Comic Book Resources

The Fifth Color - What About Bob?

The Sentry has come a long way, baby.  Bob Reynolds's story is no longer a man struggling with an addiction who was close to his dog, he's just about as far from that as possible.  The original April Fool's Prank for The Golden Guardian of Good turned out to be a larger tale of a man with the greatest amount of power having the greatest amount of responsibility.  That when you create the equal and opposite reaction to the power of a thousand exploding suns, the only way to win was to do nothing at all.  At his first introduction, we are left with a very quiet and beautiful study of the greatest good and the worst evil residing in an everyday man and the world that had forgotten him.

When Bendis puled him out of the Vault for his New Avengers, the stakes had already been changed.  The balance of good an evil was gone, just an implanted a virus from Mastermind and possible delusion villain The General that created psychological problems and the existence of the Void, which was just another extension of Reynolds himself.  We lost our philosophical battle and our more peacable idea of wrong and right to be able to tear Carnage in half in space.

Okay, there's nothing wrong with that.  Bendis even brought in Paul Jenkins as a character in the book to explain everything, kind of having him sign off on the project.  Despite his immense power and complexity, the Sentry was going to be an Avenger.  Hey, they've worked with gods and demi-gods before, what's the difference?

Continue Reading »

Fall of the Hulks Alpha preview

from Fall of the Hulks Alpha

Marvel sent over some pages from their upcoming Fall of the Hulks storyline, which kicks off with an "Alpha" issue in December. You can see additional pages from it here (where you can also see the ad/homage to the original Fall of the Mutants ad that ran in various Marvel comics back in the 1980s).

The book is written by Jeff Parker with pencils by Paul Pelletier. The story revolves around the Leader, Mad Thinker, Egghead, M.O.D.O.K., Red Ghost and Doctor Doom putting their heads together to create some sort of battle plan that leads into the World War Hulks event. More details on that can be found here.

Check out additional pages after the jump ...

Continue Reading »

By the Hurrying Hordes of Holborn: McCarthy's Dr. Strange/Spider-Man promo

Fever promo

Mark Kardwell shares with us an "idea sketch for a 'Coming Soon" type of advert" for Fever, the upcoming Dr. Strange/Spider-Man miniseries written and drawn by Brendan McCarthy. This Marvel Knights series is due in April, McCarthy told Kaldwell.

Slash Print | Following the digital evolution

comiXology

Digital comics | Kiel Phegley talks to Ira Rubenstein, Marvel's executive vice president of digital media, about their partnerships with comiXology, iVerse, ScrollMotion and Panelfly. comiXology, meanwhile, has added another Marvel title to their catalog this week -- Civil War.

Digital comics | Don Reisinger over at CNET reviews several comics applications for the iPhone, including comiXology, Clickwheel, iVerse Comics and Comic Envi.

Continue Reading »

Are Mark Millar and Steve McNiven reviving Marvelman?

Miracleman #15

While currently this is nothing more than pure conjecture, a quick Google search has led this part-time blogger to believe that the much-hyped, super-secret, forthcoming Mark Millar/Steve McNiven project for Marvel is in fact a Marvelman series.

Millar announced Friday that he and McNiven – his collaborator on Civil War and "Old Man Logan" – are joining forces on Nemesis for the House of Ideas with an expected launch date of March 2010.

"Nemesis" just so happens to be the subtitle of Miracleman #15 , written by Alan Moore and penciled by John T. Totleben.

Considered by many to be the most “shocking,” “disturbing” and “sought-after” appearance of the Mick Anglo creation, the issue features an epic battle between Miracleman and his "nemesis" Kid Miracleman.

Did Millar land the ultimate gig to be the man responsible for folding the classic British hero into the Marvel Universe?

Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada has apparently been listening to pitches since the publisher announced at Comic-Con International that it had purchased the rights to the property. Who better than the Glaswegian scribe to reintroduce Marvelman?

Again, nothing but a late-night musing here, but what do you think?

