Ms. Marvel - A Great New Series
August 1, 2006 | 5 Comments
Female protagonist heroes generally stand out for me as favorites. I’m not sure if writers are trying to reach female audiences by spending a lot of time on character of female heroes, or if they just take a more tender approach to these powerful women. Any way you figure it, I can’t help but like almost every female hero Marvel has presented me with in the last few years. With this in mind, I was immediately intrigued by Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) when she had a cameo in New Avengers. Her positioning as a reluctant and somewhat unsuccessful hero left me wanting to know more about her.
I hurriedly picked up the Giant Sized Ms. Marvel one-shot which explained some good back story, and was the direct lead-in for her new series. Since then I’ve been following the new series and it has been wonderful.
I decided to look into where this character had come from, learning that this is Marvel’s second attempt at a series. The first series ran 23 issues in the late 1970s. The Giant-Size Ms Marvel features a few of the classic stories which highlighted a lot of overlap with classic Spider-Man characters including J Jonah Jameson and Mary Jane Watson. The writer at the end of her first series was X-Men legend Chris Claremont. Shockingly, Claremont had originally planned on using Ms Marvel instead of Jean Grey for what later became the classic Dark Phoenix series.
Enough of the classic series… The new series is written by Brian Reed, penciled by Roberto De La Torre, and colored by Chris Sottomayor. Ms. Marvel is back with cosmic-like powers. Her primary power is to absorb and manipulate all forms of energy, in addition to this she can fly, is resistant to injury and has superhuman strength. Yet, with all this power, Carol Danvers is still self conscious and personable. You just can’t help but like her.
One of my favorite things about the new series are the frequent guest appearances. So far we’ve seen: Jessica Jones, Captain America, Tony Stark/Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, and Doctor Strange. It would appear that they are setting up a bit of a romantic relationship between Carol and Doctor Strange. It’ll be fun to see how that plays out. They set Jessica Jones up as her best friend which has already played out as important as they are on differing sides of the Civil War.
I also appreciate that Ms. Marvel is drawn somewhat realistically (excluding covers). Certainly she is a very attractive woman with a great figure, but that’s true even of the actors and actresses we see… My point is that she is drawn with idealized dimensions, but at least she shouldn’t be overtly insulting or degrading to women.
She is about to become involved with Civil War in the next issue (#6). Carol is being recruited to startup and manage a super hero training camp. As an ex-Avenger, Tony Stark feels he can trust her to properly train the more amateur of heroes who are registering. Others involved in training include Wonder Man and Arachne, formerly Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter).
I’d love to see them consider this for production as a film. It seems like it would be an easy and appealing project. Especially if they could keep the feel of an entangled universe by throwing a couple cameos from some other successful Marvel properties.
I’ve even convinced Sara to start reading this series. I’m hoping this will be a series which can be as successful as Spider-Girl and hang around for 100+ issues.
Tags: arachne, Brian Reed, captain america, carol danvers. jessica jones, chris claremont, Chris Sottomayor, comic book, comic books, comics, doctor strange, fantastic four, heroine, iron man, Jean Grey, julia carpenter, marvel, ms marvel, Roberto De La Torre, spider-woman, super hero, tony stark, wonder man
Who Wants To Be A Superhero?
July 9, 2006 | 3 Comments
Premiering July 27th on SCI FI Channel is Stan Lee’s new 6 episode reality series “Who Wants To Be A Superhero?” at 9PM.
The basic premise is that a bunch of hopefuls will show up in self-made costumes and strut their stuff as a character of their creation. “Lucky” finalists will leave their “normal” lives and compete 24/7 to prove they have what it takes to be true super heroes. They’ll each be tested for courage, integrity, self-sacrifice, compassion, and resourcefulness — all traits that every true superhero must possess.
In the end, one aspiring superhero will be declared the winner of this six-week competition. They will walk away with their character immortalized in a new comic book created by Stan Lee himself and the winning character will also appear in an original SCI FI Channel movie…
I’m a crazy rabid comics fan, but this seems a bit out there even for me. I poked around in the initial gallery of hopefuls and just like American Idol, the real entertainment here may be in seeing who shows up to compete. Everybody loves a train wreck…
Tags: charater, comic, comic book, comic character, comics, sci-fi, science fiction, scifi, stan lee, super hero, superhero, television, tv, Who Wants To Be A Superhero
Religious Affiliation of Comic Book Super-heroes
June 24, 2006 | 5 Comments
This site compiled an extremely detailed and well researched list of comic book super-heroes and their associated religious affiliations. Fairly interesting to me that so many actually have affiliations. I’m also amazed at how well diversified the hero population seems to be.
As for Spider-Man/Peter Parker, I always felt as though he was protestant, but I couldn’t put a finger on it. Seeing all the evidence clearly laid out was an interesting viewing. The image included above comes from Amazing Spider-Man #494. “>The scene occurs as Peter and Mary Jane reunite after a temporary seperation. This scene strikes deeply for me considering the current talk that MJ may get killed in or as a result of Civil War. Personally I hope this doesn’t happen. Between The Other and deciding to unmask, Peter is going through enough.
Tags: comic book, comic books, comics, mary jane, mary jane killed, mj, protestant, religion, religious, spider-man, spiderman, super hero, wife
Iron Spidey - More On The New Outfit
March 22, 2006 | 3 Comments
I just read Amazing Spider-Man #530 and there were new features to talk about in the new costume.
