While I’ll admit to a certain amount of fondness for the Hulk, Captain America and Iron Fist, for the most part I’ve never really been a fan of the Marvel Universe in general. So you can imagine my surprise at the number of Marvel toys I purchased over the last week at Walmart. This story actually starts a few weeks ago when I stumbled upon a display of balls. The display promised that each ball opened like one of those plastic eggs you see around Easter time and that within them would be a tiny Marvel figure. The line is called Marvel Heroics and among the photographs on the display were Captain America and Hulk. The balls were priced at just $.97 so I figured I’d buy one. At that price, why not!?

Read more of this article »

It’s impossible to detach myself from my fandom and the fact that I really wanted X-Men: First Class to be a good movie. Despite X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I believe there’s still hope for Fox’s current X-franchise and First Class went a long way toward confirming that. It’s by no means perfect and there are elements that hurt it, but ultimately I liked it. I had gotten increasingly more anxious/excited to see the movie leading into this weekend and while my initial reaction was full of very mixed feelings, I can say with certainty it’s worth seeing.

Spoilers ahead.

Read more of this article »

I didn’t pay a lot of attention when Marvel announced their “Point One” Initiative, or at least that’s what I’m assuming since I clearly didn’t understand how it all works. Starting in February, a series of issues with a “.1” appended to the previous issue number started appearing and I thought these were simply special editions of the regular book. In other words, I was under the impression that Amazing Spider-Man #654.1 was the same story as Amazing Spider-Man #654 with additional pages to attract and inform new readers. It turns out the “Point One” issues are new stand alone stories produced specifically to fit into current continuity as well as bring new readers up to speed on where titles currently stand and where they’re headed. Thankfully, I became aware of all this because this week’s Uncanny X-Men #534.1 may be the best issue of Uncanny X-Men I’ve read in years.

Read more of this article »

Last month, Marvel started planting the seeds for an X-Men event beginning in early 2011 called Age of X. Around the time of the New York Comic Con, a teaser image featuring blacked out figures was released from the publisher to get the speculation started. During the X-Men panel at NYCC, hints that Age of X might be connected to another Age in X-history, the Age of Apocalypse, generated even more buzz.

It’s a little early to know for sure what this X-Men event will entail, but I’m pretty excited about what’s been revealed so far. Read more of this article »

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.