Fear Itself

ok, so this was an event I was going to miss.  Serious event fatigue has been going on in my comic buying for some time.  How I long for a wee contained event restricted to a certain family of titles, preferable the X-men while say the Avengers are allowed to carry on regardless.  Seriously, another world-changing event just over a year after the New Heroic age started?  Can't these titles be given a chance at more than a couple of arcs before "Everything Changes?" So it's rather annoying that Fear Itself has turned out quite so well.
Just to clarify, I've not been picking up the Fear Itself book, but many of the books I do collect are now Fear Itself tie Ins, see unless you're willing to just drop a title for a couple of months there's no escaping the huge event.

The plot, from what I can ascertain, Sin, Daughter of the red Skull has found an old Asgaurdian fear god who was so bad he was banished and removed from all of history.  This god has given her a hammer like Thor's and sent 7 others to earth where they have been picked up by several Heroes and Villains, turning them into evil gods.  Sin has also led an attack on Washington using Giant Nazi robots.  Odin is in fact so scared he has withdrawn Asgard from earth taking all his norse gods with him.  Confused, well for someone not reading the main book it can be.  This is wat I would classify as a "Bad" crossover.  Namely you do feel you've missed something if you just stick to your main titles.  So much so that it took several books for me to realise I hadn't missed an issue in between.

This criticism aside, the event itself is great.  Obviously, some heavy hitters get their own big bad to fight, such as Iron Man fighting the Grey Gargoyle or the Avengers fighting a hammer possessed Thing.  Others are involved in general fighting, such as the Secret Avengers being on the vanguard defending Washington DC from Sin's forces, The Thunderbolts trying to secure the raft after a hammer landed and was picked up by Juggernaut or the Avengers Academy pupils involved protecting civilians.  Either way, there is a real apocalyptic feel to this event.  Society is breaking down and the problems are as much rioting, looting and people being scared as they are nazi battlemechs or godlike super-villains.

Fear itself has even got me picking up some extra Limited series.  First, Youth in Revolt.

Youth in Revolt Features Prodigy, plus many of the heroes that appeared in the Initiative, who are re-activated as a volunteer force to try to help.  Sadly a situation in Atlanta develops when Thor Girl accidentally deflects some shots from a policeman with disastrous results.  I liked this on two fronts.  First, its more about stopping looters than fighting big bads, although there is a good moment with Crossbones nearly wiping out Gravity's team.  It's also great if you were, like me, keen on teh whole Initiative idea.  As well as featuring Prodigy, Thor Girl, Cloud 9 and Firestar, it is jam packed with guest appearances from Butterball, to some of The Order, and ist a good read.

Second is a bit odd but worth a look, Fearsome Four.  because of the high levels of fear, man thing has been drawn to New York.  Howard the Duck recruits She-Hulk, Nighthawk and Frankensteins monster to try to prevent his friend from killing too many people.  Its quirky, Nighthawk appears to have gone a bit ga-ga since I last saw him, think more along the lines of the "God Damned Batman" but its worth it if nothing else for some serious Quack-Fu from Howard.

So, I'm still not picking up the main book, but the story is worth the disruption its caused to my regular reads.  In fact, at this rate I'll probably pick up the trade.

The New Heroic Age - So Far - Part 1

Quite a few of these titles have now completed their initial arc, and others are over 4 issues in, so time for a look at how we’re getting on.

First I’ll look at the four Avengers Titles, so much for saving myself money.

Avengers
Well, good news is we have a title that is just Avengers, not new, mighty secret, dark or minty.  However, so far at any rate, this is my least favourite of the Avengers titles.  To be fair, it has a few handicaps.  First is the art.  People seem to get excited when John Romita Jnr is drawing a book, and I feel like some sort of nutter because I really fail to see why.  I have joked in the past that Romita Jnr and myself have something in common; neither of us can draw Iron Man.  This is unfair of course; at least if we were both to draw shellhead you’d be able to work out who Romita Jnr was drawing.  In general though I wouldn’t count him as one of my favourite artists.  Add to that Bendis writing, which I don’t mind, but its never worked in an all out superhero book and for my money is better used in titles like Alias, or indeed New Avengers.  The plot has some interest to it, the Avengers must travel into the future at the behest of Kang the Conqueror because, something has to be done about their kids.  It also has its faults, yes it’s nice to see Noh-Varr used again after he was re-vamped in Dark Avengers, but overall so far this really isn’t doing it for me.  Hope the plot picks p pace soon.  Also hope we’ll see why Wonder Man is acting up, he’s really out of character at the moment and I think that jars too.  As for the line-up, well at the end of Dark Reign, Steve Rogers basically said anyone who wanted to be and avenger was, but there was going to be a core team, and it’s a slightly odd hybrid between classic and Bendis, so we have Iron Man, Thor, Captain America (Bucky Barnes) and Hawkeye, with Spider-Man, Spider-Woman and Wolverine coming from the Bendis era.  It actually works quite well although I still don’t think Spider-Man and Wolverine work in Avengers.  A nice addition is Maria Hill, former Director of SHIELD as their liaison; in fact the three teams all have a liaison which is a nice touch.

