Age of Ultron 1-4+

So there are currently two major events or cross-overs going on in the Marvel universe right now. One of them happens to have Ultron in a future dystopian world he won. Spidey is running around without a shirt, and Hawkeye is killing people with a crossbow. All while Captain America sulks that he doesn't have a plan, and Tony Stark is still a pretentious paranoid individual. Also, Luke Cage says sweet Christmas. Yeap this is Brian Michael Bendis writing about the Avengers.
Now let me speak about the good parts of this "Maxi-Series". First things first, Taskmaster is awesome, even without his cape. Hawkguy is awesome, and I hope to god, Franklin Richards is awesome. We finally get Bendis' impression of how Spidey-Ock would handle things... with his ego. I know Bendis didn't write the tie-in for Superior Spider-man, but he is lead creative officer on the event. I think he is anyways, it's hard to tell after his awesome work with X-men. Age of Ultron isn't awful, it's just slow. I did really enjoy the tie-ins so far, which is odd. I usually don't care too much for tie-ins, because they deviate other books from their point.
However, thank you Marvel for doing something right for a change with your big events. Instead of the usual de-railing of a book's main story to tie-in to a big event, they have instead decided to do one-shot stand-alone stories that don't interrupt the flow of the source book. I hope this is a practice that catches on as they continue with the new Marvel NOW. 
So who is Ultron? He's this robot with A.I. that was created by Hank Pym, or as you know him better; Giant-man, Ant-man I, and Yellow Jacket. He developed him for the Avengers as an assistant and, soldier when things got crazy. He however has become one of the Avenger's number one villains. He has this bad habit of continually popping up, even after being thought dead for a good while. He even branches out to the cosmic universe of Marvel in Annihilation: Conquest by fusing with the Phanlanx. He's one of the top 5 villains in the Marvel Universe right after Doom, and Thanos. Yeah, he's a pretty big deal.

I guess I'll come back to this event when it's 8 issues in, or I don't and just leave you hanging on my thoughts of the series as a whole.

Suggested Listening: Placebo's "For What It's Worth"

Top-Ten Marvel Cosmic Heroes

So this is a blog and most blogs have top what-ever's. My first top what-ever is going to be a top ten of Marvel Cosmic Universe Heroes. I've written a lot about the recent Marvel cosmic universe. It's a reboot of sorts in my mind, and I feel like I should help out some people with the past, just a bit. Marvel has recently done a sort of reboot with their old cosmic mythos. Nothing super serious, just a slight re-interpretation of characters that have been around for a while. And I wouldn't stretch that they've gone too far off the rails.


10
Peter Quill (Star-Lord)
Peter was a simple dope who gained powers through his birth-right, he had Ship, a sentient being who carted him around space. It was very similar to how the Doctor Who series runs now-a-days. His father as we now know was a king of the Spartax system, and had mated with a human of Earth (Check out Guardians of the Galaxy 0.1!). Peter is a clever and fun character he's like Peter Parker of space. He was the person who started the newest form of Marvel's present Guardians of the Galaxy during the Annihilation: Conquest saga.

9
Beta Ray Bill
First appearing in the year of my birth 1983, in issue 337 of Thor. This character moved on to be one of the coolest wielders of Mjolnir, and later Stormbreaker. With his famous swing at the the front cover of Thor books people still imitate this cover design to this day. Bill is pretty awesome, and you probably should look for him in other stuff, Like the Planet Hulk movie on Netflix. I just like his design, and his backstory of being able to go toe-to-toe with Thor regardless of not having Mjolnir. Also, he was found on a ship called Scuttlebutt.

8
Moon Dragon
She was a young child when she was first brought to Mentor, who is father to Thanos the mad Titan. Heather Douglas was the daughter of Drax before her and her father were sucked up in to space to meet their destiny. She was gifted with the power of telepathy, and so forth, she became the greatest of telepaths. Unfortunately she gained a side-effect through her training with monks, and became possessed by a real Moon Dragon, a fearful beast of death. This beast she actually came full-on with in Annihilation: Conquest. Also, she is totally in love with Phyla-Vell, "daughter of Mar-Vell, or the original Captain Marvel of the Marvel universe.

7
Gladiator
Leader of the imperial guard for the Shi-Ar empire. He was there for the rise and fall of Jean Grey becoming the newest host for the Phoenix and sub-sequentially Dark Phoenix. He has equal powers to Superman from the DC Universe, but has a bad ass Mo-hawk. During the War of Kings and Realm of Kings events he became emperor of the Shi-Ar. Who like Vulcan as emperor anyway?

