Blog News

Hello my friends,

Eagle-eyed readers will no doubt recognize that I have all but stopped posting entirely over the last couple weeks, save for one post about cancelled books (still a pity). Here's the thing: working a full-time job and living a full-time life makes reviewing every major Marvel release every week somewhat untenable. It's a wall I've been up against for six or so months now but one I stubbornly refused to acknowledge for much of that time, leading to many late and hurried posts as the year has gone on. As such, despite my desire to make it two years straight reviewing every issue (WHY would anyone want to do that?? Even as I type that, it sounds more insane and OCD than just about anything else I've ever done), I'm cutting myself off.

There are plenty of issues that come with reviewing so many comics so often. The first is, of course, the time dedicated to it. I love writing and I love comics so that was a sacrifice I was willing to make, particularly when I was job-hunting and otherwise unoccupied. As the obligations of my day-to-day life ramped up, my time for comic reviewing quickly nosedived (I could make a graph and it would be...well, it'd be what you'd expect). The second (and perhaps more important to me) issue is that reviewing every single comic makes you kind of hate comics. As I said above, and as the very existence of this blog for the last nearly two years should prove, I love comics. I've always been someone enamored with story and especially with characters. There's something absolutely magical about the entire comic conceit, particularly seen in superhero comics. Thanks to the serial nature of the product, we've gotten to see characters grow and change with the times. A character created 70 years ago but still going today will very clearly have some peaks and valleys, the way that any real human would. Sure, the stories are fantastical and plenty of the changes have been outlandish for certain characters, but there's no other medium that I know that has the ability to evolve like this. There's an argument to be made against stories lasting so long and I absolutely understand and often agree with that argument, but watching a character travel from writer to writer and from artist to artist over actual generations is something awe-inspiring to me. As the weeks went on, I found myself dreading books I'd have to read and regretting the time I was spending on comics (an argument could be made about the time I spend on fiction anyway, but at least I personally wasn't making it) and particularly on comics I don't like while comics I really wanted to read from other publishers sat there unread (yes, I see you BLACK SCIENCE and FATALE). It's a place I don't want to be.

So what does this all mean for the blog? That's a little harder to explain (and maybe why I should have waited on this very post, but I didn't want to let this poor blog just sit and stagnate longer without reason). The ultimate plan is to go bigger. I know. Stupidly, my response to "the work is piling up too quickly and I can't handle it" is "I should do more." But it won't really be "I should do more." It'll be "we should do much more." Whatever form the next step takes will come with added help and probably a shifted focus. I certainly won't review every book every week (another flaw with that method, while we're finding more and more, is that many books are being released more frequently, meaning I was reviewing the same series a couple times a month and things weren't changing enough to actually make for a meaningful review), rather probably focusing on a few books every week. There will be more to it but I can't really reveal details until we've made a few more decisions. As ever, I will keep you posted.

Finally, as this blog ends or morphs into the new project, I want to again deeply thank everyone who has ever come by here. Whether you were a regular reader, someone who somehow managed to find this blog despite poor SEO, a friend or a friend of a friend checking Twitter at the right time, someone with Google alerts for the phrase "Marvel cancels" (I've been redirected to my own site from that particular phrase), someone drawn here to snag a cover image from one of my reviews, it doesn't matter. Whatever brought you here, whether it encouraged you to stay or not, thank you. As much as I tell myself this blog is simply an exercise for writing more often or for letting people see my writing or just to say things I want to say, I'd be lying if the entertainer part of me didn't want constant attention. It's nice feeling like I'm not just shouting into a vacuum about how much I don't like ALL-NEW INVADERS (I'm not reviewing right now but guys, this last week's issue was really bad). So again, thank you.

I'll let you guys know more as things develop (or, hey, even as they don't) and please feel free to keep checking in over here for little updates I feel like giving about this or about the comics world (as I start to switch things over, I expect I'll still want some sort of a platform on which to talk about comics). As ever, thank you once again.

