iron man | the m0vie blog

S.H.I.E.L.D: Architects of Forever(Review/Retrospective)

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Darren

April (and a little bit of May) are “Avengers month” at the m0vie blog. In anticipation of Joss Whedon’s superhero epic, we’ll have a variety of articles and reviews published looking at various aspects of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” Today we’re looking at a miniseries exploring the history of S.H.I.E.L.D., the organisation which has played a big role in the Marvel cinematic universe.

Jonathan Hickman is something of a rising star at Marvel, with his acclaimed work on Secret Warriors, Fantastic Four and Ultimate Comics: Ultimates, along with character-centric miniseries like Ultimate Thor and Ultimate Hawkeye. Much like Jason Aaron, the writer has demonstrated a remarkable ability with both the smaller cult characters in the universe, as well as some of its bigger names – it has been argued that Hickman has been doing fascinating things with characters who had stumbled a bit of late in Marvel’s shared universe, like Nick Fury or the “first family” of the company, the Fantastic Four. Hickman has a wonderful talent to combine old established concepts with clever new ideas to produce an interesting result. S.H.I.E.L.D., documenting the history of Marvel’s premiere espionage organisation, demonstrates this quite well.

At least what I understood of it.

The SHIELD protects us...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Acura, Architects of Forever, Architects of Tomorrow, comic books, Comics, fantastic four, Infinity, IPad, iron man, Isaac Newton, Jonathan Hickman, Leonardo da Vinci, marvel comics, Marvel Studios, S.H.I.E.L.D, Secret Warriors, Shield, spider man, thor, Thor: Son of Asgard (Thor (Graphic Novels)), ultimate thor | Leave a comment »

Brian Michael Bendis’ Avengers – New Avengers Vol. 5-6 (Hardcover) (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Darren

You know, at this stage I’m wondering what an Avengers book might look that wasn’t plowing from one event (Secret Invasion), through another event (Dark Reign), towards yet another event (Siege). I actually quite enjoyed Bendis’ opening two arcs on New Avengers, before the book effectively became the primary tie-in to whatever big crossover event was happening in the Marvel Universe on a given month. It was Grant Morrison who once wrote that every panel in a comic book should be an event, and I agree – stand-alone series don’t gain any extra validity by tying themselves in to a big crisis crossover. Make the stories themselves compelling and worry about the “event” later.

The evil empire…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: avengers, bendis, brian michael bendis, dark reign, iron man, joss whedon, luke cage, Marvel Comic, marvel comics, matt fraction, Savage Land, secret invasion, skrull | Leave a comment »

Thor by Walt Simonson Omnibus (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Darren

April (and a little bit of May) are “Avengers month” at the m0vie blog. In anticipation of Joss Whedon’s superhero epic, we’ll have a variety of articles and reviews published looking at various aspects of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” We’re also taking a look at some of the notable stories featuring individual Avengers.

Read our review of The Avengers here.

Walt Simonson’s run on Thor is one of the truly great Marvel runs of the eighties – along with Frank Miller’s take on Daredevil and John Byrne’s tenure on The Fantastic Four. It’s great to have that entire run – and the Baldar the Brave miniseries – collected in one absolutely giant omnibus, which stands as one of the greatest accomplishments of Marvel’s collected editions department. Did I mention that it has been lavishly recoloured for the occasion? Because it has. And it’s spectacular.

A snake in the grass (and pretty much everywhere else)...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: arts, Asgard, brian blessed, frank miller, iron man, joss whedon, kenneth branagh, marvel comics, marvel omnibus, New York City, Online Writing, stan lee, Surtur, thor, thor by walt simonson, thor by walt simonson omnibus, walt simonson | 9 Comments »

Kurt Busiek’s (& George Perez’s) Avengers – Avengers Assemble! Vol. 1 (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Darren

April (and a little bit of May) are “Avengers month” at the m0vie blog. In anticipation of Joss Whedon’s superhero epic, we’ll have a variety of articles and reviews published looking at various aspects of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” And so we begin, one month short of the release date…

It is good to be together again.

– Thor, Once An Avenger…

A lot of life is context. In order to fully appreciate things, you need to know the history and events which drive it. Kurt Busiek’s massive almost-five-year run on The Avengers is well loved by comic book fans, but is quite hard for me to get a read on. The plots are simple, the cast is over-crowded and the dialogue is corny. However, these are perhaps the reasons why the run is held in such high esteem, because the fictional Marvel Universe of 1998 was quite different from how it looks today.

Consider them assembled... all of them...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Avenger, avengers, avengers assemble!, comic book, comic books, george perez, iron man, joss whedon, kurt busiek, marvel, Marvel Comic, marvel comics, marvel universe, once an avenger, Rob Liefeld, Scarlet Witch, thor, villains | Leave a comment »

Warren Ellis’ Run on Ultimate Fantastic Four – Vol. 1-2 (Hardcover) (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Darren

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Fantastic Four, I’m taking a look at some of the stories featuring the characters over the past half-century.

