Interlude: PLANET HULK

Oh yeah, this is what I'm talking about. None of that Wolverine and the X-Men crap, none of that live action movie bulltwaddle. We're talking 100% kicking arse adaptation of one of the best Hulk stories about (the other best ones being World War Hulk, Peter David's Prof. Hulk stuff and anything with She-Hulk in the title). I have high hopes for this.

Though as we all know I won't really care about a Hulk animation till it features Lyra.

Source: Topless Robot

Comic-Con Toys: Oh Loo- HOLY SHIT BIG GALACTUS

Probably my final Comic-Con related thing (I've been informed that calling it SDCC is annoying and confusing to people who don't know) of the day:

GIANT GALACTUS

Yeah that's not only really cool, but something everyone should want. Will have electronic voicing or some shit but who cares it's a GIANT FUCKING GALACTUS.

FTP text review later on, Quick-fire tomorrow or something. Top Ten writers when it's done.

Comic-Con Toys: OH LOOK A POLL

OH LOOK A POLL LET'S ALL CLICK IT AND VOTE FOR THE THREE BEST MARVEL LEGENDS (HINT: FANTOMEX IS ONE OF THEM)

SDCC Moment of RAGE: THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS

THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS!

FUCKING CUNTS!

SDCC Moment of WHA?!: Toxin

Figured for the little name-drops or hints of stuff I'd make a new sort of post for the SDCC stuff (I know the convention has a different name but fuck it).

This little tidbit comes from the Cup 'o Joe panel. It's just a tiny reassurance but also JUST enough to get my hopes up:

There are no current plans for an Alpha Flight series or the character Toxin, although Quesada noted that in-audience editor Steve Wacker would respond well to threats of violence when it came to the latter question. More serisouly, Quesada viewed Toxin as a case full of "untapped potential for the character, but the Spider-Man plate is pretty full."

So yeah, there's always a chance that my favourite Symbiote will return. Also I'm taking Quesada up on that acts of violence towards Wacker thing. Toxin has one of the best limited series around and deserves more attention, especially now the world's been changed by Brand New Day.

Interlude: MARVEL LEGENDS SDCC EXTRRRRRRAVAGANZA

Marvelous News and Topless Robot have both been nice enough to inform the world about the Marvel Legends revealed at SDCC. Now I'd be a poor comic geek if I didn't also post the pictures and state my opinions on what ones matter. Most importantly I'll be saying the THREE that SHOULD be voted for by SDCC's patrons.

HIT THE JUMP OR CLICK ME 'CAUSE I'M A LINK AND THERE ARE PICTURES THAT TAKE UP SPACE AND WORDS THAT ARE LONG SO THEY'RE BEHIND THE JUMP OR THIS LINK IT DOESN'T MATTER WHICH!
























































































From Left To Right:
Fantomex
Deadpool
A REALLY Shitty Hulk
BRUDDA VOODOOOOOOOOOOO (or is that DOKTA VOODOOOOOOO now?)
Black Widow
Warpath (cleverly hidden at the back there)
Ms. Marvel classic/Moonstone pretending to be Ms. Marvel
I Don't Know
Constrictor
Valkyrie
Bombastic Bag-Man
Madrox
Alternate Phoenix
I Don't Know
X-Force Wolverine (didn't we already have one of these?)
The Hood
Bi-Beast
Lady Bullseye


CHRIST THAT'S A BIG LIST. Only three of these can be chosen by the public. Hasbro pick the other three.

Now it's pretty obvious that if we don't vote for them Hasbro will pick Deadpool, Wolverine and The Hood. All three are popular and the first two are highly sought after for some reason.

As such the three that matter (and as such should be voted for) are:

FANTOMEX ('cause he's cool as fuck and a better Weapon Number than Wolverine could ever be)
MADROX ('cause NO FUCKING DUH IT'S MADROX!)
and CONSTRICTOR ('cause villains are under-represented in Marvel Legends and he's pretty awesome... as long as those tentacles can come off when you want them to)

Okay that's a post, expect the rest of last week's quick-fire reviews and a FTP text review of either Guardians of the Galaxy #...16? I forget... or Amazing Spider-Man #600

Interlude: More Rikki Barnes Art

Something I missed from Tom Brevoort's blog!

I know I shouldn't obsess over every little thing that comes out in the lead up to this but I want to and I am and you and the rest of my very small readership have to live with it. Or enjoy it.

