Well, it’s finally all over, and the status quo has returned to what it should be. Norman Osborn has been picked up from crawling about in the wreckage of the Golden City, revealed to be as mad as a dancing troupe of Mad Hatters, even the President has ordered his capture, and reinstated the Avengers.

At the same time, Bob Reynolds lies dead in the ruins of Asgard.

I for one am not sorry to see him go. Although a number of stories featuring him have been of a high quality, as a (dis)functioning part of the Avengers, I rather think he has been nothing but a hindrance.

Nothing has reinforced my annoyance at the Sentry than this weeks issue of The Sentry – Fallen Sun, one of the few Siege epilogues. We now hear more of the various heroes memories that somehow they have recovered even though nobody was supposed to remember anything of the Sentry’s first (and second) incarnations. To say the issue was saccharin would be to give the story high praise. There is one thread that shows promise, as the Sentry’s pet robot Cloc flies off to recreate Bobs headquarters somewhere in anticipation of his return.

That in and of itself is enough to send a chill through my spine.

Meanwhile, we learn how Daredevil idolised him (that so doesn’t feel right), and that Magneto is not the only man Rogue has been able to touch. So the Sentry was not only a schizophrenic addict, he was a cheat as well. An addict who still was able to help Tony Stark overcome his drinking? There is no reason this should not have been contained in a few pages of one of the Avengers titles. I had to pay money for this?

The only eulogy that felt real for me was that of Doctor Strange’s. He is one who could relate to Bob’s struggle, having had god-like power and lost it through his own errors and unworthiness.

On the matter of Doctor Strange however, that got me thinking.  We all know we have not seen the last of him, but I rather like the idea of exploring Sentry’s true nature. To me, he seems to be not a forgotten part of reality, but a lie, a myth, an insertion into the mainstream reality. What was he really? Where was he from?

A creation of Nightmare’s to emotional wound the heroes and give them fake memories of previous losses? Of course, D’Spayre or Mephisto could both fill that role.

Or maybe Bob was some stray thought created by a wielder of the Cosmic Cube (or one of the other numerous reality altering devices).  He is an Aryan ideal, could he have been unleashed from the mind of the Red Skull? Or maybe the Void was his true form, and the next time we see him, he will not be hampered by his human avatar.

Let’s hope it’s not for some time however.

Hulk #21

Busy week this week. Green Arrow has gone rogue, New Krypton is falling under the assault of Brainiac, Namorita is alive again (sort of) and Spider Man is given a taste of godhood even greater than when he wore the mantle of Captain Universe. Oh, and Namorita is not the only one, Thanos is back.

Let me take this point-by-point. Although the slaying of Prometheus by Green Arrow in the wake of Justice League: Cry For Justice is a logical progression of the story, haven’t we been here before? Green Arrow considered dangerous and on the run from his comrades?

It’s not new to have a hero on the run, pursued by former allies and the forces of the law (although the law has yet to get involved in Oliver’s pursuit, maybe the League want to police themselves). It is a little newer for said hero to actually be guilty of whatever they have been accused of I suppose, but not tremendously so. What a disappointing consequence to what was actually an excellent series. Now we also have Red Arrow/ Speedy I (erm, II if you add in the pre Crisis On Infinite Earths continuity) crippled, and obviously going to receive some form of cyborg arm in the near future. (It would be nice to see Roy gain some form of mystical healing instead, and send him into the weird area of the DCU. After all, with his chequered past, his interaction with Checkmate and other agencies and a new hook for readers, I can see the potential for a hit series with the right writer).

Meanwhile, the second (or third) Speedy is poised to take a moral descent herself, with an arrow pointing at the Electrocutioner’s head.

I still think we have been here before. This is not what I pay my bucks for people!

