we need to get around are Nick Fury and Wolverine of the Marvel universe. Both of these characters used to smoke cigars in the comics. While cigars are often associated with wealth, power or arrogance, they are sometimes also considered as something only refined personalities can enjoy. Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Orson Welles and JFK all smoked cigars and are all men well respected within their “field”. So what would it matter if two comic book characters did so too? A fairly obvious explanation would be that of political correctness. Since comics are often considered to be children’s literature (which in the case of Wolverine and others is simple ignorance) any harmful and amoral behavior of the good guys, the superheroes, is rarely condoned. And in today’s society where smoking is considered one of the worst habits a person can have, a superhero starring in “children’s literature” and as such a role model and influence of young people, like Wolverine or Nick Fury can’t be seen smoking cigars. They can however, kill and dismember people as long as it’s some of the bad guys… Is it weird or wrong for some superheroes to think a threat can only be removed by killing them? Well, that’s a matter of point of view of course, but since comics are considered by some to be influencing the reader, isn’t that kind of like saying it can be justice to kill an enemy? And if it is, how is that better to teach kids than letting a good guy smoke cigars? 

The sad fact is that all of this is due to an idea, that society as a whole is responsible for children’s upbringing. And sure enough, I agree that we as a society share SOME responsibility of each others lives. As the Danish philosopher Knud Ejler Løgstrup said:

“We all hold a part of each other’s life in our hand”

Naturally, a child or adult for that matter can be affected by those around him or her. But in the case of children, I personally believe it to be the parents’ responsibility to teach them right from wrong and as far as comics or any form of fiction goes, the ability to distinguish between what’s real and what’s not. The tendency to blame influences such as literature, music or movies is a way too used, and appalling I might add, method of saying “it’s not our fault, it’s someone else’s”. And with that I’m not saying anything bad happening to a child is always or necessarily the parents’ fault. But they are those closest to their own child and therefore those that affect him or her the most in a huge part of their lives.

American philosopher and social psychiatrist George Herbert Meads wrote in his book mind, self and society from 1934 that a child’s identity is created through interaction with the significant others. From birth, this would be the parents, though through life more and others will become significant others to a person. But in short, Meads says that children are affected by what their parents say and do, pretty logical right?

Based on this, I believe the main responsibility lies with the parents, simply because they are the first and if not always, for a very long time, the strongest influences on a person. 

Wow, this ended up being really long, and it could go on and on, I’m sure… To summarize, I think we, as conscious, healthy and sane human beings, all need to take responsibility of our own actions as individuals instead of blaming other people, art, fiction or whatever else excuse that might occur as acceptable. Bottom line is if you’re capable of making your own decisions, it’s your responsibility. And for the record, both Nick Fury and Wolverine looks even more bad-ass with a cigar, which is damn well what they are, quit whining and (can’t believe there’s an actual need for this reminder) tell your kids, just because a fictional or real person does something, it doesn’t mean they should do the same. If Wolverine or Lucky Luke jumped off a bridge, you wouldn’t do that either right.

Mo

Adaptations & CapMo "merchandize"

Adaptations

Okay, so I want to talk a little about movie adaptations, those based on comic books of course. This could very well end up getting pretty long, but bear with me, worth the time I think. It’s more or less common knowledge that whenever a book, a play, comic or pretty much anything being adapted, is turned into a movie, changes are bound to occur. And to be fair, in some cases it’s definitely for the better. Hugh Jackman might have been hard to take seriously if wearing Wolverine’s original yellow/blue costume in any of the X movies. That’s one example of how changes can be for the better, mostly because there simply are some things that work in print, but not in a movie. Unfortunately, examples of changes for the better are few and changes for worse are PLENTY. I’ll start with the Marvel character Nick Fury, director of the peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate). He has appeared so far in 5 of Marvel’s films and has a larger role in the upcoming the Avengers. In the original Marvel universe, Nick Fury looks like the picture on the left, but in these films, he’s portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson. Now, just to make it clear, it is NOT a matter of race or anything like that. The color of a person’s skin really couldn’t matter less to me, this is about staying true to the source material. Though it has been argued that since films and written fiction are two completely different Medias, they should be treated as such and one shouldn’t be concerned with sticking to the original material.  Personally, I beg to differ. As a fan and reader of the originals, I prefer films based on comics (or books/videogames etc.) to be as true to them as possible. Because to me, it’s about something I’ve loved since I was a kid, “coming to life” on the big screen. Mr. Jackson does portray a great Nick Fury and in the case of this character, Marvel simply decided to base him on the Ultimate universe (alternate reality in the Marvel multiverse) version. Compared to the, to say the least, embarrassing attempt David Hasselhoff made in 1998 to play Fury, Samuel Jackson is definitely preferable. 


Even before the movie premiered, some, evidently, small minded people took offense to the fact that the Nordic god Heimdal was played by African-American actor Idris Elba. I remember thinking “who the “¤% are you guys to define how a Nordic god looks?” I mean, I’m the guy living here where the Nordic myths originated and I, among others I’ve discussed this with, don’t have a problem with it. Why would you? I don’t know why they decided to do it like that, but it doesn’t bother me, who cares right? Elba did a nice job; Thor was a good movie, and in case it was lost on you, Tom Hiddleston was frickin awesome as Loki, end of discussion!!! 

