Annually Retentive

I think the Annual's Marvel has put out over the past 2 or 3 years have been excellent. They really mattered but if you had no interesting in the subject (Luke Cage and Jessica Jones marriage in New Avengers for example) you could skip over it and save $4. You didn't miss anything vital but anyone who wanted to buy it got something they could care about. It was the perfect happy medium.

I picked up the Immortal Iron Fist Annual this week though and we seem to have faltered. It was nothing more but part 3 of a story. Infact, it was the cliffhanger of the issue 9. Now if you don't pick up the annual up you're lost. To be fair the previous issue warned you about this but I can't help but feel this is taking a step in the worn direction.

I used to complain that Annuals were nothing but an oversized one-shot which was usually a bad story, with very little importance. It was a way of charging you more money once a year.

This however is forcing people to pay $4 for another part of a story they are already invested in. It's taking advantage. I hope we don't see to many of these and go back to the Bendis formula.

I Am So Scared...

If you have ever heard Bendis in an interview, chances are you'll of heard him talk about people who claim to be his biggest fans and yet have never read his independent work like Powers, Jinx or Torso. I fall in that list. I have probably read everything he's done at Marvel except Alias, which I need to pick up, but never really got around to his older work. After hearing him joke about these fans for about the hundredth time I decided that if I saw his Indy work for a good price, I had to make the leap. It’s not that I didn’t want to read it, its just there is so much stuff out there that you can’t just pick up anything you want.

As luck would have it, on Wednesday I saw the collection of Fortune and Glory for £3.50 so I went ahead and bought it. It was a great price and I’ve heard so much praise for this book so I quickly ran home and cracked it open. The writing was funny and the art was unique. You get a wide-eyed newbie to the Hollywood world making snarky comments. It’s an Internet fanboys dream. We do it everyday on the net.

So why am I scared after having bought an excellent piece of literature? One of the few comics you could hand to anyone who isn’t a comic fans and chances are they’d enjoy it despite of any prejudice they have against the medium? Well I’m currently spending nine grand and devoting 3 years of my life to try and enter the industry that this book explores and shows just how shallow and empty it is.

Thanks Bendis. I’m having a mid-life crisis at 19.

Superhero Wedding Cliché

I took a risk this week and picked up the Black Canary and Green Arrow Wedding Special. I always feel guilty about not reading more DC and as I have a few extra £’s I figured I’d take a shot on this and the new creative team on JLA.

Now, this issue was a comic book cliché. Everyone was in costume and it ended in a super villain fight. Now we’ve seen this a lot and no one really adds anything new to the formula. All you can really hope for is that it is written well and the art is good. This had both and I loved it!

I love Amanda Conner’s art. It is so slick and curvy. It has a touch of old school too it and the women just look beautiful. There is a particular scene where Green Arrow and Black Canary tear each other’s clothes off for a bit of slap and tickle before Black Canary decides she wants to wait until the wedding. Green Arrow is a bit disappointed to say the least. Now this wouldn’t work for the reader if you couldn’t see why Green Arrow is attracted to Black Canary.

There are very few artists who I think draw beautiful women. Frank Cho is the best in my opinion and Terry Dodson is arguably up there. I’d put Amanda Conner up there as well. She is very talented, I would love to see her tackle these two characters again.

Judd Winick wrote the book and he made me fall in love with the characters as well. I have always liked the Green Arrow; he’s a fun character so I came in mostly because of his name. He was my insurance, if the story blew atleast there might be a Green Arrow gag or two. Obviously I knew of Black Canary and had seen her around but she mostly appeared for a page or two and had very little characterisation. With this issue though she became a person and a person I really liked. I don't know what it is but other last 10 years or so, women characters in comics have really taken a step up. They get alot more respect then they used to even in the 90's.

As a couple, I got a sense of a love/hate type relationship. They are fuelled on adrenaline due to their careers as superheroes and are never more attracted to each other then when they are trading insults and yelling at each other. It's not a new concept, we see it on TV all the time but here it really works. It makes for a very interesting read.

