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2010-04-17T09:48:00.000-07:00

A Few Decent Mini-Series

2010-03-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

After two blogs dealing with different titles I like, I've decided to do a third. However, this time I will be focusing on mini-series rather than ongoing titles. Some of these books have either just started or are half way over. Either way, each of the issues are still available if anyone is interested in picking them up.

1) The Great Ten

A few years ago, during DC's foray into a weekly maxi-series, a coalition of writers introduced a new super-team based on China, the Great Ten, complete with a base in the Great Wall of China. Like many other titles before it (most notably the DC Earth Annuals from several years ago), the characters only recieved a passing glance in the dozen or so appearances they were allowed in the 52-issue maxi-series. Sure, we had the makings of a good team-book, but beyond their names, pure speculation as to their actual powers, and a few minor character traits, the Great Ten was still a largely undeveloped property. Beyond a few later appearances in the ongoing Checkmate series, the Great Ten was largely absent after 52 ended. Here we had nearly a dozen new characters that were introduced in a successful maxi-series and nothing was done to capture any interest that customers might have. Few titles have attempted to showcase a team based in a country outside the United States, and in most of those cases (such as Justice League Europe), the team has a large membership of US-based superheroes. With Great Ten, the entire membership is composed of new Chinese super-heroes that have theoretically been around for years, but simply haven't appeared due to few DC stories being set in China. Fortunately, now that DC comics has decided to get back to the Great Ten, they've chosen a writer with a good talent for writing a large cast of characters. Tony Bedard first caught my eye with his excellent Negation series, and he currently showcases his abilities with the large cast of DC's cosmic team REBELS, which i've previously written about. Where other writers would choose to write a team book where only one or two characters get the spotlight, Tony is writing an eight issue maxi-series where each issue focuses on a different character. It's almost like a Secret Origins: The Great Ten mini-series, with a secondary plot set in the modern day. Now, don't think this means that Bedard ignores the present-day conflict (with Chinese gods returning to get rid of the Communist Government). I simply think the origin story is far more interesting, and Bedard uses the tapestry of DC Universe history to help him shape the backgrounds of these ignored superheroes. Issue 5 just came out and it features the most interesting member of the Great Ten, August-General-In-Iron, who uses the teachings of Sun Tzu in his dealings with the threats that China faces. The General is a good example of how Bedard uses the history of China along with the history of the DC Universe in writing his story. I recommend Great ten if you like China, international super-heroes, or Tony Bedard. Even if you don't like any of the three, you should still give it a try.

2) Captain Swing and the Electric Pirates of Cindery Island

It's hard to write about this mini-series because the first issue just came out last week, but Warren Ellis wrote a good first chapter that has me hooked for the entire series. For Avatar Comics, Warren Ellis has already written good historical fiction with his Crecy graphic novel and science fiction with Ignition City, so now he combines the two to write an ambitious series set in London of the 1830s, complete with a few historical footnotes so you can get an idea what the world was like at the time. So far the title has dealt with an English constable investigating strange murders by 'Spring-Heeled Jack' that are tied to a strange 'airshop' while coming into conflict with a rival law enforcement group.

4) Astro City: The Dark Age

Astro City isn't so much a mini-series as it is a series of mini-series, that deals with many popular comic book archetypes with a fresh spin on an old concept. the location Astro City is the base of operations for dozens of super-powered beings drawn from a variety of genres. The current run consists of four mini-series (for a total of sixteen issues) set during the darkest period of Astro City's history. Kurt Buseik, one of the best super-hero writers in history, tells a story spanning generations, accompanied by Brent Anderson on the interiors and the legendary Alex Ross as the cover artist. While you may feel lost by trying a maxi-series that is almost over, I would be surprised if you didn't get hooked by the fascinating world after only reading a single story. If you've enjoyed Buseik's previous work on Marvels or Avengers, Astro City is him at his best.

4) Cinderella: From Fablestown With Love

Fables is one of my favorite comic books. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good story to read, even if they usually stick to super-hero comics. I can't get enough of it and have to read the new issue as soon as I unpack it from the weekly shipment. Therefore, it's no surprise that I love the latest Fables-related book, Cinderella, which showcases the fairy tale princess turned secret agent on her latest adventure. Bill Willingham originally introduced Cinderella almost as an after thought in the first volume, but by the second year, he showed that he had a clear vision for the character. While Cinderella allows others to thing she is a simple socialite, she simply uses this as a cover to allow her to undertake top secret missions for the Fabletown Sheriff. Rookie Fables writer Chris Roberson crafts a tale set after the Homelands War with Cinderella teaming up with a fellow fairy tale agent to stop the unrestricted flow of magical artifacts into the mundane (mundy) world. The illustrations are provided by the talented Shawn McManus and cover artist Chrissie Zullo, a young artist that rivals popular Fables cover guy James Jean. All together, this team is putting out a quality Fables story that keeps up with the regular Fables title in quality, something the hit-or-miss spinoff Jack of Fables has often failed to do. Hopefully once this mini-series wraps up we'll see more Cinderella stories by this creative team, as Cindy's adventures could certainly justify an ongoing series.

That's it for now. I hope some of you will consider trying some of these titles.

Five of My Favorite Underrated Books, Part 2

2010-02-18T14:46:00.000-08:00

In comic books, you tend to find a lot of characters that stand out from the rest. Many of these characters will rise above the others, characters like Batman, Spider-Man, or Wolverine, enjoying great success and enormous popularity. However, just as many will be true outcasts and largely ignored by comic readers because for some reason they don't appeal to a larger audience. Fortunately, in the right hands, these characters can find new life and carve a niche in the marketplace. I'm going to cover five books that I enjoy and rely on characters (with one notable exception) that are hardly A-list or B-list. If anything, most of the characters could be described as E-List at best, at least until recently when their current creative teams took over.

1) Agents of Atlas
The roots of Agents of Atlas date back to the post-WWII late 1940s/early 1950s when Timely Comics (publishers of Captain America and Human Torch to name a few) cut back on its super-hero line in order to pursue other growing genres, such as horror, romance, and western comics. By the early 50s, Timely's name changed to Atlas Comics. Some of the new characters introduced during this period included Venus (the Roman Goddess of Love), Jimmy Woo (a federal agent assigned to defeat the villainous Yellow Claw), and Marvel Boy (a early predecessor of the Marvel Comics character Quasar). After Atlas transitioned to Marvel Comics, most of the characters lapsed into obscurity aside from a few appearances once or twice a decade. In the late 1970s, a story in What If paid homage to the Atlas characters by showing what might have been if a team of Avengers had been active during the 1950s. The team was also mentioned in the Avengers Forever mini-series of the late 1990s when Kurt Buseik made mention of every 'potential' Avengers team across all realities. Flash forward to about three years, and a new writer stepped up to take a chance on one of the most unlikely Avengers teams of all-time. Redubbed 'Agents of Atlas', Jeff Parker has weaved together not just a story in the present day, but also filled in an intriguing timeline starting with the group's debut in the 1950s. The current adventures usually have some historical conotation complete with flashbacks to earlier Atlas adventures. The group started by getting introduced in their own 8 issue mini-series and later graduated to an ongoing series after Secret Invasion. Now they are teaming up with the X-Men and Avengers in individual minis before getting a second ongoing series in a couple of months. The team is unusual, but they are worthy of attention. Including the three I mentioned, the team also includes the robot M-11, the scientist trapped in a gorilla's body Gorilla Man, and Namor's cousin Namora. Several other characters fill in the supporting cast.