Tim Nicastro
Marvels: A Marvel Comic Blog That Often Fails To Review Movies In Any Meaningful Way

Disappointing news out of Marvel

Hey everyone. Some of the bits of news that have come out this week, on the heels of February solicits, include the ending of Waid and Samnee's run on DAREDEVIL, the cancellation of ELEKTRA (slated to end with issue 11 in February), and several more books that seem to be wrapping (though I don't have links for those), including X-FORCE (brutal) and STORM (though I'm not hearing that that one's actually being cancelled, just that the numbers are much lower than they'd like). DAREDEVIL, it sounds like, is ending based on Waid and Samnee wanting to move on, but the others all seem to be numbers-based. One of those sad days where really good books aren't getting enough eyes on them and are being dropped, undoubtedly, for more events.

Bit of internal news, I doubt there will be many more reviews this week. I've read just about every book this week and many are very good (DAREDEVIL, BLACK WIDOW, ELEKTRA, AVENGERS, NEW AVENGERS, MOON KNIGHT, SPIDER-WOMAN, and several more) but, as you all know, it's getting harder and harder to get these reviews out on time. We'll see what the start of this week brings.

Amazing Spider-Man 10

Amazing Spider-Man 10
Slott (w) and Coipel (p) and Von Grawbadger (i) and Ponsor (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

A team of Spiders led by the Superior Spider-Man enter the Ultimate Universe to rescue Miles Morales and that universe's Jessica Drew from Verna of the Inheritors. Superior Spider-Man leads them back to the 2099 Universe, where a number of Spiders including the newly onboard "true" Peter Parker, Miguel O'Hara, Spider-Woman, Kaine and some others go to bring them into the cosmically guarded alternate Earth. Unfortunately, the mass influx of Spiders in the 2099 Universe (and particularly the draw of Silk, who wasn't supposed to tag along with Peter but did) brings a handful of Inheritors to the 2099, only for Superior Spider-Man to kill what ends up being a clone of Daemos and managing to get away with the body. Teams of the various Spiders split off and begin setting out on different goals, meant to throw us into such tie-ins as SPIDER-WOMAN, SCARLET SPIDERS, and SPIDER-MAN 2099. As Peter leads Superior Spider-Man and a couple others back to the cosmically protected universe, Doc Ock decrees that he is in charge during this war.

SPIDER-VERSE continues with another pretty strong outing (not least helped by the impressive Olivier Coipel on pencils). What's particularly weird about my reaction to this book (and you all should know by now I largely review these books just based on reaction) was that I found myself really intrigued and, dare I say, excited about the tie-ins they were promising. It's hard to ignore (and I'm sure this is what the Spider-Man team at Marvel formed this event around) the multitude of really great Spiders in these universes. It's a curious thing as this event seems every bit as manufactured as AXIS ("let's get all the Spiders together!" vs. "let's make all the heroes into villains and vice versa!") but I'm far more willing to suspend disbelief on this one. I think that comes from a number of factors, starting with the idea that this impacts Spiders alone and can certainly be tied up neatly after the fact. AXIS (geez, I really need to get over this) bold-facedly claims to be a major event and feels instead like something that will be washed away with little problem and a solid forty bucks+ out of a lot of people's pockets (calculating the cost of AXIS just made me really sad). So yes, I'm enjoying this manufactured series more than I'm enjoying AXIS and, in fact, possibly a good deal more than that.

Total Score: 4/5

Marvel announces new HOWARD THE DUCK ongoing

Following a fun little cameo at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, Howard the Duck is making his return to Marvel comics in the form of a new ongoing written by hilarious SEX CRIMINALS artist Chip Zdarsky and drawn by the very talented Joe Quinones (CAPTAIN MARVEL, FF, SAVAGE WOLVERINE, a bunch of other things, several prints on my wall, many thanks for that). Like with the announcement of the new Squirrel Girl series, Marvel makes another smooth move by taking a bit of a joke character and putting a very funny Canadian in charge of the book (Zdarsky for HOWARD, Ryan North for SQUIRREL GIRL). I'd throw Skottie Young for ROCKET RACCOON on that list but I'm pretty sure he's not Canadian, though I believe he lives in one of those states on the border that isn't in New England. Anyway, I'm stalling a bit because I'm on my phone so my abilities are a bit limited. Segue! Here's a link: http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/11/21/marvel-announces-howard-the-duck-by-chip-zdarsky-and-joe-quinones/

Not going to say I'm not excited.

