This week starts the first chapter of Jonathan Maberry’s Marvel Universe vs. the Avengers, expanding on the world created in Marvel Universe vs. Punisher and Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine. This time the main character is Hawkeye, coming to grips in a world rapidly succumbing to a biological defect. As always, it reads like how Marvel Zombies should have been and as far as I can tell is the first and only comic to ever depict Squirrel Girl as being killed. So it has that going for it!
Early into the issue, there’s a page depicting Captain America giving an inspirational speech to the various Avengers teams and other heroes. Looking at this page caused me a moment of confusion followed by genuine laughter because I know exactly what went wrong.
Can you spot it? Can you spot where artist Leandro Fernandez screwed up? Let’s just say that there was a bit of a miscommunication in there.
I would post 500 panels and I would post 500 more. Luckily, I don’t have nearly as many today, but thanks to Jody, Gaijin Dan and Was Taters, I have enough.
Today I did my Improv 301 show. It went pretty well. I was kind of shitty for the first few minutes, but it picked up in a scene where I was basically molested on stage in a bit with a plot of, “Your online profile scares me, but my 3 months of eHarmony is about up, so I thought I’d give this date a try.” I also played a parrot on American Idol and did the world’s worst John Stamos impression.
Hey, look at those panels that are happening right there!
Action Comics #13
Grant Morrison, Travel Foreman, Sholly Fisch and Brad Walker
Age of Apocalypse #8
David Lapham and Renato Arlem
Animal Man #13
Jeff Lemire, Steve Pugh and Timothy Green II
Really, when you look at it, it’s such a fun concept. Write a story where the main selling point is that two pre-existing parties cross paths and interact. It says a lot about the power of fiction and the properties that come from it that you can even do that. At worst, it’s a cheap cash-in. At best, it’s an interesting character study.
I think my admiration for crossovers is similar to why I’m drawn to Marvel’s What If series and to a lesser extent DC’s Elseworlds. It’s a celebration of the characters and ideas that have been built up over time while lovingly stretching them in fantastic ways. Like, I’ve never seen Star Trek. At all. Never watched any of the shows or seen any of the movies. I think I tried watching the cartoon when I was really young, but it bored me into a coma. Anything I know about the series comes from pop culture. That said, when they did an X-Men/Star Trek crossover and had a scene of someone busting into the room to yell, “DR. MCCOY?!” and both Leonard McCoy and Beast react to it and then glare back at each other, I still laugh about it because it’s almost like that was the entire reasoning for doing the comic. If it wasn’t, you know that writer had that on the top of his idea list, just over, “Spock takes out Wolverine with the Vulcan Neck Pinch and then Wolverine gets back up because of his healing factor.” Story came secondary at best.
I figured that if crossovers are a celebration of the characters, then maybe it’s about time that I celebrate the crossovers. One of the great things about crossovers – and another similarity with What If – is that they’re all so damn fascinating. It’s hard to make one that’s dull and uninteresting. You might find a crossover that works out great for everyone involved and tells a good story to boot. More than likely, you’ll get a bizarre mess that’s fun to look back at.
I’m not going to strictly talk about comics here. I’m talking crossovers in all media, whether it be comics, TV, movies and so on. I’ll only count stuff that’s official. Fan works and the like don’t count. Avengers fighting the Squadron Supreme, who themselves are Marvel’s stand-ins for the Justice League, doesn’t count. Also, in-universe crossovers don’t really rate here. Spider-Man meeting the Hulk isn’t very special. Regular Spider-Man meeting Ultimate Spider-Man? Yeah, maybe. I’ll at least use DC/Wildstorm crossovers.
For this debut entry, I’m going to go with JLA vs. Predators from 2001, drawn by Graham Nolan and written by John Ostrander. Ostrander’s a guy who I respect enough that I did a double-take when I realized he was behind it because he’s better than this.
This is one of the six times the Predators have crossed over with DC, five of the times in stories involving Batman. It hits me how safe the Predators are in this situation as the story is already written the moment you come up with the title. The Predators have a little more substance and likability than the Alien xenomorphs, but at the end of the day, in situations like this, they’re just high-profile cannon fodder. It’s a race of nameless creatures made up of some loose traits created from scenes from the first movie and, to a lesser extent, the sequel. When the xenomorphs aren’t around to make them the lesser evil, the Predators are simply, “those assholes from space”. They’re cool as hell, but there’s no mystery on who will win and who will die while laughing and exploding.
12 months after DC’s problematic reboot made its way onto the scene, we finish the month of getting various #0 issues of DC properties. A couple comics are canceled as of their #0s, which includes the clever use of which in Resurrection Man. For years, that guy’s been wandering around while wondering who he really is and where he comes from and to have his story end in the origin issue is kind of perfect.
