Tag Archives: secret avengers

Marvel Announces Lego Variants

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This September, Marvel and Lego unite for the greatest variant covers you’ve ever seen –  LEGO Variants.  That’s right, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Wolverine, Captain America, and so many more of your favorite Marvel heroes are translated into LEGO form! Not only will you get to see so many of Earth’s Mightiest as Minifigures, but over 20 of your favorite Marvel comics will feature these one- of-a-kind variant covers depicting some of the most classic of covers!

  • All-New X-Men #17
  • Avengers #21
  • Avengers A.I. #4
  • Captain America #12
  • Daredevil #31
  • Fantastic Four #13
  • Guardians Of The Galaxy #7
  • Hawkeye #15
  • Indestructible Hulk #14
  • Infinity #3
  • Iron Man #17
  • Marvel Universe: Avengers Assemble #1
  • Mighty Avengers #1
  • New Avengers #11
  • Nova #8
  • Secret Avengers #10
  • Superior Spider-Man #19
  • Thor: God Of Thunder #14
  • Uncanny Avengers #12
  • Wolverine & The X-Men #36
  • X-Men #5

The covers also celebrate the new LEGO Marvel Super Heroes videogame which will be available beginning Fall 2013 and is the first installment in the highly successful LEGO videogame franchise to feature characters from the Marvel Universe.

Hawkeye_15_LegoVariant IndestructibleHulk_14_LegoVariant XMen_5_LegoVariant

Around the Tubes

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Did you get your new releases yesterday? What’d folks pick up?

Around the Tubes

Bleeding Cool – Showtime Yet To Pay Layman And Guillory For Chew – That really sucks.

Kotaku – First Look At Telltale’s Fables Game – Could be a really cool game.

 

Around the Tubes Reviews

Comic Vine – Archer and Armstrong #0

Comic Vine – Avengers #11

Comic Vine – Avengers Arena #9

Comic Vine – Avengers Assemble #15AU

Comic Vine – Batman #20

Comic Vine – Chin Music #1

Comic Vine – Deadpool #9

Comic Vine – Demon Knights #20

Comic Vine – Fearless Defenders #4

Comic Vine – Green Lantern Corps #20

Comic Vine – Justice League of America #3

Comic Vine – Secret Avengers #4

MTV Geek – Star Wars #5

Comic Vine – Superboy #20

Comic Vine – Thor: God of Thunder #8

Comic Vine – Threshold #5

Comic Vine – Ultimate Comics Ultimates #24

Around the Tubes

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It was new comic book day yesterday, what’d everyone get!?

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CBLDF – ComiXology Chief: “Apple Didn’t Ban Saga #12.” Comic Available on iOS – Nerd rage!!!

ArtsBeat – ‘Spider-Man’ Legal Fight Ends in ‘Artistic Divorce’ – When’s the musical about this going to come out?

 

Around the Tubes Reviews

Comic Vine – Avengers #9

Comic Vine – Batman #19

CBR – Batman #19

Comic Vine – Batman and Robin #19

Comic Vine – Constantine #2

Comic Vine – Demon Knights #19

Comic Vine – Fantastic Four #6

Comic Vine – Green Lantern Corps #19

Comic Vine – Hawkeye #9

Comic Vine – Saga #12

Comic Vine – Secret Avengers #3

Comic Vine – Thor: God of Thunder #7

Comic Vine – Uncanny Avengers #6

Comic Vine – Uncanny X-Men #4

MTV Geek – Walking Dead #109

Review – Marvel NOW!’s Uncanny X-Men #1, Secret Avengers #1 and Fearless Defenders #1

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Uncanny X-Men #1

UncannyXMen_1_CoverThe true flagship book of the X-Men returns. In the wake of the Phoenix, the world has changed and is torn on exactly what Cyclops and his team of X-Men are – visionary revolutionaries or dangerous terrorists? Whatever the truth, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magneto, and Magik are out in the world gathering up new mutants and redefining the name Uncanny X-Men.

