The Avengers Super Bowl Trailer

I love this trailer.  Marvel released an extended cut of the trailer shown during the Super Bowl and it is awesome.  Robert Downey Jr. continues to own the role of Tony Stark and the scene with all of the Avengers back-to-back preparing to fight looks like something straight out of a comic book.  I cannot wait for this movie!

Avengers vs X-Men #1 Revealed

Well folks, after a brief recuperation from getting my wisdom teeth removed I’m back with more news from the upcoming Avengers vs. X-Men.  Tomorrow, I plan to continue the Fanboy Analysis detailing who would win in each superhero match-up.  There are a lot of promos I missed out on while I was out of commission.

Today, Marvel unveiled the cover for the first issue of Avengers vs. X-Men.  Getting Jim Cheung to draw the cover is just brilliant in my opinion.  I’ve loved his work on Young Avengers and seeing him drawing nearly all the heroes of the Marvel Universe is a treat.

I will fully admit there was one part of this cover that surprised me.  I thought that Marvel would sweep the event of Schism under the rug and have Wolverine side with the X-Men instead of the X-Men.  Looks like I was wrong as Wolverine is predominantly featured on the Avengers side.  It’s also interesting to note that Thor is featured on the cover as well.  Looks like he will be brought back to the Marvel Universe fairly quickly after falling in Fear Itself.

Looking at this cover I would certainly have the give the Avengers the edge in these battles.  They have a lot more heavy hitters than the X-Men.  It’s possible that the fanboy analysis of the match-ups reveals the X-Men win in the end but I would be very surprised.

Below is the cover for issue number 1 and the press release put out by Marvel Comics.

Marvel Press Release:

This April, prepare for the biggest super hero war in comics history as Marvel is pleased to present your first look at the jaw-dropping cover to Avengers Vs. X-Men #1 by superstar artist Jim Cheung! From the powerhouse creative team of Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, Ed Brubaker, John Romita Jr., Adam Kubert and Olivier Copiel comes a groundbreaking event pitting Earth’s Mightiest against the X-Men with the entire Marvel Universe at stake. Cyclops and his team believe the arrival of the Phoenix Force will save mutantkind, but Captain America is convinced it will destroy the world! But who is right? Don’t miss out on all the action in Avengers Vs. X-Men #1 in comic shops worldwide and on the Marvel Comics app this April!

Which team will reign supreme? Join the conversation on Twitter with #AvX!
For more on Avengers VS X-Men, please visit http://avx.marvel.com
AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #1 (JAN120625)
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, JASON AARON, MATT FRACTION, JONATHAN HICKMAN, ED BRUBAKER
Art by JOHN ROMITA JR.
Cover by JIM CHEUNG
FOC – 2/27/12, ON SALE – 4/3/12

Fanboy Analysis: Avengers vs X-Men Battles

Marvel has been putting out tons of preview pages for the upcoming Avengers vs. X-Men tie-in books.  All of these one-on-one battles intrigue the fanboy within so I can’t help but be fascinated by the matchups.

There are four new matchups that have been revealed in addition to the Magneto vs. Iron Man battle that was revealed earlier this week.  The four match-ups are shown below with my opinions as to who would win the battle.  Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments though.  I’m always up for a spirited comic book debate.

The first match-up we’ll cover is Black Widow vs. Psylocke.  Both are highly trained martial artists and have notoriously been depicted as being able to stand toe to toe with anyone in physical combat.  From my perspective Black Widow probably has the slight edge in martial arts but Psylocke takes the fight with her mutant powers.

Avengers: 0

X-Men: 1

Second up we have the God of Thunder, Thor, against the Queen of Wakanda, Storm.  Now this is an interesting match-up just because of the parallels of both combatants being able to use thunder and lightning as weapons.  But how does a mutant beat a god?  I just don’t see Storm pulling out the win against Thor.  Thor can take just about anything Storm throws at him and his still has his hammer which can do tons of damage.  Thor gets the win here.

Avengers: 1

X-Men: 1

Next we have Spider-Man taking on his amazing friend Iceman.  I like this pairing if only for the play on the 80s cartoon.  Just add Firestorm and it will be a reunion.  Iceman is an Omega level mutant once of the most powerful of the X-Men.  Peter Parker is finally getting his due as one of the smartest minds of the Marvel Universe.  His close relationship with the Future Foundation/Fantastic Four allows him to exercise his mind and encourages him to think first and then act.  Both combatants have a history and familiarity with each other.  Spidey’s big brain saves him in the end as he comes up with a good plan or technology to defeat Iceman.

