DESTROYER!

I don’t know if you’re like me, but I love me some stories by Robert Kirkman.  His creativity and general love for comics shows in just about everything that he writes, and his style of story-telling fits perfectly for guys like me in their 20’s who’ve been reading comic books since they were children, but don’t want to read a children’s comic.  He manages to blend character cliché’s from over 50 years of Marvel and DC comics and turns them on their heads, giving them interestingly realistic opinions and motivations that seem like they were obviously simple to the characters but never explored.  Add in buckets of blood and guts, and brutal fights where as the reader I even feel bad for the villains, and what you get is comic book greatness.

I just got done reading Robert’s Marvel Max series Destroyer, a five part miniseries produced in 2010.  If you’re unfamiliar with Marvel Max, its Marvel’s adult line of comics where literally anything goes.  Often times, the Max series exists within the Marvel Universe with already established characters as their protagonists, but Destroyer is set in a world all by itself using a character that has been in comics sparingly since the early days.  The character the Destroyer was a character who appeared in Marvel comics in the 1940’s as a much younger super hero.  Robert Kirkman took that character and wrote a story as if he’s been aging since the 40’s.  Here’s the pitch: Marlow is an old man with a bad ticker, and his number is up any day now.  Despite the doctor’s warnings, this old war horse has decided that he needs to tie up some loose ends before he dies.  After a lifetime of trying to never kill the villains in his rouge gallery, he’s decided at the end of his life that he must put an end to these psychos once and for all, because leaving them to wreck havoc on the world after he’s gone would be simply irresponsible.  As he swabs a bloody path through his enemies, his old rivals start to reappear to attack his family before he can execute them.  Will Marlow survive long enough to save his wife and daughter?

The story is drawn by Robert’s original Invincible artist Cory Walker, who does the best work I’ve ever seen come from him in Destroyer. Honestly, I thought his early work on Invincible was just so-so, but with Destroyer he’s become one of my favorite artists out there.  The comic is colored by the extremely talented Val Staples, and lettered by VC’s Rus Wooton.

Destroyer is a story that short and sweet and covered in blood.  The character designs are really well done, from the giant monsters to the everyday thug-for-hire.  As it is with Invincible they seem to poke fun at already established Marvel and DC icons, while remaining serious enough to carry an engaging story.  I could read another three volumes of Destroyer, but unfortunately it was kept to a small story focused on the retirement of an old hero, and maybe its better that way.  If you’re interested in reading this graphic novel, you can find it at Amazon here for 11 bucks: http://www.amazon.com/Destroyer-Robert-Kirkman/dp/B005M4JAAK/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1344283444&sr=8-15&keywords=destroyer+marvel.

Ten Sexy Marvel Comics

Here’s a shot of nostalgia to your brain. I’m sitting bored at the computer, waiting for my flight deck missions to finish on Avengers Alliance, and I’ve decided to compose a list of ten of my favorite all-time Marvel single issues. When I say favorite, I mean I liked them all so much that I had to own a few issues of each, because I destroyed them from reading over and over again. Hopefully this can be an interactive discussion, and I urge you to throw in some of your favorite comics as well, so I can go find them and read them too.  This is a list of single issues, not graphic novels, or long-winded story lines, though they can be your favorite single issue out of an arch.  So, them’s the rules.  Here’s my list, in no particular order of which one I like the most, because they’re all pretty damned good.

Spider-Man Unlimited #2

Ya'll know why this little diddy is up here.  Carnage.  Venom.  Finale.  This comic blew my mind when I was a kid, because after years of the kid-gloves, the writers for Spider-Man finally grew some balls and gave us Carnage.  When Carnage first came around, it meant that a lot of people were going to die by the bucket-loads, and unlike Venom, Cassidey was a complete psychopath with a symbiotic suit that would morph and move like water.  I swear to you, there were characters that would show up, and in the first panel they appeared in, they would die with a red tendril to their head.  Carnage was like T-1000 mixed with Venom, suffering from at least 10 major mental illnesses and smoking PCP.  Now-a-days Carnage is basically the poor man's Venom, and there hasn't been a story, or an issue where Carnage has been nearly as cool since.

X-Men #2

Okay, I know that by today's standards, these super-hero brawls have become a redundant and lazy story-telling tool but, when this first came out I couldn't get enough.  Here was Jim Lee drawing the Blue team versus the Gold team, and they all actually wanted to hurt each other.  This was back when X-Men comics were really good, and this comic had it all: The awkward Gambit sexual advances toward Rogue, Wolverine poping his claws and saying something creepy and egocentric, Archangel, Invisible Planes, mind control, Magneto being a bad-ass, beast being a big nerd, and swim suit/giant boob scenes. The dialogue was especially cheesy and the drawings were super detailed. Ever notice that during these days the X-Men always    seemed to hang out by the pool?

