GEARS OF WAR 2!!

GEARS OF WAR!!! YEAH! Much too busy playing GOW 2 to blog it up this week...but those of you in the same boat or just wanting something cool to read be sure to check out Gears of War #1 and #2 from Wildstorm this week.
The book is alot of fun and very very bloody! Mature Readers only!

Anyway...off to play some more! BOOM!!!

Superman New Krypton

Yeah, so only got time for a quick one today. Superman New Krypton!!! What is it? well it's the latest and greatest Superman cross over. With this one we see the return of the superman shield numbering (that little shield that tells you what order to read the books in). We haven't seen this shield since...Our Worlds at War and Jokers Last Laugh crossovers several years back. and you know what? i welcome it back with open arms!! Now the books will be crossing ongoing titles Action Comics, Superman and Supergirl, and it will also include a few one-shots.

As of late the current superman writing and art team have been working very hard to create a consistant superman universe and are doing an excellent job of it. Previously Supergirl was almost competely seperate from supes main books...but now she's almost become a Robin or Nightwing like character, appearing in most issues with actual important role to play.

So what's it all about? Well Superman is having both the happiest day and the saddest day of his life. It seems Brainac had a little peice of Krypton locked in a bottle for some time, and recent events have caused to land right on earth! While the emergance of 1000 kryptonians might be the greatest news Supes could ever get, the result of his conflict with Brainac would be loss of Pa Kent!! So not only does supes have to figure out how to introduce his people to Earth he must deal with putting his father to rest! on top of all that throw in a top secret government plan that sole task is to kill superman!!

and if that page dosen't get you!! i don't know what will!!

I told you...I'll be BACK!

Hey all!! it's been quite some time since I had a chance to update the blog! alas it takes some effort to get the scans up and running, and i think they make a huge difference when reviewing/previewing books, so I didn't want to start posting text only...anywayz, here we go:

Robin #179
I thought i'd kick off this long overdue review with a great book that some of you may not be reading...ROBIN!! what batman's sidekick??? No, he's not mearly a sidekick but he's perhaps one of the DCU's best characters...along with Nightwing of course.

Now i'll try to keep this short and simple as usual. Those of you not familer with Robin here's a quick refresher: Tim Drake is the 3 Robin, previous Robin was Jason Todd (now known as RED HOOD) and of course the 1st Robin was Dick Grayson. Dick Grayson gave up the mantel to become Nightwing, and Jason Todd...well he was brutally murdered by the Joker (oh yeah! that guy!). So while Dick and Jason were both chosen by twist of fate to become Batman's sidekick, Tim Drake actually earned the mantel via his own means...discovering who Batman was! So Tim has always been the DETECTIVE. He's young and still in school trying to deal with an awkward social life while fighting crime...so he's dealing with alot that Batman and Nightwing don't have, which is what makes him such a great character. Ok...moving on.

Batman is missing (see Batman RIP...eventually) so Robin and Nightwing are left with the daunting task of filling in for perhaps one of the greatest heroes of all time! Not only do they have to fill in...but they have to some how maintain that Batman is still out there...because if the criminal element discovers Bats is gone...it will be MADNESS!!! oh quick item...Freddie Williams II has one of the best renderings of Robin i've seen, it's actually suprising that he hasn't been seen on more bat books.
This getting kinda long...so i'll try to wrap it up. Bottom line...you have a great character who seemingly has the weight of the world on his shoulders...he's trying to get the Gotham gang wars under control without revealing that Batman is gone, he has to deal with school and the lack of his legal guardian (Bruce of course) to cover his back when he misses classes or tests, then not to mention he also has the return of his previously dead girlfriend (Spoiler) to deal with...oh and on top of all that...who is this RED ROBIN character?!?!?

ROBIN #179...pick it up and you'll enjoy it for sure! In fact i'll give you the Heroes World guarantee on it, you read it and don't like it? bring it back and i'll swap it up for something else! (book must be returned within a week and in same condition of course)

Punisher War Zone Poster

Hey guys, it's going to be crazy this week so I won't be able to get a blog up, but i did find this cool shot of the poster for the upcoming Punisher War Zone.

how is this cool??? well with the success of Iron Man, and seeing how good the previews for The Hulk look, this could be another marvel blockbuster???

here's hoping so!

new books will be ready for Thursday (if we're lucky late wednesday) and we'll see you at Anime North if your coming!

