Jyger’s Favourite 5 – 5 Things I’d Like To See Added Or Changed By Next May In Marvel

Well, it’s the last day of May, so I guess that makes this the last blog post for Marvelous May. I wanna thank everybody that came to this blog to enjoy my first ever theme month. Will I do this again? Meh, maybe, if I feel up to it. Still, if I ever do Marvelous May again, here’s some things that I’d like to see different with Marvel Comics and other related properties by that point. As usual, this is in no particular order. And I’m not even gonna bother mentioning that Marvel Studios should make a deal with 20th Century Fox, since I said that once already today. lol So, let’s start off with a big one that I’ve been complaining about for a long time now…

#1 – Less Heroes vs Heroes Event Comics

I cannot be the only person bothered by this. In fact, I know for certain I’m not. I remember being so excited for AXIS, thinking “WOW, they finally did it. They’ve got a big crossover event between the Avengers and X-Men where the focus is on stopping the villain and not fighting each other.” And what happened by the end of it? Heroes fighting heroes. Guys, it’s been played out to DEATH. I’m not saying you can’t ever do it again, that’s stupid. Of course, when you’ve got so many heroes from different walks of life and with differing view points on philosophy, methods in the field, belief systems, etc., things are naturally gonna get heated from time to time. But for God’s sake, it’s like at LEAST every other event in Marvel eventually boils down to or is centered around the idea of heroes fighting heroes. I’m just saying, it’s a new universe following Secret Wars, it’s a clean slate, let’s try something different. Hell, I’ve even got one in mind…

#2 – Marvel Ultimate Alliance

Here’s my idea: Have Marvel Ultimate Alliance be an annual Summer-long mini-series. Each year, the most insane yet awesome set-ups and scenarios occur, requiring the team-up of heroes that aren’t generally seen together. Stuff like ten villains being merged together into a single entity wielding the Mandarin’s rings, or a sentient sun that goes around literally turning whole planets to ash, or the Infinity Gems becoming entities that are out of control. Just crazy stuff like that where we’d need team-ups between the Avengers, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Fantastic 4, Inhumans, and so on. It’d be great, and it’d be about superheroes saving the day against incredible odds.

#3 – Stop Having Heroes Do Villainous Behavior

Look, I see nothing wrong with flawed heroes. It’s unrealistic to imagine heroes not having any kinds of problems, considering all they have to deal with, and frankly, it’s not interesting to read. But for God’s sake, there’s a difference between being flawed and just being plain unheroic. This is my problem with Hank Pym, Reed Richards, and modern-day Tony Stark and Scott Summers. They don’t act like heroes. Granted, right now, Tony kinda has an out where his moral compass has been inverted, but he was already kinda taking a dive to the dark side long before that, as I’ve documented before. Then there’s Cyclops, who willingly put the world in jeopardy to bring back the Phoenix, and then after doing horrible things while being possessed by it, has apparently decided in the set-up for Secret Wars to become the Phoenix AGAIN. I remember a while ago making a demotivator telling everyone to get over the fact that Cyclops was a villain, and then recently he decided to try to be a good guy again, and now he’s pulling this crap. Oh, and just saying this now, I don’t care what is done from here on out, I am NEVER accepting Namor as a superhero ever again. That was my ONE problem with A-Force #1, was when he showed up to help out. On top of everything else he’s done, he knowingly and willfully blew up a fucking planet, killing everyone on it. More than anyone else in the Illuminati, he is now unforgivable in my eyes. I would sooner read Tony as a hero than Namor. If you want these guys to be villains, FINE, make them villains. If nothing else, it makes their behaviour easier to understand. Do not, however, jerk us around with this crap by having them be heroes that do outright villainous things. It’s ANNOYING.

