Comic Musing: The SECRET WARS Retrospective Post (Updated)

Doom's signalling for the Cosmic RKO!

So!  Secret Wars, then.  Since I finally wrapped up my exhaustive preview blog, Marvel's big summer event lurched into life...and kept lurching, and still is lurching even as summer becomes a hazy memory.  What was once an 8-issue series (not the 12-issue one I somehow thought it was...sorry) has become 9-issues long, and will likely keep rolling through to December at this rate, even as most books reset under the 'All-New All-Different' banner and go back to a non-Battleworld reality.

That said, most of the SW tie-in books have either wrapped up or will do so over the course of October, and given how much time and money I've sunk into them, I feel obliged to share some final thoughts on those I've read.  This post should be considered a work-in-progress, and will be expanded as more series conclude. (Updated on 26/10/15)

Comic Musing: Craig's SECRET WARS Series-by-Series Thoughtlog (Updated)

This is what it's like when worlds COLLIIIIIIIIIDE

*Powerman 5000 continues*

By now you'll have heard the news that Marvel Comics are - 

...oh, you didn't hear it because you don't pay attention to comics because you, quite rightly, have better things to do with your time?  Fair enough.

Uh, so you may or may not have heard that from this coming May onwards, Marvel Comics are once again hosting a Secret Wars event series, taking the same name from a decades-old multi-title crossover that threw an abundance of heroes and villains from all walks of life onto an unfamiliar world, and left them to wreck each others' shit for the amusement of a cosmic jackass.  It was pretty good fun, Spider-Man got his black suit out of it, there was a whole mess of toys released, and if you're a reader of a certain age you probably remember it fondly.

Secret Wars 2015 has almost nothing to do with that, and given that it's unavoidable, it's high time I sorted out my thoughts on its ideas and parts.

Craig's Token Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 3 Thought Post

 Love the reactions in this shot.  Downey's smug bow, Evans' mildly

embarassed aw-shucks wave, and Boseman all 'OMG OMG IS THIS REAL??'.

So, unless you live under a rock, or simply don't care about this kind of thing, you've likely already heard what was revealed at Marvel Studio's exclusive-attendance press event last week.  The entirety of 'phase 3', the next solid block of films taking place within the universe defined by The Avengers has been charted, and so now we know every step on the path to cinema's current greatest heroes facing their ultimate - final? - battle.

Obviously, this is big news, and hundreds of other sites have been scraping over the details, running any number of rumours to try and gain hits.  Me, I'm late to the party, and I sure as hell don't have any inside sources to tantalize you with...but I slacked off and let this blog rot during October, and it's high time that changed.  At least this is something I'm enthusiastic about, so the writing should come easy.

Further Adventures of Minimate Nina, part четыре: A Day Unlike Any Other

Nighttime, at a news office on the outskirts of the city...

(Don't ask which city.  There is only one.  The city.)

Nina:  Porn, porn, angry editorial about some spider-guy, weather forecast, porn, sports...ugh.

And this chair is tiny and really cramping my butt.  Guess it was a long shot

to expect this rag to have anything on new organised crime outfits...

though maybe I can break into the CIA from here - 

SUDDENLY THE POWER CUTS!

Nina:  This isn't going to be the good kind of surprise, is it?

???:  Miss Williams!  On the authority of SHIELD, you are under arrest!  Come out of the 

building with your hands empty and there won't be any trouble!

Iron Man:  You don't really expect her to go for that, do ya?

Captain America:  No, not really.  That's why you're all here.

AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE!

Click through for more.

Film Reaction: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

 Never judge a film by its poster.

Or at least don't judge this film by this poster 'cause this poster's very bleh.

One of the more interesting points on the business side of this whole 'Marvel Cinematic Universe' shebang is how The Avengers' success impacts the subsequent films; does co-starring in the big climactic team-up increase awareness and box-office muscle appreciably for the non-Iron Man heroes?  I'd imagine that's something Marvel Studios are banking on.  While I consider Captain America: The First Avenger to be a great film - in fact, it's almost a perfect film, insofar as it's the best possible movie that could be made out of both Cap's origin story and his delivery into the modern world - it only did okay at the box office for one reason or another, not much more or less than The Incredible Hulk (which you'll notice has yet to have a sequel mentioned).

Judging from what I've read, this paid off with Thor: The Dark World, which comfortably outgrossed its predecessor even after opening in the tail end of Autumn.  So will the same hold true for The Winter Soldier, which with Black Widow in a featured role and much SHIELD shenanigans is doubling down on residual Avengers love?

I certainly hope so, because once again the Sentinel of Liberty has delivered a hell of a movie.