Oh and the cliffhanger? Wow!

Even if I don’t keep up with JLA, I’m there for the Black Canary and Green Arrow ongoing. I can’t wait!

The In Store

This addition of the “In Store” might seem like an obvious entry and let’s face it, it is. eBay is one of those businesses that is known by everyone you meet on the street, like Microsoft and Coca Cola. So I’d imagine a lot of people who collect comic books use eBay but I also know from talking to people a lot of people use ebay wrong.

Never buy single issues on eBay. If you buy one comic, the price for postage and packaging tends to be more then the actual comic so you tend to pay more then you would getting it from a physical comic book store. The cost of the comic may seem like a steal but that p+p will bite you in the butt.

If you want to use eBay to collect comics make sure the seller you want has a few other comics you want to get as well. As a rule of thumb I normally need to want a minimum of 5 issues from a seller to try beat the postage costs.

The safest bet is bidding on lots. I just won 105 issues on ebay and had to pay £10 postage. If I’d bought them in single issues on average the postage would have been £1.25 an issue. The different is huge. The problem with this of course is that sometimes you don’t need runs so you need to balance it out with your own personal needs and if ending up with a few doubles is worth the amount you save.

In terms of quality of issues sometimes you have to take a risk. Everyone looks at their comics and over evaluates their quality so bare that in mind. You also need to remember if you aren’t sure of the quality, ask for more pictures. Most sellers will be happy to do so as could lead to them selling their auction.

eBay is perhaps one of the most valuable tools at a comic buyers finger tips if used wisely. The only downside is you can sometimes spend more then you have to spend so make sure you can afford what you are bidding!

My Claim to Fame

This is perhaps the saddest blog you will ever see, so bookmark it... this is history in the making.

I knew something Dan "Brain of the Marvel Universe" Slott didn't!

Click to enlarge, Orignal Topic Here

Yes, I am that sad that I'm posting this. This is the result of a slow comic week, Slott's reputation and my need to inflate my ego.

Really it gives me the chance to bring Slott up and tell everyone to go out and pick up Avengers: The Initiative and Amazing Spider-Man. Also I get to thank him for a great run on She Hulk. The only reason I picked up this book was because of talking to Slott online. He's a very talented writer and he's only getting better.

Three Month Wait

It’s time for me to peek at the solicitations for December 2007 as say what I am most excited to get after another three month wait.

5. Indiana Jones Omnibus Vol. 1

I’m a big Indiana Jones fan but of course let’s be honest… who isn’t? Most people have seen an Indy film and enjoyed it but I’m sure there are many of those people who never read any of the Indiana Jones comics. I’ll be taking this opportunity to read "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis," "Thunder in the Orient," and "Indiana Jones and the Arms of Gold" for the first time.

4. Booster Gold #5

This comic is good. I’ll admit I do get a bit confused when they go off on long explanations of time travel in the DC verse but for the most part this is introducing me to key points in the DC universe. I’m not a big DC reader so I’m finding this a valuable learning experience, which is fun at the same time.

3. Avengers: The Initiative #8

This book sort of snuck up on me. #1 was ok and then they off’d my favourite character in it. I figured I’d give Slott a chance as I love his work and somewhere in the space of 4 or 5 issues it’s become a book I can’t imagine Marvel without. It’s key book in the post Civil War World and just gives you a look at everything in the Marvel Universe. It’s great. This issue promises new recruits and old ones graduating so it should be a key point. Also, looks like there is an Irremediable Giant-Man.

2. Captain America #33

The book promises Iron Man and Bucky. The book promises a shocking ending. The book is reading by Ed Brubaker. So yeah, we are getting all of that and so much more. It’s perhaps the most solid solo book out right now and has been for three years.