#4 – Reverse The Deal With Mephisto

Okay, let’s get this outta the way right now: I’m very happy that Renew Your Vows features a Peter Parker that didn’t make the deal with Mephisto, is still married to Mary Jane, and has a daughter named Annie-Wait, Annie? What happened to Mayday? Also, REALLY, guys? You had a redheaded daughter that you decided to name ANNIE? And yes, I know MJ has an aunt named Anna, but come on. Regardless, even if this is a change that will continue into the new universe, the bigger problem is that the deal wouldn’t have been UNDONE, just forgotten about and tossed aside to where it’s never addressed again. What I would much rather like to see is the main Peter Parker learning of this one living in Battleworld, recalling the deal, and before Secret Wars is over (or perhaps after it as a sort of follow-up story), he tells Aunt May the truth about what he did, then decides to go see Mephisto and call off their deal, realizing what he gave up and how wrong it was. THAT would be undoing One More Day and the deal with Mephisto, and would set Peter back on the path of taking actual responsibility for his actions and growing into an adult with real adult problems requiring real adult solutions. Granted, I might also like to see him still running Parker Industries as best as he can at the same time. Plus, then we’d have a really good excuse/explanation for why him and Miles are both Spider-Man following Secret Wars, since both have so much in their lives that they need to balance. Actually, I’m pretty sure that last part is more or less what they’re gonna do regardless of if the deal is undone or Peter and MJ are married or not, but whatever, just saying there’s more drama and potential storytelling to be had there.

#5 – A Better Frigging Animated Series

I like Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. I may have brought this up once or twice before. lol However, even if I didn’t, I can assure you, I would still hate its successor, Avengers Assemble. The writing is weaker, the choices of voice actors are kinda iffy, and whereas EMH started off with a team that paid tribute to the early days of the Avengers in the comics and then eventually added new members from various eras of the Marvel Universe, this team is pretty blatantly based off the movie team, with Falcon being added to basically be the viewer’s stand-in guy for the team. Kinda like Jubilee in the X-Men cartoon, where she was the new girl and was our eyes and ears in this world. Then Scott Lang joins, because he’s got a movie coming out, and do you see the problem? The quality of the show takes a backseat to advertising the movies. And I’m not saying they shouldn’t advertise the movies, just that we still need a quality show. What would be a MUCH better idea, in my opinion, is to have a show where all the new solo-movie heroes (Ant-Man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Spider-Man), along with some of the new Avengers that joined in Age of Ultron (Vision, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Falcon, and War Machine) team up, and bring back the writing team that did EMH. That way, you’re still advertising the movies, but you’re also doing something different and you’re making sure the writing is good enough to where people WANT to watch. I have NO idea who is watching this show or why… … …Also, just saying this while I’m on the subject, EMH has the best frigging superhero cartoon theme. Not kidding. Play that shit.

Anyway, that’s all I got for now. Got one I didn’t list? Leave it below, and we’ll see how things change between now and next May. In the meantime, as we close out Marvelous May, be sure to check in next month when I give my thoughts on DC’s Convergence, both good and bad, and where this is all hopefully going. Ja né!

Silk #3

Marvel comics

Silk #3

Written by: Robbie Thompson

Art by: Stacey Lee

Cover by: Dave Johnson

Released: May 13, 2015

What a roller coaster ride Cindy Moon’s been on for the last three issues. Between breaking out on her own, trying to forge a life and find her family’s whereabouts, there’s barely been time to breathe and take in the sights of New York! Or find out exactly why Moon’s powers seem to be on the fritz. But thanks to some friendly-neighborhood Spider-Snooping, she’s now in the hands of the Marvel Universe’s foremost authority on all things superpowered. And basically all things in general. But Reed Richards’ diagnosis proves unexpected and unexpectedly real. Robbie Thompson gives the feeling of writing from real experience with a topic that’s sensitive without being too touchy:

anxiety. Portrayed about as accurately as things like depression or gunfights in popular culture, Thompson begins a slow journey through…

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My Thoughts On The X-Men & Fantastic 4 Possibly Being Phased Out

Y’know, something I’ve been asked about online a couple of times and have seen being debated about on various websites and on social media is the supposed phasing out of the X-Men and Fantastic 4 in Marvel Comics. Basically, the belief is that, because Marvel Studios doesn’t own the movie rights for the characters, they want to instead primarily push the characters they DO own the movie rights to in the comics to the forefront of stories, leaving two of the greatest superhero teams to the wayside. And I say that as someone who doesn’t even particularly like the Fantastic 4 (admittedly mostly due to the presence of Reed Richards, but that’s beside the point), and feel that the X-Men’s continued plight as being loathed by humanity becomes more absurd the more you think about it and the more time goes by…but that’s a rant for another day.