Colossus One-Shot, GeNeXt #1 and Batman RIP!

Hey all, it's a mighty big week!! So i've got a few snippets from a few of my favs.

First up X-Men Origins: Colossus:

If this is any indication of what the orgins series are going to be it's a welcome addition to the X-men line. What it is bascally is a more detailed and mordern retelling of...well an X-men's "origin". This issue features one of my all time fav characters, the Colossus, who according to many surveys is one of the top fav characters up there will Jean Gray and Wolverine. The one shot covers alot more than you'd expect, from his brothers death, to discovering his powers, his sisters birth and right up to his recruitment into the X-men.

As you can see in the panel above, it's been modernized. Nothing really has been changed except for the addition of a certian character that i don't think was attached to his original orgin. It even has the famous tractor scene.
A really cool thing that is brought up within the issue? How about the idea that instead of hating and fearing mutants like America, Russia would want to control the power and harness it as a weapon...now that would make a cool What If?? What if Colossus became Russia's Super Soldier. Nonetheless it's a good read with great art so pick it up!

next up...GeNeXt #1:

"Because you demanded it!"...no really, you did! Marvel announced that Chris Claremont would helm a new X-book, and all the concepts were posted on their website and were voted on by the public, and this is the book that won! The concept is simple...what if the Marvel Universe aged in real-time?? what does that mean exactly?? well founding and original members of the X-men would be in their 50s and even the new mutants would be in their 30s, meaning there is a whole new generation.
Why is this different from what we've scene? well the rest of the universe has aged quite a bit and instead of simply bringing in new mutants that seem to just add to the x-men universe, these guys are pretty much the replacements! You have a very old Beast watching the danger room, and X-23 running the training sessions a job historically given to wolverine. So far no sign of other x-men other than the fact that Prof X is dead. Revealed so far...Oliver Raven son of Rogue and Gambit, Becka Munroe daughter of Storm and unknown father (i suspect wolveirne or black panther), and Pavel Rasputin grandson of Colossus. While the book seems fairly short and dosen't cover too much ground, you are treated to a nice sketch book that details each character. Clues are dropped that this might possibly be in the same timeline as X-men: The End. An interesting read with alot of potential.

Lastly...Batman #676 R.I.P!!!

So it's finally here, the result of all of Grant Morrison's build up over the last year or so. The rumor is that Batman will change forever!! Possibilities are...Bruce finally gives up the mantel, or might even get dead!

This issue is perhaps some of the best Tony Daniel work i've seen. While not alot is given away in this issue yet, there is the return of a very key character that would have to be involved if Batman were to infact die. Batman RIP is a 20 part crossover that will be spanning Batman, Detecive, Nightwing, Robin and Batman & the Outsiders.

Secret Invasion #2 and Nightwing #144

Yeah, so it's a big week!!! So I'm going to quickly go through these cause there is so much more to read!!

First up is Secret Invasion #2:

Well if your not already reading Secret Invasion...then what the heck man?!?! Seriuosly it's marvels big crossover for this summer and whether it's a hit or miss it's always worth checking out. So far...it's been pretty damn good. Bendis at the helm leading the project...which he hasn't done since House of M...and great art by Leinil Francis Yu.

The premise? well to put it short: every character in the marvel universe could be a Skrull! Yeah it seems that simple, but marvel has been laying the groundwork for sometime apparently (i'd say only since Secret War that bendis did a year or so back). Skrulls have discovered a way to completely infiltrate the identity of someone and can only be detected when death occurs. Yeah that's right when the occurance of death insues, then we discover if you were a skrull or not, seems simple right?

This being the 2nd issue it means that the big fights will commence, and we get some really good hero vs hero battles here. Captain America is back (well possibly) and a host of others stright up duking it out! Iron Man goes back to basics when his armor is super hacked, and Hawkeye goes back to what he does best...bows and arrows.

All this action and we're treated to some really cool full-out Skrull versions of characters. Making for what i hope is an even craizer 3rd issue!! Check out super X-men skrull with wolvies claws, colossus' armor and cyclops' beams!

