From Wolverine #43(Aug. 2006).
Showing posts with label Civil War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Civil War. Show all posts
Monday, May 31, 2010
Just a(not so)Random WOLVERINE Scan...
So me and JT(of http://jasontoddscomicspot.blogspot.com/)were talking about Wolverine yesterday, and I happened to mention that once Wolvie was blown LITERALLY to smithereens. He DEMANDED me to produce evidence of this fact, and viola, instant comic book scan! So here ya go, Wolverine, blasted right down to his shiny metal skeleton, and yet still alive, thus proving once and for all that NOTHING can kill Wolverine!
From Wolverine #43(Aug. 2006).
From Wolverine #43(Aug. 2006).
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Looking Forward to Ultimate Alliance 2 and back at the "Civil War" story... Civil War fans beware!
This is going to be one of those stream of consciousness posts where I type random gibberish until I get bored enough to(mercifully)end the post. Let's see, I guess I'll blog about the upcoming Marvel Ultimate Alliance video game. I think it drops this Tuesday(although I could be wrong). I loved the original Ultimate Alliance, it was a great game with an interesting storyline. Unfortunately, it looks as if the new UA is going to be revisiting one of the worst Marvel stories in recent memory...
The game is based on the "Civil War" storyline from a few years back. For the record, I HATED the entire Civil War storyline. Why? For a whole bunch of reasons. For one, I thought the story resembled one of those summer Hollywood blockbusters, you know, a whole bunch of exciting moments with little cohesive storyline. Stanford blows up, Tony Stark becomes a pseudo-villain, Spider-Man nonsensically unmasks, Captain America becomes a wanted criminal, and things climax with a big old brawl in the streets of downtown Manhattan, with an ending so telegraphed that I could see it coming from nearly the beginning. I don't know what angered me more, Spider-Man unmasking or Cap becoming a fugitive.
Let's look at Spidey first. Here's Spider-Man, a character who valued his secret identity as much as anybody, happily unmasking at the behest of Tony Stark, on live TV no less! Why would Spidey do such a drastic thing? Because he wound up seeing Tony as some sort of a father figure or something like that. The best part of the unmasking? Within a few months, Marvel wound up retconning the entire sorry affair! To me, Spider-Man's unmasking was just a blatant money-grab, no more, no less. Now, there's nothing wrong with trying to sell a comic book with a big "event". However, Spidey's unmasking destroyed years of Spider-Man history and mythos. It just didn't make sense for THAT character to make THAT decision at THAT time.
Then we have Steve Rogers... The Sentinel of Liberty himself, Captain America, being branded a criminal. "Captain America: Fugitive" just boggles my mind to this day! Who makes Cap into the bad guy?!? Ah, but that was the thing about Civil War, wasn't it... Marvel wanted it to seem like there was no right or wrong, only shades of grey. Tony Stark threw his lot in with the government and followed the law, while Cap decided to disobey the law. When put like that, Cap seems like he was in the wrong. Of course, if you actually read the story, you quickly realize that Tony and his pro-government forces couldn't have been shown in a more villainous light. Tony's forces openly work with known criminals, back stab allies and most damning of all, create an clone of Thor which inevitably goes insane.
Huh, I can't think of a single positive that came out of Civil War. Civil War gave us Captain America's eventual assassination, Speedball becoming the useless Penance, the Thunderbolts inexplicably working for known criminal Norman Osborn, Tony Stark becoming the head of SHIELD, and of course, Spider-Man undoing his unmasking by making a deal with Mephisto... Oh yeah, and Civil War also paved the way for "Secret Invasion"... Ugh...
I don't know how Ultimate Alliance 2 is going to tackle the Civil War story, or how closely they're going to follow the original "Civil War". I can tell you one thing, I won't know for quite some time. I usually rush out to pick-up any Marvel licenced video game(yes, even Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects...), but I don't think I'll bother buying MA2 until the day I find it in a bargain bin at my local Gamestop. Sorry Marvel, but I think I'll continue to play the surprisingly good Civilization: Revolution or the magnificent Batman: Arkham Asylum, as opposed to revisiting some of the most ill-conceived occurrences in Marvel's storied history.
