THOR: Marvel's Return to Greatness

I have just read the first 12 issues of Thor and the finale, as well as Thor 600 & 601 (going along with Marvel's return to original numbering, the flipside to the constant new issue #1s). This run by J. Michael Straczynski, drawn by Olivier Coipel & Marko Djurdjevic, chronicles the return of Thor and all of Asgard from the post-Ragnarok void that the God's rested in when I guess Marvel didn't know what to do with the character (along with the Avengers) and killed them all off.

JMS does an amazing job resetting continuity while moving the series forward story-wise. Thor is called forth to protect Midgard (Earth) and is once again bonded to Dr. Donald Blake (who are two seperate conscious beings). He's got the gnarled walking staff which he uses to transform into the God of Thunder. And he's brought back into Man's world to re-create Asgard on Earth to reconnect with humanity.

Heimdall, Balder, Loki, the Warriors Three, they're all back (although Loki in female form which works to unsettle and regain trust with the Asgardians just enough to manipulate them all, and later is revealed as a plot to keep Lady Sif from Thor). Everyone is back except Odin.

Though it appears Thor is purposefully not bringing back his father, he tells himself it is so the kingdom may not repeat the cycle of Ragnarok once more. It will be a fresh start for the Asgardians. But perhaps it is because Thor truly wishes to lead, to come into his own, to surpass his father.

To that end Thor journeys via Odinsleep, into the realm that now houses Odin and Surtur, who are locked in eternally repetitious cycles of violence against each other. Here we are told a tale of Bor, Odin's father, and how in defiance of him Odin created man, who his father plagued with monsters and beasts to punish his son and his creation. Odin understands the need for the cycle to begin anew with new leadership.

This tale of Bor also sets up an interesting twist on the origin of Loki and how he came to be adopted son of Odin, the guilty poison let into the kingdom. I won't spoil it past that as it is truly one of the most clever bits in this run. It also sets up the return of Bor who is brought to NYC dis at the hands of Loki, and then beset by Thor, who ends up killing his own grandfather.

A move that allows Loki to place Balder as King (after slyly revealing the truth that Balder is half-brother to Thor), and to have Thor exiled. This brings the Asgardians into Latveria, and Doom experiments on them, and there's a big fight with Doom's own version of the Destroyer suit. It's pure comic book here.

But it also has nice moments of the Gods interacting with humans, and even sets up a heroic death for Bill Jr. (aka William the Third) who fell in love with a female winter goddess. It's pretty well done and you really do root for the character and his death is handled exceptionally well if not blunt. But these are gods here. Depowered a bit on Earth, but gods among mortals.

There's even a bit at the end which makes it so Dr. Donald Blake once again is wounded and left with a limp so he needs the cane. It's all very neatly tied up with a bow, leaving us with a well developed story, an entertaining and engaging return of the great characters from this part of Marvel, and prepares us for Siege.

A small plot hole I found was, what was Loki's plan for Sif, it almost seemed as if he were just using her to distract Thor, or perhaps just using her mortal form to regain trust? I'm not sure, but it wasn't to remove her from him forever. Ahh wait, maybe it was in hope that Thor would use all of Odin's power to drain him somehow? For on his way to save her, Mjolnir damaged from the fight with Bor, he must go to Dr. Strange to repair the hammer by removing the Odinpower from himself and imbue it into his hammer, thereby linking him to his hammer as never before. Hmmm.

Either way, it's great to have Thor back, and the scene where Thor gives Iron Man what's coming to him for the Civil War/Thor clone debacle, and the Captain America memorial, well this really helps build up the need for a return of the Avengers.

AVENGERS: a cartoon history

Okay, so the new Avengers cartoon was released out to the masses today, and after seeing the teaser on the Jeph Loeb video a few weeks ago, I was really looking forward to this. Finally, an Avengers cartoon with a slick look, with the main lineup (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Giant-Man, Wasp, Hulk) and one of the main launching projects of the newly Disney acquired Marvel. Then I saw this...



UGH! It looks terrible. The animation is third rate at best, and is barely a step above the previous cartoon attempts the Ultimate Avengers animated movies, which took the amazing grittiness of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's comic Ultimate Avengers and just made it as blah and generic as possible and produced this spectacular piece of crap.



