It’s upon us!  Comic book fans and pros alike turn their heads to San Diego, patron saint of Sold Out Hotel Rooms and Panicing Travel Planners, for the Thank-Galactus-It’s-Just-Yearly Comic Con extravaganza.  Now, some of you might missing out on the incredible list of secret announcements, apperances and exclusives coming down like a hammer in the next few days (apparently, this year’s musical question from Marvel is ‘Who will rule?’), but never fear!  We have October solicitations which will most certainly come up in conferance rooms packed wall to wall with eager fans, people waiting for the panel after this one and journalists, like Yours Truly.  So do enjoy these selected noticables out of this month’s sneaky look at what the House of Ideas will provide us in October from the comfort of our own desk chairs.

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Let’s talk about the Avengers, shall we?

The Avengers are a loose confederation of heroes brought together to avenge the wrong-doings of threats that require the combined strength of gods, monsters and men alike. Some of Marvel’s finest tales have come from Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and I’m proud to have quite a collection of them. I won’t say they’ve all been great (oh, The Crossing!), but it’s certainly a staple of the Marvelite diet.

So where are they? What are they doing? What’s new in Avengers Town these days? secret Invasion says they’re all in the Savage Land (sans Ms. Marvel and whatever alter-continuity that BND-Spidey lives in… oh, Wolverine too… and Iron Man… wait, let’s stop while we’re ahead.). Mighty and New Avengers have been sort of ‘mid-season clip show’-ing through their storylines, pointing out the secret Skrull in the background and showing just how far down the rabbit hole this Invasion really goes. Ultimates 3, well… let’s face it, Loeb’s been writing the way 5th graders play with action figures and the story so far really hasn’t been ‘plot heavy’ to put it lightly. So are there any Avengers stories going on right now?

Good News, everyone! Yes, there are and we have satellite titles Avengers: the Initiative and Younger Avengers Presents: Hawkeye to thank for it (thank you!). Yeah, I know, these issues are a few weeks late, but go see if you can’t find your copies and read along with us as we try and nail down what makes an ‘Earth’s Mightiest Comic’.

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Don’t forget! Due to the July 4th holliday, Diamond might be getting your books into your friendly neighborhood comic shop tomorrow. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t drop into that LCS, pick up a trade you’ve been eying and say Hi as I can assure you most of the staff will be very confused and a little lost without their books and you, their faithful public.

But today, while we wait and wonder for the week’s books, I’m going to set aside my die-hard love of Marvel Comics to ask Montgomery Scott to grab those bagpipes as it’s time for a sad tune that might still have a stirring ending in sight.

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Warning:  I’m going to talk about the Incredible Hulk again, so get comfy.

In the month of June possibly to celebrate the release of the new Incredible Hulk film, possibly to fill the late gap of Loeb’s Hulk, we got a bunch of big heafty issues with some backup stories and reprints.  Mind you, Iron Man got two new books that turned out to be pretty good jumping on points for those intreigued by the movie or so it worked over at our store.  Two titles, an ongoing to ease readers into the current comic events and a glossy prestigue mini-series and all the Hulk got was a rock.  It’s like the Marvel offices had the same prejudices of the movie going public had;  “Well, the last movie was lame so let’s just hope people don’t hate the new one and hope for the best’.  And before you say it, I know: Skaar, Son of Hulk new on the stands as well and they did get a comic with familiar Green Hulk in it under the wire for June, but neither of these are great intro comics for those who thought Edward Norton was keen.  In fact, I’d probably cozy up to the book a bit more if it was just called ‘Skaar, Conan in Space’ or ‘Grek Pak’s Interglatactic Tales of Skaar’ because the honest truth is if the Hulk ain’t in the book, it is not a Hulk book.   ‘Red’ Hulk doesn’t count because I have NO IDEA what’s going on with that story outside sort of an ‘All Star Batman’ feel of taking on the tropes of Hulkness:  smashing and gamma monsters.  Ehn.