New Avengers
 The plot here is a little different.  Luke cage was a little put off that cap was returning things to business as usual, so cap gave him his own Avengers team.  Aside from the main squad he has his pick of members and he gets Avengers mansion to live in.  Funny thing about New Avengers, most of the members have another super-team.  Cage leads the Thunderbolts, Hawkeye, Spider-Man and Wolverine are all Avengers (actually lets not go into how many teams Wolverine is on, he does at least joke about it being his mutant power) and Thing is still on the Fantastic Four.  In fact only Iron Fist, Ms Marvel, Mockingbird and Jewel have no other affiliation.  They also have a Liaison in the form of Victoria Hand, Osborne’s second in command when HAMMER were running things, and probably one of the most interesting characters invented for Dark Reign.  Despite my mockery, it is actually pretty enjoyable; the plot is leading on from Dr Strange loosing his role as Sorcerer supreme and has mystic foes possessing various team members and in the last issue all appears to be linked to the Ancient One.  While Bendis’ writing seems out of place on Avengers it fits well with the team dynamic in New Avengers, hell half his team are usually in as wisecracking jokers in some form.  Immomen’s art is bright  Overall this is really promising which is a great turnaround as New Avengers titles have previously been the most forgettable for me.

Secret Avengers
This one had me a little excited, but then it had the advantage over every other comic bar Iron Man, War Machine was in it.  While the world is more Heroic, Steve Rogers leads a more covert squad to deal with serious problems hopefully before they become serious.  The Team isn’t exactly A-list, featuring Steve Rogers, War Machine, Black Widow, Valerie, Beast, Moon Knight, Nova and Ant Man (Eric O’Grady), plus Steve’s Girlfriend Sharon Carter as Liaison.  Not A-List but then they are meant to be a more covert squad.  So far it’s had a nice mix of espionage, mystery, in the secret society stalking the team apparently lead by nick Fury, and action, then I shouldn’t have doubted this from Ed Brubraker, who is definitely one of Marvel’s top writers.  Mike Deodato does a star turn on art as well giving us both luxury penthouses and Martian dig sites with ease.  I have a possible theory for this team, with Steve’s “Everyone Is an avenger now” idea I wonder if the roster for Secret Avengers might fluctuate a bit, with Steve doing Mission: Impossible style selections for each specific case.  I’d quite like that although the end of the first arc doesn’t really support this.  It did remove my misgivings regarding Nova being on the team as at the end he flies off and cap notes that he won’t be a reliable team member with his cosmic responsibilities.  Still, I know the story needed Nova but does Cap carry so much weight that Nova would say “Sorry trainee corps, but your most powerful member has to go off and do something for cap, good luck with the evil universe breaking into ours and all.”  Still, interesting stuff, and if it is Nick Fury in this secret society, does that link to the “Zodiac” society we’ve had glimpses of in Secret Warriors?  Or is Nick Fury the Wolverine of secret societies.  The story itself was a good setup involving the Serpent crown, secret societies and a huge throwdown on Mars.  A very solid title indeed.

