The Adventures of Captain Otter

If you’ve been reading comics, you’ve probably noticed that many Marvel titles are returning to their original numbering in celebration of their 600th (or 500th) issue.  Personally, I’m not a big fan of this.  I like collecting things, and the collection feels broken up when my issues of Thor jumps from #12 to 600.  But how bout the issues themselves?  Are they any good?  I figure it would be a good things to talk about now that the tide of anniversary issues is slowing down.

The answer?  Yes and no.  Some have been resounding successes, while some have fallen flat.  Each issue has one main story that hopes to really shake things up, and then is filled with back up content and extra stories.  Thor and Daredevil are examples of issues with amazing, legendary issues with somewhat decent backup material.  Thor’s issue came out a year ago, and saw the God of Thunder fight his reborn grandfather before being banished from Asgard.  The issue was a culmination of the past year’s storylines, had some big fights, and set the stage for tons of stories.  We’re still feeling the repercussions, and Thor’s exile is going to be a big part of the upcoming Siege event.  You can’t ask for anything more, and this issue should go down as one of Thor’s best.  Daredevil had an even crazier issue, with Matt Murdock taking control of an army of lethal ninjas.  Yeah, you read that right.  A man who refuses to kill now runs an army of ruthless murderers.  The issue’s pacing was flawless, and built up to this big moment where Daredevil stops the Kingpin and takes over the Hand.  Both issues were absolutely fantastic, and are going to be remembered as parts of the best story arcs the characters have ever seen.

Spiderman’s big issue had a decent main story.  It was interesting, and had some good artwork, but wasn’t quite as big as Thor’s or Daredevil’s.  Instead, the issue had some downright touching backstories.  My personal favorite was a story that was only four of five pages long.  It’s told from Uncle Ben’s perspective, and talks about that he always told Peter as a child that his father would be proud of him.  Yet this never cheered Peter up.  Why?  We find out that Peter doesn’t want to hear that his father was proud of him, he wants to hear that Uncle Ben is.  That’s downright touching shit!  I enjoyed this issue overall, and would give it a decent rating.  It could have been alot better, but the timing wasn’t right to shake things up in a major way.

Some characters wern’t so lucky.  I thought Captain America’s issue was a waste of my time, and just did more to set up Reborn.  You find out that Steve might not be dead.  Great.  That revelation took up a grand total of two pages.  The rest was just didn’t catch my attention, and nothing worthwhile happened.  Then there are some worthless backstories that came off as filler.  There was one good story about an auction of Captain America memorabilia, which shows the impact he’s had on everyday people.  And then we have the Hulk’s special issue.  I havn’t been a fan of all this Red Hulk stuff, and the current overarching story has been pretty poor.  The issue itself didn’t have a great premise, and there is way too much jumping around.  All of the sudden certain characters show up, disappear, get kidnapped.  Some it makes sense, alot of it doesn’t.  The story just wasn’t told well, dialogue was annoying, and the artwork was mediocre.  Nothing about the issue was appealing, and the highlight was that Bruce Banner can no longer be the Hulk.  This was a pretty meaningless moment, since we know that A) the Hulk is coming back in a matter of months (recent issues have said it blatantly as well) and that B) the means of this depowering were left unexplained.  Something “big” happened, sure, but it’s not even going to last for an entire year.  So why do I care?

We have one more issue to look at.  Deadpool #900.  Anyone can tell that Deadpool is nowhere close to 900 issues, so this is all one big joke.  The issue was somewhere in the middle of the pack as well.  Some hilarious moments, sure, but some pretty lousy ones too.  Not the best Deadpool issue ever, but a good one.  Still don’t know exactly why they felt the need to have it all though.

Lesson learned?  Anniversary issues can be great excuses to tell great stories.  And they can also be chances to hype up something pointless.  I highly suggest you pick up the Thor and Daredevil anniversary issues, even if they might be a bit tricky to find.  Get them in trades if possible.  If you like the characters but arn’t into comics, these will be a great place to jump off.  If you don’t like the characters, read them to get a look at how interesting they can be.

If you’re following comics, you should know that Dick Grayson, the original Robin, has taken up the mantle of the Dark Knight.  However, Dick might take up the mantle of an altogether different hero: Captain America.  Wait, what the bloody hell?

Rumors are starting to come in that Chris O’Donnell is entering final talks to play the icon we know as Steve Rogers in the upcoming live action movie.  If you know O’Donnell, you know him as Robin in Joel Schumaker’s Batman movies.  He hasn’t done anything huge since then, appearing in a few movies like Vertical Limit and a a handful of TV shows.  He’s current in NCIS: Los Angeles with the lead role.  The actor is 39 years old and around 5′10″.

