Missed Comics

So, after hearing such great things about Captain Britain and MI: 13, I picked it up yesterday before my VS tournament.

Captain Britain and MI: 13 1



Basic Plot: In Britain, Skrulls are attacking.

Honestly? Meh. I mean, some cool parts, like Black Knight kicking ass. Mostly, though, I was pretty meh about it. Maybe not knowing Spitfire very well put me at a disadvantage, but I have read classic Excalibur, as well as New Excalibur. I got most of the references, I just didn't think it was that great. The art was pretty good. The story was okay. Maybe I am such a Skrull fan that I hate any comic that shows Skrulls dying left and right. Oh, and you'd think the Skrull empire would give invulnerability to all their Super Skrulls. Plus, some of the stuff is stupid. Like, Captain Britain takes the Hyperion and Doc Spectrum Skrull's head clean off. Hyperion has invulnerability and the Power Prism should stop Cap. As powerful as some of these guys are, I don't think they should be doing as well as they did against the Skrulls.

Invincible Vol 9


Basic Plot: Oh, who am I kidding.

Okay, so you either know Invincible or you don't. This is the first time I have really discussed Invincible. I really do like this series. It is one of my favorite series. I just happen to get them in volumes and there have been no volumes since last summer. For those who don't know, Invincible is the story of a kid who grows up with his father as the world's greatest superhero from outer space with flight, super strength, super speed and invulnerability named Omniman (Superman who?). Being of the same origin, Mark Grayson starts to develop those powers and grows into them. If you haven't read Invincible, stop right now and read through volume 8 at the very least (maybe this one as well). Okay, so Invincible, in this volume, has to deal with Allen, the Viltrumites and Multi-Paul, along with Magmaniac and Tether Tyrant and other random baddies. The parts with the Viltrumites are easily the best parts as that is the way the comic is heading. Stuff at home is fun, but to be perfectly honest, Kirkman is great at developing the whole Viltrumite mindset and all that Viltrum does. Lots of fun stuff and a great volume again. One annoying thing (to me anyway) is that Cecil's scar isn't very visible, like is used to be. You kind of see it at times, but there are moments when I don't realize it is him because the scar is gone. I mean, what, did he get something for the scar and it is healing, now? Stuff with Allen is always fun and I do enjoy Magmaniac and Tether Tyrant. Both fun villains (especially Tether Tyrant) who are kind of lame, but still interesting. Is it just me or does Magmaniac always fall through the floor? Anyway, pick up the volume if you read it in volumes (the extra art at the back is my main reason) or continue reading the stories in comic form if you do that. Invincible is awesome!

Hi, I'm a Marvel...and I'm a DC

So, for those of you who haven't ever seen this guy's work, he basically takes action figures and parodies the Mac/PC ads with the two guys. At least originally. Eventually, he started actually making stories and whatnot, but he still does the parodies. Here, this is the first one:


Recently, he has been doing more actual movies with the guys fighting evil or something, mostly while at the superhero bar (where few actually drink). Still, just before Iron Man came out, he released one about the upcoming Marvel and DC summer movies, with Iron Man and Batman discussing their similarities and differences. There have been three with them and all are great.




Man, I love this guy!

Secret Invasion 3

I still like Secret Invasion a lot. Let's see. In this issue, we see Skrull Jarvis confront Maria Hill about her surrender, being completely amusing, as he is still in the form of Jarvis. We see Norman completely calm and talking to the Captain Marvel Skrull about his breaking into Norman's office. We see the Initiative to prepare to fight the Skrull invaders, the Young Avengers confronting the Skrulls, joined by the Initiative, who do well initially, then get their asses kicked. We see Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman), known to be the Skrull queen at this point, defeating Echo and making Tony believe he is a Skrull. Vision dies (again) and Nick Fury's Howling Commandos make their appearance.

