Comic Review -- Avengers vs. X-Men #11 / Brian Michael Bendis, Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales, & Laura Martin

SPOILER WARNING!!  This review contains a BIG SPOILER about a character's fate in the Marvel Universe!  Please DON'T view if you don't know what it is and don't want it spoiled!

Overall, a good issue, though not without its flaws.  Still, it's heartening to see how this story has improved from its less than stellar beginning.  Hope you enjoy!

This video can also be found on my Youtube page!

Comicpalooza Picture-rama!!!

I haven't played Assassin's
Creed, but I recognize the look
immediately.  Not a bad fan effort.

This will be both an enhanced and slim post.  There's plenty of pictures, but not much that I'll be writing tonight.

I figured I'd take a few choice pictures of all the excellent costumes and looks that people have put together for today's trip to Houston's comic convention, Comicpalooza.  It was quite the feast for the eyes, as it seems every geek, nerd, dork and dweeb from Houston was there, and in proud form.  I unapologetically count myself among their number!

I've been here all weekend so far, in both a professional and fan capacity.  The presentation about libraries and the comic book industry went well, and there were plenty of interested hangers-on afterward who wanted to talk to me and my co-panelists.  It was a nice feeling. :)  We worked the HPL table afterwards, and helped customers register for library cards and showed that the library carries plenty of graphic novels.  We got quite a few applications, which was wonderful.

The Doctor was there, along
with his wife, the TARDIS. :)

After that, I had purchased a 3-day pass, and wandered to all the various events and exhibits at the con.  As you can see below, there was plenty to see, and my phone actually ran out of power from taking so many pictures, among other reasons.  Take a look and enjoy the images!

I was particularly struck by two things: first off, the costumes looked great.  Everyone obviously put their passion and effort into their presentation, and there were so many people asking and posing for pictures that it was very heartwarming.  Also, everyone in costume was very accommodating and cheerful about posing for pics.  There was nothing but happy reactions to picture requests, and I think that says a lot of good about this particular culture of Houstonites!

Possibly very amusingly, I'm looking forward to the day when I can be the big geek someone stops and asks to take a photo with or of.

Come on, Nightwing costume...

Wonderful Codex costume effort from a photogenic con-goer!

Possibly more pictures for tomorrow's post!

Insane he may be, but this Deadpool was very eager to pose for
pictures!

There were many exhibits, but I thought this Tentacle Kitty booth was particularly adorable-yet-disturbing.  

Contrary to public perception, Rorschach turned out to be
completely gracious and polite in public.

A Dalek and K-9 display... :)

Cap and Iron Man!

A completely silent, but totally expressive Portal Companion
Cube!

The most awesome Harley Quinn at the con today!  Not only
did she look the part, but she was completely in character, with
the voice and everything!

An excellent Riddler costume!   Disagree?  Play Arkham City!

A bird's-eye view of the exhibits from the second floor of GRB!

And a corresponding look at the stage floor!

Comic Review -- AvX VS #2 / Steve McNiven, Kieron Gillen, John Dell, Salvador Larroca, Morry Hollowell, and Jim Charalampidis

I like the illustrations on this cover.  Colossus looks out of his mind with rage as swings at a nimble and no-doubt quippy Spider-Man, while Gambit and Captain America both look like serious business as they struggle against one another.  While I'm not crazy about the large title in the center of the cover, it does make for a nice divider.  Not bad.

These two match-ups go a little more in line with what I expected in terms of an outcome, with plenty of action, name-calling, and destruction, along with a peppering of more AvX Fun Facts.  Though they eventually end up proving pointless within the context of the larger story, it's fun to see these match-ups with some detail and dynamics, as opposed to the brief gloss-overs you tend to see in the larger story.  A fight will start, and then move to another fight, and so on, before getting back to the main story, and such a sprawling narrative really needs a companion series like this, where things can really get exposed a little more in-depth.

Gambit may be one of my favorite X-Men, but watching him get his butt kicked by Captain America was actually very satisfying.  Theirs was actually a good fight, and Gambit got in an especially clever move by charging up Cap's uniform and making it explode while it was on him.  While I was a little surprised at how quickly Cap got up from that, I wasn't at all surprised when it came down to a fistfight, and Cap royally beat the crap out of Gambit.  I mean, for pure melee combat, there aren't many heroes that I think could stand toe-to-toe with Captain America.

And while I'm a big Spider-Man fan--you've seen my picture, right?--I'm not too surprised about how the Spidey-Colossus fight turned out, for two reasons.  First, Spidey was very cocky and presumptuous towards Colossus-Juggs, which is never a good way to go into a fight.  I don't know enough about Colossus since he acquired Cyttorak, but I'm betting he's even tougher than Cain Marko's Juggernaut.  So I'm willing to concede he may have an edge over Spidey.  Second, though, I don't think they'll do an issue where there are two Avengers or two X-Men wins in the same issue.  Just not gonna happen, as you'd risk alienating Avengers or X-Men fans.

