Marvel Universe – 4/29/12

Welcome to this week’s installment of Marvel Universe.  Today’s episode of Ultimate Spider-man is titled “Why I Hate the Gym.”  Taskmaster infiltrates the school as a gym teacher to try to discover the identity of Spider-man.  Today’s episode of The Avengers is titled “To Steal an Ant-man.”  Hank must get some help when he discovers someone has stolen his equipment.  In the short segments we see someone climb walls “like” Spider-man, Fury Files profile White Tiger, J. Scott Campbell draws Iron Fist, and of course there are more of those Marvel Mash-ups.

Ultimate Spider-man – “Why I Hate the Gym”
Spider-man is chasing a villain called The Leaper, while Doc Ock and Taskmaster are watching video, when White Tiger tells him that Nick Fury wants him to report back for training. Peter Parker shows up late for school.  Coulson tells him and and Flash Thompson that they have a new gym teacher for today named Jager.  Jager, who is actually The Taskmaster, makes the kids run an obstacle course to judge their abilities to see if any of them are Spider-man.  Peter intentionally fails in order to maintain his cover.  Jager asks Flash, Danny, and Harry to come back tomorrow for the finals.  Ava is upset she wasn’t asked to come back, and decides to show up anyways.  That night, Taskmaster knocks out Coulson in his office, and accesses the SHIELD security.  Ava calls Peter, and tells him that something is wrong with the school.  Spider-man joins her at the school to see what is going on.  They find Stan the Janitor, and rescue him.  However, he falls through another trap door.  They find Coulson hanging above a vat of acid.  Coulson tells them that Taskmaster is behind this.  He tells them to get out, but they race off to save Harry.  Harry, Flash, and Danny are running from Taskmaster.  Flash and Harry escape before a blast door closes.  Danny stays behind to fight Taskmaster, but is defeated. Taskmaster captures Harry to lure Spider-man out.  It works as Spider-man confronts Taskmaster.  Taskmaster thinks Flash is Spider-man, and defeats him.  White Tiger attacks him, but isn’t able to beat him either.  Taskmaster has them both in trouble when he offers Spider-man a job.  Spider-man escapes him, after finding out that Taskmaster used to work for Fury.  They come up with a plan to outsmart Taskmaster.  Spider-man lures him into a completely dark room, and uses nightvision in his mask, and gives an extra mask to White Tiger.  They also switch gloves to surprise Taskmaster.  They also change up where things are in the gym.  They momentarily defeat Taskmaster, but he’s eventually able to escape out the window.  Taskmaster returns to Doc Ock, and tells him that Spider-man is not a student.

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5th Week Extravaganza

Today is a special day, because it is the 5th Monday of the month.  And you know what that means.  It’s time for another 5th Week Extravaganza.  Here at Comicdom Wrecks, we try to treat this special day by doing something special for you, our loyal readers.  And to me, something special means that something we don’t normally do on the blog.  Today, that means going through Deviant Art, and spotlighting fan pictures that I think you should take a look at.  Being that it’s me, expect a lot of Batman stuff.  It’s going to go like this.  If I really like what I see on their site, I’ll post my favorite picture, tell you who drew it, and give you a brief synopsis of what comic related stuff is on their site.  It should go without saying that I recommend that you visit each of these sites.  Since there are going to be a lot of pictures, I’m putting them all behind the break.  Enjoy.

DC Nation – 4/28/12

Welcome to this week’s installment of DC Nation.  Today’s episode of Green Lantern is titled “In Love and War.”  The Green Lanterns discover the Star Sapphires.  Today is the first episode of season two of Young Justice, which added Invasion to the title, and is titled “Happy New Year.”  It’s five years later, and the team discovers alien invaders.  The short segments include a profile of Blue Beetle (Jamie Reyes), a Super Best Friends Forever cartoon titled “Grounded,” and a new Mad cartoon titled “Teen Titanic.”  Once again, I imagine that I’ve spelled most of the things wrong in the Green Lantern episode.  I’ll fix it when I can find the correct spellings.