First off, Tony reworked a version 2.0 of this already new suit. Now it can transform appearance to look like any of his old suits, or like no suit at all. Handy for quick costume changes, this feature makes me think a lot of the black (Venom) suit. This transformation also allows him to blend into backgrounds especially effective on dark backgrounds. The final feature is a set three of arm-like appendages that spring out of the back. They refer to these as “waldoes“. These have limited fighting capabilities, but can pick up things as well as look around corners presenting the image to Spider-Man’s eye pieces.
These new features of course build on top of Version 1, which included mesh webbing that will allow gliding for short distances, heat resistant Kevlar micro-fiber that can withstand small-caliber bullets, built in fire, police, and emergency scanner, audio and visual amplification including infrared and ultra-violet, carbon filters in the mouth area to keep out toxins, and a short range GPS microwave communication system.
These changes all come at the beginning of Marvel’s newest, big event: Civil War. Civil War is based on a split among the super heroes from a proposed super hero registration act. Some are opposed, others are for it. This split is supposed to effect all kinds of things, impacting Spider-Man the most. More to come on that…
Tags: civil war, comic, comics, costume, iron man, iron spidey, marvel, new powers, spider, spider-man, spiderman, spidey, super hero, the other, tony stark, waldoes
The Ultimates
January 12, 2006 | 6 Comments
I just completed reading the full first Ultimates run (1-13) and am now up to date on the current run (1-9). There is only one word that describes The Ultimates series.
Dark.
There isn’t a single character in this series so far without some massive flaw. But I’ll get to that in a moment…
The Ultimates is a recreation of The Avengers in the Ultimate Marvel Universe. This is a primarily non-mutant super hero team that is commissioned by the government as a division of S.H.I.E.L.D. In this reality, mutations have become somewhat common as they are cropping up all over the world. These mutants are hated and this story all plays out in the Ultimate X-Men series. However, science has also progressed to the point where manipulations are being made to “normal” humans’ genetics, giving super powers. These artificially enhanced humans are then made members of the Ultimates, or are villains.
Even Ultimate Spider-Man falls under this “requirement,” Fury informed Peter Parker that when he turns 18 he will be required to join the Ultimates.
Another interesting note about this series is the way the Ultimates don’t actually have much reason to exist. There aren’t any significant super villains in the series, no global fights to justify their existence. In fact, they wait until the 11th issue before revealing the first non-member global threat. This is only a 13 issue original series.
The second, currently ongoing series has a similar start. There is a lot of back story and character development, which I appreciate, but again no massive threat until the current issue (#9) which justifies government creation of the “super team”.
Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of action in this series. My point is that the other “bad guys” existence can be directly attributed to the work S.H.I.E.L.D and the government in general is funding. Or, in some cases members of the Ultimates themselves. Clearly the authors want the readers to wonder about the politics and justification of this super army. Maybe they want us to wonder about our own militaries on a smaller scale. Do aggressive militaristic groups spawn additional?
Anyway, one thing that kept me intrigued by this series was the lack of true hero in any of the members of this super team. Here’s a quick rundown of the flaws in each of these character which stops me from being able to idolize any of them, as I might someone like Spider-Man.
Captain America [Steve Rogers]: Uber-aggressive “old” codger, 40’s mind set. Sees things in black and white.
Iron Man [Tony Stark]: Playboy alcoholic, flaunts his place as one of the world’s richest men.
Wasp [Janet Pym]: Secretly a mutant, loaned genetic material to Hank so he could make great scientific breakthroughs. Publicly dates Steve Rogers while still married, but continues to screw Hank. She has other subtle flaws, but in many ways I like her the least.
Giant Man=>Ant Man [Hank Pym]: Secretly cheated to get where he is professionally. Wife beater. ‘Nuff said.
Hulk [Bruce Banner]: arrogance leads him to self experimentation. Hulk rampage leads to over 800 civilians killed. Cannibal.
Nick Fury: Pawn of a larger scheme he may be a part of. Plays like Samuel L. Jackson in a Pulp Fiction/XXX kind of way. An ends justify the means sort of guy.
Thor: Possibly insane. Conspiracy theorist. Ultra left wing. Violent opposition to American dominance. In many ways I find many of these traits endearing, but the writing clearly does not intend them as positives.
Scarlet Witch [Wanda Maximoff]: Daughter of Magneto. Known Terrorist, only in this for the money. Belive in mutant supremacy. Implied incestuous relationship with Pietro.
Quicksilver [Pietro Maximoff]: Son of Magneto. Known Terrorist, only in this for the money. Belive in mutant supremacy. Implied incestuous relationship with Wanda.
Black Widow [Natasha Romanova]: Her evil is a massive spoiler… Trust me though, it’s bad.
Hawkeye [Clint Barton]: The one we know the least about, and in turn, I think he’s clean…
There are also a pile of “reserves” who are all portrayed as mindless puppets to whatever S.H.I.E.L.D wants of them.
As I devour each issue in this series I find myself torn between loving and hating the series. I guess either emotion conveys conviction, and I’m still reading it. Mark Millar was successful at least in hooking me.
Tags: ant man, avengers, black widow, bruce banner, captain america, comic book, comic books, comics, giant man, hawkeye, hulk, iron man, Magneto, mark millar, marvel, nick fury, quick silver, scarlet witch, shield, steve rogers, super hero, thor, ultimate, ultimates, wasp, x-men