Wham Bam Thank you Mam - The FEARLESSS Defenders

Time for Marvel NOW's first all female alliance, and we must say, it's a rather interesting one.
Misty Knight and Valkyrie - Thor and Iron Fist's ex's of sorts - are teaming up to prevent an onslaught of Viking zombies.

As female characters who have spent little time in the Marvel spotlight, it's finally great to see them take centre stage in a new story that isn't too far fetched, well written and immediately illustrates who each character is without being bogged down in too much dialogue. Misty and Valkyrie are such an unlikely duo, but it seem's like one that will just work. Bunn has done a great job of setting a story for two great and dynamic female characters and we'd LOVE to see the damage they could do if they were teamed up with Deconnick's current Captain Marvel. O_O

With this issue you just know you're only skimming the surface, and there's something about it that feel's really old school and classic. The only tiny tiny issue we have is that we hope it really doesn't turn into a 'This is an all female team, therefore it requires all female nemesis'' - that would really spoil the good thing that Bunn is setting up here. So er, don't let us down ok?

In terms of Sliney's art work, there's something that we can't quite place with this, but it works - specially with Gandini's colours. It feels like such a mish-mash of curves and and placid colours, but this only serves to make Misty and Valkyrie really stand out. You can really move across the page quite easily, which is surprising considering out much is going on. It great to see that Sliney can really handle these action sequences, and we're really waiting for that epic double page spread. Pretty sure that'll come in no time.

All in all, The Fearless Defenders is a great first issue, and nice twist to the original Defenders that we're used to. Finally Misty and Valkyrie have their time to shine!

What would doom do?
After retreating into a Latverian den of fear at the sheer awesomeness of this new female duo, the plan is to stay put, yes stay up, waiting, reading and hoping that that he'll become a beautiful semi bionic woman or a Asgardian female Thor so he can be just as awesome.

Snapshot: The Simplest Fantastical Story Ever?

Well now, what do we have here, its a new comic of course!  Or to be precise it is the first issue of 'Snapshot' from Image, the first of four it seems, by way of Andy Diggle, and Jock, you may remember them from a little thing called 'The Losers'? I'll do my best to refrain from spoilers, but I am not always accountable for my words, so the risk is yours and since this is only the first issue at least I wont ruin the ending. I hope.

Now, onto what this comic is actually about and I should point out that I went in to this comic knowing nothing about what it was about except the cover, the name and the creators. I found it to be wonderfully refreshing, though that could just be my bias for comics speaking, especially since the main protagonist, no one special, just your slightly cooler than normal nerd who works in a comic book store and we spend a lot of the first issue there.

There is no magic, no super powers, no advanced technology, nothing out of the ordinary, or so it seems, certain plot elements point to something mysterious, but we don't know if this is super in nature, or just very clever misdirection and conspiracy  Personally I'm hoping for the latter. This is a down to earth story, at  least in comparison to many other works out there and its not hard to find your self imagining it actually happening. I like to think of this as a fictional work of a real world possibility  so far at least, things may take an increasingly wild turn.

Now for that other crucial aspect, and possibly more important(?) aspect of a comic book the art work. Now, I'll admit to being hesitant when I first picked it up due to its distinct lack of colour, and I am ashamed to admit that, I expect abuse to follow shortly. However, I can safely say that being a black and white comic has in no way dampened my enjoyment of it, if anything it has only pushed the book higher up in my opinion. Jock's work is excellent, clear and enticing, not too clean to be clinical, and not to messy to be confusing, its right in the middle. Also, regarding the lack of colour, I found it made the reading that much easy, not as much going on to distract the eye and mind from the meat of the book, the story and the characters. All of which allows for a far better reading experience.

So overall, an excellent comic with a lot of potential, and I've no doubt it will live up to it all. Both story and artwork go hand in hand to provide a unique experience that only Jock and Andy Diggle can provide.

What Would Doom Do?

After reading it twice and spending an hour or so making a mind map of ideas for how the story could be explained he would then lie in front of the TV on his front, legs waving in the air as he happily colours in the pages with his crayons, because even Doom likes to colour. And since he is evil he also gets to destroy some great artwork, damn that Doom. Though that is a good reason to buy two copies...

To Infinity and Beyond!

I was not looking forward to this series.

