As a wise man once said, ‘I don’t know art but I know what I like’.  It’s been a few months since Metallica’s latest studio album, Death Magnetic was released but I still have the same reaction every time the radio DJ announces their ‘new’ single on the playlist.  Having fond memories of … And Justice for All, not to mention the wonderful kismet of St. Anger’s summer release with Ang Lee’s Hulk movie, I couldn’t help but look forward to this new release.

And then I heard the single.

It just wasn’t the same, not at all what I expected and, more importantly, not at all what I remembered.  It didn’t sound the same as all my favorites and I had to wonder, Did Metallica lose it?  Did they get too old for their own music?  Or was what I listened to back in my youth not as great as I thought it was?  Is nostalgia coloring my view and, because I’m not an angry teen, the music isn’t as exciting as it used to be?

If you’re thinking of Metallica, the only next logical progression in thought is Jeph Loeb.

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Dare I say it?

Dare I??

Oh what the hay!  It’s a Brand New Day after the elections and if you don’t like it, take it up with Mephisto.  It seemed as if across the globe, people watched the election results roll in with eager anticipation.  While my thoughts danced with what in Good God’s name Ultimatum #1 was going to look like, the rest of the country was looking towards a future that didn’t involve an entire universe’s peril.  Okay, maybe some of them were, who knows.

If there is one thing I have learned in my ancient years of wisdom is that there are two hot button topics that are always going to cause a stir in uncertain company: religion and politics.  No matter what you say, someone can take issue on a deep and personal level and the next thing you know: chaos.  But in the wake of the election results and the lingering haze of American politics, I’m actually reminded of a little something I heard almost two years ago from the Distinguished Competition.

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Well, the news hit yesterday that Secret Invasion #8 is going to take a little longer than expected to reach our hot little hands, about two week’s worth of delay as they promise an arrival date of December 3rd.

No big deal, right?  The book’s been remarkably on time thus far and a couple weeks shouldn’t hurt the story.  Heck, look at the delays on Astonishing X-Men or Straczynski’s Thor!  Two weeks is a cakewalk!  It just might be a little difficult for retailers who were going to be given some extra, non-classified, post-SI solicitations to make their orders from.  There’s the books like Invincible Iron Man and Mighty Avengers who are going to have to do a little shuffle of their own as they wait for the sweet release that is the end of Secret Invasion.

At this point, as the finish line looms ahead, Marvel readers need answers.  How is this all going to end?  What’s Dark Reign going to be all about?  Why is the future so uncertain?  Looking at what we know and narrowing our focus down to what’s expressly penned by Mr. Bendis himself, it’s hard to guess at what he’s getting at.  Yes, there’s an invasion of alien invaders, yes the heroes are pushing themselves past their limits to defeat an immensely powered foe (yeah, that does sound a little like World War Hulk!), but what’s this all for?  In Civil War and the aforementioned World War Hulk, the line was clear:  either one thing happens or another.  Either the Pro-Registration side wins or they don’t.  Either the Hulk destroys everything or he’s defeated.  Here, the line is less clear.

Or is it?  Looking back at the history of the Bendis Blockbuster, there’s a few things we can learn about what’s ahead for us this December and beyond.

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Wow, is it that close already?  The new year, a special 70th Anniversary for the House of Ideas and a new dark dark VERY DARK SO DARK IT’S A SECRET age are both nearly upon us True Believers, so let us enjoy this Secret Invasion Wednesday with a look ahead at people who are (hopefully) not Skrulls.

At least we hope their not as mighty nine titles hide their shame from us, leaving no picture and no words to accompany their title and creators.  DARK AVENGERS #1, AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #21, DEADPOOL #6, INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #9, MIGHTY AVENGERS #21, MS. MARVEL #35, THUNDERBOLTS #128, WAR MACHINE #2 all run silent, run deep in the solicitations, showing us the infamous core books of the Marvel Universe.  As ‘villainy’ seems to be a major theme, it would make sense that a guy like Deadpool and a team like the Thunderbolts are prominent in the mix, but you would think a book like NEW AVENGERS #49 as they come up on a landmark 50th issue might want to say a little more about themselves.  The UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL #2 at least gives us a pretty smokin’ picture of Emma Frost but this could mean anything, couldn’t it?  Is she a member of this new ‘DARK Illuminati’ or is she playing a greater game at large?  Oh the suspense!