Mind you, Marvel did the same thing with Ang Lee’s movie as their 25-cent issue released at the time of the movie  didn’t really have the Hulk in it either, but that’s another story.

Right, so the ’specials’:  King Size Hulk and Hulk: Raging Thunder.  You can technically count Giant-Sized Incredible Hulk, with the Gary Frank cover, but that’s semantics.  This is what Marvel brought to the table and, having read each of them, I can’t say I’m impressed.  But yet, I can’t <i>not</i> like them (well, except for the Giant Size, because it was a snooze fest) and let me tell you why.

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First off, I’d like to say something about the recent grumbling from your LCSs and comic buyers alike about this week’s deluge of Marvel books.  The House of Ideas is getting all they can out of the last week of June and for that, I’m sorry.  You see, it looks like Joe Quesada found out today was my birthday and decided to release all my favorite books as a present.  Sure, it’s a really expensive present that I have to pay for, sure, but still.  Thor: Ages of Thunder - Reign of Blood comes out today and any book that has an army of skeletons summoned by a jilted goddess that Thor has to defeat with the EVILEST roll call of draft animals since Santa went crazy- well, I say too much.  In any case, sorry for the mass of comics and next year I promise to have my birthday on a day that won’t mess with the shipping schedule.

Speaking of birthdays, the final issue of Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction’s Immortal Iron Fist hits shelves today, bringing us a very apropo tale of the end of Danny Rand’s momentous 33rd year.  Yep, try and deny it all he wants, but the Immortal Iron Fist turns 33 this issue as the writers and artist team that took a guy in some yellow slippers into one of the hottest and consistantly awesome books Marvel has the joy of putting out month after month.  It’s a big issue in a lot of ways, so let us pay a some homage to the little title that could, the character who’s grown within his own legacy and the co-writer that done about the same thing at the House of Ideas.

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Welcome to September, ladies and gentlemen! June comes in like a sucessfull Iron Man and leaves like a rampaging Hulk (did everyone thrill to the ‘Raging Thunder’ issue that came out just in time for the movie? Yeah, that’s what I thought), so we now turn our eyes to three months from now, looking into the future of the Marvel universe and how it’ll change everything we know forever.

First off, I would just like to breathe a sigh of relief that I won’t have to sell another kidney for Secret Invasion intel. I kid considering we’re at 18 titles bearing the banner of the Skrulls (I could count SKRULLS VS. POWER PACK, but let’s not for sanity’s sake) and I mean, what’s a kidney anyways, but this is a couple titles short of last month’s 20. Are we at the top of the rollercoaster ride? Is it all downhill from here? Taking a look at the way Bendis has written previous ‘big tent events’ (House of M, Avengers: Disassembled), we can nearly predict that the last issue will be where the cataclysm happens, but here we are at SECRET INVASION #6 ( of 8 ) and the ride seems to be slowing down with the end in sight. Heck, Ms. Marvel seems to have gotten off the ride entirely.

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So we all know the story, right? Lab assistant Harper gets caught in the process of a nanomed-gamma radiation experiment, causing Dr. Bruce Krensler to come to his aid. After getting him unstuck, it seems that the project is locked and won’t shut down, so instead of shoving Harper to safety, Krensler throws himself on the gamma emmiter and so becomes… well, a guy sitting in a bed in perfect health for another ten minutes until he then becomes… the INCREDIBLE HULK!

Yeah, not my cup of tea either, but long ago in 2003, it’s what we got as Ang Lee’s Hulk hit movie screens in June. It did better box officely than one would remember, having the second largest opening in the month of June (right under Harry Potter) but yet the story still sits with Daredevil as one of the low points of Marvel’s early movie career. I remember my excitement as I saw the very first showing of the movie in my town at an whopping 11am on the 20^th of June and walking out of the theater with visions of the Hulk doing some fantastic military smashing as well as jumping beautifully across the southwestern landscape still dancing in my head. Everything with all the cut screens and the jellyfish and Nick Nolte faded from my brain and thanks to the godsend that was Peter David’s movie novelization, I was certain that I had enjoyed the film.

