Old School Marvel: Giant-Size Man-Thing

Just surfing around looking at old Marvel comic book covers before heading home from work. Came across this one. I have the sense of humor of a 10 year old, because the title of this comic still makes me snicker.

Captain America News — He’s Coming Back

Comic news pages were alive with the news that Steve Rogers, the original Captain America will be returning from the dead this summer. For those out of the loop, Cap was gunned down on the stairs of a courthouse while  being hauled in for defying the US superhuman registration laws that were being enforced by his bud, Tony Stark aka Iron Man. Bucky Barnes, Cap’s sidekick from the WWII, who after overcoming the mental programming that comes with being a Soviet Cold War cyborg assassin takes up the mantle of Captain America.

Despite the ongoing debate on Bucky Cap’s use of a sidearm and his different costume, I’ve actually enjoyed the new Captain America. Seeing Bucky, who is a more than competant combatant, deal with filling the boots of Steve Rogers has been an entertaining ride. It really seems unfair to the Bucky character that the original Cap is returning so soon. The surface has only been scratched in regards to the story potentials the new Cap can bring forward.

I’m wondering honestly if Steve Rogers will take back the shield and resume his role as Captain America. Nothing has  been said that I can read for sure that he will be definitely taking back to take the Captain America mantle. Steve Rogers returning and his returning as Captain America are two seperate things.

Either way I’m anxious to see how they pull this off. This has been a fun year for comic books so far!

Wizard of Oz sketches

I’ve been had a lukewarm attitude towards the comic book adaptations of new and old classics by Marvel. Even stories I’ve enjoyed in book form like Ender’s Game or The Stand, I haven’t been too excited about. Marvel however has found a story that I will enjoy thoroughly in comic book form, if even for the artwork alone. Marvel has released a few pages online from the upcoming Wizard of Oz sketchbook that will proceed the the adaptation series due in December. Skottie Young in the artist drawing this all ages book, and I gotta tell you I’m loving what I see.

http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.5717

I’m a big fan of L. Frank Baum’s stories both those in Oz and other fantastic lands he created. I hope this series takes off so that Marvel is motivated to adapt more of these stories. I’m ultimate wish would to be to have Baum’s The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus given the comic book treatment, but I’m guessing that’s asking a bit much. But I’m asking anyway!

frank l. baum wizard of oz Marvel Marvel comics Skottie Young witch Dorothy Tin Man Cowardly Lion yellow brick road Scarecrow winged monkey Oz munchkins

The King’s Birthday

August 28th is Jack Kirby’s birthday, he would’ve been 91 years old today. Jack was and is still the King. His creations are having impact on both DC and Marvel Comic universes today and you still still see his influence artwork today. DC’s Final Crisis deals heavily with Kirby’s New Gods, something that I’m enjoying a great deal about the event.

Michael Turner, artist & creator, passes away at age 37

Michael Turner, an extraordinary artist and fantastic human being passed away Friday, June 27th after losing his ongoing battle with cancer. Turner had been dealing with the disease for the past eight years, despite it all he continue to work. He even continued to attend every convention he could despite it all. I’m a fan of his artwork, I especially enjoyed the covers he provided for Identity Crisis. My heart goes out to his family and friends. I wish I’d had a chance to meet the man, his talents will definitely be missed. He was taken away too soon. This has been a tough month for losing talented people, it’s a terrible shame that his name had to be added to this list.

The original announcement from Aspen Comics can be found here:

http://www.aspencomics.com/community/forum_posts.asp?TID=11978&PN=1&FID=16&PR=3

It’s asked that donations be made to Michael Turner’s requested charities

The American Cancer Society
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/home/index.asp

Or

The Make-A-Wish Foundation
http://www.wish.org/help?s_kwcid=make%20a%20wish|917760391

Star Wars – The Mighty Marvel Way

Back in the day Marvel Comics was the license holder for Star Wars comic book. In-between the movies, fans could read about the further adventures of the Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie and the droids. These stories were sometime really cool, sometimes totally off the wall, and all completely not considered part of the Star Wars continuity canon. But they were fun. Rebelscum.com has an archive of all the covers from the Marvel Star Wars series that went from the 70’s thru the mid 80′.