2) Azrael
Like the Agents of Atlas, the roots of Azrael date back several years. The original Azrael was the assassin for the Order of St. Dumas, a secret holy order with mysterious plans (how many of those does DC have?), and introduced in a popular Batman mini-series written by veteran writer Dennis O'Neil and drawn by rising star Joe Quesada. The character was forced into the mainstream when he was chosen to replace Bruce Wayne as Batman for about a year. After that, he graduated to his own ongoing series written by creator Dennis O'Neil and drawn by a variety of decent artists. Speaking as someone who read all 100 issues of Azrael, I don't know how the series was allowed to last so long. I imagine most of the reason was because of Dennis O'Neil's influence, because I doubt the sales or fanbase were overwhelming. I feel the stories suffered from a stagnation in the writing. O'neil was well past his prime and his later stories tended to be contrived, nonsensical, or just plain boring. What's worse is that there seemed to be a moratorium on Azrael appearing in any other books, including other bat-titles (with very few exceptions). The title was thankfully put out of its misery, but the damage to the character was too immense. No writer seemed interested in touching the character for a ten-fot pole. Thankfully, a writer eventually saw promise in the idea of a holy assassin. During the Battle for the Cowl storyline, Fabian Nicienza weaved a story of a former police officer being forced to take on the mantle of Azrael as a result of his own personal demons while mixing current and past Bat-continuity, such as the Order of St. Dumas and the League of Assassins. As before, the character graduated to an ongoing series where each month the new Azrael, Michael Lane, finds himself confronted with strong moral, political, or religious issues and solves them in interesting 9and often lethal) ways. So far, each issue has been satisfying. It's nice to get a full story in each issue, and not feeling forced to read the previous or next issue.

3) Guardians of the Galaxy
Up until the late 1990s, Marvel Comics did a good job of promoting their 'cosmic' characters. People like Quasar and Silver Surfer had ongoing titles supplemented by endless mini-series and one-shots. Sadly, with marvel's bankruptcy, many of the cosmic books were cut back with Silver Surfer being the last title to fall. After that, the various space characters were relegated to minor supporting parts with few stories dealing with the multitude of alien races that had been introduced up until then. Even the popular Shi'ar and Skrull races only showed up every few years, and rarely in a features role. Fortunately, a few years ago, Keith Giffen masterminded a crossover that changed all that. The mini-series Annihilation, spotlighted several notable space characters (Ronan the Accuser and Nova to name a few) in the wake of a Negative Zone invasion by the Fantastic Four foe Annihilus (where the event got it's name). The epic story was on par with the space battles of Star Wars, with dozens of characters playing a part. The sequel to Annihilation, Annihilation: Conquest, was helmed by the immensely-talented partnership Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (who are no strangers to large casts, as their run on Legion of Super-Heroes will prove). This story brought in a new foe, with Avengers baddie Ultron joining forces with the Phalanx to assimilate all biological life in the universe. The stars of this story were a small team led by Star-lord (an obscure Marvel character who had a minor part in the first Annihilation) who made up just one of the groups battling Ultron's forces. His team included a ramshackle crew of alien misfits such as Groom (a giant tree with a very high opinion of himself), Bug (a former member of the 1980s Micronauts), and Rocket Raccoon (a sentient raccoon with incredible commando skills). By some miracle, most of the team survived the defeat of Ultron. These characters formed the core of a new ongoing series once more helmed by Abnett and Lanning. The Guardians of the Galaxy were reborn for the first time (with the name itself being a reference to a long-running series from the 90s about a team of survivors in an alternate 31st Century). So far the stories keep getting better as the size of the team continues to grow, adding cosmic staples such as Adam Warlock, Moondragon, and Drax the Destroyer. Even Earth-based misfits like Jack Flag, a former sidekick of Captain America, joined the team after a trip to the Negative Zone (in a story that makes perfect sense if you read it).

4) Secret Six
The Secret Six was originally a spinoff of the Infinite Crisis event, a group of villians that chose not to join the larger Secret Society of Super-Villains and found themselves targets for their former allies. The team started as a variant of the old Suicide Squad, where members who couldn't cut it found themselves with an early retirement and replaced with a more effective teammate. After a battle with the Society, the Six went underground. Some of their members even rejoined the Suicide Squad only to be abandoned on a desolate alien planet during the Salvation Run mini-series, eventually escaping with several other super-villains. Now, the team is still a group of rogue villains, somewhat like a villainous A-team if anything with no clear purpose but to keep eachother safe. The current team includes notable bat-foes Deadshot and Bane, Scandal (the daughter of Vandal Savage), and Catman (a character humiliated during Brad Meltzer's Green Arrow run and redeemed in the Villains United mini). Gail Simone has helmed the series through all the minis and cureent ongoing, and she has a good feel for the mix of old and new characters in need of a new home. Her recent collaboration with john Ostrander (the incredible writer of the original Suicide Squad) was even better, as Ostrander brought his own group of misfits to play with the Six.

5) The Blade of the Immortal
Unlike the other books, Blade of the Immortal was not a concept, character, or group given a new perspective. The series was created by Hiroaki Samura who was continued writing and drawing since the early 1990s. Fortunately, the title character does fit the misfit theme I've used for this article. Blade of the Immortal is an amazing manga about a disgraced swordsman cursed to live forever. He makes a deal with a wise woman to have the curse removed in exchange for killing a thousand wicked men, seemingly absolving himself of the murders he committed earlier. This concept is only a minor part of the larger story. Manji, the lead, is a skilled fighter and morally dubious man who arms himself with several intriguing and deadly weapons. He likes to enjoy himself, but often finds himself chastised by his side-kick, Rin. Rin is a young woman whose parents were killed by members of the rogue sword-school the Itto-Ryo, who draw members from all types of fighting styles and walks of life. This provides Manji with a good variety of swordsmen to fight throughout the series, while showcasing many of the fighting styles of Japan. A second group, the Mugai-Ryo, even works with Manji to eliminate the Itto-Ryo on the orders of the Shogunate. Still, not all Itto-ryo are necessarily evil, and the Mugai-Ryo are hardly angels, showing that there are plenty of grey areas for the characters ot inhabit. Other characters and groups come and go, insuring that there are always new and interesting characters to meet throughout the series, each with their own agendas. Aside from the characters themselves, the setting has a life of it's own. Blade of the Immortal sometimes reads like a movie done by Akira Kurosawa, as Samura pays close attention to the culture and styles of the time. While the series is no longer published in monthly-issue format, it is currently being released in manga-trade format, with a new one every six months.

Radical Comics: A Rising Star

2010-02-04T11:43:00.001-08:00

For almost the last two years, I've been following Radical Comics, a new comic book publisher as it's forged a niche for itself in the independent comics market. Their style is characterized by taking established genres or myths and providing a new perspective to them. The majority of thier publishing covers various science fiction and fantasy titles illustrated by some of the best new artists in the industry. Almost every issue features a painted style appropriate to the story, though this does come with drawbacks.

Radical Comics first blazed onto the scene with their 2008 Free Comic Book Day offering, featuring several pages from the first two books they planned to release later that month. The first two books were Hercules: The Thracian Wars, about a group of former Argonauts training the army of Thrace in new military tactics, and Caliber, a retelling of Arthurian myth in a period similar to the Wild West. Both stories were interesting, and they served as a good initial offering by the new company.

New books were scheduled, each telling a unique story that in a different setting. These titles included Hotwire (a brainchild of Warren Ellis about a Exorcist/Police Detective who worked in a future that looked a little like Blade Runner), Shrapnel ( an epic science fiction tale about a former Marine aiding a Colonial Rebellion against Earth Invaders, with some story similarities to the old anime Venus Wars), Freedom Formula (about a futuristic city where people race in giant mechs instead of cars), and City of Dust (about a future civilization where imagination is illegal). Hotwire was easily my favorite of the four. This batch started to show a problem with Radical's creative teams. The original artist bowed out and was replaced half way through the series. I don't know if this was due to the artist taking other work or getting fired, but it throws off the story a little by having the art change half-way through a mini-series.