Avengers: 2

X-Men: 1

The final battle puts the leaders of both teams against each other.  Captain America takes on Cyclops in what I think will be a fun read.  Cap is the longtime leader of the Avengers and is a historical icon.  Cyclops is the longtime leader of the X-Men and now the leader of Utopia and a vast majority of the remnants of mutantkind.  Both men are well established leaders and strategists so I think this battle comes down to one thing… experience.  Cap has been fighting since World War II long before Cyclops was even born.  His experience gives him the edge here and he exploits Cyclops’ obvious weakness, his visor.  Cap’s shield can take anything Cyke throws at it… but one shot from Cap’s shield to the visor and Cyclops is down for the count.  Cap takes this fight.

Avengers: 3

X-Men: 1

I spoke about the match-up between Iron Man and Magneto last week but I didn’t give a prediction as to who the winner would be.  Its a toss-up between Reed Richards and Tony Stark in regards to who the smartest man in the Marvel Universe is.  Tony’s powers all stem from his creations and the Iron Man armor is a phenomenal piece of tech.  Magneto has reformed from his terrorist ways and has become a solid member of the X-Men.  But he’s still the master of magnetism and Tony Stark wears a metal suit.  That fact alone makes me lean towards Magneto as the winner.  Tony might come up with a way to make his suit non-magnetic but there are still lots of other things around that Magneto can control to combat Shellhead.   Also factor in the fact Tony is still recovering from falling of the wagon and I think in the end Magneto comes out victorious.

Avengers: 3

X-Men: 2

With a current score of 3-2 nobody is running away with the fight and the Avengers keeps a slim lead.  As more of these match-ups come out I will continue giving my fanboy analysis.  In the end I think the Avengers will just barely eke out the win… but I could be wrong.  If you disagree with my predictions let me know and lets start a debate on this.  One of the best parts about being a comic fan is arguing over who would  beat who in a fight.

Avengers vs. X-Men Preview

Marvel’s next mega event is set to pit the X-Men against the Avengers.  In this battle of Marvel’s superteams your guess is as good as mine as to who will come out victorious.  Although I would guess the fact the X-Men have splintered into two groups led by Cyclops and Wolverine could prove to be problematic for the mutants.

The stories in Avengers vs. X-Men will tie-in to the main overarching story of the summer event, however Marvel editor Tom Brevoort has said that ‘Primarily, you’re talking about one-on-one bouts’ in the upcoming books.  As a fan I find this to be really interesting.  I’ve got in many arguments with my friends on topics like, ‘Who would win in a fight, Thor or Storm’ and other similar comparisons.  From that perspective I think the Avengers vs. X-Men books are going to be a of fun.

The first matchup in Avengers vs. X-Men will pit Iron Man against Magneto in a fight that I think will be a lot of fun to see.  Iron Man’s metallic suit against the Master of Magnetism… I’m sold.  Also in the first issue we will see a battle between Namor and the Thing.  Marvel Senior Editor Nick Lowe described the first issue as ‘two huge knockdown, dragout battles that play with the characters’ powers in amazing ways.’  One of my favorite artists, Adi Granov has drawn an incredible looking teaser for the first issue.  I love the way he draws Iron Man and seeing the pieces of his armor shredding off while he flies towards Magneto just looks incredible to me.  Credit goes to CBR for getting this fantastic looking promo art online.

Marvel has also released the following press release for the first issue of Avengers vs. X-Men…. and while it’s a bit light on details and any potential spoilers it’s still enough to get me interested in the upcoming series.

Official Press Release

AVENGERS VS X-MEN: ROUND 1!

The biggest superhero brawl in the history of the Marvel Universe begins this April in Avengers Vs. X-Men #1!

Which team will reign supreme? Join the conversation on Twitter with #AvX!

For more on Avengers VS X-Men, please visit http://avx.marvel.com

AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #1 (JAN120625)
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, JASON AARON, MATT FRACTION, JONATHAN HICKMAN, ED BRUBAKER
Art by JOHN ROMITA JR.
Cover by JIM CHEUNG
FOC – 2/27/12, ON SALE – 4/3/12

I’ll be the first to admit that I am generally vehemently against having a large number of tie-in books during a company wide event.  However, this series intrigues me since it seems to mostly be one-on-one fights between characters which should make things a lot of fun… and be used to settle lot of fanboy debates.  The first issues of Avengers vs. X-Men hits stands in April so keep your eyes open for it.

