All-New, All-Different Avengers... 2 more revealed...

So from my predictions so far, 1 right, 1 wrong. Vision joints the cast along with Nova. I was sure it would be Doctor Strange not Vision. But I am happy to see Vision there none the less, and not surprising to see him in the line up considering his coming appearance in Age of Ultron. I expect Doctor Strange to pop up somewhere post Secret Wars, even to get his own Secret Wars title which I don't think I have yet seen released. I imagine another two will be revealed tomorrow with the final reveal on Friday before Axel Alonso's usual Comic Book Resources interview.

Secret Wars heralds the end of the Marvel 616 Universe as we know it...

So it may have made more sense to post this before the All-New, All-Different Avengers post but I am still dealing with a bit of a drafts backlog. Anyway in the middle of last week Marvel's David Gabriel, their SVP of Sales and Marketing, announced 33 Marvel titles that will be coming to an end during Secret Wars. Now that is a lot of titles and considering they do not want this to be seen as a re-vamp creates more questions than it does answers. The full list of titles that see themselves coming to an end during Secret Wars can be found below.

Now looking at the below titles several of these had already been coming to a conclusion and are no surprises. The question I have is will some of the below titles Secret Wars replacements, for example "Guardians of Nowhere", "Thors", "A-Force", be there on-going replacements for the foreseeable future or will we see whoever survives Secret Wars and Battleworld getting their own titles come its conclusion, so lets say September, because right now Bleeding Cool's previous post highlighting "All-New Marvel" on the Diamond Distributors Retailer Calendar. We're already being teased of a possible Avengers line up that will be around post Secret Wars in the Free Comic Book Day issue.

Which of the below titles are you sad to see end and which do you think will most certainly be back come the conclusion of the Secret Wars event and whatever Marvel Universe is left in its place? For more check out the link below;

http://comicbook.com/2015/03/18/marvels-david-gabriel-clarifies-secret-wars-plans-hints-at-what-/

All-New Captain America
All-New Ghost Rider
All-New X-Men
Amazing Spider-Man
Amazing X-Men
Angela: Asgard’s 
AssassinAvengers
Avengers World
Captain Marvel
Cyclops
Deadpool
Elektra
Fantastic Four
Guardians 3000
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hulk
Inhuman
Iron Fist: The Living Weapon
Legendary Star-Lord
Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man
New Avengers
Nightcrawler
Nova
Rocket Raccoon
Secret Avengers
Spider-Man & The X-Men
Spider-Man 2099
Storm
Superior Iron Man
Thor
Uncanny X-Men
Wolverines
X-Men

The All-New, All-Different Avengers... Let the teasers begin...

Today Marvel has released an image for there Free Comic Book Day offering, "All-New, All-Different Avengers, revealing two members of this new Avengers team. Ms. Marvel and current Thor, so there are two things to take out of this image. This is reportedly a peak at what is to come in the post Secret Wars Marvel Universe. If this is true then we have confirmation that both Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, and Thor will survive whatever happens and will be heading to become on of the World's Greatest Heroes. Now for the Rest of the images in the cover that have been blacked out into Silhouettes here's my best guess as to who they may be. Front and centre, this looks like a Spider-Man pose, but I strongly believe this will be Miles Morales, I also really hope it is. To finish the front row, bottom right I imagine will be Nova, Sam Alexander. Moving to the middle row and beginning from the left, taking into consideration current story lines going on running into Secret Wars I will say the armour clad silhouette may be Rescue, Pepper Potts. The middle figure looks clearly to be Sam wilson a.k.a Captain America. Finally the far right, this one has me a little stumped and after some time thinking about this I have come to the conclusion that this must be Doctor Strange, his profile needs to be raised with the film in coming, what better way to do this than put him into the new Avengers team. Whether I am right or wrong with any of these, I really am looking forward to the team being released through the week or weeks.

Marvel Avengers Age of Ultron Trailer 3... How did I forget to post this?

Well it has just dawned on me that in the excitement of all the recent trailers, comic news and film news that I have been a little slacking in getting the trailers posted online, and the most recent Age of Ultron one was awesome so anyway enough waffle check it out below, I've also added the recent TV spot role call trailer;

 

Let's take a journey, A Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens...

I'm catching up on Star Wars announcement galore it would seem. Along with the gaming and film announcements. Disney and LucasFilm have announced a rather rigorous publishing initiative during the approach to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This will see more than twenty print and digital items being released.

