Fear Itself: Invincible Iron Man #503 Comic Review

As Fear Itself begins to spread through the Marvel Universe, it invades the pages of the Invincible Iron Man. The series left off last issue with many of the members of Stark Resilient in dire need of help, with Tony cornered by Doc Oc and Pepper, Pim and Tim threatened by Sandman and Electro. Although the issue does not allude to the Fear Itself crossover till towards the end of the issue, it can already be told that the pages of Invincible Iron Man will play an important role in this event.

IRON SHEEN!

Death of Spider-Man Crossover

Marvel’s next huge crossover is finally here the Death of Spiderman. This crossover takes place in the Ultimates universe, and as you can imagine the end result of this story will be the end of one of our favorite superheroes, the Amazing Spider-Man.

This is a six-month cross over event beginning this week and spanning all the way until August. Although it may seem like an extremely long time, Ultimates fan’s will rejoice to know that they will now be able to read some of their favorite titles monthly instead of bi-monthly, which is a definite plus. The crossover involves two titles, Ultimate Spider-Man and a new mini series created for this crossover entitled Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates.

For this crossover, Marvel has enlisted many of its heavy hitters both in writing and art for the two stories involved. Like always, Ultimate Spider-Man is written by fan favorite Brian Michael Bendis, with art done by the team of Sara Pichello, David Lafuente, Lan Medina, and Ed Tadeo, and the best is still to come. Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates is written by the legendary Mark Millar, and penciled by equally as legendary Lenil Yu. Marvel decided to jump-start this cross over with the release of two of the installments this week.

The Death of Spider-Man promotional postcard that was released a few weeks ago solicits that you should read Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates to start off the crossover, but after reading the two, it really doesn’t matter which you read first. So lets start with Ultimate Spider-Man. This issue is a prelude to the Death of Spider-Man cross over. Two storylines are taking place in this issue, which end up intertwining by the end. First off, Spider-Man is being training by Tony Stark in order to become a better super-hero. The second story line that is occurring is that the Black Cat has had a weapon of ultimate power come into her hands. Mysterio is now harassing her, due to the fact that he wants that power for himself and he is willing to do anything to trick her into giving it to him.

Marvel .1 Series: Invicible Iron Man 500.1

Invincible Iron Man 500.1 is the first of Marvels .1 series that they are using to promote readers picking up new series. These issues are places where a reader could easily pick up the gist of what has been going on with the main character of the series since their inception and get a feel of where the story is at, at this point and time.

In this issue we find Tony Stark at an Alcoholic’s Anonymous meeting. He uses this as a forum to tell his life story, tell about how he became Iron man, tell about his encounters as Iron Man, and tell about how everything in his life has meshed together in order to become what it is today.

Iron Man 500

Upon us all is yet another Marvel landmark issue, Iron Man #500. Marvel decided once again it was time to re-number another one of their characters books like they have done in the past; Spider-Man, Daredevil, Fantastic Four.

Unlike many of the other landmark issues, Iron Man 500 utilizes its massive size to tell an extra long story, rather than containing many stories within the massive issue. One of the most interesting things about the story is that it utilizes two different artists to represent the different time periods that the story is taking place in. It really gives the story a certain feel to it that allows the reader to not only read that it’s a different place and/or time, but actually visualize and feel it as well. Marvel really did a great job with this set up.

Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes

About two weeks ago now I watched this show for the first time on TV. I was scared when first turning it on, wondering how they were going to butcher some of my favorite heroes from my childhood, and wondering how far from the truth the show was going to deter from the books. To my surprise, the show was nothing like I thought it was going to be and neither was the comic adaptation.

While watching the show I was wondering how and why the story and dialogue was so well done, and why I was enjoying it so much. All of that credit is owed to the fact that Chris Yost is the writer of the episodes and in charge of all of the stories, which to my blissful realization was the case with the comic adaptation as well.

Carnage #1

The new Carnage mini series marks two monumental events. First, it is the return of a popular villain, who has not been seen in the Spider-Man universe in quite some time. Second, and probably the more important event is that it is the return of Clayton Crain, the first full length issue he has drawn since the end of the last X-Force series; a very welcomed return from long time fans.

The story begins following three story lines, that of Spider-Man, that of Iron Man/Tony Stark and that of a mysterious Six Armed Spider-Man esque figure that may seem familiar to some hardcore Spidy fans. As the story progresses, all three characters are brought together and the action ensues.