X-O Manowar Part 24: X-O Manowar #9 (October, 1992)

Thanks to Solar, Aric returns to his own time…with the X-O armor.

I have this issue.

After the events of Unity, Aric is returned to 408A.D. not long after he was taken by the Spider-Aliens in X-O Manowar #0. He is reunited with his uncle Alaric, who is laying siege to Rome, and Deidre – his love from before he was taken – but all fear the power of the armor. The dramatic shift in power is so great that Romans and Visigoths work together to set a trap for him in a Roman temple, with Deidre as bait. Aric arrives and accidentally destroys the temple, killing everyone…including Deidre.

Heartbroken and betrayed, Aric has the armor take him somewhere in North America and buries himself in the ground.

Notes of Interest:

1) Aric still cares for Deidre.

2) His loyalty to his uncle never wavers either, which is interesting because with all his power and strong hatred of the Romans, Aric still kills in Alaric’s name.

3) The X-O armor offers to heal Aric’s pain after losing Deidre.

4) Aric is still mortally wounded at this point and can’t remove the armor.

WTF? Moment: Writer Bob Layton, artist Mike Leeke and inker Tom Ryder did a great job on this issue. Aric looks awesome, the armor is beautiful to look at and everything that happens in this book makes sense…except…

WTF? Moment #2: How much does the armor weigh? Is it even possible for a horse to carry that much weight?

X-O Manowar Part 23: Unity #1 (October, 1992)

Unity has ended, and as the Lost Land is destroyed Solar returns Aric and the others to when they came.

I have this issue in the Unity Saga Vol. 4 Trade Paperback.

Aric shouts at Mothergod from the battlefield about how she feared him despite being the most powerful enemy the world has ever faced. And as he vanishes back into the timestream, he wonders what glories the X-O armor would have brought him in the days before his abduction by the Spider-Aliens.

Notes of Interest:

1) He’s in all of three panels this issue, but it’s clear that he’s pumped from defeating Mothergod.

WTF? Moment: It’s a nit-pick. First Aric was on a battlefield, then he was in the tower attacking Mothergod’s reactor and now he’s shouting at Mothergod from a battlefield. Did Aric leave the tower after Mothergod’s defeat and then shout at her from the battlefield? Did the tower and reactor disappear around him when she was defeated? Does Aric even know that Mothergod can’t hear him? I know that in the grand scheme of things these are of little importance, but it’s the little things that make big stories like Unity so enjoyable.

X-O Manowar Part 22: Rai Companion #1 (December, 1993)

Aric has a brief conversation with Geoff McHenry during the battle of Unity.

I have this issue in the Unity Saga Vol. 4 Trade Paperback.

As the battle of Unity raged on, Aric smashes through a wall to find Geoff McHenry sitting in a room full of bones. He tells the geomancer that the boy has caused him nothing but trouble since talking him into fighting the war. Despite his anger, Aric tells him to follow the other released prisoners to safety and then continues towards Mothergod’s tower.

Notes of Interest:

1) Obviously, this takes place before Aric meets Solar in the tower and attacks the reactor.

WTF? Moment: This is a different Aric that the one who protected the boy back in Unity #0, and having followed him throughout the event we now understand the circumstances behind that change.

Two items today - Avengers and Black Widow...

I've got two things on my mind today, and seeing as how they're connected/related I've decided to talk about both.



First off is the Avengers. I know I've talked about it a lot recently, but it kicks off Summer Movie Season and I plan on discussing movies (both comic-related and just plain cool) for the rest of my life. Plus, I've been waiting for this film for over twenty goddamn years. So deal.

I'll be seeing it at 12:01 am next Friday morning, and had enough time last night to check online for local theatres to see who's having a midnight showing and found three possibilities.

That's right. Three...out of the five, maybe six cinemas within a 45 minute drive of my house...are offering midnight showings. One in IMAX 3D.

HOLY F**KING S#!T!!!


Still haven't made up my mind yet, but...wow.
___________________________________________________________________________



Second is Black Widow. Apparently, she isn't going to be in Iron Man 3.

