The Best Laid Plans Of Daleks And Men…

Tell me again about the rabbits, George. Say, what's that clicking noi-

Gang aft agley. Or something. Look, I was going to do this whole review on a copy of Journey Into Mystery #626.1 I bought last week. I was going to delve into the psyche of a now adolescent Loki and discuss how great it was that a writer wanted to examine the often strained, acrimonious relationship between Loki and Thor from a fresh perspective. Would Loki still grow up to be a mistrusted and deadly God Of Lies And Mischief if he had the opportunity to do it all over again, growing up this time under the guidance of a much older brother whom he apparently worships? Or would the cards play out the same?

Who knows? I discovered that Journey Into Mystery #626.1 actually came out back in August and, furthermore, Matt Fraction killed off Thor in Fear Itself #7 this past week. So much for my well laid plan. Thanks, Fraction. Thanks, Time. Bastards.

Little Pieces Parts: Fear Itself #7 Review

EDITOR’S NOTE: This review contains spoilers. It’s a comic book where the good guys win. You have been warned.

Fear Itself #7, the ultimate chapter (Except for Fear Itself 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3, and don’t forget the Shattered Heroes followup) of Marvel’s tentpole event crossover of 2011 (Except for Spider-Island and X-Men: Schism), has everything you want from a book like this: a giant fight scene. Costume changes. A major character death. Iconic characters acting all iconic.

Yep, Fear Itself covers all the bases that the granddaddy of all crossover events, Secret Wars, threw down. It checks off all the boxes that Crisis On Infinite Earths put on the checklist. It mixes in all the ingredients that Civil War put in the recipe.

(Rob: Omit needless words. – Amanda)

Fine. It’s fucking formulaic, okay?

Every Generation’s Got Its Own Disease: Phoenix Returns

About a week and a half ago, we reported on a postcard that Marvel sent to comic book retailers like my local comic store owner, who knows me by name and asks me not to unbuckle my belt and tell him to “check out my back issue”, that simply read: “It’s Coming.” Following the right URL to Marvel’s Website brought you to a page containing a placeholder for their liveblog of Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada’s Cup ‘O Joe panel at the New York Comic Con.

Well, that panel took place yesterday. Tell us what’s coming, Marvel blogger UltimateKidNova!

The teaser “It’s Coming” was shown once more before being morphed into what seems to hint heavily at the return of a certain character named for a mythical flaming bird.

“Flaming bird,” huh? Can you be a little more specific? RuPaul? Devine? Beiber?

Yeah, even I’m not that hung over. Marvel’s bringing back Phoenix. Eventually. Marvel’s promo art they showed at the panel is after the jump.

I’m Assuming There’s A Point

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated 10/1/2011 with details about the fifth teaser. You can read more after the jump.

Earlier this year, Marvel rolled out the concept of a “Point One” issue of their books – an issue outside a book’s normal 12-issue run that would be written as a one-and-done book that wasn’t heavily tied into ongoing continuity to act as a jumping on point for new readers. Meaning that they’re old-school annuals, for all intents and purposes, but I’m guessing somewhere along the line Marvel realized “.1” is more attractive than “Annual”… or at least it is when you’re paying the printer by the letter.

Apparently the Point One initiative’s been pretty successful, and I tend to agree – we’ll probably be reviewing Black Panther 523.1 later week, and while we didn’t get a chance to review X-Factor #224.1, it was a tight story that was one hell of a way to get into the best X-Book you’re not reading. And it seems it’s been successful enough that earlier this week, Marvel announced a 64-page Point One issue for the entire Marvel Universe, where they’ll be teasing their events for 2012 and “the return of fan-demanded characters.” (But Marvel doesn’t reboot! Because Marvel makes no mistakes! And pay no attention to the fact that Bucky Barnes has been dead twice since 2005 while still co-headlining his own book!)

All week long, Marvel’s been rolling out teaser images for the one-shot, including stuff you’d expect for an event teaser, like Brian Michael Bendis’s and Bryan Hitch’s upcoming Ultron arc in Avengers and Matt Fraction’s already-announced Defenders book with penciller Terry Dodson… but they’ve also teased a return of Nova by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness… and yesterday they teased, well… THIS:

Hot, Sweet, Marvel Male Action

Just came across this (Hey, it was a long weekend, and I live 250 yards from a liquor store, a bar and a comic store. I’m only human. A deeply, deeply broken human) – Marvel published a live blog of a conference call between writers Matt Fraction, Cullen Bunn, Christopher Yost and Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort where they talked about the upcoming followups to the Fear Itself storyline: The Fearless and Battle Scars.

Go check it out for details from the horses’ mouths (And for some pretty art from Mark Bagley, Paul Lelletier, Frank Cho and Art Adams), but the nuts and bolts are that, no matter what happens with the Serpent in Fear Itself, the Hammers of The Worthy are still gonna be kicking around, in areas like Utopia, New York, the ocean and other far-flung areas that, purely by coincidence, are the perfect locations for heroes and villains to easily locate them so they can punch each other.