6
Black Bolt
He is one of my all-time favorite characters from the pages of Fantastic Four. Blackagar Boltagon can level a mountain with but a whisper. His powers come from the Terrigen mists planted on Earth to speed up the evolution of humanity by the Kree. Someone who he eventually goes and conquers during the War of Kings event. His wife is Medusa, who is currently a member of the Earth based Fantastic Four in FF. Also, he's pretty awesome in Earth X. I really like his costume too...

5
Rocket Raccoon
Oh boy! A talking anthropomorphic Raccoon with a penchant for big guns and missile launchers?! Do I really need to say more? Okay he's best friends with a tree-like entity who can re-grow himself from a splinter, and does regularly. I also imagine him with an Australian accent, and it's raspy like he just finished a bottle of whiskey.

4
Phyla-Vell
Sadly she was only Quasar for a short time. I do like her being the embodiment/harbinger of death however. If you've watch the second season of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon then you are familiar with her being the quasar from the Guardians of the Galaxy episode. I like her Quantum Swords a lot. Biggest thing about her is her role and Moon Dragon's as lesbian lovers. And it didn't suck, or talk down to your intelligence.

3
Drax
Is he still a destroyer? Yes, very much so. He's a destroyer and damn good at it. He's space Wolverine essentially. He has a long and historic past, and was quite awful back in the day. Thank you Keith Giffen for making such huge alterations to this formerly "Superman Clone one billion in the Marvel universe". He has a major role involving Thanos. He is always the best answer to when Thanos has started running amok, as he was essentially bred and taught to be his assassin. Also, I'm a fan of Cammi, a no-nonsense companion of Drax.

2
Silver Surfer
Okay, so this guy named Galactus came to this guy Norrin Radd's place and totally destroyed it, then Norrin was like "no!" So, Galactus was like "I'm listening". Herald of Galactus Silver Surfer was born. He is by far of everyone's definition by normal standards "that guy from space in the Marvel comic books". It's hard to top him. Not many people really know a lot about him now though, and that kind of makes me sad. He was really big in the 70's and 80's. He even had a cartoon on Fox in the 90's. I loved that show, and was really my first full introduction to him and the Marvel Cosmic stuff. His best book is Silver Surfer: Requiem. Check it out.

1
Richard Rider (Nova)
You shouldn't be surprised by this really. I love the Nova Corps., and I think of them as a better version of the Green Lantern Corps. in DC. They're very similar, but the Novas don't rely on some emotional spectrum, just raw determination and skill. Rich is my favorite for mostly his involvement with the world-mind, and how it brought the Marvel's cosmic universe out of horrible funk in the mid 2000's. Just like a Nova he burst out and led the distant planet-hopping heroes into a new time. Nuff' Said.



Honorable Mentions: Adam Warlock and ROM Spaceknight

Hope you enjoyed this, and I really hope you got some inspiration to read about these characters or the recent major Marvel Cosmic events I've mentioned. They're really good, and I can't wait to see what the Marvel movie company does with these properties.

Thanos Rising: It is Imperitive that your read this.

So Thanos Rising issue 1 came out today, and I liked it tons. It's a prequel setting for how the mad Titan became the avatar of death, and near conqueror of the universe. It also, show a more estranged younger version of his father Mentor. First thing I want to say is, young Thanos is cute as a button. He doodles dead iguana things, but doesn't have the heart to perform a simple dissection in class. So he doesn't hold sociopathic tendencies, he just has an inquisitive and creative streak. In another scene he's in a cave and can't wait to look for gems! 

Yeah Fun Fact: Thanos is a Mutant

I really enjoyed his interaction with the other kids as well, he even has a crush on one! His brother Eros isn't seen, but is mentioned. I assume Jason Aaron is saving him for the next issue or a following one. And on Sui-San being a crazy psycho mom who wants to kill her son first chance she can get, because she sees death in his eyes. Well, I think it's up in the air if that is real, or her madness. Thanos mentions having dreams about that, and decides sleeping is not needed to avoid those said dreams. So, you could make a case that Sui-San his mother is the reason for his downward spiral... well that and Death. I'm not really sure if this is a reboot or just a re-imagination. I don't think Thanos' backstory has been touched on in quite some time. And with the way Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova has been re-invigorated, and focused more on the backgrounds it would seem that Marvel NOW for the Cosmic universe is pulling up it's britches for some major changes.

