Time Runs Out – A Spoiler-ific Comics Review

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Jonathan Hickman’s comics – even if there is a strange obsession with the Illuminati in them… Last week, the two main Marvel comics he had been writing, Avengers and New Avengers, had their last trade paperback come out. Having devoured that, and done some digesting, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the action and reveals therein.

I opened with a review today on Sourcerer, where I gave some broad strokes about Hickman’s two comics, and about the last four trades and storyline – Time Runs Out – in particular. Well, I haven’t spun much theorycraft about these comics for a bit (not much since Infinity!) but that works, because many of the answers have only come recently.

So if you’re wanting a low-spoilers comics review of Time Runs Out, check out my Sourcerer post. If you’re wanting spoiler land and to talk about these comics, then this is the post for you! Read on, and some images to follow as well!

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Marvel Phase 3 – They’ve Given Us Too Much to Talk About

Okay, when Marvel leaked their Age of Ultron trailer last week, I was excited. And we were starting to get some rumors on the next movie in the works, Captain America 3. It’s going to have Iron Man! It might be Civil War! With those little tidbits, I figured that would be it for a while. After all, we’re seven months out from the next Marvel movie, and we just got the first trailer for it…

Then last week, DC announced all of their movies between now and 2020. I haven’t even had a chance to talk about these – so check out the post about them on We Minored in Film to cover that! The announcements are both exciting and expected, as they are movies for the members of the Justice League. The Marvel equivalent would be announcing Hawkeye, Hulk, and Black Widow movies to go with the existing titles.

And I feel that there’s an element of DC forcing this play, but maybe it was always planned. Marvel announced all of Phase 3, all in one go! With release dates, subtitles, and everything! I should add, though, that it seems their plan was to announce all of these movies – and then show the trailer for Age of Ultron that evening. By which point, there would have been way too much for one day.

Alright, so to try to keep this halfway manageable, there’s a great article on The Mary Sue about the movie announcements already. So I’m going to add a bit of my own speculation and excitement about the movies!

Found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Comics

Update: Also, check out some thoughts from We Minored in Film: the good and the bad.

Best of 2013

Yesterday Holly posted her best of for 2013, and today it’s mine! There were some tough choices, and some easier ones. We’re trying to mainly stick to things new in 2013, but really, we’re focused on new to us. Most of this is from 2013, though!

We selected a few major categories: Movies, TV Shows, YouTube Channel, Book, Comic or Graphic Novel, Music, Video Game (here we divided into single-player and multi-player), and Board Game. Most of these things we’ve also written posts on, as you might imagine!

We’ve run this blog almost a year now, so we’ve been thinking and writing about this stuff all year, and it’s nice to reflect back on it. Let me know what you think of my choices in the comments below!

What I’m Excited For in 2014

With a brand new year of things coming up, we’re showcasing a few of the things we’re excited for. Here are some of the things I’m excited for; you’ll get Holly’s list in a few days.

You’ll probably recognize some of the things I’m excited for based on my other posts, so I’ll try to mix things up a bit as well. I’m also realizing a lot of it is movies, because they do the best job of advance notice and choosing a release date. On the other hand, a lot of the video games on the horizon are vague promises of a game, and a statement of which console they would be on – no release date.

But hey, movies have trailers, so I’ll include these, too! Join me in my excitement for the things coming up this coming year!

The Mad Titan, Thanos – A Character Study

From The Infinity Gauntlet

Marvel’s recent crossover event Infinity recently ended, and with all the events with “Infinity” in the title, this was a crossover that included the Mad Titan, Thanos, as the villain. In Infinity, he had to share the stage with the Builders, and was only one front of a two-front war. Nonetheless, his parts in Infinity tied in heavily to who he is as a villain, and what motivates him.

Of course, other Thanos events like the Infinity Gauntlet help inform us as to who Thanos is and what he’s up to, but Infinity drew from more than that. They did a limited-run, 5-issue series called Thanos Rising which explored the origin story of Thanos. It’s interesting, because with this story, it’s hard to tell where the previous Thanos events fit in. Nonetheless, the psychological underpinnings of the character are explored and revealed in Thanos Rising.

And what they lay out is that this is a mentally unbalanced, overly powerful character, willing – and wanting – to kill anyone and anything. Conquering or razing worlds because he can. So I’ve read the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos Rising, and Infinity, so let’s take a look at who this villain is! Spoilers to follow!