The game is based on the "Civil War" storyline from a few years back. For the record, I HATED the entire Civil War storyline. Why? For a whole bunch of reasons. For one, I thought the story resembled one of those summer Hollywood blockbusters, you know, a whole bunch of exciting moments with little cohesive storyline. Stanford blows up, Tony Stark becomes a pseudo-villain, Spider-Man nonsensically unmasks, Captain America becomes a wanted criminal, and things climax with a big old brawl in the streets of downtown Manhattan, with an ending so telegraphed that I could see it coming from nearly the beginning. I don't know what angered me more, Spider-Man unmasking or Cap becoming a fugitive.
Let's look at Spidey first. Here's Spider-Man, a character who valued his secret identity as much as anybody, happily unmasking at the behest of Tony Stark, on live TV no less! Why would Spidey do such a drastic thing? Because he wound up seeing Tony as some sort of a father figure or something like that. The best part of the unmasking? Within a few months, Marvel wound up retconning the entire sorry affair! To me, Spider-Man's unmasking was just a blatant money-grab, no more, no less. Now, there's nothing wrong with trying to sell a comic book with a big "event". However, Spidey's unmasking destroyed years of Spider-Man history and mythos. It just didn't make sense for THAT character to make THAT decision at THAT time.
Then we have Steve Rogers... The Sentinel of Liberty himself, Captain America, being branded a criminal. "Captain America: Fugitive" just boggles my mind to this day! Who makes Cap into the bad guy?!? Ah, but that was the thing about Civil War, wasn't it... Marvel wanted it to seem like there was no right or wrong, only shades of grey. Tony Stark threw his lot in with the government and followed the law, while Cap decided to disobey the law. When put like that, Cap seems like he was in the wrong. Of course, if you actually read the story, you quickly realize that Tony and his pro-government forces couldn't have been shown in a more villainous light. Tony's forces openly work with known criminals, back stab allies and most damning of all, create an clone of Thor which inevitably goes insane.
Huh, I can't think of a single positive that came out of Civil War. Civil War gave us Captain America's eventual assassination, Speedball becoming the useless Penance, the Thunderbolts inexplicably working for known criminal Norman Osborn, Tony Stark becoming the head of SHIELD, and of course, Spider-Man undoing his unmasking by making a deal with Mephisto... Oh yeah, and Civil War also paved the way for "Secret Invasion"... Ugh...
I don't know how Ultimate Alliance 2 is going to tackle the Civil War story, or how closely they're going to follow the original "Civil War". I can tell you one thing, I won't know for quite some time. I usually rush out to pick-up any Marvel licenced video game(yes, even Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects...), but I don't think I'll bother buying MA2 until the day I find it in a bargain bin at my local Gamestop. Sorry Marvel, but I think I'll continue to play the surprisingly good Civilization: Revolution or the magnificent Batman: Arkham Asylum, as opposed to revisiting some of the most ill-conceived occurrences in Marvel's storied history.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
What If?: Fallen Son #1
This should be interesting...
Overall- My hatred over the end of the "Civil War" crossover is legendary. OK, maybe "legendary " is overselling it a little, but when Cap surrendered, I nearly put my fist through the wall of my apartment. I was literally too pissed off to talk about that comic for days. Think about that, ME, unable to form coherent words regarding a comic book. Yeah, I hated that ending. I can actually feel my blood pressure rising as I type about Cap's surrender even today, 2 years later! Now that I've clearly made my feelings known about the climax of "Civil War", let's see what this issue of "What if?" does for me. The concept of this comic is, "What if Tony Stark had died instead of Steve Rogers?"
Well, I liked the part where Tony Stark was pounded into hamburger meat by the nephew of the deceased Black Goliath, who had stolen the growth serum that gave his uncle his growth powers. This comic really didn't go anywhere though... Cap was locked up by S.H.I.E.L.D. for 36 months for his role in "Civil War", and we basically were shown a lot of glimpses of people who were important to Stark. War Machine becomes the head of the 50 state initiative and pushes the recruits harder then even Gauntlet, since he wants to keep Stark's dreams alive.
Aleksander Lukin(Red Skull), takes over Stark Enterprises in the wake of Stark's stock prices plummeting after his death. We later see Lukin/Skull walking through Tony Stark's armory, looking over all of the various Iron Man armors. The heroes gather for the Stark's funeral, and his body is sent into space on a space craft, as per Stark's last wishes. Cap is allowed out of prison to witness the funeral, and gives his old friend a salute as he is sent hurtling into the oblivion of space.
Meanwhile, the Skrulls decide to step up their "Secret Invasion" plans with Stark out of the way, and as Stark's coffin flies away from the planet, the Skrull armada fast approaches the Earth. That scene ends this comic.