So, what are my thoughts on the matter? Well, there’s some truth to it, but not to the degree that seemingly some are afraid of. I think a lot of people are scared that the Fantastic 4 and X-Men will just straight up fade away. Honestly, I don’t see that happening. And even if the teams disappeared, the characters would still be around. I mean, if they were ever going to completely erase them from history, I would think that Secret Wars would be the time. And guess what? We know from past interviews that the X-Men will still be around post-Secret Wars, and Human Torch has been seen in his Fantastic 4 uniform hanging out with the Inhumans in the Free Comic Book Day preview of Uncanny Inhumans.

However, there is nonetheless truth to the suggestion that the X-Men and Fantastic 4 are being put aside as Marvel pushes the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Inhumans as much as possible. While they’re still around, their overall importance to the overarching story isn’t quite as much as they used to be. Also, according to Chris Claremont last year, X-Men writers aren’t allowed to create new characters anymore because, and I quote, “Why promote Fox material?”. Now, I don’t know if this is still in effect, but if it is, I get the feeling this should piss me off a lot, and I’m sure it does so with plenty of people. And while it does annoy me a little, at the same time… … …Do you have any idea how many X-Men there are? Seriously, look it up. That and the number of X-Men villains. It’s insane how many there are. If the X-Men stories ever separated from Marvel completely into a company of nothing but X-Men and X-Men related characters, they’d be just fine, which is likely why Fox has decided to go ahead with doing more movies with characters related to them. I DO hope that this isn’t a complete copy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though, requiring us to watch EVERY MOVIE to understand the overall plot, and instead allowing us to watch the ones we want to follow the characters we like.

Another thing that leads people to believe Marvel is going to completely disperse the X-Men is the fact that a number of characters have either died or been turned either villainous or SEVERELY anti-heroic. Okay, lemme address this right now: Wolverine and Deadpool are not staying dead FOREVER. I guarantee it. As much as they’re making or have made Fox, it’s not like Marvel’s not seeing money from them too. And plus, Hugh Jackman has already declared that Wolverine 3 is his exit. Well, what the hell are they gonna do with Wolverine then? What CAN they do at that point? Xavier… … …Honestly, I think I actually prefer having Storm running the ship right now. On top of that, Xavier and his methods were becoming increasingly deplorable the more we learned about him. And as for Cyclops…Well, a lot of people kinda hated him already, so why not make him an anti-hero constantly on the edge of being a villain?

You’ll notice I haven’t really talked much about the Fantastic 4. Well, that’s because, other than ending this current volume of the book, teasing the end of the team (and then going back on it), and having Ultimate Reed Richards complete the heel turn his 616 counterpart began pretty much from the moment he was conceived as a character, there’s not a lot suggesting that the Fantastic 4 are going anywhere. Like I said, Johnny Storm was seen in the Uncanny Inhumans preview in his Fantastic 4 costume. And considering that, while the Fantastic 4 as a group don’t play a big role in stories nowadays, their villain, Doctor Doom, plays a HUGE part in Secret Wars as the man who created Battleworld, I think it’s safe to say that the Fantastic 4 aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Ultimately, for fans of these characters, I wouldn’t worry too much. Are they getting downgraded? Yes, but I don’t think they’re outright disappearing. You’ll still be able to read about these two superhero teams in the future. Besides, if Marvel Studios could eventually come to make a deal with Sony Pictures, I don’t see any reason to believe they might not eventually come to a similar deal with Fox…Although, that being said, PLEASE, if y’all make a deal, please do not reboot X-Men and Fantastic 4. The latter is just now going through a reboot, and X-Men has finally had the really bad mistakes made with the franchise fixed and are looking to do some great stuff. Plus, while Hugh Jackman is planning to bow out in Wolverine 3, as I said before, I KNOW he would jump at the chance to play him in an Avengers movie… … …OR, if I had my way…

My God, that’d be badass… … …Erm, anyway, that’s my take on all of this, at least for now. Lemme know what you think in the comments section below, and we’ll see how things shape up in the future. Ja né!