I'm okay with this, for two reasons:

1) While the film character has had supporting roles up to this point, they've been significant supporting roles. Her presence had purpose. Putting her into IM3 "just because" would be stupid.

2) She needs her own goddamn film. Scarlett Johansson is a fantastic actress for this genre. She gets it. I never would have thought of her for either this genre or this role, but she's brought her A-game and owns it.

The tragedy is that it will never happen.

Marvel Studios is too young in the business to say "screw it" and make a movie with a strong female lead, and this genre of movies is way too fickle to know for sure it would work. If you don't believe me, watch Elektra which starred Jennifer Garner - Johansson's predecessor in the realm of comic-book films that also "got it" and owned her respective character.



But comic-book movies aren't the only genre with this problem. Westerns' biggest box-office films with female leads - to my knowledge, and please correct me if I'm wrong - are The Quick and the Dead (which also starred Leo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Gene Hackman and Lance Henrickson) and Bad Girls (which had not one but four female leads).

                                                   


As for sci-fi, let's talk about Alien for a minute. Yes - Sigourney Weaver did a fantastic job and became a star because of it and rightly so. Yes - Ripley was a fantastic character that brought women a few steps closer to equality in terms of strong female roles to portray. Yes - the argument can be made that Weaver carried the movie, and that Alien became the huge hit it was because of her...



...but she was part of an ensemble cast for over half of the film. Plus, the alien itself was a big part of the audience draw. And every sequel since has had her as part of yet another group of humans tracking down/surviving against alien(s).

Can anyone think of a successful sci-fi film with a single female lead? Because I can't.

And for the record - this sucks.

So back to Johansson's Black Widow...

Should she have a solo Black Widow film? Absolutely.
Will it happen? Not in a million years.

However, I see no reason why she can't be in a film where...

1) she teams up with another character like Hawkeye or Cap.

2) she teams up with a new character like Carol Danvers or Jessica Drew.

3) she gets her own movie with a plot similar to La Femme Nikita, where she's taken from her home and trained by someone as part of a team and then captured and re-trained by S.H.I.E.L.D..

4) she teams up with Coulson - 'cause that would be awesome.

So the bottom line here is that with such a great actress in such a great role in their possession, Marvel Studios would be stupid not to do something more with Black Widow. I'm sure they know it and will come up with a solution because...

In Marvel Studios I Trust

MST3K vs. RiffTrax

I confess, I know very little about MST3K due to the fact that I've only seen one full episode of the show.

I get the premise, and think that's hilarious, but for me that draw isn't the humor - it's the movie upon which the humor is unleashed.



Forbidden Planet was a film I had heard about, plus I knew something about the famous robot. So when I heard that there was an episode of MST3K with this film, I sat down and watched it.

Very...very...funny.

I want to say I was hooked, but when I saw another episode about some other terrible movie I had never heard of, I found it...unfunny.

I learned that I needed to have at least a passing interest in the film of choice before I committed myself to listening to these guys poke fun at it.

Then along came RiffTrax...

Now these guys are doing the same thing only to recent movies or films that they never got to during the 10 seasons of MST3K. The one down side is that I have to pay up to $3.99 per movie.

To my knowledge, they haven't gotten to classic television gold like the original Captain America tele-films or episodes of Wonder Woman.

    

Heck, I'd even watch classic Incredible Hulk and The Amazing Spider-Man episodes.

   

X-O Manowar Part 21: Solar, Man of the Atom #13 (September, 1992)

Aric (once again) joins the others (once again) to fight against Mothergod (once again) in the final battle.

I have this issue in the Unity Saga Vol. 4 Trade Paperback

That’s really all there is to say about Aric’s involvement this issue.

Notes of Interest:

1) Aric actually says something this issue, but nothing that hasn’t been said before: “Mothergod *blah, blah, blah* must die *blah, blah, blah* and all her minions.”

WTF? Moment: Aric’s in all of one panel. Two if you count the explosion he caused.

Where the heck have I been?

