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Because I get to do what I want, I'm going to post awesome clips/pictures of my favourite scenes from each of the MCU movies. (Since Ant-Man appeared in Civil War, he is added to the roster.)

Technically, Captain America should be the first of the films to watch, but I'm going to treat it as a "flashback" movie and stick it before the Avengers, because when Cap wakes up, a lot of the events in the first two Iron Man movies, the Hulk, and Thor have already taken place.

(Because I tend to love ALL the scenes from the movies, I'll limit myself to a total of five per movie - I'll aim for three, but I can go up to five. Does that seem fair? Thank you s' much.)


Iron Man 1:

Iron Man 2:





The Incredible Hulk:
(I have only watched The Incredible Hulk once, and this was after I'd seen The Avengers and had embraced Mark Ruffalo in the role of the Hulk. So, I didn't much care for Ed Norton as the Hulk, but he had some cute vulnerable scenes, and the movie overall had some good parts.)






Thor:






Captain America: The First Avenger:







The Avengers:

Ugh! There are too many good scenes in the Avengers! I'll do my best to only choose five of the best... even though I could pretty much post the entire movie and say, "I loved it all!" But the best scenes, IMHO:







Iron Man 3:







Thor: The Dark World:







Captain America: The Winter Soldier:







Avengers: Age of Ultron:







Ant-Man:






Captain America:  Civil War:

 This movie had more scenes that broke my heart than probably any other MCU movie out there. I think it's because Steve and Tony are my GUYS, and having them angry at each other was the hardest thing in the world. Steve is the man who is already on the moral high ground and who we aspire to become, and Tony is the man who gives us the hope of attaining that moral high ground by conquering ourselves more and more each day. I couldn't stand to see them fighting.

So this is more a collection of favourite bro scenes/scenes that broke my heart (there are more pictures here because there were too many good ones NOT to post...):












And that's all for now, folks! I hope that put you back in the mood to rewatch all the Avengers movies (in order, of course!) and get totally caught up in the character development again.

Until next time, that's a wrap!

God bless!

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Real life superheroes!

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Cosplay is a thing. Variant covers are a thing. And now cosplay variant covers are most definitely a thing. Marvel will have 20 cover adorned by photos of cosplayers depicting the titular characters.

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As per IGN, artist Russell Dauterman revealed a brand new image for The Mighty Thor #1. The picture reveals multiple facets of the world of Asgard going forward and even features some characters that haven’t been seen in the core book for sometime. Hercules, Angela and Beta Ray Bill are lying beneath the surface of this image. Here’s […]

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After Easter and the jury duty kerfuffle...

...to which I didn't have to go!

Happy dance, happy dance, everybody happy dance!

... I got a rejection on a query I sent to an agent about a month before.  Technically, she never responded to the query, which per the guidelines basically meant the same thing.  No reply, no acceptance.

Tears may have been shed.

But that's okay.  I dusted off my poor weeping query, gave it a little spruce up and sent it bravely back into the big wide world of agents.  I may have whispered a prayer to send it on its way.

Or rather:  Design ALL the flowers!

Talk? Talk?!   What makes you think I'd want to chat?  I haz nothing to say.  Unless we speak geek.  Then perhaps we speak.

Then we got BACK from the wedding and the weather has been liek dis:

Grey

Rainy

*snarf, grumble, grouch

*whaaahaaahaaaaaa!

It hasn't been NICE.  It has been the opposite.  It has been DARK.  My mood goeth downhill.

Source

Socializing, for me, can be physically more draining and damaging than a solid week's work, so piling MOTHER'S DAY WEEK on top of that was... was...


However, good news.  Before driving back from the wedding in Bakersfield, we stopped at Target and all four of us who had attended the wedding picked up copies of the Target Edition of Josh Groban's STAGES, which contains 17 tracks and are all of them amazing.

Make sure you get the TARGET edition with 17 tracks! The normal version only has 13, so make sure it 's the special TARGET edition you're getting!

*Oh Groban!

Speaking of Superheroes and Marvel, I also watched the first two episodes of Daredevil on Netflix during that wedding weekend, so when I got back from the wedding I proceeded to watch the other 11 episodes.


Matt Murdoch is the best!  I refuse to say anything, because, as Yoda say, "If Netflix you have, Daredevil you should be watching."  Seriously, he's a new favourite Marvel superhero.  He is so amazing and cool!  Unfortunately, now that I'm done with those 13 episode, the next season won't be up until 2016!  Netflix, why? Why? Whyyyyy?

Source

After this, Teresa and Jack and I started watching Harry Potter.  I have never really watched Harry Potter.

I know, right?

I had read up to the fourth book (which *I* thought was horrifying) and then watched the fourth movie which, IMHO, did NOT live up to the fourth books horrifyingness (which is not a word, but I don't care.  I'm a writer.  I do what I want).  Frankly, the fourth movie rather bored me, so I gave up on the series.

Then, I dunno, after the final book had been published and was no longer talked about, I thought I might as well finish the book series, and while I thought J.K. Rowling did a fine job with writing, I wasn't entirely sold on the series.  I don't know why.  I just wasn't a fan.

Sorry.

So I have had no urge to watch the movies until after Valentine's Day, when after a long grueling day at work I came home, ate something fortifying and turned on the TV, and discovered The Chamber of Secrets was playing.  Having nothing better to do, I watched it.

I mean, after all, why not?

Since then, I've been off again, on again wanting to watch them, and we started our sporadic marathon about two weeks ago.  While the first four were nothing special (for me, anyway - and btw, the fourth movie is NOT as boring as I remembered it being.  Perhaps one needs to have been away from books and movies for a significant amount of time or something), we just finished Deathly Hallows part 1, and I'll admit the 5th, 6th and 7-1/2th movies engaged me more and made me feel a bit more connected to the characters.  (Though, and I'm speaking from my experience of having read the books YEARS ago, I am pretty certain the scriptwriters could have clarified Harry as being The Chosen One.  That shtick sort of makes an appearance in the Half Blood Prince, and while I *think* it was clear in the book, it was NOT AT ALL CLEAR in the movie(s), and I honestly can't remember how or why or who or when Harry became this Chosen One or even what it has to do with the plot.)

I feel ya, Minion

I don't think I'm still (yet) techinically a fan.  I haven't entirely finished the series, after all.  Deathly Hallows part 2 will possibly (probably) happen tonight, but now that I've watched the movies I can see why people have become fans.  I will be honest even more and state that I do have a bad tendency to quote HISHE or Honest Trailer lines during crucial moments of the movies (such as, Wizzzzard lightning battle! or, Look out, Harry, he doesn't have a nose!, or, "Just saving your life.  And countless others.  In the future.  It's a long story.")  But overall, my favorite characters are Snape, Professor McGonagall, George and Fred, and Harry.  I like Ron and Hermione, but those first five are my favorites.