Sadly though, one can’t help but consider if there’s a less positive reason for changes such as Heimdals skin color. It’s normal that movies which are meant to hit as wide a target group as possible are politically correct to avoid alienating anyone. In order to achieve this, the concept of “token African-American guy” is regrettably common within any genre. Again, I don’t mind how Heimdal was portrayed at all, I just think it would be a better thing to adapt a character such as Black Panther or Luke Cage and give them their own movie… Denzel Washington might be a little too old by now to play T’challa/Black Panther, but damn, that would be AMAZING :D. And I’m happy to say, that both Black Panther and Luke Cage are being talked about, hopefully it’s only a matter of time. 

In short, don’t change the original material unless you have a really good reason to do so… And honestly, I think the concept of a “token African-American guy” does more damage than good since it, the way I see it, only upholds racism and reminds everyone of times when things were even worse, thusly slowing any sort of improvement.

CapMoComics "Merchandize" 

Recently, my close and best friend returned from vacation with her boyfriend, also a good friend of mine.  On one of the Canary Islands, she’d found a place that engraved lighters and had the one made shown on the picture… Pure AWESOMENESS :D, spotting part of the name of the blog and Captain America’s shield. It’s pretty funny having this sort of “merchandize” of something you’ve made yourself, lots of thanks to my sis for that J

While writing this and thinking of movie adaptations, I remembered the fact that Tintin came out a couple of months ago. A change that was made was that Tintin’s good friend Captain Haddock isn’t smoking in the film. This made me think of a lot of stuff both concerning the comic book world, the real world and how things like smoking are often changed to please the majority. It spurred a lot of stuff so a new posting will soon be here on the topic. And to be clear, I’m not going to advocate that anybody should smoke, it’s really more about personal freedom and the ability to make decisions as an individual instead of someone else deciding what’s best for you. Big words, I know, I’m going to do my best to justify them.

Mo

"It's Coming" AvX

On March 28^th, Marvel will release Avengers vs. X-men #0, the prelude to their big crossover Avengers vs. X-men, which has been hyped for quite some time now. The hype began back in October when Marvel released the image on the right, clearly showing the phoenix force and spotting the words “it’s coming” along with the names of Marvel’s top artists. Now, I could go on and on about what/who/where etc. regarding the phoenix force, but as simply as I can put it it’s the universal avatar of death and rebirth and possessed the X-Men member Jean Grey, the first time we saw it. This was during the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix saga in the 70’s, the latter being one of the most influential and famous comic book stories ever.  In the end, Jean Grey died, but was later resurrected by the phoenix. This happened more than once up until 7 years ago when she seemingly, at least so far, passed for good. Now, the phoenix is returning to Earth and it’s looking for a new host. Hope summers, first mutant to be born after the decimation event (when the Scarlet Witch used her reality altering powers to remove all but 198 mutants’ powers), is believed by both the X-Men and the Avengers to be the phoenix’ choice and it’s their disagreeing on how to deal with this that leads to the conflict. 

Now, despite the enormous hype around the event on all comic sites and Marvel even giving retailers the opportunity to choose sides in the conflict by throwing launch parties decorated in either Avengers or X-Men style (though I doubt any of the shops here in DK will do that), I have to say I’m a skeptic on how “big” it’ll actually be. See, Marvel has this tendency to call each and every one of their major story arch’s or events a “the biggest thing EVER/nothing will ever be the same after this” kind of thing. And, well, personally I don’t think they live up to that every time. Let’s take a look at 2011’s Fear Itself: something in particular that bothered me was one of the teasers released sometime before the series started. It depicted Captain America broken, on his knees in tears and his shield lying broken in front of him with the words “do you fear… a loss of faith?” And sure enough, the shield was broken by this asgardian god of fear, some guy that basically showed up out of nowhere and then, what? He’s worthy to be one of the few that can hurt Cap’s shield? Not bloody likely, I say. To me, it simply wasn’t believable that this guy could break the shield, god or no god. In other words, you might say his bad-ass-ness hadn’t been established in the limited series’ previous issues, mainly because of poor writing and art as well. I’m usually happy with both writer Matt Fraction and artist Oliver Coipel, but in the case of Fear Itself, they just didn’t deliver. The event was a companywide crossover and while the aforementioned main limited series wasn’t that good, a lot of the other books were worth a read. 

Thor dies in Odin's arms

That was just a little thing about the event that bothered me personally, probably because I’m a huge Captain America fan, but it’s not the only thing wrong with Fear Itself and lots of other Marvel events. You can pretty much be a 100% one or more of the heroes will die and sometimes it’s a big character and other times you might feel like who died? But in any case, death isn’t that finite in comic books, characters can and will return a lot of the time. And that’s okay, it’s not like you can demand a lot of realism with superhero comics. But personally, I feel that whether they eventually come back or not, death should matter, even in comic books and to fictional characters. I don’t mind them being resurrected somehow, as long as it’s a good story. But when Thor died in the end of Fear Itself (which EVERYone kinda saw coming since issue 1), Marvel had already announced a new series starting less than a year later and featuring Thor. And that’s just “¤#”ing stupid… Seriously, how the ¤%#” am I supposed to care that this or that character gets killed off if you tell me “he’ll be right back” at the same time? Again, it’s fine to kill off and resurrect characters, but at least pretend that it means something.

 Okay, that’s gotta be enough bitchin over superhero deaths, I’m gonna keep reading the books anyways J… Once AvX starts, I’m planning on doing a review of each of the 12 issues of the main series and while we’re at it: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!! I’m definitely rooting for the Avengers, just my favorite team of the two. Of course, there’s also the option that the two unite against a common foe, not like we haven’t seen that before (sarcasm may occur), but what do you think? The Avengers? The X-Men? Or the two joining forces against something else? Drop a vote in the poll and comments below.

Mo