There will be novels for young adults, comics, along with encyclopaedias, sticker books among many others. The few that really caught my eye, are the trilogy of books to be released bridging the gap between Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and the upcoming Episode VII: The Force Awakens. With the first book title announced, "Star Wars: Aftermath", written by Chuck Wendig. Also Marvel will have another comic title being released linking into this intiative with no more announced than the title "Star Wars: Journey to The Force Awakens.

I'm sure more will be released regarding this in the coming weeks and months with Episode VII fast approaching. For more information and the other titles that will be coming out click the link below;

Click me and take come on a journey to... okay just click me

Well since initially having this as a draft more info has been released for the two titles that mainly caught my eyes from the news above.

Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig will be released in September by Del Rey books. This will take place after the destruction of the second Death Star. Not much has been given away but I will add a quote with a little snippet of what we could expect;

"Obviously I wish I could tell you more about the story, but I can’t just yet. What I can reveal is that you will be introduced to a sweeping new cast of characters, along with a fan favorite from the films. And who knows what other familiar faces will pop up along the way? And once you’ve seen The Force Awakens in movie theaters, you may find that certain names and places in Aftermath have a relevance you never knew — so keep your eyes wide open!"

So we can expect to meet new characters who may or may not be in the coming film along with possible new locations. I'll be looking to get this when it comes out, I aim to be as clued up as possible before the next Star Wars film, plus I do like a good Star Wars novel. I just hope they may release this as paperback at the same time as hard back but they may well be just a dream.

There is quite a lot more info on the official announcement if you want to check this out click on the link below;

Yes another link

Again arriving in September a little more has been announced regarding the upcoming Marvel comic. The title has received a little extension and is now, Shattered Empire #1. According to the post on the Star Wars website the image to the left, beautifully illustrated by Phil Noto, is in fact the cover to the first issue. However no further information regarding creative team has been announced, I expect we will get further details at either several upcoming comic and Star Wars events, so I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for any news coming out of C2E2, Star Wars Celebration, San Diego Comic Con and Special Edition NYC.

For what little more they may have said in there official announcement click on the link below;

Click Me

Oh and I forgot to mention above that when re-reading the original announcement for their publishing programme I noticed that Marvel will be releasing a C3-PO comic, I could have read this wrong, anyway would this be the comic your looking for? If I see anything more I'll try and post as soon as possible or maybe a little sporadically.

Star Wars: Rogue One & Star Wars: Episode VIII director and release date...

So as always I am a little late at getting this one on-line although it was all over my twitter feed the day it was announced. So Disney have announced the title of the first solo, stand-alone, not an episode Star Wars film and it is Star Wars: Rogue One, let the rumours and theories commence. As previously announced the director is Gareth Edwards and the first actress to be announced for the film is Felicity Jones, recently nominated for an Academy award for her role in The Theory of Everything. No further information was announced regarding plot but this is due for release December next year and looking to begin filming in London in the summer of this year.

The other surprise announcement is the Director for Star Wars: Episode VIII, considering VII isn't even out yet. It has been confirmed Rian Johnson, the critically acclaimed director of Looper, will both write and direct Episode VIII. J.J. Abrams will stay on as an executive producer. If that wasn't surprise enough they also announced the films release date as 26th May 2017, 40 years and a day after the release of the original film, Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977. With very little plot info released for Episode VII it is as difficult as it is easy to get excited for Episode VIII, but I can only imagine my excitement will multiply once Episode VII finally hits cinema screens this December and I will be wanting May 2017 to come around as quickly as I have December 2015, it will be here before we know it.

For more check out the official announcement at starwars.com or click on the link below;

Yep, that's me I'm the link

Star Wars: Battlefront!!... Footage to be shown at Star Wars Celebration 2015...

This is the year of Star Wars, as if I wasn't already excited enough for the news that will come out of Star Wars Celebration 2015, it has been officially announced the first peek and footage of game play from the upcoming EA Star Wars Battlefront game will take place at the event on April 16 to 19. This game was announced 2 years ago at E3, and I have been long waiting for footage to finally be shown, it does certainly look like they are still aiming to release the game this year currently stating winter 2015. It's very likely the release will be close to the date of Star Wars Episode VII.

If like me you can not make it to Star Wars Celebration there is a twitter page where hopefully anyone else will be able to follow the news and reveals; +EAStarWars . For more on the announcement click the link.

A link I am, click me you should

Marvel's Secret Wars well and truly arrives this May... Here's what caught my eye...

Well this post has been in draft form for about a month now and with Marvel's June solicitations to hit this week we'll have even more Secret Wars to talk about. Here are the Secret Wars titles that I am most looking forward to in May and also every other title coming out for Secret Wars in May. First off and easy to choose I will be grabbing both issues 1 and 2 of Secret Wars coming out in May and I will certainly be grabbing the Alex Ross covers, they are beautiful.