Also be sure to check out Mighty Avengers and New Avengers also both helmed by Bendis that are great additions to the story. Mighty Avengers covers what Nick Fury was up to while he was absent from the rest of the marvel universe, and on the flip side New Avengers covers what the skrulls were up to!

Now secondly a quick note on Nightwing #144:

If your into DC stuff at all, or even if you've been hardcore marvel fan, this is the book to read. Dick Grayson is probably one of the best characters in the DCU and his book is now doing a really good job of showing it. Look at this little panel that shows how much thought he goes through before busting some heads.

It's small details like this that are making this book such a great read. Also if you enjoy Nightwing pick up Green Lantern Corps also written by Tomasi for some interglactic police goodness!

The Dark Knight

All I can really say is...simply amazing!
Although visually I love the above poster (and must have it by the way!) i'd say the below poster more captures the whole Batman mythos, just look at that city that he has to watch over. Superman has always had his definitive watching from the clouds image, and now i believe we've got our batman equivalent image.

Now i'll bet these got you in the mood to read some batman stuff!!

Here's a list of what I've got on the stack for this week:

Batman The Long Halloween - leob & sale tell a great detective batman story

Batman Under the Hood vol 1 & 2 - the return of Jason Todd...and it's awesome!

Batman No Man's Land - Batman straight up running things when Gotham city is declared No Man's Land!
Batman and Son - the setup to the upcoming BATMAN RIP. be ready for Bruce Wayne's son and a host of imitation batman running around with guns and such

Hulk #3 and Ultimate Spider-man #121

Hey all, feels like it's been a while since we got some now reviews up, so here's 2 for the price of 1!!! It's been a long day at the store so I'll keep it fairly short. So here we go...two new books that are out today!!

First let's talk about Hulk #3. While I've never been the big green guys biggest fan, there have been some really good Hulk stories as of late, the two most recent being Planet Hulk and World War Hulk. The latter leading right into this new Hulk series, it appears that GREEN hulk has dissappeared and the new in fashion colour is RED.

Um so yeah...Ed McGuiness is awesome! His style perfectly suits hulks giant over the top physique. Also appearing in the book are Ironman, She Hulk, the new Abomination and a host of others all done in similar spectacular style. The action is fast and furious and while not as detailed as Hitch's Fantastic Four (see previous posts) it really gives a good feel to how powerful Hulk is.

Let's get to the story part....following the events of World War Hulk as i mentioned the GREEN hulk as dissappeared, and his good friend Abomination has turned up dead...via some kinda giant gun. yeah...since when does Hulk use guns!?!? Ironman and his Shield posse go to investige with the help of General Ross and She-Hulk...then crazyness ensues. I hesitate to call it a retro approach...i'd say it's more of a back to basics approach to hulk, giving a big showcase to huge action scenes...and less of that word stuff.

Also i don't know who red hulk is (my guess is possibly General Ross??) but i like him!

Next up in line...ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #121!!! hell if you aren't reading ultimate spiderman right now...well...what's wrong with you?!?!? I'd still have to say it's one of the best books on the market today. Sure Bagley has left...but check out the amazying work Immonen is doing.

Look at the attention to detail!!! Immonen has a great style that works really well with the web slinger, and his techinical ability is...i'd say almost unmatched by most current artists. How many times have you seen a car or computer drawn and wondered...is that box supposed to impress me?? For example, in this issue it's the return of Omega Red who's after revenge on Jameson for giving him bad press...and during the fight spider-man slams him in the face with a computer monitor...the monitor is completely drawn in detail, it has the wall mount, the grills, the inputs and plugs on the back, wires...it even shows the screws popping out! When was the last time you even saw an artist take the time to do that?? Check out this wide shot of the aftermath:

And that's not even a full page spread!!! Also add onto that that Bendis is still on the book so you get awesome story to go with it. Ultimate Spider-man has always been about peter parker and his life as spider-man...its often noted that there are issues with no apperance of Spider-man at all, and these are probably some of the best issues!

Anywayz...if your not reading USM...you should be! Also be sure to check out Stuart Immonen's art book that we got in last week that we got from the man himself!! I quickly mentioned that we loved his work on USM and he stated that he'll be on the book for a good long run!