When Cap won, I figured Spidey was going to lose.  And so far, my logic's worked.  We'll see if it stands up over the run of these issues.

Artistically, I like Dell's art in the Cap/Gambit match-up better than Larroca's in the Spidey/Colossus fight.  It's more realistic, less cartoony, and nowhere near as overdone.  Cap and Gambit both look like actual people within their uniforms, and while Spidey looks good in his story, Colossus looks too extreme, particularly with his facial expressions.  It's not bad art, but there was a noticeable difference between the two.

It almost makes me wonder how they would look if the artists would switch stories and draw their own versions of the others.  That'd actually be kind of cool to see, now that I think about it.

Overall, I am enjoying this mini-series, and can't wait to see more match-ups.  Are they great storytelling?  No.  Are they witty?  In places.  Are they full of action and destruction as two heroes beat the snot out of each other?  YES.  And that's what this series promises.  Successful delivery.  Highly recommended.

Comic Review -- Avengers vs. X-Men #3 / Ed Brubaker, John Romita, Jr., Scott Hanna, and Laura Martin

I really like the cover of this issue.  It's intense, personal, and vicious as Cap and Wolverine struggle for dominance.  Costumes are torn, sweat and what appears to be blood are flying, and both men are determined to beat the other.  The artwork itself is wonderful, and it really sells the idea that this issue will contain some violence.

Wolverine recovers from his ordeal with Hope and is told that Cyclops and the X-Men have surrendered.  While Cap and Iron Man argue about how to handle their new prisoners, Wolverine immediately recognizes that the X-Men are merely playing possum, and isn't able to prevent them from escaping by using Magik to teleport away.  Both teams set out to locate and retrieve Hope, but she's gone and found a way to scramble Cerebra's sensors into putting her at five different locations across the world, forcing them to split up.

While talking with her over the intercom from Wolverine's school, Wolverine detects some attitude from Rachel, who it turns out is feeding information to the X-Men.  Cap confronts Wolverine about his inability to follow orders and how he tried to kill Hope, and Wolverine responds that he knows how to deal with the Phoenix, and that Cap won't be able to save Hope from the Phoenix Force.  A fight breaks out between them, and Wolverine is expelled from their shuttle.  Calling Cap a blind old-fashioned fool, Wolverine pulls himself up and sets out after them, convinced that their fates are all up to him.

I will say, the writing in this issue has gotten a little better than what I saw in Round 2, but that's actually not saying much.  I think Ed Brubaker is doing what he can to ameliorate the poor direction of this story, which has clearly been written by committee.  Great swaths of action get glossed over, and some plot points are just flat-out ignored.  So the X-Men all surrendered, off the page?  Not impossible, I suppose, but given the amount of event skipping already portrayed in this series, I'd think the writers would want to keep bridging events on the page.  And why was the fight between Dr. Strange and Magik not shown?  If she can beat the Sorceror Supreme, I want to see how!

Also, if Emma was effectively de-psionicized in the last issue, why does she only regain her abilities after they've escaped from the Avengers?  If she actually had recovered her telepathy at that point, she could have just shut all the Avengers down psychically.  Why didn't she?  It just seems the logical effects of the storyline are discarded or ignored at the whims of the writers, no matter how ridiculous it looks.

I was happy, however, to see that Wolverine's conflict with Cap didn't directly involve him having a change of heart and deciding he wanted to fight on Scott's side now.  It came about for a perfectly plausible reason, though I am more than a little skeptical that Captain America is only now realizing how far Logan would go to defeat the Phoenix Force.  It really raises the question of just how much research Cap's done about the Phoenix Force and the X-Men's brush with it.  Any idiot should know that the X-Men have faced this thing several times, and are both more experienced and more vicious in dealing with it.

I was also glad they at least acknowledged the parallels to the Civil War in this issue, as they were becoming very obvious.  While Scott is not free of blame here--he was written like a crazy person in issue #1--Cap is increasingly showing his lack of preparation and realism in this arc.  He's brushed off the input of two X-Men experienced in dealing with the Phoenix; he was willing to imprison the X-Men for getting in his way, when there was technically no call to do that--I'm glad Iron Man was the one to call him on that; and he basically pulls a Spock on Wolverine when he won't start marching to his orders, ejecting him out the shuttle.

Art-wise... John Romita, Jr. is again drawing far too wide a scale for his work to come off as anything but rushed, blocky, and distracting.  Nuff said.

Overall, I'd say this is an improvement over the last issue, though between JRJR's art and the flawed storytelling, it still leaves a lot to be desired.  The fight between Wolverine and Cap is pretty cool, and while I'm not surprised to see the X-Men still have a few tricks up their sleeve, they didn't really do much this issue.  Recommended.

