This week the Best Comics to Buy list features Netflix’s first foray into the world of comic books, Donny Cates’ second issue of Venom and the launch of Gail Simone’s Plastic Man #1.
Venom
Best Comics to Buy This Week: Featuring Venom #1 And My Boyfriend is A Bear!
This week, the best comics to buy list features a new Venom series, the start of Justice League: No Justice, and the trade paperback My Boyfriend is a Bear.
Read moreBest Comics to Buy This Week: Featuring Venom #1 And My Boyfriend is A Bear!
Sony Release First Trailer Tom Hardy’s Venom Movie
Sony has released the first trailer for their upcoming Spider-Man spin-off movie starring Tom Hardy.
Sony Finds Star and Director for Venom Film
Sony officially announced the new star and director for the upcoming Spider-Man offshoot, Venom.
The 10 Spider-Man Stories You Need to Read
Out of all of Marvel’s characters, there’s one that has constantly stood the test of time as one of the greatest comic book heroes of all time. For over 50 years, Spider-Man has been bringing joy to readers with his unique powers, terrible jokes, and incredible stories. Choosing only ten was a hard task, but here are the Spider-Man stories that you need to read.
Retro Throwback: Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage
Spider-Man is an iconic comic book character. He’s been in almost every medium imaginable from movies to TV to videogames. Some of his attempts were more graceful than others, and that’s where Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage lands. It’s not the greatest game ever made, and there are some random issues that hinder the experience. But its hard as balls difficulty; wicked soundtrack and fun gameplay make Maximum Carnage one of the best Spider-Man games out there.
Developed by Software Creations and published by the infamous LJN, the story is based on the 14-part comic of the same name that came out in 1993. It’s not one of the greatest plots around, but it’s badass enough to make it enjoyable. Without his Symbiote companion, Cletus Cassidy has rotted away in prison. That doesn’t last long because he discovers there is still some evil/alien/symbiote in his own biology, so he goes crazy and escapes. He wrangles up some Spidey villains like Shriek, Doppelganger, and Demogoblin, and starts terrorizing the city. It’s up to the Web-Head to stop him, but he can’t do it alone. He teams up with Venom and gets help from Black Cat, Cloak, Dagger, and Captain America to put an end to Carnage.
He does this by walking around the streets of New York punching the shit out of anyone in a trench coat. It’s a side scrolling beat ‘em up, and that’s exactly what you do, but there is some variety here. Spider-Man and Venom play differently. Spider-Man is a little faster, but a little weaker. Venom is stronger, but slower and just straight up more badass. There are wall crawling segments thrown in there to change up what you do. It works because it’s spaced out enough that it keeps the game from getting repetitive while working within the context of what makes Spider-Man unique.
Eat fist Bret
The main complaint that’s always tossed around is its difficulty. Yea, it’s really hard. But aside from a few glitches that come with classic games, it’s something that can be conquered—it will just take work. Enemies have a tendency to surround the protagonists, and there are a lot of them at any given time. But hearts are dropped periodically, and there’s the odd way to go extra life thrown in there for good measure. But it’s not a game you’ll beat in one sitting.
If you muscle through that though, there’s a lot of fun packed into a red cartridge. Everything about it feels like a comic, from the art style down to the “Thwak” that flies across the screen when you finish off a baddie. It makes everything feel like it was made with enthusiasm.
That’s what makes everything so enjoyable. There’s something for everyone. It’s based off of a comic that revolves around an awesome villain. The art style lends itself nicely to that too. For the gamers, it’s really challenging with basic beat ‘em up controls mixed with web stuff. It all mixes together nicely in a way that only this game can pull off. Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage is the ultimate bundle of gameplay, fidelity and badassery you can get your hands on.
Marvel Reveals 8 Brand New Titles To Come Out This Year
Over the weekend at Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (or C2E2 for short) Marvel announced 8 new series that will be released in the later half of this year.
First are a handful of titles of under the name of 100th Anniversary Limited Series. These will be more “What-If” titles that give a possibility of what the Marvel Universe might look like in the next 50 years. So far there’s an Avengers title that will have Captain America trapped in the Negative Zone, a Spider-Man title that has him go up against the Kingpin after losing a techno-symbiote suit, a Fantastic Four title that introduces the Banner-Richard twins, and Guardians of the Galaxy title that has the team face a silver Galactus. There will also be an X-Men title with no plot details, however the cover has Scott Summers marrying Emma Frost.
All five titles will be released in July of this year.
