A bold new era? Hopefully a fun read at the very least.

Taking the opportunity of the Christmas period to catch upon my comics reading (and supplementing this with fanfic when I reached the bottom of the stack), I must confess that I re-read Jonathon Hickman’s Fantastic Four and FF (Future Foundation) numerous times.

Although I have raved bout this particular run of the FF numerous times already, and enthused about the quality of story-telling that has gone into the title, it is hardly a dramatic revamp of our favourite Foursome and their family. Cleverly weaving in all of the traditional facets of FF lore, I am finding myself wanting to know where Lyja is (considering the manner of Johnny’s resurrection), or hoping for the return of Sharon Ventura. Exploring the many fanfic sites, one is confronted with multiple line-ups, some making sense and some really out there. Strangely enough, the more bizarre line ups (such as one including Ken Connell the Starbrand) were just as enjoyable, if not more so than the traditional unit.

Do you, like myself, feel a little cheated that we never really saw any quality stories starring the ‘New’ Fantastic Four, the line-up of Wolverine, Spidey, Hulk and the Ghost Rider. Now there’s a Hollywood blockbuster right there, and a grouping that should have received far more attention.

Although changes in the status quo are not necessarily good, nor traditional stories necessarily bad, it would be nice to see a true deviation from the standard formula, and not have to rely on ‘Ultimate’ labels or the appallingly short What-If’s.  Even the ‘massive reorganisation’ of the X-Men strikes me as a repetition of previous themes, as fun as it is.

So, my attention was drawn to Previews and a solicitation from Image Comics set for March. Hell Yeah!, created by Eisner and Harvey award-winner Joe Keatinge and Elephantmen’s Andre Szymanowicz promises to think outside the box when it comes to the lifestyle of super-heroics. Promises that we have heard before, but every so often have actually materialised in the form of a quality product.

This obviously whetts my ‘ooh, new world….’ appetite, although some of Keatinge’s words worry me.

…..when Image Comics debuted, it made me realize all the rules and restrictions I saw in other superhero comics didn’t have to exist. Anything could happen. You could kill lead characters in first issues. Obliterate long-standing villains in a page turn. They could be in different tone than what’s normally presented by the diversity shown in anything from Youngblood to Casual Heroes. They didn’t have to be noble, they didn’t have to maintain the same status quo. It was turned into a genre where the term ‘impossible’ didn’t exist. Due to all this my imagination went into over drive and after twenty years of percolating in my brain, Hell Yeah was born.”

Readers views of the birth of Image vary widely, as did the quality of offerings. Yet most of the initial characters remain with us to this day, so they obviously got something right. And as a die-hard Savage Dragon, Spawn and Stormwatch fan, I would be the last to criticise. (Well, that last statement is maybe not true.) Even the Liefeld house of characters received a tremendous boost at the hands of Alan Moore, most especially Supreme, and it was a shame that the surge in quality could not be sustained by sales.

So I look forward to the coming year, and I hope that the high quality in the industry we have seen recently will be maintained, but perhaps with some real changes in the status quo for our favorite characters.

Just not another New 52, please.

FF 12, the children go to save the day!

Well, now we have seen what we all knew to be the case, Johnny Storm the fabled Human Torch is alive and well. Not that we couldn’t see that coming, but I am pleasantly surprised as to how the youngest of the original Foursome was able to survive.

Of course, if you have read Fantastic Four #600, then you will know that survived is a very strong term. If you haven’t, I won’t spoil it for you, except to say GO READ IT!

I am pleased (and somewhat disappointed) to see that I was wrong, assuming that Lyja was going to pull Johnny’s fat out of the fire. (I’m sure that is the wrong metaphor somehow.)

Meanwhile the FF title continues with the tale of the children. Now if there are sections of the history of the FF that you have fond memories of even though really they should make you cringe? (Or that you cringe anyway, but you still like them?) The current season of the FF is the antidote to all of that.

Remember the Hyperstorm saga? Erm, saga is a strong word for it. What about when Franklin hung around with Power Pack? The Johnny/Crystal/Quicksilver love triangle? Try adding Ronan!

We have Inhumans and Celestials, Kree and the Dire Wraith, Moloids and children everywhere. Even Kristoff Vernard is getting a look in. This is Marvel at its very best, one eye on history and two more on the future.