Alright, first up is the validity of the rumor.  It comes from a fair source, but I’ll believe it when they announce it.  Considering how this only turned up in one source, I have a somewhat strong feeling that this is wrong.  The sources seem iffy at best, and the entire thing is sketchy.  I mean, it turned out that the Beyonce as Wonder Woman rumor was complete shenanigans (not even inaccurate, a downright lie in fact).  Anyway, I’m not too certain that this guy is the best choice.  He certainly has that all American quality to him, and in some ways looks like Steve Rogers.  But when I look at his face, he seems to old to pull of a younger Captain America, and not quite grizzled enough to look mature.  Then again, I havn’t really seen him in too much recently, so I might be a bit unfair.

 I’ll reserve final judgment until I hear something official.  At the very least, this choice doesn’t seem as clever as others.  Robert Downey Jr. was a flawless choice for Tony Stark, because he’s one of the best actors of all time.  Edward Norton was a good Bruce Banner because he is a great actor.  Chris Hemsworth seems like a great choice because he looks like a movie star, and has a certain quality to him.  O’Donnell hasn’t shown me he’s a great actor, or that he has a star quality.  I’d rather they take a guy a bit more like Jon “Don Draper” Hamm, who is just so freaking cool he could play almost anyone.  So we’ll have to wait a bit to see if this is true.  Marvel did say they would announce the casting choice in October, and this is an understandable choice.  When they announce who does get the part, expect a full report.

Update: Rememer how I said this thing looked sketchy?  Yeah, that would be because it is.  Comic Book Movie has taken down the article altogether, which either means Marvel is upset that this info got leaked or that this rumor is completely bogus.  I’m going to to go with the bogus answer.  You should too.

It looks like the news keeps on coming.  After yesterday’s updates on Batman 3 and Iron Man 2, it’s only fair for something about the Avengers to pop up.  Marvel producer Kevin Feige, the man who runs the Marvel Movieverse, talked a bit about the team line-up.  He says the team will consist of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Nick Fury.  Also joining the team will be members of the Hulk’s universe, and some other “additional” members.  The impression I got was that those four characters are the heart of the team, and members like the Black Widow will be showing up as support.  This means we still might get Hank Pym, but the chances of him having a main role are looking pretty slim.

Having the big three on the team is no surprise.  You can’t have the Avengers without them, and they’re gettting their own movies.  Nick Fury being a full member is a bit interesting.  Fury has never really been an Avenger, but was a big part of the team in the Ultimate Universe.  Feige also cited the relationship between Steve and Tony as a big part of the movie.  I always thought those two made a great pair, and its good to see that carry over to the movie.  Throw in Thor and we’ve got a good old fashioned bro-mance.  And who could this character from the Hulk’s world be?  The obvious candidate is General Ross.  In the Incredible Hulk, Stark told Ross that they were putting a team together, so the old general knows about the Avengers.  William Hurt put in a great performance and I really hope he reprises the role.  Who else might join?  Betty Ross is a decent guess and the only other character who has a decent shot.  Leonard Sampson just wouldn’t fit.  The team doesn’t need a shrink.  Tony probably does, even if he won’t admit it though.

 But wait, what about the green guy himself!?!?!  How can the Hulk not be part of the team?  Feige’s response was that Zak Penn was still writing the script, so we’ll see.  Whatever role the Hulk has on the team is going to mercurial at best.  You just can’t control the big guy.  Still, I just can’t imagine the movie without him.  Even if he isn’t a full member, expect to see him work with the team.  Maybe the team’s first mission is to bring in the Hulk?  Who knowns.  This also explains why Marvel hasn’t signed Edward Norton up straight away.  They just don’t know what they’re doing with the character.

And what about the rest of the Avengers crew?  Alot of fans have been clamoring about seeing Hawkeye, the Vision, the Wasp, etc. etc.  Feige said that having all these characters would be cool, but just too hard.  Having more than four characters is hard enough; 10 or 15 would be a nightmare.  As much as you might want to see some of the Avengers classics, I agree that it would be too hard to pull off.  Then again, they really need Hawkeye in this thing.  At the very least make him an agent of SHIELD like in the Ultimates.  He could be one of the few “additional” members.