There were some things I liked here, such as Stark getting his richly deserved just deserts, Lukin hostilely taking over Stark Enterprises, and Cap saluting Stark as he was being blasted off into space. You see, that's the difference between me and Cap. I would have saluted Stark as well, but I would have only used one finger. I'm sure you can figure out which finger I mean.
Most of this comic fell into the bad category though. Tony Stark wasn't the driving force behind the 50 states initiative, Skrull Hank Pym was. The Skrulls used Stark and his technology to instigate their attack on Earth during "Secret Invasion", so why would Stark's death have made them decide to attack Earth earlier? With Stark dead, the Skrulls would have lost out on the advantage of corrupting the Stark Tech, which was one of the most important points to their Invasion...
Besides these flagrantly wrong events, the whole comic was WAY too rushed. Every page basically dealt with a different person/event, and nothing was ever explored as much as it should/could have been. When all was said and done, I'd say this was a mediocre comic book at best. I do however have to bump the score up a little, because there is nothing better than watching Tony Stark get pounded into street pizza by an angry giant. For a score, I'll go with a 5 1/2 out of 10. I'd have gone with a 5, but seeing Stark get killed added that extra 1/2 all by itself. Yeah, in case you haven't noticed, I REALLY hate Tony Stark. Now, I think I'll go back and re-read Stark's death. I just can't get enough of that!
Overall- My hatred over the end of the "Civil War" crossover is legendary. OK, maybe "legendary " is overselling it a little, but when Cap surrendered, I nearly put my fist through the wall of my apartment. I was literally too pissed off to talk about that comic for days. Think about that, ME, unable to form coherent words regarding a comic book. Yeah, I hated that ending. I can actually feel my blood pressure rising as I type about Cap's surrender even today, 2 years later! Now that I've clearly made my feelings known about the climax of "Civil War", let's see what this issue of "What if?" does for me. The concept of this comic is, "What if Tony Stark had died instead of Steve Rogers?"
Well, I liked the part where Tony Stark was pounded into hamburger meat by the nephew of the deceased Black Goliath, who had stolen the growth serum that gave his uncle his growth powers. This comic really didn't go anywhere though... Cap was locked up by S.H.I.E.L.D. for 36 months for his role in "Civil War", and we basically were shown a lot of glimpses of people who were important to Stark. War Machine becomes the head of the 50 state initiative and pushes the recruits harder then even Gauntlet, since he wants to keep Stark's dreams alive.
Aleksander Lukin(Red Skull), takes over Stark Enterprises in the wake of Stark's stock prices plummeting after his death. We later see Lukin/Skull walking through Tony Stark's armory, looking over all of the various Iron Man armors. The heroes gather for the Stark's funeral, and his body is sent into space on a space craft, as per Stark's last wishes. Cap is allowed out of prison to witness the funeral, and gives his old friend a salute as he is sent hurtling into the oblivion of space.
Meanwhile, the Skrulls decide to step up their "Secret Invasion" plans with Stark out of the way, and as Stark's coffin flies away from the planet, the Skrull armada fast approaches the Earth. That scene ends this comic.
There were some things I liked here, such as Stark getting his richly deserved just deserts, Lukin hostilely taking over Stark Enterprises, and Cap saluting Stark as he was being blasted off into space. You see, that's the difference between me and Cap. I would have saluted Stark as well, but I would have only used one finger. I'm sure you can figure out which finger I mean.
Most of this comic fell into the bad category though. Tony Stark wasn't the driving force behind the 50 states initiative, Skrull Hank Pym was. The Skrulls used Stark and his technology to instigate their attack on Earth during "Secret Invasion", so why would Stark's death have made them decide to attack Earth earlier? With Stark dead, the Skrulls would have lost out on the advantage of corrupting the Stark Tech, which was one of the most important points to their Invasion...
Besides these flagrantly wrong events, the whole comic was WAY too rushed. Every page basically dealt with a different person/event, and nothing was ever explored as much as it should/could have been. When all was said and done, I'd say this was a mediocre comic book at best. I do however have to bump the score up a little, because there is nothing better than watching Tony Stark get pounded into street pizza by an angry giant. For a score, I'll go with a 5 1/2 out of 10. I'd have gone with a 5, but seeing Stark get killed added that extra 1/2 all by itself. Yeah, in case you haven't noticed, I REALLY hate Tony Stark. Now, I think I'll go back and re-read Stark's death. I just can't get enough of that!
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