We knew the comic would focus on Cyclops and his team of revolutionaries. We also know through some releases that there’s a traitor on the team. This comic takes on both aspects. It doesn’t start with Cyclops and his team, instead we get the traitor telling the story from his perspective while talking to S.H.I.E.L.D. I loved this aspect of the story, the perspective was great and it was a nice change from what I was expecting. Brian Michael Bendis likes story telling from this perspective, so not shocking, but I definitely didn’t think we’d find out who the traitor was. Or would we?!

Yes, at the end of the comic, not only do we get to find out who the traitor is, but why they are doing it. It’s a doozy, not something I was expecting at all.

I figured we were just going to get Cyclops running around the world building his army, with some speeches every so often. Instead we have a hell of a political thriller, knee deep in philosophy about revolution and race relations. This is the original Uncanny X-Men on steroids.

Add in Chris Bachalo’s art and you’ve got a comic that’s amazing and a must buy.

Story: Brian Michael Bendis Art: Chris Bachalo

Story: 9 Art: 9 Overall: 9 Recommendation: Buy

Secret Avengers #1

Secret Avengers (2013) #1 cover by Tomm Coker“The Most Dangerous Secrets We Have… Are The Ones We Keep From Ourselves.” The new Nick Fury leads a covert Avengers strike team including but not limited to Hawkeye, Black Widow, The Hulk, The Winter Soldier, Maria Hill and Phil Coulson on missions so dangerous, even the team members themselves can’t know about them!

I’ve generally loved the past Secret Avengers series. At time they’ve been fantastic, really standing out from the other Avengers comics of the time and having their own voice. Other times, the struggled to stand out and really have a point as to their existence. This new series, in its first issue is in the middle.

The point of the story isn’t the bad guy, he’s kind of lame and the threat meh. The bigger is the gathering of the players and how the new Nick Fury is pulling them together and more importantly how they plan on manipulating them.

This isn’t the old Nick Fury having a big plan that each player only knows a bit about, the new Nick Fury will use you and screw you over. His goal is the mission and the team is a tool that is expendable. First up to recruit is Hawkeye and Black Widow out to stop a guy from selling dark magic to terrorists. The battle is generally lame, but how Fury manipulates his team that’s the interesting part. It all comes down to those final moments.

The first issue is decent, but overall, it’s meh up to the end. We’ll see where the series goes, but it looks like it’ll have an interesting route it’s taking.

Story: Nick Spencer Art: Luke Ross

Story: 7 Art: 7 Overall: 7 Recommendation: Read

Fearless Defenders #1

marvel now defendersValkyrie trying to make amends for her mistakes—mistakes that put the entire world in jeopardy—is tasked with choosing a group of heroic women to fight by her side, not from the women of Asgard, but from the heroic women of Earth.  Circumstance will provide her with an unlikely partner in this task, as she is joined by private investigator Misty Knight. With very different points of view and very different approaches, they will both find their definitions of heroism and honor put to the test by the women they lead and the challenges they face.

Girl Power! That was part of my draw to this series. I liked the idea of Valkyrie and Misty Knight teaming up and forming a team of kick-ass women. Cullen Bunn has a great tone to his writing that I thought would be a great fit to the series. This comic starts and mostly focuses on Misty Knight and a mission of hers to get some Asgardian doodad.

It’s an ok story. The beginning with Misty Knight is fun. Later I found myself drifting though. I felt like I’ve read this before. The idea of a possessed objects harks to Bunn’s Oni Press series The Sixth Gun. That series is fantastic, but this feels a little like a cheap knock off.

We’ve see Valkyrie used pretty well in some Avengers series. Misty Knight has kicked ass before in the amazing Heroes for Hire. The two characters together so far doesn’t quite click.

One of the more anticipated comics for me hasn’t quite lived up to my expectations. Hopefully the series is a slow start and gets better from here.

Story: Cullen Bunn Art: Will Sliney

Story: 6.5 Art: 6.75 Overall: 6.5 Recommendation: Pass

Comic Book (sort of) Weekly Reviews – 4/11/12

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That’s another week covered.  Slowly catching up and hopefully there’ll be another week reviewed by the end of this one!