Green Lantern:  The Animated Series – “In Love and War”
Kilowog is feeling down about leaving Galia behind.  Hal is trying to cheer him up when Aya alerts them that there is something 20 seconds away.  It turns out that this thing is a giant space monster.  They are aided by two Star Saphires, named Acapo, Gyita.  They offer the Lanterns rest and repairs on their home planet of Zamaron.  Acapo looks into Kilowog, and sees he’s suffering from a broken heart.  A Star Sapphire ring goes to Galia.  Acapo tells Hal that they used to be with the Guardians, long ago, but they disagreed with the Guardians about the role of emotions.  The Sapphires believed that only love could heal the universe.  Gyita takes Hal on a tour, but he brushes her advances off.  Kilowog runs into Galia.  He asks how she got here, but she tells him to hush, and that she has something that can keep them together forever.  Aya has fixed the ship, but she can’t get Kilowog to respond.  Razer contacts Hal, who tells him not to worry.  It’s revealed that Kilowog has been encased in a crystal.  Queen Acapo is unhappy that Hal hasn’t fallen in love with Gyita yet, and tells her to take stronger actions.  Gyita gives Hal a drink, and finds that he already has a true love in Carol Ferris.  Acapo sends a ring to Carol.  On Earth, Carol has just been told that Hal can’t be found when she’s offered a ring.  Razer approaches Acapo, and demands to know where Kilowog is.  Acapo invites Razer to join her in searching for him.  She denies Aya entrance though.  Aya decides to go on her own search, and finds Kilowog, among many others, encased in crystal.  When she tries to contact Razer, she is attacked by Galia.  She subdues Galia, and flees.  Aya finds Razer as Acapo was offering him drinks, and tells him that Kilowog has been imprisoned.  The ring transports Carol to Hal.  Carol sees Gyita, becomes jealous, and attacks her.  Eventually, Hal is able to reason with Carol, and get her to stop fighting.  They kiss, she comes to her senses, and Hal tells her what’s been going on.  Gyita tells Carol that she can use the power of love to keep him.  Carol tells her that that isn’t actually love.  Carol gives back the Star Sapphire ring, and is returned to Earth.  Hal gets Kilowog out of the crystal, and they go to help Razer and Aya, who are fighting Acapo and her guards.  Gyita tries to convince Acapo to release them.  Acapo looks into Razer’s mind, and realizes that Aya looks like Razer’s love Alana.  With the help of Gyita, the Green Lanterns are able to escape.

Marvel Universe – 4/22/12

Welcome to this week’s installment of Marvel Universe.  Sorry for the delay, but my normal watching schedule was thrown off a bit this past weekend.  Today’s episode of Ultimate Spider-man is titled “Flight of the Iron Spider.”  Spider-man meets Iron Man, and is given a gift.  Today’s episode of The Avengers is titled “Welcome to the Kree Empire.”  The Kree arrive at Earth with thoughts of taking over, giving Carol Danvers a chance to use the powers she’s received.  The short segments include a martial arts demonstration, a profile of Iron Fist, and a repeat of Joe Quesada drawing Captain America.  Oh, and those damn mash-up things, but I ignore them.

Ultimate Spider-man – Flight of the Iron Spider
Spider-man isn’t doing so well in a fight against the Living Laser, so the rest of the team comes to help.  They don’t do well either, but then Iron Man shows up and defeats him.  Spider-man is a bit awestruck by Iron Man.  He joins in on a conversation Iron Man is having with Nick Fury.  He suggests how to find Living Laser, and Iron Man tells him that he likes Spider-man.  A couple days later, Tony Stark takes Spider-man on a tour of just lab.  At the end of the tour, Stark shows him armor he created for him when he had an hour to kill.  Back on the Helicarrier, the team starts their training without Spider-man.  When they finished.  Spider-man shows up wearing the armor Stark developed.  Things don’t go very well when he first tries to use the armor, and he destroys the training room.  Days later, Spider-man has grown a bit arrogant regarding his new armor, but is destroying everything around him.  Living Laser shows back up, and Fury sends everyone but Spider-man.  However, Spider-man shows up anyway.  Power Man tells Spider-man that he should hang back until he learns how to use the suit.  Spider-man doesn’t listen, but can’t control the suit.  The team tells Spider-man that he’s pretty useless while he’s in Stark’s armor.  Living Laser has infected Spider-man’s suit, and takes control of it.  Laser uses the Iron Spider suit to attack Iron Man.  Laser threatens Peter’s life unless Iron Man lowers his security.  Iron Man does, so Laser jumps to Iron Man’s suit.  Back at the Helicarrier, the team finds Spider-man working on the armor.  Spider-man apologizes to the team.  They all head to Stark Industries to rescue Iron Man.  Spider-man uses his armor to find the security fail-safe in Iron Man’s armor.  Spider-man sends a volt into Stark’s mind that wakes him up.  Stark takes control of his armor, and expels the Laser.  Iron Man leads Laser away, while Spider-man heads to a device that will send Laser to a different dimension.  Spider-man is able to activate the device in time to send Laser in a different dimension.  Laser ends up in the Super Hero Squad show.  On the Helicarrier, Fury shows Spider-man that they’ve improved the suit, and made it so that it looks like a backpack when not in use.

Around the web

It is once again time for our monthly installment of Around the Web, where I search the entirety of the series of tubes that compose the Internet, to find a web comic to read through.  My past history with this column has told me that if I find an ongoing series, I’m not going to like it.  And so, that is the mindset that I set out with, browsing through a list of “recently updated” webcomics, and found Pirates of Mars.  I use quotes because this webcomic hasn’t actually been updated since October 10, 2011.  But that doesn’t really matter.  There are just over 100 entries in this series.  The first 96 entries compose the first volume.

The story is about a widow named Victoria Lovelace, that became a pirate captain after the death of her Naval husband.  She must lead her band of pirates that includes the loyal Chief, the disgruntled Sadir, and a murderous robot.  Like all pirates, they have to deal with the day-to-day problems of being pirates:  how much money am I going to get, how high is the crew’s moral, will I get to kill lots of humans.  (Well, that last one is just the robot’s concern.)  And aside from the concerns of being pirates, they find themselves tossed into the middle of a rebellion.