What’s happening in the Marvel Universe that we can know about?  Read on!
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I know it isn’t exactly topical with this week’s books but you have to admit, it’s a little difficult to talk about Captain America.  Can a book be so good that it becomes a constant of the universe?  The sun will rise and set and there it is, turning with the rest of the cosmos as one of Marvel Comics’ finest ongoing series.  It’s near indisputable at this point, the rock of Gibraltar of comic institutions at this point; pick up any issue and you’ll find quality crafted storytelling with some highly underrated artwork.  Steve Epting has been nothing but solid during his tenure on the book, bringing both realism and the fantastic to the page.

See?  You just can’t say anything about it but glowing praise!

Or maybe you can as I noticed something rather unique about the book that doesn’t have to do with its incredible consistency for greatness (see?  there I go again!).  It was so masterfully done (it’s like an infection!) that I didn’t really notice until I heard other people talking about it in the same slight wondrous tone of realization.  It’s taken #41 issues of plotting, planning and pacing but the honor of Captain America has been passed down to the next generation.

it’s taken awhile; we had to be introduced to him, we had to get some background and some believability to the character.  He had to grow and flesh out a bit from our memories of him, but James Buchanan Barnes really can’t be called ‘Bucky’ anymore aside from the past tense.  He is just as much Captain America as Steve Rogers was and still is to some extent and before you call blasphemy, let me try and explain how rare this particular situation is in the Marvel Universe.

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Never underestimate the power of the internet.

Every Tuesday I pop on over to the ‘longest running comics column on the internet’ to hear the good gossip just as I tune into E! television to find out what crazy thing Tyra Banks said on her talk show.  This week, they leaked some info on upcoming covers that MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS for the end of Secret Invasion and the beginning of Dark Reign.  Did I mention IT MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS?  Good, here’s the link and remember what I said about the SPOILERS thing.

Anyone click it?  Anyone check out the covers?

Good.

So the War Machine one doesn’t seem like all that much of a spoiler; it’s not like we didn’t know war Machine was going to be full of weapons and flying and explosions, right?  It’s that second cover that has me thinking and brings me to a particular character and their true place in the Marvel Universe.

Behind the cut, spoilers may occur.  DARE YE ENTER?

(my apologies to people who didn’t expect War Machine to bristle with guns and fly while things explode, didn’t mean to ruin it there for you.)
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Happy Post-Iron Man DVD release day!

Marvel’s first in-house movie is brought to us on Blu-Ray and DVD yesterday in a variety of forms, specials and super-duper 2-disc extravaganzas.  Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, Frys and Wal-Mart all tried their best to lure us in with promises of mini-busts, lithographs and special helmet packaging.  Don’t get me wrong, the fancier a DVD collection is the sooner I’m there when they’re unpacking their first shipment of DVDs, but we fans know what we’re here for.  Marvel’s greatest cinematic achievement to date, Iron Man, at home so we can watch it in our pajamas.

And I did.

So what’s in this DVD bonanza?  Is it any good?  Does the invicibleness of Iron Man translate well to the small screen?  And where is that Stan Lee easter egg anyway?  These question and more (plus answers!) below the cut.

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Man, what a day for comics, guys.  Today, live and in person at your local comic shop is not only All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #10, but Ultimates 3 #5 and Hulk #6.  For me at least, this is the equivalent of a new Mystery Science Theater box set coming out; long, dipped in snark and funny but not in the way nature intended.  These books are my Three Horsemen of Stupid Fun Comics and boy howdy, do they sell well.

Letting ASBAR #10 take a break from the incessant news coverage it garnered this week, let’s turn our eyes to Marvel’s double duo of Knoxville-esque comics, Hulk and Ultimates 3.  Both are by acclaimed and Eisner-award winning writer of page and screen, Jeph Loeb.  Both have superstar artists that seem nothing but butter on titles like these; Ed McGuinness is the man to go to for big meaty brawls and Joe Madureira would make a team like the Ultimates super cool with his dynamic character designs and hyper-styled action.  These should be glorious examples of the medium considering the weight of talent these comics bear and yet…

We’re not looking at award-winning work here, are we?

Could this possibly be a case of just not living up to the hype?  Are the books a testament to what they could have been, the ridiculousness living long after them, the finer points of their work buried into back issues?

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Welcome to the unknown in December, True Believers!