As I've stated before, we don't have cable television in our house. All our entertainment comes from either the internet (via Hulu and Netflix primarily) or purchased items such as games DVD's and Blu-rays (with the occasional item mailed to us...again via Netflix).

So I had no idea that this came out to promote X-Men: First Class last year...

Very...Very...Funny!

So now I learn there's one for Avengers...

Also fantastic! Christ, May 4th can't come soon enough. J. K. Simmons is amazing.

Okay...So Iron Man 3 is filming in China...

My first response to this was "so what?", but then I got to thinking about it.

First of all, this is a Disney supported move all the way. There's no way Marvel Studios could have pulled this off on their own. Maybe...after ten successful films under their belt...but not now.

Second, this is a show of Disney's level of commitment to Marvel Studios. There's no way Disney would approach China to do this unless they had high hopes...as well as high expectations...of the continuing growth of the Marvel Movie Universe.

Third, the villain must be Chinese - otherwise, what's the point? Now, there's been talk that the Mandarin will not be in IM3. I think that's utter B.S., but let's assume the rumor is true. Who does that leave? Well, without taking the time for more "in depth" research (digging into my stacks of OHOTMU comics) there's Fin Fang Foom - an alien dragon that would have to be CGI,



and Radioactive Man - a Chinese physicist that "had an accident".



Looking closer at Radioactive Man, we see he's a Chinese scientist, who could have been looking into the circumstances surrounding Cap's and Hulk's creations (the Super Soldier Serum) for the government when "something happens" that makes him Radioactive Man.

I can see this. What's more, I can see this with Mandarin pulling the strings and appearing in IM4 or even Avengers 2.


Instead of thinking "so what?", I'm now thinking "it's all good".

Why? - because...

In Marvel Studios I Trust

X-O Manowar Part 20: Harbinger #9 (September, 1992)

Aric reunites with the other Valiant heroes as they launch their final assault on Mothergod.

I have this issue in the Unity Saga Vol. 4 Trade Paperback.

Aric reaches Mothergod’s tower and teams up with Gilad, Sting, Archer, Armstrong, Zephyr, Flamingo, Solar, Magnus, Geoff and…the other Gilad as they attack Mothergod. He helps fight off an aerial attack and then witnesses Sting push through Mothergod’s force fields, allowing them to reach the reactor that’s powering her Unity machine.

Notes of Interest:

1) Although it isn’t mentioned, remember that Aric is mortally wounded at this point and held together by the X-O armor.

WTF? Moment: Four panels total here and he doesn’t say a word.

WTF? Moment #2: I’m confused. It shows here that Aric reaches the reactor with Sting, Zephyr and one of the Gilads. But in Unity – The Lost Chapter #1 we see Aric entering with Solar who tells him to attack the reactor head on as a distraction. Now, it’s possible that Aric is the only one who gets close enough to attack it, where Solar meets him and tells him to do so, but it’s pretty vague. I’m more inclined to disagree with Lost Chapter than this issue though since this one came out first.

X-O Manowar Part 19: Unity – The Lost Chapter #1 (February, 1994)

We learn what happens with Aric after losing his army to Mothergod

I have this issue.

After leaving the battleground from X-O Manowar #8, Aric finds that some of his Skammr army were on a different raid and missed Mothergod’s invasion. They regroup, and the next morning Aric leads an attack on the dinosaurs that took part in his defeat.

Meanwhile, a smaller Skammr party finds another of Mothergod’s weapon caches and brings back to camp a war machine. Aric decides to use it and launches an attack on Mothergod’s tower. The opposing army is stronger, and all of Aric’s remaining Skammr army is killed.

Aric reaches Mothergod’s tower, and Solar tells him to focus his attack on the core of her Unity Machine while the Man of the Atom deals directly with her. Aric does so, and Solar succeeds in defeating Mothergod once and for all.

The Lost Land is destroyed, and Solar sends Aric back to his respective time.

Notes of Interest:

1) This issue came out seventeen months after X-O Manowar #8, but continues the events that took place there.

2) Even though the X-O armor will need ten years to heal him, it’s clear that Aric isn’t going to spend that time sitting out the war.