The next series announced was the continuation of Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga titled The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three- The Prisoner.
This will adapt the first part of the second novel where the wounded protagonist Roland Deschain will find himself in 1980’s Chicago and will encounter heroin addict Edie Dean. The writers who adapted the previous Dark Tower series Peter David and Robin Furth will continue to write the series while art will be done by Piotr Kowalski.
The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three-The Prisoner will being in September of this year.
The next series will interest fans of the 90’s version of X-Force, as they will be fighting Deadpool. The four issue series tells the story of Cable’s first encounter of Deadpool and will try and stop him from changing the history of America.
The series will being in July of this year.
The grandfather of the modern zombie George A Romero will start the second act of his Empire of the Dead series in September. Act two will revolve around a war between rapidly evolving zombies, vampires, and a Southern militia trying to loot the vampire’s city.
With the release of Guardians of the Galaxy in a few months, it’s not shocking to see them trying to have the team in more titles. First Rocket Raccoon has a series coming out, now Star-Lord will have his own too.
The Legendary Star-Lord will have him fighting against the Badoon, a frequent enemy of his and will follow the aftermath after the Guardians of the Galaxy and All New X-Men crossover.
The series will start in July of this year.
Storm will also be getting her own solo series that will be written and drawn by Greg Pak and Victor Ibanez.
The series will have Storm separating herself from her teams to promote peace between humans and mutant kind. The series will show her dealing with both regular and supernatural events.
Storm will begin in July of this year.
Original Sin has barely even begun and yet it’s effects will already effect on the Marvel universe. Titles Thor: God of Thunder and Loki: Agent of Asgard will crossover during the event and will also be followed in Thor and Loki: The Tenth Relm.
In Original Sin, it will be revealed that Odin also had a daughter. Shockingly enough, it will be the fairly recent Marvel acquired Angela, who is originally from the comic Spawn. She was first dragged over into the Marvel Universe in last year’s Age of Ultron event and has been only featured in the Guardians of the Galaxy series. More can be read in one of our previous news posts.
Thor & Loki: The Tenth Relm will star in July of this year, but will also involve Thor: God of Thunder and Loki: Agent of Asgard starting in July as well.
Finally they reiterated that they will be really killing off Wolverine later this year. More can be read in one of our previous news posts.
The Death of Wolverine series will start in September of this year.
Guardians of the Galaxy Gains New Team Members
Alongside their upcoming feature film debut, The Guardians of the Galaxy are nearing another impressive milestone as the team reaches their 100th issue of a “Guardians” comic book with Guardians of the Galaxy #14.
Not only that, but the team is gaining two new powerful members – Venom and Captain Marvel – who will debut in the most recent issue.
The group has come a long way since readers first encountered the eccentric team in 1969’s Marvel Super Heroes #18. The early 90’s saw them appearing in their own self-titled series written by Brian Michael Bendis that lasted 62 issues, and in 2008 they entered the modern Marvel Universe in the aftermath of the Annihilation: Conquest.
The inclusion of Venom and Captain Marvel will add an interesting layer to an already dynamic team which includes players from across the galaxy.
The Earthbound Venom, who has plenty of history with other characters as a result of the symbiotic suit, will give readers a fresh perspective on a team that is quite unlike any other. New readers coming in – likely as a result of all the hype surrounding the team nowadays – will appreciate this unique point-of-view Venom offers as he adjusts to crime fighting in space.
Captain Marvel on the other hand has been all over time and space, and will offer more of a leadership role with the team that deals with all sorts of baddies from across the galaxy, something she has plenty of experience with. Guardians of the Galaxy #14 hits shelves April 23.
Carnage Taken Into Consideration For Upcoming Venom Film
Much is still unknown about the upcoming spin-off film surrounding Venom, but its co-producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are certainly open to the idea of bringing in one of Spider Man’s most popular villains.
“What a great idea,” Arad told IGN when asked about the possibility of having Carnage make an appearance in the announced Venom movie.
This is on the heels of last week’s post on The Daily Bugle’s tumblr page, which ran a story about notorious serial killer Cletus Kasady who later on turns into Carnage. Interestingly enough, it was also written by the one and only Eddie Brock, more commonly known as Venom.
Carnage has been a resurfacing character over the past few months, making appearances in the Superior Carnage series, and the most recent Deadpool Vs Carnage Vol. 1, where Deadpool and Carnage don’t become friends.