You know, as annoying as it is to see a big CLASSIFIED on your solicitations, there’s only 8 books that seem to be so effected you’ll never know their hidden secrets until the end of Secret Invasion.  Indeed, it looks like the core of the Marvel Universe seems a little smaller than expected with plenty of other titles that may or may not be effected moving right along and managing to describe themselves to retailers and readers without resorting to black labeling.  There’s a whole new interest in theme variant cover business as we’ve moved from zombies to Skrulls to monkeys to now ‘villains’… whatever that could mean.

The only ones we really have to worry about are the new one-shots that are clearly going to be nothing we should know about, the title books for War Machine, Ms. Marvel, Iron Man and what appears to be the Avengers books minus one Mighty Avengers.  Also missing it appears is the Fantastic Four, the details of a ‘Cosmic Special’ for them so under wraps that all we know is that it’s cosmic and drawn by ‘Matt’.  Considering Reed’s involvement in the Skrull invasion, think Marvel’s first family is going to make it out intact.  I mean, more intact than they were after Civil War, since that also divided them up pretty good.

Ever get the feeling Reed Richards took the last cruller out of the doughnut box and now the Bullpen’s got it in for him and the Fantastic Four?  Maybe they’re on the payroll of Doctor Doom.

So while no one can know that Darth Vader is Spider-Man’s real father (SPOILER!!), let’s see what else the Marvel Universe is doing for the month of December.

WARNING:  Crack Pot Theory on Secret Invasion/Dark Reign inside!

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Are you ready?

Are you prepared?

Did you get a montage of training to get ready for today’s onslaught of Secret Invasion comics?

It’s madness, people!  Seven books in total hit the stands today whether we like it or not; the good news is that actually reading them all makes the whole thing even more complicated so it’s best to pick and choose the Secret Invasion storyline you want to follow.  It’s kind of how you kind of had to pick which writer’s interpretation of Tony Stark you wanted to follow out of Civil War?

Anyhoo, we’re not here to talk about that today, believe it or not.  Today, we look towards the future, what comes next and why we all might want to carry around a little flashlight.

For the world is getting darker as we speak.

*Turn down your lights — where applicable*

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Congratulations, everyone!  The Secret Invasion is OVER!

Grab your party hat and dancing shoes, the Skrull center (if it ever had one) cannot hold!  They are lost and without their holy guidance that you just couldn’t get them to shut up about!  It’s over!  The heroes will rally and roll over what’s left, right?

A couple weeks ago by now, the Skrull heavens shook with a catastrophic loss that cemented the new era of Incredible Hercules stories permanently into the realm of epic valor and mythology.  Grek Pak has such a zeal for these kinds of tales and with Fred Van Lente along, you always feel like you’re learning a little something as you go.  I could think of no greater architects for the ultimate defeat of the Skrull empire than these two.

Not even Bendis and he’s the guy on the main title.

But, Dear Reader, are you feeling a little confused as to what I’m talking about.  Are you doing the math and finding us with THREE more issues of secret Invasion to go through before we can officially declare a winner?  Am I perhaps putting on the party hats too soon?  Read on.

WARNING: the following contains spoilers for the Secret Invasion tie-in issues of Incredible Hercules, which you all should have read by now anyways.  If you haven’t, go to your LCS and pick ‘em up!  Comics ship late this week and they’ll be glad to see you.

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Let’s take a moment and congratulate the X-Men on moving their base of operations after nearly 35 years of letting their mansion get blown up time and time again.  Man, last year it was like a sport!  For a secret school for ‘gifted children’, they weren’t so secret nor nearly as gifted as they wanted to be.  Sure, they changed it over the years, shucked that school image, tried ‘Institute’ or ‘Corporation’ on for size but still the effect was the same.  Xavier’s cash kept that place rebuilt and Forge and the Shi’ar tried to give it a decent defense system, but apparently that only worked on maybe the paper boy because the last few years have been hard on the place.  Once Sentinels park on your lawn, consider this a good time to move and leave no forwarding address.

And it is a good time to move; there are so many big events happening just down the road in the Marvel Universe and yet the X-Men tie-ins have seemed more like afterthoughts.  They’ve never really jibed well with their fellow hero brethren, that whole ‘world that fears and hates you’ losing a little of the impact when you’re pals with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Marvel’s First Family.  Moving to the west coast is a particularly brilliant move for the X-Men, getting them away from the rest of the heroes in a more physical fashion, changing their address, their outlook on life, and hey… why not their style?