Six by 6 by 6 | Six unholy couplings

I'm not sure what inspired a set of six matches made in Hell, but I can tell you that it was fun picking from the scads we Robot Sixers suggested. They're not all slow-motion trainwrecks, and neither are they all necessarily tragic. One doesn't even last that long.  All of them have been fun to watch over the years -- but all of them kinda make you think "oh, this could be bad."

Therefore, in no particular order, JK Parkin and I present six pairs who might have done better as spares....

Arella and Trigon. After Angela Roth fled her abusive Gotham City home, she thought she'd found solace in the arms of religion. Unfortunately, her new church turned out to be a cult bent on bringing the Devil to Earth. This didn't quite work out for the cultists (who should've waited fifteen years for Neron and Underworld Unleashed), but they did introduce Angela to Trigon, a stud with curly red hair and gold-flecked bedroom eyes. Following a sequence more soft-focus '70s-turtleneck horror than Rosemary's Baby, it wasn't long before Angela was in Trigon's dimension, pregnant with his child. That, in turn, was his cue to show her his true self: antlers, red skin, and four eyes (and not the nerdy kind, either). Trigon then sent Angela back to Earth, where she was saved from suicide by an emissary from the pacifist land of Azarath.

Continue Reading »

Five for Thursday: thoughts on TCR's five biases

Grumpy Old Fan

Over the weekend, Comics Reporter Tom Spurgeon shared his five "stickiest comics biases":

1. I don't covet the comics of my youth, I covet the comics from just before my youth.
2. Whether or not there are comics for kids, I still want comics to function as a pastime for a child.
3. I over-trust the serial.
4. I distrust a social component for comics.
5. I expect everything in comics to last forever.

It got me thinking about my own comics biases -- but because I haven't yet distilled those into postable prose, this week I'll share my reactions to his.
Continue Reading »

Planetary #27 is worth its wait

Grumpy Old Fan

Obligatory Tardiness Joke: I was going to wait a year or so to discuss Planetary #27, but you know....

[crickets]

Ahem.  My most recent trip through the Planetary series was a couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday afternoon. I read the first two Planetary paperbacks before dinner, and finished off issues #13-26 after "Mad Men." After years of waiting interminably between issues, it became almost compulsory for me to read the next one immediately, regardless of how late it was getting. Taken as a single extended storyline, Planetary starts slowly, but before too long has gained considerable momentum.

Continue Reading »

Bendis: Dark Reign-ending Siege starts in December

Siege: The Cabal

In an extensive interview with Attack of the Show's Blair Butler, Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis confirms that Marvel's "Dark Reign" storyline will come to an end with a "big Marvel event" called Siege. It starts in December with a one-shot called Siege: The Cabal, which is followed in January by a four-issue Siege series.

Michael Lark will draw the Cabal one-shot, while Olivier Coipel will draw Siege. Both are written by Bendis. He says the storyline will bring a "seismic shift" in the Avengers titles on the level of what happened in Avengers: Disassembled and will reunite Thor, Iron Man and Captain America.

Siege was just one of several subjects Butler asked Bendis about; he also talked about Powers, various Marvel films, Fortune & Glory's 10th anniversary edition and much more. Check out the second part of the interview below (he talks about Siege at the very end) and go here to find the first half.

Also be sure to check out Dave Richards' interview with Bendis on Dark Avengers over on the main CBR site.

Musical Monday: Lady Gaga, Coheed and Cambria, Death Cab

Lady Gaga comic

No, you haven't accidentally stumbled onto MTV or Rolling Stone's website; the worlds of music and comics collided a few times over the last few days in some fun and even odd ways ....

First up, the odd ... designer clothing retailer Marc Jacobs is selling a $2 comic starring musician Lady Gaga. The comic was created by artist Brian Einersen and "name-drops St. John, Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent so we know it’s worth the read," Fashionista reports. (Via Splash Page).

Second, Marvel.com chats with Nick Harmer, bass player for Death Cab for Cutie, about music, touring and, of course, comics. Harmer reveals that he opens his toys and is a big Wolverine fan.

