Upcoming: “Avengers: Endless Wartime” (Marvel)

This is just a badass image. One of my favourite, recent pieces

In October 2013, Marvel will be releasing the first in a new series of original graphic novels. For those of us who tend to wait for collected editions of the monthly series, this is a great development. We’ll get a decent, “movie-length epic” (according to the press release). Here’s the premise for the first book, Avengers: Endless Wartime:

An abomination, long thought buried, has resurfaced in a war-torn land – but now it wears an American flag. Faced with another nightmare reborn, Captain America will not stand for yet more death at the hands of a ghost from his past. Haunted by his greatest shame, Thor must renew the hunt for a familiar beast. Side by side with the great Super Heroes the world has seen, united to end the threats no one of them could face alone, the Avengers will stare down the greatest threat the team has ever faced. But is even their combined might enough to overcome a force of pure evil?

Upcoming: Marvel “Secret Origins” (Or, “WTF, Marvel?”)

It appears that Marvel will be releasing a line of “Secret Origin” comics. If that sounds familiar, it’s because DC did that for a number of characters pre-New 52 (Green Lantern and Superman, for example, both written by Geoff Johns). First up is an image that is kind of disturbing…

I know I’ve been mocking Marvel a fair bit for the way they talk/write about their Marvel NOW “Not A Reboot Honest” initiative, but sometimes I think they are unaware of the fact that they’re not fooling anyone. I do enjoy a good number of their titles (old and new), and I will probably always read their series. Captain America by Ed Brubaker (and Winter Soldier, a companion series of sorts), Mark Waid’s new Indestructible Hulk, Avenging Spider-Man, and any number of others are superb. But seriously, stop pretending that you’re not playing catch-up with DC.

Marvel’s “Civil War”

One of Marvel’s most popular cross-title Events

Writer: Mark Millar | Artist: Steve McNiven | Inks: Dexter Vines w. Mark Morales, Steve McNiven, John Dell & Tim Townsend | Colours: Morry Hollowell

Whose side are you on? A conflict is brewing that threatens to pit friend against friend, brother against brother and all it will take is a single misstep to cost thousands their lives and ignite the fuse! As the war claims its first victims, no one is safe as teams, friendships and families begin to fall apart and the Marvel Universe super heroes go to war against each other.

Collecting the seven issues in the Civil War mini-series, which had tie-in issues across the Marvel comics line, this is a real show-stopper of a story. It’s not perfect, by any means, but it is an engaging and fast-paced read. It’s also much better than The Ultimates (also written by Millar). Gorgeous artwork, and warring super heroes make for a very good book – more so, when you consider that it is really very reasonably priced in the UK. Well worth reading.

“The Ultimates” Vols. 1 & 2 (Marvel)

Writer: Mark Millar | Artist: Bryan Hitch | Inks: Andrew Currie & Paul Neary | Colours: Paul Mounts

Strange beings with incredible powers have risen up to challenge the old order, and ordinary citizens are scared witless. The government’s solution: a small but lethal army known as the Ultimates, created to protect us all from the newly rising threats to mankind!

Despite the plentiful recommendations and obvious popularity of this series, I’m sad to say it left me utterly underwhelmed. The story felt flat and over-padded. It clearly had an influence on the recent (excellent) Avengers Assemble movie, but it still managed to fail on a number of levels. I will concede that these two books – also available in a special edition collection (cover image above left) – did have moments of inspired storytelling, but they were fleeting and far between as to have little overall impact on the quality or my level of enjoyment.