Remember When Comic Books and Fans Were Fun?

Now I have only been actively at this for a few weeks now but I have a few things to say about my recently ventures into community blogging.  I have been on one site, Comic Vine for about 2 years now and I love it there! Its a great community of supportive fans all giving and hearing ideas and commentary about the latest issues as well as old back issues.  Well since I have been trying to promote this site more, I have been going to other comic blog and forum sites to try and get my name and voice out there.

WHAT...A SHOCK TO MY SYSTEM. In the past few weeks I have discovered that not every comic book fan is as open minded as myself and my friends on the Vine.  As I have been interacting with other members of the community and trying to share my thoughts and views, I have been met with a lot of scrutiny and negative feedback.  Now I by no stretch of the imagination think that everyone needs to agree, and I welcome opposing opinions to challenge my own.  I feel that contrasting opinions are what keeps meaningful dialogue going and helps promote deeper thoughts on a topic, but people that just flat out think they are right and others are wrong are just such creative interactions.

When did comic books stop being fun?  Aren't these supposed to be our escape? our release?  I moved past just reading comics and into joining the greater community because I felt like my intense hobby really enriched my life and I wanted to share that with other who felt the same, not for random people to tell me that my opinion is wrong...I get enough of that crap at home :)

Of course this is mostly just one site (which I will not name out of courtesy and respect) but if this is how collectors are getting about their book, thrashing other ideas and hanging artists/writers out to dry, then it begs the question: why bother going online to forums? 

Marvel Anime Trailers

With the Japanese Marvel Animes coming to G4 soon, I wanted to give everyone a look at the trailers for each one.

X-men

Wolverine

Iron Man 

More Mutants! - Avengers: Children's Crusade

OH. MY. GOD!  Well there it is ladies and gents.  The pay off we have been waiting for since the Avengers first Disassembled all wrapped up in a neat little bow.  Now bare with me, we've got a lot to cover here and I don't want to move to quickly...

The Good - We got a few really wonderful moments in this issue.   First, last issue we got Cassie rejoicing the return of her father but in this issue we got to watch him swell with pride to hear not only that his daughter is a superhero but "a good one too".  I personally met Cassie and Scott Lang during their time with the Fantastic Four and always had a fondness for the family so to see them both so happy with love and pride really felt great to read.

There was also the back-to-back action of the double Hawkeyes.  Watching the two glib archers banter at each other in the midst of a very serious situation shows just how much Kate Bishop has earned the name with more then just her eagle eye.

The Bad - I have to say I am hard pressed to find any badness in this series.  The art is flawless and the story has literally left me with tears of excitement more then once.  If I had to have a complaint, it would probably be the bi-monthly release it has going for it.  Now I understand that to everyone else this is all but torture and I completely understand.  I've been using this time in between to build suspense and look forward to the next issue.  With the volumes and volumes of issues that pump out like clock-work every week, I will take a book who's only problem is a longer publication run any day.

And the Wanda - Lets be serious, she gets her own section.  Let me start by saying that I have loved the Scarlet Witch for as long as I have been reading comic books.  Her fiery hair, sassy attitude and "take no s***" personality grabbed me from almost day one.  But I am not someone who needs to see their favorite characters doing the right thing all the time or needs to have them always on the side of the angels.  I was floored by what they did with Wanda during House of M but I loved it all the same and my only concern afterwards was "Where the hell is she?".  Yes we had a few encounters with Beast, Hawkeye, and the Young Avengers but they were all very casual and didnt really tell us anything. 

Well here it all is.  She has her powers, her memories, and most importantly the guilt of murdering several of her teammates including her own husband;  its no wonder that the first thing she tries to do is kill herself.  Enter: Wiccan.  The agitator of this entire series.  When he flew up there to try and talk her down I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but watching the heartfelt scene they both find out the truth of their relationship had my eyes welling up.  It's ironic if you think about it, the entire cause of her meltdown was the realization about the truth of her children and now her salvation is the return to her of those same children (albeit in a bit older).

And who wouldn't understand Madrox's hesitance at putting Rictor at risk, but hearing Rictor talk about losing his connection to the earth its easy to see why he would risk anything.  I really enjoyed Shatterstar's concern over his boyfriend's well being especially since (I was just reading some old X-Force last night actually) in his early appearances he was completely indifferent to the safety of his comrades, even surprising himself the first time he saved Siryn over finishing a fight.