Source

Lastly, to bring my month to a close, the query I'd dusted off and sent back out came back with a request for the agent to see the full manuscript.

I may or may not have woken up my sister at the obscene hour of 5:00 a.m. to show her the joyous news.

So I sent the full manuscript to the agent, and now I must wait up to 60 days to see what she thinks.  It's a bit torturous, but she was nice enough to admit that it was torturous, which was good to hear.  Empathy, empathy.  So all I can do now is pray... and hope... and pray... and, you know, hope.

So, that's been my month!  I hope yours has been just as exciting and eventful as mine, albeit less gloomy.  *Rain, rain, go away, come again some OTHER day.*

Until next month...

Cat! :)

Leopold!

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Thor #8

 

Story: Jason Aaron

Artist: Russell Dauterman

Colors: Matthew Wilson

Letters: Joe Sabino

Publisher: Marvel

 

 

This is it, seven months of mystery and red herrings all culminate in Thor #8. Hey that sort of rhymes. If you’ve managed to avoid the spoilers of the character’s identity reveal, rest assured I will not be the fly in your ointment. What you read here will be as major spoiler free as it can possibly be, but we will talk a bit about what this new revelation could mean for the Marvel Universe’s future.

Jason Aaron once again scribes an excellent issue in the narrative of this new female Thor. Under the control of Cul, brother of Odin The All Father, The Destroyer has been sent to put an end to the goddess of thunder. Used to be Thor or as he’s simply refered to now, Odinson, and the All-Mother Freyja gathered an all-star group of female heroes to aid Thor in battle. What unfolds is an epic “girl power” combat the likes of which Marvel has never seen. The real beauty is how it manages to pull itself back from being a cliché and simply stay a — girls kick ass — book. What this particular issue does better than any before it is make use of its cameos without having them steal the focus away from our lead. Some of my favorite quips come from Jessica Drew’s lesbehonest lines. We even get teased with finding out what made Odinson “unworthy”. My money is on parking tickets or dropped the hammer on an elderly woman at a Home Depot. Once the end reveal of this new Thor’s true identity epilogues the book, readers will be left both excited for the future and wishing they didn’t have to go through Secret Wars to get there.

The visual team of artist Russell Dauterman and colorist Matthew Wilson have a unique style for a big action book like this. It’s best described as light hearted most of the way but nails the intense moments when it needs to. Really the only hiccups to be found in the book were some odd camera angle choices during simple dialogue scenes after the battle.

If you’re one of those readers that’s been on the fence about trying Thor, or you just like to jump in on the big moments; Thor #8 is worth the money.

Now let’s talk about what Thor means for the future of Marvel post Secret Wars. With this series being replaced (for the moment) with Thors, it could have been a place to return everything to the status quo. Nothing about where this issue went suggests that to be the case. I admit, in the beginning of all this I was hestitant about the changes to the character. Seeing new characters be built from the ground up always makes more sense to me than changing an existing character to make them relevant again.

Side Note: Hey Marvel if you really want to have every Thor ever in the Thors series, don’t forget these guys…

 

Jason Aaron’s female Thor has been something special and unique in a publishing line we thought was all but out of fresh ideas. In a way he’s just getting started. Yes, it wouldn’t be the first time a superhero would be taken out by cancer. We know that this Thor’s story will end after Secret Wars in a tragic and guttwrenching way, but how we get there could be one of the most emotional stories Marvel has ever told.

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Welcome to the weekly feature MATT CHATS. I’ve been doing regular interviews for awhile now, but now they have a name! Every Tuesday I chat with someone involved in the making, distributing, marketing, selling, etc. of comic books. For this inaugural edition, I spoke with cartoonist Rob Guillory.

Six years into a run pencilling, inking and coloring the almost-monthly Image series CHEW, Rob Guillory has started to illustrate interior pages for other titles. Most recently Guillory added his artistic flair to a story written by CM Punk in the Thor annual and a backup story in Howard the Duck written by Chip Zdarsky. I spoke with Rob about the toll of a 60-issue epic, collaborating with writers other than John Layman and a whole lot more.

Six years in, have you been getting antsy to do interiors for comics other than CHEW?

Not really antsy, so much as just excited at the prospect of starting something totally new. It’s also a bit scary. CHEW‘s been my backyard for a long time now, so jumping into a new world with new characters is challenging and pretty thrilling.

A lot of writers and artists get worn down writing or drawing an epic and go on to focus mostly smaller stories. Right now, do you think you would do another 60 issue series, either in the near future or ever?

I doubt it. For a few different reasons. First off, 60 issues is a massive commitment, obviously. So I can’t really grasp committing another 6-8 years of my life to one series at this point. That may change, but that’s where I’m at right now.

Plus CHEW was in the rare position of having the sales to sustain such an extended run. It’s very, VERY rare for a book created by two virtual unknowns to have a loyal monthly fanbase big enough to warrant 60 issues, and that’s been a major blessing. These days, books typically debut with high numbers and major press attention, then peter down quickly and quietly. That never really happened with us. Our monthly numbers over 6 years have been very steady, and our TPB and digital sales continue to grow. Could we have the same luck with another 60 issue series? Who knows, but it doesn’t happen much for creators that aren’t at Kirkman or BKV levels of name recognition. Time will tell, but I sort of lean toward doing 20 issue stories in the future.

How anxious are you to draw that last page of CHEW?

Not anxious at all, really. It’s not really something I think too much about. There’s still 15 issues of CHEW left, so I’m just focusing on making those better than the 40-something issues that came before. We’ve had a strong run, and we need to end it in a way to honors what we’ve built. The last page will be here soon enough, though.

What was your relationship with CM Punk prior to working together on Thor?

We were mutual fans of each other’s work. I’m a big wrestling fan, and CHEW is one of Punk’s favorite books. At some point, we crossed paths and hit it off. I never expected that friendship to eventually lead to me working with him at Marvel, but life is weird that way.

Can you describe what CM Punk’s script was like?

Punk worked Marvel Method, with a lot of general scene description, but no panel-by-panel work. So I got to handle all the pacing and layout for the issue, which is very different than my CHEW work, but it worked well on this story. Punk’s really good with words, so his script was very conversational and super-articulate, and I got what he was going for right from the beginning. And he was smart enough to play to my strengths with a ton of physical comedy and character acting. He did good.