After reading the entire series, I must admit that I really liked it.  It was a very fun.  The dialogue was entertaining.  The characters were all given distinct characterization.  The story seemed well thought out and focused.  It didn’t try to do too much.  The story mostly stayed with the main group of pirates, which helped to develop the characters personality, and endear them to the readers.  I believe this is what separates this webcomic from others that I have read.  When the characters are put in danger, I care what happens to them because I’ve gotten to know them.  It’s amazing how simple of an idea this is.  If people get to know and care about your characters, then they will care about what happens to them.  The action and plot twists will have meaning.  If people don’t care about the characters, then it simple doesn’t matter how amazing the action is, or how surprising your twists are.

The art is also pretty good.  The website says that volume 2 will be in color, so I’m interested to see how that changes things.  Currently, it is in black and white.  There were a few panels here and there that weren’t very clear, but those were in the minority.  There were also a few spots where it was difficult to tell exactly who said what.  But those are few, and since each character has their own voice, the reader can figure it out.

In the end, I highly recommend that you read this story.  I think you’ll enjoy it.

DC Nation – 4/21/12

Welcome to this week’s installment of DC Nation.  Today’s episode of Green Lantern is titled “Fear Itself.”  Hal and Kilowog find themselves on opposite sides of warring alien races.  Today’s episode of Young Justice is titled “Auld Aquaintance.”  The team must rescue the Justice League from Vandal Savage.  The shorts today include a look at costumes from WonderCon, a Plastic Man cartoon, and a Teen Titans cartoon.

Green Lantern:  The Animated Series – “Fear Itself”
Hal and Kilowog eat the last of their rations, grossed out by what each other are eating.  Aya finds a nearby planet that they can find food on.  Hal and Kilowgo split up, going their own route to find food.  Kilowog comes across a female, and defends her against squid-like things.  When things go wrong, she saves him.  Hal is flying along, admiring the scenery when suddenly his ring stops working.  He thinks the scanner is finding him something to eat, but each time it backfires.  Kilowog wakes up after having a nightmare about the destruction of his planet and family.   Nelia brought him back to her home, and feeds him some soup.Hal is attacked by the same squid-like things, and his ring has no effect on them.  Nelia takes Kilowog to meet the village elder.  He asks him to save them against the Nodarra.  Hal was taken back by the squid-like people to their home.  Razer needs to charge up his ring, but he no longer wants to say the oath.  Kilowog is training soldiers of the alien race he was brought back to.  The “squid Norman” leads Hal around, and shows him the yellow crystals.  Hal recognizes them from the prison.  He sets off to find Kilowog.  Nelia is cooking with the yellow crystals.  Kilowog has another nightmare.  After waking up, Kilowog decides that they need to attack the Nodarra (squids) immediately.  Nelia gives Kilowog a headband made from the yellow crystal.  They find each other, but Kilowog thinks Hal is a traitor, and orders them to attack.  Hal tries to explain that the yellow crystals are making them crazy.  Eventually, Hal gets through to Kilowog, and they stop the Zor attack.  Hal explains that the Nodarra mine the crystals, and know that the crystal harms others.  That is why they were trying to keep it away from the Zor.  Hal gets some food, as Kilowog says good-bye to Nelia.  Aya returns to Razer, with a new oath for him to try to recharge his ring.  Razer tells her that it worked, but it was a lie.

Night of the Owls: Week 1

This week, the Batman family of titles started their latest crossover titled “Night of the Owls.”  The story is a continuation of the “Court of Owls” story that Scott Snyder had been writing within the pages of Batman.  To quickly sum up that story, and give you the information you need to follow this story, here’s what happened.  Batman was attacked by a villain named The Talon, who is the assassin for the Court of Owls.  Batman, having spent so much time within the inner workings of Gotham City refused to believe that the Court of Owls were anything more than a children’s fairy tale.  That is, until he was captured by them.  Long story short, after much psychological torture, he was able to escape, capturing the Talon in the process.  It turns out that The Talon is actually Dick Grayson’s great-grandfather.  The Court of Owls found a way to reanimate dead tissue, only if the body was prepared for it during life.  Not only that, but Dick Grayson was also supposed to be the Talon for this era.  (This scene was in both Batman #7 and Nightwing #7, since it also tied up the end of the story going on in Nightwing.)  Having lost Batman, the Court of Owls reanimates many more of their Talons, and sends them out to kill specific targets.  And this is where the story begins.

Batman #8 – A large group of Talons attack Wayne Manor in order to kill Bruce Wayne.
Nightwing #8 – Nightwing attempts to rescue Mayor Hady from an attack by a Talon.

*note:  Nightwing is listed as a prelude, and Batman is listed as the beginning.  After reading them in that order, this doesn’t make any sense.  The events of Nightwing take place obviously after the events in Batman.  You’ll see when you read on.

Oh yeah, spoilers after the jump.