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THE END IS NIGH!

Look ahead folks and let’s see the finish line as the month of November means the very last book in the Secret Invasion saga!  Everybody give yourselves a hand for making it this far and know that in three months’s time, this will all be behind us.

But what will be in front of us?

Let’s face it, all of these events swear that no really, REALLY, this time the Marvel Universe will NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN!!  And they are always right.

Let’s take a look at what Marvel has in store, shall we?
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In honor of the beautiful bouncing baby Bondurant, I’m going to do something I don’t normally do.  Something a little risky, a little wild.  I’m going to talk about that OTHER comics publishing giant, Dark Horse.  I mean, Oni Press.  I mean, Slave Labor? No!

DC Comics.

Going out on a limb here, I’m going to fully admit my understanding of DC only gets me so far, certainly not as far as my Distinguished Colleague who’s fine column graces this humble B@N.  But hearing about the joyous birth of his little girl and seeing a friendly little print greet her in her new room in this new world of hers, something wonderful happened.

I really liked Supergirl.

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There was a time when the idea of the Ultimate universe seemed lunacy.  Failed attempts at getting that wacky ‘reinvention/back-to-basics’ approach on Spider-Man failed miserably before with ‘Chapter One’ and restarting all these tiles with all new backgrounds and histories and stories, well… who wants to reread a bunch of stories that made their mark the first time?

And then we got the books.  Reading Bendis’s very natural take on an updated Spider-Man and seeing a rather sexy and slick new X-Men stick to almost more ‘rational’ explinations of their origins and basic concepts silenced a lot of naysayers.  The Ultimates and the breakneck storytelling that Mark Millar set the bar for has nerly become standard as to how the Avengers formed in both animated and possibly movie form.  The Ultimate universe has been nothing but a playground of reinvention and  creativity with the idea that the character’s truths were being told no matter how they deviated.  Sure, Peter Parker was a webmaster for the Daily Bugle, but it’s the fact that he’s a kid working in the news business for J. Jonah is what counts.  Sure, it was a ‘genetically engineered’ spider and not a radioactive one, but the lessons learned are just the same.  we bought it enough for the House of Ideas to steal one of there own and had ‘classic’ Peter try out some organic webshooters for a time.  The denizens of Marvel Universe are fantastic character studies as very few heroes (or villains for that matter) actively chase their destiny.  Happenstance occurs, a quirk of genetics, fate Itself intervenes and its up to the person with the great power to accept their great responsiblity or turn towards something else.

It may be a change but it’s one that’s couched in familiarity and a certain amount of sincerity towards the original origins, so to speak.  It was new and fresh but didn’t exactly move from the rock solid ideals we all loved about the Marvel U.  The Ultimates line had just enough of this to keep the Marvel style and keep their individuality, while at the same time uniting them in the Mighty Marvel manner.  Cautiously at first, the Ultimates and the Fantastic Four and the X-Men and Spider-Man all started to interact, share plotlines and team-ups.

You might have noticed I’m using a lot of ‘past tense’ verbs here.  Today, Ultimate Origins #3 comes out and when Bendis said this was going to be huge, he was not joking.  Ahead, we’ll look at a sudden turn in direction for Marvel’s Merry Mutants and what this could mean for Ultimatum and those rock solid ideals.

WARNING:  Really, we’re talking about Ultimate Orgins #3, so go grab your copy and read along.  Spoilers ahead.
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Well!  Now that Comic Con is over and the cats are roaming free out of their respective bags, what can we really say besides … GO TEAM MARVEL!  Sure, the Distinguished Competition let some things slip and seem to be doing well for themselves, but as a True Believer, I just gotta say how awesome it was to watch the next year or so unfold at panels, hear word of exclusives, catch hints and secrets and yes, see ‘Stan The Man’ Lee cruising down the halls on his way to his next panel.

The con is sort of a surreal experience with so much happening all at once, it’s hard to take in.  I know I missed a bunch of panels and events waiting in one line or another, so here’s just a bunch of things that caught my eye that might have gone under your radar, what with all the Stephen King mobile video episodes, exclusive contracts, Marvel movies and assorted madness.