Avengers and X-Men: Axis 6

Avengers and X-Men: Axis 6
Remender (w) and T. Dodson (p) and R. Dodson (i) and Delgado and Aburtov (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

The X-Men have taken over Manhattan and have started to expel humans from the city, promising that soon, attempts at taking back the city would be met with violence, all while secretly building a gene-bomb that will soon kill everyone without the X-gene. Sabretooth and Mystique have learned of the bomb's existence and have joined with other inverted villains like Loki, Enchantress, and Carnage in a group assembled by Steve Rogers to set things right. Also, Scarlet Witch attacks a repentant Doom in Latveria.

Let me make one thing clear: there are some interesting dynamics here. I've talked in the past (though probably not for a year and a half now, since DARK AVENGERS) about a soft spot I have in my heart for alternate dimension stories. Because I'm a nerd, like you, and we like these possibilities. I think we like them even more in long-running comics because we so intimately know these characters that twisting them allows us to wonder, if I may, "what if...?" That's 100% what this feels like. So, you say, perhaps I've come around on AXIS? Nope. It feels like that but I don't want my mainstream universe to feel, at any point, like an alternate universe. That's why it's my mainstream and that's the appeal of an alternate. However, it does leave me in a weird position with this event where I'm able to recognize that maybe occasionally we need a big shift like this, even if it's only going to be righted a couple months down the road. However, this continues to feel very much like a shoe-horned "let's write heroes as villains and villains as heroes!" sort of pitch. I cannot respect that. Even if this wasn't billed as a major event and was instead advertised and sold as a WHAT IF...? or a separate alt-universe story or something like that (which, I understand, wouldn't sell at a fraction of an event), I'd be rolling my eyes at it. The complications are that some sort of marginally interesting plot is developing amidst this terrible premise and the tie-ins (which we'll, I'm assured, get to at some point this week) are a little more compelling than the main series (which occasionally happens, at least in my view, because it gives us a sense of how things are affecting our characters at a more personal level). At the end of the day though, my rating has to be based on whether this is worth reading? And guys, obviously it's not.

Total Score: 2/5

Comics this week

It's new release day which means this post is, SURPRISE, late. But that doesn't mean we can't still get into it. First and foremost, though, big ups to short-titled books this week. With a slew of books like BLACK WIDOW, ELEKTRA, DAREDEVIL, MAGNETO, INHUMAN, PUNISHER, and more, this is one of the few weeks where I'd guess the average title length is only about two words (thrown off, of course, by the extraordinarily clunky AVENGERS AND X-MEN: AXIS and DEATH OF WOLVERINE: THE WEAPON X PROGRAM). Also, I don't usually talk about reprints or anything like that because they serve only to confuse me on the comic list but I want to shine a light on the fact that we'll get a SEVENTH printing of MS. MARVEL 1 this week. How crazy is that? Pretty fantastic though. Okay, so what am I excited about? Well, a good deal, as a matter of fact, but it is tempered by how dumb the current event is (not to mention that said event has a release this week and two books that directly tie-in to it plus several others, I'm sure). ANYWAY, on to the good'uns.


Black Widow 12
I love this book and it's quickly become one of those titles that washes over me with a cool wave of relief right after seeing books like AXIS: REVOLUTIONS or ALL-NEW ULTIMATES or something like that alphabetically. I was feeling down and then BOOM, B-Widz. Knocking it out of the park.


Daredevil 10
Geez, those Purple Kids are freaky. Even still, they're an interesting villain beyond just the fact that they're kids and DD probably shouldn't make a habit of beating up kids. They've all been directly and indirectly created by the Purple Man: directly because he's their biological father and he bestowed his powers unto them and indirectly because the impact he left on their lives and the havoc he wreaked on their upbringing by not being there left them emotionally fragile, even more so than regular children. Also, as I've been saying for three years now, we've got to be seeing the fallout from SHADOWLAND here. Huge credit to Mark Waid for holding off and patiently waiting to deliver greater results.