In contrast, the Last Stand Of New Krypton is wrapping up many of the plotlines hovering in the background of the DCU for the past few years, from the machinations to war by both General Zod and General Sam Lane, to just what the Legion Espionage Squad is doing embedded in the beginning of the twenty-first century, to just what Luthor has been doing since his escape. This is sheer spandex drama at it’s finest.

The most comparable event to this is the Fall Of The Hulks, which we are seeing unfold before our eyes in a most chaotic fashion. I highly recommend that, but don’t expect it to make sense just yet, every reveal just causes more questions, never mind figuring out where this crossover sits in relation to the other big events like Siege.

Ooo, Siege. I’m not saying a word, except I really enjoyed #3, and #4 looks incredibly promising. Not the ending I was expected, but that is good. It’s too early to issue a spoiler on that one. Or on Green Lantern Corps #47, but that also had a nice twist I was not expecting (although in retrospect that was more my bad memory than a dramatic twist).

Now the lead up to Realm Of Kings continued in Nova #35 and Guardians of the Galaxy #24. The conclusion of the Sphinx storyline in Nova was okay I suppose, but then I am often disappointed with Sphinx stories in the last decade or so. Anath Na-Mut is a character that has so much potential, but he is frequently reduced to a two-dimensional villain, as he is eventually here. The resurrection of Namorita we could see a mile off, I only hope that this is some nasty effect of the Fault, and she is actually some soul eating beastie. I used to like Namorita, but this rebirth simply feels cheap.

The Guardians issue is far more promising, as the cocoon on Sacrosanct is opened to reveal Thanos as the newest Avatar of Death. One question here, what is Oblivion doing, selecting the Avatar of Death? Isn’t that Death’s job? Doesn’t Oblivion have avatars of his own?

My final recommendation is Spider-Man and the Secret Wars #4, a fascinating if disjointed tale, set just as Doom claimed the power of the Beyonder. It doesn’t really add a great deal to the continuity, it’s simply a fun romp.

Age Of Heroes #1

It looks like Marvel have been listening to me, and my love of the 8-page story format, as once the Dark Reign draws to a close in the Siege of Asgard, we launch into the Heroic Age. To celebrate this, Marvel will be launching an anthology title named Age Of Heroes in June, planned in the style of Nation X.

Woohoo! They listen! (I’ll totally ignore the fact that they have obviously been listening to my words precognitively, that would just burst my bubble, and I’m not sure I could stand up to that!)

So this is a tool to assist in the recalibration of the Marvel Universe into a brighter, happier, more positive place. About time one might say, having the deck stacked against the heroes makes for a good story, but it can’t last forever. As fans, we want a break as well, not just for the characters we know and love, but also for ourselves. After all, isn’t that the purpose of escapism?

Still, I worry for the titles future. It’s been a while since an anthology title had any longevity. The relaunch of Marvel Comics Presents didn’t last long, and the previous title, although a very healthy run, rather shot itself in the foot, with stories that were not of the highest quality, and failed to be character driven IMHO.

Mind you, with a team of writers like Kurt Busiek, Rick Remender, Paul Cornell, and Dan Slott and artists like Marko Djurdjevic, Chris Samnee and Leonard Kirk, this is something to really look forward to.

Right, what am I looking forward to this week? When I am starting with Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers Unleashed #1, I’m not sure the word recommendations can be taken seriously. But nonetheless, have you read the previous series? It’s great!

Otherwise – SWORD #5, The Mystic Hands Of Dr Strange #1, Twelve Spearhead #1, R.E.B.E.L.S #14 and Superman Last Stand Of Krypton #1, which shows the end of the New Krypton storyline is in sight.

Guardians Of The Galaxy #22

I’m wondering just how big the Realm Of Kings is supposed to be, when it finally arrives. In this week’s Guardians Of The Galaxy #22 we will see the birth (or not) of a dark god that impregnated itself within Moondragon and is welcomed by the Universal Church of Truth. (So finally Moonie becomes the Celestial Madonna as she always wanted, only to discover it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.)