You’re at a kind of similar stage of your career as Chip Zdarksy, coming off successful Image books and starting to do work for Marvel. With that in mind, what was it like drawing from his script?

Well, at this point, after 40-something issues of drawing John Layman’s scripts, drawing anyone else’s is always a little weird. But Chip’s script was great. Brimming over with absurd, silly detail that was right up my alley. Plus, using Luke Cage and Iron Fist was a personal request of mine, so that was fantastic.

You’re known for adding a lot of extra elements to CHEW. Did you add any to the Thor or Howard the Duck stories?

Yeah. With Thor, there are a few little background gags in the tavern where it takes place. Nothing crazy, just a few subtle Easter Eggs. My personal fave is getting to change Mjolnir’s inscription to “DO YOU EVEN LIFT, BRO?”, which I’m not even sure the Marvel guys caught. Plus, I came up with all the Marvel-themed drinks that Thor and Mephisto are chugging. Sorta my love letter to various Marvel characters.

And with my Howard story, which takes place in a court setting, Cage and Iron Fist’s lawyer is basically Ben Matlock, and Howard’s is a skeevier Saul Goodman. These are all little details that very few people would catch, but they’re there, and it’s always super-rewarding to see readers catch them.

Do you enjoy handling all the art duties, or was that more something that was necessitated by the low budget for CHEW?

Well, finding dependable creative partners was nearly impossible when I was a young, aspiring artist. So early on, I just decided to do it all myself. I never thought it would turn into a creative advantage, but it really has. Nowadays, I have a color assistant, Taylor Wells, that handles my flatting and cleans up my rough shadow work. But I still handle the bulk of my coloring work, and I love it.

Do you ever want to either just draw or just color a comic book, or has total control over art duties become kind of addictive?

It’s a give and take. On one hand, I love the creative control. On the other, I love the idea of taking the week that I usually dedicate to coloring and napping instead, because it IS an intense work schedule. I can see myself hand-picking a colorist for a future project, just to see how it feels. We’ll see.

Is there any inclination to start writing comics, either for you or other artists to draw?

Yes. I wrote a lot of my own pre-CHEW work, and I’m already in the rough stages of writing my own post-CHEW work.

Do you know what your next big project is after CHEW?

Not yet. Layman and I have toyed with the idea of doing something else, and I’m sure we will eventually. I expect to pitch Marvel a mini-series at some point in the next year. After that, I’m expecting to do another creator-owned series. Again, we’ll see. Part of me wants to take a little time off after CHEW ends, but I’m a workhorse, so that may not happen. I may jump right into new work the day after I draw the last page of CHEW. Who knows.

You described your intense work schedule on Multiversity recently. What keeps you going making comics, day after day after day?

Aside from earning a living, this is just something I’ve always done. I was beating myself up for a self-imposed deadline for a mini-comic that only I would see when I was age 9. I’m built for comics. It’s a love-hate relationship sometimes when the deadlines get hard or some comic outrage blows up on Twitter, but I’ve been on a path to make comics from the very beginning. I just love it.

You can follow Rob Guillory on Twitter @Rob_guillory and buy original art and more at his online store. I encourage you do both.

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Between some casting news and a few choice interviews, it was a busier 24 hours than most in the entertainment news cycle. Here are the headlines of interest for the weekend:

– CBS’ Supergirl added a few Superman franchise vets yesterday as both Dean Cain (Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman) and Helen Slater (Supergirl, the movie) have signed on for the series. It isn’t the first time these two have re-joined the DC Universe, both appeared in Smallville at different times: Cain as a Vandal Savage-like immortal scientist, and Slater as Lara-El. Their roles are being kept under wraps this time around.

– FOX’s Lucifer has found its lead as well, as British thespian Tom Ellis (Rush, Miranda) will be playing the former Lord of Hell who now helps the LAPD punish criminals.

– On the Avengers: Age of Ultron side of things, we have some new character posters promoting the film including The Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, and Nick Fury:

 

– Collider also has a great interview with Chris Hemsworth that’s worth a look at if you’re curious where Marvel may be taking Thor specifically. There’s one bit of exchange I found interesting, where Hemsworth slightly hints at why Thor: The Dark World wasn’t as necessarily successful as the first Thor:

What’s something Thor gets to do in this film that he hasn’t done before in the other fims?

HEMSWORTH: He’s loosened up a bit. I think we lost some of the humor and the naïveté, that sort of fish out of water quality of Thor from the first film into the second one. There were things I loved about what we did in the second one too, tonally, but that sense of fun… I would have liked it to be there a bit more, and Joss I think felt the same way.  So there’s more humor in Thor or at least because he’s been on Earth, he’s a little more accessible now.  He’s off Asgard now so he doesn’t have to be as regal and kingly as he is in that world, which is nice. I enjoy that more.  It’s sort of a box, which is tough to step out of on Asgard.  You know, that stuff just looks out of place whereas here, he can have a gag with the guys and he can throw away lines and be a party scene with them in civilian clothes, which is nice.

– Speaking of regal superheroes, Jason Momoa chatted briefly with EW while promoting Sundance TV’s The Red Road, and of course Aquaman came up. At one point he compares his DCU experience with that of Conan The Barbarian:

The whole mythology of Aquaman is pretty amazing. There’s so many things to tell, and there’s a whole backstory that’s just amazing. There’s a lot of surprises coming. I think, yeah, he’s been cast aside. But, um [laughs] times are going to change now, buddy. Conan was really hard, because you have 15 different types of fans and so many things to respect and honor. To do it right it’s got to be bloody-bloody-bloody-bloody-bloody, and not a lot of people go see that anymore. It’s not the ’80s anymore. It’s a really hard format. We busted ass, but there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen on that one. What’s great about this is Zack, man. We don’t want to just reinvent it, but he’s a got a whole idea of what Aquaman should be and I’m really honored to be playing it. I’m excited for the world to see it.

He also more or less confirmed that Aquaman’s role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is fairly small and filming for Justice League has not begun yet.

 

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Looking for some nerd themed bling fro gifts? King Ice offers this nice Thor’s helemet pendent, along with a lot of other hip hop swag and other items with crossover appeal, like this  Black Octopus Wearing Sunglasses Ring. 

King Ice sent the Beat a golden Thor pendent as a review item a while ago and it’s a solid, heavy piece, which doesn’t look tacky. Despite not wearing gold in general, The BEat wore it to several function and it drew many compliments.

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WHOA — Marvel really did announce a Captain Marvel movie for 2018, and Black Panther for 2017, with Chadwick Boseman (42) joining Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans on stage.