Film Review -- The Avengers / Joss Whedon, Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg

So, I'm guessing most of you who read this blog have probably seen The Avengers at least once already, and are well aware of the box office juggernaut (pun intended) this film is becoming.  The advance reviews for it have been unprecedented in their uniform level of praise for a superhero movie, and the ticket sales back up the claim that this movie has not only been hyped, but anticipated at a ravenously frenzied level.  It has action, humor, and a narrative flow that never really bogs down the film, but by now you know this--unless you've been actively hiding under a rock.

And the reviews--oh, the scores of positive reviews--have generally said the same thing: excellent start to the summer movie season, best superhero movie yet, audiences of all ages and markets are going to love it.  The acting, writing, and directing is brilliant.  Excellent moments for all the characters.  Hulk steals the show.

But you already know this.

I'm well aware that any review I write of this film--which I will agree, was spectacular and mind-blowing and fun in a way I haven't quite experienced since Iron Man four years ago--is going to be yet another paean to a film that is racking them up left and right.  I'm also relatively late to this party.  So instead of a straight-up review, I'm going to focus on a few things that stuck out to me about the film and the experience of it.

Warning: spoilers ahead.  If you haven't see this movie and don't want to be spoiled, don't read any further.

I've seen this film twice now, and will probably see it several more times.  Iron Man, as I've mentioned previously, holds the distinction of being the movie I've seen the most times in the theater.  If there's a film that will break this record, it's this one, and I daresay it stands a pretty damn good chance of doing so.  Even after two viewings, my desire to see it again remains exceptionally high.

My first viewing of this film was a midnight showing, and as any fan knows, going to those is always an experience in and of itself.  The number of people in Avengers shirts, costumes, and gear was astounding, as was the overall atmosphere of excitement and anticipation.  I saw girls dressed up in Thor regalia, a Captain America who fashioned a shield out of a trash can lid, and a rather large gentleman who, rightly, got a loud ovation from the crowd when he appeared as the Hulk, his body and hair dyed green.  Applause and cheering were constant, from the moment the film began to the climax of so many excellent scenes, including the post-credits scenes.

The great thing about this experience is the sense of camaraderie and kinship you feel with these folks, all of whom share a high interest in what you do.  It's loud, raucous, and energetic.  It can also, of course, make viewing difficult.

One good example is during the scene where Loki gets beat down--authoritatively--by the Hulk.  We loved that scene.  I laughed harder than I had in a long time when I saw that.  And so did the audience, at length, and in that circumstance, it was all too easy to miss what the Hulk said to Loki as he walked away, leaving the Asgardian staring up at the ceiling in unmoving shock (a pitch-perfect "Puny god!").  I actually didn't catch it until the second viewing (where it was still hard to hear), and a friend I was with was upset that he missed the dialog due to the audience's loud appreciation of the prior moment.

Do you mind, Cap?  Bruce and I were having a moment!

I think the development that came out of this film that I liked the most was the budding bromance that developed between Tony Stark and Bruce Banner.  It's no surprise that these two would connect on an intellectual level--they're both super-geniuses--but I thought it was pretty ingenious to have Tony express an admiration for Banner on both aspects of his life, and then essentially take him under his wing.  The biggest obstacle to this new friendship seems to be Banner's own distrust of his Hulk side, which Tony Stark seems eager to see.  Tony's encouragement of Bruce to embrace his green side was also a brilliant way to set up the idea that the Hulk's rampages can actually be a good thing, a fun thing, a pleasure and an asset, when properly aimed and directed.

I also have to begrudgingly give Joss Whedon his due, in the scene where Agent Phil Coulson is killed.  I didn't see it coming, and I think I may now understand how Firefly fans felt when Wash was suddenly killed off in Serenity.  I mean, that was a surprise too, but I hadn't been as emotionally invested when I saw it the first time.  Here, I was both shocked and horrified, but even as I mourned this character who'd connected previous Marvel films to this one, I found myself nodding in unwilling agreement.  His death was necessary for the Avengers.  After all, they needed something to avenge, if I may finish the character's final, uncompleted thought.

All of the characters have moments to shine, which are all pretty fairly spread out.  Cap gets to be a noble, heroic super soldier.  Black Widow shows she has many skills, including interrogation.  Iron Man is the epitome of Whedon snark and banter.  Thor and Hulk throw down with aplomb, and Hawkeye shows that he's more than a man with a bow and good aim.  Coulson gets to be super-fan and get the last word in with Loki before he fades.  And Nick Fury shows why he's the top spy in the world, keeping and defending both his ship and his command in all his Samuel L. Jackson badass-ness.

