Welcome back, loyal readers.  I was on vacation last week, but I’m back with twice the news and reviews.  What did I think of Convergence’s ending?  How is Secret Wars holding up?  Read on to find out in this issue of Spandex and Capes.

Review List
May 30th, 2015
June 7th, 2015

“If that Static kid can have a floating disc, so can I!” - L. Luthor

PREVIOUSLY…

TV News: First Agent Carter will get 10 episodes instead 8, a decision I applaud.  Now if they replace Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with Agent Carter, I’ll be even happier.  Marvel also announced that the Ultimate Spider-man and Avengers cartoons will continue as “Ultimate Spider-man vs the Sinister 6” and “Avengers: Ultron Revolution” respectively.  On the other side of the aisle, DC and Machinima have announced that Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles will debut on June 8 (you can see the trailer here), exploring the world featured in the upcoming movie.  I’m very interested in this.  In other news, Universal has optioned the rights to The Wicked + the Divine – which means SyFy, maybe?  What station does Universal own these days?

Movie News: Movie News was a little light this week, though the trailer for the next Lego Justice League, “Attack of the Legion of Doom”, dropped.  Can’t wait for that.  And they announced they will be rebooting The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  I’m sure that this one will bring a smile to Alan Moore’s face.

Game News: DC Entertainment announced that are shutting down their Infinite Crisis MOBA.  I’d say it was a shame, but honestly, I can’t say I ever looked it.  It was an interesting idea though and if they made a single player, mobile version I’d be in.

Comic News:  So, first they are making a Grumpy Cat comic.  To all the people who will buy this comic – screw you.  Seriously.  Now while DC has been rather quiet as their first wave of post-Convergence titles come out, Marvel is not wasting any time in hyping the universe after Secret Wars.  First they released not one, but two teasers featuring a diverse cast that will be replaced by their white, male counterparts in about a year.  Then they announced that Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez will be taking over Marvel’s “Crown Jewel”.  No not Spider-Man.  It looks like Marvel has finally realized that Iron Man is the face of the Marvel Universe now and will be launching a (hopefully ) heroic version of the character in the Invincible Iron Man.  It could be interesting.

REVIEWS

Chopped

Giant-Size Little Marvel: AvX (Marvel)
Story and art by Skottie Young
So I’ve made a decision about Marvel’s Secret War tie-ins.  Because there are just so many new titles and some of the old titles are continuing, if a new series doesn’t grab me out of the gate, I’m not going to be reading it.  And the first winner of that reward this week is this book.  While the book made more sense than the series it was based off of, it didn’t warrant a mini-series.  Hell, it barely even warranted a one shot.  Though I will say by making all of the heroes children, it means that their behavior makes sense.

M.O.D.A.K. Assassin (Marvel)
By Christopher Yost with art by Amilcar Pinna
So it looks like this book will combine two character I find annoying as hell – Angela and M.O.D.O.K.  But honestly, the biggest problem with this book is that it asks me to take M.O.D.O.K. seriously.  Since his introduction, M.O.D.O.K. has been a joke.  Even one of the first Secret Wars books had a M.O.D.O.K. issue in which he was treated as a joke.  This issue even draws him like he’s the comedic relief instead of the main character.  Like any minute now he’s going to do something inept.  And if the book that M.O.D.O.K. is the star in refuses to take him seriously, why the hell should I?  So I’m alright with dropping out of this book.

X-Men ‘92 (Marvel)
By Chad Bowers and Chris Sims with art by Scott Koblish
I was kind of excited for this book when it was first announced.  The 1992 X-Men cartoon was my entry point into the X-Men (although I was very disappointed to see that the comics had nothing to do with show), so when this was announced I was looking forward to it.  This was a piece of trash.  One – if the danger room was out, why would they be practicing in a laser tag center?  In full costume?  And two – if there are no more evil mutants, why the f*** are they practicing in the first place?  Seriously, this was ridiculous and took us all the way back to Logan-Jean-Scott love triangle.  I didn’t realize how glad I was that was gone before now.  And then they introduce Cassandra Nova – a villain with one of the most complicated backstories in comics and she’s only been around for a decade.  No, I’m out of this one.

 

Superman

Justice League #41 (DC)
By Geoff Johns with art by Jason Fabok
Damn.  This is how you kick off a storyline.  After two issues of prep, chapter one of the Darkseid War hits the ground running.  It feels like this is the last big storyline for the New 52 as it looks to tie up all of the loose ends from that series.  It’s an event that I can get behind because I don’t think there’s going to be any tie-ins or off-shoots.  Just pure epic action.  Mr. Johns gives each character a chance to shine while injecting some Silver Age silliness into the plot (Barry and Bruce playing CSI).  I also like how Darkseid is truly stepping up to be a threat.  The first arc against him did not do him service, but I think this one will.  I’m hoping that this series stays as good as this first issue.