Avengers Academy
I got over my initial disappointment that this wasn’t a knockabout comedy where mismatched wise-cracking recruits try to defeat the evil machinations of an overbearing guy called Harris.  Instead this replaces The Initiative and so for me has some big shoes to fill.  Fortunately it doesn’t disappoint.  We see a new batch of recruits, all near screw ups, most suffered some sort of abuse under HAMMER rule, all have one thing in common, as they find out they were the kids thought most likely to turn to villainy so the Avengers Academy faculty, as well as teaching them mastery of their powers also have to prevent them from turning.  Christos Gauge has a very nice setup, with the character Veil being the voice for #1 and Finesse for #2, and so far seems to continue through the following isses.  Once the twist is revealed near the end of #1, you can see quite clearly how close our young students are to villains.  Nice to see familiar faces in the faculty as well, although it seems to have its share of screw ups.  Wasp (Hank Pym) leads with Justice, Tigra, Quicksilver and Speedball as trainers.  I’m sure many fans are glad to see the back of Speedball’s Penance phase, me included but it is nice to see Speedball isn’t entirely recovered and back to normal yet, so it doesn't have the stink of a retcon, just progress.  Mike McKone had not been on my radar before, but I do like his work in this.  More importantly, I liked The Initiative because it seemed like Marvel were trying to introduce some new characters and be a little creative, after all in Marvel and DC New Heroes are pretty rare.  What I like about this is that I could believe we may loose a few recruits to villainy, and that would make things very interesting.  This title is half way through its crossover with Thunderbolts called “Scared Straight” while it involves some of the T-Bolts it can be read in isolation (In fact the prison shutdown is handled in less than an issue over in Thunderbolts) but it is interesting to see the members who were directly harmed by osbourne teaming up to go after him.

Iron Man 2

Well, I posted a bit showing my excitement for this film, and I have actually seen it, should I perhaps post a review. I will warn at the moment, I won’t shy away from spoilers.

First, a plot summary, picking up where Iron man left off, Tony Stark has gone public about being Iron Man, and has been using the armour for some time, both in a “Fighting Evil” role and for publicity stunts like we see in the opening. Only problem is that the Arc Reactor in his chest is slowly killing him and as he sees death coming Stark begins to act more and more recklessly. A situation not helped by senate hearings demanding Stark hand over Iron man to the military and a new threat in the form of Disgruntled Russian Vanko.

This film has taken a fair amount of criticism, mainly for being more of the same. For my money I think more of Iron Man is no bad thing, there were some nice echoes to Tony’s remarkably flaky character, and particularly the Demon in a bottle Story as Stark goes off the rails in quite a bad way. While Vanko is more grunts and gestures as a villain perhaps the real for is Justin Hammer, a rival arms manufacturer who works really well as a potential rival to carry through future films. It also sets up a bigger supporting cast, we saw Nick Fury at the end of Iron man and we’re also introduced to The Black Widow as well as more screen time for Faverau himself as Happy Hogan and Don Cheadle taking the role of Jim Rhodes/War Machine and making it his own.

On the Cheadle/Howard front. I had no objections to Cheadle, and actually think he captured the comic’s version of Jim Rhodes and particularly War Machine that may not have suited Howard’s depiction in the first film.

Criticisms, well, introducing such a big cast means some people get less screen time, Vanko isn’t particularly fleshed out as the main Villain, and we don’t see that much of Black Widow. If you’re wanting a non-stop action fest then you’ll probably be disappointed too as there is still more Tony than Iron Man.

Thing is, to me Iron Man has always been more about Tony than Iron Man. He’s often compared to Batman (Both rich orphans who dress up and fight crime) however, while with Batman there is a real ambiguity over whether Bruce Wayne dresses up as batman, or batman dresses up as Bruce Wayne, there was never such ambiguity with Iron Man. People criticise Tony’s wisecracking and the films humour, but this is part of his character. Indeed while I’m never sure about Tony/pepper pairings the chemistry between the characters and the witty rapport would be sorely missed if it was excised from the film, more so if it was excised for brooding.

I suppose you’ll like or dislike this film based on how much you like the central premise of Iron Man. I’ve heard people complain that it lacked Darkness or grit, yes it does, and to add that to Iron man would make it more generic and less unique. If you accept that this is a film about a guy who, to an extent masks his insecurities with a bombastic public persona, and a big metal suit you’ll definitely have more fun.

For Fans, the film has some really good references. Obviously we all love the Avengers stuff and the Thor cameo post credits, but there were other gems. During the race scene one car is sponsored by Roxxon, a fictional Marvel company, Cap’s Shield makes an appearance again and my personal favourite is the War Machine suit being called the Variable Threat Response suit, a nod to the comic’s designation. In fact, a nice touch is the lack of people calling themselves names. Rhodes never calls himself War Machine (Although Tony calls him this once) and similarly Vanko doesn’t turn up saying “Cower Iron Man, now you face the might of Whiplash” its good, fans and toy manufacturers know who these people are, but to add their names to dialogue would seem clunky. Not that it may not happen in the future, particularly if Titanium Man or Crimson Dynamo makes an appearance. (You could argue that Crimson Dynamo already has although he wasn’t crimson)

So, I really enjoyed this, and it has 100% more War Machine tan any other film released in 2010, in fact than any film released to date, so that must count in its favour.