1. Amazing Spider-Man #546-547

This is it! Spider-Man goes thrice weekly with Slott at the helm of the first arc. Even if I’m a little nervous about the fallout of Brand New Day it’s hard to argue this is isn’t an exciting time to be a Spider-Man reader.

It's A Review, Little Buddy

I completed Sam and Max: Season One a few days ago but I didn’t have time to review it until now. Things are getting busy with family and getting ready for the next year of university so if it takes a day or two for me to post, you know why.

First I have to say, I can’t compare this to the original game. The original game has so many happy memories for me as a kid that to compare the two would automatically bury this game. This game doesn't deserved to be buried, o I am looking at this game as completely separate entity.

The first thing that springs out to you when playing this game is the look. There have been a few 3D Adventure Games but too be honest I’ve found the majority of these games annoying. The graphics are ugly and blocky and the 3D world in turn introduced controls, which were clunky and vastly more complex then they needed to be. Sam and Max is both pretty to look at and easy to navigate. The game takes the adventure game back to using only one button, which is really all you need in this type of game.

The format of the game with it being separated into six different chapters leaves something to be desired. You do get 6 good little stories that create one big arc but at the end of each episode you are left thinking “Oh, is that it?”. They introduce the characters into some marvellous situations like them staring in a number of TV shows or Max becoming President but these only last only a few hours and it’s kind of sad that they didn’t make the most out these great ideas. Of course that just goes to show how well these have been writing that I’m actually sad when we leave these storylines behind. If they had been bad or even mediocre I would have been happy to move on to the next thing.

Another minor complaint I have is that parts of the episodes do become very formulaic. With an introduction of a strong supporting cast, by the second episode you know 3 puzzles you know you have to solve straight of the bat. You know Sybil Pandemik will have a new job that will help you out, you know you need to buy something from Bosco and chances are Jimmy Two Teeth will be up to some crime that will help you move on.

One thing that annoyed me was at times you knew you had a puzzle only because someone was obstructing you. If someone is stood in front of something you have to move him or her. Why? Well… it’s an adventure game and that’s the point. Sadly that’s not enough. This is the problem of a non-linear game where you can branch off to do several tasks at once but I’m sure with careful scripting it could be done.

The voice acting is superb. The actors of Sam and Max aren’t the same from the original game but they manage to sound similar but at the same time add something different to it. Not necessarily better but just as good. I was also impressed to see a different voice actor for every character, instead of taking the much cheaper option of paying one person to do a few voices. This gave every character a very unique voice and helped them come alive.

The characters were also well written and designed. They all had unique chrematistics and funny quirks, which this type of humour game works. While his supporting casts tasks became very formulaic as mentioned above, I still enjoyed them and look forward to seeing them again. There was only one character who annoyed me but seeing as he annoyed Sam and Max just as much, I’ll take it he was designed to be.

The puzzles had various levels of difficulty and were fun to try and figure out. The game suffered from the episodic releases due to items being restricted to only 2 or 3 areas, making the puzzles perhaps not as complex as older, larger games but over all it didn’t bother me to much.

I was happy to see the addition of a hint system in the sixth episode, something I felt the game was missing. I might suggest that a notepad for Sam might be an important feature. As freelance police you’d expect them to take notes, which you can look back on and perhaps pick out key points that may help you to figure a puzzle out. Sometimes you forget a key detail a character said at the start of the game.

While it may seem the episodic format annoyed me I have to say if that means yearly releases and a cheaper price sticker that I’ll take the trade off. The game lasted me a week or so, so perhaps it should have been longer. However at the same time I paid £24 for it, compared to the £40 to £50 I normally pay for games that last not that much longer. I can also expect the second season later this year/early next year instead of years of wait like we had come to expect from the Adventure Game.