We also got some news on Captain America.  The movie is going to be very “international”, which makes sense considering it’s a WWII movie.  The movie will also include a team that Cap works with that will have alot of foreign actors.  The first group that comes to mind is the Invaders, although they arn’t really an international team.   They have two Americans, an android and an Atlantean.  I guess I’m not too sure exactly what group it will be then.  For the villain, it looks like they want to lay the foundation for the Marvel U.  Hydra and the Red Skull were both mentioned, which is just fun.

Even though we won’t see any big announcements until October, it looks like they know what they’re doing.  The script is half way done.  The movie will be about Captain America finding a way to live up to his own ideals, which sounds perfect.  All this stuff is coming together, and looks like it’s well on track.  All we have to do is wait 3 more years for the movie to come out!

Wow, July is here already?  This is getting a bit upsetting.  My summer break is dwindling down too fast for my liking.  The good news?  The quicker time goes by the quicker the comics come in.  Yesterday I picked up a bunch of great titles.  War of Kings, Deadpool, Iron Man, Batman, and the X-men/Dark Avengers crossover all made the pull list.  There were some fantastic issues in that bunch, so expect to hear more from them.  But today we get to talk about the headliner, the one you’ve been waiting for.  I’m going to talk about Captain America Reborn.   

Bringing characters back from the dead is always tricky.  Its rare for a writer to pull this off and make it feel natural.  And as a general rule, the bigger the character, the harder it is to make it sound convincing.  For example, we saw Quasar come back in the pages of Nova a while back.  The actually means to his revival were decent, but as a smaller character they could play around with it.  All in all, it worked.  So when a big named character like Captain America comes back after an epic death, you better tell one damn good story.  The story itself was alright.  The comic jumped all over the place, dealing with multiple characters at different points in time.  Not quite what I was expecting from Brubaker.  Then again, he’s had to write stories that deal with a handful of characters at most.  This issue had appearances from Nick Fury, the Mighty Avengers, Norman Osborn and his Dark Avengers in addition to the main Captain America cast.  The portrayals of these characters was spot on, but there was a bit too much set up.  I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that more could have happened in this issue, and that the story hasn’t actually started.  A big reason is that much of the issue deals with ground that has already been covered.  We get it, Steve was in WWII, was a hero, died, and the shooter was Sharon Carter.  I’ve heard this way too many times.  Captain America 50, 600 and a bunch of other things have covered this in depth.  They really should release a Captain America Saga and keep it on the shelves.  I understand accessibility, but this is too much.

At this point, watch out for spoilers.  I try to refrain from telling spoilers, but I’m going to make an exception for this issue.  We also hear a bit more on how Bucky and friends plan on bringing Steve back.  Its actually not a surprise, but I mean that in a good way.  Remember all that stuff about Dr. Doom’s time machine?  And at the end of the Man who Bought America arc, the machine Sharon Carter destroyed?  It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the time machine served some purpose; the only question was what exactly that purpose was.  Even though we don’t understand the specifics, we’ve been able to guess for a while that it had something to do with bringing Steve back.  Captain America 600 revealed that the Red Skull wants to prove he is Steve’s better, so that is going to come into play.  And we don’t know how the gun works either.  All we know, is that Steve is unstuck in time, and is very much alive.  I don’t understand exactly how that works.  Steve is dead.  We saw his corpse.  My only guess is that his spirit was lost, but not his body. Now what does that sound like?  Its kind of funny that both Batman and Captain America seem to be in the exact same situation.  Lost in time, presumed dead, and their partners replaced them.  I’m not going to say one copied the other though.  Marvel has had this planned for a while, but there is no way DC could have expected that to happen.  It looks like both came up with the idea.  Or both are copying someone else.  But overall, this issue didn’t feel important and was filled with stuff I already could figure out.  I have big expectations for the rest of the series, and the pressure is on. 

Ive said again and again how much I love Bucky as Captain America.  So with all this news of Steve Rogers coming back, Im worried that he might get brushed to the side or put in a role that doesnt suit him.  When I heard of a new Nomad ongoing, I was terrified.  I hate all this alternate universe Captain America stuff, even more than I hate normal alternate universes.  Nomad just never worked for me.  Look at the hair!  No man can pull that hair off.  So when I hear of a Nomad ongoing series, I was worried that Bucky might take up the mantle.

 This would be traumatizing for me.  A character I love taking on the role of a character I despise?  Say it aint so Marvel!  At least stick evil 50s Cap in the role.  It fits him, as his America is gone.  Well, Marvel went with none of the above and stuck Rikki Barnes as Nomad.  This is great for me.  I dont care what happens to this girl and have zero attachment to her.  So I might check the series out when the time comes, but at least I know Bucky still has a chance of being Cap.