Radical has several new series which recently started including FVZA (about the remnants of a federal organization that stemmed the tide of vampire and zombie infection in the United States before being disbanded), Incarnate (a bland Vampire Hunter D-wannabe written by Gene Simmons's son), Last Days of American Crime (which I have not read and thus cannot write anything about), and Hercules: Knives of Kush (a sequel to the Thracian Wars set in Egypt). Two new promising titles were released yesterday, Aladdin: Legacy of the Lost (a dark tale of Arabian myth) and Legends: The Echanted (a horror graphic novel where fairy tale characters Jack and Red Riding Hood are monster hunters in a brutal landscape populated by werewolves, hags, and giants). Both series look like they will be a good addition to the Radical library.

Any of the titles (except for Freedom Formula or Incarnate) are worth a try if you're looking for a non-super-hero book to read. Also, if you just want to wait until May, Radical always uses Free Comic Book Day as a good time to market their future books with a good sample of the art and writing.

Five of My Favorite Underrated Books

2010-01-31T09:29:00.000-08:00

As a comic shop manager, I admit that I read a lot of comics. I have to in order to stay up to date on current comic events so I can answer any questions that customers may have. Unfortunately, it often seems that some of the comics I read are overhyped simply because they are labeled a 'top-tier' book by editors of the major companies. This results in the comic book press (mostly internet and Wizard writers) ignoring other books that could greatly benefit from the added exposure. I would like to cover a few titles that I enjoy, yet I don't feel get their fair share of coverage or fan interest. For the sake of fairness, I'm only going to deal with ongoing titles. Also, these aren't in any particular order.

-Tim Grubbs

1) Star Wars Legacy

I love Star Wars. I have ever since I was little. The entire saga (yes, even the crappy prequels) is epic and uses popular themes and character types to tell stories of a galaxy far far away. Star Wars Legacy forges new territory, farther than any previous Star Wars tale, while avoiding the stale territory that some of the novels stagger into. John Ostrander is an amazing writer who has written star wars tales for several years now. He's the epitome of what Star Wars comic writers should aspire to be. If you've ever read his world for the 'Big Two' (Suicide Squad and Blaze of Glory to name two of my favorites), then you probably know how talented a writer he can be. He can introduce a character, and it feels like they belong in this world. He's created dozens of characters for Star Wars Legacy that help expand the Star Wars universe by leaps and bounds with each issue.

2) Avengers: The Intiative

Starting out as a title dealing with the aftermath of the Marvel Civil War, Avengers the Intiative quickly established itself as the haven for rookie super-heroes in training, with a nice mix of established and brand-spanking new characters. Dan Slott originally wrote the title before handing it off to rising star writer Christos Gage, and the changes to the title are seemless. Both writers know how to make you feel for these characters, young people that have powers and want to use them to serve the public good. Also, the Initiative does give some legitimacy to the post-Civil Wars world as very few titles (save for the short-lived Order series by Matt Franction, a horrible story-line in Iron Man: Director of SHIELD and a better story in Marvel Zombies 3) have attempted to showcase the 50-State Initiative that was so important in the aftermath of Civil War. For a while, it seemed like each issue introduced a new Intiative team with an appropriate membership of new and old characters. I think the only gripe I can have with the book is that it lacks a regular cast. With so many characters to choose from, Slott and Gage seem to jump around, focusing one group one month, and another group another month. This might turn you off if you like following the same characters each month, but I think it helps to show how big the Marvel Universe is that so many normally-ignored characters can get the spotlight every once in a while.

3) Secret Warriors

As Avengers the Intiative spun off out of Civil Wars, Secret Warriors is a spin-off of Secret Invasion. Created by Brian Michael Bendis, Marvel made the right call in handing the title off to Jonathan Hickman. WHile I have no love for Bendis (in fact, customers who know me might even say I have a passionate hatred for the man's writing), I absolutely love Jonathan Hickman's style. His pilot season one-shot, the Core, is just one example of how much fun he can have with a simply 22 page story. He created the basis for a mini-Science Fiction universe using a standard size comic book that left me wanting more. The Marvel Espionage book Secret Warriors keeps him a little more grounded, but it doesn't limit his creative juices. Bendis established the Secret Warriors as a team put together of the descendents of past superhumans, some good, some evil. Nick Fury put them together because no one else had their eye on them. Hickman quickly established that there were around 20 potential recruits that Fury had to choose from in one of the 'files' in the back of the first issue. Other files covered the locations of Fury's secret bases (introduced in Civil War) and the heirarchy of SHIELD and it's rival Hydra. Later issues have similar files that expand the world. The book just wrapped its first year of publication, and it's poised to introduce two new teams of 'Secret Warriors', increasing the excitement I already feel when I read the series.

4) R.E.B.E.L.S.

Back in the 90s, Keith Giffen introduced a series called L.E.G.I.O.N. (yes it stands for something), which showed the ancestors of the 30th century Legion of Super-Heroes. You had everything a Legion fan could want, a Coluan (Vril Dox), a Durlan (called 'The Durlan' and later revealed to be Legion Financier R.J.Brande and father of Chameleon Boy), and dozen others that paralled the future Legion membership. Now, don't mistake this as a carbon copy of the 30th century Legion. In fact, despite Vril Dox's tight control, his team mates often despised him and hated some of the duplicitous acts he committed. Still, LEGION was a force for law and order in a lawless universe. After all, the Green Lanterns can't be everywhere. Eventually all good things must come to an end, with Vril Dox going on the run from LEGION with a new group of R.E.B.E.L.S. (and yet, it also stands for something) composed of several of his original team. That series lasted a little over a year before ending, and the LEGION remained in limbo for almost a decade afterwards. LEGIOn made a resurgence a few years ago during the Rann Thanagar War (and the preceeding Adam Strange mini), along with a wretched Omega Men mini-series a year after that. Now, Vril Dox and his team are back in an ongoing title of their own, with Vril recruiting a variety of aliens to help him depose the new leader of LEGION, a re-invisioned Starro the Conqueror. Tony Bedard (a writer I've enjoyed ever since his book the Negation for Crossgen Comics) has crafted a masterful tale that incorporates just about every previous LEGION story, embracing the past rather than ignoring it. This attention to history and his large knowledge of various DC space characters has given him a limitless cast of characters to use in his story. The cover above roughly covers a third of Dox's current team, but the large number of characters is not distracting, with each member given something to do. I can't wait to see what happens next in each issue as the exitement continues to build each month. Even the recent Blackest Night tie-in, where Vril Dox was bestowed with a yellow lantern ring, was handled well and didn't detract from the main storyline.

5) Chew

Tony Chu is a detective with an interesting ability. He has a form of edibile psychometry, meaning that he can read the memories of anything that he eats. This led to him embracing a vegetarian lifestyle (as meat would give him the rather violent death echoes of the animals that were slaughtered for his food). By the end of the first issue, he realizes that he can use his ability to investigate crimes. Eating a piece of human flesh or a single drop of blood would tell him the identity of a victim or the duplicitous acts of a criminal. The series is humorous, dark, and engaging. Tony Chu is a good everyman who seems thrown into one distressing situation after another, all while working in his new position as an FDA agent investigating black market Chicken smuggling. Oh, that's right. I forgot one of the most interesting aspects of the series. In the fictional history of Chew, the bird flu epidimic led to jarring legislation that banned all poultry from the United States, as well as most of the free world. Other meat products suffer similar bans. Now, individuals who need a chicken fix are required to go through illegal methods to acquire a once common food product. So the next time you pick up a ten piece bucket of chicken from KFC, just remember that you could be living in the world of Chew where you could be arrested and thrown in jail for a couple years just for being in possession of contraband poultry. If any of this sounds interesting, then check out Chew.

Top Cow's Pilot Season 2010: Kirkmania

2010-01-30T16:03:00.000-08:00

Okay, I've taken the time to read the first two issues of the new Top Cow Pilot Season and wanted to give my two cents on them.

For those who don't know, Pilot Season is an annual program by Top Cow Productions to come out with around 6 one-shots each spotlighting a potential new series. After all of the one-shots are released, fans are allowed to vote on what they'd like to see as new books, with the two top vote-getters becoming ongoing series. This year is the third year that Top Cow has held the promotion.

