www.marvel.com

$2.99 on sale this Wednesday.

I’ve been reading Brian Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man for years (since issue 18 actually). I can say with total honesty that that book is the gateway drug that got me back into collecting comics when I was 16. The past few weeks I’ve been diving into my back issues to re-read arcs from years back and am still blown away by Bendis’ storytelling abilities. With each arc the series gets better, more mature and stronger, as he has an innate ability to mold Peter Parker, Mary Jane and countless other heroes and villains into three dimensional characters we actually give a shit about. Bendis’ proves his worth and relevance in Marvel Comics yet again, meticulously fleshing out back-story that is never dull and only leaves us wanting more. When Peter goes on a 10-page monologue on his search for resolution to his symbiote troubles and his detest for the barrage of corporations that are stealing his father’s life work we know Bendis isn’t fucking around.

This month’s issue of Ultimate Spider-Man sets up an the end of this current chapter of the Ultimate Venom mythos within the series and simultaneously kicks off one that marks the much-anticipated return of Gwen Stacy (or at least her clone). And maybe it will possibly answer our questions on why she is also part Ultimate Carnage and set us up for yet another story that takes what has been done in the normal Marvel Universe, flipping it on it’s ear and creating something fresh, original and of course fun to read.

Writer- Grant Morrison
Pencils- Tony Dainel
Inks- Sandu Florea
Color- Guy Major

The Thin White Duke of Death is the title for issue #680 of Batman and is the 5^th issue of the story “Batman RIP” running through the main book. Batman RIP is the current Batman storyline running through the Batman family of comics (Batman, Detective Comics, Robin, Nightwing, and Batman and the Outsiders) but realistically is it’s own animal entirely. The other books seem to be thematically picking up pieces of the story and work themselves around it and not necessarily vital to reading RIP.

Morrison’s run on Batman has been met with mixed reactions and much controversy. People have either found Grant’s Batman to be “absolutely brilliant” or “complete and utter garbage”, there’s no in-between and fans feel very strongly one way or the other. Not only is the series continuing to draw in new readers from Morrison’s fan base, the speculation of the fate of Bruce Wayne’s fate has brought in new and old readers as well. DC’s even gone as far to pass out promotional buttons at cons this year featuring Nightwing, Tim Drake, Jason Todd, and Hush with the words “I Am Batman” beneath them.

To sum up the story thus far, Batman pays a visit to the recently disfigured Joker in Arkham Asylum (DC Universe #0). He questions him about the Black Glove, a mysterious person or crime organization apparently gunning to destroy Batman. The Joker responds in a cryptic series of clues that begin to lay the foundation of the story. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne has been romancing the fashion model Jezebel Jet, who uses her celebrity to provide funding for the small African nation she is in charge of. She’s recently discovered that Bruce is in fact the Batman, and in the first issue of RIP (Batman #676) questions him about what he will do when it’s all over and . Bruce sidesteps this question and instead becomes suspicious of the invitation they have received inviting them to the mysteriously rich elite Black Glove Dance Macabre themed party. Jet sees this as a fund razing opportunity, whereas Bruce sees this as a ploy to lure the Batman into the hands of the Black Glove.

Speed up a couple issues where, Bruce has been assaulted, drugged, and left as human refuse with his mind confused as to who he is. Bruce manages to pull himself together in an unexpected manner and assembles a ragged makeshift Batman costume and gear from scraps and trash. Bruce seems to be going crazy as his mind creates a back-up Batman persona to protect himself that is advised by a floating “Bat-Mite” (who has some kind of parasitic insect attached to his back). Batman begins hunting down the members of the Club of Villains (criminal opposites of the Club of Heroes, an international group of Batman inspired heroes) who is lead by Dr. Hurt, a psychiatrist who conducted hallucinogenic isolation experiments on Batman years ago in the name of “Space Medicine”. Hurt and the Club of Villains are tied into the Black Glove and are in the process of hunting down Robin in their plans to destroy Batman. Nightwing is captured and drugged and taken to Arkham Asylum, where the guests of the Black Hand have gathered to witness the destruction of the Batman.

