Comic Beast

If you knew me you’d be surprised to that the first book I decided to review was a Marvel book/series. I haven’t really been a huge fan of Marvels current stuff with many reboots and restarts and massive cancellations, but one can argue the same for DC comics, but were not here for any of that really.

The first story I chose to read for 2018 was Vol. 1 of Dark Avengers! The main series in the roll out of Marvel’s Dark Reign event back in 2009, ya, 9 years ago. This has been one series I have wanted to read for the longest time. When I first heard of this series I was ready to pick it up and I did, but I never read it, now that I finally have I am sad it took me so long to do so. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and art by Mike Deodato the series was somewhat short lived with 16 issues, but was rather expected considering the team of “heroes” involved.

The series follows Norman Osborn who has been appointed the head of the new SHIELD, named HAMMER. After the events of Civil War, Tony Stark is wanted and the US has turned to Norman Osborn to protect us. The series start with him recruiting a new team of Avengers made up of, you guessed it, villains. With no heroes willing to follow him he turns to the villains of the Marvel Universe to take up the mantles of actual Avengers Members and follow him into battle. The set-up of the team is rather quick and painless with some quick explanations and surprising revelations involved. The team is made up of Osborn, Bullseye, Venom, Moonstone, Aries, The Sentry, Noh-Varr, and Daken son of Wolverine. There is a lot of development and focus on one character in particular, The Sentry. Bendis spends a bit of time focusing on his development and explaining what derives this character. It shows how he is easily manipulated and shaped by Osborn to doing most of his dirty work as the muscle of the group. This also comes with a huge risk as the charter and his powers are quite unpredictable. This is seen when the team has their first big bad and must go to the aid of Dr. Doom.     When the team goes on their first mission you cant really see how the fight will go, with so many volatile personalities it seems they would all be looking out for themselves and to no surprise they do. They face off against a sorcerous named Morgan Le Fay, who warned the Dark Avengers that she only wants Doom, but Norman has promised to protect him and they take her on. The fight is thought to be shot lived, but to their surprise the fight is long from over. After losing a teammate, The Sentry,  the fight ends with Doom and Osborn having to travel through time and space to take Morgan down for good.

When the team returns to the tower, they find Sentry waiting for them confused and lost. Norman goes out to him to calm him down and figure out what happened, nothing is fully explained, but Norman is grateful and scared that he his back. The team returns to find the world questioning their existence and facing huge criticism from heroes and previous Avengers members. To combat this bad press Norman goes on offense by doing a interview defending his position and his team. Admitting to his dark past as the Green Goblin, but assuring the public he is a changed man.

While the interview is being aired live an attack is happening on the West Coast. The attack is being lead by a rouge group of Atlantans from the deep ocean. Norman calls on Namor for help, but he refuses to be his puppet. When the team is about to attack, Osborn Is convinced to send Sentry alone to single handily take down the group responsible. Osborn asks for one left alive to answer for what happened and to be questioned. Were never told what the reason for the attack was and the prisoner is fed to Venom. The end of Vol. 1 comes with a surprise that you kinda see, but hope is coming.  

Overall this was a great start to the series and I really hope to finish it. The writing is solid and the art is the perfect style for the story of dark gritty villains trying to play heroes even if just for  short while. I recommend picking up the book of you have a chance. Marvel just recently released a collection of these books in a collection I hope to get soon.

As you can see I had nothing on Friday. It was a busy week and I put in so many hours at work. This week is the same thing...but I am determined to have something written up an posted this week. My home location/area at work closed for a complete overhaul. We got to say goodbye with a nice party and I got to take some awesome pictures which I'll add to share.

So here we go! Another week for the year and I'll have something to share this Friday!!

I've always been one of those people that start something and never finish. Whether that be a book, video game, assignment, or work project. I get bored or unmotivated and let it fall to the waste side.

This is the year, 2018, I do my best to stop all that! I plan to start small, weekly. On Fridays in January I will post a small review of a comic book or graphic novel I've read that week. I will write it up and post it here on tumblr, maybe eventually WordPress, but let's not get carried away. After January I'm hoping to expand to 2-3 times a week and feature Marvel, DC, and Indie on respective days...but again getting ahead of myself.

As far as games go, I have so many unopened I could probably open my own game store! For my video games I plan on doing a similar thing, but once a month. So expect a small write up in the middle or end of January on a game I either just start or have started that's just collecting dust.

At work I will take projects head on and get them done with true results and not just let them fall flat as I have always done. I'll keep you posted on these if any come up. They might not in the new area I'm in, but you never know!

2017 was great, I got to visit a new state, which was a great experience. Washington was amazing and full of lush green areas that made me appreciate nature and how peaceful it can be. I started a new position at work that helped me to not feel so complacent with where I was in the company. Though I do miss my cast members in the area, it seems like a good fit so far. I spent another year with an amazing girl that gets me and doesn't shun or expect me to set aside the things I love. Someone who appreciates me for me even when I can be a bit difficult to bare. I love her for that and so much more.

Here's to making 2018 an even better year with more fun and surprises. I have so many other goals for this year, but I think this is a good start. See you all very soon and cheers!! Happy New Year!