After a week off for the 4th of July, I’m back in time to cover the San Diego Comic Con. Or the most over hyped event in comic news. So without further delay, let’s get to the hype here at Spandex and Capes!
Review List
July 5th, 2015
July 12th, 2015
“What do you mean you’re out of Oreos?” – J. Jones
PREVIOUSLY…
San Diego Comic Con: So because there is an incredible amount of news from Comic Con, I will be going through all of that in a separate post. Below is the news that came out BEFORE the con.
Movie News: So in order to pump out more superhero movies, Warner Bros. has given it’s Vertigo line of movies to New Line Cinema to produce. Sadly, this move seems to have cost them Guillermo Del Toro. Meanwhile on the Marvel side of things, James Gunn confirmed the title of the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie will be “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2” because the title already has too many words. You know what? He’s right.
TV News: Agent Carter has confirmed that James D’Arcy (Jarvis) and Enver Gjokaj (Daniel Sousa) will be back for Season 2 and more are in talks to come back as well. Megalyn Echikunwoke was cast as the Vixen’s voice in the upcoming animated project – hopefully she can continue with it when she comes to the live action series. And in further casting news, Élodie Young has been cast as Elektra – can Bullseye be far behind?
Comic News: So, Pre-Con news in comics – Boom! Studios announced they will be publishing a book based on the original “Power Rangers” – so a Green Ranger comic then? Meanwhile, Marvel released all of its plans for after Secret Wars – notable missing, the Fantastic Four. They also announced the finale of Kim Starlin’s Thanos series: Thanos: The Infinity Finale. DC has announced that Francis Manapul will be leaving Detective Comics – I just hope it’s for something else in DC that they haven’t’ announced yet. Speaking of announcing, DC announced eight limited series including: Swamp Thing, Poison Ivy, Firestorm, The Metal Men, Raven, Katana: Cult of the Kobra, Metamorpho, and Sugar & Spike. Image Expo happened last week in which they announced a lot of their upcoming projects including an Invincible Reboot, Axecend, and Huck to name a few. And then Grant Morrison was named Editor-in-Chief for Heavy Metal. And meanwhile, Aftershock Comics Comics debuted an all-star line up of creators for its initial publishing run.
Other News: The Marvel Experience came to an abrupt end after it’s run in my hometown with no explanation.
REVIEWS
Omega Men (DC)
By Tom King with art by Barnaby Bagenda
So I’m out on this one. And there’s a bunch of reasons for it. One, the artwork is annoying and I mean really annoying. The other thing is the portrayal of Kyle Parker. It’s like they forgot the last six years of character development for the character. He’s not a Green Lantern anymore, he’s a White Lantern. Oh, and he can call the WHITE ring to him from wherever it is. While I understand the idea that the story trumps continuum now, if it’s set in the same universe I would like what has past to stay consistent.
The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (Marvel)
By Dan Slott with art by Adam Kubert
Wow. So this story is just bad. First off, Spider-Man doesn’t kill. At all. Ever. I don’t care what the circumstances, he would find another way. To suggest otherwise is to put a lie to everything he stands for. To then say, he would stay hidden and not do anything to help the world around him? It’s just spitting on the character. While I think that Dan Slott normally has a good handle Peter Parker, this shows he just doesn’t seem to understand the core of the character.
Archie #1 (Archie Comics)
By Mark Waid with art by Fiona Staples
Wow. Archie Comics has made some interesting decisions over the last few years and rebooting the American Classic was one of them. This was good. There was no action, nothing life threatening, no heroics in this comis. But it was an amazing read and the surprise of the week. Mark Waid does a fantastic job of introducing the characters to us. He allows Archie to speak directly to the reader, bringing them into the world and making them care about the characters quickly. And each character gets their due, with Jughead (yeah, that guy) becoming the town mastermind. I’m in for the new Archie. #lipstickincident
Action Comics #42 (DC)
By Greg Pak with art by Aaron Kuder
Mr. Pak continues his stellar run on Action Comics this issue as Superman takes on the police. Yeah, sure there’s a fight with a shadow monster in the first half of the book, but it’s the confrontation with the police that is the meat of this story. Once again, they highlight the new take on Superman as someone that tries to do the right thing. And in this case, it meant protecting the people. In fact, it’s not until those people are threaten that Superman acts. It’s a very in the moment comic as the police take on a peaceful demonstration with a large amount of violence. If you’re not on board for this series, you should be.