The sequel with Black Panther was just more of the same, so I won't even bother posting that video here. I mean, what is wrong with Marvel? Can't they take a good long look at DC/Warner Brothers' animation projects (Batman, Superman, Justice League, Batman Beyond, Legion of Superheroes, and now their string of animated features) and see that quality animation is always going to win out over rushed, hacked out, sub-par garbage?

When watching the new Avengers cartoon trailer above, I could only really think of the first attempt to put the animated Avengers on the small screen...



Marvel has gotten some animation right but I'll save that for another post, because I have just as much praise to heap upon those works as I have bile and resentment for these.

C'mon Marvel, Disney's got your back, give us the good stuff.

K

Ladies & Gentlemen...I Present Your Avengers!

Iron Man (Tony Stark) - Robert Downey Jr., Clark Gregg, Black Widow (Natasha Romanov) - Scarlett Johansson, Thor (Dr. Donald Blake) - Chris Hemsworth, Captain America (Steve Rogers) - Chris Evans, Nick Fury - Sam Jackson, Hawkeye (Clint Barton) - Jeremy Renner, The Hulk (Dr. Bruce Banner) - Mark Ruffalo, Directcor Joss Whedon, and Kevin Feige



Tons more coverage of San Diego Comicon over on our Write Club! Tumblr

COMICON EXCLUSIVE: Marvel Studio's THOR & CAPTAIN AMERICA

[via Yahoo!]

Discuss.

Game Club: Little Big Marvel!

Little Big Planet, one of the best games on Playstation 3, is getting even better: Marvel character kits are coming next week, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say this pack will be much cooler than the Pirates of the Caribbean pack from a while back. I mean, look at the Adorable Iron Man!

If that weren't enough, here's The Thing:

And there's gonna be a level pack in which you fight Magneto! As soon as the level pack is released, I'll be cooking up my own Marvel level, and seeing what I can do to submit it to Youtube.

The complete roster:

•Captain America •Daredevil •Doctor Octopus •Elektra •Ghost Rider •Green Goblin •Hulk •Invisible Woman •Iron Man •The Human Torch •Magneto •Mystique •the Punisher •Roque •Spider-Man •Storm •The Thing •Thor •Venom •Wolverine

I see London, I see France

So, Marvel's been releasing bits and pieces of of art for the new Spider-Man storyline One Moment in Time, which seems like it'll bring the whole Brand New Day Storyline to a conclusion. Maybe? I don't know.

What I do know, in looking at the art that's been trickling out, is how much I've missed seeing Peter Parker in his tighty-whiteys!

I'm serious, growing up and reading Spider-Man in the 80's, it was almost a staple that you'd get a few panels of Pete walking along a wall in his apartment in his underwear.

I'll have to see if I can dig up some more images. Spidey-Whiteys could be a new meme!

Marvel to Debut Short Character Films

Not films about Wolverine, or Puck or their other short statured characters, but short films that will debut before their big tent-pole features. Those scoopsters over at Latino Review have it on good information that Marvel might be introducing some of their lesser known characters to movie-goers in short film form, so I put the question to some of the Write Clubbers laying around the clubhouse today:

Who, out of the Marvel 2nd string stable, would you love to see on the big screen in this format?

Write Clubbers? GO!

***

Kurt:

I want to see Heroes for Hire and Dr. Strange. Over the top martial arts action, maybe do it up 70's style with a grindhouse feel. Dr. Strange should be quiet, understated, yet be a total mindf@#k. They really should experiment with tone with this, think outside the box.

Jon:

Kurt, did you see this?

Patrick Dempsey wants to play Dr. Strange. So...that's going on.

For my money, I'd love to see a Captain Britain and M1-13 short (big surprise right)? You wouldn't even need much of an intro, just show the team f*cking up monsters and Dracula. It could really be filmed as a horror/fantasy short. They could film the story around him finding Excalibur, and include fun team-based stuff like the Black Knight feeling tormented by the Ebony Blade's blood lust. Plus, the Mindless Ones would be really easy monsters to film. Anything with the John Lennon Skrull and Pete Wisdom would make me happy enough. There's a buddy-cop team for the ages.

I know that Vampires are overdone by this time, but that scene in "Vampire State" where Dracula launches vampires at Britain from the goddammed moon is just too good. Plus you could throw some Blade action in there as a tease for the planned Blade reboot. That being said, I really think the Mindless Ones would make for a creepier and more ambitious short.