One comic I’m disappointed to see go is Captain Atom by JT Krul and Freddie Williams II. Not at all surprised, granted. In fact, I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did (I had similar feelings about ill-fated comics Azrael and Magog). The series was selling terribly and did even worse than Hawk and Dove, which makes me incredibly disappointed because that means at least two people were buying Hawk and Dove before that got the axe.
I feel Captain Atom got a bad rap and was far better than most gave it credit for. It’s no surprise why. Captain Atom is a bunch of comic book wrongs somehow making a right. That’s excluding Williams, who while there are a couple issues that seem a little too fluid and melty, his art is great stuff. I mean, this is a comic written by JT Krul. That is NOT a name that makes you optimistic. You can reboot continuity all you want, but people will still remember a tripping Roy Harper holding a dead cat and thinking it’s his daughter. The fact that he hasn’t worked on anything notably good since then keeps that red flag flapping.
Then you have Captain Atom himself. Captain Atom is one of those guys who I really want to like, but know it’s a hard sell. He’s pretty boring most of the time. He’s a Superman-level hero without much of a spark. He’s so boring that they’ve given themselves no choice but to try and turn him into a villain three times and all three times it went horribly wrong. There have been times when he’s shown promise. I thought he was the perfect ambassador character to interact with the Wildstorm Universe during Captain Atom: Armageddon. I’ll even say that I didn’t hate his portrayal in the days of Extreme Justice. Judd Winick was able to make something of him in Justice League: Generation Lost but, oops, Flashpoint happened and that character growth no longer matters.
You put a character that’s hard to pull off with a writer who can’t pull off something readable and… you get something good! There’s something inspiring about that. I still won’t buy anything with Krul’s name on it that involves a bow and arrow, but I’ll be a little more open-minded to his future work.
I feel that Captain Atom is the best use of the New 52 concept trying something new. New 52 is essentially DC’s Ultimate Universe, only it’s the new mainstream instead of a parallel. Too many characters are nothing more than a reset button for the sake of telling the same stories, but you have guys like Morrison’s Superman who go in a slightly different direction. Captain Atom strays away from the original concept while holding onto just enough, making him a cross between pre-Flashpoint Captain Atom, Dr. Manhattan and the Sentry.
Hey kids. I’m helped out this week by Jody, Gaijin Dan and Space Jawa. Jawa wanted me to note, what with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles issue having come out this week, that the new cartoon is worth checking out based on the first episode.
I should note in the upcoming images that the gentleman in the Space Punisher panels is none other than Jarvis the Butler. Yes, in this reality where everybody is reimagined as a futuristic dude from space, the biggest badass on the block is none other than Jarvis. It’s rad.
Speaking of rad, the panels between me and Jody perfectly explain why FF was such a great issue this month.
All-Star Western #0
Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Moritat
Aquaman #0
Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis
Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise, Part 3
Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru
If you check this site regularly, you know that a week and a half ago, I went to Easton, Pennsylvania to check out CHIKARA’s 2012 King of Trios. The reason you would know is pretty much the same reason it’s taken me so long to even write about it: I just did an excessive amount of posts about the previous five years of shows. So I kind of needed to take a writing break.
Don’t worry, I’ll be back to talking about comics in a little bit.
I won’t get too in-depth on the trip, but it was easily one of the most fun weekends I’ve ever had. I was joined by my co-worker buddy Colin, his brother Sean and fellow internet writer guy and enthusiast of bat-related people Chris Sims. I had only met Sims once prior at Comic Con back in 2010 and he admittedly doesn’t even remember it. Anyway, after months of pestering him, I convinced him to fly over and check out the show. Everyone got along swimmingly and not a problem was to be had outside of my questionable driving. Sims is a really nice guy who I have a strong respect for, so it was great that he was able to make the trip.
I’m not going to go over the events of the show itself because you should really just check it out yourself. Only 24 hours after the third night, Smart Mark Video released all three shows. They’re available in streaming form for $10 each (Nights 1, 2 and 3), downloadable MP4 form for $12 (1, 2 and 3) and DVD for $15 (1, 2 and 3). While I do the first two options most of the time these days, I went with the DVDs because I felt the need to physically own them. I lucked out because for some reason my DVD cases are cherry-scented.
If you can only get one show, do Night 3. The second half of it is completely amazing stuff with the best comedy match, an incredible joshi match, a very violent singles contest and the finals, which itself is pretty epic. Also, the Tag Gauntlet earlier on introduces the first major CHIKARA appearance by my new favorite tag team, the Devastation Corporation, made up of Blaster McMassive and Max Smashmaster.
Somebody took the big comedy match from Night 3 and turned the highlights into a Vaudevillian silent film. Give it a look.
