SPOILERS - Avengers World # 2

The fate of Smasher in the pages of Avengers World # 2 by Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer with art by Stefano Casseli.

In this issue we find out that Cannonball, Sunspot and Cannonball's girlfriend Smasher aka Izzie Dare have been captured by AIM. Sam and Bobby are critically injured and AIM Scientist Supreme Andrew Forson has decides to turn Smasher into her messenger. They set Izzie free and as she wanders around, she encounters the new environment that AIM has developed...

While Izzie is slowly transforming, we find out that AIM has been in cahoots with the Entropic Man.

Poor Izzie. :( Thats now how you treat the granddaughter of Dan Dare.

Whether this is going to be a good thing or a bad thing is something that is still up in the air. Hope this upgrade's for the better.

Avengers World # 2 is finally out in the market right now.

Avengers # 25 Spoilers - Time Travelling Founding Members

In this week's Avengers # 25, Jonathan Hickman and co. do a superpowered crime caper with Earth's Mightiest Heroes as suspects for the death of "a" Hank Pym.

In this issue we find out that there's a time displaced Avengers from another Earth and that SHIELD is on the case. Oh and here's what Hank Pym looks like...

Much like how things have ended in Trinity War and kicked off in Forever Evil where the bad guys travel to our world with a dead Superman in tow.

So basically what happened is that this group of founding Avengers team got ported just before their Earth was consumed/ devoured by another Incursion.

Avengers # 25 is already out this week.

Infinity # 6 Spoilers - Thanos' Final Fate

Infinity # 6 was nice but still not-that quite satisfying. But for something that was built to be this big, it shined brightly.

What's really interesting here was the ending to the Thanos plot thread. This was the big fight and it doesn't get any bigger with Captain America leading a handful of the most powerful members of his team against Thanos and what's left of his Order including Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive.

In the final pages of the Thanos chapter, we see Thor go head to head against Thanos...

Oh and Thane is also here watching his pappy's fight against the Avengers. That's when the whole face-turn-heel moment comes about...

So what exactly happened to Thanos after that flashing light?

Turned into amber no less by Thane. Same goes for Proxima Midnight.

It's living death for the organisms that gets Thane pissed off. The Avengers win, the Earth is saved and the galactic alliance return to their lives to rebuild. Meanwhile, the Illuminati adds in a new prize to their secret stash.

Thank you Jonathan Hickman, Jim Cheung and Dustin Weaver for this wonderful tale. It's on the upper echelons of good Marvel stories that have come out in the past two years or so. 

INFINITY # 5 Review

Semi-spoilery review for INFINITY # 5 by Jonathan Hickman, Dustin Weaver and Jerome Opena.

THIS!

This is probably the weakest issue of Infinity. There I said it. Even though it's the weakest you still get to enjoy it as it's got it's moments. Sadly this was just a literal drag with nothing really happening (by that I mean now planets or ships getting blown up).

It's a standard 'talkies' issue reminiscent of a bad issue of Bendis written Avengers. Only it's not so bad because we get more Captain America coolness, a bit of spotlight on Thanos, Black Bolt and the Illuminati all in one sitting.

Still a must-read if you're following the intergalactic saga of the main Avengers team. Oh and it also sucks that after so much build-up on The Builders (Badump-tss) they get so easily knocked down a peg. You can't help but feel sorry that the Avengers had the ultimate deus ex machina, Captain Universe amongst their roster.

INFINITY # 4 SPOILERS

SPOILER ALERT!

Here's a couple of things that were pretty interesting from INFINITY # 4 by Jonathan Hickman, Jerome Opena and Dustin Weaver.

So over in the ruins of Attilan, Thanos and Blackbolt resume their fight. Of course Thanos figures out that the first scream that Black Bolt released was also used to detonate the terrigen mist bomb across Earth.

Yes it actually sucked that Thanos beats Black Bolt in one-on-one combat.

In another part of the world, in that hidden Inhuman settlement, we meet Thane, in his 'human' form.

Sadly, that's all shortlived as the Terrigen Mist wave coming from the explosion in Attilan heads their way and transforms everybody, Thane included.



Thane emerges in a new form, one that looks a lot like his dear old dad.

Meanwhile in Space, particularly in the Kree homeworld of Hala, Captain America sends in his emissary after surrendering to the conquering Builder. Unfortunately for the Builder, Cap sends the one who controls the thunder and the one who's coming out with a movie on October 30... THOR...

Thor shows that he surrenders by hurling his hammer Mjolnir into space and then gets slapped in the face by that obnoxious, little prawn Builder.

So while the Builder is doing his litany AND preparing to kill Thor, Mjolnir has already made a full circle and is hurtling back to it's owner.

And then Thor proceeds to bring the hammer down, so to speak...

