Cumberbatch Powers Activate: The First Doctor Strange Trailer Drops

In an era of over-hype, where there are teaser trailers for the release of teaser trailers, the Doctor Strange trailer kinda snuck up on us.  After the break, get your first glimpse of Marvel’s next star in the making.

Spider-Man Complete Chronology Update 9

And we’re back!  This update took longer than I suspected for many reasons.  Some of them personal, some of them ironing out a few continuity issues, but luckily none of them trying to figure out if it was winter and where Peter Parker was working!

It’s a big update consisting of over 90 issues as we make our way through most of 1981-1982.

As usual, spoilers follow from here on out if you’ve missed out on the last 50 years of Spider-Man and are just getting started.

Spiders, Spiders Everywhere Part 10 (Death Of Captain Marvel Edition)

The Death of Captain Marvel is one of those stories that routinely show up on critics “best of” lists, but that you never get around to reading.  Well, it has been that way for me anyway.  But I recently remedied that as I had to read it to see if it fit in with the Spider-Man Complete Chronology.  Given I’m writing about it in this column series and not in a Chronology update, I think reveals the answer to that.

More about The Death of Captain Marvel and it’s place in Spider-Man lore after the break.

The Secret Wars Power Rankings – Final Standings

Well, it is finally over!  Ok, it was finally over back in the beginning of January, but I’ve finally finished my write ups.  With that done, after the break check out our (well, mostly my) final rankings for all the Secret Wars series.

It was a huge event and most will not be insane enough to read it all.  If you are interested in the main story, you can mostly get by with just reading the main series.  Very few of the other series tie into the main event, and those that do are recapped as needed in the lead book.

Outside of that, I’d recommend giving any of the top 15 a shot.  As for the rest, you can likely just pick and choose the series that interest you.  As said, most have no ties to the core book outside of Doom being God and the story taking place in a domain of Battleworld.  And some barely bother with that.

Let us know what’s ranked too high or too low.

Spider-Man Complete Chronology Update 8 (Couldn’t Stand The Weather Edition)

Everything was going along just fine until disco came along.  I’m probably not the first person to write that sentence.  For our purposes I refer to the fact that even with 3 monthly books and various guest appearances, the wall-crawlers adventures had been pretty straight forward to put in order.  But then came a couple of issues where Peter went to the disco (and then teamed up with the cast of Saturday Night Live) where everything just went all to hell.

Much, much more on this after the break as I try to put this update to rest, not because I’m happy with it…but to save my sanity.  I can’t imagine what this is going to be like when I get to the 90’s…

As usual, spoilers follow from here on out if you’ve missed out on the last 50 years of Spider-Man and are just getting started.

Expect Everyone Outside Of The X-Men and Fantastic Four In Avengers: Infinity War

Co-directors and gluttons for punishment The Russo Brothers have revealed they currently have 67 characters lined up to appear in the two part Avengers: Infinity War.  My immediate reaction was “Holy $#@*!”  That has got to include EVERYONE.  The MCU regulars of the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, new blood like Ant-Man, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange and Blank Panther.  Even the TV crowd most be represented.  Anyone from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, Luke Cage and/or Jessica Jones.  The Captain Marvel movie is scheduled in between Infinity War Parts One and Two so you’d think she’d be involved somehow.  And there are sure to be characters making their debut here as well.  Sounds like a whole lot of awesome.

Joe Russo teases:

“People will not be disappointed in the amount of characters in the movie. The concept of ‘Infinity War’ is that the Marvel universe unites to battle the greatest threat to the world and universe that you’ve ever seen, and we’re going to honor that concept.”

All that said, maybe we need to keep expectations a little in check.  I’m sure we will see a lot of the crowd mentioned above.  And the TV shows do make occasional reference to the movies so they clearly take place in the same universe unlike whatever mess DC has going on.  But keep in mind the phrasing here…67 characters.  There could be villains other than Thanos that appear.  Aunt May is a character.  Night Nurse.  Agent Carter.  Pepper Potts.  The cop picking up Twinkies for his wife before heading over to Nakatomi Plaza.  That S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent with the red shirt on that Thanos kills on an away mission.  You get the point.

And it won’t be any day soon we’ll get much clarification here as Avengers: Infinity War Part One is not scheduled until May 4th, 2018.

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Secret Wars 45 (Issue 5 Edition)

This week saw the release of Ultimate End #5, the second to last Secret Wars book.  Now we just have to wait a month for the four month delayed finale to get the anticlimactic details on how Doom was defeated and everything basically returned to normal.  Where All-New, All-Different seems to equal “we got Miles now and Wolverine is back (kinda)”.

Click through as I cover the fifth and final issues of the following books: Ultimate End #5, Planet Hulk #5, Secret Wars 2099 #5, Armor Wars #5, Spider-Verse #5, Inhumans: Attilan Rising #5, Inferno #5 and A-Force #5 .

As usual there are spoilers, so take care, especially with Ultimate End which is only days old.  The others have been out a while.

Be sure to check out our latest Secret Wars Power Rankings, which also features links to the other parts of my read through.

The Secret Wars Power Rankings – November 12, 2015

 

It was a big week for Secret Wars.  Probably the last one, with the release of Secret Wars #7 and the conclusions of Thors, Squadron Sinister and Infinity Gauntlet.  The only books left now I believe are Secret Wars #8 and #9, Hail Hydra #4 and Ultimate End #5, which is long delayed, I’m guessing because it ties into the conclusion of the main series.

I’ve heard rumors that when Secret Wars was expanded to 9 issues, the actual page count remained the same for the series.  That they basically split an issue that was supposed to be oversized in two to give the creative team more time.  It sure felt that way this week as issue 7 felt like half an issue.  The endings of Thors and Squadron Sinister were ok but had their problems.

Infinity Gauntlet finished strong and has a big jump up the rankings.  Moving from #16 to #9.  While it still annoys me that this series doesn’t tie into the main story, as a self-contained work it is quite good and manages to deliver on the ending, which many of the Secret Wars tie-ins have failed to do.

After the break, this weeks rankings…

The Secret Wars Power Rankings – November 3, 2015

There’s not much Secret Wars left to talk about these days.  Most series are over and the new Marvel Universe has already launched.  Last week saw the conclusions of House of M and Where Monsters Dwell.  This week, for the first time since May, there are no Secret Wars books scheduled.

Since there aren’t many issues, there aren’t really any big movers and shakers.  Monsters dropped slightly as I wonder if this had anything to do at all with Secret Wars or Marvel just used it as an excuse to hype a tame Garth Ennis book?  I don’t think there is one reference to Battleworld in the story.  House of M moved up a bit with a mediocre finale, jumping over a couple of other mediocre books.

After the break, this weeks rankings…

Save Your $5 And Avoid The Guide To The Marvel Multiverse

With many of their company wide events, Marvel likes to publish a “Guide” book to help those that may be lost about what circumstances lead to the current crossover and who the main players are.

Even being the completist that I am, I almost never read these.  The problem for me is the format.  They are just page after page of very small text with the occasional recycled image added where appropriate.

But since I’m attempting to read all of Secret Wars, will I manage to read this as well?  Answer: no.  So the question becomes, should you?  Find out after the cut.  (Spoilers: no, no you shouldn’t.)