3) I find it touching that Aric remembers Cayla’s name and claims revenge in her honor.

WTF? Moment: Nit-pick note to comic artists everywhere – if you’re going to re-tell specific events from a previous story, keep those visuals the same as the source material. I understand why an artist would take his/her own spin on things, but if the X-O armor and Mothergod’s outfit look the same, the clothing worn by everyone else should be the same as well.

WTF? Moment #2: It’s established in the story that all of the Skammrs were killed. So why is there a panel showing Aric, his Skammr army laid out dead on the battlefield…and one Skammr with eyes open looking directly at the reader?

I love Mike Bair’s art, and thought he did a great job both on his Alpha Flight run and with this issue, but it’s these inconsistencies that throw off the overall visual of this book. My hope is that there was some miscommunication between Bair and writer Kevin Vanhook.

WTF? Moment #3: In the end, was this issue really necessary? My answer is no, it wasn’t. Filling in some “blank moments” of the Unity storyline was a good idea, but it would have been better if we learned that it was during Aric’s battle with the dinosaurs here that he broke his way into…and out of…the prison cell holding Archer and Armstrong from Archer & Armstrong #2. This issue doesn’t say that, but I’ll infer that it does and move on.

X-O Manowar Part 18: X-O Manowar #8 (September, 1992)

Aric becomes a thorn in Mothergod’s side…and pays the price.

I have this issue in the Unity Saga Vol. 3 Trade Paperback.

It’s day 150 of the Unity war as Aric leads his Skammr army into one of Mothergod’s facilities to take a converter she’s been working on. Rai is there, and they argue over who gets it. Aric convinces him to return to camp with them so they can fight for possession of the machine without Mothergod’s interference.

At Aric’s camp, the two men prepare to fight when they’re interrupted by the arrival of Magnus and Gilad. Aric was planning to use the converter as a bargaining tool, but Rai and the others convince him to destroy it instead.

The next day, he gets a request from Mothergod to meet and discuss a truce. Aric accepts the invitation, and invites her into his camp. They talk, and Mothergod offers him four women as a sign of good faith. Aric chooses one and agrees to discuss terms the following morning.

Aric takes his “present” to his tent but is soon distracted as one of Mothergod’s dinosaurs attacks. He can’t find the X-O armor anywhere, and left defenseless is almost bitten in half. The armor returns in time to keep him alive, and with it fights off the invading forces. During the battle, Aric is knocked unconscious from an explosion.

He wakes up four days later to find his army dead and his camp destroyed. The Good-Skin tells him that it can heal him, but it will need ten years to do so. Enraged, Aric leaves the battlefield bent on making Mothergod pay for her treachery.

Notes of Interest:

1) Aric proves to be a successful leader if not an intelligent one.

2) His great respect for other warriors comes up again as he offers Rai the chance to fight him for the converter, as well as believing what Magnus and Gilad tell him about Mothergod’s plans.

3) Is it wrong for me to comment on the fact that Aric chooses his “prize” because she has fire in her eyes...or that he only chooses one in the first place?

4) Aric is almost cut in half - his entrails are sticking out for crying out loud – and he still shouts to the dinosaur about how he’ll rip out it’s tounge on his way down it’s throat? HOW F**KING AWESOME IS THIS!?!

WTF? Moment: You’re telling me that Aric is so…in the moment…that he doesn’t even notice the Good-Skin’s absence? Sorry, gotta call B. S. on that.

X-O Manowar Part 17: Magnus Robot Fighter #16 (September, 1992)

Aaaaand we’re back to single panel appearances.

I have this issue in the Unity Saga Vol. 3 Trade Paperback.

Aric is (once again) brought into the Lost Land (once again) and fights (once again) Mothergod’s forces (once again).

Notes of Interest:

1) We discover that reading the same thing in eight out of twelve issues is pretty f**kin’ boring.

WTF? Moment: I don’t get it, we had a good thing going with Archer & Armstrong #2 where Aric did something noteworthy that affected other characters and now we’re revisiting “Unity Day 1” again. W…T…F?