America’s Got Powers #1 – Jonathan Ross and Bryan Hitch’s new series might be the Hunger Games meets superheroes and holy crap is it good.  I kept turning each page with glee.  So solid, words don’t do it justice at all.  This is an absolute buy and will be the mini-series of the Summer.

Story: 9 Art: 9 Overall: 9

Avengers Assemble #2 – The Zodiac are gathering devices of amazing power and someone is in the background guiding them.  The story is interesting, but series still seems a bit second class compared to the other Avengers titles.  Still, the story is entertaining enough.

Story: 7 Art: 7 Overall: 7

Avenging Spider-Man #6 – Spider-Man, Daredevil and the Punisher team up to protect the Omegadrive and take down five crime syndicates?  Yes please!  This issue combines the best of this series and Waid’s Daredevil with Rucka’s Punisher.  So fantastic.

Story: 9 Art: 9 Overall: 9

Batgirl #8 – Barbara deals with one of the Joker’s henchmen that was present when she was shot.  It’s a decent issue that’ll keep me interested in the series that much longer.

Story: 7.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 7.75

Batman and Robin #8 – Bruce must deal wit the after effects of his and Damian’s battle with Nobody.  It’s a fantastic issue that focuses on a father and his son.

Story: 8.5 Art: 8 Overall: 8.5

Batwoman #8 – Great art and layout with a confusing and muddled story.  This is a pale comparison of the greatness that this series once saw.  A shame too.

Story: 5 Art: 8 Overall: 6

The Bionic Man #8 – Kevin Smith and Phil Hester’s comic is the big screen movie I want to see.  So much fun.  So much action.  So much entertainment.

Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8

Fantastic Four #605 – Reed and his father head through time to see what their recent actions have caused.  The issue is fantastic I think focusing on the heart and relationship of characters.

Story: 9 Art: 8 Overall: 8.75

Fatale #4 – Brubaker’s series is interesting, but not my cup of tea compared to his other previous noir series’.  Something just isn’t clicking for me.

Story: 7 Art: 8 Overall: 7

Green Lantern #8 – Sinestro and Jordan are prisoners of the Indigo Tribe and it looks like we’re going to learn more about this mysterious Corps.  So far, it’s pretty interesting.

Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8

Journey Into Mystery #636 – The final piece of Loki’s plan is revealed and it’s really entertaining.  This series deserves a bigger audience with some fantastic writing.

Story: 8.5 Art: 8 Overall: 8.5

Mega Man #12 – The series has taken a familiar formula and made it work.  Luckily that formula changes a bit in the next issue, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a fun read for the whole family.

Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8

The Mighty Thor #12.1 – We get some various tales about Thor that hint at a lot.  If this is to introduce people to Thor, I definitely don’t think it’s interesting enough to hook them.  Again a “point one” fails.

Story: 7 Art: 8 Overall: 7

The New Avengers #24 – Luke and Jessica have issues to deal with.  We also get a behind the scenes look as Captain America rallies the troops for AVX.  The issue is one giant build up, but it’s solid.

Story: 8.5 Art: 8.25 Overall: 8.5

Resurrection Man #8 – Shelley’s secrets are being slowly shown and released.  This series is fantastic and one of the best new ones of the DC relaunch.

Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8

Saga #2 – Wow, Brian K. Vaughn’s series is amazing.  It’s a sci-fi action adventure that has familiar parts, but in an all new way.  Just beyond fantastic and one of the best series of the year.

Story: 8.75 Art: 8.75 Overall: 8.75

Saucer Country #2 – I love this series.  The X-Files meets West Wing series is just so fresh and so new.  I can’t say I’ve ever read anything like this before.

Story: 10 Art: 8.25 Overall: 9.5

Scarlet Spider #4 – I’m not a Spider-Man fan, but I’m a fan of this series.  There’s something so fresh and so fun about it.  I can’t recommend it enough.

Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8

Secret #1 – Hickman’s latest series is one hell of a mystery.  It’s more than enough for me to come back for the second issue, but I can’t say it blows me away like other series of his in the past.

Story: 7.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 7.75

Secret Avengers #25 – The story arc has been interesting, but I didn’t see that ending coming.  It’s so good.  So, so good.