So, this lead me to thinking who else deserves a resurrection? Obviously time has come round again that Jean Grey must surely be on her way back sometime soon.

Yet resurrections can take many forms, and I really wonder about some of the properties that Marvel have let languish over the years. Can we see another Starbrand please? Or the return of the Ultraverse? After all, is the Night Man (one of him) supposed to be wandering around the Marvel Universe.

How about the Dark Angel of Marvel UK? (Whose original name none of us must mention, even when selling those early issues apparently as I discovered putting mine on sale on eBay. They became ‘the comic later known as Dark Angel’ due to legal emails I received. Possessive or what?)

We could look at some of the other properties as well. Is the industry really better off without the DNAgents or the Elementals? I for one insist on their return.

So, who would you like to see return?

So now we know which member of the Fantastic Four bites the dust this week. I think this has to be one of the best kept secrets in comics for quite some time, certainly unlike the true identity of Monarch back in ’92, for example.

Now, I do not wish to disparage the story in any way, shape or form. The build up to this moment written by Jonathan Hickman has been skilfully executed. The story commenced in bite size chunks until the overall narrative came clear recently. There are some beautiful moments in this month’s Fantastic Four, billed as the last issue, that capture many of the dynamics of the team and family that we all know and love. I remember the heady days when this was emblazoned with the logo ‘The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine’, and never has that been truer than today.

Still, it is a shame that Marvel and the Associated Press could not keep their mouths shut until the issue hit the stands, revealing the identity of the casualty mere hours before the release. Just thirteen issues away from the majestic #600, and they plan to start with a new first issue? I think I can smell publicity, sorry, a mystery, I mean a mystery. Honest.

SPOILER ALERT: If you don’t want to know who dies, stop reading now.

All four core members are in dire peril. Sue has been lined up as a sacrifice at Atlantean peace negotiations. Reed is attempting to save the population of Nu-World before Galactus destroys it. (The World Devourer is that angry, he’s not even stopping for a snack first!) Johnny and a powerless Benjamin J Grimm are facing a new Annihilation Wave threatening to emerge from the headquarters portal to the Negative Zone.

However, do we really think that Johnny is going to stay dead? We haven’t seen a body for starters. At the end of Secret Invasion, Johnny’s ex-girlfriend (and still his wife I believe), the Skrull Lyja chose to remain in the Zone to forge a new destiny for herself. What do you think the chances are she is in that Annihilation Wave?

When I first discovered comics at the age of nine, Johnny was my hero. Hell, I wanted to be him when I grew up! He better have access to that revolving door that is so popular with the mutants.

All criticisms aside, I cannot recommend this enough, as the status quo of Marvel’s first family is upset, at least temporarily.

Of course, the Captain won, maybe Pete has softened over the years.  On the spur of the moment during a ceremony recognising relations between the new security administration in the States and the forces of the UK, Steve Rogers suddenly offered Brian Braddock membership of the Avengers. Pete immediately saw the Americans stealing away British talent, but surely, what a coup for Britain! Definitely a coup for Brian and let’s face it, one for the Avengers as well. After all, this is the guy who was guardian of the entire freaking omniverse for a while. Surely that is some clout that these new Avengers need on their side.

Meanwhile, the Avengers relaunch proceeds apace.  Avengers #1 showed us promise of a larger story that won’t simply be reserved to a few issues, even if it is a story we have seen before. (Your children have taken over the future? Been there, done that.  I mean my children are scheduled to rule the planet for millennia, and I haven’t even got any yet!) However, any story with both Kang and Immortus cannot be bad, and I don’t think that we have seen the latter since Avengers Forever.

In fact on that note, I think on Kang’s timeline, this has to be before the Destiny War, as he states that this is the first time his and the Avengers goals are aligned. Erm, about that…… Destiny War? The Terminatrix Agenda? Remember those?

Obviously not.

Secret Avengers appears to be a far more meatier title. Moon Knight and Nova, spycraft and a martian Serpent Crown? Oh, I want to see a lot more of this.