The Infinity Gauntlet #4

I actually didn't like the Infinity Gauntlet series as much as everyone else seemed too.  I thought there were some really cool ideas, but the execution of it wasn't exciting enough for me at the time (not like it is today, either).  This issue however, was awesome.  The cover basically says it all: Thanos versus everybody.  Inside was the most savage, blood-spilling battle I've ever read in a Marvel comic, and literally every single hero either dies or fails completely trying to take the cosmic tyrant Thanos down.

 New Avengers: Civil War tie in Issue
This was a stand alone comic where Brian Bendis's writing for Marvel is at it's best.  Unlike most of Brain's other Marvel comics, there were no interviews or monolog-ing to showcase the characters, however the story was great and it showed a side of Tony Stark's character in a brighter light than I'd ever seen it previously.  The story is: One of Tony's friends and former employees, a man who helped him design the Iron Man suit, has decided that he disagrees with Stark's decisions during the Registration act, and that he must do whatever he can to stop Tony from using his creation to hunt heroes.  So, whats he do? He storms Stark tower and tries to assassinate his old friend.  What ends up happening, I won't tell, but it's good.  Trust me.

The Punisher: The End
You get what you ask for when buying a Punisher comic: Death, Violence, and an un-comprimising mission to extinguish the morally corrupted.  If you like watching a driven psychopath shoot his way through a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland, and at the end of his life trying to find and punish those responsible for the world's end, then you're going to love this comic as much as I did. Oh yeah, and there's the classic "Punisher/ prison break" scene to start the whole thing off too. Never have I seen the Punisher written better than right here.  Frank's dedication to punishing the wicked is put to the ultimate test, and what he does sure as shit surprised me, and it just might do the same to you too.

Wolverine #32
Here's another stand-alone, with a black-and-white variant edition (which is what I have) where the artwork itself could sell the comic.  Written by my favorite writer, Mark Millar, this comic did something that no Wolverine comic ever did before: Logan didn't say a damn word throughout the whole thing.  No obscene amount of boasting, no hard-ass sarcasm, not even any stubborn bickering. Nothing. Not a single word.  Instead you get the rantings and ravings of a German concentration camp Warden slowly losing his mind as he swears to God that he keeps killing a man (Logan) who just won't die.  Like a ghost hell-bent on driving him mad, Wolverine continues to show up for breakfast in the morning no matter how many times this Nazi-bastard shoots, stabs, poisons, burns, or strangles him.  It's a great story, and a good telling of a Wolverine memory set in during World War 2, and it's one of the few times you'll ever find a truly inspired Marvel one-shot comic.

Captain America Universe X Special
One of the coolest renditions of Captain America was during the whole "Earth X" storyline, where it's a futuristic time during which all the main Marvel heroes are at the ends of their lives trying to decide how and what kind of legacy they will leave behind.  Alex Ross does a great job designing an elder Steve Rodgers, and after two graphic novel-length story lines, this issue is where Cap finally kicks the bucket.  He goes out in a very epic way, and I was so engrossed in the storyline that I re-read it a dozen times just to re-live the emotion I got when I first read it.  Very seldom do I get moved when reading comics, but this is one of the the ones that did it.

X-Force #116
This is when Mike Allred, a genius among indie comics, was finally given the go-ahead to work with Milligan on a superhero team where they could do whatever the hell they wanted to do.  For a little bit of time X-Force was completely awesome, and the team of mutants you see on the cover were some of the most interesting and emotionally deep characters that you'll ever read about.  I'm kidding.  If you have read this comic, then you'll get that joke. The story is good, and the characters are very interesting, but they ain't the ones you see on the cover. Here's a mutant team breed for the spotlight as a reality TV superhero squad, equipped with greedy, sleezy producers and strange alien camera men.  I won't go on too long about this because I really don't feel like I need to sell it.  It's really good, and the art is great.

Onslaught
If you're a Marvel comics fan, then you already read this, and all the talking I'm doing is for absolutely nothing.  If you haven't read it, then it's too late for you, and you should just give up already.  I'll put it like this: when I was growing up, it was all about the X-Men, and this is their pen-ultimate story.  This last issue was so damn epic, with one of the best Hulk fights, that you'll end up wanting to get the whole thing.  Onslaught was one of the most dangerous villains ever created, but after this story he was simply redundant because he would never again be able to do the kind of damage that he does here ever again.







 X-Men #25
When I read this one, I was all like "Whaaaaaat?!" And, it came with a cool Magneto hologram on it.

The Stuff of Legends Volume 1: The Dark

            The Stuff of Legends is a three volume metaseries produced by Th3rd World Studios, and written by Mike Raicht and Brian Smith, and illustrated by Charles Paul Wilson the 3rd.  It takes place in Brooklyn circa 1944, and centers around a group of toys that come to life to go on a journey into "The Dark," a reality inside the boy's closet where the infamous Boogey Man reigns supreme, in order to save the boy from the realm's dark master.  This isn’t Toy Story though, as it delves much deeper into the psychology of a toy come to life as it blasts your brain with rich imagery and creative story-telling.