Interlude: Pointing Out Something Better To Read On Another Website

OR more specifically an interview with Zeb Wells, writer of the brilliant New Mutants ongoing over at Comic Book Resources.

Pointing it out is pretty redundant but the man is of great interest to me, handling characters like Cannonball and Legion with the sort of respect you don't get from other writers.

If you want to have a good idea of what he has planned and to see some exclusive artwork follow the link to X-Position (comicbookresources) NOW!

Things of interest in the interview:

• Wells has no plans to address Cannonball's status as an immortal X-ternal. Good.
• Dani and Cannonball's relationship will take a strange turn in issue 5 (bets: they're gonna GET IT ON!)
• If we saw anything other than fluffy unicorns in Legion's head we may all be insane (OH SH-)
• Wells would love to see Cassandra Nova appear in his book?
• Empath blah blah blah NEW TEAM WHA?
• I probably missed clues about how Legion returned from the dead in issue 3. That's gonna bug me.
• Sunspot's powers... Not what they seem? I don't get it. He used to fly and such but I just figured that changed for no reason.

OHOHOHOHO! SOMEONE SPOTTED THE CONTINUITY ALERT I JUST BROUGHT UP IN THE QUICK-FIRE REVIEWS! WAHAHAHAHAHAHA:

Continuity alert! Officer Patricio Oliver is reporting for duty and needs to know where Sunspot was on the night in question:

How come Sunspot was portrayed as part of the Hellions team in “Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia”? And will the team have a role in the “Dark Reign” crossover?

The X-Men/Avengers crossover takes place between issues #4 and 5 of “New Mutants,” so while the team does have a role in “Utopia,” it won’t be playing out in our book. Believe me though, Fraction has some big things going on with a few of the characters, and we’ll grab the football without missing a beat come issue #5.

OH THANK GOD! It all makes more sense now! Back to the bullet points:

• Zeb Wells is a jackass who fucked up with Sunspot saying "madre de dios" (self-confessed)
• The title "New Mutants" will take on a whole new meaning come issue 9... WILL THERE BE SOME ACTUAL NEW MUTANTS POST M-DAY?!

Awesome.

Source: X-position (comicbookresources)

Apologies: I'm back!

And You're Not Amused

So yeah, disappeared off the map this weekend. Kinda followed up on that whole 'no laptop is a problem' thing. Quick-Fire reviews for LAST WEEK will be up in the new format tomorrow, followed by the FTP Text Review for... Whatever and rounding off with a Top Ten that's taken a lot out of me. Oh and I have a new microphone for the New Mutants video so the pace should up on that. All relevance to Merc with a Month is null and void however, as I'm going to just intersperse these reviews with others of more interest to myself and my tiny tiny audience.

Peace out and keep ya eye on this space!

Let's Try That AGAIN! (The One They Call Unusual plug)

THE ONE THEY CALL UNUSUAL

Milan's original post (for posterity):

Well, Max might not be happy for me to do this... oh, I mean FLIP THE PAGE. But my site has been updated for once and I want to share this with the readers of this site.

My site, http://theonetheycallunusual.blogspot.com/ , will be me commenting on pop culture as well as other random stuff that I find amusing. Feel free to visit and thanks.

The One They Call Unusual, or Milan Matejka.

Ps. Currently writing an article to fit the page but you have to contend with the welcome opening from the site. And sorry in advance.

It has movie related stuff.

By all means visit it, it has some good stuff from way back and a steadily beginning trickle of new content.

It won't hurt you.

Maybe.

P.S.

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!

1000 Hits AND Matching Output From Last Month?!

Okay okay, so most of those hits are just random ones from me updating or trying to fix stuff with the site but a celebration's a celebration. So here's our celebration:

COMIC NUDES!

Oh.... Oh God I'm so sorry.... WHY DID I DO THAT?!

Further evidence Liefeld is a (disproportionate) DICK!

Source: Well Old But Awesome Article Over At Geekanerd (also further proof of his dickery)

Interlude: MOAR 70th COVERS?!

Almost as if to slap me in the face, Marvel turned around yesterday and went "Oh I'm sorry, have you already made a news post about the recently shown 70th covers? WELL FUCK YOU HERE'S SOME MORE!"

... Bastards. Still gives me an excuse to update prior to getting my first ALL NEW FTP text review up this evening/tomorrow morning.

To aid your thought bubbles or thought boxes (dependant on what comic you are.... wait... what?) I've included the list of artists for each one that Marvel has so thoughtfully provided.