2007 spotlighted pre-existing top cow characters such as Cycblade (of Cyberforce), Velocity (also from Cyberforce), and Aphrodite IX (an aborted mini-series almost a decade old). I never read them so I couldn't tell you if they were any good or worth reading.

2008 showcased all-new properties (with one lone exception). To name a few (in order of my own personal preference) were Urban Myths (a detective story by Jay Faerber with a background in Greek Mythology, my favorite of the bunch), The Core (A science fiction yarn by Jonathan Hickman with some stylistic similarities to the video game Mass Effect), Twilight Guardian (about a young woman with OCD who envisions herself a local vigilante to cope with her rather mundane life), Lady Pendragon (really just the latest issue of a series that hadn't been published in almost a decade), Alibi (about twins who moonlight as assassins, really just awful), and Genius (a young Latina gang leader who is credited as being the greatest tactician of the 21st century).

The 2009/2010 pilot Season is supposed to be the creative ground for popular writer Robert Kirkman, who I enjoy for his work on Invicible and Walking Dead. So far only two of the titles have been released, but they seem to show a lack of creativity. Don't get me wrong, they are nice little stories, but I feel that Robert Kirkman could be doing a better job. I've read most of what he's written, from Marvel Team-Up to Fantastic Four: Foes, so I'm familiar with his writing, but the first two one-shots, Murderer (about an empath who kills those he thinks are evil people while trying to do good) and Demonic (about a cop bound to a demon who kills others so that he doesn't have to harm his children), are a disservice to his usual style.

I have to wonder if Kirkman only gave a little bit of thought to the tales, which i can understand considering he writes two Image ongoing series, so throwing six extra one-shots into the mix is bound to be a little taxing creatively. I wish Kirkman didn't decide to take on the responsibility of writing all six pilot season one-shots. Part of the joy of the 2009 Pilot Season was that there were six different stories being told by six different creative teams that took time to craft a single story. One writer writing six different stories by six different artists feels like the wrong direction. Perhaps the next three one-shots, Stealth, Stellar, and Hardcore, will be better. I really hope they are.

Perhaps my problem with the issues is simply that I know Kirkman could do better. Who am I to question how he writes a story? If they were by a different writer, I'd probably like them a little more, but because they were written by the visionary creator of the Walking Dead, I hold them to a measuring stick that they can't possibly live up to. Therefore, I will reiterate that the stories were decent. If you come across one, then check it out. And once they are all released, if you really liked one of the stories in particular, then vote for it.

Now to the meat and potatoes of this post. I dare to ask the question, is the Pilot Season a scam?

Top Cow claims that the Pilot Season is designed to introduce new potential titles to the comic book market, and the two titles preferred by fans (through online voting) will become ongoing series. To see if this is true, lets look back at past Pilot Season winners.

In 2007, Velocity and Cyblade were the winners. A brief 4-issue Cyblade series eventually came out, but Velocity never saw the light of day. Fortunately, almost like a light at the end of the tunnel for any long-time Cyberforce fans, a new Velocity series by Ron Marz is currently on tap for later this year. I have no emotional attachment to either character, so I'm not too bothered by a lack of publication for the class of 2007.

In 2008, my personal picks were Urban Myths, The Core, and Twilight Guardian. Unfortunately, only one of those won. The other was the mediocore Genius one-shot. So far, neither has been scheduled for publication by Top Cow, and I have yet to hear anything regarding them.

Now the new Pilot Season is upon us. Will the two 'winners' become ongoings or will they fade into obscurity like the past participants? We'll just have to wait and see. I think if Top Cow is going to come up with this sham of a contest, then they at least owe it to the fans to publish something with the winner characters. Otherwise it's a slap in the face to the readers that bought the original books to try them out.

Current TOP 10 Reads for the Month

2010-01-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

So many books and so little time to read them all, however these are a few books that have been keeping me entertained and excited to read what comes next.
So the following are the 10 series I have enjoyed the most this past month.
(Granted I'm sitting on 2 shorts boxes of unread books right now)
Next Wednesday day is the final issue of Captain America Reborn and I'll be posting a full review of the series.
- Grant (follow me and universe on twitter)

10. Kill Audio

9. Super God

8. Locke & Key

7. Batman: Widening Gyre

6. The Boys

5. Walking Dead

4. Siege

3. (Batwoman) Detective Comics

2. Green Lantern

1. BLACKEST NIGHT

Happy New Years!

2010-01-21T14:02:00.000-08:00

2010, the begining of what should be a great year of comics!
From the Ending of Blackest Night and Captain America Reborn looming over the horizon to the Begining of SIEGE and Brightest Day.
a Few new things for those of you social networkers out there.
you can now follow us on facebook and twitter.
as well as more updates on here about upcoming release, reviews, sales, and events.
we're looking forward to seeing lots of old faces and new ones at the shop!

- Grant

TOY TENT SALE at Universe Sat Aug 1st!

2009-07-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

Push and other things

2009-02-20T08:55:00.000-08:00

I saw the new movie 'Push' last night and I really liked it.

After reading reviews for it, I was worried that it would be terrible, but I nevertheless got a group of friends together to go see the movie. Afterwards, all of us agreed that it was well done (particularly with how special effects were used tp portray different powers) with an intriguing plot.

Push is the story of people with special abilities and the government organization that's tasked with either keeping them in line (often by training them as agents) or locking them up if they are a potential threat. There are several different abilities shown in the movie: Pushers who can make people believe certain things (you really need to watch the movie to know just how effective this ability can be), Movers that move things telekinetically with their minds, Watchers who can see potential futures, and half a dozen others that are mentioned.

Comic book fans will recognize themes in Push similar to recent comics like 'Civil War' and television shows like 'Heroes' but it's a good story in it's own right. It doesn't try to copy or adapt a previous work, but create something new using elements of other popular fiction.

As far as acting goes, the movie lacks a huge star (unless you have an inflated opinion of Dakota Fanning or Chris Evans), but the cast does an excellent job with the characters they play. Even though most of the characters aren't elaborated on, the actors seem to have fun playing their parts, which is good for a minor movie like this.

So, if you like comic books or action movies or just want something to watch for two hours, go see Push. It might not be in theatres for very long.

Also, I watched the entire Star Wars Trilogy last weekend (the original, not the prequels) and they still hold up. I think everyone should watch the original Star Wars movies once every six months.

Lost is getting good. I had a problem with some of the episodes in season 3 and 4, but it's getting back into a nice groove.

That's about it. I'll try to write again soon.

Megacon next week and Watchmen the week after that.

FRIDAY THE 13TH ADVANCE SCREENING PASSES ARE HERE!!

2009-02-05T15:01:00.000-08:00

FRIDAY THE 13TH THEME PARTY!

2009-02-05T14:57:00.000-08:00

Rage of the Red Lanterns, Fallout, Bender's Game

2008-11-07T19:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, here's an update on some things that I've been really excited about the last couple of weeks.

1) Rage of the Red Lanterns
For anyone currently reading Green Lantern, 'Rage' is just the latest chapter in the GL epic that writer Geoff Johns has been crafting for over three years. It's amazing how much thought he must have put into this story. The idea of each color in the rainbow (green = willpower, yellow = fear) having a different ability associated with it may seem hokey, but each different 'corps' introduced so far is distinct enough that we can't really confuse one for the other (except for the inevitable problem when the blue and indigo lanterns start appearing side by side).

Green Lantern is the kind of big space saga that's only been mildly used in past Green lantern stories. Geoff Johns takes advantage of the diverse population of the universe and (with the help of others) crafts different and unique aliens to populate the different corps that are coming out the woodwork. I really like the different alien designs that appeared in the previous 'Sinestro Corps War', and if the little cat Red Lantern is any indication, there should be plenty of new and interesting aliens showing up in future issues.

If anyone wants to give Green lantern a try, I am more than willing to loan one of my collections out, so long as I can trust you to return it.