I dig the Green Rabbit Man and the Obi-Wan Kenobi wannabe on this cover. Plus it looks like Chewie was on ‘roids at this time in the series.

http://www.rebelscum.com/marvelcomics1.asp

Comic Book Review: Amazing Spider-Man #562-563, Final Crisis #2

Amazing Spider-Man #562-563 – Marvel Comics

Written by Bob Gale
Covers and Pencils by Mike McKone

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve bought an Amazing Spider-Man book. I’ve ranted a great deal on this blog and elsewhere about my displeasure with the giant cop out storyline that erased Peter Parker’s marriage to Mary Jane, his revealing his secret ID to the world, amongst other things. But what’s done is done. I had to at least read a few issues to see what has resulted from that black mark in modern comic history.

As I expected, I liked the results. I was never a fan of Peter Parker getting married to MJ, his revealing his identity was a stupid, stupid idea. Hell I don’t even like the idea of him being a part of the Avengers, too bad they didn’t erase that while they were butchering up his background. I love having Peter Parker as the loveable loser, scrapping for rent money, cracking wise while dealing with local NYC crooks and criminals. This two parter story with the introduction of the Bookie character, and coming back to the super villian hangout the “Bar With No Name” was awesome. The story was fun, both the Peter Parker storyline with him trying to find photo assignments after being black-listed by the current publisher of the Daily Bugle and the Spider-Man storyline where he tries to figure out who is placing bets on his crime fighting activity.

This is the kind of Spider-Man stories that I love. And I’m happy they’ve moved him to just one book. And I’m happy I didn’t even hear a mention of the Avengers or Skrulls in this book. So I’ll just chalk this up to making lemonade out of lemons….NO NO I hate how we got to this point, BUT I’m glad this is the type of Spider-Man book that Marvel is putting out. Damn it, just because I like this doesn’t mean I agree with what they did. I still feel guilty about enjoying these couple of issues, almost dirty.

Final Crisis #2 – DC Comics

Written by Grant Morrison
Art and covers by J.G. Jones

Okay, I liked the issue. I wasn’t sure about Final Crisis after reading #1, but this second issue really gets things moving. I only half paid attention to the Seven Soldiers groups of mini series a couple years ago, and didn’t even crack open any of the Countdown to Final Crisis issues. But jumping into this cold its only taken me 2 issues to get into it. Maybe I’ll pick up the past stuff for 50 cents a pop at a convention next year.

We’ve got Martian Manhunter’s funeral, time traveling bullets, the ongoing investigation of the New God Orion’s death by the a representative of the universal police the Alpha Corp, a group superior to the Green Lantern Corp. We also get a glimpse into the current superhero scene in Tokyo where Mr. Miracle is recruiting heroes to assist him in fighting the immergence of Darkseid’s forces on Earth. Loads of other great (return of Barry Allen) and some skin crawling scenes, some scenes are downright brutal (specifically the total beating of the Mad Hatter).This issue is down right dark to put it mildly. Once again DC really goes to the dark end of things for their summer event. A couple years ago we had DC going to the dark side in Identity Crisis where we dealt with issues of rape, murder of the innocent, and immoral use of powers.

While I enjoyed the writing and artwork is this issue and am looking forward to the next… I still have that voice in the back of my head asking why DC has to always go so dark in their storylines. Maybe they’ll get it out of their system when this Crisis ends. Meanwhile I’m squashing this goody-goody voice in my head and enjoying the ride.

New Punisher Warzone Posters Revealed

Two new Punisher: Warzone Posters are making the rounds on the Internet today. They were seen at a get together held by one of the producers of the film. This new Punisher film is being brought to theaters this December by Lionsgate Entertainment. A trailer is also viewable at http://www.punishermovie.com/ . Honestly I’ve always enjoyed reading Punisher comics. He’s a character that usually attracts talented writers and artist, but seeing this character brought to the big screen hasn’t held any appeal to me. I haven’t watched either of the two previous attempts to adapt the Punisher to the big screen, not even on cable at night when there is nothing on.  Looking at the trailer, I’m not motivated to watch this one either.  Maybe upcoming trailers will amp me up on this one.

On another topic, I’m finding this trend of stylized single character posing posters to be really tiresome. They do nothing to get me excited about a film. GI Joe and The Spirit have been using this method as well.