There's a million other things I could compliment and talk about in this movie, but chances are extremely high they're covered in other reviews, which you've probably read.  If you haven't seen this movie, do yourself a favor and do so.  Even as a straight-up popcorn action flick, you'll be entertained and engaged throughout.  And if you're a comic book fan, shame on you for reading this review before having gone and seen it already.  Get out of the house and go see it!

Overall, this is a great comic book movie that truly does live up to the massive hype around it.  Packed to the brim with moments of awesome for all of its characters, it's epic, fun, and very clever.  I don't see how you can like superheroes and comics and not see this movie.  Very highly recommended!

Comic Review -- Avengers vs. X-Men #2 / Jason Aaron, John Romita, Jr., Scott Hanna, and Laura Martin

This cover is okay, but it does seem a little crowded this time around.  You've got nearly a dozen people on it, engaged in battle, and with the exception of the characters in the forefront, everyone's a bit overlit from the Phoenix flash coming from Hope Summers in the background.  It's not bad, really, and I can understand the need to convey the grand scale of the battle between the teams, but I think this effort could have come off better.

The gauntlet has been thrown down, so to speak, and the Avengers are engaging the X-Men in hand to hand combat, now that Cyclops has fired on Captain America.  As the battle begins, we see a jumble of match-ups and taunting as friends fight friends, lines are crossed, and relationships are stretched to the breaking point.  By the time the Avengers reach Hope, she has begun to feel the power of the Phoenix Force, and busts her way out of Utopia, leaving the skirmish behind to go and look for the Phoenix Force.  Meanwhile, in outer space, a team of Avengers has reached the approaching cosmic entity, and are preparing to battle it in the hopes of stopping it from reaching Hope.

I've got quite a few problems with this issue, a few of which stem from the previous issue's lead-in to the present.  For instance, Scott starts fighting with Cap out in the water, and the X-Men and the Avengers rush into the fray soon afterwards.  Now we seem to be back just before the fight, where something completely different happens.  Scott's standing with the X-Men, who are now asking him what the hell he's done, while the Avengers, up in the Helicarrier, contemplate the fact that they're about to engage the X-Men.

How the hell is that scene logical in terms of the previously established action?

There's a lot of taunting and smack-talking in this issue between combatants, which I can understand, but there is an undeniable air of awkwardness that comes from it all, as if in an attempt to squeeze as much meaning into each conflict, it all comes out stilted and artificial.  Yes, I know Tony Stark and Emma Frost had a thing some time back, but you don't need to insert that into the dialog.  Just pit the two against each other and let them fight.

Now, I will say that some of the descriptions are engaging, as Aaron puts a perspective on, say, the punch thrown by Emma Frost at Iron Man, or the Mach 5 family reunion between Quicksilver and Magneto, or the marital discord between Storm and Black Panther, complete with hurricane-force winds.  They get a little cheesy and overused at some points, but I do like them a lot more than much of the dialog employed.

I continue to dislike Hope, who continues to vacillate between brashness and idiocy at all the wrong times when she's not swaying to the call of the Phoenix.  By the time she's taken down the friends and allies trying to protect her and Wolverine shows up intent on killing her, I halfway want him to gut the little brat.  This isn't something I fault Aaron's writing for so much as the direction that's been taken with her by committee up to this point.  She's a Mary-Sue character without any redeeming qualities so far, and I have no sympathy or even liking for her at this point.

Finally, there's the art.  I know there are people out there who love John Romita, Jr. and worship the ground he walks on, and under certain circumstances, I'm a fan of his too.  But when it comes to large-scale, wide-ranging epic scenes of battle, I just can't get behind his style.  The art looks too rushed in panels featuring more than three characters at a time, and the overall aesthetic just comes off as too cartoony and awkward. Please, for the sake of reason, find another artist for this story!

Overall, I'm more than a little disappointed by this issue.  It has its good points, but between the clumsily relayed jumble of activities going on, the artwork that leaves much to be desired, and the central character who just oozes unlikability, I'm just not impressed with this one.  I think there's too much crammed into this story, and if the creators could take a less bloated and chaotic approach to the story, it would improve it immensely.

Many of the tie-ins to AvX work very well because they're telling a story, not squeezing an elephant onto a canoe.  It's for that reason that I'll stick with this limited series, but I don't think the main title is all that impressive, so far.

Barely recommended, with serious reservations.

Comic Review -- Avengers vs. X-Men #1 / Brian Michael Bendis, John Romita, Jr., Scott Hanna, and Laura Martin

The cover for this issue is decently drawn, but suffers from two things.  First and foremost, it's crowded as hell, which I understand.  Some covers are simply going to look like this, especially when you have a story covering two large super-hero teams.  That doesn't stop it from looking primarily like a bunch of angry heads on one page.  There's no real opportunity for action or dynamism.  The second problem is exposure: this image has been promoted for months, so we knew this was coming.  Still, it sets up the story and gives us an idea of who will be fighting who.