I'm gonna miss that mullet

Animal Man post Rot World arc is coming to a close, after Buddy Baker's son stopped his little sister from dying by giving up his own life, the Baker family is in turmoil. Buddy, just wants everything to go back the way it was before the Red the Rot, and all the events that have happened. His wife fights with him on what their daughter Maxine is, whether she's just a little girl like her mother wants or the avatar of the Red like her father has to accept she is. Buddy has a run in with the paparazzi, one of which gets a gorilla slap, and buddy is finally pushed over the edge. He's fed up with all this ridiculous god-speak. So he takes his anger fueled self to the Red itself, and demands they leave him and his family alone. This ends in disastrous fashion for poor Buddy. I have to ask if Animal Man can get anymore gripping/depressing after this last issue, and I hope the answer is yes.
I'll be back later this week touching on the first 4 issues of the Age of Ultron Mini-series. Until then, enjoy the rest of your week!

Suggested Listening: Crosseyed by the Bad Veins, thanks Mikey.

Final Crisis is Final

I was doing a read-along of Final Crisis from DC, written by Grant Morrison and drawn by J.G. Jones. I stopped doing this after the 3rd issue. The series has been over for almost five years if not more than. So I'm not honestly spoiling anything for anyone that cares. However, after finishing the series I honestly don't think I could write more about it than I already have, other than how it ended. Batman dies while shooting a gun at Darkseid with a Radion laced round(the same that killed Orion). Superman stops the anti-life equation by bringing a bunch of Elseworld Supes to stop Mandrakk who attempts to fill the void of a failing universe. Also, Superman uses some Miracle Machine granted to him by Braniac 5 from the 30th century, and reduces the entire population to petri dishes to save them after Wonder Woman somehow breaks her gasp from said equation after destroying he crappy mask and using her lasso of truth to break the bonds of the humans from Darkseid's control with truth. Convoluted as that may seem, it's much worse to describe in the blog. So I'm not bothering. I'd suggest reading it yourself, or looking up a summary of the events on a Wiki. Sorry, I guess I just picked the wrong thing to do a read-along with. This is not to say I want do another Read-Along, but it does say I will choose more wisely in the future. Also, this isn't to say it's poorly written, Morrison did a great job, and Jones did well conveying the plot. It would just be too taxing to do what I was doing with it.

Guardians of the Galaxy NOW!

So Guardians of the Galaxy is essentially the flagship title now for Marvel's cosmic universe. Nova is already out, but that's just a kid. Thanos will have a mini-series coming out soon, but that's just a ramping up for a bigger cross-over. No the team of Star-lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Groot, and Rocket Raccoon are essentially the main book if you want your space cape book from Marvel. And they've done a pretty good job with the first issue. You have Peter Quill(Star-Lord) hitting on Kree, the King of the Galaxy his father interrupting it. Was he really hitting on her? Yeah, but I think there was some other plan going on.
There is a new addition to this team, Iron Man. Yeah Tony Stark for some odd reason chooses now to leave Earth behind and go on vacation. Not like he couldn't have done that before the events of Civil War. He may have had a clearer mind when he got back and saw his buddies being thrown in jail for not signing up to be a government lap-dog. For whatever his reasons for going to space, and he gives several. He's not a member of the Guardians after a trial-by-fire recruitment against a Badoon ship that is going to invade Earth. Groot gets turned into a splinter... again.

Gamora VS. Spartax Royal Guards

I suppose I should talk about the upcoming movie, and the possible cast. I think what we see in this book is officially the cast. Yes, that include Iron Man. Stark has a space-suit in Iron Man 3, so why not? It only makes sense to me, that or keep it in storage until Thanos comes. Whom he doesn't know is coming, so yeah going into space to take a break after all the events that have happened to him in such a short span of time. He runs into the Guardians, and things get weird. I've heard rumors Chris Pratt from Parks and Recreation and Zero Dark Thirty will take the role of Peter Quill, and honestly I think that's great. Vin Diesel as Drax is the only answer, the man has had experience playing a badass alien before. As for the rest I don't really care, John DiMaggio(Bender) would be great at Rocket.

Badoons versus Dr. Who?