Countdown #3

Ah yes...so getting very close to the final countdown! Now i know maybe alot of you have either put the title on the side or stepped away for a bit (perhaps two year long weekly books was overkill) but now is the time to get back on and catch up on your reading! We're now about two issues away from the "day that evil wins"!

Not convinced? check out this panel

Still not convinced??? how about this?!?!

Yeah, that's right, it's an old fashioned slug fest! We also learn Jimmy Olsen's true part of the puzzle.

Also check out this gem....yeah, that's mary marvel using GREEN LANTERN as a make shift beat stick on Donna Troy. Brutal!! Anywayz, it'll be a quick post as we've been totally swamped by everything this week. I'll have some more cool stuff after the weekend to show ya'll!

Other good reads this week:

Titans, Fantastic Four, Punisher, JSA!!!

Also be sure to check out our wicked "Why go to the Con" sale!!

Fantastic Four #554 and #555

Hey all, I dunno if you've been picking up Fantastic Four since Millar and Hitch too over but...yeah you should be. As of issue #554 they've taken the helm of Marvel's First Family, and are doing it with style! The art is fantastic!! Hitch has alot of things going on here that give the book a really epic almost movie feel. He's got one of the best Ben Grimm's i've ever seen, the perfect blend of classic with modern.

Technology is often one of the elements neglected by artists, usually degraded to a series of boxes or a blurred thing in the background, but hitch brings it all front and center showing he can draw the most advanced creations that Reed can build.

Okay okay, so he can draw...but what about flow and action???? Oh yeah!! Check out these great action panels. Sue Storm stopping bulletts matrix style and crazy ripple effects during a Johnny Storm sequence, you probably won't see anything like this in any other book on the market right now.

Alright alright so now onto the story. Starting with #554 it's a whole new 4-part story, so you don't have to read anything prior to just jump on...the only reference that i could see was that they refered to Sue walking out on Reed (this happened during Civil War). So what exactly is going on??? Well the earth is dying, faster than usual, as indicated in the book within 10 years!! So an old friend of Reed's comes to him to help them build a "NEW" earth, one that is exactly like the current earth. BUT!! what would "NEW" earth be like without them trying to perfect it??!?!?

Yeah that's right people, why not create some kinda utopia? what could go wrong there...and who is this "cap" character? Oh he's just somethign they created to be a night "watchman", you know...keep everybody in line. Anywayz, seems to work in theory right?
Yeah that's right...that's what happens!! It seems that "cap" overheard Reed talking about what REAL soldiers and SHIELD, and he's deceided to seek them out and destroy them!!

So if your in the mood for something new and fun to read, or even just want to see some great art check out Fantastic Four!! And if you enjoy it be sure to pick up The Authority Trade Paperbacks for more of Hitch's art!

Amazing Spider-man #555 - Wolvie team-up!!

I know there is still the crazy backlash that is "One More Day" but if you can get past it there has been some really fun spidey stuff after it's wake. Just take a look at this weeks issue for a great jumping on point. Check out this great exchange between spidey and wolvie over breakfast.

Bachalo's are is very solid and he's got a very mean looking wolvie. Check out this splash.

It's kinda hard to read when i post such a big pic shrinked but here's the dialoge:

Spidey "What took you so long?"

Wolvie "Just waiting for you to draw them out."

Spidey "Wait a minute, you used me as bait?!"

Wolvie "Had to be sure of their numbers..."

Spidey "There are THREE, all right?!"

So if your in the mood for some fun spidey team-up action check out Amazing #555 on the shelf now!

Atomic Robo #6

Hey all, welcome to the first ever Heroes World blog post!! It will probably take a while to get the hang of this so hopefully each post will get better and better!!

First post I have to talk about...Atomic Robo! This is probably the best book that nobody is reading. Published by Red 5 comics(http://www.red5comics.com/) it has quickly become a staff favorite around the store. Best way to describe it...think Iron man meets Hellboy. I'll try to keep things short and simply say...READ IT!! Not only does it have great humor (you'll actually laugh out loud for this one) but it's got some of the best action sequences i've seen in a while.

Artist Scott Wegener does a great job of creating expressions on robo's face even though the only thing that moves really are his eyes. What you are seeing is a few panels from issue #6 of the mini series, but don't worry there has been a ongoing series announced. Currently we have instock only issue #6, but issues #1 to #5 have second printings on the way.