Hero

Action Comics #41 (DC)
By Greg Pak with art by Aaron Kuder
This issue kicks off the highly anticipated Truth storyline and I think it lived up to expectations.  It doesn’t explain what has left Superman in this state of depowerment and it plays a little fast and loose with what his current power level is, but overall we get a lot of good characters.  We also get a good idea of what’s been going on and I have to say it makes sense.  With his identity revealed, everything that he’s done would be fair game.  You can’t sue Superman, but you can sue Clark Kent.  An illegal alien, a hero, a danger, a savior – everyone sees Superman as something and now there’s nothing he can hide behind.  Like Superman said, this won’t last, but for now.  It’s a really good story.

Convergence #8 (DC)
By Jeff King and Scott Lobdell with art by Stephen Segovia, Carlo Pagulayan, Eduardo Pansica, Ethan Van Sciver
I thought the end of Convergence was good.  It was a great as I had hoped, but it did leave me surprised at the end.  While everyone is talking about Crisis being undone, my question is what the other time alternating stories?  Parallax went back to the first Crisis, so did Zero Hour not happen now?  And without the first Crisis, does that mean Superboy Prime didn’t do a time punch which undoes Infinite Crisis?  And without that, then “52” didn’t happen and the new multiverse didn’t appear.  Starts to give you a headache if you think too hard about it.  The other thing is while Convergence promised more stories to come (Telos’s true name, Earth 2. and the adventures of Superman and Parallax at Crisis on Infinite Earths), the story itself ended.  It had a conclusion and a happy one at that.  And I think that makes it the best “Event” book in years.

Secret Wars #3 (Marvel)
By Jonathan Hickman with art by Esad Ribic
I’m a little worried about this series.  While this issue is wonderful in both art and writing, it’s the overall series that has me worried.  We’re three issues into an 8 issue series and we’re still setting up the pieces.  And those pieces don’t know everything that we know.  And we still haven’t seen the Beyonders or even a villain.   And you can’t tell me Doom is the villain.  He saved what he could of the Multiverse and gave Dr. Strange a chance to be God.  He seems concerned about his world and does the best he can with what he has.  Doom is not the villain – he may be an obstacle for later, but not the villain.  In this issue, we find out that the world has only been around for eight years and no one remembers what came before.  We also learn that Johnny Storm is the sun, which accounts for three out of four.  And we learn that Dr. Strange has been holding on to his friends for three years.  Makes you wonder what we don’t know yet.

 

SideKick

Amazing Spider-Man #18.1 (Marvel); Armor Wars #1 (Marvel); Batman ‘66 #61 (DC); Batman: Arkham Knight #15 – 16 (DC); Batman Beyond #1 (DC); Bat-Mite #1 (DC); Bizarro #1 (DC); The Black Hood #4 (Red Circle); Black Widow #18 (Marvel); Broken World #1 (Boom); Captain Midnight #23 (Dark Horse); Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #3 (Archie Horror); Convergence: Action Comics #2 (DC); Convergence: Blue Beetle #2 (DC); Convergence: Booster Gold #2 (DC); Convergence: Crime Syndicate #2 (DC); Convergence: Detective Comics #2 (DC); Convergence: Infinity Inc #2 (DC); Convergence: Justice Society of America #2 (DC); Convergence: Plastic Man and Freedom Fighter #2 (DC); Convergence: Shazam! #2 (DC); Convergence: World’s Finest #2 (DC); Darth Vader #6 (Marvel); Divinity #4 (Valiant); Flash Gordon #4 (King); Future Imperfect #1 (Marvel); Green Lantern #41 (DC); Hawkeye #3 (Marvel); He-Man: The Eternity War (DC); Inferno #1 (Marvel); Inhumans: Attilan Rising #1 (Marvel); Injustice: Gods Among Us Year Four #4 – 5 (DC); Ivar, Timewalker #5 (Valiant); Masks 2 #3 (Dynamite); Master of Kung Fu #2 (Marvel); Midnighter #1 (DC); Nova #31 (Marvel); Old Man Logan #1 (Marvel); Omega Men #1 (DC): The Phantom #3 (King); Prince Valiant #2 (King); Princess Leia #4 (Marvel); Red Sonja #16 (DC); S.H.I.E.L.D. #6 (Marvel); Secret Wars 2099 #1 (Marvel); Secret Wars Battleworld #2 (Marvel); Secret Wars Journal #1 (Marvel); Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #36 – 37 (DC); Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #1 (Marvel); Spider-Woman #8 (Marvel); Star Wars #6 (Marvel); Suiciders #4 (DC); Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #46 (IDW); Uncanny Avengers: Ultron Forever #1 (Marvel); Where Monsters Dwell #1 (Marvel); Wonder Woman Annual #1 (DC); The Woods #13 (Boom); X-Tinction Agenda #1 (Marvel); Years of Future Past #1 (Marvel)

Anti-Hero

Groot #1 (Marvel)
By Jeff Loveness with art by Brian Kesinger
So when the star of your book can only say three words is that you need a translator.  Really, this should just be a Rocket and Groot book.  And honestly, if you were going to do a Groot book, shouldn’t you give him internal monologue or something?  No, seriously, I would honestly like to know what the hell Groot is thinking.  Getting half a conversation is funny for a couple of pages in a Guardians of the Galaxy book, when it takes up an entire book?  I’m going to check out on page 5.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *