Giant Size Review # 6: The Women of All-New Marvel NOW

Marvel has a great history of strong, popular and well-selling female characters. Storm, Jean Grey, Rogue, Kitty Pryde... Wait, hold on a second. Those are all X-Men.

Review # 176: "New Avengers Omnibus - Vol. 1"

After a mediocre run by Geoff Johns, the usual crap from Chuck Austen, and Mark Millar's "The Ultimates" showing off how cool the Avengers could be, it was time for a change. Cue Brian Michael Bendis, who had been kicking ass on "Ultimate Spider-Man," "Daredevil" and "Alias." But could he handle a team book?

The answer - at the time - was an emphatic "yes."

Review # 175: "Avengers - 'Red Zone' and 'The Search For She-Hulk'"

Goeff Johns didn't get off to the greatest start during his time on "Avengers," with a bland, slightly confused title with no confidence in its direction. That changed during the second half.

Review # 174: "The Ultimates"

With over a decade behind it, you have to make the argument that "The Ultimates" by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch is the most culturally significant comic book story so far this century. It reads like a movie blueprint, and - while its eventual adaptation for the big screen was not note-for-note - many of the Marvel heroes we see on the big screen today are influenced more by the incarnations seen here than the ones who had been around for decades previous.

Giant Size Review # 3: "Civil War" Tie-Ins

I think "Civil War" is a great story on its own, despite a lot of its character motives requiring a level of explanation. Fortunately, some of that exists in its supplemental material. There is some truly great work outside of the main series, be it with added background, added drama or angles you hadn't thought of. Unfortunately, some of the tie-ins are pure rot. You're about to get examples of all.

Review # 152 - "Guardians of the Galaxy - 'Cosmic Avengers' and 'Angela'"

Who would have thought that "Guardians of the Galaxy" would become a new banner franchise for Marvel? Better yet, there isn't a comics series that stands to benefit from its newfound commercial success as much as this one.

Review # 125: "Avengers West Coast - 'Vision Quest' and 'Darker Than Scarlet'"

Talk about a great Comiccon find: the out-of-print "Avengers West Coast" run with John Byrne as writer/artist for 30 bucks. I like ordering online, but there's something to be said about shelf-diving.

Review # 122: "Avengers Assemble by Kurt Busiek Vol. 3"

These days if a comic book writer wants to explore a character in a team book, it seems like most of the time they get added to a team without subtractions. It raises the question of what the point is of having some characters around if they're no longer serving any purpose.

Review # 116: "New Avengers - Everything Dies" and "Uncanny Avengers - The Red Shadow"

It's interesting that the most highly-recommended Avengers series in the "Marvel NOW!" relaunch don't have the traditional feel of the title they represent. In one case, it feels like it's in name only.

Review # 108: "Avengers Assemble by Kurt Busiek Vol. 2"

Is it fair to call a robot crazy?

Review # 88: "Avengers Assemble by Kurt Busiek Vol. 1"

Marvel was in a funk in the late 90s after the collector market bottomed out and the company narrowly avoided bankruptcy. They had just shipped many of their flagship titles to Image for a reboot to get a new audience on board. Unfortunately, it was a creative and commercial flop and left Marvel at square one.

Review # 61: "Deadpool - Soul Hunter"

In my review for Uncanny X-Force's "Final Execution," I mentioned that I was a little disappointed that - after Rick Remender turned Deadpool into a full-fledged hero - Wade had regressed to his goofy, inconsequential ways in Marvel NOW! Keep in mind I still liked "Dead Presidents," but I thought there was potential for a lot more with the character. So colour me surprised when I realized that Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan had actually managed to craft an engaging, ongoing narrative and a strong cast of characters. ALL of Deadpool's new clique (including the failed necromancer Michael, the dirty ghost of Ben Franklin and SHIELD Agent Preston - though she has no choice in the matter) stuck around for "Soul Hunter," which I did not expect. Deadpool has always gathered strange characters around him like Weasel or Blind Al, but strangely - despite their eccentricities - this group seems more human. Well, even though one is the ghost of a founding father and another is trapped in Wade's own head.

Review # 52: "Avengers Assemble by Brian Michael Bendis"

Hoping to capitalize on the success of the film, "Avengers Assemble" was originally conceived as a series for younger readers but accessible to all. There's a greater emphasis on action, and less on character motivation. However, the result is a tale that is wonderfully old-school, and readers who enjoy classic material will likely find it to be the best Brian Michael Bendis Avengers story in years.

Review # 18: "Avengers - The Complete Collection by Geoff Johns - Volume 1"

For a while I was fully convinced that Geoff Johns was gradually being moved from series to series at DC to resuscitate all of its characters. He had a great run on Superman, he had what's considered the best run of the last 10 years on Green Lantern and - by all accounts - he's made Aquaman cool. Seriously! AQUAMAN! As the reigning king of DC, it's almost hard to believe that he worked at Marvel at all.

Review # 11: "Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis - Volumes One and Two"

After his New Avengers dealt with new threats, his Mighty Avengers operated as a half-facade and his Dark Avengers operated as a FULL facade, Brian Michael Bendis' adjective-free "Avengers" relaunch is like a throwback to the time before he took over the title and made it Marvel's biggest-selling franchise. It's a sensible move as after the events of "Siege," the company launched the new "Heroic Age" with a back-to-basics line being drawn between heroes and villains. Political infighting ("Civil War,") espionage ("Secret Invasion") and hidden malice ("Dark Reign") had made everything blurry.

Review # 6: "Young Avengers Ultimate Collection"

Marvel has a dodgy history at best when it comes to writing teen characters. Yes, they created the biggest of the bunch in Spider-Man. Yes, their biggest franchise ever - the X-Men - began as a tale of teen superheroes. But writing teen dialogue is tough and for every character whom they nail in that department (Kitty Pryde), there's another that's practically embarassing to read (Jubilee.) However, since the "Generation X" debacle of the 90s, Marvel has really gotten their act together with the likes of "Runaways" and - as I'm about to discuss here - Allan Heinberg's "Young Avengers."

Review # 4: "Operation: Galactic Storm"

The early-to-mid 90s were a weird time for The Avengers. Thor was replaced with a human imbued with his power; Iron Man was possessed by a villain, died, and was replaced with a teenage version of himself; Wasp became half-woman, half-insect; then, in 1996, they were all "killed off" and handed over to the folks at Image Comics (Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld et al. who quit in order to theoretically make more money by having full control of their own characters) to rebuild their, well... image. The truth was the series just wasn't on the same level as the X-Men sales-wise and Marvel was pulling out all the stops to try to get people to buy in.

Review # 3: "Iron Man: Extremis"

"Iron Man 3" comes out on Friday which, bar none, has to be considered the biggest surprise megahit franchise for a superhero this century. Before Robert Downey Jr., Tony Stark was a "B"-list superhero at best who would compete for status with the likes of Captain America or Thor, but had nothing on "A"-grade Marvel properties like Spider-Man, Wolverine or the X-Men.