Honestly, the worst part of this game was that we are lacking this type of thing in two mediums I love. We should have more adventure games out there. I don’t think every game needs to be more action orientated, and I hope there is a market out there for this game so we can have more. I also think the comic industry is severely lacking a good humour book. Not a knock on Telltale’s online webcomic but I really wish Steve Purcell (Sam and Max’s creator) would spend time getting new material in print or reprint all of his older work. I can’t imagine a publisher like IDW or Image wouldn’t want to publish a new Sam and Max comic.

So overall this game was good. It has a few little problems but the majority of them were fixed by the time the sixth episode hit. I can only think that now they have all player feedback in that season two will be even better. I know I can’t wait. All I have to do now is try and fill my time in between the releases.

For now I have the hope of Sam and Max Surfin’ The Highway coming out, which I’m sure you’ll hear me discuss more in-depth in the future. There are also the other TellTale games out in stores. Sigh… I need more money!

The W’ong Wong

So I got New Avengers #34 today and it turns out I was wrong. They didn't share their pasts; they showed how they see themselves... I liked mine better although I guess it would rule out the "Embarrassing History" jokes Bendis loves to do.

Now I’m assuming all this “There is a Skrull on the team” stuff is going somewhere and isn’t just setting up the atmosphere of the Secret Invasion crossover.

But at the minute it’s kind of heard to think any of the team are Skrull, they’ve passed two Doctor Strange tests now and Bendis made fun of the idea of “Sleeper Skrulls” in this issue so that can’t happen.

So who do I think is a Skrull in New Avengers now?

Wong.

No one suspects him but he’s in a position where he could screw with one of the top teams and many of the top players in the Marvel Universe. I bet he drugs the tea.

Hitting their stride

The Stan Lee and Jack Kirby run is legendary and changed comics forever. Don't try to argue that, it's fact. The old style of comics from the 60's may not be everyone's cup of tea, which I understand, but you have to respect what they did.

If you ask most people who had the honour of reading this run, they usually cite issue 30 as when the team really clicked and their creativity just exploded. I want to argue about this.

I assume people normally sum up runs as whole numbers as it's easier to remember then say 29 or 31. So I understand why everyone says this is when they really "got" the characters but I want to make it clear I think that point should be five issues earlier.

Fantastic Four #25-26 are amazing comics! It's a two part story which for the most part is Thing getting his ass kicked by the Hulk but he keeps getting back up, even if he knows he could die doing it.

This is when Ben Grimm clicked. For the first 15 issues or so the Thing was a hardass and was always complaining. For the next 10 or so the Fantastic Four kept saying they loved him but the audience had no real reason to... every other issue he was starting fights and threatening to either take over the team or quit.

This story kicked off a feud that every writer seems to want to write at least once, Hulk vs. Thing.

This was just good comics. Really, if you get the chance pick it up. The Fantastic Four Omnibus is a great read if you can get over the high price tag.

Okay! I believe you!

I’m a big fan of the X-Men. I own the run of Uncanny X-Men, bar 30 or 40 issues I’m still hunting for. The Claremont run stands up there with the best runs we’ve ever seen and it had defined the X-Men ever since. That is part of the problem with the X-Men these days. For the most part they are coasting, doing the same thing they’ve done for 40 years. You get the odd big moment like the destruction of Genosha… but nothing really changes. We will never get human and mutant equality so all you can hope for is some good stories from good writers.

So when Marvel started up the hyped machine and inserted Messiah Complex I wasn’t too excited. At the end of it, we’d get the same old stuff. Perhaps the mansion would blow up (which the image to the right could be showing) which is an X-Men event requirement and we’d get a random lottery of characters to appear in the main 3 books. Changes yes, but major? No. It’s the same old stuff just with a new look.

I logged onto Newsarama this morning to find a surprising news piece. The new line-up to X-Force.

It’s a line-up change but is it just a line-up up change? I’m not sure. Looking at that image we seem to be looking at some kind of mutant strike force. These guys don’t mind kicking ass, and are all killers at one time or another. Their outfit colours also seem to match the idea of being a black ops team.