Looking back, it was hard to remember what exactly I had seen outside of how the CGI dented the Hulk’s irradiated hide with bullets or the sound of a tank barrel smacking against a mammoth mitt so I went back and rewatched the film and wow, what a difference five years make. Distance doesn’t always make the heart grow fonder, so let’s take a look back at what Marvel Studios didn’t entirely toss out with the bathwater and see what Academy Award winner Ang Lee and James Schamus (only a Oscar nominee) tried to tell us about the Hulk.

(SPOIL- oh forget it.)

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Man, I leave for a week and the whole place gets redone!

Welcome to the sexier looking Fifth Color within the even sexier looking Blog@Newsarama! It’s change, everybody! And just in time to talk about a book… from last week.

The last issue of Mighty Avengers gave us a personal story of the Sentry from years ago in his ‘heyday’ as a Marvel Universe staple to his incredibly shattered self today; consider it a primer if you missed out on the real history of the guy and are using the Avengers titles as sort of crib notes on Secret Invasion, which they are in a nutshell. To keep a long story short, we get clues and hints as to how really broken the mind of Bob Reynolds is and what happened after he screamed and ran from the Savage Land in Secret Invasion #2, leading us to believe that no, you can’t just throw your problems into the sun as they will enevitably land in the rings of Saturn and switch places with you at one of your weakest moments.

Happened to me last week.

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Month after month, I eagerly await my three-month ahead Christmas in the form of Marvel solicitations and each and every time I find myself thinking, “What on Earth am I going to talk about?”  I mean, these are three months away!  What could they possibly hint at that won’t have a big black CENSORED bar on it or be so tame as to let it loose upon the internet public?  Considering how thick we are going to get into Secret Invasion, what dare lay ahead for the True Believer that could be discussed?

And every month, I am floored by what can catch the eye, both good and bad.  Comics are a weird medium, folks.

So, let’s take a look at August, shall we?

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Seeing the solicit for the ‘Get Mystique’ story arc in the pages of Wolverine gave me a feeling of hope.  You see, Decimation had been awkwardly handled by the X-Offices as no one could really decide how effective Sentinel Squad ONE was, how many mutants were left, whether they were all at the mansion or not, details that started to fray at the big serious change for mutantkind.

But Messiah CompleX promised big changes this time, really big and the idea that a satellite title like Wolverine which always seems to be sort of off in its own little world (and now Wolverine: Origins which is off in its own little world different than the little world of the main book…) sounded pretty cool.  Now that we know that the X-Men are, indeed, NO MORE it makes sense that Wolverine would be showing some wear and tear now that his home team went belly-up.  Going after Mystique after all that happened made sense too, a sort of forwarding of the plot created by the great wave of change!

Today, the conclusion of Get Mystique hits the shelves and where do we find ourselves?  Surprisingly further back than I thought we would be.

WARNING:  Contains spoilers for Wolverine #65, as well as #62-64.  Find a few issues and follow along!
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Iron Man.

You saw it, I saw it and apparently so did everyone and their Mom in the US (not to mention the worldwide releases). If this is a sign of the summer movie season ahead, then I say bring ‘em on because Iron Man is a a hit across the country.

As of now, Iron Man was the 10th biggest opening of all time and the fourth biggest for a superhero movie. Among nonsequels, it came in behind only the first Spider-Man movie. That’s right. Behind SPIDER-MAN.

“If we have to, we’re happy to come in second to another Marvel property,” Maisel said. “It emphasizes how lucky we are to have such a powerful brand that’s not loved by just comic book fans but also general movie fans.”

Not bad for a funny book publisher’s brand new little studio, huh?

