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.
I’m a fan of the X-Men films, but the first trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse had me concerned. The commercial that aired during the Super Bowl has restored some of that faith. It looks much better than the trailer. You’ve probably seen it by now, but if not, watch it after the break.
Life is funny sometimes. When I wrote my walk through of Secret Wars #9 I mentioned that I had read all the events books except for Armor Wars #½. Since it was a limited giveaway at Toys R’ Us (a store I don’t frequent) I had a hard time getting my hands it. Strangely enough, it was literally half an hour after that review posted to the website, I happened upon a copy.
After the break I will inch closer to completing this odyssey with the aforementioned Armor Wars #½, as well as finish off Weirdworld (#3-5) and X-Men ’92 (Infinite) (#7-8). As usual, this way be spoilers.
A day after making headlines that there would be a major death in Civil War II that was essentially a marketing ploy, Marvel is proving their point by teasing that someone would soon be brought back from the dead.
So, who could it be? The first one that comes to mind is Wolverine. But with an All-New Wolverine only launched two months ago and Old Man Logan now kicking around the Marvel U, that seems unnecessary. Professor X has a habit of routinely coming back from the dead. As does Jean Grey, though there is a time displaced version of Jean currently around. Possibly Namor, but seems a lot of hype for someone who most might not even realize is dead. There is a lot of speculation online about it possibly being Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben or Original Recipe Gwen Stacy…but does anyone want that?
This could also be an elaborate headfake. And not as straighforward as it seems. Maybe Deadpool is changing his name to Lifepool. Or StartwritingmysequelPool. Or some other wink and nod situation that Marvel will tease us with for awhile.
Ryan thinks it would be hilarious if whoever they bring back is the one that gets killed in Civil War II.
And these days it takes no time for parodies to appear online. See what I mean after the break.
The end is near for Secret Wars (well, there is still a month to go), but not for my write ups. Sigh. So much to do. Anyway, last week finally saw the release of Secret Wars #7 Part Two aka Secret Wars #8. I believe that only leaves the following for this long, long event:
Ultimate End #5 – December 16th Secret Wars #9 – January 13th, 2016
After the break I’ll take a look at that penultimate Secret Wars issue as well as play some catch-up with the following books: Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars #3, Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #3, Red Skull #2, Silver Surfer #15 and X-Men ’92 (Infinite) #6
Be sure to check out our latest Secret Wars Power Rankings, which also features links to the other parts of my read through.
Many of the Secret Wars tie-ins have familiar names like Infinity Gauntlet, Planet Hulk and Civil War. For most of the series with names you have heard of before, reading the original series is not usually required. I found E Is For Extinction to be the opposite of that.
While I guess I cannot really say because I haven’t read the original run by Grant Morrison, I really felt like I was missing something with this series. Not that I couldn’t understand it, but for 4 issues I felt like there was an inside joke that I was missing out on. Tom Kelly has also made some comments about them nailing the tone and feel of the run.
After the cut I’ll take a spoilery look at E Is For Extinction #1 thru #4. For those that have read Morrison’s run, feel free to jump in and let me know what I’m missing, or what would help me understand this series better.
Be sure to check out our latest Secret Wars Power Rankings, which also features links to the other parts of my read through.
I spent many hours as a kid not just praying my favorite superheroes would get their own big budget action movies, but actually casting these can’t miss vehicles with the stars of the day. Forget the budgetary impact of having all the biggest stars of my youth in one movie, the only limitation was my imagination! It was quite a way to toil away the time; necessary as Words With Friends was still decades away.
Much like they did with superhero movies in 2000, X-Men: The Animated Series showed that you could tell relevant and interesting stories without it being a camp fest. (Ok, in fairness, Batman: The Animated Series began airing a month before X-Men to much critical acclaim, but that doesn’t help my intro.)
The series featured an X-Team similar in roster and look to the work Jim Lee and Chris Claremont were doing in the X-books at the time. Namely Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Beast, Gambit, Jubilee, Jean Grey and Professor X. It featured mostly original stories, but did adapt some popular comic storylines such as “Days of Future Past” and “The Dark Phoenix Saga”. X-Men and the also excellent Spider-Man animated series even crossed over for their own version of the original Secret Wars.
Um…yeah…so this is the Beyonder in that story.
I previously looked at X-Men ’92 #1 in Part Seven of this series, and after the break I’ll continue with X-Men ’92 #2, X-Men ’92 #3,X-Men ’92 #4 and X-Men ’92 #5. These are all the Infinite Comics versions of these books as the print editions are much slower to come out.
Also, if you are like me and haven’t read all of Johnathon Hickman’s Avengers run leading up to Secret Wars, be sure to take Tom’s Road To Secret Wars course at gabbinggeekuniversity.com. The reading materials are online here: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7.
And that course is a prerequisite to the other parts of this series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Oh those pesky Thors. Tasked with being the “police” of Battleworld, they are one of the truly cool new concepts introduced with Secret Wars. And while there have been lots of Thor’s across Marvel’s multiverse and history to fill up a corps as is, we also get some cool new Thor’s based on the likes of Iron Man and Groot for example. They’ve shown up in pretty much every book so far in one way or another, but they also get a series of their own.
In this episode of “Jimmy’s Way Behind On Deadlines”, I’ll look at that Thor-centric book with Thors #1. I’ll also look at Armor Wars #2 (hey, there’s a James Rhodes Thor on the cover!), Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars #2 and Squadron Sinister #1. As usual, spoilers abound.
Also, if you are like me and haven’t read all of Johnathon Hickman’s Avengers run leading up to Secret Wars, be sure to take Tom’s Road To Secret Wars course at gabbinggeekuniversity.com. The reading materials are online here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six and Part Seven.
Gabbing Geek 