Comic Book Review: Guardians of the Galaxy #2, Capt. Britain and MI13, Plus Spider-man confession

Okay finally back into my normal routine, I picked up a healthy stack of comic books on Wed. since I hadn’t been to the shop in a couple of weeks. WOW, what a great group of books. I don’t know what is going on this month, but I loved everything I read. So get ready for some gushing over these books.

Guardians of the Galaxy #2 – Marvel Comics

Written by DAN ABNETT & ANDY LANNING
Penciled by PAUL PELLETIER
Cover by CLINT LANGLEY

IF for some reason you missed out on the past Annihilation series, if you are looking for something new in Marvel Comics outside of the earthbound super heroics. If you are just looking for some good team-based action without all the Civil War/Skrull/Initiative trappings that Marvel has going on then this book is for you. Hell if you just want good writing, great characterizations, solid storytelling & art then this book is a must. I’ve been a fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy in their previous incarnations, and though this team doesn’t resemble the former groups to hold this name (except for one person) this is a great book to highlight characters that have really had a chance to shine in Marvel’s cosmic mini-series events over the past couple of years. Abnett and Lanning have made these characters their own and so far this series really shows off the strengths of these heroes even more. The team is an eclectic mix: Starlord, Adam Warlock, Rocket Raccoon, Mantis, Gamorra, Quasar, Drax the Destroyer, and Groot. Their job is basically to fix the damage to the fabric of the Universe wrought by the previous Annihilation events. I don’t want to give too much away about the book, but its not too late to pick up #1 & #2.

Captain Britain & MI 13 #2 – Marvel Comics

Written by PAUL CORNELL
Penciled by LEONARD KIRK
Cover by BRYAN HITCH

Now this series was a total surprise for me. I loved issue #1, like many people who read it. And #2 is just as good. This is the most interesting tie-in to the Secret Invasion event that Marvel is putting out. This is easily more interesting than even the main Secret Invasion book. Basically the Skrulls are attacking the UK, as they are the USA, but their battle takes place in two theatres in the United Kingdom. The first theatre being the obvious attack of the physical world and the second battle theatre takes place in the “Otherworld” which is identified as the main source of magic for Marvel Universe, described as the true heart of Britain. The Skrulls, have actually adapted technology to invaded and attack this world of magic. Taking this invasion to the metaphysical plane is such a great concept. To think that the Skrulls are that thorough in their invasion of a planet is just awesome. A metaphysical war with the Skrulls is also being explored in the Incredible Hercules title, where currently Herc and a band of Gods are seeking to destroy the Skrull Gods.

Back on topic, the art is incredible, the suspense and danger of the situations actually builds some tension. I’m sure it all turns out well in the end, but right now their is an increasing sense of monumental challenges and overwhelming odds for the dwindling heroes in this book. A great start of this series, and truely one of the two more interesting Secret Invasion tie-ins along with Incredible Hercules.

Okay now a confession on Amazing Spider-Man. I’d initially griped about the Brand New Day idea, and I still hate, hate, hate the way that was explained. BUT I gotta say, I’m liking the new Spider-Man books. Marvel has succeeded so far in making Spider-man an interesting book that is getting back to the roots that made the character fun to read. I’m giving it a chance. I’ve only read a couple issues, but so far so good.

Iron Man Dominates & More Hulk Photos

For the second week in a row, Iron Man stood defiant on the top of the box office sales figures. The flick raked in an additional $50.5 million domestically, for an accumulative domestic gross of approx $177 million so far. Speed Racer didn’t fare to well on its opening weekend, suffering from negative buzz online and less than favorable reviews it only brought in $20.2 million narrowly locking in a 2nd place position box office sales.

I don’t think the studio plugged Speed Racer hard enough as a kids movie, with a better marketing effort Speed Racer could have done a little better in sales. But honestly, there was only so much they could do to counter all the positive chatter that has surrounded Iron Man. Even though a feature length Speed Racer film doesn’t interest me in the least, the effects and atmosphere look awesome. It looks like it’ll make a good DVD to pop into an HD set up.

More Hulk images were released, Cinematical has them available to view : http://www.cinematical.com/photos/the-incredible-hulk-1/ A few look like stills from the trailers that have been released, which is fine. Since Iron Man was so well executed, I have some new hope for the Hulk as a movie. As a shareholder, I have some concern about its performance. A lot of fans didn’t like the previous Hulk flick, and since that didn’t come out too long ago it might negatively impact sales for this movie at the box office.