Tagged: Captain America

The Story Of O 2 (kinda), by Michael Davis

The Story Of O 2 (kinda), by Michael Davis

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  • March 28, 2008

In my ever increasing attempt to break the mold, I am giving my fateful readers not one but one and a half columns today!

Last week’s The Story of O about a young man I mentored who attacked me with horrible career ending voice mail and text messages resulted in a wee bit of a stir. That article received a LOT of interest and some people have called me and asked me where ‘O’ and I stand now.

Well O still does not grasp the impact of what he did. His last text told me that he pitied me. Yep, I tried to help him and it did not work out so I’m the bad guy…pity. Well, I am done dealing with it. I realize that some people just don’t get it when you try and help them so I’m done.

Pity.

Hey, wait! My birthday is coming up! I think I’ll give myself a pity party on the grounds of my VAST estate I built on the back of former students I mentored who I have never taken a dime from.

Mike Gold was my comics’ mentor when I started doing work for DC. I lost a HUGE job because DC did not like the work I was doing. Mike was the person who helped me get that job. I remember vividly getting the call that I was off the project because of what I did.

I walked into Mike’s office and called him all sort of names. I also turned Mike’s desk over then took out a Mac 10 and set my sites on him and then the rest of DC editorial for the first comic book company blood bath in history. Mike ducked under his desk as I fired my first shots barely missing his head.

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Which Comic is Getting a New 4-Player Arcade Game?

Which Comic is Getting a New 4-Player Arcade Game?

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  • March 27, 2008

Who says comic book fans are antisocial? I grew up hanging out at pizza parlors and movie theaters with my friends, playing arcade games like Captain America and the Avengers, Spider-Man, TMNT and X-Men.

Well, cue a flashback to the ’90s, because arcade developer Signature Devices announced in a press release that they’ve finished work on a four-player arcade game that featuring "several well known comic book and television superheroes."

The game will feature a four-player arcade style co-operative play. Players can play solo or as a team against the plot, which takes place in three separate locations on earth and other planets. Signature Devices has developed the game to allow players to control the powers and abilities of
earth’s mightiest heroes [Ed. Note: emphasis ours] in an action packed fight for justice against some of the greatest comic book villains. The Company has developed the game to truly come to life using the co-operative methods best utilized with two to four players at a time.

But they didn’t say which comic book heroes, probably because that’s the responsibility of the arcade game publisher. Meanwhile we’re left to speculate which superheroes it could be. It helps that they say they’ve been on television. Candidates include Justice League, X-Men, Spider-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or maybe even NBC’s Heroes, among others. One interesting phrase we highlighted in the quote is "earth’s mightiest heroes," a term commonly used by The Avengers, who had a brief cartoon run.

We’ll admit we’d be excited to grab a few beers and play this with friends at Dave & Buster’s. ComicMix readers, any ideas what you think this might be… or, of course, which characters you want this to be?

11 Batman Stories to Read Before Watching ‘The Dark Knight’

11 Batman Stories to Read Before Watching ‘The Dark Knight’

  • News
  • March 24, 2008

Batman Begins and its upcoming sequel, The Dark Knight, are both feature films that deal with Bruce Wayne at the beginning of his career as a crime-fighting detective. But some in the movie audience may be curious about how these rookie years unfolded in the continuity of the comics.

So, here at ComicMix, we’ve put together a timeline of the stories you should read (and the order in which to read them) to learn about Batman’s early days. This list is focused on collected storylines from the single issues and one-shot stories rather than individual issues, and includes what is deemed to be currently in continuity within the mainstream DC Universe (so certain stories such as BATMAN: Year Two are not included). If a story’s place in the greater Batman continuity is uncertain, but hasn’t been directly contradicted by other stories, we’re including it.

Please note that this is focusing on Batman’s early solo years and is, as stated above, a timeline. Therefore stories such as Arkham Asylum and The Killing Joke, while famous, aren’t being included here since they take place much later in Batman’s career.

ADDED NOTE: If you like this, be sure to check out our related article, the Top Six Greatest Joker Victories.

Now let’s begin …

Batman: Year One – It all starts here in this story by Frank Miller (Sin City) and David Mazuchelli (DAREDEVIL: Born Again). After years of learning how to be a detective and training in the martial arts and ninjitsu in the Far East, Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham City to begin his war on crime. Learn how he first met a young Lt. James Gordon (who would later become the famous commissioner of the GCPD) and hot-shot District Attorney Harvey Dent, as they all try to free their city from a corrupt police department and fight against the mobster known as Carmine “The Roman” Falcone.

This comic also features the reason Bruce Wayne chose a bat as his symbol and his first encounter with Catwoman. The end of this story leads directly into another item on our reading list, BATMAN: The Man Who Laughs.

Batman and the Monster Men – In Year One, you might notice a large gap of time that passes between November and December. This story, written and drawn by Grendel’s Matt Wagner, takes place during that gap and reimagines one of Batman’s earliest stories from the Golden Age of Comics. Meet Bruce Wayne’s early girlfriend, Julie Madison, and watch his first encounter with the sociopathic Professor Hugo Strange. This story also introduces the proto-version of the Batmobile.

