So my latest distraction without any doubt is Betta Fish. And just this weekend while I was setting up a new tank I was thinking how stupid it was that no one had produced some sort of Aquaman line of fish tank ornaments. I’m convinced it would be like printing money. If I knew anything about how to do it, I ABSOLUTELY would be making Aquaman brand fish supplies and planning for my early retirement. Having said all of that, you can imagine my surprise when just four days later I stumbled over a new line of Marvel brand fish tank ornaments. As you read through this article keep in mind the photos were taken with a camera phone in a pet store and that I’m no photographer though I have to pretend to be one to write this column.

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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!?

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I was looking forward to this book, but my level of enjoyment still took me by surprise. Writer Simon Spurrier did some great X-Men work recently on the Smoke and Blood one-shot during the Curse of the Mutants vampire event. That issue featured the X-Men’s science team (the X-Club) and as I really enjoy those characters I was predisposed to enjoying the story. It’s great to see Spurrier in this case taking more recognizable characters from the Marvel Universe that I’m not nearly as invested in and making me care about their plight. Seeing the Avengers as government sanctioned mutant hunter/killers is provocative on its own, but the twisted nature of the Age of X helps. It isn’t as simple as the characters we know being given a gruesome mission, in this case the characters entire histories are gruesome tales. The creative freedom to make these changes that Spurrier mentions in his comments at the end of the issue makes for a great read. I’ve actually grown to really enjoy those commentaries as they give a nice insight into both the creators and the book they’re working on.

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All week Marvel has been releasing teaser images focusing on the concept of fear that feature some of their flagship characters. No one seems to know what these are actually teasing, but it seems the publisher may be gearing up for another crossover event.

Earlier in the month, Marvel announced a list of creators that they’ve referred to as “The Architects” (see below). All of the names were listed with the titles they’re currently working on along with a “secret project.” We should be getting another teaser image tomorrow, maybe we’ll learn what they’re all about as well.

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I had the chance to get away over the last few weeks and made a serious effort to avoid anything resembling work. As a result, I managed to read a few comics that have been laying around this place for a while. This was the same plan I attempted last year, but as you’ll see, my reading list has changed quite a bit.

Last summer, I took a fairly eclectic mix of books away with me in a little box, and I even started writing this post about them. All the big names were there: the X-Men (X-Men Forever #1, Dark X-Men: The Beginning #2, New Mutants #2-3), some Marvel Cosmic stuff (Nova #26-27, Skaar: Son of Hulk #6-12, War of Kings: Savage World of Skaar), a few Avengers (Mighty Avengers #24-27, New Avengers: The Reunion #2-4, Ms. Marvel: Storyteller), even some things that aren’t normally on the reading list (Batman and Robin #1, Warren Ellis’ Ruins).

What I came away with after reading all this is that  I should have never continued with Mighty Avengers after Brian Bendis left the title. Everything else was rather satisfying, but it solidified my decision to stop buying a lot of books. One of the stand outs that I didn’t mention was Amazing Spider-Man: The Short Halloween by SNL’s Bill Hader and Seth Myers. It’s a fun book, but remembering it makes me sad about what I’m coming away with this year:  there’s just too much Amazing Spider-Man each month.

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