From the premise, it all seemed pretty "been there done that"...So what changed? This time we've got ourselves a nice twist, and we finally see the return of Marvel's Illuminati!

Cap, Iron Man, Black Panther, Black Bolt, Dr Strange, Mr Fantastic and Namor find themselves facing their toughest decision yet (well some of them), when an anomaly in an alternate earth, leads to alternative earths' gravitating towards each other causing an incursion, resulting in either the destruction of both worlds, or the sacrifice of only one earth (imaging throwing 2 eggs towards each other).

3 issues in and the team now have, Decided to use the Infinity Gems to restore the Infinity Gauntlet to stop the incursion by repelling the oncoming alt planet, Been joined by Hank McCoy - who has replaced Professor X after he posthumously recruited Hank to be his replacement (How? read and you'll find out), Enlisted Cap to be the wielder of the gauntlet, Repelled the alt earth (for now) - resulting in the destruction of the gauntlet (naughty Cap), Decided that they may need to make some tough calls - i.e. do all they can to make sure their world is saved over another's, Mind wiped Cap, Anddd they appear to have pissed of Galactus, Thanos and the Watcher (we'll see).
It's safe to say it's been pretty jammed packed, and as a result, whilst I like Hickman's work, this has made part of these issues very wordy. But that said, Hickman's depiction of Reed Richards is strong, bold, and very matter of fact. He's definitely the stand out character.

However, we feel the main star of this series so far is the colourist- Frank D'Armata. We're no stranger to his work (Look at Cable & X-Force!). D'Armata and Epting work great together, but D'Armata's colours really make this story what it is.
This is a very insular and quite a dark story in terms of mortality and getting your hands dirty, and this is reflected perfectly in the colours. The tones are dark and brooding - even the red's of Strange's cloak and Cap's shoe's aren't as vibrant and heroic as we're used to seeing. We're surrounded by blacks, greys and sepia, and even when they step through to the wall edge and see the oncoming danger, whilst the land looks calm, it's a stark bloody red. It really sets the scene, and it's almost as if you're not only an observer, but this insular feel makes it seem as if you're the silent watcher in the room.

Hickman's New Avengers definitely has a way to go to hit the top of our list, but it's definitely one to watch whilst your pining for your next hit of Marvel Now.

What Would Doom Do?
He woulda shattered these universes ages ago AND kept the Infinity Gauntlet looking brand spanking new...just sayin. READ.

It's UNCANNY!

We wanted to wait a while before we broached the topic of Uncanny Avengers, mainly for 3 reasons:

• We were pretty disenchanted by the events of Avengers VS X-Men
• The release dates have been in constant flux - we knew we'd need to be a few issues in before we could write a review
• Captain America is on my personal hit list. (TBC)

So, now we're 3 issues in - what do we know.

Following the events of AvX, Captain America want's to re-establish a new team of Avengers and has enlisted Alex Summers aka Havoc, to be the leader. In this arc we see the return of the Red Scull with a special new addition - the brain of Charles Xavier, so he's now free to spread his mutant hating madness to all.

So, what do we think.
Rick Remender has a good premise with Uncanny Avengers, but we don't feel like it's strong enough. With these first few issues it feels like we're playing catchy up and that each issue is a series of bullet points. There are a lot 'how's but no 'whys' and there seemed to be a massive gap between #2 and #3 that we had to double check that we hadn't missed and issue. But that said,  #3 is probably the strongest, and the main reason that we'll keep on reading. A majority of this issue is in 3rd person perspective - which we think fits this story really well. It definitely creates that extra sense of drama and tension that we feel that John Cassaday and Laura Martin aren't conveying as much as we'd hoped.

This is a pretty big issue, so we expected bigger things by way of the artwork for the action sequences. When we compare it to some of the other heavy hitters that we're seeing from Marvel NOW, like the work of Immonen and von Grawbadger's for All New X-Men, this just doesn't appear as bold or dramatic. That said, Thor's arrival is definitely a scene to be hold, and Cassaday seems to always's pull it out of the bag with the final pages.

So what do we say.

Uncanny Avengers has definitely peaked our interest and it's worth seeing what they go with this arc and what's to come for the latest X-men turned Avengers.