So, one thing I have seen is the debate on whether or not Tony is a Skrull. Personally, I do not think he is. Here are some reasons: In the Marvel Universe, Tony was always kind of there, but not nearly as important. Sure, he was a founding member of the Avengers, founded the West Coast Avengers and became Secretary of State, but he wasn't really all that big in the MU to readers. Recently, around the time of New Avengers, he started doing more. He has been working with the government, representing superhumans (despite barely qualifying at the best, or not qualifying as superhuman at the worst, depends on the writer's mood and how he or she feels about AI). Because of this, he worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. a lot more and eventually fought against Captain America in the Civil War, representing the Pro-Registration side, becoming one of the most prominent Marvel characters. In the Marvel Universe, he is now big in both the comic universe and ours. All of these things are weird and made Tony look like an ass, which makes him one of the most disliked members of the superhuman community. Because of that and because he is really powerful in the world, it would seem that he would be a likely candidate for a Skrull. Unfortunately, I give writers credit in the Marvel Universe. Especially Bendis. That would be the most obvious thing in the world, so I don't think it's true. I've failed with this logic a few times (the new Cap being Bucky), but I feel that writers try and make you guess a lot. For example, with Bendis, everybody assumed that because Magneto ruled the world in House of M, he must have wanted that and Scarlet Witch made it happen, but really, Quicksilver did it. That is the kind of thing I am talking about.
Plus, Tony has been a dick. I never really cared about the character all that much, although did like him for the most part if I had to think about him. Two of my friends really liked him though. With that, and reading New Avengers, I started to like him more. He was friendly and he helped people like Spidey (the character that introduced me to comics that I like a lot) out and seemed like a cool guy. Then Civil War happened. Everything that he did made sense in terms of his character and in terms of the storyline, and then I realized that he is a dick. He tried to not be a dick, and was better than Cap at certain points (such as the point mentioned by the Watcher in the second story in What if...? Civil War), but all in all, he forced too much upon the superhuman community and expected too much out of people. Plus, he made the current incarnation of the Thunderbolts with Venom and Bullseye, along with Taskmaster and Lady Deathstrike at certain points. I mean, he had good intentions, I'll give him that. He also knew what was coming, to an extent, but he failed miserably in trying to be the good guy. Sending Hulk into space was a mistake as well. To make him a Skrull is to take away all of that and say "Hey, it wasn't Tony! It was a Skrull! Tony's not a dick!" To me, that would feel like the end of World War Hulk, when Miek reveals that the Illuminati members that sent Hulk to space (Mr. Fantastic, Black Bolt, Dr. Strange and Iron Man) didn't cause the ship to explode. I read Planet Hulk, and when that happened in Planet Hulk, I wanted to personally kill all of those guys along with the Hulk. At that point, I felt the Hulk was completely justified. After all, those guys killed a freakin' planet! I was totally supporting Hulk, but then, Miek revealed and suddenly, I felt sorry for Iron Man. Read above, and you'll know I dislike Iron Man. I felt like apologizing to Tony for that. That was infuriating. I loved everything else, and even that at the time, but I am furious that they just absolved him by saying, "No, it wasn't him. It was that guy over there! Tony didn't do that!" Doing that here would be the same thing on a larger scale, as it covers much more stuff (not more horrifying than a whole planet, but more important on a personal level).
Plus, the Skrulls are all about deception. They always have been. Taking out Tony is a really important task, given how much power he wields (along with taking out the Sentry) and a brilliant way to do it is to make him even more paranoid than he already was. He was paranoid because he realized there was a Skrullektra that came to him and started suspecting everybody. With this, the queen is able to make him doubt himself at the same time. As opposed to simply taking him out, which she could do as well, she is able to turn him against people. I found that part to be hilarious, as I don't think Tony is a Skrull, so her trying to convince him of being one is awesome to me.

Vision died again. Sigh... Well, he came back before, so he could easily come back again.

Nick Fury's team is pretty darn awesome, I have to say. We've got Nick Fury and a Rob Liefeld gun. Daisy Johnson (Quake) and her ability to kill people (okay, that isn't her power, but it seems to be all she uses it for). Phobos, son of Ares, God of Fear, and a small child. The grandkid of the Phantom Rider and his mystic chain. The daughter of Griffin, with her superspeed yo-yo-like ability. The son of Dr. Druid, with all the mystical powers and none of the know-how. Some random tough guy. All in all, they make a pretty awesome team. Hopefully, they won't be able to stop the Skrulls.

Tired...

Tired for a different reason. Up until 4:30 AM last night (this morning, technically), playing games. Sorry about reviews. I'll get to it later.

Comics on 6/4

Here is the incredibly long list of comics:

Punisher: War Journal 20


Basic Plot: Punisher runs around trying to find Jigsaw, while Jigsaw sends the Hand after Frank and Bridge's team starts doing things.

Well, it gets better and better, but starting at being horrible means it is now okay. So, this issue wasn't particularly bad, but wasn't all that great. Frank trying to fight those ninjas was just weird. I had no idea he was capable with a sword. Has Punisher ever used a sword before? It is just really weird. Kind of cool, but weird. Also, Chaykin's art makes certain people hard to distinguish from others. Plus, does Chaykin love ninjas or something? The last series I read with Chaykin was Wolverine, in which he fought ninjas and the Hand, along with the Scimitar organization that was trying to make a name for itself by offing Wolverine. Oh well. At least it gets better every week. Hopefully it will be good soon.