I have to say I’m upset that it looks like Brubaker isn’t writing Warpath anymore, although he could still be writing X-Force for all I know, as he has been the real breakout character in his Uncanny run. That being said the X-Men needing a secret strike force perhaps does mean that we are getting a real status quo change.

Of course it’s just as likely I’ve bought into the hype and we’ll get the same old, same old.

New Avengers #34 Speculation

Newsarama are showing off the cover to New Avengers #34, and playing the mystery card. I figure seeing as I’m hyped for this Secret Invasion (The title to the Skrull storyline) I’d take a quick shot at what I feel it means.

Apparently in the issue Doctor Strange does something to temporarily get the team to trust each other. Armed with this information and the cover I’m speculating that Doctor Strange shares the entire teams history with each other. This will allow them to see their past and understand where they are coming from and why they do what they do. This would certainly help out their trust issues.

The only part of the cover I’m not sure on is the female Daredevil. I’m not family with Echo’s origin (although it is on my Wish List) but did she ever dress up in Daredevil’s costume? Anyone? Little help?

You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down…

And you can’t keep a bad man down either. I don’t know if you were one of the 10 people who read The Irredeemable Ant-Man series but it was really good and produced a great character. There aren’t many characters out there that are only superheroes because they want to pick up women and even fewer heroes who play on the Wii with the villain Black Fox.

It was announced at Baltimore that the Eric O’Grady character will be jumping over to Avengers: The Initiative now that his own series has been cancelled. This move happened, apparently at the request of Kirkman so I assume we are going to get the same tool, we have come to love.

If anyone was fit to take over Ant-Man from Kirkman, it’s Dan Slott. Count me in as a fan of this move.

Blogging Baltimore Part Deux

I love Robin and I love the current creative team on the book. They sell twenty thousand plus a month despite the fact they are putting out one of the best books every single month. Adam Beechen’s writing is excellent and Freddie Williams just gets superhero art. His fight scenes flow so naturally from move to move.

That being said, it’s just been announced Chuck Dixon is returning to the book. It’s fair to say this comic would still be on the shelf without this guy having been on the book for a 9 years but the old saying “You can’t return home” comes to mind.

I can’t think of a single writer who returned to their most well received run and had just as much success the second time around. Claremont on Uncanny, DeFalco on Amazing Spider-Man etc.

Blogging Baltimore

For the uninformed, this weekend is Baltimore Comic Con. If I’m completely honest, I had forgotten. This is the first con since the site news so I figured I’d introduce what I’d do with any news we get from it. You can expect lots of smaller blogs covering any news I find interesting. We’ll see how it goes, shall we?

The first piece of news that I am excited about is the new Young Avengers mini hitting stores in January. It’s entitled “Young Avengers Presents” and will feature a whole bunch of different writers taking turns to focus on members of the team.

I feel in love with these characters during their first 12 issue series and sadly their Civil War mini series and guest appearances haven’t been anywhere near the quality we got when we first met them. So I am worried we are going to get another Zeb Wells series, I have to hold out hope that it can be good. It’ll be no Heinberg but with his schedule I doubt we’ll get another series written by him in a long time.

In The Interest Of Fairness

According to a new Videocast on Marvel’s websites Mark Millar and Brian Hitch plan to return to The Ultimates in 2013. After complaining about DC hyping Final Crisis long before, in an apparent desperate attempt to sell Countdown I thought this was worth mentioning.

I think this is going to hold the record for longest tine between announcement and release.

*Insert joke about #2 coming out in 2015 here*

This does remind me that I need to pick up the back issues of Ultimates 1 and 2 sometime.

My First Time

There is a question that is asked on comic message boards every few months, that being “How did you get into comics?”. These questions always get me thinking because growing up I had no idea that so much of the stuff I enjoyed as a kid was influenced by the world of comic books. Hell, I had no idea there were actually comic books, my local store only carried crappy UK magazines that were filled with dot-to-dots and crosswords. The only comic books I knew of were the Beano and Dan Dare and they are only a source of nostalgia for parents these days.