Story: 8.5 Art: 8.25 Overall: 8.5

the Secret Service #1 – Millar’s latest series in his big push, it’s just not all that solid so far, but it has enough for me to check out the second issue.

Story: 7 Art: 7 Overall: 7

Superboy #8 – Dropped!

Story: 6 Art: 7 Overall: 6

Suicide Squad #8 – We get a bit more of the story behind Waller and the formation of the squad.  There’s also a secret hinted at that’s really entertaining and builds potential for the series.

Story: 7.75 Art: 7 Overall: 7.5

Thief of Thieves #3 – Kirkman and Spencer’s series is amazing.  Redmond is a great main character and the fact the series focuses on the individuals and characters is top notch.  An absolute must buy.

Story: 9 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.5

Ultimate Comics X-Men #10 – Holy shit was that a hell of an ending.

Story: 8.75 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.75

Uncanny X-Men #10 – There’s a lot of build up and foreshadowing here, but it looks like there’s some stuff that has good potential for future plotlines.

Story: 7.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.5

Winter Soldier #4 – Bucky teams up with Doom and it is awesome.

Story: 8 Art: 8.25 Overall: 8

Wolverine #304 – Sabretooth throws a party and I’m irritated in the art constantly switching.

Story: 7 Art: 7 Overall: 7

Around the Tubes

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Hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day and after a day off, back to work!

Around the Blogs:

Wallstreet Journal – Worst Comic Book Ever! – An absolute must read that rightly condemns the comic book industry for it’s own failures.

Mashable – Nokia to Launch Batman-Themed Lumia 900 – Interesting product tie-in.

GayStarNews – Will Green Lantern be gay? – Some outside coverage of DC’s news.

Bleeding Cool – Keeping Your ComiXology Comics (UPDATE) – Shocked this didn’t happen sooner.

Bleeding Cool – An Alternate Storyline For The Walking Dead? – Pretty interesting stuff here.

Refinery29 – Mazel Tov! Marriage Equality Comes To Comic Books – Some outside coverage of Marvel’s news.

Bleeding Cool – Could We Get A New Justice League Of America? – Can’t tell if this is a plan or throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks.

Bleeding Cool – Iron Man From Gillen And Land To Follow Avengers Vs X-Men? – Can’t wait to see what Marvel does.

Bleeding Cool – Yes, America, It’s Alan Scott – Bleeding Cool says it knows who the DC gay icon is.

 

Around the Tubes Reviews:

Talking Comics – Clint Magazine #1

Bleeding Cool – G.I. Joe: Cobra #13

CBR – Secret Avengers #27

The Founding Fields – Watchmen

Comic Book (sort of) Weekly Reviews – 4/4/12

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Ok, I slowed down in the whole catching up on my reviews thing… but back to it and hopefully I’ll totally be caught up by the end of June… if not sooner.

Age of Apocalypse #2 – The remaining resistance is on the run and Jean Grey and Sabretooth’s role is still up in the air.  The series is solid and different, with some solid art.  The series is different enough to stand out from the rest of the “X” books.  I missed the original Age of Apocalypse, so this’ll do for me.

Story: 7.75 Art: 8 Overall: 7.75

American Vampire #25 – Scott Snyder’s series is amazing and this issue ties so many threads together.  I can’t wait to see what he does and what he has in store for the series.  I can’t get enough of this series and it absolutely shows off why Snyder is one of the best writers out there.

Story: 8.5 Art: 8.25 Overall: 8.5

Animal Man #8 – The battle against the Rot continues as Animal Man and Swamp Thing are going to team up and collide.  The series shows that the Vertigo feel can work and work well in the modern DC universe.  The art is solid on top of it.  This is one of the best series to come out of DC’s relaunch.

Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8

Avengers Academy #28 – The team up with the Runaways continues and there’s a bunch I like, and a lot I don’t.  The series just feels like the B-team for Avengers.  We’ll see where it goes, but hopefully post Avengers Vs. X-Men the series will get a nice shake-up.