Today’s Marvel presser was roundly liveblogged, and it was apparently a tumultuous event at the Disney owned El Capitan theater. The entire Stage 3 line-up was announced and it goes like this:

 

Captain America: Civil War for May 6, 2016 — huh what could THAT refer to. Spinning out of Avengers 2 no doubt. Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

 

Doctor Strange November 4, 2016. Directed by Scott Derrickson. No official Cumberbatch confirmation. Doctor Strange was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

 

 

Guardians 2 moved up to May 5, 2017. The Guardians of the Galaxy created by various people, including Jack Kirby, Bill Mantlo, Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin.

 

A third Thor movie: Thor Ragnarok July 28th, 2017. Thor was created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.

Black Panther starring Chadwick Boseman on November 5, 2017. Black Panther was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Avengers: Infinity War in TWO PARTS, just like Harry Potter for 2018 and 2019, while Chris Evans is still in shape.  The Avengers created mostly by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Captain Marvel for July 6th, 2018. Carol Danvers was created by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan; in her role as Captain Marvel she was developed by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Dexter Soy.

And as predicted, the Inhumans for November 2018 The inhumans were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby because there is like, nothing they did not create.

 

Also released, this sweet concept art for the Black Panther:

If you’re keeping score at home….well, this is a BIG chart. Collating. As several folks pointed out, DC revealed thei rmovie slate at an investors conference and mostly to keep investors happy following the failed Rupert Murdoch takeover and shaky stock earnings. Marvel held a popular event where fans were present and involved.  A lot of people don’t want to get into the WB vs Disney thing, but I can assure you, it is real.

Also, aren’t you glad that Marvel settled with the estate of Jack Kirby so that his legacy with these characters can be fully explored going forward? Yes you are.

 

 

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By Matthew Jent

Thor #1

Credits:

Writer: Jason Aaron

Artist: Russell Dauterman

Color Artist: Matthew Wilson

Letterer & Production: VC’s Joe Sabino

Cover Artist: Russell Dauterman & Frank Martin

Variant Cover Artists: Sara Pichelli & Laura Martin; Esad Ribic; Andrew Robinson; Alex Ross; Fiona Staples; Skottie Young

Publisher: Marvel Comics

 

“There must always be a Thor.”

Thor’s gotten a lot of media attention lately, ever since Marvel Comics took to the View to announce that the new Thor would be a woman. It was a bold move to announce this franchise-shifting move on a show whose audience is not necessarily the core audience for what has become one of Marvel’s tentpole characters. But it spoke to a renewed effort to expand Marvel’s audience, and passing the hammer of Thor to a new character is part of the character’s tradition, from Beta Ray Bill to Eric Masterson to, err, Dargo Ktor of the 26^th Century.

So here it is. The new series. The new Thor, right there on every single variant cover. The media event!

But, alas — new readers, lapsed readers, fervent Thor fans — if you’re here to see what all of the well-advertised hubbub is about, you’ll have to come back in November. The new Thor? She’s not really in this comic*.

She does show up, eventually. But she doesn’t interact with any other character, her single line of dialogue is spoken in solitude, and she does little more than pose for a glorified cameo. The next issue teaser promises “The Goddess of Thunder in Action!”, as does a USAToday article published this week (“The new female Thor gets into the action in the second issue of her new comic book series”). If you pick up this issue asking yourself, I wonder what the new Thor will be like?, you’re still going to be wondering when the book is over.

So. Now that we’ve established what the issue is not, let’s talk about what it is. After a teaser introducing a familiar threat, the scene shifts to the Moon where the Asgardians are reeling from the events of Original Sin, Marvel’s summertime crossover (written, like this issue, by Jason Aaron). The old Thor (hereafter referred to as He-Thor, since going by this issue alone I can’t tell if he has a secret or alternate identity) remains shaken by a mysterious secret imparted by Nick Fury. He-Thor can’t lift his hammer — nobody can lift the hammer — and Odin (the All-Father) and Freyja (the All-Mother) don’t seem too clear on which one of them is running the show.

He-Thor still answers the call to battle, because despite being unworthy of holding the hammer of Thor, he is still a really strong, really blonde dude. He might have super-strength? He is definitely capable of breathing on the Moon (and under water), but it’s not clear why. Maybe this is Marvel’s Blue Area of the Moon? Introduced way back in Lee & Kirby’s Fantastic Four #13, this is an area of the Moon with a breathable atmosphere, and it was home to the Watcher, a major character in Original Sin. I can extrapolate or assume that kind of information, because I’ve been reading Marvel comics for decades. But if this is a #1 issue (which it is), and if this is a jumping-on point for not only new Thor readers but new comic book readers (which, given the media push this issue receives, it will be), it seems like a major omission from the plot and the setting.

The art by Russell Dauterman and Matthew Wilson is, for the most part, crisp, clear, and fun. The Asgardians look like the fantasy-science heroes they should be, and there’s a Frank Quitely-esqe feel to their facial expressions. But while Quitely is accomplished at illustrating sequential action, Dauterman’s fight scenes can be confusing. It feels like either too much, or not enough, information is conveyed between the panels. On the other hand, the scenes of long dialogue and exposition are never boring, and — seriously — I love Dauterman’s faces. That’s a valuable gift! Wilson’s colors go from poppy and bright to crisply dark, without getting muddy.

It will be fun to see Dauterman and Wilson illustrate the new Thor. Jason Aaron has been writing Thor’s adventures since 2012, and despite a new art team, this is the old Thor’s final issue more than it is the new Thor’s first one. I can’t say if that’s a scripting issue or an editorial one, but Thor #1 has been marketed and advertised as the beginning of a new character and a new era. But so far, it’s the story of the same ol’ Thunder God.

It’s not a bad comic in its own right. The dialogue, even the Asgardian doth-speak, is clear and fun. Godly rivalries are introduced and villainous plots are hatched. The illustration and the colors pop. But despite countless PR assurances that this is no She-Thor, this is Thor — new readers will be forced to ask the question, Why wasn’t she in the book?

 

*this assumes that the new Thor, in her secret identity, does not appear elsewhere in the issue. There’s only one real option if she does, and it would make some story-sense, but Thor’s identity remains unknown by issue’s end.

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Not every scholar of medieval English has the privilege of translating a major poetic text, and fewer still have the chance to do it all over again, eighteen years later. My first edition of the Poetic Edda was published in 1996 and about two years ago, I was invited to think about a second edition, one which would expand the number of poems and which could be brought up to date in other ways. But what could have changed as far as this classic work was concerned in the meantime?

