NB of the Week

SPOILS BE AHEAD

Punisher: War Zone #4 (of 5)
Written by Greg Rucka
Drawn by Carmine Di Giandomenico
 Let's play a little catch up. Rucka's run began with the slaughter of a wedding, leaving only the newly minted bride as survivor. Problem is that Rachel Alves is a US Marine veteran, having served two tours in Afghanistan. After the justice system fails her, she is taken in by Punisher, being taught his ways, trying to gain vengeance for those that wronged her. After a rocky journey, everything essentially came down to one mission gone wrong. Punisher was set up and Alves killed a detective. Alves turns herself in and Frank, having felt as though he let her down, is on the run from the Avengers and fights with what to do with her.
As Alves trial comes close, the Avengers are trying their best to get to Frank before he does something stupid(er). After taking down a drug house, Frank takes two people with him, giving them some skull jackets. Meanwhile, the Avengers devise a plan to trap him. Spider-Man looks from the building tops as Thor flies the skies and Iron Man stays put. Which was their mistake. As Iron Man goes over something very technical (I know that because I didn't understand most of the words), we get a small glimpse of a white skull emerging behind him. Back to Cap as he pretends to be the guard driving Alves, explosions change his course and Punisher strikes. Thor swoops down, releasing Black Widow who was pretending to be Alves. Spidey swings back to a courtroom where the real Alves sits waiting. As she sternly tells Spidey to "Go to Hell", Iron Man pops in for more protection. And promptly attacks Spidey. As he frees Alves, he tells her "We don;t have much time and I can barely manage to fly in this thing..." As we cut back to the final two pages, Cap realizes the fire they are taking are nothing but rubber bullets. As Widow brings the two Punishers into view, they find that these are the drug guys from earlier and that they've "been played."

Greg Rucka is probably the best thing to happen to Punisher since Marvel let Garth Ennis bring him back thirteen years ago. His crime writing and noir stance on Frank have given him a voice that not only separates him from the heroes he doesn't like but makes him stand out as one of the best written characters Marvel has had in a very long time. It's a damn shame that Marvel realized that because they mess up everything that's good over there (in case y'all didn't know, Rucka was told that they were ending his book so that Punisher could be on a team book that he would not be writing). I'm very excited to see what happens in the next/last issue.

NB of the Week

Avengers #3 - The Garden
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Drawn by Jerome Opena

As Ex Nihilo, Aleph and Abyss prepare for their new Earth to be made, their first Adam is born. Only something is wrong. He seems to be speaking in Builder code. As they ponder how this is or isn't a bad thing, in comes Captain America and the new recruits: Wolverine, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers has the title now), Falcon, Shang-Chi, Supspot, Cannonball, Manifold, Smasher (of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard), Captain Universe (a female. Again. Not sure who this one is, though I may be alone in that) and Hyperion. After some pretty awesomely drawn fighting between peoples, Captain Universe sees the new Adam and seems to recognize him (or his language). Soon she appears in a bright flash to Ex Nihilo, Abyss and Aleph. Nihilo and Abyss drop to their knees, seeing her as their mother, "the Universe herself". As she plays(?) into this, she tells them that things have failed and they are to stop their process and goal and creating anew. Aleph, however does not recognize her as their deity and puts up a fight. No a smart idea. Proving just how powerful she can be, Cap Universe disintegrates Aleph into thousands of pieces. The Avengers take this new Adam and leave Nihilo and Abyss to Mars. "Mars is your world now. Make it something beautiful."
On the last page, however, we get a very ominous narration, seemingly comparing Steve Rogers and Tony Stark to Nihilo and Abyss and one may be life and the other death.
One of the things I love about this book is also something that I argue against. Knowing Hickman, you can tell something is happening. You can feel the seeds for a bigger picture being planted here, even though they may not be that visible yet. I feel it helps to know Hickman's writing in order to see some of these clues. Now, I argue that a work should stand on it's own and you shouldn't have to rely on the past works of somebody to understand it. While I still feel this is true, it's also something that isn't necessary here, which is why I say I love it even though I argue it. You don't have to have read Fantastic Four or SHIELD or Secret Warriors to understand Hickman or this title. But it sure helps with seeing somethings. This issue by itself was great but pretty strait forward. However, knowledge of Hickman or not, you get a scope of how big things are for this team. You know there are high stakes and you know things are going to explode eventually and the ride to that point should be pretty damn impressive.

Trailer Watch: Olympus Has Fallen

King Leonidas has to save Two-Face from the clutches of the baddie from Ninja Assassin. If this movie gives me half as much awesome as my mind is already creating, I'm in.

Boobs of the Day

Samantha Barks
After seeing Les Miserables today (Absolutely beautiful movie. And yes, I said beautiful), I was quite taken by how lovely Miss Samantha Barks was as Eponine. She's got a great voice and I'm sure a great career ahead of her. She seems a classy lady and I'm happy to invite her to the club.

An S Through the Ages

Over at the Superman Homepage they put up a pretty awesome picture of Superman's S shield through the his history. It's damn cool enough that I wanted to share it here as well.