Iron Man: World's Most Wanted/Tony Stark Disassembled

Wow, long title. I'd love to say that I decided to review these stories as one since one blends into the other making them one epic story. That is rubbish, it's because I fell too far behind and decided that Stark disassembled would be finished before I got a chance to blog on worlds most wanted and so I may as well bundle the two together.

Anyway, this has been an epic Iron Man story, and almost certainly the rehabilitation of Tony Stark from what people thought was irreparable damage during the Civil War Event. While they tail one into the other and are written and drawn by the same people (Matt Fraction on words and Salvador Larroca on pictures) the stories are really quite different.

A warning in advance, I'm not holding back on spoilers, so if you don't want to know the scores, look away now.

Worlds Most Wanted

The Secret Invasion is over, Norman Osbourne is in charge, SHIELD is no more and Tony Stark has been booted out. With his Extremis offline he can barely control his armour anyway. As a parting shot to Osbourne and more importantly to preserve the trust of those who registered, Stark deletes the entire Superhuman Registration database, leaving only one copy, the one written in his head. This leads to a relentless pursuit of Stark across the globe by Osbourne and his agents while Stark slowly erases his own mind to destroy the last copy of the database. Meanwhile Pepper Potts gets a suit of armour and a new identity as Rescue and Maria Hill goes on a harrowing mission to recover a mysterious hard drive for Stark.

This story was actually quite episodic, at least for Tony Stark, each issue usually focused on an encounter with friends or foes from his past as Tony battles across the world, having to use ever more obsolete suits as his ability to run them degrades. This includes Friends, like War Machine and Crimson Dynamo, and Enemies such as Namor and Madame Masque. When I say episodic you would probably be bloody confused if you jumped right in, particularly with the ongoing subplots featuring Maria Hill and Pepper Potts, but most of the encounters are self-contained. Fraction crafts a brilliant tale, capturing Stark's slow disintegration, Pepper's joy of being a super hero and Hill's near breakdown after an ordeal at the hands of the Controller. The final showdown with Stark in his Mk1 suit and Osbourne in the Iron Patriot has a brilliant twist, and indeed was the first time we saw someone hurt Osbourne through the media. At the end we have Stark left in a vegetative state, but A recorded message, and a gathering of old friends means this may not be the end.

Tony Stark Disassembled

The conclusion to this epic is a mere 5 parts, perhaps a little slow, it details how stark backed up his mind on the Hard drive Hill retrieved in Most wanted and, with Pepper's Repulsor generator, and a bolt of lightning courtesy of Thor, Stark may be restored.

This was slower, and perhaps a little long, it could have probably been done in 4 parts, but a very good ending for Worlds Most wanted. Nice to see everyone try to save Stark, and very good use of Ghost (Also an example of good crossovers again with how it linked in with Thunderbolts) and the surreal trip through Tony's subconscious was predictable but a nice touch. It was similar to the "Soul on Ice" backup story during Jim Rhodes' second Tenure as Iron Man (Run up to his first War Machine ongoing) which had a cryogenically frozen stark living his past and his influences. Only that was more recap, this was a wierd nightmare. Of course we get the twist at the end, turns out Stark isn't particularly good at keeping regular backups of his mind, and this copy is Pre Civil War, which has come of something as a shock to him (Although probably not as much as him sleeping with Pepper Potts and Maria Hill in teh same week will later)

Fraction must go down as one of the best Iron man writers for a good while, crafting two very different stories with ease. Larroca was faced with a fairly daunting challenge himself, to draw what amounted to an "Iron man through the ages" or basically a whole load of different armors. If I'm looking forward to one thing Post Siege, and I'm looking forward to a lot. But one over all others is Iron Man, which is testimony to this teams success.

The New Heroic Age

What, no Dark Reign sum up? No Siege speculation. Have you seen how out of date my blogging has got these days, my only chance is to blog about things before they happen.

In all seriousness I might comment on Siege post event, but I’m interested at the moment on how the universe is going to unfold post-Siege. Marvel have been releasing various things regarding the new shape of the MU and it looks brighter, sunnier and happier. Some have said this could be a response to the Disney takeover but I reckon that with a probable Avengers movie coming out marvel want the universe back on a more approachable tack.