The plot, which has also been known for months, is that the Phoenix Force is on its way back to Earth, this time seeking out Hope Summers, the apparent mutant messiah, as its host.  The Avengers are intent on taking Hope into protective custody, while Cyclops and the X-Men are intent on keeping her on Utopia and dealing with the problem themselves.  Cyclops seems to be of the opinion that the Phoenix, though a destructive force, always brings rebirth, and that part of the equation could be the key to somehow resurrecting the mutant people, who were all but obliterated by the Scarlet Witch on M-Day.

The only thing Scott will ever have in common with Han
Solo?  He shot first.  This issue makes the X-Men--or at
least their leader, Scott--look like the aggressors.

The actual issue itself doesn't reveal too much that isn't already known, it just gets the game started.  Cap and company come to Utopia, hoping to peacefully retrieve Hope, and Scott, who's already been obsessively--one might almost say brutally--training Hope, brashly refuses to turn her over, to Cap's--and apparently Emma Frost's--disappointment.  He basically acts like a complete and total ass during this issue, which doesn't make me optimistic for the X-Men at this point.  Not only are the Avengers a larger team, but where Cap went diplomatically, with a good head on his shoulders, Scott is shooting from the hip, casting insults, and basically acting like a child.  I know being leader of a mutant team isn't easy, but he needs to get his head on straight, and quickly.

I'm guessing this has something to do with the fact that Bendis has been an Avengers-centric writer for a while, and either has to do with an unfamiliarity with or contempt for the X-Men.  That's fine--write what you know, I say--but I am hoping we'll get a more balanced view of both teams as the story arc widens.  I'm sure we will, as other writers and artists get involved, but with this kickoff issue as the only AvX title this week, it leaves things looking a little one-sided in terms of who has the moral high ground with this struggle.

It fulfills the sense of anticipation, and reads pretty well once the primary conflict is brought into play, but the lead-up does drag on a little bit--and for me to say that is a rare thing.  It consists primarily of material that was included in the previews, and some material involving Nova that seems contrived to provide action where there otherwise would be none.  I'm hoping things will be considerably tighter as this goes on.

Speaking of art, I have to say that I'm not a big fan of John Romita, Jr.'s work in this issue.  I've said it in the past, and I'll say it again: he does pretty well in more intimate, less wide-ranging stories, but when you have something as grand and sprawling as the Avengers versus the X-Men, his pencils really become distracting, to where I notice the style all the time, to its detriment.  It's something about the line work, the faces... I don't know if they just look overly cartoony, but something is making notice it, and not in a good way.

Overall, I'd say this issue suffers primarily from overexposure, and while I'm not too thrilled with the introduction, the actual start of the conflict brings things up to a more interesting level.  My issues with the artwork, I'm sure, are simply my own, but I just have issues with Romita's depictions of multiple characters over a wide-ranging group.  Nevertheless, as the start of the Marvel's premier summer event, it's a must-read for anyone who wants to get involved.  Recommended.

Comic Review -- Avengers: X-Sanction #1-2 / Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines, & Morry Hollowell

Avengers: X-Sanction #1: Midnight

The cover for this issue isn't bad, but not great, either.  I like the use of colors, and the depiction of Cable and Captain America, who have fought on the same side many times, locked in mortal combat is conceptually interesting, but the facial expressions ruin it for me.  This is a vicious, balls-to-the-wall fight--there should be more expression on both their faces.  Gritting teeth, eyes locked on each other... something more that what I'm currently seeing.  As it is, it just seems too contrived and pre-posed for me.

The Avengers are called out to stop a jailbreak.  As they take on the Lethal Legion, Captain America goes after Whirlwind.  Falcon gets shot while watching Cap's back, and Cable drags him off to his base.  Cap eventually pursues, and upon finding Falcon held captive in a medical vat, gets ambushed by his former ally.  Both put up a vicious fight, but Cable narrowly wins, shackling Cap to a chair, turning a gun on him, and pulling the trigger with a loud bang, ending the issue.

So, apparently Cable's been dead for a while, having sacrificed himself for his adopted daughter, Hope Summers.  Now he's back, looking to kill all the Avengers with the vague goal of protecting her.  It seems that when people come back from the dead, or limbo, or wherever the heck they are that takes them away from the world, they come back with a few screws loose.  It looks like Loeb has decided to take this tack with Cable, and it gives me pause.  Much as I've enjoyed his writing in other stories, I can't help the feeling that, come the climax of the story, we're going to see that Cable's been made into a foolish old man, manipulated by someone else into doing something he otherwise never would have done.