When I talk about these influenced products such as television shows, movies, games etc. I don’t mean the obvious ones like Batman, Superman or Spider-Man because as a kid I had no interest in them what so ever. I knew they existed but I didn’t get the appeal.

The obvious early influence to me was the Teenage Mutant Turtles. I had all the videos, all the toys and could sing the theme tune with the best of them. For a while I even wanted to grow up to be a turtle. But I was too young to remember any of this stuff, so I can only go by home movies and embarrassing stories as told by drunken relatives.

What I would list as the comic book that had a biggest impact on me without having read the comic book was Sam and Max. Since I was very small I always had a fascination with computers and there are numerous pictures of me sat on the potty with a game controller in hand. In the early 90’s we got our first PC and my brother and me got hooked on the world of adventure gaming. Monkey Island, Broken Sword, Day of The Tentacle, we’ve played them all. We ran up bills of hundreds of pounds for phoning the game help lines, which we inevitably got in a lot of trouble for.

When 1993 hit we got the best of them all, Sam and Max Hit the Road! It was laugh out loud game that required you to think to complete the game. The two characters that were far beyond my scope of the world and their humour was adult and that has changed my viewing changes forever. Since I was 8 I’ve been watching adult sitcoms and cartoons soon became no existent to me. They were somewhat violent and never talked down to the gamer just because they were a cartoon dog and rabbit. It was so unique to me and I don’t think I’ve ever found a game with characters I’ve fallen in love since.

But the adventure game died out and was replaced. I’m still a fairly big gamer but it was sad to see my favourite genre die out because it wasn’t interesting enough as shoot em’ ups and today’s audience just don’t have the attention span to try and figure out puzzles which can take hours.

Then in 2002 Lucasart’s announced a return to their gaming roots and announced the sequel to the original Sam and Max Game and my heart jumped for joy… then they cancelled it. I, along with many other people campaigned for it’s return but Lucasart’s didn’t listen and instead continued to work on their 6 or 7 Star War’s titles a year quota.

Luckily I was instore for good news again as bunch of former Lucasart’s employees set up their own company called Telltale Games and announced they were bringing Sam and Max back!

It was about this time I found out that it was based on a comic book, a hobby I’d had for a while by this time. Sadly the back issues are out of my price range, although they are re-releasing an old trade soon. I find it so interesting to see stuff that was so important to my childhood were based on a hobby I had no idea existed but now have fallen in love with.

So, why did I bring this up now? I just bought Sam and Max Season One from my local game store. If you don’t see me for a month, you know where I am!

I'll review the game when I've completed it, my 360 is going to take a month to repair so that Superman Returns review might never happen.

Going Places

I just finished reading Teen Titans #50. This marks the firs time I have ever bought a Teen Titans book. I list Robin as one of my favourite characters but I could never be convinced to lay down my money every month on seeing him and his pals. I was perfectly happy with him appearing in Batman titles and his own solo series.

Why did I choose now to purchase Teen Titans and not before? The answer is Sean McKeever. There is something about this guy’s writing that I just love. There is certain optimism in his work, something I think we’ve lost over the years. Now we expect our hero’s to be full of angst and get angry, which is fine… but you need that bit of hope. The idea of superheroes is that these guys can make the world around them better, if they don’t have that hope then what are they fighting for? Perhaps that idea of hope is why I prefer Robin to Batman, a character that despite everyone close to him being killed is still hopeful and enjoys life.

If you have never read the Gravity mini series, do yourself a favour and track it down either in back issues or the digest. It’s not reinventing the wheel; it’s just doing its thing really well. If you are a fan of Invincible or Ultimate Spider-Man you will love it.

Sean McKeever is going places.

A Plea From Me To Thee

Today is a bit of a selfish entry. Although it is the second entry so quit your complaining!

If you are visiting this blog and enjoy it, please tell your friends. Bring it up on a message board; share the link with anyone you think might like it. You spreading the word could help a great deal.