Avengers: X-Sanction #1 Cover Art Revealed

Marvel has released the coverart for the next Avengers event entitled X-Sanction.  The big thing coming out of this is the return of the recently deceased Cable to the Marvel Universe.  The premise of this story is:

With only 24 hours to destroy the Avengers, can he take on all of Earth’s Mightiest alone? Find out as superstar creators Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness kick off the countdown to the 2012’s status quo-shattering event in the Avengers: X-Sanction #1!

Should be interesting at the very least.  I do believe this is the first real interaction between many of the Avengers and Cable.

There’s Still Hope For Ben Reilly’s Return

Marvel has dropped a couple teases during Spider Island that the original Spider-Clone, Ben Reilly, might be returned to the Marvel Universe.  Marvel is moving forward with a new mini-series entitled Point One and the latest teaser image depicts a Spider-Man looking character wearing a hoodie.  As you know the hoodie was a trademark part of the Scarlet Spider costume.

This picture is certainly meant to make you think that Ben might be coming back to life, but Marvel loves to tease his return to get fanboys fired up.  Whether Spider-Man fans either love or hate Ben Reilly his presence sparks interest.  Do I want this to be Ben Reilly returning to life?  Hell yes.  Do I think this is Ben?  Probably not.

Standby for my theory.  In the latest issue of Spider Island, Reed Richards has found a cure to the Spider powers that have spread throughout NYC.  This cure requires Eddie Brock as Anti-Venom to be present and Reed states that creating the cure could depower Brock.  My guess is that Eddie will lose his Anti-Venom powers but retain some Spider powers.  Just a guess, but who knows!

Marvel Reveals The Mighty

The mega-event at Marvel, Fear Itself, is about to wrap up with issue 7 due to drop next month.  As such it’s finally time to figure out who will step up to save the day.  Originally, Marvel released a promo entitled The Mighty with the silhouettes of 9 heroes.  Looking at the shadows you could get an idea of who these character are, but today final promo picture was released showing all of the heroes with their new costumes.  These costumes are a hybrid of Stark technology and Asgardian forged armor.

From left to right there is Ms. Marvel, Iron Fist, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Wolverine, Red She-Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Spider-Man.  These heroes are The Mighty who will be tasked with stopping the Serpent and his Fallen.

I think that some of these armor designs are pretty boring, but I’m a big fan of Iron Man’s new armor.  This is one of the pieces that shows this truly a hybrid of Stark and Asgardian technology.  Stark’s new armor looks like the body of the Destroyer fused with an Iron Man head.  I think it looks great.  Some of the ones that miss the mark specifically Spider-Man and Hawkeye.  Spidey looks like he’d make a great Blue Lantern in his all blue costume with electric lighting and Hawkeye looks to have the same uniform but with Tron lights added on.  Those two costumes miss the mark.

Overall, I’m looking forward to seeing how Fear Itself ends.  My guess is that the Mighty will save the day at the end and after the Earth is saved their new armor/costumes are then destroyed or unusable.  It seems highly unlikely that Asgardian technology would remain in mortal hands.

Cable Returns in Avengers: X-Sanction

In what seems to be about par for the course at Marvel a hero who recently died is now being resurrected in a 4 issue mini-series.  In this case, Cable is returning to the Marvel Universe after falling in Second Coming.  Marvel had released a teaser poster that seemed to indicate that the X-Men would be involved in an Avengers event in December.  Turns out it is only one X-Man and he will be combating the Avengers.

A good deal of information about X-Sanction was released during Marvel’s live blog this week. The participants on the Marvel side were writer Jeph Loeb, artist Ed McGuinness and Marvel VP Tom Brevoort.  Loeb has been involved with Cable since the very beginning of the character so it makes sense to bring him in for Cable’s most recent resurrection.   As a fan it might seem a little strange that Cable’s resurrection is being handled in an Avengers book and Marvel seems to realize that as well.  According to Tom Brevoort:

“This story puts Cable in a situation where he’s surrounded by and dealing with characters he doesn’t normally. It’s not just another story with Cable and the X-Men. The idea of Cable as a man out to protect his daughter by any means necessary gives the character an emotional heft and underlines everything he does. It’s richly fulfilling.”

So it sounds to me as if Cable will be fighting the Avengers at some point and the recently released promo art (see below) seems to indicate this as well.  My guess is that the Avenger and Cable will initially be opposed to each other before joining together to stop a common foe.  Not only that, but X-Sanction is kicking off the events for the next big Marvel crossover event:

As we’ve said, it’s not a coincidence that Fear Itself, Schism, and other big stories end at the same time. This is the first brick in the next road. Cable knows he’s coming to battle the Avengers, so he comes loaded for bear, with the specific gear he needs.