The Concern - This has been one of the best stories that Marvel has put in recent time and I am deathly afraid that, with 3 full issues left in this series, there is still too much time left for Wanda to just be back safe and sound and restoring mutants who want it.  Unfortunately, the "Children's Crusade" seems to be over and there's just enough page space left for them to take back everything they've done in the series.  So I am hopeful that in 6 months (yes thats right, 6 months) when the series ends we still have Wanda and Scott Lang but I worry for their safety.

My Weekly Pull List - 6/29/11

So today I'm adding a new weekly feature: My Weekly Pull List.  Much like on Mondays where I post that weeks releases, this will be what I am picking up for the week.  If I get surprised by anything else I didn't expect to get then I'll let you know later :)

Fear Itself: Black Widow #1
FF#5
Iron Age #1
Uncanny X-men #539
X-men: Prelude to Schism

Sort of a light week for me this week, but that's completely fine with me considering the way they've been killing us with Fear Itself tie-ins.

Hopefully today we will find out what the big menace that's approaching Utopia is...

UPDATE:  How on Earth-616 could I have forgotten Avengers: Children's Crusade!

Captain America : The First Avenger Trailer

Does Magneto's Powers Work on ALL Forms of Metal?

So we obviously know that his powers work on all the normal earth metals like iron, steel, bronze, etc.  And we know that he can manipulate his powers to create gravity fields around non-ferrous objects.  What about the fictional Marvel metals?  Some of them have special properties that could easily lend them to magnetic immunity.

Well we know from the classic X-men (Vol. 2) #25 that it works on adamantium, and I am pretty sure that it works fine on omnium since it is a ferrous alloy.

We also know that it works on that freaky Breakworld metal that Kitty Pryde was trapped in.

But does it work on Uru?  Yeah Magneto can't lift Thor's hammer, but can he grab in magnetically in midair?

What about Vibranium?  With its quasi-mystical properties, does it maybe have a some sort of immunity?

How about Magik and Pixie's Soul weapons and Magik's resultant armor?  Technically they are made of pieces from the girls souls, not metal from a hot forge so theres a very good chance that the magnetic fields don't apply to them.

There are probably instances of Uru and Vibranium being used against Magneto back in his old villain days and I will do some research into it, but I would really like to see the Limbo twins take on the Master of Magnetism if for no other reason then to see his face when his powers fail him against to little girls.  Until of course he finds the nearest most iron-filled boulder and sends it flying into them...

Excalibur...Not Such a Laughing Matter

There are many unsung heroes and series that have fallen by the wayside, either because they never caught mainstream popularity or they were caught short before they were given a proper chance.  Or in some cases, a series is not taken seriously because the general tone of it is simply too silly, this was the case with Excalibur (Vol. 1).  At first it seemed promising with super strong Captain Britain helming a British team with former X-men Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, and Phoenix, but it quickly degenerated into a farcical sit-com with recurring MarvelUK comedic villains like the Crazy Gang and the Technet which kept serious comic reader from taking this X-men spin-off too seriously.  

Now, I just recently completed my set of Excalibur (Vol. 1) and was able to read the entire original 70 issue run (before it became more X and less England).  And while I can say that yes the hilarity of the situations sometimes overwhelms the gravity of them, if you watch these issues really closely you can find some rather important events and stories in this limey bunch.

First and foremost, it brought a whole new selection of characters to introduce American readers to.  Following the trend started with Psylocke in New Mutants and Uncanny X-men, reader were treated to Captain Britain and his lady love, the empathic metamorph Meggan and their host of enemies including Gatecrasher, Technet, Crazy Gang, Sat-yr-9 as well as friends like Courtney Ross and the Queen's W.H.O.  Aside from these new characters to know and love, we also got to watch the agonizing recovery of Shadowcat and Nightcrawler after the events of the Mutant Massacre and the dramatic return of Phoenix (Rachel Summers) after she was kidnapped by Spiral months earlier in Uncanny X-men.

And speaking of the Phoenix, this volume is where we first got our first taste of the Phoenix Force's true nature and history.  It was here that we learned of the mages Necrom and Feron (whose visions gave the Phoenix the firebird form its keeps to this day).  We also learned the truth about how Rachel traveled physically from the future to our timeline as well as the Phoenix Force's effects on the universe around it.  

Last but certainly not least, Excalibur is where the Marvel Universe first got the designation as Earth-616.  Each Earth in the Multiverse is assigned a Captain Britain variation as its protector and in an issues of Excalibur, Omniversal Majestrix Opal Luna Saturnyne references Brian Braddock as Captain Britain of Earth-616, and this numerical reference has since been widely adopted online and by many (but not all) Marvel writers.

Easily written off as a joke book where they sent Kitty and Kurt to die for a while, the first 70 issue run of this comic book is truly a hidden gem and a definite should read for die hard X-fans.