 So what can we expect from this series?  Rikki doesnt have any big attachments to the mainstream marvel U that im aware of, and right now she just wants to meet up with Cap.  My only guess is that shell have a role in Reborn, but whos going to let this girl go out on her own as a hero?  Would Bucky let her just start shooting?  I think any adult would try to offer guidance or at least have her as a sidekick so she wont get herself killed.  As of right now, Im not anxious to see where this is going or how it plays out.  I thought Marvel had gave up on all that Heroes Reborn and Onslaught stuff, but I think we have endure a bit more of it.  Stay strong true believers.

We have running theme this week, and I didn’t even plan it.  Rebirth, reboots, and all that stuff.  I’ll work out some stuff for the next two days to bring things full circle.  Anyway, we’re here to talk about Captain America #600.  Usually I dont like putting in spoilers, but I’m sure you all know about Reborn so Im not going to worry.  I’ve been a huge fan of Ed Brubaker’s run since Cap’s death, and have always been skeptical about how and when Steve makes a comeback.  Issue 600 also has a nice big price tag of $5, so you know its full of material.  I had really high hopes.  Thor 600 was brilliant, and I had no reason to suspect that Cap’s new milestone would differ.

Overall, not much happened.  The comic was more of a series of vignettes than a single, cohesive story.  A year after Cap’s death, those who knew him best take time to relect on what he’s done.  It started out with another summary of Captain America’s life.  I appreciate how Marvel uses these summaries to make their titles accessible to new readers, but this is pushing it.  Ive read at least five issues retelling Cap’s life story, and its getting a bit overboard.  There were a few other minor plotlines.  One featured Rikki Barnes, who is some kind of female Bucky from another dimension (I think).  She wants to be the new Cap’s sidekick.  I can think of all sorts of reasons for why this shouldnt happen, but I admire the girl for trying.  I think of the Black Widow as being the closest thing Bucky has to a partner, and she makes it look good.  Her character works well for the tone of the book and Bucky’s own style.  Rikki is more of a traditional sidekick, with the old school uniform.  It just doesnt look right next to the military-esque uniform Bucky sports.  And if Bucky takes a teenage girl as his “sidekick” people are going to get the wrong idea.  “Partner” has so many meanings.  So, this girl can be a part of the Marvel U, but no way will she work as Cap’s sidekick.

 We also see the people behind Cap’s death talking about how no one knows whats going on, how they are better than him, and other generic supervillain insults.  It didnt move the plot, other than to show us that were missing something.  It did, however, give us some great insights into the characters.  Seeing Sin and Crossbones reunite was almost…. touching.  Even murdering psychopaths can fall in love too.  The Red Skull reflecting on his rivalry with Cap was a quick fun read.

On the hero side of things, there was something with Steve Roger’s memorial and the Dark Avengers.  Good to see Bucky stick up for Steve’s memory by going to the gathering, but it felt like nothing happend.  The biggest “reveal” was with Sharon Carter, who is slowly regaining her memory.  She discovers the murder weapon, and somehow this changes everything.  Its not a normal gun, and I guess this means Steve can now be saved.  This is going to take alot of explaining.  Steve was dead.  DEAD.  It shouldnt matter if some high tech gun did the job.  Hes dead.  So we have no idea how theyre going to save Steve, or why hes not dead.  I was hoping for some clue as to how theyre going to bring Steve back, and all this issue told us what that its possible.  All in all, issue 600 was alright.  Nothing happened except for a few good character insights.  If youre expecting some big news on Cap coming back, then youre going to have to wait until Reborn.  I wish there was more I could say about the issue, but there isn’t that much to talk about.  Some of the stories in the back of the book felt like they came out of the field, and i think the actually valuable material could have been condensed into a standard sized comic.  Thor’s issue 600 was an epic showdown that signaled a new chapter in Thor’s life, and the beginning of even more of Loki’s fiendish machinations.  Captain America 600 could have been a special issue, but came off as little more than a prelude to Reborn.

Two years ago, we lost Captain America.  Since then, his old sidekick Bucky has been trying to follow Steve’s footsteps and keep the legacy going.  But after all the waiting, Steve is back. 

We saw this coming for a bit.  We had heard that Brubaker was writing a series called Reborn, and that was kind of a dead giveaway.  The confirmation seemed to be when we saw adds of a black background and a white star.  Yeah, im not too surprised, but its good to know for sure.