Moon Knight 9
Brian Wood and Greg Smallwood have already shown the chops for creating this book that Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey built so effectively and so efficiently (they're all helped by the phenomenal Jordie Bellaire on colors) but I'm more interested than excited to see this book for another week. Still trying to see what mark Wood and Smallwood will leave on the characters.


Spider-Woman 1
I'm leery of books kicking off during events (great work, CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE MIGHTY AVENGERS) and, frankly, I'm still leery of Spider-Woman as a character. I've never really loved her but I certainly came to like her more the more that Kelly Sue DeConnick used her in CAPTAIN MARVEL and AVENGERS ASSEMBLE. I also am a fan of Dennis Hopeless so here's hoping that it's the perfect storm of wary optimism that will actually pay off.


X-Force 12
So the team is probably a little more aware of Fantomex's sinister motives now that he's attacked all of them and sworn to kill them only to have Domino reveal herself and save the team. So much happening here and it's all been great through and through. Geez, good slate of books this week, huh guys?

ALL OF LAST WEEK 11-12-14

Ugggh. Alright guys, I gave you a heads-up on this. Did I definitely know I wouldn't get any reviews done? No, I had some amount of optimism. Did I suspect I wouldn't get any reviews done? No comment.
So this blog is getting a little bit lax lately. I built up this thing on reliability and long and rambling reviews. Unfortunately, lately I've both been unreliable and I've tried to cut off the rambling. One of those changes, I believe, has been a good thing. The other? Wellllllllllllll, maybe less so. There's a good chance this blog starts taking a different format soon or at least stops proudly toting that it reviews every single major Marvel comic every single week. But, as we are still that (at least in my head), here's as quick a review as I can do for every comic this week.


All-New Captain America 1

Sam Wilson is officially the new Captain America and he's certainly capable of walking the walk, talking the talk, and wielding the shield. In a bit of a challenge, his new pseudo-partner is the new Nomad, Steve's son Ian. Together they storm an enemy base but find themselves at odds when Nomad throws Batroc the Leaper to his death (WHAT) and the pair suddenly find themselves faced with a number of classic Cap villains led by Baron Zemo. Remender's wasting no time getting Sam acquainted to the role and to the Cap villains he already knows. There are some great uses of Redwing in this issue and, while it's a pretty good issue and certainly a monumental achievement, it's hard for me to give this a 5 out of 5 when it's possible Batroc is dead. Total Score: 4/5







All-New Ultimates 10
Taskmaster is hunting Ultimates and just about finishes his collection with little resistance, though now he has to contend with an angry Bombshell. Still don't like this book but at least some plot and action happened. Total Score: 3/5


Avengers and X-Men: Axis 5

All the Avengers who were on Genosha are still inverted (though, and I wanted to talk about this above but I forgot and there's no possible way to go back, ALL-NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA mentioned off-handedly in its opening salvo that a bunch of heroes got inverted but came back around, so great work schedule?) and they capture the other Avengers after calling a meeting, leaving only Spider-Man, Nova, and a few others free. And the X-Men attack them. And everyone's mad. And this is still such a stupid and reverse-engineered premise. I don't really care if you can milk stories from it for months, it doesn't make it a worthwhile event. Total Score: 2/5








Axis: Hobgoblin 2
Phil Urich, the new Goblin King, attacks original Hobgoblin Roderick Kingsley only to discover that Roderick, profiting on his newfound success as a hero, has an amnesiac Lily Hollister in his sway. There are some fun and interesting things happening here but it all relies on characters I personally practically refuse to care about. Total Score: 3/5


Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier 2
Bucky was shot in the back just after learning that Loki was the middleman for the drug running operation underseas. The bullet he was shot with turns out to be filled with the drug they're chasing, a dosage of hallucinogenic Illum which wreaks a bit of havoc with Bucky as he tracks down and confronts Loki. Loki plays some games with him and makes him see all manner of strange, identity-plaguing thing. Still, by the time Bucky gets through it all, he's learned the location of the planet he needs to visit next. QUESTION: is this really the threat-level Nick Fury had to contend with as man on the wall? I'm still not at all sold on Ales Kot but he's working a bit better already with Marco Rudy, whose art is well worth the price of admission. Really gorgeous but the story and the dialogue leave a lot to be desired. Total Score: 3/5