"I will follow Wolverine anywhere," he says. "Though, I have to admit, I am still a little upset about the whole 'bone claws' addition to his story. When I discovered Wolverine and the X-Men, he was just a mutant who could heal fast and that's how he was able to survive having his skeleton coated with adamantium and claws put IN. He wasn't born with bone claws. That's ridiculous. I know I should just accept this as part of his story now, but I was just such an expert on him when I was a kid it's hard to give that up."

And finally, Claudio Sanchez from Coheed and Cambria will appear on G4's Attack of the Show later today to talk about his BOOM! series Kill Audio. The first issue comes out this week.

The Fifth Color | Raise the flag high

All day, last week, I was kicking myself for my very important omission. Yes, I have disappointed my fan (Hi Mom!) by leaving out of my December preview-o-rama with the most important book to hit the shelves since Moses's Ultimate Ten Commandments:

Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield One-Shot #1

Kind of looks biblical, doesn't it? Well, it is! Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield One-Shot #1 isn't just a mouthful of an awkward rhyme to get your mouth around, it's titanic in scope and importance. It means Captain America: Reborn will shock no one with its conclusion but will leave two men to wear our star-spangled tights and, unless they start switching off on Tuesdays, only one will be raising that shield come 2010.

And in a moment of horrific honesty, I will tell you I don't want to see Steve Rogers back.

Continue Reading »

What are you reading?

Labor Days Vol. 2

Welcome once again to What are you reading?, the weekly column where the Robot 6 team runs through what comics and other stuff they've been checking out lately. As Chris is in Bethesda this weekend, I'm filling in for him as your host.

Our special guests this time are Philip Gelatt and Rick Lacy, creators of the Labor Days graphic novels published by Oni Press. Volume two, Just Another Damn Day, is now available in finer retail establishments everywhere. (You can check out a preview here).

See what they've been reading, as well as the rest of the Robot 6 crew, after the jump ...

Continue Reading »

The return of Quasar?

Quasar

I've been reading Marvel's cosmic titles in trade paperback form, so I'm not up to speed on everything War of Kings related just yet. So this teaser for Realm of Kings leaves me with a lot of questions I probably don't want to know the answers to just yet, like when Wendall Vaughn got his body back and what happened to Phyla-Vel.

Ah, the agony of trade waiting ...

Six by 6 | Six impressions I left Anaheim with after the D23 Expo

I meant to get this up sooner, but travel, jury duty (ugh) and life in general delayed me a few days. In any event, the D23 Expo came and went last weekend, as the Disney “fan fair”/big marketing experience in Anaheim showcased everything from company's movie and television slate to upcoming changes to its theme parks.

1. Overall, this was an extremely well-run event. Not surprisingly, Disney knows something about hosting thousands of people in a fairly confined area, and doing it in a way that those people leave worn out but with smiles on their faces. That doesn’t mean there weren’t issues – I’m still waiting for someone to give me back the hour or so I spent waiting for the Princess and the Frog presentation to start – but looking at the entire weekend, Disney handled the crowds really well. This was a combination of pre-planning (most of the employees who were handling the crowds seemed to have come over from Disneyland, where I’m sure they’re used to moving large masses of people around) and on-the-spot learning (getting out of Sunday's big arena presentation on the animation slate was much easier than leaving Friday's live-action film presentation, and I'm pretty sure Sunday's crowd was bigger).

Continue Reading »

Brevoort trades his way to Fantastic Four #1

Months of effort, 84 trades and more than 500 comics have netted Marvel editor a copy of Fantastic Four #1, which Brevoort will donate to the Hero Initiative so they can auction it off. Check out the video update from Brevoort below:

Brevoort started trading comics in late 2008 with Marvel fans on his Blah Blah Blog on the company's website, all in an effort to see if he could one day get a copy of his holy grail.

"In all honesty, I was beginning to lose hope that we'd ever successfully complete this journey, especially after the previous near-misses," Brevoort wrote on his blog. "And I have to say, the thing that stands out the most for me about this whole Experiment is the vast generosity of Marvel's fans. Not only did most people offer up better books in Trade than what they were asking for, but a number of guys went even further, out-and-out donating items without getting anything in return outside of the feeling of doing something positive. There's no question, Marvel's fans are the best, as this whole experience proves beyond a doubt."