Meanwhile the new simplicity of the Fantastic Four is suddenly not so simple, and seems to promise yet another ill-advised effort by Reed to solve everything.  His new Future Foundation, composed mainly of children (genii all) strikes me as yet another tool for Reed to manipulate.  Maybe I’m not giving him enough credit, but Richards is a man that I now find hard to trust, as his intelligence seems to constantly distance himself from the rest of humanity, and he is hardly a man to react to democracy, even as he himself claims to believe in self determination. Watch this space, as I hope I am wrong, but the Civil War (and many other acts like once reducing his son to a vegetative state) has shattered any blind loyalty to him I had as a child.

(Must remember, they are not real. They are not real. They are not real!)

All in all, this new age of optimism has had a great start and is long overdue.  Comics can be fun again!

Now if only the X-Men manage to have a couple of happy issues.  Just one or two, that’s all I ask.

You know, I’ve been saying to all my friends for years now, “Why don’t they make a hi-def TV with my favorite Marvel comic book characters on it?” Guess what? They’ve finally done it.It’s like the peanut butter and chocolate combination of this century.

That’s right, Marvel Comics has teamed up with RTC23, to release a new line of LED and LCD televisions with your favorite Marvel character emblazoned across the bottom. Like Wolverine? Pick out the 22″ LCD model, perfect for your computer or home television viewing. Maybe you want a big screen? They have a full line of 40″ LED TVs too, including an OG Silver Surfer, or old-school Captain America, as pictured above. LCDs go as big as 55″ as well, plus some models have color-coded bezels and bases, so you can have a green screen for your Hulk monitor or classic black with Ghost Rider.

So what’s the point? I mean, I’m a comic book fan, but even I wonder if this would look alright in my living room. But after thinking about it for a bit, I realized that this is perfect for a few different situations. Got a game room? Toss one of these bad boys in there and it will look perfect next to your life-size cutout of Spider-Man, and the Iron Man helmet you bought at Comic Con last year. Or, you could use one of these for your home computer setup. Pair two monitors with different characters next to each other and have them fight it out while you’re messing around online.

The cherry on top though is the pricing. The smaller monitors aren’t priced that well when compared to a Dell unit, but the bigger LEDs aren’t priced too badly considering. You can even get into a 55″ LED for under $2gs, which isn’t great, but not price gouging either.

It’s not for everybody, but for the ultimate fanboy who’s got to have it all, this is the one thing you could lord over your friends and show off with pride.

Doom's victims, and that will just be the start.

So this week sees the commencement of the Doom War, which I have been forward to for some time. Let’s face it, Doom has been fairly active recently, in the pages of Thor, Doctor Voodoo and Black Panther, aside from his infrequent influence as part of the Dark Reign Cabal and his dumping of the Intelligentsia in the Fall Of The Hulks.

Busy boy!

This seems the perfect time for him to act, what with the majority of the Avengers and Asgardians caught up in the events of the Siege,and the various gamma-spawned Hulks similarly caught up in their own business.

If you want to know some of the background of the Doom/Namor/T’Challa triad, this dates back to the halcyon days of Super-Villain Team-Up, and issues of the Defenders. There has long been a power-play between the three of them, alliances made and betrayed with no small regularity. You would think that by now they would all know better, but as ever Doom’s ambition knows no bounds.

I try not to read the advance solicitations that often as I prefer the issues to be a surprise, although I confess that on a number of occasions that I have read them and made assumptions about what to expect, I have been amusingly wrong.

I like the fact that Doom War is not between countries, but between people. Nary a hero has escaped his malicious actions, and it is way beyond time that everyone got together and handed him his head. Still, it’s a curious cast. The FF and the X-Men make sense, but Deadpool? In that crew? Now that is something I will have to see.

What scares me most is a comment I read from the writer of this series, Black Panther’s Jonathan Mayberry, in an interview on Comic Book Resources.

“Deadpool is uncomfortably close to me at times. He’s a smartass, he has an inner life that’s weirdly interactive, and he loves a good fight. Back in my younger days, when I was a tournament competitor in full-contact martial arts and later as a bodyguard, I was known for a deeply inappropriate sense of humor during the most stressful times. People told me that I’d be cracking jokes on the way to the hospital with an icepick sticking out of my stomach – joking with the guy who did it, who was strapped to a gurney in the same ambulance with all the broken bones I’d given him. So – Deadpool – yeah, I get him.”

Although we expect our writers to have an understanding of the characters they write, someone who empathises with Deadpool is in control of the Marvel Universe? I fear for us all.