Captain America and the Mighty Avengers 2
The Inversion is still happening over here and the Mighty Avengers are starting to think maybe they can run the world with an iron fist (though Iron Fist himself is not affected by the inversion) and finally bring peace. However, that doesn't mean inverted Luke Cage is going to forgive Spider-Man for that whole superior thing. Again, I didn't enjoy this book but I think it comes as a result of a weak premise that I cannot get behind. I mean, I don't regret buying it at all because Skottie Young cover, so duh. Total Score: 2/5


Captain Marvel 9

Captain Marvel and Tic find themselves summoned by mutant intergalactic pop-star Lila Cheney to help her get out of an arranged marriage with a prince of a different planet that she certainly never arranged. The planet the space-adventurers find themselves on is one where everyone speaks in rhyme and it gets a little bit old throughout the issue but props to DeConnick for almost entirely making it work. Anyway, Captain Marvel finds a solution, helped by her beating up a vile, power-hungry woman who would marry the prince herself to gain power, and Tic marries the prince instead, though is promised that it's a marriage in name only and that she's able to go wherever and do whatever she likes anyway. Ambitious issue that falls a little flat for me because I still don't like the Captain Marvel supporting cast and the change of scenery. I loved Carol when she was relatable and tough on Earth. Pulling her into places where explaining the plot (or rhyming) has to take most of the dialogue instead of character building hurts this book. Total Score: 3/5


Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy 4
Lady Deathstrike has a lot to think about with Logan dead. She does her thinking while thwarting a slave trade and deciding to run Logan's old underground. Certainly not a bad issue and it mostly moves fast. The art style of Juan Doe works really well with Lady Deathstrike. Total Score: 4/5


Guardians 3000 2

The Guardians continually face their own death but finally break out of their cycle with the advance knowledge provided by Geena Drake. They manage to flee from an overwhelming amount of Badoon with the assistance and probable sacrifice of Gladiator and others, hoping to end this war once and for all, though they're being followed by what is purportedly a big ol' Badoon weapon. Still finding it a little hard to get invested in these characters or this future. Total Score: 2/5











Hawkeye vs. Deadpool 2
Hawkeye and Deadpool are trying to figure out how the pieces of this puzzle fit together but continue to come upon dead ends. When Deadpool and Kate finally start getting somewhere with a hidden flashdrive, though, Hawkeye reveals himself to be apparently some sort of double agent, stabbing Deadpool and knocking Kate out while he takes the flashdrive for himself with much the same gusto as the fake heroes Black Cat had in her employ. Still some fun here but the issue drags a good deal. Total Score: 3/5


Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man 7

Osborn reveals to Miles that he, the Spiders, and Miles' dad are all connected in some way but refuses to give any more evidence than that, eventually leading to Miles and Peter knocking him senseless and potentially re-killing him. Peter gives Miles his blessing and his web-shooters and leaves with MJ to try to figure some things in his life out. Soon, Miles is faced with seeing his father again. Oh, and Kate Bishop's parents are Hydra so she's Hydra and she knows who Miles is. The issue moves pretty well and there's only a little bit of forced banter thrown into a long fight scene. It's very similar to the last issue in a number of ways but it still moves well and adds a bit of texture to the story, so little to complain about. Total Score: 4/5







Nightcrawler 8
Nightcrawler and the X-Men are returning to normal life after the passing of Wolverine when Nightcrawler is pulled back into the lives of the Crimson Pirates thanks to a distress call from Pirate Bloody Bess, who asks for Nightcrawler's help in defeating her teammates, possessed by the villain the Shadow King. He agrees to help her but they quickly find themselves on the run hoping for more backup from the X-Men, who similarly get possessed, and possibly Scorpion Boy and Ziggy Karst. Claremont's love of story again wins out here, though he's quietly doing a good job with Nightcrawler's character. Still, pacing and excessive dialogue really drag this book back down. Total Score: 3/5