Spider-Man Family 9


Basic Plot: Spider-Man and Marvel Girl babysit Bruce Banner to keep him from transforming into the Hulk. A kid pretends to be Spider-Man to get free food.

Two fun stories. Not great, but lots of fun. The art in the first one is also good, and I like it. It is very amusing and is just fun. Favorite parts are how nobody recognizes Spidey as the actual Spidey (despite him clinging to walls and whatnot) and trying to rob places, forcing Spider-Man to go into battle, trying to make sure Bruce is calm all the way through. Also, when they realize Bruce is "the guy who turns into the Hulk," they just stop fighting. It is just lots of fun. The second story is interesting. It has a kid who lives on the streets who robbed a store, then returned in a Spidey outfit with the food, claiming he was Spidey and that he had caught the criminal. For that, and for "protecting" the store, he then gets free food whenever he wants, just by going in, and the owner giving him food. Peter stops it, and it ends well. At the end though, my friend noticed that it was 8:55 PM and Spidey was swinging towards the sun, which had not nearly set yet. Yes, at almost 9 PM, the sun was still up. Apparently, he lived in Northern Canada during this time, or somewhere else far north where there is sun a lot of the day. Who knows? Still, a fun story. The backup ones were weird as they were parts of a group of comics where the entire thing wasn't fully there, but the middle or end of the story was.

Amazing Spider-Man 561


Basic Plot: Paper Doll goes after Carr's new girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson!

MJ's back. -ish. Apparently, she has been in New York, although hiding, and is Carr's "mystery girlfriend." When Spidey realizes Paper Doll was going to attack Carr's fancy house where his girlfriend was, he goes to protect them. As he tries to fight Paper Doll, MJ is in a panic room, helping him out. Kind of amusing, as he never realizes it is her. She makes references to how it could have worked between them in some other time, but not then. Kind of interesting, but I really want classic villains, if we are doing more classic-ish stories. Where is my Doc Ock or Lizard or something?

Ultimate Origins 1


Basic Plot: How the Ultimate universe started-ish.

Okay, so spoiler, but mutants weren't born, they were created. They took Jim Howlett and ran tests on him and came up with a new DNA strand and called him a mutant. Weird. The rest is kind of weird as well. Stuff is just bizarre. Jim, Nick Fury and a Fisk (Wilson, possibly) were all together in WWII, where Nick was subjected to Project: Rebirth (aka the Ultimate Super-Soldier program) and apparently doesn't age much, since he is around in the present. All in all, really weird, and explains even less than it brings up.

Nova 14


Basic Plot: Nova tries to convince Silver Surfer to stop Galactus for a time.

Well, again, kind of meh. I found the stuff with Silver Surfer talking to Nova interesting and Galactus to be kind of dull. I mean, yeah, Galactus just kind of sat there. Plus, I found Galactus to not really look good. I'm not really into changing Galactus' appearance all that much. The artist adds space (it looks like outer space on his face and suit) and way too many small tech lines (microchip type stuff on something like Galactus, with weird doohickeys coming out of him). The rest doesn't feel like Surfer and Galactus as much. I don't know. Harrow is weird and not that interesting to me. I mean, my main problem still is how weak the frickin' Nova Corps is. One man with all the power of the Nova Corps, the whole Nova force cannot take on Silver Surfer. Okay, sure. The entire Nova force cannot come close to taking an adult Technarch? Come on, now! Basically, I feel Nova should be much more powerful than he is. He should be more like Ion than anything.

Avengers/Invaders 2


Basic Plot: The Mighty Avengers go after the Invaders.

Well, things are getting interesting. I liked the story. The fight was cool, but way too short. The best part is easily when Iron Man gets the crap kicked out of him by Cap. Iron Man uses a magnet to pull Cap's shield away, but Cap holds on, then punches Iron Man into the ground. Awesomeness. Namor is the only one they didn't capture, but it was pretty cool all in all. Plus, Bucky. Oh, yes. Bucky. Still a bad-ass as a kid. Plus, Winter Soldier/Cap saw Bucky, which causes all sorts of confusion. So, Bucky can meet Winter Soldier, Namor can meet Namor (god, how did he stay so young?), Cap can meet Winter Soldier/Cap and Vision could meet Torch (on which Vision was originally made from). Or Torch could meet Torch. Still, lots of interesting things to do.

Kick-Ass 3


Basic Plot: Kick-Ass starts becoming an internet celebrity and tries to help people.