Ultimate End by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley brings us the final events of the Ultimate Universe during the final incursion and Secret Wars. The original creative team who kickstarted the Ultimate Universe with Ultimate Spider-Man return to bring the universe to an end, well as much of an end as anything in comics. David Marquez has illustrated a variant cover for the first issue (check out the image to the left). My only real experience with the Ultimate Universe has been with Miles Morales' Ultimate Spider-Man and if any character is to survive the series should this truly be its end it is him, although the Marvel 616 Universe is getting fairly full of Spider characters. There have been many events heralding the possible end to the Ultimate Universe so will this finally be their time up? Ultimate End is solicited as a 5 issue series so I guess we will certainly know by the final issue. Will you be looking forward to Ultimate End? This ones been added to my pull list.

Old Man Logan,  so it was announced last month that Andrea Sorrentino, previously on Green Arrow at  DC Comics and recently on X-Men with Brian Michael Bendis, has signed an exclusive contract with Marvel. The culmination of this seems to be his teaming up with Bendis to bring us Old Man Logan. It's worth noting that this is not solicited as a limited series so hopefully this will be on our shelves for some time. Old Man Logan is a series I finally read thanks to a Comixology sale that I thought was fantastic, if I'm honest much like most of Mark Millar's work this did not disappoint. Could this be the Wolverine we'll get moving forward in the Marvel Universe after his earlier demise during the "Death of Wolverine" series by Charles Soule and Steve McNiven. With a great promo by McNiven who originally illustrated the Old Man Logan issues this was immediately added to my pull list. Do you look forward to the return of Old Man Logan?

A-Force the all female Avengers team coming this May from G. Willow-Wilson and Marguerite Bennett with art by Jorge Molina. This has the ability to be one of the stand out titles to come out of Secret Wars. This made my May 2015 pick of the solicits and was saved as my last highlight for May's Secret Wars titles as this is the title I am most excited to arrive come May from Marvel. The team line-up has currently been announced but it has been confirmed the team is not confined to its original line-up and other popular and not so popular female characters will join the team during the series. I know there have been many calling for fan favourite character Ms America, from Young Avengers, to feature in the series. Also to my surprise Ms Marvel has not featured or been mentioned to appear in the title considering she is the brain child and incredibly popular character from Willow Wilson. I will be grabbing the Russell Dauterman variant, as pictured to the left, when this hits the shelves and I can't wait to start reading this series.











Others I will be looking out for are Infinity Gauntlet by Gerry Duggan and Dustin Weaver giving us an alternate version of the Infinity Gauntlet story featuring a slightly different take on Thanos and a new team or family to take on the role of Nova's in the series. With Duggan on writing and Weaver illustrating this has the team to be an incredible book and is one I will be looking to at least give it a read to make a decision on whether I will add it to the pull list. Finally the only other title that really caught my eye was Planet Hulk by Sam Humphries, one of my favourite writers, and illustrated by British artist Marc Laming. This sees Captain America riding atop Devil Dinosaur taking on a Planet of Hulks. This will no doubt be an interesting series with Humphries writing which is why I may give this a chance before making my final decision.

Those 6 titles are just a taster of what will be coming in May and further for Secret Wars the other series to come out with their various connections to the event are below.

Last Days;

Captain America & The Mighty Avengers #8

Loki: Agent of Asgard #14

Magneto

Battleworld;

Inhumans: Attilan Rising #1

Master of Kung Fu #1

Secret Wars: Battleworld #1 (of 4)

Secret Wars Journal #1 (of 5)

Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars #1

Warzones;

Inferno #1

Secret Wars 2099 #1 (of 5)

Where Monsters Dwell #1 (of 5)

Spider-Verse #1

M.O.D.O.K. Assasin #1 (of 5)

There have been many more titles announced since to come out in June which will be fully announced an confirmed once the release of the June solicits take place this week. It certainly seems Marvel are not holding back with what this event will mean to the future of the Marvel Universe. Will you be picking up any of these titles? Even if I had the money to be able to I don't think I would be picking them all up. Fingers crossed I can get the June Secret Wars titles highlighted a little sooner than I did these. Until next time...

My picks of the solicits for May 2015...

Right, well here are my picks from the May solicits, this has been sitting in draft form for sometime but here they are...

Marvel: A-Force

When I first started collecting comics it was the post Civil War Mighty Avengers and Avengers Initiative that I began reading. Since then I always like to pick up new takes on the Avengers books. Dark Avengers being one of my favourites. The creative team and idea behind this series is exciting. But no disrespect meant towards Jorge Molina who I don't doubt will do a great job, looking at the variant cover by Russell Dauterman I wish he was on interiors. This has the set up to be a great series and in G. Willow Wilson and Marguerite Bennett I believe it is in safe hands. 

