Wikileaks: Comic Book Secrets

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Image Comics, Independent, Marvel Comics,

If you took the time to read through the nearly 250,000 documents released this week via Wikileaks, you’d find a comic book connection in several of them. We at Comix 411 have nothing but free time and did the heavy lifting for you. Here are the comic book-related highlights from the document dump:

When visiting with US President Barack Obama, the CIA codename for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is “Bucky.”

Interrogators at Guantanamo routinely asked prisoners to choose: Betty or Veronica?

Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong Il sometimes dresses up as Wildcat before he tours a factory. In other news, North Korea still has factories.

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Review: Marvel Comics Siege #2

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,

Rating: *** 1/2*

Marvel Comics’ Siege continues this week with issue two of the four part mini-series. The issue returns to the scene of the battle in Oklahoma where Norman Osborn, HAMMER, and the Dark Avengers are battling it out with Thor and the citizens of Asgard. All look lost as Norman Osborn stands over a defeated Thor, but he’s saved by Maria Hill using a bazooka, which blows Norman out of the way.

Ares discovers quickly that he’s been duped by Norman into helping lead the invasion of Asgard. Ares decides to make good on his promise and rip Norman’s head off when the Sentry comes in to protect Norman. They duke it out and in a shocking big splash page moment, the Sentry rips Ares in half. I knew someone was going to die in this issue and I had a feeling it would be Ares, but in no way did I see him meeting his end this way. Very cool!

Issue one left off with an angry Steve Rogers watching the footage of the invasion of Asgard. We pick up here with Steve gathering the New Avengers, the Young Avengers, and Nick Fury and his Secret Warriors so they can all head to Oklahoma to defeat Osborn once and for all. Also with this group is Bucky the new Captain America. He hands over the shield to Steve stating he believes if they are going to do this, it has to be done right and Steve must wield the shield once more.

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Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,

Rating: ****
Well, I’m not sure why Marvel Comics released this one-shot epilogue to Captain America: Reborn when the series still has one issue to go, but it’s here. Reborn was originally slated to be a five issue mini-series, but at some point it was decided that an additional issue was needed to tell the story. So Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield is shipping on schedule because last week should have been the last issue of the Reborn series. I’m not sure why Marvel did not just push this issue back to ship the same day issue six comes out or make issue five a double sized issue. Money? Probably, but you could still make money by doubling the price of a double sized issue.

Whatever the case may be, Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield still stands as a great comic book even with all the nonsense of it coming out prior to the completion of Reborn. Even before Reborn was even announced, we all knew that Steve Rogers would come back to land of the living at some point. It was only a matter of when, the how was almost meaningless because fans just wanted their guy back in action. The issue opens with a flashback to the days of World War II and Cap and Bucky fighting I believe the Japanese - not the Germans, as you normally see during Cap flashbacks to the war.

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Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Reborn #5

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,

Rating: *** 1/2*

A great recovery executed to this story by writer Ed Brubaker. I was starting to get a bit bored with it. Although you know how this story is going to end, I still enjoyed this issue. Besides knowing how this story will end, the only other drawback for me was the artwork by Bryan Hitch. I think Hitch is a great artist, but I felt his work seemed rushed here. From what I understand, he’s not a fast artist. so maybe he was rushing to try and get this book out as soon as possible.

I was a bit confused by what was happening as this issue opened with Steve Rogers in a world where the Nazi’s have taken over America. At first I thought he was transported to an alternate universe where the Nazi’s won World War II, but I soon realized that his essence is stuck within his body in some weird world that has been created by the Red Skull as the Skull’s essence has taken over Steve’s body. Thank God because had this been an alternate universe I thought it would have been too cheesy to have a Nazi America where instead of Uncle Sam, you have Uncle Skull.

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Return of Bruce Wayne

Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,

It was announced a few days ago that Bruce Wayne would finally be coming back as Batman beginning in April 2010. The event will take place in a min-series entitled Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne and it will be written by Grant Morrison. I’m very happy that Bruce Wayne will be returning, but I’m curious as to why both he and Captain America are through the exact chain of events in their lives right now. Both characters saw their side kicks resurrected (Jason Todd and Buck); both were “killed off”; both characters saw side kicks take over the mantle for them (Dick Grayson and Bucky); both are stuck in the past; and both are now trying to make their ways back to the present. What gives? Who’s copying who?

Well the idea of resurrecting Jason Todd began during the Hush storyline in 2002, but we didn’t see Jason return until 2005. The return of Bucky began around the same time in 2005 as well. Steve was killed in early 2007 and Bruce was killed in late 2008. It was revealed a few months ago that Steve was stuck in time, but Bruce was revealed to be stuck in the past at the end of Final Crisis at the beginning of the year. Since we are fans, we are not privy to which company came up with which idea first, but if it were me, I would try to do something a bit different with my company’s character. Also, what good is it for the fans? They will buy it nonetheless, but is it really that interesting to have the same exact thing happen to two iconic characters? What happens when they return?

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Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Reborn #3

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,

Rating: ****

Another great issue for this series.  In our last issue, Bucky and the Black Widow were captured by Norman and Obsborn.  Norman has released to the media that Sharon Carter was the second shooter in the assassination of Captain America.  He released the Black Widow and said that unless she returns with Sharon Carter, Bucky is dead.

Our story opens with Cap continuing to jump through time to different points in his life.  Cap has now jumped to the time when he was frozen in ice.  During this period, Cap was worshiped by local tribe as some sort of ice god.  Namor arrives and is angry at the natives and picks up the block of ice and launches back into the ocean.  Steve narrates the scene and it seems this isn’t the first time he’s visited this point in time.  He says that he tries to cry out for help every time, but it never works.  We then flash to the present where Reed Richards and the present Namor are at the same spot.  Namor brings up Steve’s glass coffin, only to see his body disappear! 

