Marvel Comics General

That's what's so great about Gillen's Loki: You never know exactly what the truth is.

I'll grant that. I still don't intend to get my hopes up until there's some concrete proof that Kid!Loki made a play. I don't want my heart broken again. :(

http://kierongillen.tumblr.com/post/34522875244/one-for-sorrow-why-did-kieron-do-it

Well it makes sense why hed do it but it still makes me sad.

Just read Thor #22

Did Odin the All-Father Put his own son on trial for exile and appear like the god of jerkassery only to get some nookie time with his wife?

Yes.

And the weird thing is that seems entirely normal when talking about gods.

Props to whoever made the AWESOME Journey into Mystery page. Good job.

Looks like it was mostly devilledeyecandy, along with Noir Son. And yeah, they did a great job.

edited 2nd Nov '12 8:38:02 PM by Tiamatty

So apparently Deadpool #1 was actually really good (or so says Comicvine who did an advance review).

Say, does anyone remember Howard The Duck? Well, it just occurred to me that since Marvel Comics is now an arm of Disney, they could do a crossover series with Disney characters and Howard.

Can you imagine how Donald Duck and Howard would react upon seeing each other?

Howard's always awesome.

So Avengers Academy is now over. I'm sad.

And I've decided I can't add Iron Man to my pull list. The art is just so . . . Land. LAAAAANNND! It's terrible art, and it's distracting me from the writing.

Also, Deadpool #1 gave me no reason to believe that Posehn will really do anything to touch on the character's inherent tragedy. It looks like he's instead going to go the “wacky and zany OMG you guys it’s so CRAZY what’s going to happen next LOLZ!” route. Which is a shame. It's why Way's run sucked. It's why Deadpool Team-Up, Merc With A Mouth and Deadpool Corps all sucked. And it completely misses the whole point of the character. Trying to write him as a generally happy guy making jokes misses the fact that he's fucking miserable, and the jokes are part defence mechanism, and part actual, legitimate, horrifying insanity. Why the fuck do writers have trouble grasping that? Remender gets it. But no one else seems to get it. And it causes all of Deadpool's books to be fucking awful.

I've never actually had a comic ruined for me by the art myself, though some of the Kordey stuff from the Jemas period (my area of Marvel expertise, of course) comes close. Everyone's all... wrinkly. *shudder*

So guys do you think the Hell Lord stuff is going to go somewhere? Like it keeps popping up recently about taking the throne of Hell, but not in any connected titles. I mean I do think it would be cool. Maybe 2014: Everyone is Satan.

So, it looks like Maria Hill might have become Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. again based on some of the Marvel NOW! comics we've seen so far. That or Cap is just missing from duty frequently.

I know she was Director before, briefly, but it's starting to seem like everyone gets a turn at Director. I'm still waiting for Thor: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Ugh, Maria Hill. Absolutely disgusting character (though I'm told she gets better in some later appearances that I haven't read yet). She's essentially Dolores Umbridge except hot.

I feel like that if anyone should be Director Of SHIELD it should have been Black Widow. You know the only actual spy on the Avengers.

I'd like to see either Black Widow or Bucky, if we can't have Nick Fury himself back.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. Director really doesn't need to be an Avenger, and I think having them be might actually be a conflict of interest. If the same person is leading both organizations, then it raises uncomfortable questions about why you need both when you could just as well put all your resources in one place. But if the leader of one isn't leading the other but still belongs to the other, then you create a situation where, for example, Black Widow commands S.H.I.E.L.D. but answers to the Avengers, who now have full commanding control over all of S.H.I.E.L.D. through Black Widow.

The biggest thing about the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. is that they need to be someone who can stay behind and play Big Picture Man while sending others into battle to die for their cause. I think that was Cap's biggest problem as Director; he's more NCO than General. He can't sit still and issue orders around the globe while all his men are in the field and dying; he needs to be down there leading the charge.

EDIT: But the other side of that angle is that the best spies, such as Black Widow or Bucky, have skillsets that are more valuable on-mission than they are on the helicarrier.

edited 12th Nov '12 11:44:29 AM by TobiasDrake

While SHIELD's engaged in a lot counter-espionage and black ops stuff, they're ultimately a military organization. So the director doesn't need to be a spy, it needs to be someone who can command people. You need a hard-ass who'll keep people in line. Someone who knows how to delegate, rather than trying to do everything him/herself. They should be smart, and should have an eye for detail, but they also need to be able to look at the big picture.

Honestly, Maria Hill doesn't seem like a bad choice. The director of SHIELD probably shouldn't like superheroes. They're a bunch of rogue vigilantes running around causing destruction everywhere they go. From a law-keeping perspective, trying to rein them in is a good idea. SHIELD's director should be trying to get superheroes to follow her orders in regards to whatever threat they're facing.

You just convinced me that Abigail Brand needs to be director of SHIELD.

I could get behind that, but I think she's got enough on her plate with S.W.O.R.D.

Honestly, I don't think Maria Hill is a bad choice either. I think that trying to strongarm Cap into backing the Registration Act in Civil War is her "never live it down" moment, akin to Hank Pym hitting Jan; apart from that one instance, she's had a pretty solid history.

edited 13th Nov '12 8:53:28 AM by TobiasDrake

By the way, I think Mystique has come back from the dead. The last I heard, Wolverine killed her off for sending him to hell. Her body got auctioned off to The Hand, that ninja group. Good for him, because I never trusted that Femme Fatale and her flip-flopping attitude!

I just knew it was only a matter of time before she came back, because The Hand has brought people back to life. Not only is she back, but her powers seem to have been upgraded. That's...bad news!

I'm happy to see the Wasp on the cast of Uncanny Avengers. I thought it was bizarre that she was absent from any Avengers group given that the entire final arc of the current series is about rescuing her.

Quesada-era blunders remaining to-be-Author's Saving Throw'd:

• Ares's death
• Nightcrawler's death (some people are speculating that the impending return of Azazel might lead to this)
• The New X-Men's deaths
• Sins Past (I think this one'll just never be mentioned again, personally, with maybe a "it was a clone/Mysterio trick/whatever" footnote in a Handbook ten years from now)

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=42269 Age of Ultron.

So, I guess it's not the Reckoning War. Only Slott should write that. Poo.

And is every "big villain takes over the world" story going to be called "Age of x" (not to be confused with Age of X) from now on? I get that Age Of Apocalypse was popular, but after a while it just gets tedious.