A-FORCE #1
G. WILLOW WILSON & MARGUERITE BENNETT (w) • JORGE MOLINA (a)
Cover by JIM CHEUNG
VARIANT COVER BY RUSSELL DAUTERMAN
VARIANT COVER BY STEPHAN HANS
• Marvel’s Mightiest Women finally get their own explosive series!
• In a secluded corner of the Battleworld, an island nation is fiercely protected by a team of Avengers the likes of which has only ever been glimpsed before…
• Fighting to protect the small sliver of their world that’s left, the Amazing A-FORCE stands shoulder-to-shoulder, ready to take on the horde!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

Marvel: Old Man Logan

I took advantage of a Comixology sale to get the original issues containing the brilliant Old Man Logan by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. Old Man Logan is a killer character and I am excited to see him getting a series during Secret Wars, will this be our Wolverine moving forward post Secret Wars? I wouldn't be disappointed if it was. Again another brillitant creative team on this one and I can not wait to see how Sorrentino and Bendis collaborate to continue this characters story.

OLD MAN LOGAN #1
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (w) • ANDREA SORRENTINO (a/C)
VARIANT COVER by STEVE McNIVEN
VARIANT COVER BY ANDREA SORRENTINO
YOUNG VARIANT BY SKOTTIE YOUNG
BLANK VARIANT COVER
• Enter the Wastelands…a realm where all heroes have been murdered by their arch-enemies, villains who now rule over the land with an iron fist. In the midst of this dystopian chaos, one man may make a difference…a reluctant warrior who was once the greatest mutant of all…a man known as OLD MAN LOGAN.
40 PGS./Rated T …$4.99

Dark Horse: High Crimes

High Crimes is the critically acclaimed digital series from Monkeybrain comics finally heading to print in this collection from Dark Horse. I'll be looking to grab this one, I really enjoy when these successful digital formats head to print. 

High Crimes HC
Christopher Sebela (W) and Ibrahim Moustafa (A/Cover)
On sale July 8
FC, 184 pages
$19.99
HC, 7″ x 10″
Disgraced Olympic snowboarder Zan Jensen runs a sideline business as a high-altitude grave robber. When a body is found at the summit of Everest with a treasure of state secrets under its skin, Zan finds herself in the crosshairs of a government hit squad. As she races to the roof of the world, Zan will navigate bullets and avalanches to find salvation in the deadliest place on Earth.
Collecting the critically acclaimed Monkeybrain digital comic the A.V. Club calls “a high concept executed with precision, delivering real-world intrigue.” 
“Instead of just yelling at people to read High Crimes, now I can throw it at them at the same time.”—Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals)


Boom!: Adventure Time #40

I am a big fan of the TV programme and I collect the Mathematical Editions of the collections. Adventure Time #40 sees the previously teased story created by Matt Fraction and his son Henry Leo. This is the main reason this is in my pick, I look forward to seeing what Matt Fraction and his son have created.

ADVENTURE TIME #40
Retail Price: $3.99 
Author: Christopher Hastings, Henry Leo & Matt Fraction
Artist: Zachary Sterling
Cover Artists:
Main Cover: Paul Pope
Subscription Variant Cover: Lauren Dawson
Variant Cover: Simon Leclerc
It’s a special interactive, one-shot issue! Magic Man plans to use the reader to help beat Finn and Jake, but can our heroes turn the tables? Features a special short written by debut writer Henry Leo and Matt Fraction (Hawkeye)!

Image: Injection #1

There are no reasons this shouldn't be in my pick and 3 easy reason why it should. Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire. I have been waiting for this since its announcement from the incredible creative team previously on Moon Knight, May seems to far away. 

INJECTION #1
STORY: WARREN ELLIS
ART / COVERS: DECLAN SHALVEY & JORDIE BELLAIRE
MAY 13 / 24 PAGES / FC / M / $2.99 
Once upon a time, there were five crazy people, and they poisoned the 21st Century. Now they have to deal with the corrosion to try and save us all from a world becoming too weird to support human life.
INJECTION is the new ongoing series created by the acclaimed creative team of Moon Knight. It is science fiction, tales of horror, strange crime fiction, techno-thriller, and ghost story all at the same time. A serialized sequence of graphic novels about how loud and strange the world is getting, about the wild future and the haunted past all crashing into the present day at once, and about five eccentric geniuses dealing with the paranormal and numinous as well as the growing weight of what they did to the planet with the Injection.