Comic Of The Moment: Ultimate Spider-Man (Volume 2)

WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis
PENCILS: Takeshi Miyazawa
COLORED BY: Justin Ponsor

I’ve never been a big fan of the Ultimate Universe. They’ve always been ‘imposters’ to me.. except Ultimate Hawkeye. I’ve always like his outfit. But the rest of the Ultimate Universe? Imposters. I tried reading Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Daredevil and The Ultimates. But they never really grabbed me. That’s why a lot of people were puzzled when I told them I was the worlds biggest Brian Michael Bendis fan. The face that i drool on any and everything he writes, yet I never ONCE picked up a copy of the 130+ issues of his legendary run on Ultimate Spider-Man.

True, I’ve felt a little stupid not reading it. How can you call a person your favorite write and not pick up his best works? Well, I remedied that. Over the past couple months, I’ve been on an archeological “Bendis” dig. I’ve scoured  countless comic book shops and online retailers to piece together my “Bendis Back Issue” longboxes. Within 3 months time, I’ve been able to aquire Bendis back series “Alias”, “The Pulse” and (YES) the entire first run of Ultimate Spider-Man! Now that they are sitting in my digital longbox (scanned and stored on my hardrive), all i need to do is find the time to read them. And with work being pretty time-consuming these days, it’s been pretty hard trying to sit down and start something as epic as 130+ issues of a back comic.. especially when i’m using that time to consume about 10-15 new comics each week.

Luckly, one of those ‘new’ comics is the second volume / rebook of Ultimate Spider-Man. After the horrible, horrible (HORRIBLE) events of “Ultimatum”, whih more or less destroyed the Ultimate Universe and allowed for Ultimate comic books to reboot their product lines.. none of them have been able to maintain the status quo like Ultimate Spidey.

The Brian Michael Bendis still at the helm, this comic picked up 6 months after Magneto’s giant tidal wave destroys New York City and life is getting back to normal. Peter Parker seems to be back to doing his normal routine. Saving the world and trying to main a personal life at the same time. It may not sound like much, but when i tell you that Bendis writes THE Spider-Man you know and love, i really mean it. One of the reasons The New Avengers worked so well is the classic Bendis interactions between Spidey, Wolverine and Luke Cage.

Another cool thing that Bendis is doing is pillaging the character scraps that have been left over from Ultimatum. Now that the X-Men are dead and the Fantastic Four are no more, Bendis as introduced Kitty Pride, Ice Man, and Johnny “The Human Torch” Storm as part of Peter’s supporting cast. And since most of them are staying at Peter’s house, the teenage wackiness has been great. I’ve never been a fan of these types of things, but I’m enjoying this series more and more.

Avengers #1 by Bendit/Romita Jr. Launching in May.

YES!!!

The Apple Tablet (or) iSlate (or) IPad Is Upon Us

January 27th is the day! I can’t wait for this Apple Event that will finally let use know about this oversized iPodtouch thingie. I know theres gonna be multi-touch and subscription services to books, magazines and newpapers. What i’m really hoping for is at least a 160GB drive so i can store my comics and whisper-net always on internet for downloading. I’m counting the days…

The Seige Is Upon Us

Over the past few years, Marvel Comics has been steeped in a host of major crossover events that were suppose to change the face of the Marvel Universe. What we got were these incredible ideas that didn’t play out as well as we’d hoped. Civil War ended with a whimper, Secret Invasion ended with a subtle ‘…what?’. And Dark Reign (which should have been billed as a ’status quo’ and not an ‘event’) has dragged on way to long. With all this behind us, I STIL: have to say i’m really excited about ‘Siege’, which kicks off this month.

Why, you ask? Well, the main reason is the return of the foundation of the Avengers roster. Iron Man, after an INCREDIBLE year of Matt Fraction ‘disassembling’ him, will be back in action. Thor, who’s been stuck in middle America and really not doing anything, is bring the Hammer back into the mainstream. And Captain America, who’s been dead for a short time is back from being lost in the timestream (what?) and ready to lead the one TRUE Avengers? A lot of people have been bitching about crazy ruler Norman Osborn has been overexposed during Dark Reign. But that’s the point of Dark Reign. He’s been overextending himself and now that ‘The Goblin’ is creeping back into his brain, you know all hell is about to break lose. What will happen after The Siege goes down? Who will live? Who will die (for a while and then come back)? Hell if I know! But man.. am I strapping in for one hell of a ride. My favorite comic writer right now, Brian Michael Bendis is at the helm of this major event, so i’m praying Marvel will redeem itself and give us a proper finale that will blow everyone’s minds.

From Marvel Comics: Beginning with the ravaging affects of Avengers Disassembled and following the aftermaths of House of M, Civil War and Secret Invasion, culminating with the evil Reign of Norman Osborn, the Marvel Universe has been left with its greatest villains holding more power and control than ever before. On the brink of madness, Osborn, in his final bid to take total control, targets the final obstacle in his mission… Asgard. Events are set in motion forcing our heroes to put aside the deep rifts that have grown over the past seven years. Opposing them stand a horde of evil that has begun to take down the gods of the Golden Realm! SIEGE will rock the foundations of every super hero, villain and team in the Marvel Universe. As an era ends, one word will ring above all others…

Norman Osborn calls a meeting of the Cabal (Doctor Doom, The Hood, and Loki) to discuss Asgard, the last hold out in Osborn’s consolidation of power. Namor and Emma Frost are absent due to their betrayal during the events of Utopia, and are replaced with Taskmaster. During the meeting Doom expresses his displeasure with Norman’s actions against his ally Namor. Doom accuses Osborn of attempting to kill off members of the group that are not obedient to him, and orders Osborn to bring forth Namor. Upon refusal to do so Osborn has Doom attacked by an unknown assailant. After the attack Osborn examines the body to see that it is not Doom, but a small swarm of robotic insects inside a Doombot. The insects attack the Cabal and under the suggestion of Loki the Hood flees. Avengers Tower is ordered to be evacuated, with only Osborn staying to attempt to fight off the swarm. When his shields (as the Iron Patriot) are about to fail, Sentry comes in to destroy them.