Well, unlike a single poem, such as Beowulf or Piers Plowman, the Poetic Edda is a collection of poems. Most of these are to be found in a single manuscript, known as the Codex Regius, kept in the Árnar Magnússonar Manuscript Institute in Reykjavík, Iceland. But, preserved in other Icelandic manuscripts, are a good number of further poems in the same kind of metre, which relate more stories of Norse gods and heroes. Four or five of these poems have always been considered part of the Poetic Edda and I translated them in the first edition. But now there was room for some more.

I’ve added three more eddic poems which I think are interesting in different ways. The first of them is traditionally known as “The Waking of Angantyr.” It tells the story of a warrior-maiden Hervör, who dares to go alone to an eerie island, haunted by her undead father and his eleven brothers. Hervör wants her father’s magical sword Tyrfing, but Angantyr is determined not to give it to her. He’s quite surprised that a girl should dare to come to the uncanny place:

Young girl, I declare you are not like most men,
hanging around by mounds at night
with an engraved spear and in metal of the Goths [armour],
a helmet and corslet before the hall-doors.

At first Angantyr pretends that he doesn’t have the sword, next, he warns (truthfully) that the sword bears a curse, but finally he hands it over to the triumphant Hervör. A bold and determined heroine and an undead corpse — this seemed like a good addition to the new translation. The other additions are “Groa’s Chant” and the “Sayings of Fiolsvinn,” two related poems. A young man called Svipdag has been cursed by his stepmother to go on a quest to find and woo the lovely Menglod, a task fraught with danger: “she has ordered me to go where she knows there’s no going,” Svipdag laments. Wisely, he first visits the grave of his dead mother for advice. Groa is indeed anxious to help and she sings a number of spells over Svipdag. If he crosses rivers or sea, if he’s chained up or assailed by frost, “may no corpse-cold come to ravage your flesh / nor bind your body in its joints.”

Groa’s last spell will help Svipdag if he must “bandy words with the spear-magnificent giant,” and this is exactly what happens. When the hero finally reaches Menglod’s hall, the watchman Fiolsvinn won’t let him in. Entrance is only permitted to the man who can fulfill a whole series of impossible tasks, set up in a circular fashion. Svipdag is about to despair, but wait! No man can come in unless he has carried out this task — or unless his name is Svipdag! And so when Svipdag reveals his name, he gains entry to the hall and is rapturously embraced by Menglod, who chides him lovingly, “A long time I’ve sat on Healing-rock / waiting day after day for you!”

What constitutes a medieval poem? One of the most important poems in the Poetic Edda, “The Seeress’s Prophecy” exists in three different versions in medieval Icelandic manuscripts. Very often editors have combined the texts of all three versions to try to recover what they think might have been the “original” form of the poem. But nowadays scholars tend to think that this is a pointless endeavor. After all, this poem probably existed in oral tradition for a hundred or more years before it was first written down and there was likely never a definitive version. Newer critical thinking argues that it is better to reproduce what actually appears in the medieval manuscripts than to try to find the lost original. And so I’ve provided two versions of this poem, one written down in 1270, and one which was written down about forty years later. In the earlier version, the death of Baldr the Beautiful ushers in the beginning of the end of the world: Ragnarök. Baldr’s mother Frigg had made everything on earth promise not to hurt him, but she did not bother with the mistletoe, for it was so little and frail. Wicked Loki shaped it into a dart and put it in the hands of Baldr’s blind brother Hod when all the gods were amusing themselves by throwing things at Baldr and watching them bounce harmlessly from him. Here Baldr lounges against a wall, while Loki guides the fumbling and hooded Hod:

In the later version, preserved in the Hauksbók manuscript, which was compiled in the first decade of the fourteenth century, Baldr isn’t even mentioned; that seems to be a difference worth recording, and it suggests that the death of Baldr wasn’t necessarily connected to Ragnarök.

And perhaps most importantly, eighteen years ago talking about the reception of the Poetic Edda meant talking about Wagner, William Morris, and Tolkien. Nowadays the influence of these wonderful poems is felt much more widely, in popular culture as well as in the opera house. Hollywood has its Thor films; novelists such as Neil Gaiman in American Gods (2001), young adult authors such as Melvin Burgess and Joanne Harris, even Game of Thrones, with its dragons, ravens, shield-maidens, its endless winter, wolves and giants, have seized on eddic themes and motifs to capture the imaginations of new generations. I hope that this new version of the Poetic Edda, with its additions, updates, and revisions will also find new readers to thrill to these poems, which speak to us in comic, tragic, grandiose, crude, witty, profound, and commonsense tones.

The post “Young girl, I declare you are not like most men”: retranslating The Poetic Edda appeared first on OUPblog.

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Yep, she’s got a hammer. Heres Marvel’s preview of the new Thos, who is NOT LadyThor, but Thor, as the pr reminds us:

It’s the story that has been seen the world over, and today Marvel is proud to present your very first look inside THOR #1, the new series from New York Times-bestselling writer Jason Aaron (Original Sin, Thor: God of Thunder) and rising star artist Russell Dauterman (Cyclops)! Prepare for an all-new era of the God of Thunder as a brand new female hero explodes into the Marvel Universe!

The great hammer Mjölnir lies on the surface of the moon, unable to be lifted by anyone in all the heavens – even the Mighty Thor! Something dark has befallen the Thunder God, leaving him unworthy and unable to lift his magic hammer. With an army of Frost Giants invading Earth, the Odinson may not have the strength to stop them – and the hammer will be lifted by an all-new Thor! A mysterious woman unlike any Thor we’ve ever seen before!

“This is not She-Thor. This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is Thor. This is the Thor of the Marvel Universe. But it’s unlike any Thor we’ve ever seen before,” says writer Jason Aaron.

Launching as part of the Avengers NOW! initiative, Thor is the first of an exciting wave of titles that push the Marvel Universe forward in exciting new directions! Prepare for a Marvel Universe like you’ve never seen it before as the biggest creators in the industry bring you bold new stories featuring the most popular characters!

Who is this mysterious new God of Thunder? Not even Odin knows! No fan can afford to miss the comic that has everyone talking. Prepare for a senses-shattering new beginning as the all-new Thor thunders her way through the Marvel Universe this October in THOR #1!

Retailers: As Thor continues to garner unprecedented media attention from all corners of the mainstream press, retailers are strongly encouraged to check their orders on this highly anticipated first issue.