So, what do we know about this new age, lets look at the team books that have been revealed so far.

Avengers

Marvel has released the line-up of this new team in the wake of Siege. Line-up Includes Iron Man, Captain America (Bucky Barnes Version), Spider Woman, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Thor and Hawkeye (Clint Barton). Its kind of a half and half, half Bendis’s new avengers, half traditional Avengers. I’m in two minds about this, on one hand it will be nice to see a more traditional Avengers Team, I’m very happy that we’re not loosing Bucky cap just yet and that Barton is back to being Hawkeye. On the other hand I’ve never been thrilled with Bendis writing Avengers, his work on Mighty wasn’t bad but I think there are better avengers writers out there. It does leave at least one question; Barton is taking back his “Hawkeye” identity, what will happen to the Young Avengers Hawkeye?

Secret Avengers

This has been secretive, unsurprisingly. We know its written by Ed Brubraker which is exciting enough, we know what the team members look like as silhouettes, we don’t know what the team is about, what their purpose is or indeed the identity of any members, although speculation includes Steve Rogers, War Machine, Moon Knight and Black panther. Either way this will be one to watch.

Atlas

Another go at agents of atlas, I really enjoyed the previous Agents of Atlas series and like the commitment to keep trying to get them ingrained into the Marvel Universe, and I’m also keen to see the New 3D man meet the team. Again another good sign.

Thunderbolts.

Another interesting looking title, going back to the concept of criminal rehabilitation that existed throughout Thunderbolts but in particular in “The Initiative” period. Luke Cage leads a team based on the Raft, Currently looks like the team will include Moonstone, Crossbones, Ghost, Juggernaut and Man Thing with the theme of criminals doing heroic acts as part of their rehabilitation.

There is also an interesting looking title called Heroic Age, not sure if it’s just a one shot or a series but it’s more of an anthology book and will see the return of Captain Britain and MI13 in a short story. Solo title wise Iron Man has new armour and solicits show that it will feature Jim Rhodes, possibly as War Machine. And Captain America, at least for the next story will continue to show the adventures of Bucky Barnes which is good as I can still see mileage in that concept.

What are we loosing; to my mind so far it looks like we’ll loose two significant titles. The first is confirmed axed, that is Ms Marvel. It’s a real shame because this title has been holding on and with a bit more promotion she could have been Marvel’s Wonder Woman. Marvel are doing a comic featuring female heroes, but I preferred a female solo book (and with She-Hulk gone as well I struggle to think of any Marvel female solo book).

Second is Avengers: The Initiative, and while I wasn’t enamoured by the “Disassembled” story it’s been consistently good. I like the concept (Hero boot camp) and I liked the often personal approach to stories they took. It was an interesting book, so far no announcements of what will become of the initiative but I hope it will survive in some shape or form as it’s really been too good an idea to drop.

Dark Reign 1 (And A bit) Months on II

Ok, so I've covered the main Dark Reign titles with Avengers in the title, now the others. I've already covered War Machine, so it will be missed out and I'll probably post about the conclusion to the first arc when it concludes.

The Invincible Iron Man

Well now 3 issues into its dark reign arc, and a good sign if not a little annoying, I missed one. Still its been great, Tony destroys a load of HAMMER systems and deletes the Initiative database, and only 1 copy now exists, in Stark's head. Osbourne has started a media offensive implying (well now accusing) Stark of colluding with Skrulls. This has been fantastic and I'm glad its being read. I hope this story will join some of the other classic Iron Man stories as all time greats and I'm just glad to be here reading it as it comes out.

Ms. Marvel

This title actually kicked off its Dark Reign plot before Dark Reign even started, Secret invasion was still running. We've seen flashbacks to Carols life in the Air Force and intelligence and it has eventually been revealed that she's working to collect information on a certain individual who is now running the show. It also explains why she's not been in costume, Moonstone having been awarded her identity. Its been a strong book but I have fears. You see, the writer has said he plans to kill off carol and put Moonstone front and centre. I'm not keen, not just because Moonstone is in her original costume and her current one is one of the best looking female super-hero costumes in existence. I do feel invested in Carol as a character, so suddenly switching to moonstone (Who I do know quite well through Thudnerbolts) is a bit jarring. Still, will give it fair chance.