This raises alot of questions.  ALOT of questions.  The first is if this is really Steve.  For a well known, it could be Evil 50’s Cap.  Sure Ed Brubaker wants us to call him Bad Cap, but Evil 50’s Cap has such a nice ring to it.  All evidence says no, and that this is Steve Rogers.  Marvel is explicitely saying this is Steve, and arnt being even remotely ambiguous about it.  Hes back.

 But strangely enough, I’m not rejoicing.  Youd think that bring about such a magnificent, glorious and all around awesome character would mean that Im happy.  The problem is Bucky.  For the past two years, Bucky has been doing a great job as Captain America, and were seeing him grow.  Hes now a member of the New Avengers, and is starting to really be Captain America.  The last thing I want is for him to be thrown to the side, or to no longer be a major player in the Marvel Universe.  Bringing Steve back would seem to suggest that Steve will be Captain America, and having two Caps running around just wont work for me.

 Burbaker has said that he has plans for Bucky, and also that hes planned for Steve’s return since his death.  I understand this, and just look to the bizzare machine the Red Skull was building during the event.  Something happened there, and we arn’t sure.  All we know is that this going to have somethign to do with his ressurection.  Captain America 600 should have alot of info on all this stuff, and im guessing the “big plot revelation” is going to be something like “Steve might come back”.  Just a guess.  It comes out this week, so you can expect me to write a full review the moment I get it. 

So, what is Steve going to do once he gets back?  It might be nice to see him a rallying point to bring down the Dark Reign.  Norman Osborn can pretend to be Cap all he wants, having the real thing in there is going to make you look like an idiot.  Or maybe we might see Steve take some other mantle than Captain America.  I cant imagine something other than his slinging the shield, but we dont know how Brubaker wants to handle this.  It would be kind of fun to see Steve head in a completely new direction, but we might not see him as a superhero at all just yet.  Maybe just as some kind of figurehead or leader.  I don’t expect it to happen, but right now anything is an option.

Of course, there is one more possibility.  Blackest Night starts next month.  Steve comes back next month.  This is just too much of coincidence.  Well, if someone is going to have to kill Zombie-Steve, it has to be me.  Sniff…sniff….. i know he wouldn’t want it any other way…..sniff….sniff….

As all of you know, Batman is dead.  Sort of.  We all thought he died, then it turned out he was alive.  Then he died again a month later, but was actually just thrown back in time and is scouting out a new dinosaur for the batcave.  The last Batman story I read was RIP.  It was kind of fun.  Completely ridiculous, but fun. 

This week, someone has finally assumed the mantle of the Bat and is getting into action.  But can Batman ever be replaced?  Can someone BE Batman?

No.

No they can’t.

Before explaining why, lets look to another big comic book death: Captain America.  Steve Rogers is one the greatest comic book heroes, and his death was a bit of a shock.  His replacement, his old sidekick Bucky, starting slinging the shield and is now a member of the New Avengers.  I thought this was incredibly well done, I even though its sad to see a world without Steve, I always look forward to reading about the new Cap saving the world.  But why do I embrace one character’s death, but denounce another?

Although Steve Rogers and Captain America are one in the same, Captain America is not the creation of Steve Rogers.  Captain America is almost like a title, a symbol of office.  Captain America represents this kind of greatness in the title alone.  Captain America is not only Steve, but the embodiment of the American Dream.  If someone takes that mantle, they dont take Steves place but they take the title.  So we love seeing Bucky try and take that title, and to do what Steve did.  It just works.  Batman, on the other hand, is not a title.  It is the product of Bruce Wayne’s personal life, of his own mind.  Batman would never exist without Bruce Wayne.  Steve Rogers IS Captain America, but Batman IS Bruce Wayne. 

So much of what makes Batman great is lost without Bruce.  His very reason for fighting crime, the death of his parents, is an entirely personal motivation.  Also, there is the whole idea that Batman is just as insane as the criminals he fights.  Dick Grayson seems a bit too normal for that to happen.  That was the point of Robin, that he wasnt as crazy as Batman and kept him sane.  And the conflict between Batman and the Joker?  It just isnt as great without Bruce.

This idea doesnt apply to just these two characters.  For any character that created their alter ego, its hard to imagine anyone else being remotely similar.  Spider Man is Peter Parker.  Daredevil is Matt Murdock.  But more people than Hal Jordan are the Green Lantern.  Theres thousands of them.  For some characters, a replacement will dramatically alter the spirit of the comic book beyond recognition. 

So, without Bruce Wayne, I just dont feel like reading Batman.  When he comes back (and he will), Ill probably head back.  Dick Grayson might make a great hero.  He might be one of the best.  But he wont be Batman.