The current issue shows the guests assembling to watch and gamble on the outcome of whether Batman will survive or fall. When Batman is revealed to the guests betting on the outcome, the guests think they are being conned as they can’t believe it’s Batman, due to his bizarre appearance.

As Batman makes his way to Arkham to save Jezebel from the Black Glove, the Joker is released by Dr. Dax, who reveals himself to be Le Bossu of the Club of Villains. In addition to Jezebel, Nightwing is also being held in the asylum, drugged and unconscious by the Scorpiana. After an explanation to Bat-Mite as to the color scheme of his outfit is to demonstrate total confidence, Batman makes an explosive entrance, disarming several of Le Bossu and Charlie Coligula’s henchmen. Bat-Mite informs Bruce he will not be able to continue and that it will be up to Batman alone to face what’s to come.

The climax of this issue actually come after the showdown between the Joker and Batman in a twin peaks-esque red and black backdrop. The verbal exchanges back and forth show how damaged and broken these two have become and become an encounter not to be soon forgotten. Without giving anything away, the final pages leave the fate of the characters hanging in a terrible place leaving an extremely unsettling cliffhanger to be concluded in the next issue. The characters at play in these final pages will not walk away from this story without damage, physical, mental, and emotional.

On the plus side, this is not a typical Batman story. Despite the nods to the silver age stories and straightforward narrative, there is a series of layers and metaphors beneath the skin of the plot. For folks looking for something more than standard superheroics, this series is a wonderful look at the character and a truly excellent read.

On the downside, this is not an easy read for most casual readers. It has so much going on that a reader picking up the current issue would be horribly lost. Not only that, the title character is almost unrecognizable in addition to a cast of villains with almost no back-story or point of reference.

Morrison’s work tends to be best viewed as a whole once finished allowing the reader to see the puzzle in its entirety. Regardless of what happens to the Batman by the stories end, I don’t think many will be forgetting this story soon, for better or for worse.

Batman RIP Required reading

DC Universe #0

Batman #676-#681

Ender’s Game is one of the most successful science fiction series of the eighties. Of course, I say this without having actually read it or ever having discussed it with anyone or even knowing a damn thing about it. I suppose I’d heard of it before, but I can’t really say that with any certainty.

Having read this introductory issue I’d say that there is a lot of potential for the comic series. The lead character is intriguing and the world is not overly complicated or hard to get into. There is a bit of lingo that is never clearly explained, but for the most part the meanings can be inferred. Certainly part of the charm is having all the elements of the story come together and finally make sense. While it was a lot of setup and not much action there’s really no other way for a quality story to begin. A solid foundation, so to speak. The art wasn’t really my style but it seemed well matched with the subject matter and was executed cleanly and consistently.

Overall I wasn’t completely bowled over but there are aspects that piqued my curiosity. I cannot guarantee that I would actively seek out and purchase the next issue but I am definitely interested to see how the story will develop.

Publisher: Marvel
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #3
Written and Drawn by: Terry Moore and Craig Rosseau
On stands: 10/8/2008

One of the amazing perks of this job is getting to enjoy Marvel Comics before they come out…just so you can ramble about them online! It’s a dream life.

So I get to see SMLMJ before all you lowly readers, and I’m glad I can give you a mostly positive review.

Spiderman Loves Mary Jane is an out-of-continuity series told through the point of view of Mary Jane Watson, and is aimed mostly towards girls, though if any male thinks that automatically means they won’t enjoy it, they are sexist pigs and I curse them to the bowels of Hades.

I have enjoyed the series mostly. It gets a little to fluffy for my tastes at times, but most of the time it’s a fun, low pressure read that doesn’t condescend to the assumed “girl” reader. It’s always a good idea to enjoy a book that’s not all tangled up in continuity and the need to be X-TREME.