HIT THE JUMP FOR THE PRETTY STUFF!



AGENTS OF ATLAS #9 70TH FRAME VARIANT by ERIK JONES
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #601 70TH FRAME VARIANT by JOHN ROMITA JR.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #602 70TH FRAME VARIANT by MIKE MCKONE
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #603 70TH FRAME VARIANT by MIKE MAYHEW
BLACK PANTHER #7 70TH FRAME VARIANT by KEN LASHLEY
CABLE #17 70TH FRAME VARIANT by ROB LIEFELD
DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH #2 70TH FRAME VARIANT by TONY MOORE
EXILES #5 70TH FRAME VARIANT by MIKE GRELL
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #17 70TH FRAME VARIANT by MIKE PERKINS
INCREDIBLE HERCULES #133 70TH FRAME VARIANT by SALVADOR ESPIN
INCREDIBLE HULK #601 70TH FRAME VARIANT by MICHAEL GOLDEN
HULK #13 70TH FRAME VARIANT by MICHAEL GOLDEN
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #16 70TH FRAME VARIANT by SALVADOR LARROCA
MIGHTY AVENGERS #28 70TH FRAME VARIANT by KHOI PHAM
NEW MUTANTS #4 70TH FRAME VARIANT by ELENA CASAGRANDE
PUNISHER #8 70TH FRAME VARIANT by STEVE DILLON
RUNAWAYS #13 70TH FRAME VARIANT by TAKESHI MIYAZAWA
UNCANNY X-MEN #514 70TH FRAME VARIANT by HARVEY TOLIBAO
WOLVERINE FIRST CLASS #18 70TH FRAME VARIANT by TAKESHI MIYAZAWA
X-FORCE #18 70TH FRAME VARIANT by JASON LEVESQUE
X-MEN LEGACY #227 70TH FRAME VARIANT by GREG LAND



ALSO! I FUCKED UP! Didn't notice that X-Factor one I posted was from 1986. I'm retarded like that. AH WELL GALLERY TIME!












Ah another phoned in update. Top Ten should be done later. Gotta make sure I do this one right!

Interlude: THUNDERBOLTS!

Interlude (in.ter.lude) -noun

an intervening episode, period, space, etc.

... Yeah I can live with that. not sure what I'm intervening with these (my lack of a video update?) but they certainly are an interlude to something... Like worthwhile reading! AHAHAHAHAHAHA MOVING ON!

Some news comes from other sources sure, but once again Joe Quesada's Cup 'o Joe provides all I ever really need in the way of news, this time in the form of a Q&A involving one of my favourite teams (and one of the first comic series I read every issue of) THUNDERBOLTS!

Mssr Quesada, when asked about a possible return for everyone's favourite redeeming racist Baron Helmut Zemo and the rest of the original Thunderbolts- Fuck it let's just use one of those quote box things.

LET'S SEE IF I CAN FIX THE JUMP! APPARENTLY NOT! SO INSTEAD CLICK THE TITLE, OR READ MORE AT THE BOTTOM TO ACCESS THE ARTICLE! FUCKING HTML!

Lastly, Steven Ghost and MikeFitz both wanted to know about what Baron Zemo was up to in regards to Norman, with Mike asking, "Will we see Baron Zemo and any of the original Thunderbolts soon? I'd love to see Songbird go to them and have the new T-bolts go against the original T-bolts? I'd love to see Zemo vs. Osborn. Might we see Citizen V and V Battalion?"

Joe Quesada: It's a great question, Steven and Mike, and I guess you can say you heard it here first. Old school T-Bolts fans rejoice! Songbird is actually going to begin to assemble the original TBolts in issue #134. Her mission basically is to destroy Norman Osborn and his crazy pack of killers who have taken the good name of the original T-bolts. And yes, Zemo has been discussed internally, so stay tuned. We haven't decided just yet... or maybe we have and I’m just not going to tell you. [laughs]

This. Is. AWESOME. News.

Thunderbolts has been one of the most interesting long running comics to come out this side of Marvel's Dark Age and has suffered a fair bit of confused identity since the comic got a complete upheaval from super-scribe Warren Ellis. Don't get me wrong, I love Ellis' Thunderbolts to the degree of having the first volume signed by the man himself, but since then it's lost its way, to the extent that at present there isn't a SINGLE original Thunderbolt in the line-up and instead of being about redeeming villains it's about a black ops team of D-listers. I've overlooked this due to certain positive factors (Ghost, Black Widow II pre-turning out to just be Black Widow and somehow looking like a man) but none of it has captured the essence or charm of the original concept. To paraphrase Doc Samson: "I'm of how everyone takes something GOOD and turns it into a nightmare". As such, this can only be a return to form, especially in light of Dark Reign ending come the end of the year.