Alan:

After the double debacle of X3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I think ol' Hugh Jackman should be limited to ten minute shorts, and they should have no dialogue and be brutal, R-rated affairs. This, of course, will never happen, because Marvel/Disney will never make an R-rated anything.

These little films will only help the hype machine, but I think the best way for Marvel to handle them is to make them be crossovers with appearances by the big boys, like Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Edward Norton. Remember, not everyone who saw Iron Man has read the Armor Wars and knows why Tony is such a dick to Hawkeye sometimes, and seeing Robert Downey Jr. will help newbies understand that this is a big, shared universe, and I think that's the whole point. Get 'em in for Iron Man, get them to come back for Black Panther.

This project does raise a number of questions, like, since these are "secondary" characters, and they are limited to ten minutes each, what kind of actors will Marvel get for these characters? I imagine they'll be of higher caliber than a SyFy original movie, but who knows (Ben Affleck Matt Murdock, I'm lookin' at you).

Ugh, I'm still pissed about that one.

Tim:

I think this is actually a pretty great idea. If we get a nasty, violent little Moon Knight short out of it I'll be happy.

PLUS that huge Iron Man audience who would have never seen Khonshu's Avenger will be clued into one of the strangers characters in the MU. Also short films aren't restricted the way a huge 3 hour epic summer blockbuster is, you don't need character arcs, you don't need to pay off on plot threads, for the most part you just throw a bunch of provocative images and ideas at people and they're hooked.

I also don't think they should limit themselves to live action. Doctor Strange might come out kinda silly as a dude in a blue tunic and a porn-stache, but if it's a bad-ass animated short you can do a ton of mystical mind-blowing insanity that will make total sense (on drugs)!

Rick:

I certainly think that any movement into furthering this Marvel Movie Universe is a cool idea, I'm just not sold on this 10 minute mini-movie tacked on to the bigger film. After 20 minutes or so of trailers I don't wanna sit through another 10 minute film since I came to just see Thor.

I believe a better avenue would be a web series. Hosted on a new website, linked to youtube, twitter, FB and anywhere else. A sort of mini-movie universe that exists solely to promote the lesser knowns. It would be an easy catalogue to build and promote a fledgling audience. Then package it per series ender and sell on DVD! WHAK! Marketing! Hosting a web series website would also allow for additional material to help get the word out on these minor characters. Production photos, hero diaries, mini games, diggity do....

I don't really care who gets a 10 minute mini spot or not, though, I guess I would like to see the absurdity of fishscale briefs brought to the big screen (Namor).

I suppose an argument would be lack of big monetary gain. But this is Marvel/Disney. They have shit-load of money and would make a profit on DVD sales and advertising.

Matt:

My first thought was how much better comic books might be suited to short film anyway, since they tend to be episodic in nature. When most people read a comic book, they are starting the middle somewhere, enjoying a segment of a story without having to know what happened before or comes after. The short films should definitely not try to start at the beginning and cover origins or anything, just drop us in the action.

My second thought was that it also might be a fun way to explore the Marvel alternate universes that probably don't need a full length movie. A Marvel Noir short anybody?

***

Well, that's the chatter around the Clubhouse. What do you guys think? Who would you like to see star in their own 10-minute short film?

Write Club! "Words are the Worst!" Ep. 10, Vol.2

Kurt is back! The two Presidents of Write Club are joined by special guest star Reilly Brown! We recap King Con (months later), kick back and talk about comics, character design, and even philosophy.

ALSO! This is the last episode of Volume 2! Collect them all!

Intro: "New Wu" Raekwon (Feat. Ghostface Killah & Method Man)

Outro: "Write Club Theme" Scott St. Pierre

You're fired Jay!

PS- Your happy funtime links for this ep:
Reilly Brown's DeviantArt Gallery
Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club
NY Daily News
Ong Bak Trailer
Raging Phoenix Trailer
Kill Bill 2 Deleted Fight
Rick Lacy's Blog
Neal Adams
Continuity Comics
Alan Davis
Bryan Hitch
Art of John Byrne
Brothers Timony: The Nite Owls
Agents of Atlas
Jeff Parker's Interman
Paul Tobin (Dot) Net
Chicken Boy Implores You
The Unwritten
G. Willow Wilson
The Goon

Omega the Unknown Review

When my girlfriend bought me a copy of Paul Pope's artbook Pulphope for my birthday, a great gift that I unfortunately had picked up for myself when it first came out, I returned it to Forbidden Planet. So when looking over the store for a book that I could exchange it for, I knew I needed something significant.