2) Fallout 3
For the last week and a half, I have spent FAR too much time playing Fallout 3. It is a very exhaustive game with a huge world to explore and hundreds (if not thousands) of things to do. Like in the first falout game (for the PC), you play a survivor of a 200-year old nuclear holocaust who has spent all of his (or her) life living in a 'vault', underground fallout shelters the size of a small town. You venture forth to find your father who mysteriously disappeared for some unknown reason.

Fortunately, this is just one possible story you can follow. Don't want to find the dad that left you back at the Vault without so much as a good-bye? Then take out your aggression on over-sized mole rats that populate the immediate area as soon as emerge from the Vault. After that, maybe you could pop into the nearest trader haven called Megaton and chat up some of the locals. Several offer you odd jobs that you can do for them, including defusing an undetonated nuclear warhead lying in the center of town. What's better, is that you could choose to detonate the warhead (from a safe distance) providing you find the recent visitor that would like to see Megaton wiped off the map.

After you've run a few errands for the Megaton citizenry (or celebrated the destruction of the small town with the wicked folk of Tenpenny Tower), feel free to explore the abandoned metro tunnels that run through most of the Capitol Wasteland (the ruins of Washington D.C. are the setting for the game). Of course, the tunnels aren't necessarilly abandoned. Many are populated by Ghouls (fast zombies), Raiders, Mole Rats, and Radroaches to name a few, and they all have gear that you can pick off their corpses and keep for yourself (or sell to a merchant for other goods).

After the subways get a little boring (or you run out of ammo or things to kill), pop on over to Rivet City, an abandoned aircraft carrier that's been converted into a bustling township for a clue to your father's whereabouts.

Almost everyone you encounter has some kind of background that makes the world a little bit more interesting. The entire wasteland is filled with interesting folk to talk, trade with, or help. Several people have a job or two you could do for them to make your way in the world, whether their intentions are good or bad. Don't like running errands for people you just met? Whip out a shotgun and put a load of buckshot between their eyes, but be prepared for any 'witnesses' in the immediate area.

Suffice it to say, there is a ton to do in this game. I can get enough of it and I'm worried I might have a bit of a problem. This game is too good. Don't buy it unless you are prepared to be entranced by this masterpiece of post-apocalyptic storytelling. You control everything you do, so have fun

3) Bender's Game
Bender's Game is the latest direct-to-dvd movie for the hilarious sci-fi animated comedy Futurama. Futurama was much better than the Simpsons because it went with a different setting and actually allowed it's characters to grow with each year. Bender's Game brings the classic game Dungeons and Dragons into the Futurama world by having the drunk robot Bender Bending Rodrigeuz learn the game. I don't want to say any more than that because it might ruin some of the surprises in store for you.

I'll try to update this again soon.

I'm going to write a blog about some of the books (real books, not comics) that I've been reading recently.

In Space, No One Can Hear You Die

2008-10-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

In the last two days, I have become both fascinated and terrified by a new video game called 'Dead Space'.

This story actually begins several months ago when I read about Dead Space in an issue of game Informer. I've been a fan of survival horror games for a long time, and I like it even more when game developers mess with the genre.

Rather than find yourself in the remains of a top secret lab, island infested with dinosaurs, or even a city swarming with the living dead, you are transported to a derelict space ship which has sent off a distress call for aid. The hero isn't your typical paramilitary action hero, but an engineer simply sent to repair a disabled ship.

The story caught my interest, so I was enthusiastic when I read that there were be a comic book released as a prequel to the game. The 6-issue mini-series with the same name as the game was published by Image Comics with art by unique artist Ben Templesmith, a man that's captured a loyal audience with books like the original 30 Days of Night, Wormwood Gentlemen Corpse, and Fell.

The mini-series and Templesmith's art captured the dark look expected for a story of survival horror, but the story felt a little flat. The comic tells the tale of a colony that discovers an unknown obelisk, which results in numerous violent acts occurring at the hands of either the excavation team or religious fanatics. The main protagonists do little more than react to the problems caused by the obelisk before meeting the same fate that befalls many secondary characters in horror stories. The main information we gain from the comic is that the captain of the Ishimura (the ship the player goes to in Dead Space) brought aboard the corpses of some of the colonists and followed the same faith as a Church that worships 'Markers' similar to the obelisk which was discovered. This is reason why the Ishimura was left derelit and required emergency assistance by a team of engineers led by the player character in the main game.

The comic honestly didn't do much for me, but when I finally got the game this past Thursday, I was enthralled. It plays with light and shadows to heighten your gaming experience, along with the terror you feel from being left in the dark surrounded by undead humalien life-forms. Sound is another big factor in capturing the atomosphere. Creatures skuttle about everywhere, so you need to be on your guard whenever you hear something unusual.

Similar to another game I love, Bioshock, you have a few limited 'special powers' that are effects created by the suit you wear. You don't have a lot of variability, but you do have the power to slow down enemies (where you still get to move normally, so it's not like Max Payne's bullet-time) and move objects out of the way with telekinesis.

The weapons are unique, because most are actual tools rather than the assortment of pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles that you find in other genre games. Fortunately, there is one, a Plasma Rifle which I make good use of when confronted by a swarm of 'necromorphs'. There's nothing like being able to unload a clip of plasma rounds into an undead baddie to make you feel safe and sound. Unfortunately, you can run out of ammo due to the rifle's autofire, which is not a problem with the other weapons.

I know this sounds like a review, but I am just really enjoying the game and wanted to let anyone who reads this to know. Check out Dead Space. It's on PS3 and Xbox 360, so if you're a fan of survival horror or just sci-fi action games, you need to give it a try.

I recommend it for fans of Bioshock and Resident Evil.

Matt Hardy - New ECW Champion

2008-09-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

I know that I normally write about comic book stuff, but I just can't resist celebrating the win by one of my favorite wrestlers of the current decade.

Matt Hardy has been wrestling for the WWE since the late 1990s. He and his brother Jeff introduced a unique style of tag team wrestling to mainstream audiences. You might say they were just ripping off ECW's style, but in the WWF, the Hardys were on a larger stage with a much larger audience who clamored for their high risk moves and the near-suicidal lengths they would go to destroy their bodies.

Thankfully, despite a few brief periods of injury(or drug)-caused inactivity, the hardys have maintained a certain athletic ability. Jeff still goes for high-risk maneuvers and gets a bigger pop, but Matt has become a more accomplished mat-based wrestler, merging his fast-paced style with the 'WWE style' that myself and the internet wrestling community like to shit on.

Since the official break-up of the Hardys back in 2002, Matt changed himself from a hugely-popular tag team grappler to a singles wrestler with an unknown future. Matt crafted the 'Matt Hardy Version1' gimmick that made him a heel and allowed him to play off the 'I'm better than you' personality that many fans hate about the 'bad guys' of professional wrestling. Fortunately, with the way Matt played the character, fans started to get behind him. Unfortunately, the V.1 gimmick was moved to Raw (so Matt could be with his girlfriend Lita) where it was almost immediately buried, forcing him to lose to all manner of wrestlers whose glory days were long since bheind them.

After an injury at the hands of WWE wrestler Kane, Matt sat at home for a few months while his girlfriend started secretly banging one of his closest friends eventually leading to WWE firing him.

Fortunately, the Internet Wrestling COmmunity got behind Matt and he was soon back in the ring, even though is career was effectively at a stand-still for the next two years, as he entered off-and-on feuds with other mid-carders.

Recently, this changed. Last year, Matt started a feud with United States champion MVP, which saw the two competing in various contests to see who was better. The feud was so good that they eventually won the tag team titles and reluctantly defended them against the few teams Smackdown had to offer, until inevitably losing them last November. Still, Hardy had the last laugh and won the US title from MVP just a few months ago.

As US champ, Matt was later drafted to ECW, where he defended the title on two different channels and two different shows, sometimes in the same week. His lackluster reign ended when he lost the title to Shelton Benjamin just two short months ago.