No big studio overhead, firm creative content control, comic book writers and artists being used extensively for script adjustments and art development… this is truly a marvelous age we live in. We live the good life, True Believers; we can kick back in the theater and watch the stories we’ve come to love come to life on the big screen in a whole new way. While some other movie ventures might have left us cold in the rain as Evanescence played sad songs, hope springs eternal that this success could be the start of something big. The special little scene at the end of the credits taught us that much and no matter who was responsible for it, it’s a fine sign of things to come. As far as origin stories go, it was engaging and well-paced enough to keep fan who can recite this story in their sleep happy, not to mention all the cool little references that reward our loyalty to the cool exec with a heart of steel.

I rather prefer this Tony Stark to the one we have in the books right now, with his slick Jarvis computer system and his simple, yet elegant armored suit! This is the kind of Iron Man that I think can capture the hearts and mind of the pop culture public and according to the numbers, I may just be right.

But do you ever think the masses ever turn back and look at we fans, wondering how the other half lives?

(WARNING: Why haven’t you seen the Iron Man yet? I can’t be held responsible if a few spoilers slip out and you were too busy seeing Made of Honor. Consider this fair warning and do enjoy.)
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At Wizard World Los Angeles, I got a lovely chance to participate in the “Sunday Conversation” panel hosted by the Distinguished Competition’s Dan Didio and Jimmy Palmiotti. This was the second time the EiC of DC stepped down off the panel podium and got to know a little something about the love of comics and the fans who follow them. Both creators got into the act, telling stories from their youth and personal pics and pans, everyone in the room pretty united in fandom. Palmiotti shared a story about being a kid and running nearly a life long debate about a problem that has plagued mankind for decades: “Who would win in a fight: Superman or the Hulk?” Every time his friend would chime in with a way that the Hulk would come out on top, a young Palmiotti would devise a new way the Man of Steel could thwart Banner’s puny attempts to destroy him.

I’m proud to say that I achieved my first job at a comic shop by forgoing the interview process and getting to the nitty gritty of the job. When asked who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman, the speed at which I answered Batman and the reasoning behind it got me the job and a little respect around the store.

I’m pretty sure, dear reader, that as you’re reading this, there’s some part of your brain reversing these decisions. “But the Hulk could totally beat Superman!” or even “Batman doesn’t stand a chance against Superman!”, there’s always another side to these arguments in the lives of our favorite fictional characters and these debates rage on to this very day and beyond, no matter what publishers decide or how stories are written.

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Well, don’t I feel foolish?

Here I am, plotting out my resources to master the world of comic conventions and it turns out I’m on the wrong coast!  NYCC was the place to be this weekend and not only was Newsarama there with every bell ringin’ and whistle blowin’ you could imagine (go team!), but so was the Mighty Marvel Media Machine!  WOW!  Jam packed with panels and interviews and movie news and special footage and I’m sure there had to have been a free t-shirt or two because that’s really the only thing missing out of the bash for the House of Ideas!

So, while I’ve been the Maytag repairman out on the West Coast, let’s see what Marvel brought to the New York Comic Con.  There’s tons of info out there, so think of the following as a few digestible bits that can satisfy any Marvel Zombie.
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The grass is growing, the birds are singing, the bees are buzzing… must be time for July!

Yes, spring has sprung, taking us to a time when a young man’s fancy turns to convention season. SDCC is a monolith that cannot be denied and, it might be just me, but a LOT of content is brought high to the fore during the month of July from the Big Two. Storylines end, new books are hot off the presses and a lot of new directions are ready for discussion at panels next to guys dressed up as Aquaman.

So let’s go forward and take ourselves ahead to July. What kind of world will we be living in? What kind of new discoveries will be made? Will we have actually gotten that hotel room in time?