SPOILERS...

They're really tricky thing, those spoilers.

Like the "Big Red Button Begging To Be Pressed", you know you shouldn't...but really, really want to.


The trick, I have learned, is not to follow Nancy Reagan's advice regarding drugs and "Just Say No".

It's to follow the same sage advice that comes with alcohol: "Know when to say when".

Case in point - There's new spoilers about the Avengers film.

Spoilers about the villainous army the team fights against.

I've said before that I believe that the identity of said army was the big draw of the film, meaning that everyone knows the heroes team up, knows they look great as a team and knows that they'll eventually win.

What we don't know is exactly who - aside from Loki - they'll be fighting against.

And it's that secret (along with which character dies and the circumstances surrounding that event) that I want to keep a mystery until 12:01 am May 4th.

Other movies coming out this summer also have potential spoilers...

* Will Mary Jane stop by the house telling Peter he hit the Jackpot?

* Will Bane's dialogue come with subtitles?

* Will Deep Six, Torpedo and Gung-Ho join the team?

* Will Abraham Lincoln learn that "Unmentionables" existed at the "turn" of the nineteenth century?

* Is Stallone directing an R-rated or PG13-rated film?

All of these interest me, and knowing the answers ahead of time won't affect my viewing pleasure.

But for some reason, Avengers is my line in the sand.

I don't want to know. I'm afraid to know. I'm afraid that if I do know, I won't like it. I'm afraid that if I do know, I will like it.

It's like tearing a small hole in the wrapping paper, and not being able to open the present for another 16 days...give or take.

I need a distraction. Think I'll re-watch my Marvel Studios DVD's and Blu-rays...again.

In Marvel Studios I Trust

Ladies and Gentlemen...Nathan Fillion...and Robert Downey Jr.

I have no words for this...

Yeah I do.

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Nathan Fillion.

It's no secret that I'm anxiously awaiting 12:01 am May 4th.

It's no secret that Disney owns both ABC and Marvel.

It's no secret...therefore...that I wouldn't wait until tomorrow to post this...this...DIGITAL GOLD!!!

The Walking Dead...

I hate Zombies...

When I was young, I was a huge fan of the Universal Monsters - Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman, The Creature From the Black Lagoon. I liked Godzilla too, but was more a fan of King Kong.

Jaws, however, made me afraid to take a bath.

When I was a teenager, Freddie Kruger scared the living shit out of me. Couldn't sleep for weeks. Funny thing was, I hadn't seen the movies, just the trailers freaked me out. To get past the fear, I watched (an edited for television version of) the first film. And that made things worse. But when I rented Dream Warriors on video I felt better about him, saw the humor behind him, and felt empowered by taking over my dreams.

Now, back to Zombies...

I was forced to sit down and watch the original Night of the Living Dead...by my daughter...who was 9 at the time. Didn't help. But two summers ago we saw Zombieland which was fun,and I liked it.

But I still hated Zombies.

So when my daughter and I went to the library recently, I saw this TPB and picked it up to work on getting past my fear.

And she started reading it on the drive home.

Now I was able to finish it before she did, so I could help if she found anything disturbing.

She didn't.

We both loved the book, and I'm seriously considering adding this to my wish list...

...but then she and I sat down and watched the first episode of the damned show...



Guess what...she loves the show, and I'm back to zero tolerance.

I will never understand the world's fascination with the Zombiecalypse, but I am still very interested in the comic and will most likely get the series at some point.

Damn kids these days...

X-O Manowar Part 16: Archer & Armstrong #2 (September, 1992)

In all of seven panels, Aric does more here than he has in his past four appearances.

I have this issue in the Unity Saga Vol. 3 Trade Paperback.

Aric is in a heated battle with a bionic female tyrannosaurus rex. So much so that they burst through the prison cell holding Archer and Armstrong…inadvertently freeing them…and continuing into the night.

Notes of Interest:

1) We learn that in the X-O armor, Aric is stronger than Armstrong.