This miniseries has kept up the same tone in continuing the zany teenage antics of MJ and friends, with a little snarky Spidey action on the side in this particular issue. There’s nothing ground breaking or “deep” here, but it’s like sipping a foamy milkshake- sweet and fun.

That’s not to say I didn’t find some overused cliches here (Uh oh, Flash is jealous of Peter tutoring Liz! That dumb jock and his temper!) but they didn’t irk me to badly. If you’re allergic to cute, I’d avoid the series, but I think everyone, even guys, can benefit from reading something a little cute.

The art isn’t bad, though MJ’s constant anime blush is starting to grate on me. It’s obviously cartoony and I’ve always been a fan of that.

So, though I don’t claim it’s a great comic, I recommend it for anyone who wants to relax their brain for a few minutes and enjoy Spiderman and MJ deal-with-the-devil-free.

Also, according to MJ’s dialogue, something called a “punk-goth emo-bot” dwells in her world. If that thing ever finds me, we’ll have a robot war on our hands.

I am very shocked when I say this, but I really enjoyed this issue. Normally, this wouldn’t be something unusual for me to say about a Supergirl comic…if I was talking about Peter David’s run of Supergirl, which I adored. But the current Supergirl?

This run of Supergirl has been…rocky, to put it nicely. The first few issues were controversial due to the art (which depicted a ridiculously skinny and sexualized Kara- and this is even by comic book standards, the girls bones were jutting- in a skirt the length of a belt and some lackluster writing depicting Supergirl as an angsty, bratty teeenybopper without a kind bone in her body…though the writers probably thought she was “dark” and “edgy” with the all her boring daddy issues. It got to the point where the editor was begging women to read the title. Yeah.

DC actually listened to it’s fans and improved the art by putting the excellent Renato Guedes and Tony Bedard in for some fill in issues, and then some more artists that drew Kara like a human being and not a sex puppet.

The writing, though better, remained lackluster. Supergirl lacked a supporting cast and any real direction or interest as a title.

DC has promised to fix all that with this new run by Sterling Gates and Jamal Ingle and give Supergirl a real place in the Superman mythos.

This issue looks for a promising start. It addresses the criticisms about Supergirl in a much less patronizing way than Supergirl #18 (which was basically Joe Kelly’s rant that the fans wanted Kara to have no flaws at all and that’s why they didn’t like the book…completely missing the point) and sets up a conflict between Kara and the reporter Cat Grant.

I genuinely sympathized with Kara’s struggle to find her place in the world in the story, and I really liked her interaction with Lana. There was a very neat scene with Superman where the two of them had coffee on the rooftops, and for the first time I really got a feeling of affection between those two, and mutual understanding.

The last page sets up a status quo I think could be taken in a very interesting direction. It’s certainly a solid jumping off point for other stories to be told.

The art was beautiful as well. I’ve always liked Jamal Ingle’s work. The characters are well defined and expressive, and Kara doesn’t look like she comes from Planet Blow Up Doll.

The comic was by no means a masterpiece, but it was solid and fun to read, and that’s important. What’s more important is something that happened when I was in my local comic book shop a while ago. A girl I knew from school as a fellow comic book geek was flipping through a Supergirl trade. She showed me a page where Kara was showing off her amazing ability to wear a thong and look like Paris Hilton.

“I don’t get how I’m supposed to relate to her,” she told me.

I couldn’t relate to that Supergirl either. I could relate to the Supergirl in this comic. And that, my friends, is a good sign. Let’s hope it continues.

No, unfortunately I did not get to play a demo of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, the latest Spidey game to hit the market. SHH! however did have a demo shown to them and they have written up a pretty extensive and detailed review/preview of the game (pretty much spoiler-free) that you can check out here. Here’s a small excerpt:

Professional gamers guided us through an Xbox demo of the new game and we were stunned at the level of action and detail that’s been rendered in “Web of Shadows.” Not only does Spidey move through the game with all the speed, strength and agility as the real deal certainly would, it also cleverly uses his Spider-sense to ID and target threats and enemies, and gives him startling and dynamic levels of wall-crawling and web-slinging skills in an enormous playing field that makes the player feel like they’re smack in the middle of the New York cityscape where the action can literally go anywhere. It’s as if the player has been dropped in the middle of the most enormous action scene any of Sam Raimi’s movies could come up with. And throughout the relentless battles, Spider-Man retains that classic Peter Parker sense of humor, spouting a running series of quips and one-liners conceived by comic book writer Brian Reed.