The Fan Conclave was an absolute blast. Jakob Hammermeier was schooling everybody in Smash Brothers Brawl, wrestlers took pictures with fans in front of a yearbook-style backdrop, Soldier Ant was playing Battleship with some folks and I got selected to take part in CHIKARA’s Not-Jeopardy gameshow. It’s just like Jeopardy with the differences of being hosted by Leonard F. Chikarason, it had the Swamp Monster remove the points squares off the wall and Icarus was there to make fun of you for getting the answer wrong… and often getting the answer right.
I did really well. In fact, I was cheated. You see, right before Final Not-Jeopardy, I was in the lead. I bet all but 100 points on the final question for strategy purposes. The final question was in the form of a sheet of paper asking various number-based questions (ie. how many people unmasked as Vokoder, how many matches has Mixed-Martial Archie won, how many moves is Johnny Saint a master of, how many title defense has Eddie Kingston had, etc.) then adding it all together. Nobody got it right. In fact, I was the closest by being only two points off! But then ol’ Chikarason had to suddenly curveball me with, “the closest without going over”. COME ON! This is Not-Jeopardy, not Not-Price is Right! So I got second place, netting me a $50 voucher for anything at the CHIKARA merch table.
The wrestlers were extremely cool in person. I found out that Chuck Taylor was reading up on the King of Trios Retrospective, which was major. At my B&N, one of my customers is Green Ant’s mother, so I awkwardly told him, “This is going to sound extremely weird and random, but I work at a Barnes and Noble and—” and he interrupted with, “Oh yeah, my mom.” Heh. Scott Parker and Shane Matthews both loved my vintage “Big Shot” Hardcore Holly t-shirt, especially when they saw the “NUT UP OR SHUT UP” text on the back. Matthews laughed and pointed out that he only said that catchphrase for like two weeks. I even briefly got to talk to the Warlord and told him that his match with the British Bulldog at Wrestlemania 7 is my all-time favorite match.
The best interaction was with Mr. Touchdown. I bought his t-shirt at the merch stand during one night’s intermission and he pulled out an 8×10 and a pen.
“Wait, before you go. What’s your name?”
“Gavin.”
“Gavin? Like Gavin Loudspeaker?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. And how do you spell that?”
“G-A-V-I-N.”
“What was that?”
“G-A-V-I-N.”
He started writing. “G-A-V…?”
“-I-N.”
“All right. Here you go.”
And so, he gave me the signed 8×10. At the top of it? “To: NERD!“
After last week’s ACTION PACKED end-of-year-three spectacular, it’s a pretty small week. Partially because my only backup is Gaijin Dan supplying the manga dose.
This weekend I saw Dredd 3D. The movie is entirely awesome and wipes away the stink of “YOUBETRAYEDDALAAAAAAU!!” The whole thing is like some kind of cyberpunk mix of Raid: Redemption and Punisher War Zone and it’s hard not to love. Plus the aftermath of the gattling guns scene is easily the most badass thing I’ve seen in any movie in YEARS.
See it while you still can. Sadly, it’s doing shitty in the box office and that puts a damper on any plans on a sequel.
Avengers Academy #37
Christos Gage and Tom Grummett
Damn. Three years… So yeah, it’s been three years of This Week in Panels. Because of that, it’s time for This Year in Panels (“ThYiP” doesn’t have the same ring to it). The idea is to take a panel from the last 52 updates while making sure not to use the same title twice. It means not being able to use “TO ME, MY GALACTUS!” from Fantastic Four but what can you do?
All-Star Western #9
Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Moritat and Patrick Scherberger
Avengers Academy #25
Christos Gage and Tom Grummett
Avenging Spider-Man #2
Zeb Wells and Joe Madureira
Axe Cop: President of the World #1
Malachai Nicolle and Ethan Nicolle
Welp. As I said a few days ago, ThWiP was delayed due to me being out of town. Luckily, Was Taters, Jody, Gaijin Dan and Space Jawa already had their panel stuff waiting for me. What a great bunch of guys… and girl.
Frankenstein #0 is really weird in that it’s almost exactly how Jason Aaron’s Incredible Hulk run starts. You’d think they’d try to move it in a slightly different direction.
Avengers vs. X-Men #11
Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman and Olivier Coipel
Avenging Spider-Man #12
Kevin Shinick and Aaron Kuder
So good news and bad news. Good news is that I’m having a complete and utter blast at King of Trios in Easton, PA. Even if Chris Sims snores like a chainsaw (David can back me up on this). I’ll have a full trip report in a day or so, including how I was completely screwed out of the CHIKARA Not-Jeopardy Challenge and only made second place.
CHIKARASON! :argh:
The bad news is that I’m going to be in Easton until tomorrow and that means I don’t have the means to wait a day to do This Week in Panels. Which kind of sucks because this is the ending of the third year of the feature. This just means that I’ll have to do This Week in Panels #whatever tomorrow and This Year in Panels the day after that. So it’s not like I’ve completely forgotten about it.
