I’m reading Siege and enjoying it. I like the art, I like the story, and I especially like the pace. At four issues, things are moving along nicely. With the Heroic Age set to begin in May, I was a little surprised that Siege #4 was not on the schedule for April (it’s been pushed back to May 12). Instead, Marvel is giving us a series of 5 Siege one-shots focusing on Captain America, Spider-Man, Loki, the Young Avengers and Secret Warriors. The first of these shipped last week and I really wanted to give them a chance, but I’m sorry Marvel, I’m not buying into this. I didn’t read any of these books but it’s pretty clear that at least the Captain America and Spider-Man issues are extended fight scenes and essentially filler. The Loki issue might be great since he’s the mastermind behind what’s happening in Siege and this should give some insight. I didn’t buy it on principle alone. This is not Marvel’s fault, but I know myself. If I buy one of these, I’m going to want them all. They even have interlocking covers. No, I’m out for this.

What could this possibly mean for the season finalé?

Photo by Olivier Vandeginste, originally published on Boston Globe.com.

The Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, C2E2, went down this weekend in the Windy City. There was a lot of news from all over, but below are the things that stood out to me.

We Are the X-Men

The teaser images released last week were to showcase a new ongoing series simply titled X-Men coming in July. An interview with writer Victor Gischler and artist Paco Medina reveals that the book is intended to show the X-Men integrated in the Marvel Universe via guest stars team ups (possibly explaining the inclusion of Spider-Man, She-Hulk, Blade and Elektra in the promos). The first arc involves mutants vs. vampires.

Accompanying this announcement was another great Adi Granov image featuring a number of X-Men mainstays and word that Uncanny X-Men and X-Men: Legacy aren’t changing anything other than art teams. Of course, this could be to avoid spoiling anything in Second Coming.

New X-Force

An X-Force relaunch titled New X-Force is coming in September from writer Rick Remender and artist Jerome Opeña. It seems the current series will end at the close of Second Coming, which actually makes a lot of sense given the way this series and Cable launched out of Messiah Complex. The new book features a team led by Wolverine whose membership is currently a mystery, though the silhouettes look like Angel, Psylocke, Nightcrawler and Fanomex. Not sure how I feel about this one…

Secret Avengers

Speaking of mysteries, the full line-up of Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato’s upcoming Secret Avengers series was revealed. I managed to guess some correctly, others not so much. Featuring an espionage theme and characters spanning the Marvel Universe (Steve Rogers, Sharon Carter, Black Widow, War Machine, Ant Man, Beast, Nova, Moon Knight, and Valkyrie), I think I’m definitely in for this one.  Plus I’m a huge fan of Beast.

Avengers: Children’s Crusade

This new project announced from Young Avengers creators Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung probably has piqued my interest the most. Avengers: Children’s Crusade involves the Scarlet Witch, her children and the Young Avengers, House of M and at least Magneto if not the rest of the X-Men. The book is slated to begin in July.

I’m loving the current X-Men: Second Coming storyline as you may have read about here. Rather than just ride that wave, Marvel has released a series of images for May’s X-Men books reading “We Are The X-Men” to tease the status quo post Second Coming. The images (posted below) show what is presumably the new team tearing through an image from the cover of 1991’s X-Men #1 by Jim Lee. The first was intriguing in that it featured Spider-Man, but then it got weird as they revealed Blade, Elektra, and the new She-Hulk from an alternate future were part of the team. I don’t know where this is going. Could be great, could be awful. I’ll give it a chance, but only because I always do. I am looking forward to seeing how Nate Grey is involved and the interactions between him, Hope and Magneto. The vampire Jubilee could be intriguing as well.

Along with the images, Marvel.com did provide some information to go along with each reveal, but they don’t really speak to the details of why these particular characters might be together (or associated with the X-Men at all for that matter). Considering each of the non-X-Men characters in the context of recent X-events:

• Blade may be around as a result of X-Force’s recent battle with Selene during Necrosha as she was a vampire of sorts. Although it makes more sense that he may be after the vampire Jubilee.
• The new She-Hulk is from the future and may be connected to Hope in some way as she is also a key figure in things that haven’t happened yet.
• Elektra was associated with the X-Men in the Mutant X universe, so there could be an unrevealed connection that brings her into the fold in this story.
• Spider-Man has interacted with the X-Men in the past and was even invited to join the team in the X-Men/Spider-Man mini-series that saw print in 2009. On a side note, this was a great story for any long time X-fan.

More information is scheduled to be available at today’s X-Men Panel at C2E2.

This is another article about the iPad.  If you don’t like awesome stuff, stop reading.  If you refuse to use Apple products, you probably already stopped reading, but anyway… If you refuse to use Apple products you won’t get to enjoy this awesomeness, so you might as well not get your hopes up and move along.

Pete and I know we want an iPad.  We also know we don’t need one.  But maybe we DO need one.  I mean, it would almost be wrong for us to not buy the next greatest Apple product since Apple is responsible for our future baby-making.  Back on track – we know we want an iPad.  So we went to check it out.  See if it was really as awesome as they say.  We ended up playing games on it the entire time we were in the store.  My game of choice was Plants Vs. Zombies by PopCap.  I wouldn’t leave the store until I completed a level.  And since it was a version made for the iPad, it was AWESOME.

Knowing that we will eventually get an iPad, I was stubborn and said I would not download the app for my iPhone because it was a waste of money since I will need to re-buy it for the iPad.  (Look Mom, I am concerned about spending $3!)  Sorry, that didn’t last too long.  By 11pm that night I was in bed downloading the game to my iPhone.  I had to have it.

I just need to tell you that the game is super addictive and super awesome.  It is completely worth the $3.  There is definite strategy involved, and with “Achievements” there is absolute replay value after completing Adventure Mode successfully.  Replay value on a $3 game is clearly important.  Just like my first adventures into Gossip Girl, this game has kept me up far past exhaustion, because I just have to know what’s next!  And it isn’t just me, Pete beat adventure mode like a day after I downloaded it.  If you want to actually know anything about the game, let’s just say, the plants keep the zombies out of your house, and bacon is involved.

I feel this way about almost all PopCap games though.  Peggle on the xBox could have a whole separate post…. I never thought I would get into using my iPhone for games.  After one visit to the Apple Store, I KNOW I would be using the iPad for mostly gaming.  Games, and I think it would be ultra-handy for recipes in the kitchen.

So, like I said…this was really a post about the iPad.