Few game announcements have given this robot a preemptive robo-boner by only trailers, screen shots, and game descriptions, but next to Ghostbusters, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows has done just that. This may be the Spider-Man game we have all been waiting for and what Spider-Man 3 probably should have been; or it could be a massive disappointment.

Pass judgement when the game drops on October 21!

It'll take more than big ol' boobies and magic pony's to float this boat.

Was it the hype, the drastically different art style, the sporadic release schedule? Or was Ultimates 3 simply a bland an convoluted story that was crushed under the weight of our impossible expectations? I’m not sure, but I’m sorry to say that developing Ultron into a full fledged villain was maybe the only highlight that I can recall at the moment. I have to say that the wind has been taken out of my sails as we “March on Ultimatum” - or rather, shuffle, mosey, shamble, or at best - stride on Ultimatum. Seriously, did I miss something or was the payoff really just Magneto getting really mad and Dr. Doom stealing a sinister photo-op?

Am I alone in this sentiment? Because as i look back through the last decade of Ultimate Marvel goodness and often greatness, I see events far more epic and exhilarating story arcs that could have and maybe should have functioned as the universe wide turning point that Ultimatum is intended to be. Ultimate Galactus and Ultimates 2 come to mind first and maybe the zombie stuff in Ultimate Fantastic 4 - If you haven’t read them yet, you are missing out on some super-hero gold - Perfect 10’s those ones. Ultimates 3 on the other hand, I’ll gratiously round it up to a 5.

Seriously lets take some inventory here examining only The Ultimates 1,2&3:

Captain America:

Volumes 1&2 - Single handedly disarms a nuclear missile - Kicks the Hulk’s ass after dropping a tank on him - Impales Nazi alien on the tip of a fighter jet - Kicks Hank Pym’s ass while 60 feet tall - Drops a couple dozen Shield agents in a cemetery after being shot with about 100 tranquilizer darts - “DO YOU THINK THIS LETTER ON MY HEAD STANDS FOR FRANCE!?” - Saves the world - twice.

Volume 3 - Plays dress up with T’Challa

Hulk:

Volumes 1&2 - Attempts murdering Freddie Prince Jr. - Drinks a truck full of beer - Destroys an armada of alien spaceships with his bare hands - Beats Nazi alien to a pulp, eats him and shits him out - gets blown up by an nuclear bomb - Steals a pair of pants from a fat man - Kills Abomination.

Volume 3 - (Cricket noises…)

Thor:

Volumes 1&2 - Battles entire Ultimates team - Destroys alien armada with a hammer - goes crazy - Summons an Asgardian army into battle - kills his brother - saves the world - drinks lots of beer.

Volume 3 - Bangs Valkerie.

You see where I’m going here, sure punches were thrown, people died stuff happened (sort of) but good God did Ultimates 3 ever come up short. I can only hope that Ultimatum provides a decent segue for Mark Millar to pick up the pieces next year and bring some order back to this here town.

Anyway - that’s just one bot’s opinion, what did you all think of Ultimates 3?

1985 #5
Writer- Mark Millar
Artist-Tommy Lee Edwards

1985 #5 is an issue away from the final issue in this miniseries and it’s a damn fine issue at that. In brief, somehow the Villains of the Marvel Universe manage to travel from their universe to ours, where there are no superheroes. They set up shop in the spooky old Wyndahm house (which is a story in it’s self) and become increasing immoral and terrible in our universe with no heroes to keep them in check. Only Toby Goodman and his Dad, loyal Marvel Comics zombies know who they are and what to do to try and stop them. Originally planned as a series with photos way back in 2005, it was deemed way to costly to produce.