What would doom do?
It's definitely time to step down and let the Red Skull take the reigns with this one. If worst comes to worst, there's always a sepcial place for Doom in FF!!!

Motorcycles, guns and demons. We've been officially repossessed.

JM Ringuet's "graphich novel in 4 chapters" follows on the hot trail of Joe, Clay and Martha - 3 hitmen (and woman) for hire who specialise in demon exorcism. Think Supernatural meets Sons of Anarchy.

By possession we're not talking that whole demon child who's head can turn 360 degrees, no no, the possessed can be anyone - a friend, neighbor, shopkeeper, anyone who seems to have suddenly started acting weird. Someone who has suddenly gone from listening to Radiohead to Celine Dion, that kinda weird.

Within a few pages we already get a glimpse of our first possession/excorcism, and we can see that Ringuet isn't playing around. They demons are all kinds of big, mean, ugly and shameless (possessing a Priest goddamit!). We also get to see that our main characters know their stuff, and there's definitely more to them than meets the eye.

So why is this working for us so far:

1. 'Supernatural' supersized
   It's pretty much this, and then some. Who doesn't love a good demon slaying for a bit of extra dollar. And these demons are biiigg, like fill a double page spread big, and that's what we like to see!
2. So pretty...
   Definitely the highlight of the issue. Ringuet's colours are beautifl, flawless even. The tones are able to convey a whole firey hell vibe, but at the same time give off a really chilled out there should be fun in the sun kinda thing. 

But as we know, with great power comes great responsibility, and as a one man team, Ringuet has a lot to live up to...

All in all we're feeling pretty positive about this so...

What Would Doom Do
He'd could rate this bad boy in amulets and give it a holy 4! Or something like that.

Billy stole Teddys bling!!

And so the day finally arrived...the return of the Young Avengers.

The brain child of Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung has now been left in the more than capable hands of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvin as Marvel high-tails it into the age of Marvel Now.

#1 reintroduces the YA (now 17+) dealing with life after the events of Children's Crusade - Kate is exploring her feminity and Teddy is cheating on Billy with superheroism. We're also re-introduced to Noh-Varr (Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways), Kid Loki - who is obviously up to no good and looking to dispose of Billy (why?!) and Miss America who seems bent on stopping him. And then the little surprise at the end in the form of Mrs Atlman

Now, if you've read any of our previous ramblings about YA, then you'll know that we're MASSIVE fans of the YA and as far as we're concerned, Heinberg and Cheung have a center place in the What Would Doom Do Hall of Fame, so there was always a bit of apprehension about this new line up.

So...what did we think? Well...there were a few things...

Teddy is minus ALOT of bling, Kate is all grown up, Billy gained some bling and more importantly became Billy CAPLAN (We always thought the K has a certain charm you know?).

But apart from that, it was an amazing first issue.

Gillen has always said from the very beginning that he's not looking to recreate Cheung and Heinberg's YA's. His YA's are no longer tweens, his are about being 18 and no longer aspiring to be part of the adult world but actually being in it. Already this issue definitely has a much older vibe and it actually feels like the YA aren't just kids anymore, and Gillen pretty much shows this from the very beginning with Kate.

Our only worry is if/how Gillen will part from the characteristics we've come to identify the previous characters with - Billy in particular. Not only has he become Billy Caplan, but we'd really hate to see his sarcastic wit evaporate with his tweenage years, but based on what Gillen is trying to achieve, this could easily and understandably be something that our fave Wiccan has grown out of.

To aid his revival of the YA's Gillen has teamed up with his self confessed partner in crime Jamie McKelvie, and it couldn't be a better match. Along with Matthew Wilson's colors, the pages are amazing. They've created an amazing youthful, cool and dare we say 'hip' vibe, especially with the opening pages. They pretty much read like music, and we really understand what Gillen means when he talks about creating a playlist for his new Young Avengers. One thing that we're really liking is that McKelvie's art definitely screams less action and more late night partying which is definitely what we'd be expecting from our 18 year old Avengers. 

Aliens, shape shifters, gods and sorcerers...we may be missing a little bit of speed and a super soldier, but I think we can forgive that for now.
What would doom do.
It's time to get over his hay days of Children's Crusade and realise that these young nippers are almost all grown up, and it all starts with this. Oh yeh...and he'd get the O'Malley variant.