WTF? Moment: Only one word is spoken by Aric: “HRAHH!” There’s no “hello”, no “how are you”, no “stay out of my way while I handle this”. Not even a thought balloon or a caption. That makes the entire scene that much funnier. It makes you wonder how Aric got into the fight in the first place, and it’s that kind of interwoven storytelling that Unity has been lacking up to this point. 

The whole "Avengers Vs. X-Men" thing...

Hate to break it to you, but this has been done before, albiet slightly differently.

Back in 1993, just about when I stopped collecting, there was a crossover between The Avengers, X-Men, Avengers West Coast (remember them?), and Uncanny X-Men.  The story was called Bloodties and it has since been collected in a TPB.



It took place on Genosha, and involved a child torn between both sides. The child in question was Luna - daughter of Quicksilver and Crystal...Magneto's granddaughter - who was kidnapped by Fabian Cortez who wanted to rule Genosha by any means necessary.

In this case, the Avengers and X-Men fought together, but many elements are the same.

So what does this mean?

1) I'm getting too old...like Silver Age readers who threw up their hands when Post-Crisis happened.

2) I really shouldn't complain, and I don't feel that I am, but if AVX gets "the kids these days" to read comics, I'll take it. But I hope they (eventually) look back past their dates of birth and realize there's a whole lot of comics out there to catch up on reading too.

3) Anything that promotes The Avengers movie, I'll also take. Plus, if Marvel is asking me which film franchise to see...if I had to choose...I pick The Avengers.

In Marvel Studios I Trust

Ben Kingsley joins cast of Iron Man 3

This is probably not new to anyone, but just so we're clear - this isn't a "late-breaking" news site. This is a single dork's opinion about what's going on out there.

There's been talk that Sir Kingsly is going to play the villain in the film, but not the Mandarin. 


There's also been talk about what new directions will be taken with the franchise with a new director.

I'm here to tell everyone...SLOW YOUR ROLL!!!

1) This film isn't coming out until next year at the earliest. So changes are gonna happen.

2) It's been made clear by Kevin Feige that IM3 is the first film in what he calls "Phase 2" of what I call the Marvel Movie Universe. So a new direction doesn't necessarily mean disaster right off the bat.

3) While technically the third film in the trilogy, and third films in this genre generally do poorly...look at Spider-Man 3, and Superman 3...in the grand scheme of things, IM3 is actually the sixth film in the MMU franchise. So that curse is broken.

4) Marvel Studios, until further notice, is still running the show - they have complete creative control over who they hire for actors, writers and directors. So even if Mandarin doesn't appear in IM3, and Sir Kingsly is playing a different role, it's with their blessing...to quote another, "It's alllllll part of the plan."

So..I repeat...SLOW YOUR ROLL!!!

In Marvel Studios I trust.

Yet another Avengers clip makes it online...

...but I haven't watched it yet.

Here's why:

I'm worried about too much being shown before May 4.

Does it seem weird to anyone else that Disney announced it was distributing this movie after their John Carter tanked?

My hope is that Disney learned their lesson and are sloooooly putting small bits out there.

But I still won't watch it.

Okay...um...so...um...Maria Hill...

I admit - I've been out of the "comic-collecting" scene for a while now (okay...20 years) turning my attention and hard-earned dollars to filling holes in my collections rather than buying the latest and greatest.


So my working knowledge of Maria Hill consists of Wikipedia, Comic Vine and Marvel.com.


Imagine my surprise that she's made over 350 appearances.


On a side note, is it wrong that Cobie Smulders reminds me of Winona Rider?


Anyway - she's in the film. And given Whedon's track record of killing off characters, and Marvel's growing Movie universe, I have a theory...


Maybe Maria is the one who gets killed.


Now I remember first hearing about Maria in the Civil War storyline, as Fury's replacement. If memory serves, Civil War took place after the whole Secret Invasion storyline.


But what if Marvel Studios plans to combine elements of both? Hill is killed, and revealed to be a Skrull (or MMu equivalent) operative.

It could happen...

Another side note...could "Phase 2" in the clip refer to what Kevin Feige mentioned in his interview regarding the next stage of development in the MMU?