Toby ends up in the Marvel Universe in this issue trying to find superheroes to come back to his universe to help stop the villains. Much to his dismay, he’s not able to convince anyone of the seriousness of his plight. After trying the Avengers Mansion and the Baxter Building (Home of the Fantastic Four), he ends up at the Daily Bugle and manages to convince Peter Parker using his knowledge of him from the comics.

This comic is the ultimate kid fantasy that we’ve all had in our heads at one time or another. Anyone who’s read Marvel Comics has had fantasies of magically transporting themselves to another dimension to interact with their heroes. Heck, I still do it!

The only bad thing about this book I’d say is those who haven’t grew up reading Marvel may be not as attached to the story as someone who has. However, for those of you who loved the movies Goonies and Monster Squad, you may find yourself enjoying this series as well.

Bonus for supergeeks! This series ties into Millar’s current Marvel Comics, Wolverine and Fantastic Four. All three series are separate and can be enjoyed as such, but reading them all gives you a much larger vision of the story in each book.

Venom: Dark Origin #3 Published by: MARVEL Written by: Zeb Wells Art by: Angel Medina Release Date: October 1, 2008 Price: $2.99

Issue number three of Venom: Dark Origin is continuing the fall of Eddie Brock into the darkness that is Venom. I have been reading this mini-series since issue one, and I must say, I have been enjoying it.

This entire issue is Eddie obtaining the symbiote suit, and I thought it was done well. All 32 pages devoted to Eddie obtaining the suit, escaping with the suit, and discovering that the symbiote knows all the Spider-Man knew while it was bonded to him.

I have always felt that Venom was a flat character with no substance. It seemed he would just show up, try to kill or bond with Spider-Man for various reasons, then disappear. The thing is, though, is that I think we all forget that there is a man under the alien, and according to this telling of his life, a deeply troubled man. After all that happens to Eddie it brings to question whether or not all those evil things that Venom does is actually entirely the alien symbiote, or could some of it be the motivations of a man who feels he has been wronged by both Peter Parker and the mask he wears?

This has been a great reveal of Eddie Brock’s life and really adds some depth to the villain of Venom by showcasing the man bonded to the alien, not just the alien itself. This is a good read for Spider-Man fans who share the same view of Venom I did, and while it doesn’t necessarily rocket Venom to the top of my all time favorite Spidey foes, it certainly makes him a bit more interesting. Pick up the first 3 issues and find out more about Eddie Brock!

The feel good comic book of the year!-Slugtron

I love Marvel. I really do. It is certainly one of the most detailed and coherent universes in comics history. And lately they’ve had a good fucking run; Secret Invasion, Ultimate Spider-Man, Daredevil and this whole Old Man Logan thing Millar is doing. But, every so often they slip up and do something stupid. Well, beyond stupid… As in completely fucking asinine. Marvel Apes is a testament to just that.

Reading the first three issues was nothing short of a horrible struggle. A freak accident alters reality to something that is ripped off from the shit-twist-ending of Tim Burton’s pathetic remake of Planet of the Apes. Marvel Apes succeeds in proving that even everyone’s favorite publisher will occasionally try to capitalize on a concept of taking characters and having fun with them (e.g. Marvel Zombies). It’s like George Lucas won the be Marvel’s Editor-In-Chief for a Day contest. Much like real prime mates Marvel has flung shit at us and that shit is this mini-series. What next? Another series about Spider-Ham? Minus 100 points Marvel! If I were Stan Lee I’d be pissed.

I have an answer to at least one of your questions; Why the fuck did they make this book?

Answer: $$$

Issue four of Marvel Apes comes out this week. Don’t read it.

And if you do get the urge to pick it up just watch Tim Burton’s terrible remake of Planet of the Apes, shit in a paper bag and take lots of deep breathes.