Hercporn fanmail

Dear Marvel. As much as I rejoice in the news of the continuation of the overarching Hercules saga by mr Pak and mr Van Lente in a new title with a new #1, and as much as I appreciate the gay overtones in the book's solicitations --

This April prepare for Herc #1 – an explosive new ongoing series from New York Times Best Selling writers Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente and artist Neil Edwards setting Marvel’s baddest bone-breaker loose on a raging one-man beat down of the Marvel Universe’s vicious criminal underground. And he won’t be relying on his fists alone! Armed with the keys to Ares’ abandoned armory, Hercules is ready to unleash three thousand years worth of brawling experience upon his foes while preparing to confront the perils of FEAR ITSELF!

-- I must voice my concerns as per the sudden, and ill-thought-of, surely the product of a momentary lack of good judgement, perhaps following a drinking binge in one of the creator summits or a drunken bar-crawl around San Diego with an assortment of nerds of the heterosexual persuasion, decision to, well... how do I put this...

to clothe him.

I mean, you have a loyal fanbase that has grown accustomed to, nay - I say spoiled by - bare hairy leather-strapped thighs, naked hairy torsos with bulging heroic pecs, ridiculously short manskirts with revealing slits in the front, and a constant barrage of compromising positions that, had they been featuring a female character in similar garb and positioning, would have resulted in an endless storm of menstruation-fueled hate letters from feminist organisations piling up at your doorsteps.

simply put: We want our hercporn back.

signed,

your Mighty Marvel Queers

p.s.

-sigh-

Read more!

X-Men Legacy #244

Creepy.

Mike Carey is one of the best horror writers in comics, it's good to see him dusting off some skills in his current x-workload, even if it's for one page. The rest X-Men Legacy #244 has Rogue following the young mutant Blindfold who's following the hints in her precog dream on the first page and questioning various persons of dangerous interest around the island, as a means of tying up (the seemingly un-tieable) events from the last year's worth of storylines on the book (Emplate, Proteus, Sentinel) - and thus producing a linear coherent feel to this title which has suffered lately mostly as a result of being treated by editorial as the perrenial stepchild of the X-Men books - and reintroducing us to some characters that will doubtlessly be the focus of the next few months' worth of stories in the much-anticipated (and very-cool-looking) Age of X storyline. I mean, Dragoness? Whoever dug her up? (and after much deliberation I even spotted Stinger in a panel there.)

The issue is a whole lot of summarisation and exposition and some interestingf character work culminating in an out-of-nowhere nonsensical final battle with...

yes... a giant Spider-Squid. that was kinda cool and random.

p.s. I can't be the only one with severe eye-ache at Rogue's current outfit. I have yet to see a single artist draw it in any pleasing way. Just a great big green eyesore. with cleavage.

burn it!

Read more!

find the odd one out

anyone can play along from home. Christos Gage has created in Avengers Academy a fresh batch of riveting and diverse teenage would-be(?)-heroes, and, as is evident from their brief character bios in the issue summary page cropped above, he has smartly used each of their powers as a subtle and powerful metaphor for their personality. well, for the most part. one of them may have just been saddled on him to boost (?) sales through the crossover factor with a currently successful cartoon program. dunno, you figure it out.
Read more!