I finally came across the hardcover of Omega the Unknown, published by Marvel Comics in 2008. It was written by Jonathan Lethem (w/Karl Rusnak) who I knew from his first novel "Gun With Occasional Music" rather than his more famous "Fortress of Solitude". His name to me was like that of a hipster literary rockstar.

The art was done by two of the best indie comic creators from the last decade. Farel Dalrymple of PopGunWar, his work has a honest beauty to it, every day fairy tale quality to it. Along with Paul Hornschemeier, of Forlon Funnies, who's work is hauntingly somber and sentimental. Both artists can present the fantastic as mundane mythology.

This combination was enough to sell me on the purchase. How could I miss out on these creators coming together to create a Marvel comic. Omega the Unknown was one of those odd 70's series that I've heard of but regarded it with a cryptic oddness.

Then I found out that it was co-written/created by Steve Gerber, who is about one of the most fascinating and stalwart comic creators who has done more great things than he is recognized for. This was a ten issue series in 1976 that had a quirkiness to it that the comic industry tried to mold into a generic superhuman brawl book.

I've never read the original series, and in a way I don't necessarily need to. This current ten issue series skirts a sort of remake/sequel thin line just as the writing and artwork pushes what is mainstream comics. A lot is left to the reader's interpretation, and in its own way it's a little clunky and meanders a bit along the way, just as any good auto-bio comic or indie flick does.

The story revolves around a mute alien in a costume fighting robots, but only as a backstory to the tale of a child raised by robots sent off to live in the big city to confront his destiny: to save the earth from invading alien robots. There's also a gloryhound hero called The Mink who has a rather unique and realistic approach to millionaire superheroics.

The series reads as an exploration of cycles within superhero literature, as well as in life itself. It gives us a young hero origin laid under the story of a fish out of water, robotic genius, adjusting to life in Washington Heights, NYC. It confronts school bullys and their victims, showing us the battle of villains against the weak, and what happens when the meek are introduced to the superhuman.

It leads to suicide, which is handled realistically, if not cold and emotionally detached. The main character even meets with the dead boy's soul and everything is matter of fact. But nothing is cut and dry with the badguys here, except the replicating robots that are infecting and replacing humans, and even they are treated as more passive, zombie like swarms, devoid of deeper thought.

There's overtones of mythology complete with a labyrinth, superhero meta tropes such as the "Over-Thinker" parodying Marvel's "The Watcher", a spectator and occasional omniscient narrator. It feels to be almost kind of trite in its plotting at times, but it wins you over with the art and the genuine realness of the characters.

There's a great commentary with select panels from the original comic in the back that give some insight into why Jonathan Lethem and his co-writer, Karl Rusnak, loved the original series enough to bring us an updated version. Also, Gary Panter's guest art when Omega details out his origin in comic format is amazing.

The book itself is goregeous, with a well designed cover, nice organic style to it that clashes with the slick colored pages and high production values. It really is an opposing forces parallel throughout every aspect of the book. Top it of with a quote on the back from Michael Chabon, author of Pulitzer Prize winning "Kavelier & Clay", and you've got the mainstream graphic novel with the most indie cred around.

K

Write Club! We Are An Asian Sandwich Links

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Diane Nelson's Introduction

Paul Levitz's Stepping Down

Industry Reacts To Paul Levitz's Return to Writing





Read up on Disney's Lawsuit vs Air Pirates

Cup O' Joe Q&A with Joe Quesada regarding the Disney Acquisition



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Write Club! Volume 2, Episode 4: "Bitches!"

Episode 4! Fantastic 4! Kurt and Tim weigh in on the recent developments with DC Entertainment, the Marvel/Disney acquisition, and whatever random stuff they think of. Also, tune in to NOT hear the new segment...but you will hear the set-up!



Intro: "Jesus Walks" Kanye West
Outro: "Fett's Vette" MC Chris