I'm sure I'll talk more about this series as it progresses and inevitable crosses over with the Thanos book. It already has crossed over with Nova, technically. I think Brian Michael Bendis is doing a bang up job after spreading away from the Avengers books. All New X-men and Uncanny X-men are great, Guardians is good, and hopefully he'll be writing a Heroes for Hire book with Cage and Iron Fist. His Age of Ultron mini-series is too new and going too slow to really gauge it's worth. However, the ending should be A+ since Neil Gaiman will be co-writing it. I smell Miracleman...

Dammit Jeph Loeb

Huehuehue... hur

So Nova is still coming out. I've still been reading it, in fact I just finished number two not to long ago. Thing is, no matter how corny it comes off, I feel as though I'm enjoying it... slowly. It's similar to how Avengers Arena is a guilty pleasure of mine. It's not a great and magnificent book; like Hawkeye or New Avengers. It's just fun and filled with children dying. Some children who I've grown attached to over the years in other books. Guilty pleasures work that way I suppose. And in the realm of comic books being corny and whimsical is kind of the founding father. I like Fear Itself and Avengers Vs. X-men, where others bemoaned them. I think sometimes people forget comic books are well... comical. So dammit Jeph Loeb, you made me enjoy your book.
So Nova was last left off with Gamora and Rocket Raccoon in a hospital bed. His father is now presumed dead and the helmet is in his custody. Not at all does he think, wow my dad was serious, maybe I should pay attention to these people, and listen to what they have to say about my father. No instead he bolts out after Rocket shoots his pillow because he called him a, and I quote "Talking Raccoon". Why did Rocky shoot, just because he was called what he is? I understand if it was a short joke, but Rocket still wouldn't have gone all insane for that statement. I could've understood a growl in the least. Samuel runs out to a nurse and never mentions the word gun, but somehow she thinks there is... Gamora and Rocket are gone when they return to the room. Big surprise said no one. This is just 2-3 pages of this issue that make no sense whatsoever.

All Over Me...

Sam gets the helmet that was still there, and changes in to Nova, and well... the book gets fun from there. I don't know what it is, but Nova always seemed like a cool dude to me. His powers are very basic, but yet fun! Nova was amazing in Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest. I'm maybe getting a bit too excited to see what the corps and the world mind are up to. Also, Guardians of the Galaxy came out yesterday. I haven't read it yet, but I'll probably talk about it Saturday. I promise this time, I'm actually kind of itching to read it as we speak. God I hope it's not crap.
Also, from last week Captain America's newest issue came out. I've been wanting to talk about the series for a while. So Cap is in Dimension Z and has a son that follows him around for over 10 years. Lone Wolf and Cub would be proud of  Remender's run on Captain America. I'm curious as to how they'll explain the passing of time for Cap, but I assume time works differently in Dimension Z. You know, all wibbly wobbly timey-wimey. It's a great book, but I suggest maybe waiting until the first trade comes out before you read it. It's probably Remender's best work right now, and yes that means better than Uncanny Avengers.
Superior Spider-Man, is a touchy subject with me. I hate what they've done, but I still read it, and I'm still angry. However, that being said I kind of like the book. I just wish it had been delivered in a better way, and they would get rid of that ghost parrot, on Spidey-Ock's shoulder. He has been around annoying the readers for 6 issues. There are only 6 issues of Superior Spider-Man(7 if you count the new Age of Ultron tie-in). I do like the midget however, I hope she honestly becomes his love interest.

Wat

Finally, I'm going to talk about Savage Wolverine. Issue 3 was great, it had the right amount of dinosaurs, boobs and cavemen for my liking. Also, Amadeus Cho, who is arguably one of the coolest Asian Marvel characters(right behind Wong and Shang-Chi). Dude is smarter than Einstein, from Manhattan Projects. Just so happens he is now a god of some tribal people in the Savage Land, and is trying to solve why he's there. He even turns down Snoo-Snoo, because his mission is so damn important. Meanwhile, Wolverine says Cripes a few more times, and Shanna the She-Devil looks hot until she gets a spear through he gut. Also, is it me or does Cho look a bit like Archer in that picture I'm using?
Until Saturday, enjoy your weekend. Whoa I posted only about Marvel Comics. Guess I'll have to talk about Aquaman next week.

Suggested Listening: The Amadeus motion picture Soundtrack. Watch the movie too, it's glorious.

Comics From The Last Few Weeks

Just wanna clear up that there are some spoilers for Walking Dead in here, well honestly there are spoilers for a lot of comics. But mostly Walking Dead, since it's a major TV show now, a lot of people don't want to know where the show will possibly go, so read at your own risk. You can skip to the second break after this one to get to some X-men and Manhattan Projects talk.