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Marvel Comics Review: Captain America #601

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,

Rating: ***

With the release of Captain America: Reborn the main ongoing storyline of the death, and now rebirth of Cap will be told there.  With issue #601 of the regular monthly title we get a stand alone story by Cap writer Ed Brubaker and veteran comic artist Gene Colan.  I’m going to put my neck out and say I didn’t like Mr. Colan’s artwork here.  I did a Google search and was checking out some of his previous work on Daredevil, Howard the Duck and Tomb of Dracula and thought his work then was very good, but I just wasn’t digging his work here.  The cover of this issue is a good example of what I didn’t like.  Cap almost doesn’t seem to have a neck in this illustration and the wings on his mask protrude out too much for my taste. 

As for the story, Brubaker tells a nice little stand alone story about Cap and Bucky fighting vampires during World War II.  The story is presented as a flashback where we see Bucky as the Winter Soldier talking to Nick Fury relating a story about soldiers turning on their own.  The story takes place in Bastogne, Belgium in February of 1945.  Bucky and Cap find an American soldier dying in an old house.  The soldier tells Cap how much he admires him as Cap tries to comfort him as he dies.  But the soldier is not truly dead, he was bitten by a vampire and the “dead” body is resurrected into a vampire.  Cap and Bucky battle the vampire soldier and end up killing him.

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Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Reborn #1

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,

Rating: *** 1/2 *
 
Captain America: Reborn is here!  Ed Brubaker’s soon to be classic run on Captain America continues with this mini-series which will return Steve Rogers to land of the living, but did he ever really die in the first place?
 
In Captain America #600 we saw that Sharon Carter recovered the gun that she used to kill Steve.  However, it appears that this is no ordinary gun and Steve Rogers was not killed, but instead he’s – somewhere else right now.
 
Ed Brubaker wastes no time in revealing what happened to Steve and how he will end up returning to the Marvel Universe.
 
It seems that the gun that Sharon used to “kill” Steve was part of a larger weapon that the Red Skull and Arnim Zola had borrowed from Dr. Doom.  The weapon was a variation of Doom’s time platform.  After the assassination, Sharon Cater was then strapped to the machine by Zola and the Skull to be used as a homing beacon of sorts in order to retrieve Steve’s body.  Sharon was able to retrieve some of her senses and fought back which resulted in Steve becoming stuck in time and space.  So where is he?  He’s in the past.

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Marvel Comics Review: Captain America # 600

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,

Rating: ****

This month’s “Captain America” hits the stands this week as the announcement is made that Steve Rogers is returning as Captain America in the mini-series “Captain America: Reborn”. As we all know Steve Rogers was shot and killed by a brainwashed Sharon Carter in “Captain America” (Vol.5) #25. Cap’s long thought dead partner James “Bucky” Buchanan Barnes assumed the role of Captain America in issue #34 of the same series. There are numerous stories in this extra-sized issue of #600, but it is the main story of the book that sets the table for “Reborn” and the return of Rogers as Captain America.

The main story takes place on the one year anniversary of Steve Rogers’ assassination and focuses on all of the supporting players that we’ve seen in Captain America life: Sharon Carter, Bucky, Falcon, Patriot, etc. The story goes from character-to-character and each one has their own little tale. Sharon is remembering the events of the day she pulled the trigger and she remembers handing the gun off to some man. Sharon enters the home of that man and discovers that like her, he was brainwashed on the day of the assassination. After shooting Steve, Sharon unconsciously handed the gun off to the man. She finds the gun and takes off.

One of the characters that is shown in this story is Rikki Barnes the female Bucky that Cap teamed up with during the “Heroes Reborn” series. She has traveled over to the 616 Marvel Universe and aligns herself Eli Bradley The Patriot from the Young Avengers. I like that Marvel has decided to bring this character over into the 616 universe, however things are getting a bit crowded with Cap’s supporting cast. Hopefully writer Ed Brubaker can juggle them all.  Still I welcome the character and see potential.  Maybe they can pair up Rikki and Eli in a relationship.

With the one year anniversary of Captain America’s assassination, the people of New York plan to gather to remember him with a vigil in Central Park. Falcon and the non-registered Avengers plan on attending the vigil which is threatened with being shut down by Norman Osborn’s HAMMER organization. Osborn doesn’t shut it down, but uses it instead to paint himself in a positive light with the public.

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The Deaths of Batman

Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,

Let’s face it. They’ll kill Captain America before they kill Batman. Whoops - they did
 
Now we all know comics are not for kids anymore. Trix maybe, comics, no. But we are all adults here and we know that Cap will be back in time for the movie and, after the second year without Batman, he will return also. I am sure that if Captain America can sail along with Bucky as the Winter Soldier then we can rest assured that a Search for the Cowl will find some worthy person to fill it. Add the fact that with RIP and Crisis totally screwing continuity all to hell and is so confusing so much so that my reps at DC can’t even keep it straight. Giving an answer such as “Well, it’s Grant Morrison…” is infuriating because adult fiction should be able to keep itself consistent. But, you know what?  I can live with it.
 
What I cannot stand is this. They have killed Batman twice in two separate books. Dead in Batman 681 and dead in Crisis 6. Let us assume, for argument’s sake, that neither Batman was a clone, an android, a robot, a hero of any of the other 52 universes, or a leftover LMD from Marvel. My customers expect me to be the comic guru and I hate to feel foolish trying to explain, but I can’t explain. Maybe all the inconsistencies are really caused by Superboy Prime banging on the Walls of Eternity. I just don’t think so. It is sloppy writing and I can abide stupid better than sloppy. Still, I am sure that Crisis 7, which comes out next next, will explain it all. Don’t you?