Batman and the Mad Monk – Another Golden Age story is brought into the modern day by Matt Wagner with this follow-up to Batman and the Monster Men. Following his encounter with the monsters of Hugo Strange, Batman now faces a potentially supernatural enemy and a deadly cult. Batman’s car truly becomes the Batmobile in this story and we also see the developing partnership between him and Jim Gordon. And see just what happened to make the Dark Knight lose the first serious love in his life.

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On This Day: Mark Waid

On This Day: Mark Waid

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  • March 21, 2008

Born on March 21, 1962 in Hueytown, Alabama, Waid entered the comics industry in the mid-1980s as an editor and writer for Fantagraphics Books’ fan magazine, Amazing Heroes.

He soon moved to DC as an editor on Secret Origins and Legion of Super-Heroes. In 1990, he shifted from full-time editorial to freelance writing, and in 1992 DC hired him to write The Flash. Waid stayed with The Flash for eight years and can be credited with establishing Wally West as a worthy bearer of the Flash name and costume. Waid then moved to Marvel to work on Captain America.

In 1996 he went back to DC to produce his best-known work, the mini-series Kingdom Come with Alex Ross. He also wrote the follow-up series, The Kingdom, and has since written JLA, Impulse, Empire, Fantastic Four, and others.

In July 2007 Waid joined Boom! Studios as Editor-in-Chief. He’s stated since that all of his future creator-owned work will be with Boom!

The Weekly Haul: Reviews for March 20, 2008

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  • March 20, 2008

After skipping town last week, I’m back with an all-new spate of reviews for this week’s comics issues. Lots of super hero fare this week, with a few studs and a whole lot of "meh."

Book of the Week: Captain America #36 — I know, I know. Not a very out-there choice. But, c’mon, this is simply the best superhero book coming out right now. Ed Brubaker sets it up perfectly to test Bucky, the new Cap, by pitting him against some serious supervillains. And we get to see how Bucky is different from Steve Rogers, for good and bad.

And while Bucky brawls his way through that challenge, the defining moment of the issue comes when Bucky can’t summon the Captain America aura to calm a riotous crowd. And, if that’s not enough, Butch Guice’s fill-in art is so good that I didn’t realize he’d replaced Steve Epting until I looked back at the credits.

Oh, and then – SPOILER – there’s that little cliffhanger that a certain dead person might not be so certainly dead.

Runners Up:

The Brave and the Bold #11 — Here’s another "can’t go wrong" series (at least until Mark Waid jumps ship). The Challengers see just how tough Megistus is (and just how crazy), then Superman and Ultraman have a zany little team-up only after Ultraman impersonates Clark and runs roughshod through the Daily Planet newsroom. The too-big, too-fun antics culminate in one of those straight-from-the-silver-age moments, when Megistus throws a Green Lantern (the actual lantern, not a hero) into the sun and turns it green. Bad news for Ultraman and Superman.

The Immortal Iron Fist #13 — I’d be calling this book the best of the week if it weren’t for a weaker than usual outing from artist David Aja. His work isn’t as polished as usual, which means it’s still decent but not great. That aside, this Seven Cities of Heaven storyline is finally coming together in a big way. What’s really remarkable about this issue is how Brubaker and Matt Fraction keep up the excitement with only a couple punches thrown. It’s a perfect setup to the big brouhaha coming down the pike next issue, and offers the line of the week when Danny finally reveals his plan to the villainous Xao: "So we can get out, you dumb son of a bitch."

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ComicMix at WWLA: The Mondo Marvel Panel

ComicMix at WWLA: The Mondo Marvel Panel

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  • March 18, 2008

Wrapping up our coverage of this weekend’s Wizard World LA convention, we have this report from Sunday’s Mondo Marvel panel at the Los Angeles Convention center.

Like the X-Men panel, leading the discussion again this time is Marvel Comics marketing guru Jim McCann. Once things settled down a bit and got organized, he introduced the distinguished panel of Marvel creators including Matt Fraction, Chris Gage, Aubrey Sitterson and Charles Knauf.

Knauf, who is currently co-writing Iron Man: Agent of SHIELD, said of the book, "It’s kind of interesting to write the most hated man in the Marvel Universe. I can’t wait till the movie comes out; it’s going to bring a lot of attention to the book."

Among Knauf’s future plans for the book are the introduction of a new "femme fatale" and an attempt to return Iron Man to his "hero status." He will also be trying to make the book "a little more fun."

"The flaws are what make him so great," chimed in Fraction, who’s also writing an Iron Man title: Invincible Iron Man. Said Fraction: "I’m looking forward to sending Iron Man on a big redemptive arc. He is his own arch-rival. I’m looking forward to grinding him to dust and seeing where he ends up," said Fraction.

