I loved his ambiguous nature. The four possible origins that possibly did not include the actual origin. The way he just showed up and demanded and deserved trust. Some reason New 52 means give him one true origin that’s tied into the background of the next event (and possibly SHAZAM?). Unless the outcome is another series…?
Outside I’m cool, but inside I just want to correct someone who says Spider-Man is a DC Comics character, & that Wolverine has nothing to do with the Avengers or Spidey..
The Avengers fight Loki and his army in this diorama in Toys R Us at Times Square. I enjoy the look of simulated gravity in the Captain America fight up-front.
Nick Fury and Black Widow fighting mystery foes on the Helicarrier. The Avengers diorama at Toys R Us in Times Square.
My favorite thing about this series is that I overheard this as its’ description from someone:
“Now, Secret Wars, that was a good series. The one where the Hulk saves the entire Marvel Universe by holding up a mountain.”
And it’s true. Characters not under a mountain: those who hadn’t been created yet, the X-Men, Daredevil, Blade, Ghost Rider, various other Marvel Knights, the Inhumans, Tony Stark, Sue Storm and a handful of quirky Avengers (I believe Dr. Druid and Starfox were members at about this time, while Vision was in charge). And without the heroes under “one hundred and fifty billion tons” of debris…there wouldn’t be much of a comics universe. Hell, just Spider-Man alone would set it back.
Oh, and Reed Richards did some finagling with web shooters and Iron Man’s armor to blow them free, but Hulk had his brains at the time, so Bruce would have gotten it done if he had a free hand.
Metaphorically, the next week they were back to hating on the Hulk…
The X-Men were meanwhile part of third party of the “War.” Imagine a world where instead of Marvel Comics, mid-80s was the start of X-Men Comics Group. A comic universe where they never would have been accepted, yet they’d be the only super heroes. Aside from the Inhumans, who also would never be accepted.
Alternatively, I forget if Thor was present, because other than Wasp or the X-Men, he spent the most time away from the group due to the Enchantress.
Not bad for a comic seemingly full of random events designed to sell action figures. Oddly enough, the most impact from this event still in-play today are items that weren’t designed to be: Vision takes over the world’s computer systems leading to the Government dismantling him and breaking up his marriage and possibly helping the breakdown of the Scarlet Witch who dabbled in creation magic too strong for her as a result, Venom and his brood, Kitty Pryde and Colossus’ relationship for 20 years, Molecule Man’s strength, Spider-Woman II, She-Hulk being considered a FF member, and Thundra. Which is probably just a few effects.
Things not remembered: Denver was part of Battleworld. How has that never returned? Those few city blocks and people could have found or brought back ANYTHING.
The season ends amazingly, but it’s Roy who has me doing spit takes the most, starting with episode 25’s ending, then the reveal of who he really is. Some reason the art seems improved from earlier in the season, even though it looks the same as well.
“I’m the mole?” “Yes. You are.”
Season two starts….right away!
Found this old thing in my room. Will bring it to work and make the world jealous!
When this mini-series came out last year, issues one through seven, I bought the prologue, the event, and the seven-point-one issue. The only tie-in I bought was The Deep. The Journey Into Mystery run that ran with this I recently picked up on discount, but found them also to have been better than the event, and aim to start collecting the series due to the joy I found in the adventures of Loki. I recently loaned the hardcover collection of the prologue and the seven issues from my local library and…I still regret having bought every issue of the above that was written by Matt Fraction. The two Brubaker issues, and the Bunn mini tie-in, were rather enjoyable, especially the seven-point-one issue. The JiM also was a home run hit.
It starts with the pace, each issue had its’ own, and that’s not unusual, but when you go slow and fast, slow slow fast fast slow slow slow slow fast, AND STILL PROVIDE TONS OF PLOT HOLES, there’s something wrong. The Serpent just kind of appears and calls some hammers and then…I don’t even know. We didn’t even get an origin for the antagonist. I think I glanced over a The Mighty Thor that did, but it WAS AFTER THE EVENT. So…hammers just show up, for no reason. They didn’t really get elaborated on either. Odin made one hammer, for Thor, but Serpent just has seven or eight out there? Thor’s hammer in myth was made by dwarves, and I thought the enchantment on the Marvel Thor was put there by Odin in part of the whole humility deal with Donald Blake and what-not. The Worthy don’t really serve a purpose other than amp up the powers of existing characters, such as Grey Gargoyle, who then turns all of Paris to stone.
Part of what made Crisis on Infinite Earths great was that it introduced us to the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor…and then told us who they were, what they’ve been up to, and what they could do. Even Alexander Luthor of Earth-3 was given weight with use of about ten pages over twelve issues. The Serpent is just a god that is Odin’s brother, who feeds on fear, and is told to be powerful. That was the other flaw, this fear that the Serpent spread…it was underwhelming. I didn’t buy it, even though the first issue, and the inclusion of Broxton inhabitants, was to point out our own real-world fears…heck, even the controversy of the Mosque near the former site of the Twin Towers is name-checked vaguely, and yet it was like a nail that was driven towards two planks of wood, but only caught in one.
In the first issue, we get drooling crazy Odin, and his appearance and characterization was just off-putting as well. Truthfully, I was glad with the change of a universe without him, and I still haven’t quite figured out why he returned.
The most random flaw is when Steve Rogers, Iron Man and Thor are coming out of the sky…and Cap is wearing a helmet and other accessories while carrying a gun. I laughed at that moment. I shouldn’t have been laughing at that. This kind of goes with Spider-Man and the rest giving up on Cap. I just couldn’t see Peter Parker saying, “You’re on your own right now.” Even for his Aunt, who he gave his marriage for already, if that even still happened.
I don’t regret having bought many comics…but this one I do. Especially since I found all eight in the discount bins at two comic shops. I spent around $30, for what I could now get for about $5. I was tricked for the first three, saying, oh, but then this happens, maybe it’ll turn around. Then it did not. By issue five, I was like, “Well, I already have five-sevenths of this tale already…may as well stick it out.” Then issue seven was a dollar more…for the extra content of previews of series spinning out of the event. The true ending point, as found in the HC, is still confusing to me months later. What does that light mean over Earth? Is it a lead-off point? I don’t think I’ll ever know, because who knows where the answer is.
At least with Siege it was quick and painless and no questions were left for the most part. That victory was lead-off enough.
Running concurrent with the Fear Itself series was DC’s event comic, Flashpoint, which was another disappointing event, but after reading the collections of both, that one may actually get a higher grade. Like a C+ over a C kind of thing. In that series my major distraction was the horrible grammar mistakes littered throughout the single issues, which were fixed for the collection, but they made me feel that story was hap-dash for the NEW 52 initiative, which made it seem trivial. This year, DC has no major event planned, and Marvel has a twelve-part story regarding the Avengers and X-Men. I suppose sales will show which works better, events or stand-alone series, but I’m not a DC guy other than my love for Superman. So I hope AvX deserves my purchase, and of the single issues. Otherwise I’ll stop at issue two and wait for the chance to get them for fifty cents…or a $15 trade on discount at one of the many stores online you can find stuff like that. If I even want to. I don’t want to be disappointed again.
The art, for the most part, was good to great. I love Stuart Immonen’s work on Ultimate Spider-Man and New Avengers, and other than a dopey looking Bucky in one scene, and the aforementioned helmet, I was pleased with his work.
Source: tokyoandbeyondThere was a whole bunch of food stalls set up around the area. There was even a mini Gundam Cafe!
