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.