My second demand from you readers is, please comment. If you read my blog and have something to say, say it! I don’t care if you hate my ideas and opinions; just make sure you offer yours. If you like my ideas and want to comment, then that’s great too. I want to hear your thoughts a lot more then you just reading mine.

My third demand is for anyone with a blog who is reading mine. The demand? Let me know! I can link you from my site and you can link me from yours. I’ll do my best to read and comment on yours and you can do the same for me. You e-scratch my back, I’ll e-scratch yours.

My final demand? See that little ad the right? If you ever see something you are interesting in on that ad, please click it. It helps me out and if you are interested in what it’s advertising it obviously helps you out too.

This post will remain linked on the right hand side, allowing any blog vister to leave a comment with your URL and Blog Name so I can link your blog.

He's The Juggernaut!

I don’t think I’ve every uttered the phrase “He’s a bad writer”. I may not like a certain writer but I have respect for anyone who picks up a pen and writes, the vast majority of them are infinitely more talented then me so I have no write to judge in terms of being a good or bad writers. All I can do is offer my opinion on their work and their choices.

One writer would come close to the term bad writer and that is Chuck Austen. I’ve tried so many of his comics and tried to find something to enjoy. I’ve asked so many people for their opinions but no one seems to get his work. Hell I recently read an interview with Austin’s Avengers artist Scott Kolins where even he admitted he didn’t have a clue what Chuck Austen was doing.

There will always be one thing though that I can say he did well though. He redeemed the Juggernaut. I’ve always loved the Juggernaut. He was a villain that when you saw him on the cover you knew your favourite superhero was in for a beating and you were going to get some beautiful and chaotic art as it unfolded. The X-Men, Spider-Man, Hulk. Everyone was afraid of the Juggernaut. He was a great badass villain.

I’ll admit that some of crimes he’s committed over the years made it kind of stupid to try and redeem him but those were quietly forgotten and I enjoyed watching him try to put his past behind him. He became a guy who always had to keep himself in check but at the same time enjoyed kicking heads in, he was just on the opposite side to which we had become accustomed too.

With World War Hulk: X-Men #3 it seems Juggernaut has given in and is soon going to return to his old ways. It’s regrettable, as I don’t think anybody really did anything with Juggernaut after Austen left, and he now joins the likes of Mystique and Magneto who join the team only to revert to form.

I will buy whatever comic he shows up in next because as I mentioned I’m a fan of him as villain or hero but I am a little sad it appears it is over. There was so much more they could have done with him.

Justice is Frightening

I’m a Spidey nut born and breed. Due to that I am bound by law to enjoy the Green Goblin. Norman Osborn is a fabulous character. He is a bitter and tormented sole but with reason to be so. He is the flip side to Peter, using his brains and strength to try and gain him money rather then use it to help the world. But let’s face it, he was stale.

His return at the end of the Clone Saga was shocking and was cool to see for the thousands of people who weren’t around when Osborn was first tormenting Peter. After an interesting run as co. owner of the Bugle who spent every waking hour making Spider-Man’s life a living hell he fell into a rut of popping up every few years, pulling the crazy card and being beat by Spider-Man.

We got the odd great story like Jenkin’s Death In The Family but for the most part they were all the same story. Every other good villain Spider-Man had seemed to be neglected to nostalgia and beat down. They filled time until Green Goblin was going to ruin Peter’s life again.

During this time I stuck by theory that Osborn is a great character and would work wonders if only the writer’s took him out of his safety zone. Get him away from Peter and let the other heroes of the Marvel Universe feel the wrath of the Green Goblin.

At the time he was focused on Peter, but all it would take was a good writer with the right idea to make him a villian in the grander scheme of things. He did start of wanting to be a crime boss after all.