THOR #1 (AUG140777)
Written by JASON AARON


Art & Cover by RUSSELL DAUTERMAN


75th Anniversary Variant by ALEX ROSS (AUG140778)


75th Anniversary Sketch Variant by ALEX ROSS (AUG140779)


 

Variant Covers by SKOTTIE YOUNG (AUG140780), SARA PICHELLI (AUG140782),
ANDREW ROBINSON (AUG140781), FIONA STAPLES (AUG140783) & ESAD RIBIC (AUG140784)


FOC – 09/08/14, On-Sale 10/01/14

 

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By Anatoly Liberman

On 20 November 2013, I discussed the verbs astonish, astound, and stun. Whatever the value of that discussion, it had a truly wonderful picture of a stunned cat and an ironic comment by Peter Maher on the use of the word stunning. While rereading that short essay, I decided that I had not done justice to the third verb of the series (stun) and left out of discussion a few other items worthy of consideration. The interested readers may look upon this post as Part 2, a continuation of the early one.

Astonish and astound, despite the troublesome suffix -ish in the first of them and final -d in the second, are close cognates. Both go back to a Romance form reconstructed as ex-tonare. Latin tonare meant “to thunder”; tone, intone, and tonality contain the same root. To quote Ernest Weekley, “Some metaphors are easy to track. It does not require much philological knowledge to see that astonish, astound, and stun all contain the idea of ‘thunder-striking’, Vulgar Latin *ex-tonare.” (The asterisk designates an unattested form reconstructed by linguists.) Those lines saw the light in 1913. A century later “philological knowledge” has reached such a stage among the so-called general public that people’s readiness to draw any conclusions about the history of language should be taken with caution. But as regards the content, Weekley was right: the idea behind astonish ~ astound is indeed “thunderstruck.”

Weekley did not explain how a-s-toun- and thun-der are related.  The hyphenation above shows that a- is a prefix. The root stoun- has a diphthong because the original vowel was long. Likewise, down, house, now, and many other words with ou (ow) had “long u” (the vowel of poo) in Middle English. The change is regular. Initial s- in stoun- is what is left of the prefix ex-; Old French already had estoner (Modern French lost even the last crumb: étonner). A Germanic correspondence of Latin t is th, as in tres ~ three, pater ~ father, and so forth; hence thunder (d has no claim to antiquity). All this is trivial. However, there are two suspicious details in our story: German staunen “to be amazed” and Engl. stun.

In my 2013 post, I followed old sources and called staunen a respectable relative of astonish and stun. However, its respectability and even relatedness to the English group has been rejected by modern scholars, so that an explanation is in order. (I am “astonished” that no one offered a correction. Usually the slightest misstep on my part—real or imaginary—arouses immediate protest.) Staunen, a verb borrowed by the Standard from Swiss German, originally meant “to stare” and has been compared with several words like stare that have nothing to do with thunder. “Stare; look dreamily” yielded, rather unexpectedly, the modern sense “to be amazed.” The recorded history of staunen “to be amazed” and erstaunen “amaze” cannot be questioned, but their etymology looks a bit strained, and I wonder whether some foreign influence could contribute to the similarity between astound and staunen.

A much thornier question concerns the history of Engl. stun. Old English had the verb stunian “crash, resound, roar; impinge; dash.” It looks like a perfect etymon of stun. Skeat thought so at the beginning of his etymological career and never changed his opinion. He compared stunian with a group of words meaning “to groan”: Icelandic stynja, Dutch stenen, German stöhnen, and their cognates elsewhere. Those are almost certainly related to thunder. Apparently, the congeners of tonare did not always denote a great amount of din.

The presence of s- in stenen and the rest is not a problem. This strange sound is like a barnacle: it attaches itself to the first consonant of numerous roots, though neither its function nor its origin has been explained in a satisfactory way. Such a good researcher as Francis A. Wood even mocked those who believed in its existence. Only a good name for this “parasite” exists (s mobile), and it has become a recognized linguistic term. S mobile disregards linguistic borders: doublets abound in the same language, as well as in closely and remotely related languages and outside it. For instance, the German for sneeze is niesen. Similar examples can be cited by the hundred.

This is not a phenomenon that happens only in old languages: in modern dialects, such doublets are also common. That is why some scholars who, in the past, tried to discover the origin of the word slang believed that they were dealing with French langue and s mobile; compare the modern jocular blend slanguage. (A convincing etymology of slang, which does not depend on s mobile, has been known for more than a hundred years, but dictionaries are unaware—fiction writers and journalists like to say blissfully unaware—of this fact.) Consequently, s-tun can be related to thunder—that is, if we recognize the existence of the capricious s mobile, an entity of the type “now you see it, now you don’t.”

However, stun “daze, render unconscious” surfaced in texts only in the early fourteenth century, while stunian “crash, etc.” does not seem to have survived into Middle English; only stonien “make a noise” has been recorded. The first edition of the OED stated cautiously that stun goes back to Old French estoner. (This word has yet to be revised for the new edition on OED Online.) The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology gives the solution endorsed by Murray and Bradley as certain. The Century Dictionary followed Skeat but admitted confusion with the French verb that yielded astonish and astound. Other respectable sources hedge, copy from their great predecessors, and prefer to stay noncommittal.

I have returned to my old post for one reason only. In investigating the history of stun, astound, and its look-alikes, we encounter the well-known difficulty: a word resembles another word in the same or another language, and it is hard to decide where, in making a connection, we hit the nail on its proverbial head and where we are on a false tack.

In 2013, I mentioned an old hypothesis according to which stun is related to stone. This hypothesis cannot be defended: at present we have sufficient means to disprove it. (In etymology it is usually easier to show that some conclusion is untenable than that it is true.) But in two other cases we may or should hesitate. Astound and staunen are so much alike in sound and sense that rejecting their affinity unconditionally may be too hasty. The situation is even more complicated with stun. Tracing it to Old French without a footnote produces the impression that ultimate clarity has been attained, but it has not. In etymology, the door is only too often open for legitimate doubt.

Anatoly Liberman is the author of Word Origins And How We Know Them as well as An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction. His column on word origins, The Oxford Etymologist, appears on the OUPblog each Wednesday. Send your etymology question to him care of [email protected]; he’ll do his best to avoid responding with “origin unknown.” Subscribe to Anatoly Liberman’s weekly etymology articles via email or RSS.

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The post There are more ways than one to be thunderstruck appeared first on OUPblog.

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Marvel are kicking off a weekend of announcements today with news about some Original Sin tie-ins. The main Original Sin series will see The Watcher get shot up something rotten, his eyeballs getting ripped out, and everybody finding out deep and dark secrets which previously only Uatu knew about. It’s like superhuman wikileaks, basically. And amongst the tie-ins has just been announced a five-issue miniseries from Jason Aaron, Simone Bianchi, Al Ewing, and Lee Garbett: Loki and Thor: The Tenth Realm.