Okay, read this. Done? Good. Holy shit! WTF? That is seriously twisted shit, man. That looks to me to be, like, a ten year old girl. I've seen people say it's a guy, but the hair and the eyes signify me to be a girl. Either way, holy shit! I am so glad that blood and guts don't freak me out. Otherwise this and Invincible (also picked up) would freak me out. I love how they just have people beat up and bleeding and having vital organs spilling out. It is amazing and ridiculous. Every person who finished reading it just said, "What the fuck? What?" I mean, come on! Ridiculous!

Secret Invasion 3




Basic Plot: As the Super Skrulls (not Kl'rt) attack NYC, everybody else deals with major crap.

You know I'm going to love it. I mean, it is the Skrulls. Review coming Friday. Until then, though, I don't think Tony is a Skrull. More later.

So tired...

On Friday afternoon, I went downtown to give my dad a ticket to the Giants game later that evening. It was somewhat complicated with reasons, but basically, I had to go there, and then I would wait for my friend to get out of school, so we could hang out before the game. Like I do every time I go downtown (practically), I checked in at the EB Games to see if they had Wiis in stock. They didn't, but said to check back on Wednesdays or Fridays as that is when they get their shipments in. Sad, but not wholly surprised, I decided to see if Virgin Megastore had it. Lo and behold, as I entered, but there was an ad for Wiis. Slightly more enthusiastic, I went inside, asked one of the people working there if they had Wiis, and, to my surprise, they did. They had some deal where you had to buy two games, so I bought Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (which I wanted very badly) and Mario Kart Wii (which sounded fun). I already owned Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and then finally purchased a Wii. So, as you may have guessed from the title, I have played a lot of Wii. Seriously. Mario Kart is a lot of fun, especially with the Wii Wheel. Wii Sports is pretty fun for a game you don't have to buy. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is so bizarre. Okay, I am a comic reader, right? I like all the references to things, but hate certain things they do. For example:
The group that Doom forms is the Masters of Evil, when Doom never associated himself with the group.
Bullseye is on the team, when he never really worked well on a team (including Thunderbolts).
Winter Soldier is on the team, when he isn't a villain, and is in fact Bucky (although he did do evil things, it was under direct mind control, and always in secret).
It isn't the regular Marvel Universe or the Ultimate Marvel Universe, but some weird amalgamation of the two.
Still, it is a fun game and I really enjoy playing it. The controls are very hard to understand and difficult to use, but once you get the hang of it, is actually pretty cool. I do like that you can swing the Wii Remote around or use the A button to attack.
Smash Bros. is amazing, as I believe I have said here before. I went through Adventure Mode, unlocking tons of characters. As of when I am writing this, I only have to unlock Wolf. Only Wolf, Toon Link and Jigglypuff were the ones I was not able to get in Adventure Mode. The Adventure Mode is pretty cool, although starts to get a little tedious. Something cool though is how they seamlessly blend the Nintendo worlds together. For example, on the Halberd, which Meta Knight is trying to reclaim, along with Lucario, Snake is sneaking about, and when he hears Meta Knight and Lucario approaching, he hides in a box, which Lucario then senses him (aura) and lifts the box, causing the exclamation point to appear above Snake's head and the "Found Out!" sound from Metal Gear plays. After squaring off, they realize they have to work together. I mean, all the characters act as themselves, with nothing being out of character. Sonic at the end is amusing. Basically, at the very end, I am about to fight the last boss, when Sonic appears. Oh, okay. The game itself is awesome, and I need to get myself back to about where I was back when I was playing Melee like crazy.

Anyway, Wiis are awesome, but late nights are crazy.

Reason 1 I love the Venture Bros

Venture Bros is back, baby! Season 3 had its first episode last night. It was awesome. It doesn't make much sense if you haven't seen every episode before (or at least, most of them, or the ones that deal with the Guild), but if you have, then it is really great. Still pretty good without those things, as you can kind of make them out as you go.

For those of you who don't know the Venture Bros, it is a cartoon on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, starring two brothers, their super-scientist father and his bodyguard as they live in the crazy world of super-science. Here:

This is from Season 1, ep 8, titled "Ghosts of The Sargasso." A lot of Venture Bros takes from Jonny Quest (the kids, father and scientist), and the father (the boy in the above) was once a member of that team like Jonny, but grew up to be a scientist like his dad. It is crazy and every episode has at least (some more, some many more) one moment of laughing out loud. It is that great. Plus, any show that references David Bowie multiple times (like the above, in the episode "The Incredible Mr. Brisby," or the season 2 finale episodes, which is a two parter) is great.