Story: 7.25 Art: 7.25 Overall: 7.25

Avengers Vs. X-Men #1 – This is it?  There’s some great build up and tension, but the old quote about sound and fury signifying nothing stands out to me.  It’s just one issue, but I hope there’s more to it all than just this.  The art is pretty solid, but overall, pretty meh so far.

Story: 7.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 7.75

Batman: Detective Comics #8 – While the art is pretty decent, I think the story really shows how excellent Snyder’s Batman is compared to this inferior series.

Story: 7 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7

Batwing #8 – We find out the identity of Massacre.  I can’t say I’m shocked.  The ending to the first arc is ok.  It’s not quite the solid series it was when it started, but still a nice addition to the Bat family.

Story: 7.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.5

Brilliant #3 – A debate rages as to how to handle the discovery as the FBI attempts to put together what happened.  This series feels like a tame Mark Millar series.  Without the swearing and over the top violence.  Not sure if that’s a good thing… either part.

Story: 7.25 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.25

Chew #25 – Tony is captured and this series shows why it’s one of the most creative and original ones out there.  The story is as off the hook as can be expected and art entertaining as usual.  A series that should be on everyone’s pull-list.

Story: 8.25 Art: 8.25 Overall: 8.25

Danger Club #1 – The adults are away and the children will play.  The adult super heroes might be dead, so the kids have taken over.  The series just has awesome punch to it with solid art.  It’s not totally original, but it’s damn entertaining.

Story: 8.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.5

Daredevil #10.1 – A great point one that introduces Daredevil to new readers and catches them up on information you know.  I’m loving the Omegadrive story.  Watching the groups after it attempt to get it is beyond entertaining.  Mark Waid is at the top of his game with this series and the art is amazing.

Story: 9 Art: 9 Overall: 9

Fairest #2 – The art is fantastic and story solid in this spin-off from Fables.  Two issues in and you can see the series falls more into the fantasy end of things, picking up on some threads left from the main series.  It’s only two issues, but it’s two solid issues.

Story: 8.25 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.25

Fear Itself: The Fearless #12 – So, Hellstrom is a bad guy in this book, but a good guy in Circle of Four and Journey?  Get the characters straight!!!  There’s some interesting stuff set up here, but overall, this twelve part series was a mess.

Story: 6 Art: 6.75 Overall: 6.25

New Mutants #40 – Douglock fights Ani-Matter and I yawn…

Story: 6.5 Art: 6.5 Overall: 6.5

Red Lanterns #8 – Take this story and switch the color to a different Corps… does it make a difference?  No, not really and that’s where the story fails for me.  Red Lanterns should have an animalistic feel to them and here they just come off like a bland version of Yellow or Green.

Story: 6.75 Art: 7.5 Overall: 6.75

Secret Avengers #24 – A cool story still with the team taking on various cyborg like beings in the Marvel universe that have come together.  It’s a somewhat original story, and the art is pretty solid.  I think the series is finally finding it’s footing.

Story: 7 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7

Stormwatch #8 – The team takes on a pretty huge threat and Midnighter makes a hell of a decision.  The series is finally getting good for me, and hopefully it continues on this pace.

Story: 7.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 7.75

Swamp Thing #8 – A series that’s been more Vertigo and horror than superhero swings the superhero way as Swamp Thing goes after the Rot in the beginning of a hell of a battle.  Compared to past issues, the issue is just ok, but it’s one piece of a much bigger and excellent story.

Story: 7 Art: 8.25 Overall: 7

Thunderbolts #172 – The renegade Thunderbolts fight the original Thunderbolts in a pretty typical battle issue.  There’s some potential here, but so far it’s pretty average but still somewhat entertaining.

Story: 7 Art: 7.25 Overall: 7

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #9 – Miles meets the police and his uncle comes calling when he runs into trouble.  The series continues it’s excellence as a new Spider-Man still gets his act together.  The art is great and story solid.

Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8

Venom #15 – Flash must deal with the last few weeks and his getting up and heading to Vegas.  His personal life is unraveling while he deals with having been attached to Venom so long.  The series is getting back into the swing of things focusing on Flash’s personal life as much as the superhero.  That’s when it’s great.