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Something brought up at the last couple cons I’ve been to (being a limousine ridin’, jet flying, kiss stealin’, wheelin’ dealin’ comics journalist and all), is the comic readers’ relationship with late books and fill-in stories.  Mostly this was coming from the EiC of the Distingushed Competition as he tried to garner an answer from a mixed bag of opinions.  How long are we as the buying public willing to wait for the end of a story?  How long will that title sit on that pull list before being scratched off, forgotten and/or resented?  Will fill-in artists and writers make it any better or will it interrupt the flow of the story or, God forbid, the Trade?

I don’t have to tell you how the House of Ideas is equally haunted by this problem.  While I may be the only person who would burn the name of Daredevil: the Target into the sky, every one of us readers has their own horror story of the book that left us too soon.  Come back, Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk.  We miss you.

But what about the stories that are still on the shelves?  The issues that come out week after week but yet seem to go… nowhere?  Mini-series that end on cliffhangers?  Plot points glossed over?

How long are we willing to wait for story resolution?

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Remember that scene in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure where Pee-Wee comes up on a pet shop that’s on fire and while he rescues all the animals, he keeps going by that tank of snakes and shuddering?  He wants to save the pets, but snakes are creepy!  He can’t stand the thought of touching them!  What will he do?  Well, in the end, there’s Pee-Wee Herman with a handful of snakes, horrified and yet satisfied that no stone has been left unturned.

Secret Invasion is my tank of snakes.

There’s just no way I could be the only one, too.  It’s been a solid what- three years of earth-shaking, cataclysmic nothing-will-ever-be-the-same-ness from the fine folks at Marvel and while it certainly keeps the reader on their toes and guessing every which way, it can also certainly feel a little stressful at times.  Not every story has to end an era, not every hero has to lose it all.  But here we are.  By now, the first issue of Secret Invasion has been lovingly taken out of the Diamond boxes and spread before the awaiting public like that rare exotic fish that can kill you if you don’t eat it right.  Dangerous, but man… that’s some exciting stuff.

WARNING:  Secret Invasion secrets to follow.  Go grab a copy of the hot new #1 and read along!
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So, there’s been a wide variety of hubbub regarding one “marvel_b0y” with his clever handle and his rumored inside connection into the House of Ideas. Marvel_b0y has ranted and railed, leaked insider info and … basically acted like a disgruntled low-level employee would. You get off work from a hard day and go rant on a blog about how your boss is a moron and how that project you’re working on is hard and on and on. Then you feel a bit better, some friends come by to comment and you go have an apple pie. It’s the way of the casual internet community.

But this is different! This is supposedly from the inside and has already gotten the attention of… okay, looks like Matt Fraction, but it’s attention nonetheless! Is this viral marketing? Is this real? WHO CAN YOU TRUST!?!?!

Well, I’ll tell you what; from everything I’ve read, from the fan opinion to the archived info on the site and the supposedly new blog that marvel_b0y has put up, I am clearly sure of one thing.

I am marvel_b0y.

And so are you.

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There was a bit of technical difficulties this morning so thank you to my fan (hi Mom!) for bearing with our delay with our look to the future as summer heats up the summer blockbuster season!

That’s right folks, we’re looking at June!  An exciting month for Marvel fans as the people “in the Iron Man business” see what they can do for ol’ Jade Jaws, the Incredible Hulk!  Edward Norton takes Bruce Banner and his awesome alter-ego to the silver screen and just in time for the movie…

… we have a heck of a lot of Wolverine books.

How many books?  And what is Marvel putting out for the Hulk?  And is there a They Live reference coming up in Secret Invasion?  Read on, True Believer!
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Coming like a freight train into a big box of dynamite carried by tigers wearing slick leather coats is the major movie, Iron Man.  Now, there are very few people who can watch the trailers, see the suit in action and somehow manage not to get that grip of excitement in their stomachs; personally, I think the people that can’t would have to be clinically dead because every time I see those trailers, I get that feeling.  An excitement that has somehow brought that which we as fans love about the cool exec with a heart of steel to life and oh my God did he just fly with fighter jets that lo