Brain Tunes

Paul McCartney & Nirvana(mostly) - Cut Me Some Slack
Blasphemous as it may seem, I have never been a fan of either the Beatles or Nirvana. One just wasn't my sound and the other was a shitty, overrated grunge band. However, put some parts from each together and you have a pretty cool song that I'm very surprised I like so much. So here it is to share, in case you haven't heard it yet.

NB of the Week

AS PER USUAL, SPOILERS ABOUND

New Avengers #2 - In Secret, They Rule
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Drawn by Steve Epting

Issue #1 of Hickman's take on the Illuminati was a bit lackluster, only in that I didn't want just a Black Panther issue. Well now we know what's so damn big that he has to call together the group he said was a big mistake.
Turns out that Black Swan (the chick form the first issue) was destroying an Earth in order to save our Earth. Let's see if I can explain this without getting too into the scary science talk: Every universe in the multiverse was created and will die eventually. Something has caused an alternate universe to end much sooner than "planned". This unnatural event has began causing incursion points at which other realities are converging. That point happens to be Earth. When an incursion point happens, there is exactly eight hours until either both realities are destroyed or the death of one saves the other. That is what Black Swan was doing; saving one by killing the other.
We followed that, right?
This is why Panther has crossed the line he condemned the others for making. To save his universe, he has to go further than he thought right. After much talk, Steve Rogers pulls out the Time Gem and reminds everyone that they have the power to stop this without killing anyone or anything. They have five of the six Infinity Gems, which will lead them to the sixth Gem (lost to them after the death of Xavier too it's location with him). Namor, Cap and Black Bolt will hunt down the Gem while Reed, Tony and T'Challa begin making a device that will warn them when an incursion happens.
The final four pages are the real kicker. First, we see four panels of what I'm assuming is the future of the Illuminati members fighting off monsters and beings that look to want nothing more than to kill everything. Helping confirm this, the last two pages are Reed and T'Challa talking about how they know the truth. That if stopping this were so easy, it would have been done already. They know that this is either systematic and it can't be stopped or something is trying to cause the death of everything.
Hickman is quickly show that not only does he have a different approach to writing the Earth's Mightiest Heroes then what Bendis has done over the last eight years, but that he has an amazing feel for the characters and the scope of that which they have to deal with. If you ever read his FF stories or Secret Warriors, you know how great Hickman is at long-term plots and this is the feel of a very great, probably very long one that I can't wait to read every month. If you haven't read him before, get off your ass, be lazy and read his stuff.

Boobs of the Day

Lindsay Lohan
Before you get all upset over this, I am obviously talking about hot Lindsay Lohan, back in her Mean Girls days. Not coked up, drugged out, bi-curious, gross blonde Lindsay Lohan. Back when she had meat and curves. Back when it didn't feel like I could break her in half with only my fantasies. That Lindsay can get in her DeLorean and come meet me at the party.

No Death Star in Our Future

After a petition to build a Death Star got the required 34,000 signatures in order to legally get a response from the government, the White House showed it can roll with those kinda punches. They even called their response "This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For". I hate politics but this gives me a little bit of hope.
Read the full response here.

Trailer Watch: Wrong

Anybody watch the amazingly creative movie Rubber? You know, the one about the psychic tire that killed a lot of people. Well you should (because I assume most everyone said "no" to that) because it's awesome. Here we have Wrong. The new movie from the guy who did Rubber. It looks almost as great.
Almost.

NB of the Week

Was a pretty good week this turn and I couldn't decide between two title so much like Grant Hill and Jason Kidd with the 1995 rookie of the year, we have a shared title (yes, that was actually the first reference that came to my mind).

AS USUAL, SPOILS ARE THE BUSINESS SO STOP IF YOU DON'T WANT 'EM

 Thor: God of Thunder #4 - The God Butcher: Part 4
Written by Jason Aaron
Drawn by Esad Ribic
Future Thor is the last one at war and wants nothing more than to die the warriors death but Gorr just keeps letting him live, going as far as to have his creatures carry him back to his throne as a cruel reminder of his failure as King.
Young Thor is tortured by Gorr, spurring his anger and hatred. No God has ever pushed him to this limit and he will make all Gods pay for it.
Present Thor goes to Omnipotence City for the answer to who Chronux was. After a little scuffle with Gorr's dog creatures, it turns out that it's actually a where: Chronux, The Palace of Infinity. And it's where Gorr has been using the Pool of Forever in order to travel in time and kill as he needs.
Future Thor begins to make another stand. He is more ready for Death then ever. After being stabbed through, he falls, begging for Gorr to finally kill him when all are surprised by a bright light, giving us one of the coolest endings that a Thor comic has had in a very long time.... (picture to the side, if ya didn't figure it out)
I'm gonna keep harping on it: God of Thunder is the best Marvel Now book they're doing. It's the best book they're publishing, in my opinion. Aaron has taken Thor and put him back in a spot to make his the baddest mother in the Marvel Universe. I can't say it enough. This is a must read.