Those would be the creative teams for Loki: Agent of Asgard and The Mighty Thor, of course. The storyline also concerns another character, however – the noted Angela, fresh from her stint in the Guardians of the Galaxy. After a lot of wondering about why she was important to the Marvel Universe, and why it was such a big deal that she arrived, courtesy of Neil Gaiman, into Marvel Comics… it appears the answer has finally come.

She’s Odin’s daughter. Making her the sister of both Thor and Loki. Uh-oh! In this five-issue miniseries, Angela will be heading across for a family reunion, causing problems for Thor, Loki – and also for Odin. You have to imagine that Frigga won’t be particularly thrilled, either.

Marvel note that the series will be numbered as Original Sin #5.1 across to #5.5. It’ll start this July.

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As writers spruce themselves up in preparation for entering schools on World Book Day in order to bear witness that there are - honest! - real people behind books, I've been thinking about what books I read when I was at primary-school age that really turned me on - and why.

There was a great public library down the road, and, like some kind of ravenous termite, I burrowed through titles as fast as I could: first, E. Nesbitt, Biggles, the Jennings books, Just William, the Famous Five, the Secret Seven, Swallows and Amazons, Robert Louis Stevenson and Peter Pan.

Adults hated this.

But reading these cost me nothing of my prized pocket money. If I cared about reading something enough to part with my precious cash, then I must have really wanted to read it, right? So what were these items?

Firstly, I'm almost ashamed to admit it now, but I bought the whole set of Enid Blyton's Mystery Of... paperbacks, featuring the Five Find-Outers. These were 2/6d each (12.5p nowadays - nothing. But given that I had 6d a week pocket money that was quite a big deal!).

These books epitomise everything that is completely wrong, from an adult's point of view, about Enid Blyton, being badly written, with sterotyped characters, and containing a character called Fatty. None of that mattered to me of course.

Apart from being page-turning whodunnits, there were three important other elements that made them attractive to this 8 or 9-year old: the children knew best, they solved mysteries without adult help, and the authority figure - usually a policeman - was completely stupid. I suspect the latter reason is particularly why adults frowned upon Blyton. But you can't knock the fact that she published a staggering 752 books in her life. That must be some kind of record. Even if they did have names like Noddy Loses His Clothes.

Matilda - probably the best model reader in the world.

There's something in the British psyche: Britons are well known for their sense of fair play combined with a healthy disrespect for authority. And I think I know why. Most children's books liked by children perpetrate the idea that children know best - and what is fair - and adults don't. Roald Dahl is the obvious example, just look at Matilda.

Then, I'd buy the Beano. Like thousands of other kids. You won't be surprised if I tell you that Leo Baxendale, whom I've had the pleasure to meet a few times, and who came up with the Bash Street Kids and Minnie the Minx, is an out and out anarchist and has been all his life. That's anarchist in the traditional British sense, going all the way back to the Levellers and Robin Hood.

Leo Baxendale's Bash Street Kids: anarcho-punks in the making.

He believed that property is theft to the extent that he eventually sued his publishers, DC Thompson, for not paying him any royalties despite the millions they were making from his work - and then settled out of court for an undisclosed sum to pay his mother's medical costs.

And I bought Marvel comics, whether imported or reprinted in the pages of comics Wham!, Smash!, Pow!, Fantastic! or Terrific! - hundreds of them, because they blew my mind with their sheer imagination. But in retrospect, I reflect that there was something else, something very special that made superheroes attractive to me - and to all kids who love them:

They have secret identities.

Pure magic. My name is Thorpe. I WAS Thor!

When bullied, persecuted Peter Parker became Spiderman, he left behind all of his troubles. When puny Bruce Banner transformed into the incredible Hulk, he could smash anybody. When the selfless and lame Don Blake hit his walking stick on the ground, it became Mjolnir, and he was the mighty God of Thunder, a noble Asgardian.

But all of these were secrets known only to themselves - and to me, the reader.

Stan Lee wrote all of these. He is a genius. Like Dahl, Blyton and Baxendale he knew how to create the equivalent of crystal meth on paper. Addictive or what?

These writers are not equal by the way. Today, I can't recall a single Blyton plotline. (And was she the first kids' writer to trademark her name as an instantly-recognisable signature? Is that part of her success - and should we all do this?) By contrast, very many of Stan the Man's stories and characters are burned into my brain. I'd say he was the most prolific of all these writers, and his inventions are the most successful (whether in terms of readership, sales or influence.)

Back to the subject of secret identities. It's not just that every kid longs to have special powers that could help them defeat their enemies (flying, super-strength, invisibility), it's that children have secret lives as well. For many grown-ups these secret lives are forgotten as they get older.

As a child I remember wondering why it was that adults seemed no longer to remember what it was like to be a child themselves, and vowed that I would do my best not to let the memory fade. I don't know whether I do - very well - but I certainly recall that feeling with great intensity.

The powerful idea that you have a secret self, with a special life known only to you, in which you accomplish remarkable deeds, heroic feats - and nobody else (adult) understands, nobody must even know about this - is surely experienced by all children!

They are all, almost perpetually, engaged in one quest or another, one struggle, one battle, or one tumultuous adventure, whether it is emotional, adventurous, imaginative or intellectual. This is what's going on inside children's minds. All the time.

And this is what the best games, books, TV, films and so on both feed on, and feed into, in the fertile forming minds of children.

Always have. Always will.

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TweetFriday is art day! Friday is also the harbinger of the weekend, but who cares about that? Instead, take a look at all the pretty pictures I gathered for you from the shady, cob-webby corners of the Internet you dare not venture… (I can’t say more) FF by Mike Allred (you HAVE to click on this to [...]

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By Steve Morris

Via that very best of methods: the Dustin Weaver giganti-cover. The covers for issues 1-3 of Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers relaunch have been revealed by Marvel today, establishing that more X-Men have moved over to Cap’s Crew. While there are no surprises about which members of the Avengers movie cast made it into the series (all of them), the cover does still hold a few surprises. So! Who’re The Avengers?

Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Hulk and Thor are all members of the Avengers – unsurprisingly – and they’re joined be fellow non-surprises Spider-Man and Wolverine. But also in amongst the shiny heroes are Sunspot and Cannonball from the New Mutants, as well as Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman and Falcon. This represents perhaps the first time that two minority characters males have been on the main Avengers at the same time, I believe, although that still feels a bit of a low ratio for what’s meant to be a world-spanning team. No sign of Redwing yet either, which is a worry.