Thankfully, this freed Matt from a secondary title and allowed him to focus on the ECW World title. If you couldn't tell by the title of this blog, he was successful, but not without his share of speedbumps.

One of the speed bumps was then-ECW champ Marc Henry, a former olympian whose wrestling career up until now was largely a joke, until a racial remark by a WWE writer led to a title reign as a way fo making it up to him. Nicknamed the 'Silverback', Marc Henry could probably swallow Hardy whole if he wanted to.

The other speedbump was Marc Henry's manager, Tony Atlas, a former strongman whose ability to talk is the only thing worse than his ability to foul up the matches he attempts to interfere in. During Hardy's two matches with Henry, Tony Atlas blocked attempts by Matt to make a winning pin while looking confused and completely out of place.

Thankfully, at last night's ECW Scramble match, Atlas was not a factor, as Matt Hardy beat four others (FIt Finlay, Chavo Guerrerro, the Miz, and Marc Henry) to win one of the best matches of the Pay-Per-View.

Now, Matt's the top dog in the ECW yard. The sky is the limit to how far Matt can go as ECW champion. He keeps himself in good shape and does not take advantage of the performance enhancing drugs that other wrestlers use. The last ECW champ to have those qualifications was former World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk.

Could Matt Hardy one day hold the World Heavyweight or WWE title? I think it's only a 'MATT'er of time.

Stories of Comics Past: Peter David’s Visit to the X-Men’s Future

2008-08-20T16:04:00.000-07:00

Days of Future Past holds the title of the most well known dystopic X-men future. Sentinels hunt the last free mutants while the remaining mutants hatch a plot to halt their present from occurring. The epic story has set the basis for much of the alternate future X-Men stories and parallels other post-apocalyptic futures.

A second less-popular future that awaits the X-Men is somewhat brighter, a world where humanity and mutants living in relative peace, despite the shadow of hatred and violence lurking everywhere. This is the future of Bishop, an X-man who first appeared thanks to Whilce Portacio in 1991.

Bishop arrived while hunting temporal fugitives from his own time and for one reason or another never returned to his own time and joined the X-men’s Gold Team. Bishop remained a mysterious mutant whose back-story was fleshed out in a series of excellent comics by John Ostrander.

Bishop’s future represented a return to Charles Xavier’s dream of peaceful coexistence. Humans and mutants worked together to rebuild society after a dark age of Hounds (indoctrinated mutants hunting their own) ferreting out their fellows and imprisoning them in camps. After the end of the internment camps, humans and mutants held a fragile peace that could be destroyed at any second. Violent fringe groups, such as the Exhumes (a future Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) and the Emplates (mutant vampires based on the Generation X villain Emplate), preyed on the populace, and there was even an incarnation of the Hellfire Club led by a man named Shaw. The truce seemed destined to end with so many forces working against it.

Fortunately, even in this dangerous time, there were those who upheld justice and worked hard to maintain the peace between the two races of man. There were the XSE, Xavier’s Security Forces. Bishop was just one of these future law enforcers and did what he could to hunt down those that would reignite the war between sapien and superior.

Of course, this future wouldn’t have been possible if not for a key event, which up until this week had yet to be told. Back during the time of the prison camps, when Hounds (indoctrinated mutants hunting their own) ferreted out their fellows in service to a brutal human/Sentinel government and all mutants were branded with an M so that there heritage could not be hidden, a single voice cried out for it to end and bring freedom to the imprisoned mutant populace. This jarring act would become known as the Summers Rebellion and unite the humans and mutants against the Sentinel threat. The Rebellion would later be the basis for the fragile truce maintained by the mutant-human leadership of Bishop’s time.

This future has been mostly ignored for the last decade until Jamie Madrox and Layla Miller took a trip there during the recent line-wide Messiah Complex storyline. Jamie’s duplicate was killed, but Layla Miller remained, a branded prisoner of a mutant internment camp. Her story continued in the new X-Factor Layla Miller one-shot, which came out this week. I had the pleasure of reading it last week, but waited until it released to comment on the book.

Peter David has a good grasp of X-Men history as well as the various mutant characters he is responsible for. He took a reviled one-note character from the House of M mini-series and turned her into a vital member of X-Factor Investigations, despite her only power of ‘knowing stuff’. His X-factor run is a diamond in the rough of the inconsistent X-titles that come out each month. Even though he has characters that most of the other x-writers don’t want to use (likely due to the lack of ‘prestige’ of characters like Wolfsbane, Strong Guy, M, and Rictor), he has created a well-defined cast and doesn’t avoid the long history each of them brings to the table.

David’s dedication to history (whether in marvel comics or the novels he writes) makes him an ideal writer for the telling the history of the Summers Rebellion. He takes elements first introduced in Morrison’s run and adapts them to the future of the Summers clan. An interesting new character is introduced and the first shot in mutant liberation is fired. I really hope that Peter David or another qualified writer returns to this future to continue the story. The rest of the tale of the Summers Rebellion needs to be told after an exciting first chapter.

Revelations and Reveals: Big Happenings in the DC and Marvel Universe from this week

2008-08-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

Marvel and DC released some interesting books this past Wednesday that tied into their latest crossovers: Secret Invasion, Final Crisis, Batman Rest in Peace, and X-Men Manifest Destiny.

**Warning – Spoilers**
Don’t read this and then complain about me ruining the story for you.

Secret Invasion:

The next chapter of the main series came out and it confirmed what my Secret Invasion theory (which you can read in last week’s blog) proposed: all the ‘heroes’ that were on the Skrull ship that crashed in the Savage Land were actually Skrulls. Emma Frost, Sue Storm, Jessica Jones, and even Mockingbird were all Skrull imposters. Unfortunately, the story didn’t bother to explain why the Skrulls would send infiltrators with various degrees of out of date information. Most of them seemed to be from periods at least 15 years old (in real time, not Marvel time). For example, Sue Storm didn’t know that Reed Richards had kids. The Skrulls would have had better luck passing off their infiltrators as being recently abducted (say around the time of Marvel’s Civil War).

Other than the big reveal, the issue was a typical ‘heroes get organized and take the fight back to the enemy’ story, but there should really be more meat in the main series since we’re already up to issue 5, with only 3 issues left.

To coincide with the release of issue 5, there were a lost of tie-ins this week. Secret Invasion Thor, Secret Invasion Inhumans, Secret Invasion X-Men, and Secret Invasion Runaways Young Avengers all shipped this week, coming very close to watering down the event. Marvel feels that for a big crossover to be successful, there have to be more tie-ins than most people could stand. Thor was notable for bringing back Beta Ray Bill after his death in the post-Civil War Omega Flight mini-series, while the X-Men shows the merry mutants defending their new home of San Francisco. Inhumans was nothing special. It had a beautiful cover, but the inside could have given more information on Black Bolt’s abduction. Instead, Medusa rallies the Inhumans and a Skrull infiltrator is revealed. Runaways/Young Avengers dealt with the teenage super-groups on the run in New York and trying to use Hulkling’s status as Skrull royalty to stop the war. I’m not sure if any of these books will make a significant contribution to the Secret Invasion story line, but I’ll wait to make a judgement until they are finished.

Also, on a side note, on the third-to-last page of Secret Invasion #5, it looks like Wonder Man (who arrived with the Avengers and not on the Skrull ship) was colored green, like one of the Skrull imposters. I’m anxious to see if Marvel comments on the mistake or reveals that a Skrull replaced Wonder Man.

Final Crisis:

Even though the main series didn’t come out this week, there was another mini-series tie-in. I’ve been very pleased with the other tie-ins so far (Requiem, Rogue Revenge), and the new mini-series Revelations kicked off an interesting story. It spotlights two conflicted heroes, Crispus Allen (a.k.a. the new Spectre who is still not comfortable with his new role) and Renee Montoya (a.k.a. the new Question who is on the run from the Church of Crime which wants her to lead them). Both characters are former partners who worked well together in Greg Rucka’s Gotham Central, and Rucka is returning to the dynamic by put the two on opposing sides. I’m not sure why the Spectre would need to exact vengeance on Montoya, but I’m sure Rucka has a good explanation.

