You Can't Keep a Good Dead Avenger Down...

This blog is very much like Marvel these days, we can't have too many Avengers.

The above cover (nicely rendered by Tom Grummett) is for something called Chaos War: Dead Avengers.

Genius.

You have your Avengers, your New Avengers, your Secret Avengers, your Young Avengers, your Pet Avengers, your Ultimate Avengers (not to mention Avengers Next running around, cartoon Avengers in the offing, and rumors of Cosmic Avengers)...how silly of me not to have considered the possibility of having your Dead Avengers shaking the old dust off to do some more Assemblin' for old times' sake...like I said, genius.

Both Marvel and DC have hit upon a formula that suits them well...why bother trying to come up with a bunch of new ideas that people won't care about or buy when you can just milk your existing franchises until you've sucked all of the life out of them? And, much more importantly, you can suck as much money out of the pockets of the fans of the franchises as you can (before those fans get fed up and starting spending that disposable income on hookers, blow, and iPhone apps instead of comic books.)

(Is it too early to put in a request for Black'n'Blue Avengers? Black Panther, Black Widow, Black Knight, Blue Marvel, and, if they could get the rights, Blue Man Group would make a kick-ass Avengers team...)

The Dark Knight Returns

That Bruce Wayne was going to come back was absolutely assured even at the very moment he "died". It's all good. Grant Morrison has him coming back to franchise the Batman "brand" by training Caped Crusaders around the world in the aptly-titled Batman, Inc. book. I'm intrigued by that...we'll see how it turns out.

Hopefully Bruce will be returning with that stick up his butt finally removed...the post-Dark Knight Returns pompous, arrogant, condescending, inflexible, always "too cool for...and the smartest guy in... the room" Batman had gotten extremely tedious. (I don't mind the guy being driven and intense but dude get over yourself every once in a while.)

Dick Grayson is apparently going to continue as one of the Batmen...and that's cool too. I really like Dick as Batman...more than I expected to. I've even grown to like Damian Wayne, snot-nosed punk that he can be, as Robin (he is, despite all of his bitching and moaning, working hard to be a good soldier and partner...he may complain but more often than not he does what Batman tells him and he comes through when the chips are down.)

Dick shows that Batman can be good at his job and still be a person at the same time. Bruce Wayne will probably never be that kind of Batman again (he used to be before writers took Frank Miller's angry old Batman from the future and superimposed his worst traits onto his younger self)...but hopefully at least a little of it will creep back into him...hey, couldn't hurt :-)

Avengers Assemble...um...again...

And the buildup to 2012's Avengers movie continues with this fall's animated series from Disney, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. It's got the original Avengers along with teases of Captain America, Hawkeye, and the Black Panther plus tons of villains, Nick Fury and SHIELD, and all that jazz.

Could be cool.

Avengers Assemble! (Yeah, we'll wait...)

14. For the first 110 issues of the series (roughly 1963-1973) Marvel’s premier super-hero team, the Avengers, managed to get by with just 14 official members (and that number includes 3 “blink and you’ll miss ‘em” members: The Hulk, the Swordsman, and the Black Knight.)

14 Avengers (the others were, of course: Thor, Iron Man, the many faces of Hank Pym, the Wasp, Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Hawkeye, Hercules, the Black Panther, and the Vision) during the course of a decade’s worth of issues (mostly written by two guys: Roy Thomas and Stan Lee)…kind of an exclusive club and that was pretty cool.

Since that time though just about every writer who has come on the book has felt the need to put a personal stamp on the series by adding new faces to the team; a fact which has caused the membership to be something less than exclusive with seemingly dozens of heroes (including a couple of X-Men and three-fourths of the Fantastic Four) carrying Avengers ID cards over the years. There are enough Avengers to fill an auditorium and yet all these writers feel they need to add their pet characters to the mix (as opposed to just drawing from the already incredibly deep bench of formerly active Avengers.)

With the recent announcement that the beloved character Red Hulk would be joining up, the beat goes on.

Hell at this point they might as well just issue every costumed hero in the Marvel Universe an Avengers ID card and tell them “we’ll call you when we need you.”

Don’t get me wrong, I know that some of the later characters have gone on to have distinguished Avenger careers (Beast, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, and Luke Cage come to mind offhand) but just once I’d like to see somebody take over an Avengers title and not feel the need to add somebody new to the already lengthy roster of Avengers.

That’s probably not gonna happen but I, as long time Avengers fan (the book was my first favorite Marvel title back when I started reading comics in the 60’s), I can dream…

14…imagine that…

Young Justice

Preview of the upcoming Young Justice cartoon series. Looks like it could be fun.

Beware His Power...

Entertainment Weekly, showcasing the Hollywood elements of next week's San Diego Comic-Con (nope, not going...already sold out...too many people (with no parking and overpriced concessions)...too much Hollywood hype and hoopla...many less annoying things to do here in our fair city) with Ryan Reynolds all ringed up and ready to use his might as Green Lantern in the upcoming movie.

First impression is that it's okay (the mask is kinda funky but it's hard to make a mask like that work on real people however cool they might look in the comics)...I'll have to see it more fully...and in action...before I give my full fanboy pontification on it :-)

Wonder Woman

DC Comics' amazing Amazon, Wonder Woman, gets a new modern look...well, if by "modern" you mean the Eighties (tights and a jacket with rolled-up sleeves? Really?) But hey at least Diana isn't fighting monsters and criminals in a bathing suit anymore...