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It’s upon us!  Comic book fans and pros alike turn their heads to San Diego, patron saint of Sold Out Hotel Rooms and Panicing Travel Planners, for the Thank-Galactus-It’s-Just-Yearly Comic Con extravaganza.  Now, some of you might missing out on the incredible list of secret announcements, apperances and exclusives coming down like a hammer in the next few days (apparently, this year’s musical question from Marvel is ‘Who will rule?’), but never fear!  We have October solicitations which will most certainly come up in conferance rooms packed wall to wall with eager fans, people waiting for the panel after this one and journalists, like Yours Truly.  So do enjoy these selected noticables out of this month’s sneaky look at what the House of Ideas will provide us in October from the comfort of our own desk chairs.

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Let’s talk about the Avengers, shall we?

The Avengers are a loose confederation of heroes brought together to avenge the wrong-doings of threats that require the combined strength of gods, monsters and men alike. Some of Marvel’s finest tales have come from Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and I’m proud to have quite a collection of them. I won’t say they’ve all been great (oh, The Crossing!), but it’s certainly a staple of the Marvelite diet.

So where are they? What are they doing? What’s new in Avengers Town these days? secret Invasion says they’re all in the Savage Land (sans Ms. Marvel and whatever alter-continuity that BND-Spidey lives in… oh, Wolverine too… and Iron Man… wait, let’s stop while we’re ahead.). Mighty and New Avengers have been sort of ‘mid-season clip show’-ing through their storylines, pointing out the secret Skrull in the background and showing just how far down the rabbit hole this Invasion really goes. Ultimates 3, well… let’s face it, Loeb’s been writing the way 5th graders play with action figures and the story so far really hasn’t been ‘plot heavy’ to put it lightly. So are there any Avengers stories going on right now?

Good News, everyone! Yes, there are and we have satellite titles Avengers: the Initiative and Younger Avengers Presents: Hawkeye to thank for it (thank you!). Yeah, I know, these issues are a few weeks late, but go see if you can’t find your copies and read along with us as we try and nail down what makes an ‘Earth’s Mightiest Comic’.

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Don’t forget! Due to the July 4th holliday, Diamond might be getting your books into your friendly neighborhood comic shop tomorrow. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t drop into that LCS, pick up a trade you’ve been eying and say Hi as I can assure you most of the staff will be very confused and a little lost without their books and you, their faithful public.

But today, while we wait and wonder for the week’s books, I’m going to set aside my die-hard love of Marvel Comics to ask Montgomery Scott to grab those bagpipes as it’s time for a sad tune that might still have a stirring ending in sight.

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Warning:  I’m going to talk about the Incredible Hulk again, so get comfy.

In the month of June possibly to celebrate the release of the new Incredible Hulk film, possibly to fill the late gap of Loeb’s Hulk, we got a bunch of big heafty issues with some backup stories and reprints.  Mind you, Iron Man got two new books that turned out to be pretty good jumping on points for those intreigued by the movie or so it worked over at our store.  Two titles, an ongoing to ease readers into the current comic events and a glossy prestigue mini-series and all the Hulk got was a rock.  It’s like the Marvel offices had the same prejudices of the movie going public had;  “Well, the last movie was lame so let’s just hope people don’t hate the new one and hope for the best’.  And before you say it, I know: Skaar, Son of Hulk new on the stands as well and they did get a comic with familiar Green Hulk in it under the wire for June, but neither of these are great intro comics for those who thought Edward Norton was keen.  In fact, I’d probably cozy up to the book a bit more if it was just called ‘Skaar, Conan in Space’ or ‘Grek Pak’s Interglatactic Tales of Skaar’ because the honest truth is if the Hulk ain’t in the book, it is not a Hulk book.   ‘Red’ Hulk doesn’t count because I have NO IDEA what’s going on with that story outside sort of an ‘All Star Batman’ feel of taking on the tropes of Hulkness:  smashing and gamma monsters.  Ehn.

Mind you, Marvel did the same thing with Ang Lee’s movie as their 25-cent issue released at the time of the movie  didn’t really have the Hulk in it either, but that’s another story.

Right, so the ’specials’:  King Size Hulk and Hulk: Raging Thunder.  You can technically count Giant-Sized Incredible Hulk, with the Gary Frank cover, but that’s semantics.  This is what Marvel brought to the table and, having read each of them, I can’t say I’m impressed.  But yet, I can’t <i>not</i> like them (well, except for the Giant Size, because it was a snooze fest) and let me tell you why.

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