Posted by Richard Pulfer on Sep 2nd, 2008
Am I the only one a little bit disappointed with what Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow turned out to be?
When news broke of this animated direct-to-DVD title, many speculated it would be a re-telling of either Young Avengers or A-Next. Instead, it turned out to be neither of those things - it turned out to be a project set in the future and featuring the children (literally) of the Avengers. Even weirder? We haven’t even seen half this kids’ parents on TV long enough to see their children much less! The last time I saw Hawkeye was on the Iron Man cartoon in the 90’s, and now we go straight for his pint-sized successor?!
Marvel Studios might be burning rubber in the box office, but they are still lagging behind DC’s animated line. I’ll let you know if this new project is as bad as it looks or possibly a new Batman Beyond - but so far, I really doubt the latter.
On to the comics. In Amazing Spider-Man #570, New Ways to Die continues as Spider-Man is stuck between Venom and the Anti-Venom. But with the latter a much-hyped (and over-hyped) addition based on the Cloverfield monster, does anyone really care at this point?
The new MAX series Dead of Night re-invents the Devil-Slayer as an abandoned Iraq veteran fighting demons and PMC’s a like in the Cradle of Civilization. Sounds worth reading to me. I’m not sold on anything else, but this is certainly a solid premise worth giving a peek at the comic book store.
And it had to start sometime - Marvel Apes has become - and MAN, does it look BAD! Check out this variant parodying One More Day. What made the Marvel Zombies so interesting was their covers were literally DEAD ON parodies of classic covers, albeit more grotesque. Here, however, the results like half-assed. Unlike JLApe, none of the characters look all compelling as alternate reality apes, so what’s the point?
X-Men: Manifest Destiny #1 follows the various X-Men adjusting to their new life in San Francisco after the destruction of their mansion in upstate New York, and this first issue showcases Iceman’s transition. With an awesome cover of Iceman zipping through the Golden Gate bridge, this might be one worth checking out.
On the DC side, Batman RIP heats up with the return of Hush in Detective Comics #848. Batman fights against Scarecrow, while Hush apparently readies his plan to take the Dark Knight apart piece by piece. Sounds pretty intense, and the story arc seems to be getting closer and closer to answering the big question - what exactly does Batman RIP mean?
Manhunter #34 pits the Manhunter and the Birds of Prey against the Suicide Squad as well as “a truly twisted notion of national security.” You’ll have to pick up the book to figure out what this means, but I’ve got things about the Manhunter, and since it has both Birds of Prey and the Suicide Squad, that at least warrants a first time purchase.
Gail Simone’s Secret Six also reunite in a new relaunch bringing together Catman, Deadshot, Ragdoll, Scandal, Bane and one other in another supervillain collision course. I liked both the first mini and ongoing before and after Infinite Crisis, and that fact that they are back amongst the action in Final Crisis is an even bigger thrill.
That’s it for now. Seems like a pretty small week for comics - but it’s good to get a break in there before the crossovers begin again in full force.
Posted in comics, entertainment, geek
| email this article
If you liked that, try...
- Comic Rundown: Marvel Monkeys Abound
- Comic Rundown: Hey Hey We’re the Monkeys
- Comic Rundown: Nova Still Rocks and Captain Marvel’s a Skrull
- Comic Book Rundown: Are Zombies the Next Monkeys?
- Comic Rundown: Marvel Gets Dark and Dirty
Podcast RSS
Shawn M.
September 2, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Marvel Apes? Marvel Apes??? Now I don’t feel bad at all for switching over to DC books (aside from Wolvy: First Class and Runaways, but the latter’s restart was… ugh). Since they’re following an animal theme, I’ve got one for them: Sharks. As in, what they’re jumping week after week.
Marvel’s animated side doesn’t look to be getting better, either, especially with the upcoming Iron Man ‘toon where Tony Stark is a teenager. Great way to completely bury a character that Civil War and a movie have made important again, Marvel.
[Reply]
Devin de Gruyl
September 4, 2008 at 11:51 am
I’ll be honest - I haven’t really enjoyed a Marvel-based cartoon since the early- to mid-’90s, when Fox had its superb-for-the-time Spider-Man and X-Men series. Sadly, Marvel has never had the likes of a Bruce Timm or Paul Dini to work their magic on the House of Ideas, and do for Earth-616 what they did for the DC Universe - create an animated universe that, while clearly based on comics storylines, nonetheless grew into a worthy “saga” all their own.
As for Marvel Apes, the less said the better. I’m convinced that Joey the Q somehow got a hold of a tape of that old thing TBS used to do where they’d do takes on classic movies with chimps as the stars, and suddenly ideas started to swirl around in that wilted skull cabbage he calls a “brain.” Marvel Zombies… okay, that was fun (and a pretty neat inside joke besides), but this… this is just pathetic.
Thank God Kirby didn’t live to see this monstrosity…
[Reply]
Richard Pulfer
September 4, 2008 at 12:24 pm
You guys should definitely check out the animated Spectacular Spider-Man. I’ll admit the look of the character does tight a slight bit of getting used to (I don’t like how some of their eyes are too big), but it is pretty much the shining light of Marvel’s animated line. It’s produced by Stan Lee, X-Force writer Craig Kyle and Gargoyle creators Victor Cook and Greg Weisman. It’s got a classic comic book touch to it - I actually like it better than the Spider-Man animated series of the mid-90’s (though nothing comes close to the mid-90’s X-Men!)
There is a Marvel Zombies 3 due out taking place in this universe. While I’m not sure about that part, it does feature a pretty awesome cover shot of Machine Man in an Army of Darkness pose. It’s supposed to be about Machine Man and another robotic hero traveling to the Marvel Zombie universe. Look for it in October - it looks a helluva a lot better than Marvel Apes regardless. Clearly, some creativity was applied!
[Reply]