It's not just the sickish sense of discomfort created by Cable so coldly and unfeelingly shooting down Avengers, or viciously beating down his former comrades, which he justifies ad nauseum throughout the narrative.  It's not just how he's able to best Cap in hand-to-hand combat, however narrowly.  It's not just the feeling that this plot feels so much like a flimsy excuse for a lead-in story to the upcoming Avengers vs. X-Men event later this year that I know there's no real risk here.  I mean, really--Captain America's going to die in a limited series, at Cable's gun?  Come on.

It's all of these things together.

I've generally liked Jeph Loeb's work, particularly when it involves showcasing one adversary per issue during a larger story arc, then moving to another.  But this is off to a shaky start, for a number of reasons.  I realize he may be constrained by narrative mandate at Marvel, but I'm so far only mildly intrigued by the Cable-as-Terminator thing we've got going here.  Hopefully it'll get better.

Artistically, I'm only moderately impressed.  Ed McGuinness does a good enough job with the supporting characters--Spidey, Wolverine, and Iron Man all look great in their appearances--but falls a little shorter when it comes to the two heavies in this issue.  Cable, I know, is not a small man, as neither is Cap, but they seem a little too widely rendered at various points in their fight, as if they've both consumed large amounts of cheeseburgers right before their brawl.  I'm also not sure I like how Cable's face is looking, and I don't just mean due to the effects of the techno-virus.  It's like every scar, vein, and wrinkle have been purposely exaggerated, and I don't like it.

Overall, I can't help but feel more than a little disappointed at how this story is starting off.  I like the overall concept, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.  I'm confident in Loeb's ability to turn things around, but I have to say the start doesn't feel so great.  Recommended, with reservations.

Avengers: X-Sanction #2: Dawn

Okay, I like this cover because it basically shows that Cable's playing the role of the Terminator.  It's very simple, but sinister and expressive.  But I have to wonder, does he have to adorn all his guns with stylized X insignias on them?

Iron Man notices that Falcon and Cap have disappeared, and follows Redwing, Falcon's sidekick, to Cable's hideout.  Cable, of course, is ready for him, and they engage in a duel of technological and firepower proportions, with each getting the upper hand on the other at various points.  Cable finally dispatches Iron Man and shackles him to another torture chair like Cap's, and starts his version of monologuing before he's shot in the back by Red Hulk, who's eager for a crack at the mutant from the future.

For someone who's getting closer and closer to death with each passing minute, Cable's putting up a hell of a fight.  He just physically bested Cap, and now he puts his brain and technological know-how to the limit by taking down the "mighty" Tony Stark and his vaunted Iron Man suit.  I'm hoping he'll finally stay down now, with his breathing problems and the techno-virus working him over so thoroughly, but I'm skeptical that will be the case.  By all appearances, Red Hulk is on deck for the fight next issue, and I'm sure Cable will reach deep down and think of Hope and suddenly have the ability to fight him.  I hope not, but that's what I fear will happen.

Artistically, there's been improvement, now that Cap isn't one of the focuses.  Iron Man appears comparatively slight to Cable, which is appropriate.  It looks like there'll be plenty of thick-fest next issue with Red Hulk, which is fine for that hero.  It just really bothered me with Cap.  Cable's facial expressions are also better in this one; there appears to be more emotion in his face and less emphasis on veins, wrinkles and scars.

Overall, I'm still none too impressed.  We're halfway through this, Red Hulk will be the fight in the next issue, and I'm sure Cable will find some way to beat him, too, despite his ridiculously deteriorating condition.  I'm just none too excited for what's coming next.  I'll continue to read, because I'm a completist, but at this point I'm not expecting things to get much better.  I hope I'm proven wrong.  Barely recommended, with serious reservations.

GN Review -- The Ultimates, v. 1: Super-Human / Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch, and Andrew Currie

After being exposed to the Ultimate Marvel universe through the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man some years ago, I was pretty excited to get my hands on The Ultimates books.  The blending and re-imagining of familiar elements from the original universe into a more modern and edgier narrative made me wonder just what stops they would be pulling for the reworking of Marvel's premier super-hero team, the Avengers.  How would they come together?  How would they interact?  What would be different?  What wouldn't be?

Plenty of all, as it happens.

These Ultimates, like their Avengers counterparts, had been brought together by circumstances beyond each individual.  But these guys are a hell of a lot darker: Bruce Banner is berated by his colleagues and wife, and harbors a starkly psychopathic Hulk; Iron Man drinks to deal with the reality of his brain tumor; Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne beat the crap out of each other when they argue, and have no qualms about using their powers on one another.  Thor is either the real deal or, more likely, a homeless guy with delusions of grandeur, and Captain America, while definitely the real deal, suffers several forms of shell shock from having woken up decades after his proper time.