Marvel Comics On-Sale 6/29/11

All-Winner's Squad Band Of Heroes #1 (Of 8)

Amazing Spider-Man #664

Avengers The Childrens Crusade #6 (Of 9)

Captain America America's Avenger #1

Captain America First Vengeance #4 (Of 4)

Captain America Rebirth #1 (One Shot)

Fear Itself Black Widow #1 (One Shot) (FI)

FF #5 (Mark Bagley Regular Cover)

FF #5 (Skottie Young 'I Am Captain America' Variant Cover)

Incredible Hulk And The Human Torch From The Marvel Vault #1 (One Shot)

Incredible Hulks Annual #1 (One Shot)

Iron Age #1 (Of 3)(Joe Jusko 'Captain Britain' Variant Cover) (IA)

Iron Age #1 (Of 3)(Lee Weeks 'Avengers' Regular Cover) (IA)

Marvel Universe Vs Wolverine #1 (Of 4)

Marvel Zombies Supreme #5 (Of 5)

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #160 (Mark Bagley Spoiler Variant Cover)

Ultimate Comics X #5

Uncanny X-Men #539 (Dave Johnson 'I Am Captain America' Variant Cover)

Uncanny X-Men #539 (Simone Bianchi Regular Cover)

Venom #4 (Mike Del Mundo 'I Am Captain America' Variant Cover)

Venom #4 (Mike McKone Regular Cover)

Wolverine The Best There Is #7 (Bryan Hitch Regular Cover)

Wolverine The Best There Is #7 (Michael Kaluta 'I Am Captain America' Variant Cover)

X-Men Prelude To Schism #4 (Of 4) (S)

(FI) = Fear Itself
(IA) = Iron Age
(S) = Schism

Classic Catchphrases

Remember all the hilarious catchphrases your favorite characters used to use before comic writers took themselves too seriously?  I've compiled a great list of the best ones here, click the link below to take a look.

Classic Comic Book Character Catchphrases

Send any suggestions for phrases I've missed to golddustboi09@aol.com subject: Catchphrases.

Psych Profile: Scarlet Witch

So with Children's Crusade more then half over and Wanda with her memory returned, its time to take a look at her mental state.  Read the following letter to Commander Rogers, courtesy of the shrinks at Marvel.com

Psych Ward: The Scarlet Witch

Hidden Treasure

As I was browsing around some other comic page, I ran across this article.  I think the author makes some excellent points concerning age and condition and I completely agree that many people are just sitting on top of treasure and don't know it!

Go take a look at this! How Much Is My Comic Book Collection Worth?

Buying/Selling Comics page and Amazon/Google links added!

OK so today was more of a day for computer work rather then writing here at GoldDustBoi's House of Ideas.

First I added a few links for Amazon and Google.  I know I know "god, another site with ads now", but I promise that I will not let them dominate the site and I am hoping they help my followers (and myself).  For the Amazon ads, they should only show things relevant to the site so I am hoping to help reader find some collected edition they're looking for.  As for the Google ads, I don't have as much control over them, but I will definitely take them down if they start to affect the integrity of the site.

Also today I added a new page to the site "Buying/Selling Comics".  The purpose of this page is twofold.  First, it's a place for me to list the items I have for sell on eBay so you can see them before going to eBay itself.  Secondly, I am offering my services as a buyer to any viewers of the site.  If you are looking for issues to help complete your collection, but don't have the time, patience or knowledge to track down a good deal yourself then let me do the work for you!  There are several specialty stores in my area as well as easy access to the many stores in Manhattan, and I am a highly successful eBay buyer and seller.  I can promise to find you the best deal for the issues you are looking for, and I won't gouge you on shipping.  Let me know if I can help you find what you need to complete your collection!

Heroic Age...that was fun while it lasted...

Remember a year and a half ago when Marvel made all sorts of promises to us?  Mutant Unity? The Avengers together? A new Captain America? and last, but certainly not least, no more all encompassing crossovers?

Well here we are 13-15 months later (depending on the series) and all but one of these promises have fallen apart.  Schism is about to crack the mutant nation Utopia wide open and give us two teams of X-men, that are working more against each other with each other, according to my articles I've read.  Not to mention that it looks like their public admiration is at an end as the Sentinels are sicced on them again.  And to be honest, when I saw Captain Ameribucky get gunned down during a recent issue of Fear Itself I thought we were going to see some out there miraculous save, but according to all the Captain America #1 promos I've been seeing in the back of many June issues, this seems to not be the case.  It would appear that Bucky is truly dead, again, and Steve Rogers Super Soldiers is once again taking up the stars and stripes of Captain America.  And, then we have the crossovers...what is there to say?  After the insane deluge of comics involved with Civil War, Secret Invasion and Dark Reign, we were promised no more company wide events like them for a good while.   