There’s also some whizzy technology in the background, suggesting that Hickman will be basing the team in Nick Fury’s helicarrier. The most intriguing part, however, looks to be the mystery character on the far left, silhouetted by the explosion Steve Rogers is manfully walking away from. For my money, this looks like it’s meant to be Shang Chi, but.. well, it could be anybody really. Anybody else got a better guess in mind?

Hickman, artist Jerome Opena and colourist Dean White will start the series off in December. There are still several more characters yet to be revealed as team-members, so don’t lose hope yet, Jarvis fans!

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Mike Evers continues The Hopfield Tales with the second book in his Viking fantasy. It is available now on Kindle for $2.99, or FREE for Prime users! Follow this link to get it now: http://goo.gl/URV6v 

About the story: When Norse god Týr suspects his friend Thor is cheating in the phenomenal board game ‘Campaign of the Gods’ he takes matters into his own hands and searches out the only being in Asgard who can help solve his problem. But things are not what they seem… And once the forces of Hel are unleashed, only legendary Viking berserker Ivar Ragnarsson and his men can possibly save the day. They just have to work out when in history they are first - and why are the local townspeople so strange?

About the author: Mike often taps out stuff on his keyboard in the fantasy, urban fantasy and paranormal genres: a habit which his wife finds fairly amusing - and sometimes a little bit strange. So far he has published two novellas - The Spirit Archer and Campaign of the Gods - with GMTA Publishing. These form part of The Hopfield Tales. The third and final tale is due out in early 2013. Mike's debut novel, The Chaosifier, is also available on Amazon, where it is ambushing unsuspecting fans of contemporary fantasy with its general mischief and mayhem. Mike's educational background is in History, International Conflict Analysis and Education. He is qualified as a teacher in ESOL and Adult Literacy, and lives and works in West Yorkshire. He's married to a long-suffering wife, Joanne, and they have a young son called Joseph.

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By Steve Morris

Some of you are going to try and burst my bubble on this with some crazy nonsense babbletalk about how this is ‘clearly a Thor relaunch’ but DAMMIT, you’re not going to change my mind. The second Marvel teaser of the week reveals that Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic will ABSOLUTELY be the creative team for a new WARREN WORTHINGTON III solo series. I do not accept anybody who says this is a Thor title.

Sometimes the sinister mutant known as Archangel but more typically the golden boy of Charles Xavier’s army called Angel, Warren Worthington has really been through the wringer recently. First he gave in to the Archangel persona, then he had sex with Psylocke, and then he got murdered and a new soul grew inside his dead body. Ai ai ai.

No no, stop saying that Thor is considered to be one of the only people ‘worthy’ of wielding his hammer, Mjolnir and therefore this title refers to him. You’re really harshing my buzz. The rest of the World may have decided that Jason Aaron is going to write a new Thor series for Esad Ribic to draw, but I will never accept this as anything other than a new series for Angel. The X-Men franchise could always use another series!

If it is a Thor series, it would be interesting to see if it’s a solo title, or if a group of characters are being tied together into a new team. There are a number of characters tangentially connected to Thor, after all, and they’ve got fans too, don’t they? You could potentially fit in Valkrie, Sif (remember she’s prominent in the film), Beta Ray Bill and Dani Moonstar, among others.

Of course this is all irrelevant, because it’s a Warren Worthington book. DEFINITELY.

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Marvel Now! was always going to claim some victims before relaunching, and now it’s made revealed (through that most sneaky of revealers, the solicitations listing) that nine of their current books will die in order for Marvel Now! to live.

Those nine titles are: Captain America, Fantastic Four, FF, Incredible Hulk, Invincible Iron Man, New Mutants, The Mighty Thor, Uncanny X-Men and X-Men Legacy.

This isn’t completely surprising in every case, because Brian Michael Bendis already said that Uncanny would end and several of the other books were winding up long-standing runs with big name creators. Matt Fraction was already set to leave Invincible Iron Man, while Jonathan Hickman and Ed Brubaker were both already known to be leaving the Fantastic Four titles and Captain America, respectively.

What does this mean for the characters? Well, Captain America, Thor and X-Men Legacy’s Rogue are all in a team together anyway, while Iron Man will surely find a place in one of the Avengers titles. But what of the Fantastic Four? They’ve completely dropped off the map, apparently, and the World’s Greatest Superhero Family look set to pack up their bags for a one-way trip to the one place they’ve never been before: comic-book limbo.

It’s interesting to note that most of these books were handled by the ‘Architects’ of Marvel, and that some low-selling titles like the beloved Journey Into Mystery have survived this new purge. Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man also escapes the destruction, so that much-teased ‘big change’ in issue #700 isn’t going to see the book cancelled, thankfully.

Three X-Men books are chopped, including flagship Uncanny X-Men. Which is a massive surprise, because most were predicting that the pointless titles – adjectiveless X-Men and Astonishing X-Men – would be the two to go. New Mutants was expected to go, and does. But it’s still surprising to see just how big a change Marvel seem to be making. What new books are going to replace these ones, which surely were the backbone of the Marvel Universe?

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With HerosCon now settling into the dusty annals of past history, the time has come for companies to start promoting what will happen at the almost-here-taste-it San Diego Comic-Con. For Marvel, that means some new teasers for whatever will follow their Avengers Vs X-Men event. Two have been released so far, promising lucky readers that the much-hated characters Thor and Wolverine will finally have their uppance come, during a story simply known as ‘War’.

This is likely to be a requiem-style miniseries following on from whatever the aftermath of AvX is, as you can see from the images of Thor’s broken hammer and Wolverine’s hand being…. well, who knows what’s happening in there. Expect a broken Captain America shield within a week, and probably some shredded Spider-Man clothes or something too.

Oh! Maybe this is something to do with that randomly-scheduled Brian Michael Bendis-written finale to the Avengers, Ultron War? That story has been slated to happen for over a year now, and there’s still no sign of it. In that case, expect a teaser image of Luke Cage’s beanie, which was accidentally put in the wash with some colours, and has now stained pink. What horrors. Marvel say that this story, whatever it is, will be announced at the Spider-Man panel during SDCC, on July 15th.

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Yeesh...I've not posted to this blog in a long long time. Feeling kinda bad about that.
SO, at the request of Mr. Jeff Andrews..I'm sharing these THOR Scribbles I posted on my blog yesterday. To scope out this and more of my other assorted artistic tomfollery, visit me at BEERS&BEARS!
If you like what you see I invite you to follow me there, and I'll make a concerted effort to post some work back to the SFG! in the future..

Have a great Friday everybody.
gogopedro

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