Carnage entered the web slinger’s universe back in Amazing Spider-Man #345 (1991), where he was introduced as Cletus Kasady and Eddie Brock’s cell mate. After Brock reunites with his black suit and escapes incarceration, his symbiote reproduces – these suits are alive and have the ability to do these things – and leaves its spawn behind in the cell. Kasady quickly discovers the strange goo and embraces the red alien suit, which consumes him entirely and heightens the serial killer’s lust for destruction and death.
He’s been involved with several storylines involving Spider Man and Venom, often requiring the two to team up and take Carnage down.
Most recently, he was even teased in The Amazing Spider Man 2 game trailer. Though he hasn’t been officially announced for the game, the hand covered in red goo gave it away, and there’s no doubt developer Beenox slipped that tiny segment in there on purpose. The game is set to hit shelves in North America on April 29th and will be available for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, iOS and Android.
A Spider-Man-related film is scheduled for May 4, 2018. Though its currently listed as The Amazing Spider Man 4, it’s possible it will actually turn out to be the Venom movie or the Sinister Six spin-off.
You can watch The Amazing Spider Man 2 on the big screen on May 2.
Five Marvel Characters In Need Of A Cinematic Reboot
With Captain America smearing his stars n’ stripes all over screens this weekend in one of the best Marvel movies to date, it’s a damn good time to be a superhero movie fan.
Read moreFive Marvel Characters In Need Of A Cinematic Reboot
Oscorp plays big part in Spider-Man spinoff films
If you guessed that Oscorp would play an important part in the ever expanding web of stories surrounding New York’s popular web-slinger, you were spot on.
Film and television writer Robert Orci, one of the creative minds behind the recently announced spinoff films starring Spider-Man’s most popular enemies, opened up a little in an interview with IGN. When asked about what role Oscorp played, Orci said the powerful company is very important in how the villains are created, and it represents the good and the bad science has to offer humankind.
“It’s nice to have that organizing principal, but it wasn’t like, ‘We must keep it at Oscorp.’ It flowed naturally from the story development,” he said.
It would be difficult to stray away from this concept, and have villains from these spin-off movies originate outside of Oscorp now that such a heavy focus on the company has been established in the Amazing Spider-Man, and based on the trailer, Amazing Spider-Man 2. Unfortunately, this could very easily translate to a lousy origins tale for the Sinister Six, one of the announced spinoff films, if all they do is simply grow these villains in a test tube at Oscorp. Venom, the other planned spinoff from Sony, could mirror the origins tale found in the Ultimate Spider-Man series, where the black suit was actually created by Richard Parker – Peter’s father – and Eddie Brock’s father, in an attempt to cure the suit’s host of serious illnesses. Whichever direction they take, the outcome of a possible anti-hero with the emergence of Venom, who actually fulfills this role in the comics, could be far more interesting than just another villain bent on destroying Spider-Man and the rest of the city.
If you’re worried that the spinoffs are to replace The Amazing Spider-Man 4, which is penciled in for a 2018 release, you can rest easy.
“I think with Spider-Man 4, the intention is for it to be Spider-Man,” Orci said.
Sony reveals ‘Venom’ and ‘Sinister Six’ spinoffs
If you were a little underwhelmed with Venom’s presence in Spider-Man 3 – strangely enough he wasn’t even called by that name during his brief 20-minute segment – then you might be interested to know that Sony is planning to expand the Spider-Man franchise with two spinoff movies, one being Venom, the other, The Sinister Six.
The news was uncovered on ElectroArrives.com, the promotional website for the Amazing Spider-Man 2, where Sony revealed the hiring of screenwriters Alex Kurtzman, Jeff Pinkner, Roberto Orci, Ed Solomon and Drew Goddard. According to Sony, they will create a “franchise brain trust” with director Marc Webb and producers Matt Tolmach and Avi Arad.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 trailer offers us a glimpse at the potential beginning stages of a Sinister Six formation, with the Vulture’s wing suit and Dr. Octopus’ mechanical arms sitting side by side in a lab.
“The Spider-Man film franchise is one of our studio’s greatest assets,” Columbia Pictures President Doug Belgrad said on the website’s press release. “We are thrilled with the creative team we have assembled to delve more deeply into the world that Marc, Avi and Matt have begun to explore in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man‘ and ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2.’ We believe that Marc, Alex, and Drew have the uniquely exciting visions for how to expand the Spider-Man universe in each of these upcoming films.”
The Spider-Man movies are Columbia’s most successful franchise, and have grossed a combined $3.2 billion worldwide.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opens May 2, 2014. It stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field and Chris Cooper.