Story: 8.25 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.25

Wolverine and the X-Men #8 – The kids head off to find God (not really) while Wolverine deals with his getting beaten down at the Casino.  Meanwhile the Hellfire Club hires Sabretooth to give them some tips which leads to Sabretooth fighting Beast in an awesome fight.  The issue is all over the place and pure amazing.

Story: 8.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.5

Top Five Recently Canceled Series I Wish Were Still Being Published

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Sorry haven’t posted in a while, but life has been getting in the way, but I should be back in the regular mix here at Graphic Policy from now on. My first post back is pretty straightforward, I’m going to take a look at five series that have ended recently that I wish were still going on. Not limited series, but ongoing series that have been canceled.

Honorable Mention: The Order, all of Marvel’s cosmic titles

OMAC 5. OMAC (8 issues, last in April 2012): OMAC wasn’t brilliant and it was, of course, little more than a tribute to Jack Kirby that hadn’t really been developed into anything of its own yet, but it had a lot of potential. Keith Giffen gave us art that was as true to Kirby as if Jack had done it himself. Dan DiDio was starting to establish an original character in Kevin Kho (the only Cambodian-American character in comics I know of) and there were a lot of Brother Eye stories to be told. Many crappier titles survived into the Second Wave of the New 52, hopefully we’ll see more from Kho, OMAC and Brother Eye again soon.

Heroes for Hire 4. Heroes for Hire (12 issues, last in November 2011): Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning showed us with this series that there are no small characters, just small stories and small writers. Misty Knight and Paladin were turned into compelling and entertaining characters in a way they rarely have been in the past. The first issue of this series, with its shout-out to The Warriors, remains one of the best first issues of any series I’ve ever read. Luckily we got to see the story continued in Spider Island and Villains for Hire, but with the team having no current home, I worry that we won’t be seeing them as much.

28 Days Later 3. 28 Days Later (24 issues, last in June 2011): In the days when zombie comics are rightfully dominated by The Walking Dead and wrongfully imitated by dozens of inferior titles, 28 Days Later was one of the few non-Robert Kirkman series that actually added something to the genre. Every issue started with a brilliant cover (most of the recent ones by Sean Phillips), continued with solid interior art by Alejandro Aragon and top-notch storytelling by Michael Alan Nelson. Following in the footsteps of the first movie, the series was always compelling and gave us a look at the aftermath of the British zombie outbreak that broke new ground in a well-worn genre. The comic did the same.

SWORD 2. SWORD (5 issues, last in March 2010): SWORD is exactly what I’m looking for when I pick up comics. It was one of the smartest comics on the shelf, fast-paced, funny, filled with references and jokes that you don’t need to know, but if you do they add layers to the story, action-packed, and consistently awesome. It featured a strong female lead who could’ve developed into one of Marvel’s better characters and introduced us to one of the more intriguing characters to come along in years in the Unit. Luckily, we’re still seeing flashes of these characters and SWORD in X-Men comics, but it’s sad, that from what I understand, the comic was never really given a chance. Keiron Gillen gets most of the credit for how great this comic was.

Secret Warriors 1. Secret Warriors (28 issues, last in September 2011): Secret Warriors beats out SWORD, to me, because, while SWORD is exactly what I come to comics to find, Secret Warriors consistently surprised me. It was way better than I expected and it brought to my attention things I wouldn’t have otherwise read or thought about. It also had better art than SWORD. Another series with consistently brilliant covers and superior art by the likes of Allesandro Viti and Stefano Caselli (among others), the comic clearly had its own visual style and it was better than most of what was on the market. On top of that, the writing was even better. Originally a Brian Michael Bendis project and later taken over by Jonathan Hickman, the comic delved into the espionage side of the Marvel Universe, particularly the ongoing tale of Nick Fury, better than it has been done in decades. I’m not even that big a fan of Fury and the espionage stuff. Well, I wasn’t until this series. The only thing that still touches on this stuff in a good way are the ongoing Captain America and Secret Avengers titles, but neither of them is as consistently good (and shocking) as Secret Warriors was.

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