Against my better judgement, I have recently been reading Deadpool, a character I avoided for years, and I admit now, I was wrong. If you haven’t looked at Deadpool Team-Up, I highly recommend it.

In the meantime, let’s sit back and watch Doom get trashed. Well, for the time being at least.

Guardians of the Galaxy #17 Cover

I have to eat my words.

I haven’t read any of this weeks comics yet, but I have caught up with what I missed last week. Specifically the latest issues of Nova and Guardians Of The Galaxy, among others.

What did I say about no clear ending to the War Of Kings? Well, for me, that ending was reached in GOTG #17. Since it has been on the stands for a week, I think I am free to reveal that…….

The Magus is back. With the full force of the Universal Church of Truth behind him. Now that is a biggie, and one that I really look forward to echoing around the universe.

We see how the legacy of Mar-Vell has sunk to even greater depths, and Phyla-Vell reveals just what her bargain with Oblivion was, when she rescued her lover Moondragon. I think Phyla here far outshines Moonie in terms of heartlessness. She slays Adam Warlock mere seconds after he contains the Fault, revealing that she was told to slay the avatar of life, and she would know when to act.

Meanwhile, the great Cosmic Fault is prevented from expanding, but is not in the slightest sealed. Half of the team is trapped in a future seconds away from destruction, a future that is no longer the future of the Marvel universe, as it has been replaced with a timeline that nobody was using.

The timeline of the Magus.

Now this is what I wanted to see, and I think it deserved a special all of its own, rather than being tucked away in the GOTG title. This is the real consequence of the War Of Kings, and promises far grander stories in the future. In fact, this one event justifies the excellent build up that the War provided.

Just like elements of the Kingdom Come storyline have crept into the JSA over in the DC universe, here is another example of a long abandoned alternate future creeping back into continuity. This is a good choice as well, and I think Dan Abnett et al are the perfect creative team to pull this off.

For an older comics fan like myself, this is a total geekgasm.

On an incidental note? Pick up last weeks Fantastic Four if you haven’t already, there looks to be some good developments there. It looks to me like Reed is about to take over the world. Still, if anyone ca wrest control away from Norman Osbourne, Reed is the man.

So much attention has been paid to the Blackest Night and it’s prequel the Sinestro Corps War, that it has been easy to forget that Marvel have also been having a big cosmic crossover. And it rocks.

I’ve been as guilty as anyone, I admit. However I started reading comics with Marvel, and I have been blown away with their recent space sagas. Both Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest, great epics on their own, have set the scene for the current War Of Kings. And let’s face it, everyone who is anyone on the cosmic scene has been in these, even the most obscure of characters, from Paibok the Power Skrull to Stellaris the Celestial Slayer.

We’ve seen the Inhumans finally grasp the destiny for which they were designed, as the Royal Family adopt the Kree Empire as their ward. The third Summers brother Vulcan launches the Shi’ar into an expansionist phase, and the new Guardians Of The Galaxy stuck in the middle.

(SPOILER ALERT – READ NO FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE SERIES BUT PLAN TO.)

Lilandra has now been assassinated. And the culprit Darkhawk.

I have always liked Lilandra, and this one will echo for years if she stays dead, there seems to be nobody to take her place. I for one will miss her.

As for Darkhawk, I always thought he was a character with a lot of potential, and in the capable hands of Dan Abnett this has been realised. This week we have seen the final issue of War Of Kings: Ascension, and Dan has managed to completely revamp the character without contradicting any of his previous history. Christopher Powell has now had the ‘Nova-treatment’ and is finally a force to be reckoned with.

Elsewhere in the MU, Doctor Doom has had a great increase of power, in a story that many may have missed, what with Dark Reign and the War Of Kings hogging the spotlight. Spiralling out of the Marvel 1985 series (and somewhat justifying it), he was apparently slain by the Marquis Of Death, a future version of Clyde Wyncham, the reality altering first mutant of an alternate earth, sent back to the time of the dinosaurs and worked his way forward again step by step. Considering the next issue of the FF continues on from their Dark Reign mini, I hope we will see more of this new uber-Doom. After all, Norman Osbourne will not know how much his ally has changed.

So there’s my recommendations for this week – War Of Kings:Ascension #4 and Fantastic Four #569.