The Q&A also features some pencils from issue #134, which appears to herald the start of the original line-up coming together. Check 'em out below:

Source: Comicbookresources.com

Interlude: New Marvel 70th Covers

Eh........ So I've managed to also miss the lazy Sunday update. This doesn't bode well for the week ahead where I am sans laptop for the majority of the week. Anyway, I'll try and crack out these interlude updates (I'll drop the interlude prefix after a while and just make them random posts or the like) whenever I'm at a computer.

Today we get to have a peek at those 70th anniversary Marvel covers that are coming our way in the coming... whenever.

WHY IS THE JUMP THING NOT WORKING PROPERLY TODAY?!

First up: the X-Books ones (ahahaha oh like you're not sick enough of X-Stuff being on here already!)

These, by and large, look pretty cool. Except Deadpool's... Oh and X-Force's... and Uncanny and X-Factor look boring... And despite my love of the New Mutants series I don't know enough to understand why that cover is cool...

WAIT! Doesn't that mean that the only two that look cool enough to be worth getting are... Liefeld and Land's covers for Cable and Legacy respectively?!

.... Oh shit.

Moving on from that depressing nugget of thought-juice we have the other recently revealed covers:

Agents of Atlas: COOL! Mighty Avengers: ICE COOL! Iron Man: .... 'tis okay. Guardians of the Galaxy: AWESOME!

So yeah out of all these announced, I'd say ignore the X-Covers (save admitting that Land and Liefeld can do okay) and go straight for Atlas, Mighty or Guardians, all three of which are awesome covers to awesome series.

... Yeah... That's an update.

BUT WAIT! FOR THE FULL SIZE IMAGES GO TO COMIC BOOK RESOURCES AND IGN COMICS!

Quick-Fire Reviews: NO QUICK-FIRE REVIEWS

THAT'S RIGHT!!

No, I'm not gonna do them this week. If comics decide to take the week off then so do I. The only other releases I wanted to read this week were Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1 and X-Men Forever #3. I don't have these. I could review Essential X-Men's latest issue that I bagged but that'd be X-Men overkill. So no reviews. Kinda handy considering the whole format changing thing I'm doing as well. Instead of Quick-Fire I'll crank out another Top Ten and my thoughts on some recent comics related stuff.

See you all later

Oh, it's a big week for comics next week, with some of my favourites appearing. What better way to start the new format of reviews than with ridiculous praise?

Interlude: I ALMOST FORGOT

In the current issue of X-Men Legacy:

WHY DO I WANT THESE?!

Well not the Black Widow one BUT STILL!

Freakishly awesome detail and a fun re-imagining of female characters...

Fuck I'm going to buy these aren't I?

I hate myself.

Interlude: SO MANY UPDATES!

We've updated a lot today. To celebrate, a meaningless update featuring an image from Encyclopaedia Dramatica:

Oh yeah, it's relevant too

Ah.... Memes. Here's to another 25 updates and many more!

Interlude: Marvel Legends SDCC

I love Marvel Legends. Even the shoddily built Hasbro ones where parts are recycled and there were less figures for me to care about.

I love X-Factor Investigations. Madrox is one of my ten favourite mutants (yes there'll be a top ten for that at some point). I loved the series even when it looked like arse in Secret Invasion.

As such this is great news for me:

"There's a new wave of Marvel Legends 2 Packs on the way in 2010 and you help to decide who's in them. The basics are simple - six total characters, you pick three and we pick three. Sound like fun? Voting for this all new Fan's Choice will start on July 22nd when we reveal all of the possible choices at San Diego Comic Con."

That's from a Hasbro PR, tossing out the info that people who go to San Diego Comic Con get to vote for the next wave of Marvel Legends. Three of the candidates have been revealed already (Madrox, Warpath, Lady Bullseye) and they've done a good job at getting me stoked.

Madrox is awesome and no-one can say otherwise. Warpath... Well he's from a series I don't like so I can't say much but he looks cool. Lady Bullseye... Okay I know nothing about her. BUT MADROX!



Source: 16bit.com via Toplessrobot