He then delivers the killing blow to the arrogant little Builder...



And spouts something, the Bay-verse Optimus Prime would say. Oh and then he poses with the hammer bearing Accusers of Hala including Ronan the Accuser...

Thing suddenly went from INTERESTING to VERY INTERESTING...

What are you waiting for, get your copies now. 

Are the Avengers Going Global?

A new teaser from Marvel Comics for their upcoming panels in NYCC shows the word GLOBAL with a green hue.

And more importantly it boasts of a stellar creative team. 

So yeah, we got Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer (who's doing Secret Avengers) and Stefano Caselli who was also working with Avengers prior to INFINITY.

So what could this be? I've been reading the comments from various groups and it feels like they're on to something.

- It could either be a new expansion for the Avengers i.e. taking in new members from other superteams from around the world like Alpha Flight or Big Hero 6. 

- It could be a Hulk-centric storyline which is kinda dumb in my opinion.

- It could tie up to whatever will happen in the next Avengers storyarc featuring a renegade planet on a collision course with Earth (which would be interesting and solicited as well). 

Either way, NYCC is just around the corner so let's just play the waiting game. 

New Avengers # 9 Spoilers

In this issue written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Mike Deodato Jr. we find out a couple of things.

1. Namor without Atlantis is really nothing. It diminishes his strength in some way.



2. Black Panther (T'Challa) is a non-king not to be trifled with.



3. The X-Men's School should really build a fortress if they want to keep their students safe.



4. Namor can be a smug bastard and can also be a conniving bastard...



5. When a powerful psychic gets a drop on Doctor Strange, the latter can be pretty useless.



6. The X-Men should really train harder against psychic attacks.

INFINITY # 3 Review - Minor Spoilers

Reviewing Infinity # 3 by Jonathan Hickman, Jerome Opena and Dustin Weaver.

This week's INFINITY # 3 shows us that Captain America is still the baddest mofo in the Universe and that having no powers do not mean he can't beat battles with powerful enemies like The Builders. It's also a prelude of bigger things coming down with the Inhumans.

Hickman plays the galactic opera very well with a badly beaten Galactic Council turning tail and leaving behind only a handful of troops. Luckily for readers it happens to be Earth's Mightiest Heroes, The Avengers led by Captain America. 

I like the dichotomy of this issue. One side we see a victory on the space front led by Captain America and on the other side of the playing field we see a kingdom crumble partly due to that supreme a-hole Thanos. 

So far, I'm impressed with how Hickman is handling Infinity. Issue 3 is a great addition to the list of good products that Marvel Comics has released in the past few months. There's this elegance and grandness in terms of scope and he yet he micromanages everything to make it cohesive. 

Opena and Weaver's art was fantastic. Opena is a monster when it comes to doing xenomorphic creatures and weird spacecrafts. Plus he pulled off something fantastic in my book. He managed to make Captain America look so cool barking orders at his team.

Weaver's work was excellent here, on equal footing with Opena's work actually. That guy can convey emotions with his art such as the madness in Maximus the Mad's eyes, the worry in Queen Medusa's face and Black Bolt's adamant stance vs Thanos.

Go pick up INFINITY # 3, you'll be happy you did. 

MARVEL NOW 2 Officially Announced with Avengers, Inhumans and Invaders

Marvel Comics has just released their opening salvo for the second wave of Marvel Now titles coming our way starting December. These include familiar faces with new creative teams. 

So yes, James Robinson has jumped aboard the Marvel ship and I'm really hoping he kicks ass with this new title featuring unlikely allies Captain America, the Original Human Torch (Jim Hammond), Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier and Namor.

Then there's also AVENGERS # 24 which kicks off a brand new story arc entitled ROGUE PLANET which sees Cap and Iron Man creating a new Avengers team to stop a runaway train-esque planet from colliding with Earth. Even awesome is the fact that they have Esad Ribic as artist.

Finally, the most obvious title that will be coming out for the second wave of Marvel Now titles, INHUMANS by Matt Fraction and Joe Madureira. Guess we have to track down INFINITY closely to understand the story.

Oh and let's not forget about the in-betweener book INHUMANITY which just had it's first cover revealed a few days ago.

INFINITY # 2 Variants by Skottie Young and Steve McNiven

Check out these two variant covers for Marvel's INFINITY # 2 by Jonathan Hickman, Dustin Weaver and Jerome Opena.

STEVE MCNIVEN INFINITY # 2 VARIANT

I hate this updated look for Sam Wilson aka The Falcon. He definitely looks like the X-Men villain Sauron...

SKOTTIE YOUNG INFINITY # 2 VARIANT

Cuteness. Just cuteness everywhere.

INFINITY # 2 comes out September 2013.