At Long Last, Miles Morales Makes His Prime Marvel “Debut” Today In Spider-Man #1

We’ve known for quite some time that Miles Morales would be spinning his webs in the Prime Marvel Universe after the events of Secret Wars and the destruction of the Ultimate Universe.  In fact, Miles has been swinging around his new universe for a while now, having made appearances in other books, namely All-New All-Different Avengers for the past 3 months.

Which brings us to today’s release of Spider-Man #1.  Marvel has been staggering their new releases post Secret Wars for many reasons.  One, though they will downplay it as much as possible, the lengthy delays of Secret Wars itself.  Two, they wanted to spread their new number ones out so that they weren’t clobbering each other ala DC’s New 52 (and it looks like their upcoming Reboot Rebirth project.)  But third, and maybe most inportantly for this book, they wanted to get the band back together.  What I mean by that is Spider-Man #1 sees the reunion of Miles creators Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli.

As for the issue itself, I found it a bit uneven.  If you are a fan of Miles you will likely be happy with it, but several aspects of it came off a bit strange to me.  I’ll dive into them more after the cut as things will get a bit spoilery.

Bento Review: Marvel Masterworks Iron Man Volume 2

I finished off the December Bento box pile with one I had some minor mixed feelings for:  a Marvel Masterworks volume of old 1960s Iron Man adventures.

The mixed feelings were because while I actually get a kick out of Silver Age screwiness, I’m not much of a fan of Iron Man when he’s not also Robert Downey Jr.

Review and maybe some mild SPOILERS after the cut.

Bento Review: Battlestar Galactica Memorial

Normally, I’d avoid a comic based on a licensed property like the proverbial plague, but Comics Bento just ships stuff, so I end up with stuff I normally wouldn’t, like that Youngblood volume, or this trade from Dynamite based off the original Battlestar Galactica.

How was it?  See after the cut.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #48: The Sentry

“Look, up in the sky! It’s an expy of Superman!”

Writer Paul Jenkins and artist Jae Lee had a surprise hit with an Inhumans mini-series when the “Marvel Knights” line launched, so there was some anticipation for their follow-up.

That would have been a character they said was a long forgotten Marvel hero that predated the Fantastic Four.  They said his name was the Sentry.

Late Geek Movie Review: Big Hero 6

I don’t get to the movies as often as I would like, which means sometimes I am a bit late seeing things.  But they give me space to write here, so here’s a quick review of Big Hero 6.

There may be some mild SPOILERS after the cut.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #44: Isaiah Bradley

Diversity in long-standing superhero comics is hard work.  Most of the classic superheroes were white men because they were largely created by white men.  There were a handful of white women in the mix, but minority representation among superheroes has often been rough if not outright painful in the way some creators set about creating a hero of color.

Sometimes the answer is to create a new version of the hero in question, a legacy character, that can be of another race and hope it goes over well.  That can lead to successful characters, like Green Lantern John Stewart, or less successful ones, like the Marvel hero Battlestar, a black man set as a partner to U.S.Agent, himself a onetime Captain America.  Battlestar initially went by the codename “Bucky” until someone realized that was actually a rather racist name and changed it to Battlestar.

But then there’s the curious case of Isaiah Bradley.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Heroes Case File #34: Nomad

The most 90s-looking hero of all time!

Captain America joined the Avengers with issue #4 of that series.  He’d been found frozen in ice and quickly joined the team, in part as a replacement for the Hulk who’d quit two issues earlier.  Cap recounted how he’d gotten frozen in the first place, when he and his partner and sidekick Bucky had tried to disarm an explosive plane during World War II.  Cap was thrown off and frozen in ice.  Bucky was thrown off without an arm, and later emerged as the Winter Soldier.

But here’s the thing:  that comic never happened.  Stan Lee and Jack Kirby just needed a quick explanation of where Cap had been and why Bucky wasn’t around in case anyone actually remembered the two of them.  There actually had been plenty of Cap and Bucky adventures between the end of World War II and when Steve Rogers joined the Avengers.

That’s where Nomad comes into play…

Stan Lee Invented The Fantastic Four And Now He’s Battling…Jim Henson?

Can Stan Lee and Jim Henson put aside their differences in this epic rap battle before they are overtaken by a mysterious third rapper?  Find out after the break.

Infographic Wars! All Of Stan Lee’s Marvel Cameos

Ant-Man comes out Friday and is sure to have a Stan Lee cameo.  Need a refresher on all the cameos Stan has made over the years in Marvel films?  Check out the infographic from morphsuits after the break.

Molecule Man, Molecule Man, Doing The Things A Molecule Can…

Ranting lunatics in the street always get this much attention in New York City.

I usually devote a bit of time Tuesday to discuss a superhero who died and usually got better.  Then I got a request from Jimmy Impossible.  He’s been reading along and writing up stuff for the current Secret Wars and while chatting with fellow Gabbing Geek Ryan, it came out that Ryan had no idea who the Molecule Man was.

So, this one’s for you and Ryan, Jimmy.