Osborn is later seen talking with the President of the United States to try to secure permissions to invade Asgard under the claim it poses a national security threat. The President does not feel the threat is serious enough to warrant an invasion and orders Osborn to stand down. Loki, listening to the conversation, reminds Osborn of the superhuman Civil War, explaining that it all started with a tragedy in Stamford, Connecticut and that a similar tragedy could be used to gain approval for an assault.

The Walking Dead to Become Television series!

AMC is venturing into zombie-drama territory with multi-hyphenate Frank Darabont.
Cabler is close to finalizing one of the richest development deals ever with Darabont to write and direct a series adaptation of the Image Comics graphic novel series “The Walking Dead,” penned by Robert Kirkman. Gale Anne Hurd of Valhalla Motion Pictures and David Alpert of Circle of Confusion are also on board to exec produce.

Project is set among a group of zombie survivors of an apocalypse who are led by a police officer, Rick Grimes, in search of a safe place to live. Numerous editions of the “Walking Dead” graphic novels have been published since 2003.

Joel Stillerman, AMC’s senior veep of programming, production and original content, said the project appealed to the cabler because of “the quality of the storytelling” in Kirkman’s work. The series will stay faithful to the tone of the original novels, he said.

“This is not about zombies popping out of closets,” Stillerman said. “This is a story about survival, and the dynamics of what happens when a group is forced to survive under these circumstances. The world (in ‘Walking Dead’) is portrayed in a smart, sophisticated way.”

Stillerman noted that the cabler’s annual “Fear Fest” movie showcase around Halloween is one of AMC’s most popular programming events of the year.

“We’ve got an audience that loves this kind of material,” he said.

Darabont and Hurd pitched the project to AMC and several other outlets. There is no studio attached yet. The duo’s involvement made the project a must-have for the cabler, Stillerman said.

“These are two world-class filmmakers who are also brilliant storytellers with experience in the fantasy genre,” he said.

Marvel Unleashes Their Answer To DC’s “Blackest Night” with “Necrosha”

Necrosha is a 13-issue, 13 week event that spins out of a subplot which has been running in X-Force since it debuted,  involving Selene, the former Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, and Magus (note: not the Adam Warlock version), a techno-organic member of the Technarch which Bastion rewrote the programming of and used the transmode virus native to the Technarch to revive several human X-Men villains.  Eli Bard supplied the knowledge of this transmode revival process to Selene, who it appears will use the revival process on the population of dead mutants massacred on Genosha.  What she will do with the 16 million+ revived dead mutants invovles an attack on the new mutant island nation of Utopia and somehow ties into Selene’s vampiric powers and desire to sacrifice a large number of mutants, possibly the inhabitants of Utopia, in an attempt to gain godlike powers.

Simply put, it’s Blackest Night for the X-Men titles.  Instead of zombie Black Lantern versions of old friends back to prey on their friends, it’s techno-organic zombie versions.

Comic Pick Of The Week: New Avengers #57

COVER: Stuart Immonen
WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis
PENCILS: Stuart Immonen
INKS: Matt Banning
COLORS: Dave McCaig
LETTEREDS: Comicraft

Synopsis

It was bound to happen and now it has. The Hood loses his grip on the colorful criminals that make his empire. It’s a super-villain turf war and guess who is stuck in the middle? That’s right… the powerless New Avengers. Not to mention the powerless Dark Avengers (who guest star, btw.) Who will replace the Hood as kingpin of criminals??

My Take

I worship at the house of Brian Michael Bendis. A lot of people don’t like the way he writes heroes sitting around talking, but it’s intriguing to see the interactions and thought processes of these characters that you’re just use to fighting and saving the world. Last issue, we saw the New Avengers get their powers taken away and ‘apparently’ the only human member, Mockingbird fighting off the Wrecking Crew. A lot of questions have arised. Why did Hawkeye go down? Does he have superhuman powers? And where the hell is this Hood character going?

This Week’s Pulllist:

Detective Comics #857
Blackest Night Superman #2 (OF 3)
Wolverine Giant-Size Old Man Logan #1
Amazing Spider-Man #606
Fantastic Four #571
Spider-Woman #1
Dark Reign List X-Men One Shot
Uncanny X-Men #515
Invincible #66
Dark X-Men Confession One-Shot
Guardians Of Galaxy #18
Nova #29
Immortal Weapons #3 (OF 5)
Superman Batman #64
Avengers Initiative #28
Ms Marvel #45
Wolverine Origins #40
Dark Reign Made Men
Wasteland #26
Farscape Gone & Back #3

Marvel Hotline: Chris Yost

The writer of DARK X-MEN: THE CONFESSION speaks about Emma Frost’s secret association with the Cabal!