We saw last week in Realm Of Kings Imperial Guard, Quasar loose in the Fault, yet hasn’t he already reached Earth? Or at least a version of him with scary eyes did, currently mooching around Project Pegasus.

Then we have the weird Leviathan organisation in Secret Warriors, and of course in the endlessly repeated prologue of Fantastic Four #575 we have chaos in the underworlds. The Old Ones awakening perhaps?

I doubt it, but then again it would be nice. If nothing else Marvel has proved that it can do interlinked story-lines with the recent few years of offerings, that from an editorial perspective are up there with the first and greatest of them all, Crisis On Infinite Earths.

However, Realm Of Kings could offer a great enough threat to finally reunite the Marvel Universe and restore the status quo. After all, there are still a lot of grudges and feuds remaining after the events of Civil War, Secret Invasion et al; and there is nothing like the risk of everything being wiped out to erase such meddlesome distractions.

Still, in the meantime, we have Siege to get through, which is shaping up to be a more interesting story than I first gave it credit for. And dawning over the horizon is coming the Heroic Age , a new direction for Marvel as it casts aside al the darkness of the past few years.

Hmmm. Cast away the darkness? Just as The Fault opens the universe to another where life has won, death is vanquished, and cancerous gods look for new space to expand into?

Yeah. Good timing, that!

Dark Avengers #13 featuring the Sentry (and nothing to do with Siege whatsoever)

As I write this, I am a little under halfway through the weeks’ comics, and if you are one of those people that have to wait for Saturday to pick up your orders, then do I have a list of recommendations for you! This is a good week.

Although I am embarrassed to admit it, I have been following the Power Girl title since it’s inception. She is a character I like, and I love the dimensional twistiness that is her background. I was hoping for more of the same as seen in the first four issues of JSA Classified, and instead I found stories reminiscent of the JLI.

Having said that, the latest issue was a hoot. Featuring what I think is the third iteration of Vartox (because there was a post-crisis version that was slave to Brainiac if I recall correctly), Power Girl has been subjected to a rather macho chauvinist courtship as Vartox’ entire civilisation has been rendered sterile. Vartox is not prepared for Power Girl’s erm, complexity, a word rarely used about Kara so you can see what level he is operating on.

There are moments in here that made me laugh out loud! Power Girl’s put downs are somewhat expected, but funny nonetheless, and the best part of the story?

The Pregno-ray.

You heard it here first. Do not miss the unveiling of the Pregno-ray. Technology this amazing has not been seen since the invention of the Snuggie!

On a more serious note I highly recommend you pick up Dark Avengers #13, here we take a break from Siege and find out the true origin of the Sentry, and find out the story of his marriage to Lindy. Then again, I think this boy is about to prove himself a hero finally. Well, half of him anyway. Lindy reveals all, and it is nice to see the Sentry fleshed out so much, in a manner that makes a great deal of sense. I do not want to give away any spoilers, but I can reveal it is suggested that Bob Reynolds conspired to have himself forgotten in the first place.

My final Marvel recommendation is Dark Wolverine #82. I was not that interested in Daken when he first appeared, but events in this issue make it appear that the Wolverine knock-off is going to be more important in the fall of Norman Osbourne than I ever would have imagined.

New Mutants #9, it's not what it appears.

Well, now we have it, the explanation of who the current Magik/Illyana is, and we discover the 2.0 version we now see comes without added Illyana. She is simply the Dark Chylde, resurrected and abandoned by Belasco, and claims she has no soul, only the body and mind of the deceased sister of Colossus.