In addition to being an interesting spin on a familiar team, it's a lot of fun to see some of the more modernized elements of the narrative, mostly in the form of cameos that will undoubtedly date this story in the years to come.  Shannon Elizabeth, George W. Bush, and Freddie Prinze, Jr. are just a few of the names and/or faces that place this story squarely in the early 2000s.  It's a bold step to take for a comic book, where readers are mostly treated to an elastic and blithely imprecise timeline that preserves the heroes' agelessness and timeliness. Time will tell if this particular formula holds up, but you have to give Mark Millar credit for being willing to draw such a line in the sand.

I know this series was plagued by delays for a long time, so I have to admit I'm glad I got to read it long after its publication, because I was chomping at the bit to get my hands on the second volume at the end of this one. This volume ends after a major victory--the Ultimates triumphing over a crazed Hulk rampage--but there's plenty of fallout looming, and things take a turn for the vicious in the domestic arena when some of the team members lose their tempers with each other.  It not only sets up a couple of sub-plots nicely for further reading, but makes you wonder why, with all the flaws in these iterations of the Avengers, you can't help but want to read more and more.

Art-wise, Super-Human looks every bit as good as it's intended to be.  I can't claim to be familiar with much of Bryan Hitch's work, but his pencils set the tone (and a high bar) for the story, taking the narrative to the visual heights and scope demanded by the script.  The Hulk looks creepy and wildly menacing, Banner looks nebbish and pathetic, Janet looks cute and Rogers looks studly... and the scenery is accurate, well-drawn, and its own vision to behold.  The close-ups of various characters look especially realistic, and the overall style is well-suited to a modern epic of heroic proportions.

This was an undeniably entertaining read.  It did a good job of re-envisioning the Avengers myth, and made the people in it feel more realistic, even if they felt a whole lot uglier in places because of it.  The writing was well-paced, the dialog was witty, and we get to see a big freaking battle with the Hulk.  I'd say it's worth a read if you haven't checked it out before.  Highly recommended.

Film Review -- Captain America: The First Avenger / Joe Johnston, Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving

2011 felt like a pretty good year for movies made from comic books, particularly Marvel movies, which felt somewhat like letdowns after 2008's fun and high-flying action romp, Iron Man.  Don't get me wrong; The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2 were alright, and certainly made decent successors to the mantle set forth by Iron Man, but they simply didn't possess the effortless combination of action, story, and pure enjoyability that that initial effort had.  It eventually got me wondering if any director would be able to replicate the feeling Jon Favreau brought to film for Marvel.

Then, along came Captain America: The First Avenger, and my faith was restored.

Even without knowing this was leading to this year's forthcoming super-team film, The Avengers, I was stoked to see this film.  Captain America may not be one of my absolute favorite superheroes, but he's certainly one of the most iconic, and has potentially the most interesting origin story for a modern-day superhero.  When I got wind that they'd be going all the way back to his World War II roots and exploring his development in his "home" time period in the 1940s, I got really excited at the possibilities for characterization, plot, and continuity within the Marvel Cinematic Universe they were creating with this slew of films.

Comic book fans will no doubt be familiar with the plot of the film, which starts with Captain America's humble beginnings.  Steve Rogers is a skinny, medically frail young man with a laundry list of maladies and conditions that disqualifies him from enrollment in the Army to fight in World War II.  Despite this, he attempts multiple times to enlist, eventually catching the attention of a scientist on the verge of a medical breakthrough with a serum that could create the perfect soldier.  When he asks Rogers's reasons for enlisting, the young man replies simply, "I don't like bullies.  I don't care where they're from."

After the serum is administered, Rogers uses his newfound strength and fame to help out in the war effort any way he can, first as a civilian entertainer, then to rescue a group of captured comrades in Italy.  During this rescue, he comes face to face with Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull, who will be his arch-nemesis.  Rogers's efforts are met with enthusiasm, and he forms a team to take down the Red Skull and thwart his use of a mythical object called the tesseract to create weapons of untold power that would destroy the world.

I have to hand it to Joe Johnston: he has a flair for creating visually appealing epic scenarios and bringing a fun, vibrant nostalgia for Americana to the screen.  The experience he got in films like The Rocketeer, October Sky and Jumanji has been refined and applied to magnificent effect in this film that serves as a period piece as much as a comic book film.  He uses it to stage a World War II that is similar but noticeably different from the historical one, in that it's stylized to fit the lore of the Marvel Universe, and I feel he carries this convincingly and to the delight of audiences willing to suspend that smallish piece of disbelief.

The characters are well portrayed in this film.  Chris Evans is a spot-on Steve Rogers/Captain America, and really drives home the humanity and basic good that truly makes him a hero.  Hugo Weaving makes an eerily delightful Red Skull, whose ambitions for power and control account for his garish appearance and ultimate (?) demise.  Other noteworthy performances include Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter; Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Cap's eventual sidekick; Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Chester Phillips; Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark, father to the man who will eventually become Iron Man; Toby Jones as Dr. Arnim Zola; and Stanley Tucci as Dr. Abraham Erskine, the scientist who developed Captain America's Super Soldier Serum.