Batman #42 (DC)
By Scott Snyder with art by Greg Capullo
Mr. Snyder and Mr. Capullo continue their stellar run on Batman (though with Jim Gordon now in the suit). What I find interesting is that Gotham is adapting to Jim Gordon. Instead of throwing the old Batman villains at him, the city has given power to the criminals that Gordon faced in his past. We also find out the downside of a Batman acting within the law – he can be told where to go and what to do. It’s going to be interesting. Oh, and then we find a happy Bruce Wayne – volunteering somewhere I think. For a second there’s a panel where he’s Batman and then the lights come on and it’s gone. I will be very interested to find out if that’s Bruce… or Tommy.
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Secret War #4 (Marvel)
By Jonathan Hickman with art by Esad Ribic
Secret Wars continues to be one of the best crossover books in years. We learn a bit more about Battleworld and we also see that Doom still hates Richards. We also find out there isn’t another Richards out there. I wonder what that means. And we find out that despite the lead up taking place in the Avengers – this is a story about Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom. Everything else is just noise in the background. The only disappointment I have is that Doom is suddenly shifting to his old ways. I wanted him to help the heroes, not hinder them. Once this was over, I would have loved a book about Doom’s Avengers or something like that.
Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War #1 (IDW)
By Mike Johnson with art by Angel Hernandez
This was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and I really can’t wait to see the crew of the Enterprise with Lantern Rings. While Green Lantern himself doesn’t’ appear until the end of the book, the crew of the Enterprise (new movie cast) holds up the book well. Well, I enjoyed the book, there’s not a lot to say about it outside of – I can’t wait to see what happens next.
1872 #1 (Marvel); A-Force #2 (Marvel); Age of Apocalypse #1 (Marvel); Batman/Superman #22 (DC); Batman Beyond #2 (DC); Bat-Mite #2 (DC); Bizarro #2 (DC); Broken World #2 (Boom); Catwoman #43 (DC); Constantine: The Hellblazer #2 (DC); Darth Vader #7 (Marvel); Detective Comics #42 (DC); Earth 2: Society #2 (DC); Future Imperfect #2 (Marvel); Ghost Racers #2 (Marvel); Green Arrow #42 (DC); Green Lantern #42 (DC); Groot #2 (Marvel); He-Man: The Eternity War #7 (DC); Injustice: Gods Among Us Year Four #9 – 10 (DC); Justice League: Gods and Monsters #1 – 12 (DC); Justice League of America #2 (DC); Justice League United #11 (DC); Lando #1 (Marvel); Masks 2 #4 (Dynamite); Master of Kung Fu #3 (Marvel); Midnighter #2 (DC); New Suicide Squad #10 (Marvel); Onyx #1 (IDW); Princess Leia #5 (Marvel); Red Skull #1 (Marvel); Runaways #2 (Marvel); Secret Wars 2099 #3 (Marvel); Secret Wars Journal #2 (Marvel); Spider-Island #1 (Marvel); Spider-Verse #3 (Marvel); Squadron Sinister #2 (Marvel); Starfire #2 (DC); Strange Fruit #1 (Image); Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #47 (IDW); We Stand Guard #1 (Image); X-Tinction Agenda #2 (Marvel): Years of Future Past #2 (Marvel)
Ultimate End #3 (Marvel)
By Brian Michael Bendis with art by Mark Bagley
This just gets worse. I was really hoping that the Ultimate Universe would go out strong, but really it just looks like it’s going to go. Hulk switches bodies mid-fight, Punisher kills himself, and everyone acts like a jackass. It’s really sad on so many levels. The X-Men seem to switch sides every few minutes, dead people are walking around, and dialogue boxes don’t seem to match up with the right people. I wish this better, but it’s slowly descending into Villain territory.
Civil War #1 (Marvel)
By Charles Soule with art by Leinil Francis Yu
Did you like the original Civil War? The book that started the characterization of Iron Man as a fascist and Captain America as a thug? Then congratulations – it’s back and it makes less sense. The country divided (because superheroes – not governments – run the country). And General Rogers and President (?) Stark run their lands with an iron fist. So much so that the west has become more like the Wild West without resources (despite the fact that a majority of our national resources come from the West) and the East has become the technological center of the world and gets a ton of foreign aid (despite being rich). Yeah, this a bad books that extends the bad ideas of a bad series to illogical extremes. Marvel won’t get anymore of my money for this horseshit. It’s a Villain and it’s Chopped.