The revival!

Hey All,
Expect more posts soon. I've been negligent to all two of my readers, and hope to remedy that in the near future. Stay tuned...

New Avengers Line-Up Hinted

Brian Bendis hinted in a Tweet today that there will be a new line-up for the New Avengers soon. The tweet is as follows:

"My daughter completely approves of the upcomng new avengers line up."
-Brian Michael Bendis, Tweeted about 5:30 p.m. central time

Bendis gave no hint as to who might be on the new line-up, or why it would be changing, but I've cooked up a few theories as to what could upset the status quo.

Theory 1: Wolverine leaves

This seems like an obvious choice. Wolverine is in so many places right now it's not even funny. He's in the Avengers in New York, the X-men in San Francisco, the future in X-Force, and infiltrating a corporation that has stolen the plans from the Weapon X program. He's also going to be taking on the Dark Avengers in the upcoming X-Men crossover Utopia... that's a lot of places to be. It makes a lot of editorial sense to cut him loose somewhere, especially as it seems to be a recurring issue that Marvel gets flak for on the web. While Marvel of course wants to capitalize on his movie, it makes his in-universe life a lot more plausible to cut out his life in New York.

Theory 2: Team Member(s) dies

Usually a death in a team isn't something you just predict around the corner, but with Norman Osbourne's Dark Avengers breathing down our Avengers' necks, it is starting to make more and more sense. It seems inevitable that things are going to come to blow, and when it does there's bound to be casualties.

Theory 3: Team Member(s) walk away

With several of the Avengers getting bitten by the love bug, it seems to make sense that they would opt out of risking their lives in such dangerous circumstances for the protection of themselves or their loved ones. Ronin and Mockingbird have reconciled after Secret Invasion, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones have a baby (who they already almost lost once), and according to August Spider-Man solicits, Mary-Jane Watson will be making her way back into Spidey's life too. Spider-Man has risked and lost so much already, it makes sense that he would be willing to walk away for the safety of those around him.

These are just a few things that could be shaking up New Avengers, but it's too early to tell. This is all speculation, but some things to consider nonetheless. I'll keep everyone posted as I find out more.

Batman & Robin color cover debut.

DC posted on it's blog today the fully colored cover for Batman and Robin #2, the upcoming new series by writer Grant Morrison with art by Frank Quietly. Quietly's art has always seemed a little odd to me, but I always like it nonetheless. But there is a nice little bonus in the idea that since this is a new title, hopefully Morrison won't make it too convoluted and confusing. He's capable of some brilliant storytelling, and hopefully we'll see something with the elegance of his and Quietly's run on All-Star Superman.

Spider-Man: American Son???

Marvel today put up an announcement on their web site for a new arc in Amazing Spider-Man titled "American Son." The three-part arc, written by Joe Kelly, should be showing up on stands in late May/early June. Marvel also posted an image for the upcoming arc, featuring a patriotic looking high-tech cop, with a watermark of Iron Patriot standing in a similar position in the background.

It's unclear who the character is supposed to be, but there are a few logical theories. It's obviously someone put in place by Norman Osborn, but that still leave us a with a few possibilities.

The first thought is Harry Osborn. Attending A.A. meetings and getting a lot of support, becoming some sort of authority figure would be a great way for Harry to piece his life back together, and with Daddy Goblin pulling the strings, it's something that is entirely feasible.

The other character that comes to mind is Vin Gonzales, Peter's now incarcerated roommate. Norman has a knack for pulling the bad guys out of the muck and using them for his dirty work, whether it be covert like the Thunderbolts or the Hood, or disguised as something legit like his Dark Avengers. The figure in the picture looks kind of reminiscent of a Robocop type figure, so the idea of it being Vin seems to make a lot of sense.

Regardless of who this character is and what is role in Spidey's life is, it seems to to be safe to assume that things are only going to get worse for Web Head (what else is new).