Next, McCann turned to Chris Gage who is currently working on Avengers: The Initiative with Dan Slott — which has issue #10 at comic’s shops now. According to Gage, Issue #11 will feature the Mighty Avengers and Gage also said fans of the New Warriors may want to check it out, too, "just in case."

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First ‘Incredible Hulk’ Game Screenshots Go Online

First ‘Incredible Hulk’ Game Screenshots Go Online

  • News
  • March 13, 2008

Remember back when Sega announced that they had grabbed the rights to Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Thor videogames? Well, we’ve seen sweet Iron Man game footage based on the upcoming movie as early as last year. But where are the screenshots for The Incredible Hulk movie-based game?

Evidently, Sega has been waiting for Universal to debut the new movie Hulk’s look in the official trailer. Only hours after the scenes of Hulk and Abomination tearing up Harlem hit the net, we were finally treated to images of videogame Hulk. Incredible is the only word to describe the detail put into Hulk and the soon-to-be-smashed New York City setting for the game. Developer Edge of Reality seems to have taken a cue from the critically acclaimed The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and basically followed that open world formula but with much prettier next-gen graphics.

Images from the game are posted after the jump. Stay tuned to Sega Incredible Hulk game page for more details coming soon.

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Marvel Comics Unveils ‘Secret Invasion’ Covers

Marvel Comics Unveils ‘Secret Invasion’ Covers

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  • March 12, 2008

Even with all the hype and recent discussion of Marvel’s grammar skills, like it or not, the "Secret Invasion" is coming from Marvel Comics. Another example of this inevitable occurrence was revealed today by Marvel with the release of cover art for the first issue of the Secret Invasion comic book series.

However, Marvel didn’t just release one cover by artist Gabrielle Dell’Otto, featuring some of Marvel’s heroes who may or may not be Skrulls, they also unveiled two pretty-cool variant covers for the first issue as well. One of the variants, by Civil War veteran artist Steve McNiven, features some of your favorite Marvel heroes being squeezed by the claws of a giant Skrull.

The other variant cover is by series penciler Leinil Yu and showcases Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor and other heroes standing in defiance of the invasion and ready to kick some Skrull butt.

Check out larger pics of all three covers after the jump.

Secret Invasion #1, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Leinil Yu, is set to hit your local comic shop on April 2nd.

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‘Captain America’ Tops Rolling Stone’s 10 Best List

‘Captain America’ Tops Rolling Stone’s 10 Best List

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  • March 7, 2008

As I’ve said before, I’m a fan of lists. I’m particularly interested in lists of favorite, must-read comic books or must-see movies and TV shows because, in some cases, I discover something new that I have never heard of before. I also sometimes see things on a list that make me wonder why they’re on the list at all.

So, it was with some great interest that I read Rolling Stone’s list of the "Top 10: Best in TV, the Web, Books and Beyond." Sure, comics were relegated to the "beyond" category but still, they were represented. Not only that, but one of my all-time favorite characters and titles, Captain America, topped the list at number one.

The magazine was particularly impressed with the latest Captain America storyline, calling it "a metaphor for the effects of the Bush Presidency." This was due in large part to the recent storyline where Cap is killed and "a new, more morally compromised character has taken over the stars-and-stripes uniform" in the persona of Cap’s former sidekick Bucky — who is now a gun-toting killer.

It’s an interesting way to think about it, I suppose. Although, I kinda expect Rolling Stone to find the political angle on most anything, so its not much of a surprise they went that way. Plus, they did also pick the abyssmal Quarterlife and the inane Project Runway as some of the other "Top 10."

Even though I think they made a good choice with Captain America, adding those other two to a list of the supposed "best" makes me question the entire thing. Given that, if you’re still curious to see if your tastes fit in with Rolling Stone’s, check out the list right here.

Film Review: Vantage Point

Film Review: Vantage Point

Not many trailers made in the past 10 years misrepresent the film they are promoting. Sadly, Vantage Point breaks that rule. By allowing me the room to figure out the entire movie through footage oversaturation, I didn’t have a huge urge to run to the theaters, hence the late review. But alas, seven days after the film’s release, I was able to go into the theater without a hint of outside ruination, no real mention of the big twists, nor who was evil and why. So to keep the film pure, and leave any future audience members unscathed, I’ll try to keep the dignity of the film intact and not give much away in the review.

With that in mind: This movie wasn’t very good. Albeit the concept isn’t exactly original (See Rashomon), the filmmakers here had a perfect opportunity to bring something as innovative and provocative as Rashomon to Hollywood and thus, to a Hollywood audience. Instead, the concept was left half-assed and basically unfinished, leaving holes in continuity that you could drive a Mack Truck through and backstory for only one character, reduced to a single line of exposition.

For those of you not entirely familiar with the concept of the movie, Vantage Point was adevrtised as featuring eight different perspectives (in truth, it’s only five) of the assassination of the President of the United States. Each gives a little more insight to the overall story, while leaving you at the edge of your seat each and every time you see a part of the story. At the end of the film, you’ll feel fairly manipulated, but that won’t compare to the complete lack of compassion you have for any of the characters.

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