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!