Enter: the Chaos War.  Not quite as all inclusive as its predecessors, but even still it used a few key characters in the Marvel Universe and had more then one or two limited series/one-shots.  And now we have Fear Itself.  A megalomaniacal mama of a cross over that involved EVERYONE in the Marvel Universe, except the X-men, at least not yet, who have their own problems (and somehow Wolverine is involved with both), and comes complete with one-shot, limited series, and guest peppered just enough through all of them to make us HAVE to buy them all.  

It just seems like all the promises we were made about this supposed Heroic Age either didn't happen or ended so quickly that if you blinked you missed it.  We are back sliding into the same old thing that SORTA worked before rather then sticking to the new ideas and try to come up with more ways to keep things fresh.  I was really excited about all the things we were told that were happening in the Heroic Age and I was even happier that it wasn't a solid storyline that you needed to follow in every book but could just follow in your favorites as well as being a great place to pick up new on new books (I only started regularly reading the Avengers during the Heroic Age).  And while it seems like the Avengers pretty much stick with status quo after Fear Itself, everything else just feels like an old rut that Marvel's falling into.

Minimum Carnage - Carnage #5

Well I gave it all the way until the end of the series but the verdict is in: the latest exploits of Carnage and crew were underwhelming to say the least.  I was a huge fan of the Maximum Carnage crossover back in the 90's and I was thrilled to see Shriek and Doppelganger back together with Carnage for more murder and mayhem.  Unfortunately I was disappointed...

Now to be fair, my disappointment partially came from my own lack of knowledge.  Since I do not regularly read Spider-man issues, I was not up to date with my Carnage history or I would have known that Cletus Kasady had been torn in half and left for dead in space.  So I was expecting to see Carnage and Co. rampaging somewhere causing all manner of trouble or something equally devastating, but instead we mostly got Spider-man and Iron Man chasing Doppelganger around while Shriek got some psychotherapy from her new therapist.

But fine, they wait until more then halfway through to bring in Kasady (or half of him at least), so I was really counting on this final issue to bring in some major Carnage-style catastrophe and property damage, and instead they stick him inside some weird Mecha-Human-Carnage suit to stomp through town like a transformer and they graft some creepy ass extra arm onto Shriek and call that a storyline??  Where was the random killing for fun?  Where was the disturbing family dynamic that the group used to have?  During Maximum Carnage, when Carnage and his "family" last got together, even in the midst of all the killing they had a twisted sense of family togetherness, with all their father/mother/son nonsense.  This time it was more like Mickey and Mallory from Natural Born Killers brought their dog out.  I just feel like they waited all this time to bring Carnage and Shriek back together and then really cheaped out on the reunion.

The one shining moment in this disappointing final issue was the birth of a symbiote with tons of potential in my opinion.  When Shriek's doctor, Tanis Nieves, willing accepting the symbiote to form the new being, Scorn.  I know we've seen all kinds of symbiotes in the past but this time is different.  This time someone took on the symbiotic bond, not for evil or destructive reasons, but to help people and fight evil.  I think that, if we see more of Scorn, this will be a defining part of her personality and a key difference between her and other symbiotes like Venom or Carnage.

Last and certainly least, Iron Man was a complete waste of ink in this series.  I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this because it really was pointless.  He served no point to the story and didn't bring anything to the table that another smart hero with access to energy weapons could have brought.  

Overall, a pretty disappointing series.  Maybe I was expecting too much from the Carnage/Shriek reunion but I simply feel like this could have been done so much better.  I am still gonna check out Carnage U.S.A. because I really do love Carnage and I would read a Carnage series before a Spider-man series, but I am going to go in this time with much lower expectations.

What to Expect From X-men: ReGenesis

In the fallout from Schism, we will be getting not one but two new books following the newly split team.  Here is a preview of what we can expect from the two new books this Fall.  Courtesy of Marvel.com

X-men: ReGenesis

Which Side Are You On?

With Schism looming closer and closer, all X-fans have one question in mind...Which Side Are You On?  Are you Team Cyclops or Team Wolverine?

Are you Team Cyclops or Team Wolverine?
	Team Cyclops
	Team Wolverine
pollcode.com free polls

Some Hints From the Writers of Annihilators: Earthfall

So I'm really excited about all this cosmic stuff finally coming back home where a lot of it started (See House of M, Son of M, Silent War, Deadly Genesis and War/Realm of Kings).  I was looking around online and found a few insights from the writers, courtesy of Jim Beard from Marvel.com.