X-O Manowar Part 15: Eternal Warrior #2 (September, 1992)

Aric takes part in the first battle against Mothergod

I have this issue in the Unity Saga Vol. 3 Trade Paperback.

Aric arrives in the Lost Land (again...) and disappears after six panels.

Notes of Interest:

1) Aric learns that he’s fighting against a woman named Erica who’s an energy being like Solar.

WTF? Moment: It’s Good News/Bad News time. The Bad: this is yet another retelling of Aric’s arrival in the Lost Land. The Good: this is the last retelling of Aric’s arrival in the Lost Land.

My growing concerns about Marvel Studios...

While I'm on the subject of The Avengers, I looked into the many, MANY events that took place (needed to take place?) for Marvel Studios to exist and create the awesomeness that is the Marvel Movie Universe.

The shifts in power, the deals, the bankruptcy, the Merrill Lynch loan, the Disney buy-out...

I realize that all good things must come to an end (and according to cinematic history the successful Superman: The Movie does not guarantee a successful franchise). 

So I know that eventually, something will go wrong...

Feige will either retire or be forced out. There will be a significant profit loss. Audience interest will wane. More business-minded people will replace more content-minded people. More fingers get in the pie. More chefs in the kitchen. Disney takes over distribution rights from Paramount...

...Oh, wait, that's already happened.

I'm not sure how to feel about that. My first reaction was panic. Knowing Disney owns Marvel is a lot different from seeing Disney owning Marvel. But I realize that since Disney does own Marvel, they'd want the Marvel Movie Universe to thrive, and make more money - which it did by the way, earning back twice the amount spent on production so far at over $2 billion (that's right, billion...with a "b") - so there's a general sense of encouragement to "not fix what isn't broken".

But my point is that changes take place "behind the movie" all the time - changes that can affect the movie...movie franchise...or movie universe.

So what if they do? What would that mean?

Would that affect the awesomeness of the current Marvel Movie Universe?
No. No more that Superman III affects the awesomeness of Superman: The Movie.

But it would affect all future endeavours. All further developments within the Marvel Movie Universe would be on hold until further notice.

What I'm trying to say is that I need to stop looking at what could happen, and focus on what is happening now. Enjoy the moment.

In other words...sit back and enjoy the show. Which I will...repeatedly...even if it sucks.

Because as long as Hollywood looks to Comic-Con for inspiration (and actually listens to audience feedback), they'll keep working on giving us what we want to see.

And remember, if Hollywood gives us crap we'll make our feelings known through our collective wallets. And silence speaks louder than words.

Okay, About Cap's Helmet...

More Avengers pics have been released lately, and one topic of growing concern is the look of Cap's new costume. More specifically, the helmet. From what I've read, people think the headpiece has to go because "it doesn't look good".

I agree, it does have to go, but I understand the reason why it's there.

Cap’s costume always had a helmet, ever since he wore in during WWII - which the last time he breathed fresh air. It’s become a part of him, almost as much as the shield. It also defines him…almost as much as the shield.

Plus, the helmet dates him, meaning it makes him look out of place…which is exactly what he is. Cap is a man taken out of his time and dropped into a world with an enormous Times Square, Norse Gods, Gamma-irradiated monsters and a technological genius who is older than his father was when Steve met him during the war.

I think that by the end of the film, he will have more “time-appropriate” headgear if in fact he has head gear at all. Because when you think about it, Cap's costume changed throughout Captain America, so there's no reason why it won't continue to evolve.

X-O Manowar Part 14: Solar, Man of the Atom #12 (August, 1992)

Mothergod learns of Aric’s arrival in the Lost Land.

I have this issue in the Unity Saga Vol. 2 Trade Paperback.

We learn about how Mothergod became Mothergod and how she created the Lost Land. Solar finds out what she’s been up to and brings some help - help in X-O Manowar armor.

Notes of Interest:

1) Another POV of Aric joining the fray…in all of one panel…and it isn’t even a “true” panel…it’s on a screen in the panel.

WTF? Moment: Enough with the POV madness. We get it, just move on already.