Punisher

Oh yes, Just when I thought I wasn't picking up any more Punisher. Dark Reign is really a reboot of War Journal aiming to put frank back into the main MU (Since his Max counterpart tends to stay well out of it) In this title he takes a sensible decision and tries to take out Osbourne, sadly he is stopped by the Sentry. This looks at least interesting enough to keep during dark reign, as I reckon the Punisher has more chance of stopping Osbourne than just about anyone else.

Secret Warriors

Just out last week this title focuses on Nick Fury and his "Caterpillar" team we last saw in Secret Invasion. So far its mostly setup and trying to get us knowing these people a little better, but it had a pretty major revelation at the end and it has me curious enough to keep an eye on. I think I may be a sucker for new characters, that could be it.

Agents of Atlas

I really enjoyed the previous mini, using old 1950s characters who I had only seen previously during a brief moment in Avengers Forever. Now, following the events of the mini the Atlas foundation are operating as a criminal cartel, which looks better when the guy they're ripping off is Norman Osbourne. But could they be forming an alliance? It was enjoyable stuff, and I liked the little wolverine Agent of Atlas story at the end, with the retro styled art. In fact with this having that short and Darkhawk having a reprint of Darkhawk vol 1 #1 I really felt like i was getting value for money.

Thunderbolts

Not seen the new issue but the past two have been a sort of prelude. Obviously the current team are no more, with Bullseye, Moonstone and Venom in the Dark avengers, Radioactive man recalled to china, swordsman apparently dead, Penance institutionalised and Songbird officially dead, actually on the run we're getting a whole new team. Story is that this team are going to be Norman Osbourne's personal kill crew, and the new lineup includes Black Widow II, Ghost, Paladin and the irredeemable Ant Man. Again, could be interesting but I am always dubious about entire cast changes, and indeed how well this title will go post Dark Reign. Still, I'll stick to it at least until after the Deadpool crossover, lets face it, to see ant man and deadpool banter will be worth a few of my earth pounds.

Dark Reign 1 (And a Bit) months on

I thought I'd take a look at how the Dark Reign titles are getting on now each has at least 1 issue out (With a few exceptions) This post will deal with mainly the Avengers titles

Avengers: The Initiative

This title is 2 issues into its post Secret Invasion/Dark Reign stint, new writer, new arc and by the look of things a mostly new batch of students as we see the next class graduate and many of the trainers go out to initiative teams rather than face what Osbourne is likely to do at camp Hammond. All this and as a fail safe Clor has been switched back on. It is fitting with its disassembled theme that things are All change at camp Hammond. Story is quite entertaining, Christos Gage is still finding his feet but a clean house should help him with what has been Dan Slott's baby. Art, well they picked Ramos again, who I really don't rate at all but so far its not been a deal breaker. It will be interesting how the pieces fall on this one.

New Avengers

We're two issues into this now, and the search for baby cage has been quickly resolved although they had to go to Osbourne for help. It would be out of character considering how many times Cage should have gone to Stark before secret invasion, but he is searching for his kid. We have what look like a few lineup changes, Captain America has joined and offered his house as a secret base, the real Spider-Woman is on the team and it looks like Ms. Marvel has joined (Which makes sense since she'll be on a wanted list after events of Dark Avengers). To me, New Avengers was always the weakest title. Still this could be a new start. Nice that there is some great scope (and indeed virtually a promise for next issue) of a throwdown between New and Dark Avengers considering both teams have a Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Ms Marvel and I'm betting Bucky isn't too happy about Osbourne wearing Cap's Colours. If this title can find some solid direction it might turn out to be rather good.

Mighty Avengers

I always preferred Mighty to New, and Genuinely Mighty's only problem was scheduling problems early on. Now being written by Dan Slott it stands out as being the least Dark Reign tied in of all 4 titles. Instead earth is being hit by a Chaos Cascade and in a roundabout way the Scarlet witch gathers a squad of avengers to face a dire threat in Transia. Slott has said that all selected Avengers won't be the final team, but for the moment we have (if I remember) Hank Pym (now Wasp) Jocasta, Jarvis, USAgent, Iron Man, Stature, Vision, Hulk, Hercules and his sidekick Amadeus Cho and of course the Scarlet Witch. Nice touch is that, aside from lacking a Hawkeye, this team is made up entirely of Ex-Avengers or Relatives (Well Cassie Lang and the Vision carries all the memories of the original) Indeed, it was a nice touch that the Scarlet witch initially looks at Bucky, but comments that "Captain America is dead" and goes for USAgent, who has previously been an Avenger. This is one of the most promising of the titles, and while I suspect that Iron Man, Hulk and perhaps USAgent (Mainly because I want more Omega Flight) will leave, we could have a good team here. The comic was fun, and that is often missing in these dark days.