Which begs the question, why did she even return to the X-Men fold? This is put to her by Emma Frost, and somehow I would have thought this confrontation would be more dramatic, yet it is almost as if they are simply sharing a nice cup of tea together. Even stranger, that a young girl would have the upper hand over the former headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy. Yet when asked about her absence after she left San Francisco, Illyana reveals that she had been searching for years for her Blood Stones (fragments of her soul conjured by Belasco) and when she had returned to the team, she had travelled back in time. The smile on her face as she offered Emma a peek into her mind seemed so mischievous, and as Emma discovered that it would have been by her own hand that Legion would finally have been defeated and slain, but only after he had destroyed most of the X-Men, this demonic creation comes up smelling of roses.

While Emma is left shaken to her core. Oh, Kitty would have been so proud.

The other comics to read this week – Siege: Embedded #1, and to my surprise, Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #2.

Siege has finally kicked off, for which I am glad, because if I saw one more promo of it, then I would have been tempted to burn the lot of them. In the main story, even the President has finally realised that Norman is ‘out of control’. However, in the pages of Siege:Embedded, we see Ben Urich and an ex-colleague discover Volstagg and follow him for the story that will hopefully topple the new Osbourn empire.

What made the issue for me was the quick Glenn Beck parody, of a TV pundit whom Osbourn decided to recruit as he was so very positive about Norman’s policies. And I quote:

‘But this is a commercial break, and I need to be preparing for the next segment. I’m going to cry on camera. It takes some level of preparation.’

Bwah-ha-ha-ha! Absolutely priceless. Marvel, you are almost forgiven by that one act for your ‘Embrace Change’ flyers during election season.

My other recommendation of Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #2, gives an insight into the events of Blackest Night #6, and Diana’s battle with Mera, the former wife (and Queen) of Aquaman, and with the Black Ring itself. Of course, Diana gets some divine assistance, but it gives quite the insight into what is going on with the ‘resurrected’ characters forced to bear the ring. I didn’t like the ending of Blackest Night #6, I mean just how many people do we need wearing these rings? However, this story goes to somewhat justify that. However, I am beginning to think that this crossover is dragging on for too long, and I am relieved to see that Siege is only a mere four issues. So finally the end of the Dark Reign is in sight. Just in time for the evils of the Fault in Realm of Kings, or the Elder Gods as heralded by the Dark Chylde to arrive. Mayhap they will be one and the same (although I rather doubt it.)

Erm, am I a traitor if I root for Asgard?

Image United First page - Prophecies of doom

If you haven’t picked up Image United #1 already, today is your second chance. (Although if you go for the Collectors Edition, it has a $10 price tag!) Now when I first heard about this project, with different artists collaborating to draw their own characters, panel to panel, I thought it was interesting, but I also thought it would be a nightmare to co-ordinate, possibly a cacophony on the eye, and in the early tradition of Image comics, unlikely to ship on time.

Well, fortunately I was wrong. The first issue is merely a set up issue, but that not withstanding, it works. Starting with a most apocalyptic introduction sequence, other than villains attacking various cities for no apparent reason, there is no hint of what the protagonists will face. Still, I have high hopes for this series, and I hope it meets the standard set by the vastly under-rated Shattered Image mini from a few years ago. It’s a shame Image have waited this long to create another all-star series.

Todays shipping list has plenty to keep us occupied, the big events keep rolling out. The Zombie Watch will notice the Flash and Wonder Woman Blackest Night minis. Considering the climax of Blackest Night last week, I wonder what we are going to see, will they be wearing the Black Rings as the issue opens?

In the mean time, we also see the beginning of SIEGE in Siege:Cabal, as Norman Osbourne sets his sights on Asgard. There’s not much left of the Cabal now, Namor and Emma Frost have defected (back) to the X-Men, Loki cannot be trusted and Doom no doubt has his own agenda.

Also, Fall Of The Hulks. Now I haven’t been writing about it, but I have really enjoyed the Hulk titles recently, and I like the new additions to the Hulk family, in the shape of the Red Hulk and Red She-Hulk, and especially the new Savage She-Hulk, daughter of Hulk and Thundra. I’m that should be the All-New Savage She-Hulk, but I think that title has been used already. That’s not discounting Skaar and Hiro-Kala, both Sons-Of-Hulk, but they have been around a bit longer. So far every guess I have had as to the Red Hulks identity has been wrong, so much so I’ve given up thinking about it. The only guess I have left is Major Talbot, but he’s died twice already I think.