            The illustrator for the book, Charles Paul Wilson attended the John Herron School of Fine Art, and graduated from the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art where he received the Norman Mauer Scholarship in his first year attending, as well as an Eisner for his work with The Stuff of Legends. The book is done completely in pencil on toned paper, which creates a mainly black and white masterpiece of a quality I haven't seen anywhere before.  I'm not going to lie; the art in this book blew my mind out of my brain hole.

            The boy's closet or "The Dark Realm" provides an interesting twist to theme of Toy Story or Toy Soldiers, because here the toys become real.  Maxwell, the stuffed bear transforms into a gigantic ferocious grizzly bear feared by all the toys, and the Jester morphs from a jack-in-the-box to the Irish guy in Braveheart, an axe-wielding wise-cracking Wolverine type who hungers for battle as he says tough guy things that make all the girl toys swoon.

            Full of interesting character developments and portrayals that blend a strange realistic twist to how toys would view themselves and their lives, the Stuff of Legend separates itself from movies like Toy Story.  For instance, when the cowardly piggy-bank, Percy gets confronted by the Voldemort-esque Boogeyman, the evil dictator asks him "And saddest of all, what will become of the trusted soul that has protected his (the boy who owns Percy) coins?  For your loyalty in securing his future what does he do?" To which Percy meekly responds, "He breaks me."  Deep right? It makes sense that a piggy-bank would have negative feelings about holding on to his kid's money up until the day he breaks him for it, but I never would have thought it, and Pixar sure didn't when they made Toy Story.

            The Stuff of Legends is full of interesting character dynamics as it tries to add real-life resentments and relations to these toys as they take on a life of their own.  The boy's dog, Scout, has joined them on this journey, and in the real world he's gigantic compared to the toys but is rendered to a be only a small dog in "The Dark Lands" where he is mistreated and forced to wait outside of buildings as he's the brunt of the toy's resentment towards his kind.  You see, in the real world dogs destroy toys, and they all hate them for it, regarding them as filthy animals in "The Dark."

            Interesting short flashbacks of the boys playing with the toys, and the toys using these experiences as character building memories adds familiar character arches in un-familiar ways.  It's an odd dynamic, but the toys all regard the Coronel as being the courageous one, because the boy always used him to play the hero against the Nazi's, while Percy lived in vivid fear because of the boys always discussing how they were going to break him once there was enough money inside to buy something they wanted.

            The "Dark Lands" are full of interesting, well thought out attractions, like the town of Hopscotch, where the entire city is constructed around a board game, in which all the citizens have to roll dice in order to be able to move around.

April 18th: The Manhattan Projects #2

The Manhattan Projects #2

Written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Nick Pitarra. The first issue had Oppenheimer with a Gatling-Gun destroying Japanese Kamikaze Robots intent on destroying the Manhattan Project's underground secret hideout. Albert Einstein is locked away in a safe room, as he contemplates a secret totem, surrounded by alien weapons. The second issue has Werner Von Braun, the infamous rocket scientist of the Deutschland with a robotic arm fighting the Manhattan Project's scientists in an unknown battle during WW2. Do I really have to say anything else about this series?

April 18th: Batman #8

Batman #8

Written by Scott Snyder (American Vampire) and drawn by Greg Capullo (Spawn). These two crazy guys continue their run on Batman, the only DC new 52 I care anything at all about. This comic is straight up awesome. The writing is suspenseful and full of mythology-enriching plot points, and the artwork is conceptual and revolutionary, taking the best of the best styles from the 90's and making them work. It's all about the court of owls, who are a zombie-assassins hired created by a cult of rich owl-dudes who have ruled over Gotham's elite businessmen for a hundred years. And guess what? They've decided that Batman's gotta go, and even more so, the Waynes. Get this comic. Don't argue it anymore.

April 18th: Avengers Vs X-Men #2

AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #2
Ok, so I know what you're all thinking: Marvel and DC sucks, it never changes, the phoenix again? Well, sue me, because I'm into the Avengers vs X-Men series. You can write it on a sign, put it around my neck and walk me through the APE-Expo like Bruce Willis in Die Hard to be beaten and stoned by hordes of angry hippsters. The phoenix is overdone, and so is fights between super-teams, but this series has three main reasons to read it- 1) The artwork. This series has the best artists working in the buisness drawing up the art. John Romita Jr had issue 1, and issue two is done up by Frank Cho. 2) Cyclops. When I was growing up, Cyclops was the bad-ass of the X-Men, often having to fight them one-on-six and often times saving the day and getting the woman. Then came Jim Lee and Chris Claremont, and Cyclops became the biggest dick-head that marvel universe has ever seen. A brown-nosing suck-up who's woman was being sexually harassed by every guy on the team, Scott Summers became as lame as the yellow underwear he wore, and as boring as one of his lectures. That same character followed over to the cartoon, and then came the movies, where they added "crybaby" and "useless" to the list of Cyclop's personality traits. Over the last couple of years Scott Summers has become a hardcore militant leader for the remaining mutants, and this series has him protecting the return of the phoenix against the world. Even Magneto follows his lead, along with Namor, and many others. He's a bad-ass again, and you should check it out before they kill him off. 3) Marvel AR. Google it.