Before going after Renee, the Spectre goes after one of the most infamous super-villains in recent years, the demented Dr. Light whose status was changed forever after Brad Meltzer’s excellent Identity Crisis mini-series. The Spectre carries out a unique punishment (you’ll have to read it to see it), but only time will tell if Dr. Light returns. Effigy, an unimportant Kyle Rayner Green Lantern villain, is the next to feel the Spectre’s wraith, as he was involved in the death of the Martian Manhunter in Final Crisis #1. Spectre tries to take down Libra, the newest leader of the Society, but something causes him to be rendered temporarily powerless. I like stories with the Spectre going after super-villains. It’s a waste to have him primarily target normal human beings, which has been done in previous Spectre stories, when the victims of the super-villain community cry out for vengeance.

Also, next week the Final Crisis Legion of Three Worlds starts and I expect that it will blow all other Final Crisis books out of the water. It’s going to be done by Geoff Johns and George Perez. I don’t see how it doesn’t surpass all expectations.

Universe of Super-Heroes No-Prize Question of the Week:
In Final Crisis Revelations, the Hangmen say they faked their deaths with the help of Doctor Psycho. Email em with the storyline where this event occurred (or at least the circumstances surrounding the story line) and you will win a genuine Universe No-Prize.

Batman Rest in Peace

In the newest Rest in Peace issue, Batman is still roaming the streets after switching to a third personality (a ‘back-up’ from the Batman and Bruce Wayne identities). I don’t know whether everything he’s experiencing is on another wavelength from the way we normally see things or if he’s finally lost his mind. For all I know, it could just be an act to give himself time to properly evaluate the threat of the Black Glove and then take measures to eliminate them. Also, Robin makes contact with some outside allies who will hopefully make a difference.

I hope that when this story line is complete we’re given a satisfactory explanation for Batman’s mental state. Grant Morrison’s writing style is not receptive to long-term comic readers, and I would hate for the entire story to be a waste of time if Morrison didn’t bother to properly think it threw before writing it.

X-Men Manifest Destiny

The new San Francisco-based X-Men are spotlighted in the new Astonishing X-Men and Secret Invasion X-Men.

Warren Ellis takes the Astonishing X-Men to Indonesia, where they visit ‘the spaceship graveyard’, a location that should have received a better background than the one given in Astonishing X-Men #25. I wonder what kind of deal the Indonesian government has for letting corporations dump the remains of alien spacecraft on one of their islands, but I doubt this will be explained. Also, Ellis ignores the artificially created mutant that was killed in the previous issue and what he was doing with the poorly named ‘Subject X’. Finally, we don’t know what the ‘ghost-box’ that Subject X was using is supposed to do. With all these unanswered questions, you have to ask yourself if it’s worth sticking around for. I’ll still be reading it, but I doubt I’ll be interested in the answers I get. Ellis can be either hit or miss, but I’d hate if his X-Men run fizzled out before it really had a chance to take off.

In Secret Invasion X-Men, Cyclops leads the mutants against a Skrull army. The X-Men break up into small teams to deal with multiple Skrull incursions. I look forward to Cyclops’s tactical mind to be showcased, but I can’t help but question whether such a large force is needed to pacify San Francisco. The skrulls didn’t seem to know the X-Men would be there, so why would a city with almost no superhuman population be targeted? If you can get past that Skrull tactical blunder, you should enjoy the story. The X-Men are defending their turf against hostile invaders, and with no reason to hold back, the Skrulls are in for one heck of a fight.

Finally, the new Uncanny X-Men is coming out next week. It’s a good issue, with mutant attacks running rampant following San Francisco being declared a safe haven for mutants everywhere. Give it a try, and let me know what you think of it. Also, the non-Manifest Destiny one-shot X-Factor Layla Miller comes out next week. I really liked it because it shows the transplanted mutant girl surviving in a Bishop’s dark future. Peter David should really be given an important book to write, because X-factor doesn’t get the respect it deserves as a consistently entertaining and well-written X-book.

That’s all for now. I’ll see you next week.

Secret Invasion: The Big Picture (a.k.a. Money Don't Buy Night Thrasher)

2008-08-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

I wrote this theory a few months ago and showed it to some of my customers. I hope you enjoy it and feel free to send me your comments at either:

universe7@juno.com
or
snakewing2000@yahoo.com

Also, you will win a very special Universe of Super-Heroes No-Prize if you can figure out where the title of this blog came from.

Enjoy

-------------------

Night Thrasher was the key. I should have known it all along.

Case 1:

Despite his skateboard gimmick, Night Thrasher has long been a positive role-model. He is a wealthy African-American who aspires to be the best as both a businessman and a super-hero. He will not sell-out his values or degrade his image for his own profit.

Strange then that he would take part (not to mention co-create) a reality show aimed at exploiting his super-team, the New Warriors. The entire concept was created as a way of 'cashing in' on the NW's super-hero career. Why would a respected super-hero (at least among his peers) take part in such a project?

That's just it, he wouldn't. Dwayne Taylor has too much self-respect to sully his image with such an idea. He became a super-hero to do the right thing, not make money.

Nevertheless, Night Thrasher was an important part of the New Warriors reality show and stuck with it until the group's untimely demise prior to Civil War. However, Thrasher's death is unconfirmed as only Micro and Namorita's corpses were recovered. The tatters of Night Thrasher's costume was found and taken into evidence, but his corpse has yet to be recovered.

Case 2:

Less than a year ago, investigation into the Raft prison break (see New Avengers #1-6) revealed that several super-villains, many previously believed to be dead, were being incarcerated at the facility, as if someone were 'stock-piling' them. Few questioned the reappearance of so many dead villains. After all, if so many heroes come back to life, why not villains too?

Unfortunately, two notable examples of resurrected villains show just why the recently-dead should have been investigated more thouroughly. Cutthroat was a minor rogue until he began working for the Red Skull, taking the place of the departed Crossbones. When Crossbones returned, Cutthroat saw a threat and attempted to kill his rival, only to be met with the business end of a katana, dying at his would-be victim's hands. Strange that he would show up in the Raft after dying such a graphic (and confirmed) death. A second villain is the Cobalt Man. Up to a year before the break-out, Cobalt Man was confirmed to be dead, up to the point that Tony Stark used the identity to infiltrate the Thunderbolts (see Avengers/Thunderbolts #1-6). However, he was documented as one of the incarcerated villains that escaped and hooked up with three others for a few months before being located in Stanford, Connecticut. Up until recently, Cobalt Man was believed to be killed during the explosion caused by Nitro.

The Connection:

Night Thrasher was part of a group which discovered a quartet of escaped super-villains in very close proximity to an elementary school. The New Warriors rushed onto the scene and before they realized what was happening, Nitro exploded and killed hundreds of innocent people.

The truth is that Cobalt Man and Night Thrasher specifically maneuvered the two groups into a confrontation which would cause a large amount of collateral damage in a particularly affluent neighborhood. The upper class of Connecticut would have a much louder voice to protest in the event of a large-scale super-human catastophe.

Why exactly would a hero and a villain work together to cause this event? The reason is that they were working together to cause a panic against super-humans. This event would alert the public to the danger of rampant superhuman activity to the point of outlawing them. It is doubtful that they expected for such a massive registration effort to be undertaken, but splitting the superhero community into two opposing factions was a major success on their part.

What group are Night Thrasher and Cobalt Man affiliated you ask? The Skrulls, that's who.

Sometime in the last year (prior to the New Warriors mini-series and the Raft Breakout), Cobalt Man and Night Thrasher were replaced by Skrulls. Evidence of this is that Cobalt Man was revealed to be a Skrull agent in the recent Captain Marvel series. We were led to believe that he was not the same one as the one who died in Stamford, but the truth is that both Cobalt Men were one and the same, a single agent placed in the Raft prior to the breakout and used to cause a superhuman catastrophe to divert attention away from any suspicion of a Skrull threat.

