Another Trip to the Buffet

World War Hulk! Yay! A crossover that ties into a virtual "who-cares?" of Marvel's comics releases! Never have so many B-List characters been involved in a crossover where the only "A" game is Iron Man and the Hulk. Well, the X-Men, but they are in a mini since the regular titles are too busy with killing off everyone who was ever likable.

Seriously, its cool to see Marvel create an event that will highlight some of their lesser selling titles. It will also be nice to see Hulk have a few words with fascist, uh, I mean "futurist" Tony Stark.

Incidentally, the Marvel website talks about the upcoming Thor series and his upcoming confrontation with Iron Man. Seems like Marvel may have found themselves a new popular "villain". Someone please make him likable again!

Oh, and, um, I, uh, actually did like Ghost Rider (and i like the comics). I definitely want to see the extended cut, though.

Peter David's run on Friendly Neighborhood has been excellent, but of course the clowns who write THIS colomn don't like it....


(Rolling the eyes)

The first Fantastic Four movie wasn't any where near as bad as people claim. I think most people wanted to hate it either because of the horrible unreleased FF movie or just because people love to hate, and therefore went out of their way to pick it apart. Disliking the change to the origin. Disliking Doom physically changing form. Complaining that the Thing isn't big enough. But I think it captured a lot of the essence of the Fantastic Four. The family aspect. The playful rivalry between Ben and Johnny. The pain Reed feels for Ben's condition. Plus, Jessica Alba takes her clothes off multiple times.

Hopefully Stark and company will put the Hulk down, hard - after a lot of fun destruction and brawling, of course.

Actually, Hulk is the PERFECT Anti-Reg character, now that I think of it - representing the right to do whatever he pleases, whenever he pleases, and if that means a whole lot of destruction and innocent people maimed as a result, too bad ... lets hope the writers have the guts to show the "collateral damage" inflicted by a typical HULK outing....

Shadow

First - http://www.mania.com/Merin/blog/228.html - just so I don't have to waste time reiterating all of that.

"I suppose this will seem cathartic to a few readers upset about the decidedly less idealistic turn of events in the Marvel Universe. The publisher has expended so much energy establishing Tony Stark as an amoral force for pragmatism that a lot of fans want to see Bruce Banner put him in the ground."

Between New Warriors 1 & the direction WWHulk seems to be heading, Marvel seems to be trying to play both sides. You like registration - read Mighty Avengers, Iron Man, Ms. Marvel. You DON'T like registration, reading New Avengers, Spider-Man, New Warriors.
Why Marvel wants their comic book readers to be so clearly divided and feuding like Democrats and Republicans, I have NO idea. There must be some marketing brilliance in there somewhere - all I can say is that Marvel has managed to make me FINALLY drop the number of comics I buy a month, and in that respect my pocket book thanks Bendis, Millar and Quesada!

Call it dreck all you like - I REALLY enjoyed Ghost Rider. I saw it twice - and, other than 300, that's the only movie this year I've seen more than once in the theater. What is dreck to you might be awesome to someone else. Hell, someone out there probably thinks "Health Inspector" is the greatest movie ever made.
I really, really liked the Fantastic Four movie as well. Its the kind of thing I've popped in the DVD player repeatedly, and if I want background noise on the tv while doing something else, and FF happens to be on the movie channel, it usually will get played.

nax37, I agree with all that you say there.

Everyone seems focused on Hulk beating the snot out of Tony (I know I've been) but SinisterPryde brings up a good point - Thor SURELY will bring the holy wrath of the Thunder God down on Tony, Reed and Hank.

I feel like Marvel is playing its readers, as I said above about dividing its fan base. While it writes such militaristic, fascist stories and then tries to sneak under the radar and say "no, really, we know this is horrible - read New Warriors, read New Avengers" I'm not buying it. Multiple collector chromium covers is crass, but this actively playing to people's prejudices and causing "unrest" amongst readers of entertainment?

I hope there's a special place in obscurity reserved for Bendis, Millar and Quesada in the NEAR future.

Seriously, if you guys haven't seen the "Civil War in 30 Seconds" parody, you REALLY need to. I link it here http://www.mania.com/Merin/blog/290.html

Wow, after reading Memflix's blog, I gotta say it really sucks to be him. I hope he gets to keep seeing movies and continues to write for AICN (or is it AHHN?)

