Thunderbolts #110
written by Warren Ellis, art by Mike Deodato

As Civil War trudges along, it’s finally time for the much-hyped new Thunderbolts lineup launch! While I’m a longtime fan of the group under Fabian Nicieza’s excellent pen (and I question the decision of taking the book out from under him – again), I won’t deny that the different approach Warren Ellis is bringing to the table has caught my interest.

In the new lineup we have cold-blooded killers mixed in with former, more heroic Thunderbolts. With the psychotics being controlled by nanites, and unwilling holdovers being forced on the team for yet unexplained reasons, things are no doubt going to be tense and violent, and with the ever-brilliant Mike Deodato (ever-famous for his work on the Hulk – where he even drew the Thunderbolts’ first appearance, in Incredible Hulk #449) on pencils, they should also look fantastic. Keep on reading after the jump for 5 preview pages – you really don’t want to miss it; Bullseye show off the different facets of his crazy while never lifting a finger – and also for our quick ‘n dirty rundown on the characters involved.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

So 2006 has come and passed, and that means it’s time for retrospectives. In the world of comics, it’s been a busy year, and while everyone’s going to tell you what was the best and what was the worst, what I want to look at is what books surpassed their hype, and what books made you regret (or at least SHOULD make you regret) forking over your hard-earned cash. So here they are: Five books that made me look forward to the next issue and everything that the creative team will ever produce in the future … and five books that might make me wish I’d just set my money on fire instead, because at least my brain wouldn’t have those abominations permanently etched into its squiggly wrinkles.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Ah, how I long for the good old days, when talking about the “New Fantastic Four” meant talking about Spidey, Grey Hulk, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider. But Marvel just sent this image out, suggesting that this may be our NEW New Fantastic Four in the near future . Of course, this would hardly be the first time the lineup got a shakedown – most notably when She-Hulk filled in for Ben Grimm, less notably when Scott Lang filled in for Reed Richards. Of course, there are many others that haved filled in at various points over the years, but this Michael Turner image is a rare sight, as we don’t usually see more than one member missing – Here we have Storm and Black Panther replacing both Sue and Reed Richards… despite the rift between the Richards duo being a significant part of Civil War.

So when can we expect some answers, you ask? Well, the solicits for Civil War-crossover-issues 542 and 543 both tease that Civil War may leave the FF with a new lineup, and 544’s solicits (and cover image) are ‘classified’. Of course, this is also when veteran writer Dwayne McDuffie (who’s currently showing off his writing chops in Beyond!) and artist Paul Pelletier (who can occasionally be seen in Exiles) take over the book too, so if there’s going to be a shakeup, odds are you should keep your eyes out for when the book drops in March!

The Four Horsemen announced the results of the third round of voting for the FANtastic Exclusive on the FANtastic Forums as well as some information on the next round.

The big winner of the Four Horsemen’s FANtastic Exclusive 2007 (http://www.FANtasticExclusive.com) was actually the smallest choice. Action figure fans had the chance to choose from three different sizes for the 7th Kingdom’s “Elephant Swordsman”, and they chose the smallest of the three – 8” to 9” tall. The other two choices were 10” to 11” tall and 12” and taller. These sizes were chosen to represent the basic 6” scale of the Four Horsemen’s previous FANtastic Exclusive release, “Xetheus: Champion of Mynothecea”.

The Four Horsemen expect the next round of voting to begin early next week and will kick off with a discussion thread in the FANtastic Exclusive message boards that begins today. In the fourth round of voting, fans will once again get the chance to choose both the amount and style of articulation the “Elephant Swordsman” will be sporting.

Should he have the exact same amount of articulation as last year’s Xetheus? Maybe your idea is that the “Elephant Swordsman” needs more articulation since a swordsman would need to be quick and agile? Maybe you think the “Elephant Swordsman” doesn’t need as much articulation as some other figures because he’s a bulky, hulking elephant? Hey, now’s your chance you tell us!

So, just drop by the FANtastic Exclusive message boards over the weekend, get in on the discussion, and let us know what you think. Then, early next week be sure to stop in again to vote for your articulation choices.

FANtastic Exclusive 2007. Your voice. Your toys. Your choice.

Toys News International is showing off some of the first wave of Marvel Legends under the direction of Hasbro. While a few fans have expressed distaste for the future of this line, I’m going on record as saying Planet Hulk looks cool.

See the gallery of Emma Frost, Ultimate Iron Man, Banshee, Planet Hulk and Hercules here: Hasbro Marvel Legends Series 1

One thing I think all can agree on, the new bubble packaging looks really nice. Its a big departure from the rather rectangular boxes Legends has has for years now, but its a lot more vivid and eye catching. Now it appears we’re losing the pack-in comic book, but we’re gaining a much better logo.

Ultimately we’re going to have to get these in hand before we can really tell whether Hasbro has improved or doomed this line. Either way, distribution is about to get a lot better and we’ll have to chase a lot less variants.

Thanks Josh!

The Incredible Hulk #100
Written by Greg Pak, art by Carlo Pagulayan

What more can be said about this issue? It’s not like we haven’t talked about it before. And tomorrow, it’s finally here! To reiterate – We launch headlong into the last leg of Planet Hulk, an excellent and exciting story that you need to be reading already, and we also get a Civil War connection in the backup story drawn by the awesome Gary Frank. AND, there are reprints. Honestly, God only knows which issues are being reprinted in this now though – Reports are saying it’s only #152 and #300 getting reprinted. I’ve given up on believing what’s being said about that part – when the book’s in my hands, that’s when I’ll know for sure.

That said, enjoy the preview pages, now with text!

Criminal #1
Written by Ed Brubaker, art by Sean Phillips

It’s tempting to pick out any number of the books coming out tomorrow (Vaughan on Dr. Strange, Wolfman on Nightwing, Incredible Hulk #99), but the book that you might not have heard of (that is, if you don’t read a lot of comics news) is also the one I’m looking forward to the most: Criminal, by Brubaker and Phillips.

We’ve talked about Brubaker a couple of times here before, referencing his current (and extremely well-executed) runs on Uncanny X-Men and Captain America, but the first time his work caught my attention, it was on the Wildstorm book Sleeper, his previous collaboration with Sean Phillips.

It was a brilliant story of subterfuge and spy games, with each issue being joyous mess of hell for the protagonist. It challenged the concepts of right and wrong; and the clever role of super-powers (in a world with super-powered individuals) was the icing on an already glorious cake, as things were regularly viewed through a different sort of lens, making every experience fresh and surprising, much like how he’s been handling Captain America.

Now, I realize that those titles all involved super-powers, and to a certain extent the spandex uniforms that go with them, and here is where Criminal differs. It’s a straight up crime book, with nothing tying into the super-hero universes that we know and love. And that’s not a bad thing – If this inspires him to such devious heights as he took us to on Sleeper, then this will be my favorite book to come out this year. Not to mention, Brubaker is reuniting with his former Sleeper co-conspirator, Sean Philips, who you may have recently seen in the Marvel Zombies title.

I guess I’ve done enough fanboyish gushing to tell you how I feel about this comic to make me feel like a chump if the book doesn’t turn out as good as I hyped it (I’m looking at you, Boys #1). But based on the glowing track record of these two creators, it’s really hard for me to believe that it will fail my expectations in the least.

SuperHeroTimes has some nice pics up of the Icons wave 2 figures along with the variants. I have mirrored the images below. Wave 2 includes Venom and the Incredible Hulk. The variants are Grey Hulk and unmasked Venom. The wave has recently had many sightings so keep an eye out! I saw the Grey Hulk last week.