NAILED IT! (Jesus jokes are kind of wrong)

So I haven't written much lately, and you can yell at me if you want to. I've been re-playing through Dragon Age: Origins so that I can start up playing Awakening and eventually DA2. I've been reading comics randomly and I'm a week behind. Actually I still haven't read Green Arrow or Animal Man from 2 weeks ago. I Just finished reading Walking Dead 108 and I liked it, the book has been sagging a bit as of late. So, it was nice to read about a new kingdom. I just wish it wasn't actually called "The Kingdom". It's a bit silly. I did like that Kirkman finally touched on something that has been missing in this post-apocalyptic zombie world. Nerds. Ezekiel honestly is the first person I've seen that I would consider a true nerd. Yeah you can say that guy with the walkie-talkie is kind of nerdy, but I disagree. I think that dude is just smart and kind of weird... Okay so Ezekiel is maybe more like a geek. So Ezekiel is the first geek in this post-apocalyptic zombie world. That's cook I like geeks, I'm a geek. Geeks like comic books, or well we obsess over them. I mean I am writing a blog about comics. I believe that qualifies me for geekdom.
So Ezekiel is pretty awesome, he's got a damn tiger. The tiger is named Shiva and doesn't dig violence, neither does Ezekiel. But yet Ezekiel wants to launch a major assault on the ping-pong champion Negan. Honestly that bit didn't make much sense to me, but I can see him making a stand to stop the violence with violence. Another odd thing about this issue, Carl just realized he can't see out of his right eye. Oh look a blindspot. I mean really, it took you almost 20 something issues to realize that? Also, why is Michonne starting to act like a bitch? I like her characterization a lot in the book, and she's pretty awesome in the show as well. She's cold and distant I get that, but she's always been the quiet person with the katana(which isn't in Google's dictionary apparently). She has just really fallen off the wagon lately and she does remark on this in this issue. Noticing that she has a bad time pretending to be a socialite individual amonst numerous individuals makes sense for her character, but honestly I could do without the whining from her. She's supposed to be a badass who keeps her feels to herself, but everyone can read them on her face. Not some dour lady who's in the kitchen and wants someone to break the cuffs to her oven free for her. She does that with her katana. Well, the character isn't mine and I can't tell Robert Kirkman what to do with her, but I can take my toys and go home.

In other comics; Uncanny X-men is off to a pretty good start. I never understood why The Bros of Mutant Evil(And Mystique) never got their own comic. I mean it really does make sense to have book that portrays the opposing side of the heroes. It doesn't have to shine a light on the bad guys as being good in there own way, but at least make them seem a bit more human than just some guys who disagree with the good guys. Yeah, I know the word on if Cyclops is a baddie is still not out. I just think this is the obvious progression that Marvel is going with the character. I actually like Cyclops I think he's a good person at his core, but a lot of people have crapped on him over the years. Dude lost his wife, then his girlfriend, well that's still up in the air. Now Captain America wants his head on a silver platter. Dude is priming up to explode like a bag of TNT outside the start of a new mine in the olden times. Besides that obvious tendencies Marvel is going with his character and that cadre, Magik has been the shining spot in the book for laughs. She actually catches me off guard with her facetious humor. Oh, and look Magneto is a double agent. He's probably a triple agent, that wouldn't be surprising.

Best part of the book; the covers

X-men Legacy is just as good as it always has been, I'm really digging Legion being the main character. And now the relationship with Blindfold, who I've kind of had a soft spot since she was created. I just want to read more about these two and maybe even Chamber. I could deal with just these three guys doing stuff, kinda like X-factor Investigations did when they first started out. Sadly on another note, I'm starting to lose interest in Manhattan Projects. I will take the wait and see approach, but the last issue(10) was kind of overdrawn. I mean the whole Oppenheimer thing seems to be a bit too convoluted and over-the-top. I still enjoy reading "Hmmm..." in varying ways though. I really just want more of that talking Russian space dog. Also, check out the newest Batman and Robin(18) It's pretty amazing and will make you cry a bit if you loved Damien as much as I did. It's a silent issue, as in it doesn't have any dialogue, but the panel work and art direction pretty much sum up everything that would be necessary to say.

More will be coming this weekend or maybe Monday, it depends on how lazy I am. I'm very lazy.

Suggested Listening: Anything by Nero, it's actually decent Dubstep. Not like the Skrillex guy.