I have to admit that I’m quite surprised to see Warren Ellis writing for a year on Ultimate Fantastic Four. You could make the case for Ellis – an avowed technophile – as perhaps the perfect author for a high-concept series like the Fantastic Four. It was Mark Waid who dubbed the family “Imaginauts” – explorers of the imagination, rather than superheroes or guys in costumes. In a way, given how skilfully Ellis handled Tony Stark’s technological transformation in Extremis, you might not have been unreasonable in expecting he’d prove a deft hand with Marvel’s first family. However, reading the twelve issues he wrote for the title, it’s hard to get a sense that Ellis was ever really giving it his all – although he does play around a bit, it never feels like he’s genuinely pushing things to the limit and playing with all the associated toys. In fact, quite a lot of his run feels like it’s playing it safe.

See, the Thing is...

Note: Ellis’ run on the title picks up after the initial six issues written by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar, and so is split over the second half of the first hardcover and the first half of the second. The second hardcover is rounded off by a two-part Think Tank story from Mike Carey (who would take over as regular writer after Mark Millar) and an annual written by Millar. So this review/retrospective just covers the issues written by Ellis.

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: brian michael bendis, Bryan Hitch, comic books, doctor doom, Ellis, fantastic four, iron man, mark millar, mark waid, marvel comics, N-Space, reed richards, science fiction, tony stark, Ultimate Fantastic Four, warren ellis | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Captain America – The First Avenger

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Darren

Captain America: The First Avenger doesn’t have the heart of X-Men: First Class or the wit of Thor, but the story of Marvel’s star-spangled superhero does have its own charms. Part of it reflects its lead, little Steve Rogers, an appealing and sincere earnestness in dealing with material that it would be too easy to cynically dismiss. The First Avenger embraces the cheesiness at its core, and offers a rather stunning version of THE great American myth. Zack Snyder would do well to play close attention when bringing that other America fable to the big screen.

Patriot games...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Avengers The, captain america, captain america: the first avenger, chris evans, iron man, joss whedon, marvel comics, Marvel Studios, Old World, Red Skull, stan lee, Superhero film, United States, world war ii, zack snyder | 8 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Thor

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Darren

A special thanks to the guys over at movies.ie for sneaking us into an advanced preview screening.

To paraphrase the immortal Odin-son, “I say thee yay!”

In other words, a great start to blockbuster season.

If I had a hammer...

Note: Those unfamiliar with Thor might like to take a look at my informal introduction to the mythos, but – to be honest – Branagh handles it well enough you’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ve also written a piece about the film over at ComicBuzz, if you want to check it out.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: chris hemsworth, howard stark, iron man, kenneth branagh, marvel comics, non-review review, review, review of thor, superman, thor, thor film, thor film review, thor movie, thor movie review, thor review, tom hiddleston, walt simonson | 10 Comments »

Iron Man 3: Tony Stark to Face Real World Baddies…

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Darren

You know what? I was sad to hear that Jon Favreau wasn’t coming back to direct Iron Man 3, especially after Marvel so thoroughly mucked with his vision of Iron Man 2 – turning the second act into an extended infomercial for The Avengers. However, I was kinda glad to see Shane Black come on board, if only because his last collaboration with Robert Downey Jr. (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) was pure gold. Anyway, Black – as a screenwriter – will be writing the new Iron Man film, and he’s promising a Tom Clancy plot and “real world villains.” So what exactly does that mean?

The other "Man of Steel" (well, gold-titanium alloy)...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avengers, Christopher Nolan, iron man, iron man 2, iron man 3, james bond, jon favreau, kiss kiss bang bang, marvel, marvel comics, matt fraction, Movie, robert downey jr, Shane Black, superheroes, supervillains, tom clancy, tony stark | 2 Comments »

Thor 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Marvel’s Thor…

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Darren

Another year, another slew of massive comic book adaptations. While most people are familiar with Batman or Superman, I think that we’re moving away from the more popular comic book properties being adapted for the big screen. Last month I wrote a brief introduction to the Green Lantern mythos, as Martin Campbell’s blockbuster approaches. The response was good enough that I thought I might take a look at Marvel comics’ upcoming blockbuster Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh. Anyway, here’s the trailer.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: anthony hopkins, Asgard, captain america, chris hemsworth, iron man, J. Michael Straczynski, kenneth branagh, marvel comics, marvel universe, richard donner, stan lee, thor, thor 2011, thor film, thor movie | 4 Comments »

Eleven for Eleven: My Ten Most Anticipated Movies of 2011

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Darren

What with listing my top ten films of the past year and all that, I thought that I’d take the opportunity to look forward rather than backwards. So here are my eleven most anticipated movies coming out in the next year or so. I picked eleven, because I’m not 100% certain about the release date of one. As ever, these are for Irish and British cinemas, so four of these will be arriving in our theatres within the next three weeks. Which, I suppose is something to look forward to. Anyway, without any further adieu, here are my eleven most anticipated films of the year ahead.