This film was one of the highlights of 2011 for me in the comics world.  It was fun, action-packed, and made me feel transported to its fictitious universe in a way that most of the other MCU films haven't done.  Captain America fans, comic book enthusiasts, and standard moviegoers alike should all enjoy this one, if not for the plot and characters, then the action and pacing.  Definitely a worthy addition to anyone's movie collection.  Highly recommended.

The Face of Heroism: Great Captain America Moments

With the unfortunate but not really surprising passing of Captain America co-creator Joe Simon at age 98, it has been an unusually somber last couple of weeks for lovers of the Silver Age of comic books. Jerry Robinson, creator of the Joker (among other characters), passed last week, and in memoriam of his contribution to comics, I listed off some of my favorite moments involving the Joker.

In the same vein, I would like to recap some of my personal favorite moments from the lore that has developed around Simon's most prominent co-creation, Captain America.

Captain America is one of the first comic book figures I remember hearing about as a little kid, long before I developed a serious interest in comic books. He was a banner of good, a helpful hero who always fought to the last for what was right, no matter the odds. As I got into comics and read some of his more significant storylines, he struck me as a man who embodies the concept of personal self-sacrifice, as well as service to an ideal and a country.

He was also a more complex character than that, though: he lost friends in World War II, emerged from a frozen block into a future he didn't know, and then lost more friends as the leader of the Avengers. He's had to make unpopular decisions in times of war, lose the faith of his teammates, and, in one case, die for his ideals. Like all good comic characters, his life has not been an easy one, but worthwhile. He's one of my favorite characters, and has a uniquely unassailable place in comics as a man of valor, integrity, and goodwill.

Again, off the top of my head, here are some of my favorite moments the Star-Spangled Avenger has had, from various comics and other media:

• Captain America: The First Avenger -- Oh, how I adore this movie. My favorite moment from it happens before he ever puts on the uniform or gets his first dose of the Super Soldier Serum that makes him so strong. Having unsuccessfully tried many times to enlist into the armed forces for the war, Steve Rogers is approached by Dr. Abraham Erskine, who asks him, "So, you want to kill Nazis, do you?" Rogers's reply is classic Captain America: "Not particularly. I just don't like bullies. No matter where they're from." In that moment you see the heart of this character, that he is, more than anything else, a good man who simply wants to do what he feels is right.

• Captain America Comics #1 -- Okay. I've never actually read this comic, but look at this cover! Wow, what an introduction! Months before Pearl Harbor ever happens, we see the Star-Spangled Avenger in what has become one of comics' most famous covers, punching out Adolf Hitler! I usually don't form opinions of heroes based on a cover, but I can only imagine how much of a hit this comic was when it originally made the newsstands! Very iconic imagery, and a promising start to the character's now sterling career.

• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance -- One of my favorite console games of all time (just ask any of my friends), this brilliant blend of action and roleplaying elements with Marvel superheroes in a titanic battle against Dr. Doom features a prominent role for Captain America, who is in a significant portion of the cinematic cut-scenes. He is also a great playable character, whose shield throw proves to be one of the most useful and popular skills in the game. In the opening scene, you also get to see him take down several armored robotic opponents with just his shield and a determination to win the fight, simultaneously saving Spider-Man from an attack as well. This was a good game for this character, and he figures prominently into it for anyone who wanted to put a good strike team together.

• The Ultimates -- This group of Avengers from Marvel's Ultimate universe was darker, more flawed, and less noble than their "regular" counterparts, but Captain America was essentially the same as he always was--which made the adjustment to the present for him all the more difficult. And he's still as bad-ass as ever: when he learns how abusive Hank Pym (aka Giant Man) is towards his wife Janet (aka the Wasp), he tracks Pym down in Chicago, goads him into growing to giant size, and proceeds to still kick the crap out of a several stories high Giant Man. If that's not bad-ass, I don't know what is.

• Civil War -- ... or rather, the aftermath. Not only does Tony Stark and his Pro-Registration side win the Civil War, but Cap, the leader of the Anti-Registration heroes, is gunned down on the way to his trial after he surrenders. I was livid for both of those reasons, but you couldn't deny the storytelling was amazing. Eventually, Steve Rogers would be brought back to life--comic book characters rarely stay dead--but this event capped the Civil War arc definitively and ensured that things would never quite be the same in the Marvel universe.

So, there you have it. My impressions of some of Cap's most significant moments. Many of them are very recent, and I'm sure there are others more expert on Cap than me, so feel free to share any of your thoughts on this matter. What do you think some of Captain America's most significant moments are?