Some Pieces of Wolverine Art… (Marvel)

Despite my belief that the mini-series will either be a disappointment, fail to deliver, or quickly retconned, Marvel has released some pretty cool artwork for Death of Wolverine. Today, for example, the following three images arrived in my inbox. They’re a selection of three work-in-progress versions of the same page: pencils, inks, and colours…

The artwork is by Steve McNiven (pencils), Jay Leisten (inks), and Justin Ponsor (colours). The series is written by Charles Soule. Issue one of Death of Wolverine will be published on September 3rd, 2014 – it will also include 20 pages of bonus content, like these progression pages.

In addition to these three versions of the page, Marvel have also unveiled some Canadian variant covers. Why Canada? Well, Wolverine is Canadian. Here are the variant covers and the series synopsis…

Born in Alberta, Canada – James Howlett’s long and eventful life now comes to an end. He has been counted among the X-Men, the Avengers and Canada’s own Alpha Flight.  He’s fought alongside heroes in numerous wars. He’s been the headmaster of a school for gifted youngsters. He has been the best there is at what he does for over a century. But the day has come where his best is not enough…

Left without his mutant healing factor, his enemies now close in for the kill – and the Wolverine faces his greatest battle alone. As he runs the gauntlet of his deadliest foes, be there when the once indestructible killing machine makes his final stand! What does a world without Wolverine look like?

In case you’re wondering, the plethora of Maple Leaves all over those covers is kind of appropriate…

Trailer: THE WOLVERINE

I am sooo looking forward to this movie. Love the character, love the way Hugh Jackman portrays him, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the movies. Roll on July!

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?

Marvel: THREE New Wolverine Titles…?

Last year, I had a chat with the President of a comics company in the US, and we joked about Marvel’s addiction to Wolverine and how he features in an ever-increasing number of their titles. With the roll-out of the Marvel NOW not-a-reboot-honest, readers will (of course) be offered some more titles that are all about Wolverine: Wolverine, Savage Wolverine and the soon-to-be-launched Ultimate Comics – Wolverine. Can there be too much of a great character? After all, he is a member of the Avengers, too…

Upcoming: “The Wolverine”

Once again starring Hugh Jackman, The Wolverine will reach theatres in July 2013.

Upcoming: WOLVERINE (Marvel Now)

There are jokes about the sheer breadth of titles that feature Wolverine – he’s in a number of Avengers titles, and there are even multiple Wolverine-centric titles. In the re-booted Marvel NOW initiative, coming in the wake of the universe-spanning Avengers vs. X-Men event, there is of course a new Wolverine #1. The pre-AvX Wolverine was ably helmed by Jason Aaron.

Post-AvX, however, the title has become even more intriguing: it will be written by Paul Cornell.

Cornell is a masterful British writer, who has written in the Dr. Who universe and also, most recently and familiarly for me, DC’s New 52 Demon Knights and Stormwatch, as well as Saucer Country for Vertigo. (A review of the first collected edition of the latter to come very soon.)

Art duties for Wolverine will be handled by Alan Davies.

Here’s what Paul Cornell had to say about the series:

“This is the series that gets into what makes James Logan tick, that shows him being, as he puts it, ‘a regular guy’, interacting with civilian friends of his in New York City… The most amazing thing about James is that he’s been alive so long, gone through so many extraordinary things, is such a strange being, but holds on – very hard – to being a guy who likes to hang out in bars with good company, who can run a school, who’s a decent, civilized man. Most of the time. No vampire alienation and boredom for him. He’s a man of the people. I’m going to poke that and see what happens.”

Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to this. Wolverine #1 will be published some time in March 2013.

In semi-related Paul Cornell news: his latest novel, London Falling, will be published in December 2012 (UK) and April 2013 (US), by Tor Books in both territories.

Ultimate Comics: “X - Origins” (Marvel)

Writer: Jeph Loeb | Artist: Arthur Adams | Colours: Peter Steigerwald | Digital Inks: Mark Roslan

Wolverine is dead. The X-Men are no more. Captain America is a fugitive. The Fantastic Four disbanded. Lives have been destroyed and nothing can ever be the same-is there any hope left? It all begins with a search for a brand new character whose identity will leave jaws on the floor and change the Ultimate Universe forever.

This is the first post-Ultimatum X-Men title. It was apparently meant to be a new series in itself, but due to less-than-stellar sales, it became an introduction/prequel to Ultimate Comics X-Men. I actually really enjoyed this. Given that this series is set in a new, seriously anti-Mutant world, with a radical new premise for the X-Gene, it ran the risk of being too jarring and disappointing. Thankfully, however, it turned out to be an engaging, addictive and beautifully rendered graphic novel.

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.

Marvel & Susan G. Komen

Still catching up on all my emails after the Virus Ate My Computer, but I came across this and thought it was pretty cool and worthy of being shared on here.

Marvel Entertainment will be going Pink this October, with a month-long campaign in support of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, to run during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Marvel will have all new covers on select October titles and educational material on Marvel.com. Throughout the month, many of the publisher’s most popular super hero titles – including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, and Wolverine – will feature all-new variant covers with special pink-colored costumes.

Comics Round-Up (May 30)

A few catch-ups and one really early review of a new series by one of my favourite comics’ writers. This was another pretty busy week, so while I tried to get as many of the comics reviewed as I could, some nevertheless had to be culled from the list. Some of these I was sent for review, so they will be read and reviewed at a later date. I just wanted to get the reviews of these issues up ASAP.

This is also one of the last weeks I’ll be reviewing individual DC issues for a while (I may do a couple more next week), as I’m heading back to the UK mid-June. I’m still working on coming back to the US if possible – Alyssa’s here for another four years, so my desperate quest for employment in or around New York continues! I’m almost at the point of begging, but that would be rather unseemly and undignified.

[*cough* … Please help … *cough*]

Anyway, on with the reviews!

Reviewed: Avengers vs. X-Men #4, AvX VS #2, Batman: The Dark Knight #9, Batwoman #9, BPRD: Hell on Earth – Transformation of J.H. O’Donnell, Call of Wonderland #1, The Defenders #6, Massive #1, Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow #13, Star Wars: Blood Ties – Boba Fett is Dead #1-2, Superman #9, Wolverine & the X-Men #10

Comics Round-Up (Nov.30): Marvel X-Titles

A bumper-crop of Marvel titles

So, this week there were no new issues in DC’s New 52, but there were a number of new Marvel issues that I’ve been considering. Long-time readers will know that I’ve not been too impressed by some of the Marvel collections I’ve reviewed this year, and was also recently disappointed by the new Wolverine & The X-Men series that began a couple months ago. With the extra time, I’ve decided to focus on non-DC titles this week, and because there were a number of X-Men-related issues, I’ve grouped them into a single review (with another, more general post to come this weekend).

This week, I’ve read: Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, Magneto, and X-Men Legacy.