Closing out our reviews of the new line of Avengers titles in Marvel‘s Heroic Age is Christos Gage and Mike McKone’s Avengers Academy #1. This is title with a bunch of new characters and seems to pick up on some of the concepts introduced in Avengers: The Initiative. We threw in some follow up on the Avengers and Thunderbolts titles as well.

Avengers Academy #1

KevinMLD: I liked this book well enough I guess. I have no investment in any of the characters so that doesn’t bode well for me sticking around, but there was a certain charm to the book. It seems like all of the Classic Avengers except Scarlet Witch and Vision are back in the Heroic Age. Though I liked the oddly villainous Quicksilver from X-Factor a few years back. I hope they don’t reimagine him again… Already.

PTB: I don’t mind the cast they’ve chosen for the instructors here. Hank Pym, Quicksilver, Justice, Speedball and Tigra are Avengers characters that I’ve enjoyed reading about for years, but I am officially done with these Avengers books that introduce teams of new young characters. Marvel seemed concerned with the mutant population boom and used House of M to rein things in. The resulting creation of dozens of new Initiative and Academy characters puts them in the same position. I can’t really name one that I care about.

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As Marvel‘s new Heroic Age continues to unfold, we’ve turned our attentions to the relaunched New Avengers #1 by Brian Bendis and Stuart Immonen. Issue #2 ships today and I’m not so sure it will be staying on our pull lists.

PTB: I really like the art in this book, but I’m not sure how I feel about the content. Where this team fits into the new status quo is interesting since they’re using the old mansion and free from Iron Man and Steve Rogers, but  I don’t like that there’s overlap with this line up and the Avengers title.

KevinMLD: Yeah to me this is a really redundant title. It almost seems like it should have been a miniseries that ends with Spider-man, Wolverine, Cage and whoever else learning to trust Stark again and rejoining the main team.

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500 Degrees Storefront in Philadelphia

After the clearly misguided Five Guys review (sorry LydonWrites, the public has spoken), I thought I’d offer my thoughts on one of Philly’s newer Burger Joints: the Rogue-affiliated 500 Degrees.  Since Rob Wasserman opened the restaurant in March, the food has been very hit or miss. However, as time has progressed, 500 degrees seems to have found it’s footing and is becoming a worthwhile place to in stop in for a bite.

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The end is here. The final issue of X-Men: Second Coming is out now and it makes for a very satisfying conclusion to what has been an epic crossover event. After the climactic battle in Chapter 13, the finale is a much more personal issue that surveys the damages inflicted on the X-Men and looks forward to what’s coming next.

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Inception is the best movie so far this year.  While that may not be a very high hurdle to jump, it is as good as some of the top movies of last year (Inglourious Basterds) and the year before (Slumdog Millionaire).   It is pretty close to a perfect movie, although not quite the perfect action movie (Die Hard)…oh well.  It may not be this good in repeat viewings, but I cannot imagine a movie better suited for repeat viewings than Inception.  No doubt in my mind, I will be there to watch it on an IMAX screen.

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