I haven't seen the Ghost rider movie for one reason...Nic Cage. He was good in the 90's but, somehow, I don't see him as a hero or as ghost rider. Maybe one day I will rent the movie but, it doesn't interest me at all and from what I hear, it wasn't a good movie.

As for the Hulk, I cannot wait to see him smash the Marvel universe and because he's the strongest one there is, someone will pay with his life I'm sure of it.

Although, I'm really surprise to see people so angry towards Bendis, Quesada or Millar.
Civil war was really fun to read, the Avengers are really fun to read, the comics these past few years are written better then ever. I don't undertand people like Merin.

Anyway, can't wait for the world to fear the Hulk.

Jedi, you must be new to comics the last few years....because Marvel has slowly been declining since Quesada joined. Now, Civil War must seem to be the best thing since sliced bread given the last few years. However, those of us that loved Marvel sinced day 1 are disgusted with this new direction because it just doesn't fit who the Marvel characters are deep down through years of history. Civil War should have been kept in the lame Ultimate Universe... that is where it makes sense.

I have loved Marvel through lots of ups and downs and they have always been #1 in my book. But, no more! I have pretty much cancelled all my subscriptions even for characters that I never thought I would like Spiderman, FF, Avengers....

Sigh ...

We must be reading different books. I've been a comics fan for almost 20 years and I credit Quesada with turning Marvel around and righting the ship after the horrible stories of the 90s. Sure, maybe things are vastly different since "Day 1", but that was the 60s for most characters, of course they're going to be different.

I think books are even better now than they were just a few years ago, back around the time Morrison was on "New" X-Men. Back then, every story arc was near 6 issues and each new arc felt like a brand new book. They acted like the previous issues didn't exist. Now, not only is there better continuity within each book, but the books affect other titles as well. Things like Black Panther and Fantastic Four being interwoven, the same with Cable and Deadpool & X-Men. The books are independent, but they riff off the other title, telling the stories from another view. And there's something for everyone. Pro-Registration titles, Anti-Registration titles. Classic X-Men stories, X-Men away from the mansion stories. Claremont X-Men stories where they don't talk the way actual people talk and always end up fighting mind controlled teammates.

Lame Ultimate Universe? Ok. Clearly you don't like it, but many other people do. The books sell well, and whether you want to admit it or not, they were a nice boost to the industry when they were introduced.

I don't really see where any characters are acting "out of character." No one's done anything randomly or without explanation. People change. Comic characters change. Maybe you don't like it, maybe you do, but I'd rather read stories that are new and different than the same old thing that's been going on for 40 years.

(1) I am a regular reader of no more than a handful of Marvel titles, so I am perfectly willing to stand corrected (esp as I don't read IRON MAN), but I don't see any of the books as really being Pro-Reg. The titles that are mentioned above, as being in the Pro-Reg camp, seem to (at best!) avoid being critical of Registration. They don't show us another ten Stamfords, or some really violent vigilantes bucking Registration, etc. They might IMPLICITLY seem Pro-Reg, but only in the sense that they don't actively take shots at the Pro-Reg position, NOT in that they bolster the case FOR Registration.

Meanwhile, in the "anti-Reg" titles, the "Pro-Reg" heroes are pretty much portrayed as jackbooted thugs, and the "anti-reg" heroes' positions are portrayed with great sympathy. Just saying... I think there is a big difference between "not overly critical of Registration" and "Pro-Registration".

(2) While I am clearly on the other side of the fence from the "Anti Reg" folks, I entirely agree with the sentiment expressed above, that this kind of (intentiional) division of the fan base is, in the long run, unpleasant and counterproductive. And almost, kind of offensive. Marvel's heroes came in many different "flavors", but at the end of the day they were all heroes, and in some senses fans "rooted" for all of them. I don't think this is an improvement, even if it generates publicity, buzz, and maybe even some sales (maybe).

(3) Also have to say that I enjoyed the FF movie. It wasn't great. There were things I wish they had done differently. But overall, I enjoyed it. I thought it was...fun. That might sound like pretty weak praise, but I don't mean it that way, truly. It wasn't heavy, it wasn't dark, and it wasn't trying to be. To me, it was "comic bookish" in an oldfashioned kind of way, and I don't think that has to be said apologetically. Not trying to pick a fight with those who disagree, just saying that (for me) there is a big range between "GREAT" and "IT STINKS!" and the FF movie (FOR ME! *S*) rests comfortably somewhere between the two extremes...but on the pleasant side of the divide...

Shadow