Age of Apocalypse #11
Written By David Lapham
Drawn by Roberto De La Torre w/ Renato Arlem
In it's present day, Wolverine has become the new "Apocalypse" of the universe and is called Weapon Omega. There are only a handful of humans left and a group of them are prepared to die in order to take Omega and his reign down. Their only hope of doing such is to some how get him to ingest part of the Death Seed, which is what corrupted him and turned him into his present state. His wife, Jean Grey, having been depowered earlier, has joined the humans (called the X-Terminated, kinda dumb but still badass) and is the key. As everyone else attacks his citadel and fight his minions, Omega, seeing no more use for his wife, embraces her, kisses her only last time and stabs her through. Little does he know that has a good soldier, she had a capsule of the Death Seed in her mouth and has just killed him as well. As she crouches there, bleeding out, Omega is shocked knowing that everything is about to end. Everybody outside stops and looks up in awe is the tower and everything around it go white and we're left with a question of nothing and everything until the next issue.
First off, in it's first year of publication, this has become the most underrated title from Marvel. It's grown better and better with each issue and it's delivering on levels neither attempt at the AoA Universe has hit before it. Lapham has done some good things in his career (I rather enjoyed his year-long stint on Detective back in '05 and his currently wrapped Deadpool MAX run was damn entertaining) but this may be the best I've read from him. He (with the help of Remender who helped launch this book in Uncanny X-Force) has created a world that is completely different from it's successor while also just as dark and bleak as we knew it to be at the very start almost 20 years ago. If you want a book filled with heroes but want something outside the lines of the normal, this is definitely the book to try.

Guilty Pleasure #4

Destiny's Child - Bootylicious
Yeah, you read it right. I enjoy the hell outta this song. Never mind my feeling toward the ladies in the group or the music genre it belongs to, this song stays with me. I remember seeing tit on MTV's Making the Video (I believe it was called) and I get just a little happy every time I happen to hear it. They're hot and they steal Steve Nicks (Fleetwood Mac?). I admit it and make no excuses for it.

Buy This Book

If you've read this blog, you know that my my brother does art. This month he gets his first comic cover published. It's a Honey West/Kolchak team-up from Moonstone publishing. It's cover B so they charge an extra buck for it but it's worth it. And remember: supporting him is pretty much supporting me and I know all of you want to support me.

Buy it here.

Brain Tunes

Jessie Ware - Wildest Moments
As with most things, everybody puts out their "Top Insert-Number" list of things and as I went through one for music, I came across this song. I've never heard of the lady before nor have I heard of her songs outside of this one but I can't stop listening to it. It's not my normal flavor but it's sticking to me like white diabetes.

NB of the Week

Run, Forest, Run!

New Avengers #1
Years ago, when the Brian Michael Bendis brought in the Marvel Universe's Illuminati team, Black Panther was asked to be a part of it and he adamantly denounced it as a bad idea and told everybody to walk away. In current day, Panther and some Wakandians (Wakandas?) get caught up in some science/magic mojo that reveals another dimension looking to take over. This may be the only reason for Panther to call in the Illuminati and join their cause... And that's pretty much all that happened. Kinda slow.
(and on a side-note, the bad lady from the other dimension had a man captive that she called Manifold. He was carrying some science do-dad and he had the same suit as the Monifold that is coming to join the regular Avengers team. Though this one is white and ours is black... Food for thought)

Red Lanterns #15
Bleez is trying to make the human Red Lantern kill his source of anger so that he can truly embrace his Rage and Atrocitus awakens the original Manhunters that killed his people in the attempt to turn them against the Third Army the Guardians are killing everybody with. Only they vaporize him to the bones on the last page. Who knew that such violence followed such rage?


Ultimate Spider-Man #19
After Betty Brant was killed by a possibly new Venom creature, it now comes for Miles. After finding out his father helped save people by fighting off some of Hydra during the Divided We Stand story, Miles' dad tries to confront some reporters who want to open that story of heroism. As he does that, Venom appears and goes after him. Who it is and why he (if it is a he) is going for Pappy Morales (not actual name) is unknown for now but I'm excited to find out.

All-New X-Men #1-5
Brian Michael Bendis left the Avengers comics after eight years and is now taking over the X-Men. After AvX, Cyclops has killed Xavier (while being possessed by the Phoenix), was taken into government custody, broke out and is not being looked at as a villain (he is sided with Magneto, after all). To try and knock some sense into Cyclops, Beast has traveled back into time and brings the original five X-Men back, feeling like seeing them may turn Scott back towards the light. That was most of the five issues. Original team met Cyclops who was confused and ran away. Cyclops is starting a new Xavier School for the mutants he recruits Current Beast is now dying from his experiment that gave him blue fur but Young Beast is able to help fix him (surprise) but at the cost of another physical mutation (picture to the side). Young Jean Grey decides it's best to not stop this future from happening but to try and stay to fix the present so that they know it will eventually get better for their future (our present). Kitty Pryde decides to act as their now-Xavier and help lead the way.
By the end of this first story, there were some cool concepts started and it's definitely different pacing for the x-universe. However, at four bucks a pop, they took twenty bucks and two months for it to finally get there. Good start but way too slow and too obvious of a cash-cow for Marvel to really support it.