(UPDATE - 4/18/2009) - Today Marvel updated it's Web site with yet another teaser image for the American Sun story. This image features our wall-crawling friend broken and beaten by non other than Iron Patriot himself, who's keeping him on the ground with a foot of steel. In the background we can see Iron Patriot's Dark Avengers lurking around. The idea of Norman Osborn stomping everything decent of Peter Parker's life is becoming more and more inevitable. What will this mean for Spidey and his continually deteriorating Brand New Day? I guess we'll just have to wait and find out.

The Ultimate Universe

With Marvel's Ultimate Universe event, Ultimatum, over half finished, many fans are wondering what the aftermath will be like. It's been previously announced that there will be three books in the post-Ultimatum lineup. The first is the New Ultimates, written by Jeph Loeb with art by Frank Cho. The second title Ultimate Avengers, written by Mark Millar; and the third is volume 2 of Ultimate Spider-Man, still by Brian Michael Bendis.

The interesting concept here is that there are three writer's with three different writing styles, and it will be interesting to see the outcome of how the three of them manage an entire universe.

Loeb has been heavily criticized in the past couple of years for his static, one-note characterization of characters and the flashy melodrama of his stories. His books of late, especially Ultimates Vol. 3 and Ultimatum, are filled with characters who are exaggerations of themselves and are constantly pushing shock value that often feels inorganic and contrived.

Millar, while known for similiar shock value and absurdity, is arguably much better at the execution of such ideas. He has the ability to make an absurd situation feel much more organic in the context of the story and the universe. He also has a much better sense than Loeb of how to balance the crazy situations with the already defined characters he is placing in those situations.

Bendis is really the odd-man-out in this situation. It seems the only reason why USM is still sticking around on shelves after the relaunch is because of the book's high sales and popularity. The problem here is how Bendis' tone on the book is going to fit with the darker and more adult-oriented tones of Millar and Loeb. USM has always been a more lighthearted and amusing book, and it will be interesting to see if the new volume of the book brings a change in tone to fit the new status quo, or if we'll just see a light-hearted and amusing Spider-Man's reaction to such a dark and different world.

At this point there is no telling how things might change, but it's safe to guess we'll see some hints in upcoming issues of Ultimate Spider-Man and the rest of the Ultimatum event mini-series.

Who's waiting in line to watch the Watchmen?

With Watchmen's U.S. release coming in just over a week, reviews and commentaries from abroad are flooding in the from the international releases, and expectations for the film are drastically shifting.

On my end, I never really knew what to expect in the first place. Like everyone, I maintain Alan Moore's original work is a masterpiece of literature and a fascinating look into the superhero psyche, and further beyond that just the human psyche as well.

So far Rotten Tomatoes has it sitting at a 75% with most reviewer's loving it or hating it. The comments about the film range from calling it "a profound work of art" to calling it "shorn of sophistication and literary density."

One of the movies biggest critics is actually Moore himself. In an interview with the L.A. Times, he said of the movie, "I will be spitting venom all over it from months to come." Moore also claims his story to be "inherently unfilmable." It will be interesting to see if director Zack Snyder can prove Moore wrong. However, Moore also says in the interview that he has never watched the film adaptations of any of his works, which range from "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman" to "V for Vendetta." Moore said he feels "film in it's current form is quite bullying."

Author discretion aside, with all the reviews coming in, it's important to recognize that these reviews are all from international perspectives. It will be interesting to see how audiences in the U.S will react to the film. I know I'll be waiting to see it.

UPDATE (02-27-2009): Rotten Tomatoes now has Watchmen sitting at an 83%. Perhaps the earliest criticisms are sometimes the harshest.

My blog is here, hurrah! Here I will be providing my comments on the comic industry today, as well as potentially showing off some of my work. I am writing a comic with my friend Andrew Brunner and we are having art done by Caitlin Cook. Hopefully I can get them to get blogs up here and once they do I'll go ahead and give some links to them. Otherwise just expect some reviews and some opinions on the comic industry. I'll have something new up soon!