theswordisdrawn

July 25, 2011 6:33 am I was actually pretty excited when these Defenders teaser adverts started appearing in books. I actually like the cast.

But I won't be buying this book.

And I won't be because of Matt Fraction. Through Uncanny X-Men, Thor and Fear Itself Fraction has disappointed time after time. He talk the talk in interviews, hypes the books in person a cons, paints this brilliant Epic picture of what he's going to do.

And then utterly fails to deliver the concept in panel.

It's easy to see how he talks the editors into giving him the chance to tell these stories, because he's great at publicity. But the concepts he hypes are clearly that little bit beyond him when he comes to writing a number of his stories.

I fear this will be more of the same. And so I won't be picking this up.

July 14, 2011 4:18 am And just when Fear Itself didn't seem like it could lose my attention any further... THIS!

The Mighty. Or as we might as well call them, as it really IS what they ARE, MORE AVENGERS!!!!!!!!!!

Or more specifically THE SAME OLD AVENGERS.

I'm bored Marvel. I'm tired of reading the same cast of characters rotated again. I've had enough.

As with 'The Worthy' these SHOULD have been a cast of characters power from the cross-section of the World. Instead it's the same old US heroes, in the same old US setting, dressed up to try and persuade the reader that this is a GLOBAL EVENT.

When it very much isn't.

I'd have prefered a more blanced and diverse line-up. Something more like:

Captain Britain
Storm
Doctor Strange
Iron Fist
Black Panther
Valkyrie
The Black Knight
Namor
Talisman

For variation and appeal.

July 8, 2011 10:19 am My only thought is that if Loeb's involved I don't really have any interest in reading it.

Burned one too many times over recent years...

July 4, 2011 5:48 am No love for Ben Templesmith's Welcome to Hoxford? That's an awesome Werewolf comic. Four issue min from a couple of years ago.

July 1, 2011 6:26 am

@ErronSF Originally Chris Claremont had intended to continue his Raising Hellfire set-up into his run on New Excalibur. Elias Bogan was to appear, continuing that plot, and he added Sage to Excalibur purely to be part of that (Let's face it she had no other purpose there). It had been hinted that Bogan was many hundreds of years old, and given that the London branch of the hEllfire Club was the original branch, I believe the intention was to reveal Bogan was actually a founding member.

A few issues into New Excalibur though Chris Claremont posted over on Comixfan's forum (As offten he did in those days) that he had been told all Hellfire properties, characters and concepts were now off the table for him. No direct reason was given, but it was assumed by many that it had something today with Joss Whedon's fiorever delayed 'faux Hellfire Club' appearing in Astonishing X-Men, at the time.

This is a great shame. The London Hellfire Club had been pencilled in as the Big Bad of New Excalibur, and Claremont had been building up his storyline for a long time.

Despite that being nixed, you can still see the hallmarks of Bogan in those early issues. The team of 'Dark X-Men' as they were solicited (And later renamed 'Shadow X' to tie them into The Shadow King) all wore masks with markings under the eyepieces which look identical to the tattoos which Bogan branded onto Sage's face. When that groups Charles Xavier attacked people he placed a psychic mask on them, which also bore those tattoo like marks.

A great sshame that never came off, as what eventually happened with New Excalibur was a bit of a mess when forcedly re-written.

June 30, 2011 11:02 am We've never been made 100% clear as to what Sir James Braddock's dealings with Hellfire Club actually consisted of. Were they in any way related to his work on Genosha? Or was this just a membership based on wealth and priveledge? Both Psylocke and Captain Britain have used their family connection to covertly attend Hellfire Club bashes in the past. Brian was also briefly the Red Bishop of the original London Club during Excalibur. I have often hoped they'd reactivate the LOndon Club. It was the first, after all. There was plans to bring it back as the main adversary of Chris Claremont's New Excalibur. But as I understabd it that got vetoed once the story had begun, as it was thought it would be confusing once Joss Whedon's faux Hellfire Club was introduced in Astonishing X-men.

June 28, 2011 7:17 am I'm calling it here. That's not Brian Braddock as Captain Britain, but his older brother Jamie. Who presumably in the Ultimate Universe never went crazy.

June 14, 2011 3:24 pm @RoiVampire Still not convinved. 

June 14, 2011 3:22 am Still really not feeling Fear Itself, as an Event. The idea that the whole world is cowering in Fear, despite only really showing anything happening in TWO American cities, and a brief glimpse of Brazil? I'm just not convinced.

This is Marvel's America! Shit like this happens almost every ther week. What makes Fear Itself different?

The last time a Marvel Event truly show a proper Global Event was probably House of M. By rights the idea of these hammers falling SHOULD be the perfect opportunity to showcase the whole of Marvel universe. Hammers falling in every main territory of the world. Instead, we have a fairly insular Event which is really only happening in North America but purports to BE the World.

And I still find it deeply ridiculous that for an Event based on characters from Scandinavian Mythology, no part of this story is actually taking place in any part of Scandinavia...

February 16, 2011 10:30 am I actually agree with pretty much ALL of those arcs. I also like the idea of the set length mini series, a la Hellboy, you mention. I've been saying that Marvel aught to be adopting that approach more for the past couple of years. It certainly can work.