Dark Avengers

Arguably the most anticipated of the Dark Reign Launches this is the New Official Marvel Universe Avengers lineup. And I was largely right, it is mostly the Thunderbolts. We have from Mighty Avengers Ares and Sentry. Noh-Varr, Marvel boy, now called Captain Marvel, Moonstone, now called Ms. Marvel, Venom, Now Spider-Man, Bullseye, Now Hawkeye and finally The Iron patriot, in fact Osbourne himself using suits that he found in Tony Starks carelessly abandoned armour store in Avengers tower. Now this is was a good read, but I do wonder how long it can carry on, Ideally we'll have a significantly less moral and more fragmented team (They already don't get on too well) and this could be interesting, but is there a long term future, and are they going to pull a Thunderbolts, I doubt it from the likes of Moonstone (been there, Done that) Bullseye or Osbourne (Too damn crazy) and Ares just likes to fight, but who knows.

Later I'll post on some of the non-avengers titles, and ones coming soon.

War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD

Well, War Machine was back for 3 issues of Iron Man: Director of SHIELD as part of the Secret invasion crossover, and he rocked.

The three part Story focused on War Machine and what he did during the invasion after he left Camp Hammond following a mysterious message from Tony in Avengers: The initiative.

Well, turns out Stark made the War Machine suit for Jim as part of a fail safe should Starktech be compromised, and also provided Jim with a big stealth satellite which could transform into a Giant robot. Tony, nice chap he is also called in Suzi Endo, who in an alternative future was Cybermancer, and has since then take up the Cybermancer name, sort of and presumably without the evil. Well, its confusing because its a Force Works reference and a link to the Very confusing Crossing storyline.

Anyway, War Machine blows up loads of Skrull ships, has a sort of Team up with Russia's Winter Guard (Who I may blog about later) and ultimately wins the day, and an ongoing series.

Yes. News has been out for some time but there will be a War Machine ongoing, frankly life doesn't get much better.

My mate, and sometimes only reader Reilly2040 blogged about it Here http://reilly2040.co.uk/blog/2008/11/12/greg-pak-talks-war-machine/
And some guy called Greg Pak has also made some comments about it here
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/110810-War-Machine-Pak.html

It looks good, taking the Worldwatch idea but with much more focus on it being a One man operation. To an extent Jim will be becoming a bogeyman to all evil dictators, best not commit that genocide or War Machine will get you. Oh yes.

Needless to say I am a bit excited.

Now, will Century turn up in War of Kings?

Well I'll be damned

Looking at the CBR boards I've seen a preview of #5 of ultimate Iron Man II.

I thought this finished, was the series really so dull that I forgot it was still running.

Doesn't really bode well for it eh? I suppose its kind of obsolete now I can get my War Machine fix from Initiative, oh and Iron Man, and his own solo title coming soon.

I don't know what went wrong with Ultimate Iron Man. Well actually I do. The Idea was flawed to begin with. Seriously, and this goes for the Iron Man animated series too. I'll map it out.

I don't want to see a kid Tony Stark. I don't want to see him running around with Kid Jim Rhodes and having adventures against Kid Obidiah Stane. It interests me.... Not a jot.

Its a shame because the actual grown up incarnation of Ultimate Iron Man was great, his armour was more of a weapons platform with a 50 strong support team but the partying sarky drunkard was fun to read.

Shame actually because with this and the heap of offensive dung Ultimates has become, the Ultimate line is no longer something you can recommend off the bat to people.

Still, for my Iron Man fix all is not lost. The latest story in the Iron Man: Director of SHIELD title has ended, and was pretty good. Much more on form than the previous stories, although actually getting issues out has helped. And of course the next story is the War Machine arc. How to win over Pie Man in one easy move. In fact both main Iron man titles are good, and I'm hoping that with his current foe in Invincible being Ezekiel Stane we may get an appearance by The Order. Finally we actually got a second issue of Viva Las Vegas, the Faverau penned movie continuity story. Its slow because of the CG art but had some brilliant shameless flirting with Elsa bloodstone.

SO, and it may be a first, if you want to read Iron Man, don't read ultimate.