Overall, I think its interesting that Marvel is using the Avengers in Cable’s resurrection story.  Its something that is different and unexpected and surprisingly new from the House of Ideas.  But the reason I’m most interested in picking up this series, the ‘merc with a mouth’ or Deadpool will be making an appearance.  Anytime Deadpool and Cable are in the same book its a lot of fun.  Don’t believe me, just check out the older Cable and Deadpool series.

Via: Marvel

Target: The Avengers

Well as one crossover event wraps up in the Marvel Universe, its time to tease the next one.  Marvel recently released a fairly simple promo for an upcoming Avengers event that is slated to being in December.

From the looks of things The Avengers are being targeted by someone.  One of the interesting to things to note is that the target scope is not in its normal postion.  Normally, the scope form a cross shape instead it is X shaped in the promo picture.  What might that mean?  Well I have a conspiracy theory to advocate.

The mega event going on in the X-Men world is Schism.  In this event the X-Men are split between both Cyclops and Wolverine.  The two men split the X-Men over ideological differences.  Schism is wrapping up soon and with the X-Men split in two more radical actions could be taken by one side.

So here’s where the conspiracy theory comes in to play.  I think one side of the X-Men will will either feel threatened by the Avengers and be forced to attack/defend themselves or something will happen forcing the X-Men to retaliate against The Avengers.  I know it sounds like a rip-off of the Civil War Event from 2007 but its my conspiracy theory and I’m sticking to it.  Any other theories out there, please feel free to share them in the comments below.

Will Spider-Island Bring a Return of the Scarlet Spider?

One of the teaser posters shown at the San Diego Comic Con showed the blue hoodie worn by the Scarlet Spider, aka Ben Reilly aka the Spider-Clone, set ablaze.  This fueled speculation that Marvel might bring Ben Reilly back to life after his death in 1996.  Well prepare to add more fuel to that fire with the latest press release about the ongoing Spider-Island arc.  Pay special attention the the text that I have marked bold for emphasis.

It’s the Spider-Man event of the year, and with so many twists and turns – there’s no telling what will happen next! But there’s one thing we can tell you, fans can get excited for the return of someone very important to the life of Peter Parker. Except where will he show up? With Spider-Island selling out across the board, it’s obvious that fans can’t get enough of the Wall-crawler, all 8 million of them!

Haven’t checked out Spider-Island yet? No problem! Marvel is pleased to announce that that it will be going back to press on a wide number of Spider-Island tie-ins including, Spider-Island: Cloak And Dagger #1 Second Printing Variant, Spider-Island: Deadly Foes #1 Second Printing Variant, & Venom #5 Second Printing Variant! And with the Amazing Spider-Man #666 Second Printing Variant on the way, there’s no better time to get in on the action. So what are you waiting for? Head over to your local comic shop and get in on Spider-Island today!

Curious to who will be returning? Join the conversation on Twitter with #SpiderIsland!

While fans in general loathed the Clone Saga there is a part of the fanbase who genuinely enjoyed the character of Ben Reilly.  The subject of his return has long been taboo in the eyes of Marvel writers and editors.  Whenever they were asked about it in the past a return was quickly shot down.  So what’s changed their opinion now?  I’m not sure but Ben’s return has been hinted at in the beginning of the Spider-Island arc, with Miles Warren, aka the Jackal, discussing a perfect clone.

The press release and promo art seem to hint at Ben’s return, however it does not appear to be long lived.  Personally if they bring Ben back just kill him in a couple issues it seems like this is a move to appease the fanbase.  One part will be happy Ben is back, even if its for a short time, and another section would be thrilled to see the Spider-Clone die yet again. There is a lot of hatred for the Clone Saga and it seems to taint a lot of opinions about Ben.

As for myself, I would love to see Ben come back and potentially have adventures of his own post Spider-Island.  With all the superhero teams created due to the Initiative Ben could go anywhere and contribute. Plus there have already been other Spider-Men, wearing the Iron Spider-Man costume,  serving in the Initiative.

I hope Marvel keeps Ben around for a while mostly because the brother-like relationship with Peter is a great story element.  My worst fear is that if Marvel actually brings Ben back and keeps him alive he will end up with Mary Jane Watson.  Marvel seems intent on keeping her and Peter apart with Brand New Day and this would be yet another way to do that.  And something like that would shatter the relationship between Peter and Ben.