Annihilators: Earth

Marvel Comics to be Released on 6/22/11

Here's the solicited list of Marvel Comics being released on Wednesday courtesy of Marvel.com.  I'm probably going to only be listing the Marvel releases since that's all I buy but if there happens to be stuff from other companies (most likely Dark Horse since DC is basically a latrine that they flush every few years and start over so I don't bother).

Comics On-Sale:
BLACK PANTHER: THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR #520
CAPTAIN AMERICA #619
CAPTAIN AMERICA #619 I AM CAPTAIN AMERICA VARIANT
CARNAGE #5
DEADPOOL #39
DEADPOOL #39 I AM CAPTAIN AMERICA VARIANT
DISNEY*PIXAR PRESENTS: CARS 2 #1
FANTASTIC FOUR: THE LAST STAND #1
FEAR ITSELF #2 2ND PRINTING VARIANT (FI)
INCREDIBLE HULKS #631
IRON MAN 2.0 #6 (FI)
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #622 2ND PRINTING VARIANT (FI)
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #623 2ND PRINTING VARIANT (FI)
MARVEL ZOMBIES CHRISTMAS CAROL #2
MOON KNIGHT #1 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
MYSTERY MEN #2
NAMOR: THE FIRST MUTANT #11
NEW MUTANTS #26
SECRET AVENGERS #14 (FI)
SECRET AVENGERS #14 I AM CAPTAIN AMERICA VARIANT (FI)
SIGIL #4
SILVER SURFER #5
SPIDER-MAN #15
THE MIGHTY THOR #1 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
THE MIGHTY THOR #3
THE MIGHTY THOR #3 I AM CAPTAIN AMERICA VARIANT
THUNDERBOLTS #159 (FI)
ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS VS. NEW ULTIMATES #5
ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS VS. NEW ULTIMATES #5 CHO VARIANT
ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #160
ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #160 BLANK COVER VARIANT
ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #160 KALUTA VARIANT
ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #160 QUESADA SKETCH VARIANT
ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #160 QUESADA VARIANT
VENOM #1 3RD PRINTING VARIANT
WOLVERINE #11
X-MEN LEGACY #25

(FI) = Fear Itself tie-in

Happy Father's Day to All Our Fathers!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY

Just a few honorable mentions:

Red Fear (Spoilers) - Avengers #14 (Fear Itself tie-in)

If ever there was a defining issue for a new Avenger (as opposed to a New Avenger) it was this one.  I have honestly felt that Fear Itself (just like Chaos War, Dark Reign, Secret Invasion, Civil War and House of M before it) has WAY too many extraneous tie-ins and spin-offs, after all we don't need a story arc about a team or character in their book AND a limited series about them too.  Additionally, while I have not been a huge Hulk collector over the years, I have specifically hated General Ross.  His singular hatred for Bruce Banner and the Hulk went so far beyond his desire to protect his daughter (unsuccessfully I might add).

But with this Fear It installment, we saw the true test and shining moment of an American hero.  Despite a personal invitation to the team from Steve Rogers, Red Hulk has not been exactly welcome in the Avengers ranks.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they don't know he's a high ranking US Army General (which I think Spider-man has some nerve having an issue with RH keeping his identity a secret), but a large portion of the problem is the terrible stigma that comes with all those that have Hulk-related abilities.  I would think that Hulk's founding member status would carry SOME weigh as would all the good that Bruce Banner has done, but I suppose not.   Well, any issues or reservations that *I* had are gone and I can only hope that after the dust settles, General Ross is still with us to enjoy this new found respect from his teammates.

And he was given the perfect enemy to prove his "worth" against: the newly Worthy Ben Grimm aka Future Foundation and New Avenger member Thing.  He dropped in and made the honorable move and asked him to surrender knowing full well it would never happen and then proceeded to take one of the most brutal poundings a Hulk has ever endured.  This man, having no really allegiance to any of these teammates of his, is a true hero who stood up for his team 100% and never backed down, taking blast after blast from Angrir's enchanted meat tenderizer.  Even with having Avengers Tower toppled on top of him he refused to give up until his last breath.  A breath, I might add, that could have been take in Connecticut or Pennsylvania for all we know as the reward for his heroics was to be blown across the Manhattan sky to parts unknown.

Based on the interviews at the beginning of the issue, it looks like his deeds have gained him the respect and trust of his team mate, but let us just hope that the cost wasn't too high and that trust and respect aren't too little too late.