Nova 23

After discovering that Kluh is attacking Arizona, Nova rushes away from Spider-Man and Steve Rogers to take on an even stronger and more vicious Hulk. He manages to do some damage but ultimate finds himself launched unconscious to France by Kluh, where he wakes in a hospital room with his broken helmet beside him. Still don't like Kluh but it's a pretty strong Nova-issue. Seriously though, every tie-in to AXIS is marred by how bad AXIS is. Total Score: 3/5











Savage Hulk 6
Dr. Strange and his SHIELD escort learn (god, FINALLY) that this race of strange intergalactic crustaceans ages at an insanely fast rate and that Hulk started off feeding on their non-sentient ancestors but has laid off of the sentient lineage, only to be cast as a villain by certain members of the society who would ruin themselves waging an unwinnable war on the monster. Strange defeats the most vocal of the anti-Hulk shrimp and deposits the Hulk back at the Crossroads while saving the society. Solid art props up this issue, which otherwise falls a little flat for me. Total Score: 3/5


She-Hulk 10

Steve tells his side of the story, revealing that his pal's brother, the one who blames Steve for getting his brother killed, was working under Nazis and Steve took a stand against them in a situation where the Nazis were very clearly going to kill all three of them. Steve is found innocent and chats with his lawyer pals for a bit before She-Hulk heads back for NYC, hoping to relax a little but finding Titania, whose name is also in the blue file, waiting for her. Another strong issue. Soule writes a really fun She-Hulk and a strong Steve Rogers on top of being just a strong writer all around. Pulido's art is absolutely perfect for the series. Total Score: 5/5









Silver Surfer 7
Dawn Greenwood and Silver Surfer have been traveling for a while now and run into their fair share of adventures and excitement, but Surfer finds himself as excited as ever to end up at the end of the universe, where even the light from the stars doesn't reach. As he and Dawn sail further and further into the depths, they find some sort of way station lighthouse and approach, only for it to grab Dawn and pull her into the nothingness. Though Norrin had sworn recently that he'd never silver down again after a particularly bad experience while he and Dawn let their guard down, he looses the power cosmic and the depths take him too, only for him to silver up again and rescue Dawn. He gave her a ring that's part of himself so he can always find her and she asks if it means they're dating. Slott's joy for writing the series, as with AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, shines through here, though the tone is still a little hard to always nail down. The art of Michael and Laura Allred is, as ever, pretty astonishing and remains exactly what the book needs. Total Score: 4/5


Spider-Verse 1

Cute little introduction to a handful of alternate dimension Spiders like Spider-Man of the Spider-Clan of Earth-2301, the steampunk Lady Spider from Earth-803, the cartoonish 11-year-old Penelope Parker, Spider-Girl, of Earth-11, and a couple of other Peters who die or are ignored by Morlun. They're nice vignettes from talented writers and artists, which makes the book worth reading as long as you know what you're getting into. Total Score: 4/5












Superior Iron Man 1
Tony Stark has started drinking again, as well as mass producing Extremis and giving it to everyone in San Francisco with a smart phone. Of course, he's a despicable human being now, though he still helps out on the hero front in New York with remote Iron Men. As Pepper begins to worry about what he's doing, he shows how profitable it'll become by removing the Extremis from all of his test subjects in SF and offers it to them once more for a hundred dollars a day. What a jerk. Surprise, I still don't like AXIS. Total Score: 2/5


Thor 2

The new Thor (who is sounding more and more like SHIELD agent Roz Solomon, to my chagrin) has traveled down to Midgard with Mjolnir and finds herself beating up Frost Giants and helping the Minotaur, Dario Agger, by rescuing him from other Frost Giants attempting to find the head of King Laufey. There are some interesting bits here and there, particularly as Thor continues to speak like the old Thor but her thoughts come out sounding (and looking, thanks to the regular typesetting of her inner monologue, as opposed to the typical Thor word bubbles of her dialogue) human. Other interesting tidbits include the idea that Mjolnir is sentient and responding to Thor. Still, I'm going to be really bummed if this does just end up being Roz Solomon, who is both predictable (still a big deal that Thor's a woman but I would have liked, for story purposes, a more surprising pick) and a SHIELD agent, which practically guarantees she's not really worthy. SHIELD is terrible. All around. Total Score: 3/5