This year with the fall out of the Civil War we got my hopes and dreams for Norman in Thunderbolts. Over half a year in and I still can’t figure out if Ellis is writing this whole book tongue in cheek (some parts definitely are… Stabby Joe, anyone?) but either way I’m enjoying it.

Thunderbolts #116 was a great issue for me that proved that Green Goblin in the Marvel Universe can and does work. The issue was mostly a discussion between Norman and Moonstone. Fairly mundane and easily to make boring but Ellis pulled it off perfectly. This issue reminded me of a serial killer couple. Criminal experts have taken real life examples and claim that if the two disturbed minds hadn’t met they may not of had a chance to reek such havoc. This issue showed these minds meeting and I boy do I feel sorry for the first person who tries to cross these two.

Make Mine Goblin, Marvel. But please… don’t make him a Skrull.

If an X-Man dies in space, do the fans make a sound?

Perhaps Blindfold saying someone was going to die months ago softened the blow. Perhaps the cover of a limp Cyclops body in space gave it away. Or perhaps its because no one, including Marvel staff can seem to decide if this story takes place months ago, and therefore we know the death is reconed!

Really, doesn’t anybody care that Cyclops died in Astonishing X-Men #22? I mean this the leader of the fricken’ X-Men. He bites the big one and people just don’t care about it. This is one of those things that should have been spoiled for me, I shouldn’t have been able to check my emails without friends letting it slip.

The only reason I can find for why no one cares is because of Astonishing X-Men’s biggest problem, that of delays.

With the impossible task of placing this in continuity people are just assuming that he’ll be back before the end of Whedon’s run with #24. But is he? The answer of where Astonishing takes place changes every week and it only gets more confusing as the X-Verse around it continues to change. Everyone seems to have a different answer to if this takes place before Messiah Complex or after. Not to mention the fact if the last three issues of the book had come out on time he would of appeared in Cable and Deadpool and New X-Men after his apparent death.

If it’s before then I can see why no one seems to care because he’ll be back in 2 issues. If it’s after then Marvel pulled off perhaps the worst death ever.

With comics for the longest time you’ve had fans crying foul because we all know the dead characters will come back, it may take an editorial team change but it’ll happen. You have to really make an effort to get people to respect the death, even if they will never completely believe it. When you confuse people to the point they haven’t got a clue if he’s dead or alive, even though you kill him on the page in front of them you have a problem. A huge problem.

Hell, I’m writing this and I still can’t decide if he’s dead or alive… I bet he’s alive and the big death is Lockheed.

Kirby Kolouring

I like Jack Kirby. I wouldn’t put him up their with my favourite artists, mostly because I’m so far removed from it’s original release and his work now has a legendary status it would be one of the most biased choices I’ve ever made. Instead he’s up their with Stan Lee as one of the creators I most admire. Comics wouldn’t be what they are today without those two men. I refuse to choose between the two in terms of who created who, instead I see them as a team. Sadly, those two couldn't see it the same way.

One common criticism I hear from people who are more used to the 90’s and today’s stuff (which I’ll admit I fall under) is that his art is simple by today’s standards. That is simply not the case. I was looking in the back of my Fantastic Four Omnibuses and looked online at some of his amazing untouched pencil work. The guy put in just as much detail as some artists today.

The reason I think it looks so simple is that it’s been scanned and reproduced from it’s original look and the biggest factor is the colouring. The old colouring was so simple and a lot of the time washed out the detail of the pencil and ink work.

One of the biggest, and perhaps most underrated change to comic books over the past 10 years is the advance in colouring. Colouring adds so much to comic books today and it’s a huge factor in setting the mode and brining life to art. It can make a talented artist a superstar; can you imagine Steve McNiven’s art without his colourist?

What I would like to see in an attempt to show newer fans that Jack Kirby is just as talented as people say and also to show people just how vital colouring is too today’s high standards of art is a one shot reprinting some of Jack Kirby’s pages by today’s top colourists.

I think it would be a unique experiment and very interesting comparison from 60’s art to today’s art.