It may not be the most ideal jumping on point, but the opening pages as previewed on Newsarama have certainly piqued my appetite. I’ve wondered in the past what would occur if the greatest villainous minds were to actually work together, and to see them raid the vaults of the Eternals homeland of Olympia made me smile.

Are we suffering from Big Event overload however? Image United seems to avoid all of the pitfalls, being self-contained. And is it possible DC have taken the hint? They have waited for the first wave of crossover mini-series to conclude before launching this second wave, and I know there are many wallets across the nations that are grateful to this.

Which brings me to another topic, that I will explore further on Friday. Is there a better way to do this? I adore these big crossovers (can you tell?), but my bank manager must dread them. Skimming through the solicitations to see just how much I would have to spend to keep up with the SIEGE storyline made steam erupt from my calculator.

In his monthly interview with Newsarama, Dan Didio asked the regulars to that site what they thought of digital comics. Some people hated the idea of them, others wanted ones they could download, rental models were put forward (baring in mind all the mistakes that Marvel have done already with their online subscription service), and still others wanted to wait for the appropriate technology to come out.

My preference is a downloadable comic, that I can pay a lot less for that the print version, which would enable me to follow all of these events. There are still ones that I would physically buy, and many fans are so wedded to the print version that they would never give them up. Myself, I live in a small place, there are only so many comics I can fit in the house, so digital would be ideal, taking up no space at all. But I would be wedded to my laptop, because as much as I love my new e-reader, comics don’t work on it. The screen is too small, the fact it is black and white does not bother me too much, I grew up with British b&w reprints, but the small screen is a real obstacle. Squinting to read the small print is no better than tired eyes from my laptop’s backlit screen.

So, I open the floor. What would you like to see in a digital model for comics distribution? I don’t want to hear from the naysayers, this is a discussion for those of us that want good digital product. What about DRM? Ensuring the creators get paid so that they keep producing for us?

DC sounds like it still has an open mind on the issue, unlike the other Main Player. So, what do we want to tell them?

Siege #1 cover, released in January

In January, Osbourne launches the Siege Of Asgard, with a central series and numerous tie-ins, the seeds of which have apparently already been laid. I think I need to go read my Thor issues. I rather hope that this will be more poignant that the Dark Reign:The List issues, which so far have been little more than amusing stories of Normans failure.

It’s nice to know there is light at the end of the tunnel, but that light won’t be dawning until at least April, as Siege is a four issue series. However, today’s release of Dark Reign: The List Avengers is included in the Road To Siege Hardcover, so I think that this will be one not to miss.

With the upcoming Necrosha, and Nation X, and the already commencing Realm Of Kings, it looks like the age of the uber-story is here for the duration. Great for continuity freaks like myself, but not so easy on the wallet. I hope once the dust settles from the Dark Reign, Marvel will allow each series freedom to pursue their own plotlines, but the solicitations don’t yet seem to reveal the threat posed by Adam Magus, the new, evil form of Adam Warlock. If they are paying homage to the original timeline of Jim Starlin’s Warlock, then I feel that may yet be waiting in the wings.

So in comparison, Blackest Night is certainly cheaper, but certainly not lower quality. And January’s solicitations have revealed what I knew! Nekron is the big, big bad. The only release this week is Blackest Night:Superman #3, I only hope this series in it’s final issue manages to be as relevant as the excellent Blackest Night: Batman.

My other recommendation for today? Zenescope’s Escape From Wonderland #2. If you haven’t picked any of this series up so far, you have missed a treat. The Wonderland they portray is even more twisted than in the original novels, and if you like your classic stories with a twist, this is the one for you.