What about the others you ask? What about Micro, Namorita, Coldheart, Speedball, Nitro, and Speedfreek, the other superhumans involved? Were they Skrulls too? the answer is no, pending further evidence. Micro and Namorita's bodies were recovered (see the current New Warriors series) and shown to be human. Skrull corpses revert to their Skrull form when dead. Coldheart and Speedfreek can be assumed to be incinerated as they had no superhuman vulnerability to protect them. Speedball was giving a full medical screening and shown to be human. His powers were also drastically affected by his proximity to Nitro's explosion, something not likely to happen with a Super-Skrull's physiology. Nitro is definitely human. When he was turned over to the Atlanteans to answer for Namorita's death, Wolverine cut off his hand. The severed hand was human, and Skrulls have no ability to maintain the transformation of appendages when cut off.

Regarding the New Warriors, the Skrulls saw a relatively small team that could be infiltrated without being noticed and placed an agent on the team. The reality show was created as a way to make the Warriors look like a joke and a future scapegoat for their plans to turn the United States against their superheroes. Speedball was easy to convince, and Namorita was just along for the ride. Night Thrasher brought in his new ward Micro, which would provide evidence for how inexperienced the New Warriors were. Cobalt Man hooked up with a superhuman known for his destructive tendencies and hid in a heavily populated area where the collateral damage from a superhuman battle would be the greatest.

Thus, two well placed Skrull agents were able to inadvertently cause Civil War.

But it goes deeper than that.

Case 3:

In the tradition of such prisons as the Slab, the Raft was the latest attempt at large-scale super-villain incarceration. It was heavily guarded by highly-trained SHIELD agents and believed to be impenetrable. Over the course of it's first year prior to the Breakout, at least 14 previously believed to be dead super-villains were transferred to it's cells. Where did these villains come from?

Each and every one of them was a Skrull sleeper agent meant to infiltrate the super-villain community for a future plan of attack. Cobalt Man was just the tip of the iceberg. The Skrull faction of SHIELD had agents stationed at the Raft who could oversee the transfer of Skrull sleeper agents into the facility.

The long-term plan came to fruition when the Skrulls needed a way to bolster Jessica Drew's status within SHIELD, while releasing several Skrull agents that could then infiltrate the criminal underworld. Jessica Drew would almost single-handedly fight off the entire prison population and pass herself off as one of the premier superhumans active in the superhero community. A previously ignored superheroine would be thrust into the spotlight following a very heroic act, while also taking the notice of SHIELD higher-ups. The replacement of Daredevil and Luke Cage (two street-level vigilantes) would also be possible due to their presence at the Raft on the day of the Breakout.

Unfortunately, Spider-Man, Captain America, and Iron Man showed up when it was least convenient. Rather than have a near complete breakout and one heroic SHIELD agent, the spotlight was placed on Captain America and Iron Man, with Jessica Drew blamed for the easy escape of over 40 prisoners. SHIELD chose to give credit to the more well-known superhumans and ignore any negligible contribution that the former Spider-woman made, quickly taking her off active duty.

While her SHIELD career was over, Jessica Drew did find a spot on a highly-placed superhero team, with the newly former New Avengers.

Meanwhile, only a few of the over 40 escaped prisoners were apprehended. Many of the prisoners still at large were likely Skrull agents (most notably the Cobalt Man). None of the apprehended prisoners were Skrull sleeper agents.

Case 4:

First, as part of the infiltration, "Jessica Drew" and "Hand Pym" went through a ritual to mask their presence from most known means of detection. The ritual was mystical, shielding the Skrull sleeper agents from passive scientific equipment and mutant powers. But what about mystical means of detection?

Following the beginning of the Invasion, the Skrulls made a concentrated effort to secure any and all known forms of human magic. Avalon was targetted by a larger-than-usual force of Super-Skrulls in order to secure any mystical artifacts available (see the current Captain Britain and MI-13).

Despite his current absence, Dr. Strange could be the one means that humanity could have to detect any and all of the Skrull infiltrators currently in our midst.

Secondly, the ritual allows a Skrull agent to better pass themselves off as the individual. Skrulls replacing living people are given a mystical connection to their imprisoned counterpart, making their detection highly unlikely to all but the strongest non-Skrull magics. Skrulls replacing a dead person are put through a ritual to merge their being with the appropriate Human (or in Captain Marvel's case kree) essence. this imbues the agent with most of the intimate memories of the person they are passing themselves off as.

Some Skrull agents were brainwashed to believe they actually were the person they were posing as (primarily to maintain their personality), such as the case with the Savage Land Imposters and the returned Captain Marvel. Primarily Captain Marvel needed the memory tampering as his return would be more closely scrutinized than any other. Mockingbird may cry for Clint and Bobbi Barton's lost child, but she doesn't realize she's just a pale imitation of Hawkeye's dead wife. The memories may be perfect, but inside her beats the heart of a Skrull.

Why do I believe this? Theoretically each of the returning Savage Land characters were imprisoned for over a year before returning. Why then, do none of them seem to be growing facial hair for their long-term incarcertation? Why are their uniforms simply immaculate and show no signs of wear and tear? Also, why do none of them have injuries consistent with a deadly (one assumes) escape? Why have none of them even mentioned Skrulls since arriving from space? The truth is that every one of them was programmed to believe they just escape imprisonment without any of the tell-tale signs of such an incarceration. The Skrulls are trying to further divide the superhumans when they need to unify the most, while also sticking another agent or two (i.e. Mockingbird) with the group.

Other Notes:

There are few means of detecting the Skrulls in our midst. Science and mutant senses seem to be negated, while Dr. Strange (our best method of detection) is missing in action.

Due to Dr. Strange’s powers, we can be sure that none of the New Avengers (Hawkeye, Echo, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Luke Cage) are Skrull agents. Spider-Woman had already betrayed them and was not present for the spell.

The only 100% effective way to detect a Skrull is to kill them. A Skrull will revert to its native form if killed.

I repeat, A SKRULL WILL REVERT TO IT'S NATIVE FORM IF KILLED.

That is how Elektra was revealed to be a Skrull. That's also how we know the Savage Land Spider-Man and Hawkeye imposters were Skrulls.

Captain America was not replaced with a Skrull. Don't believe the man wearing the costume in the Savage Land. He is an imposter. If Cap had been replaced, he would have reverted to his Skrull form immediately after being shot and killed by Sharon Carter.

Night Thrasher was a Skrull. Since faking his death at Stamford, Night Thrasher has presumably hooked back up with the Skrull insurgency.

None of the Thunderbolts (in the current incarnation) are Skrulls. The Skrull Captain Marvel was assigned to eliminate the group as part of the invasion.

The Skrulls were not involved in Avengers Disassembled. They were completely surprised by Wanda Maximoff's betrayal.

At the beginning of New Avengers, the blonde Black Widow was recruited as a human patsy for the Skrull SHIELD activities in the Savage Land. She never would have been recruited into SHIELD otherwise due to her mental instability. This was what made her so lucrative for the Skrull SHIELD group, because Yelena would be the just kind of loose cannon that the entire Savage Land operation could be blamed on in the event it was discovered. Later, the Skrulls (either posing as SHIELD or Hydra) offered her the opportunity to be genetically modified into a new Super-Adaptoid. She accepted. The Skrulls tested her against the Avengers, but she failed. This experiment was most likely a test to see if the Super-Skrull process could be conducted on humans.

The Skrull Queen posing as Spider-Woman is attempting to get Tony Stark to doubt himself. She wants him to get the information to the other heroes that they might not realize they’d been replaced with Skrulls. This would further divide the superhuman community during the course of the invasion.

Welcome to the Universe!

2008-08-06T07:54:00.001-07:00

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