WTF moment of the week- The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Flipping channels during a nice hangover this weekend got me stuck on Disney XD for a few hours and no, I wasn't catching up on the latest Zeke and Luther (why do I even know this??)  To my surprise, all 20 Avengers: EMH! micro-episodes were being aired sequentially in anticipation of next week's premiere on Wednesday (5:30P/8:30E).

I caught a few of these web teasers when they started 2 months ago, but spending time and catching all of em was enough to fill a 30 minute spot on the DVR every Wednesday.  Each of the micro-episodes focused on one of the major players that will be apart of the Avengers cast.  The animation, voice-acting and thematic direction is solid and has enough mature undertones to keep the "big kids" tuned in.  What got me instantly

hooked and intrigued was in the Captain America webisodes-- that was played as an archive by Kang the Conqueror-- highlighting Steve Rogers origin and role in leading the Allies against the Red Skull and Hydra.  The freshest moments was a scene with the Howling Commandos about to lead an assault and none other than Logan was included.  Cap asked for Logan to get some recon and boom-- we get that lovely SNIKT!

But even cooler was when Bucky and Cap were on the tail of Red Skull (jump to 4:10 in the vid below) and we get some geeky-fab foreshadowing into who we most likely will be seeing in later episodes of the Avengers.  I so love how many of the great modernized story threads/concepts from comicbooks are being applied to all of the mediums-- be it TV, film, toys and videogames.  Avengers Assemble!!

This post was written by:
big O

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Ticklin' Spines - 9/23/2009

Title - Writer/Artist/V-variant cover (artist)

Blackest Night:Superman #2 - James Robinson / Eddy Barros & Ruy Jose / V (Shane Davis & Sandra Hope)

Dark Reign:The List - X-Men (One Shot) - Matt Fraction / Alan Davis

Dark X-Men:The Confession (One Shot) - Christopher Yost & Craig Kyle / Mitch Breitweiser

Darkness/Pitt #2 - Paul Jenkins / Dale Keown / V (Bagus Hutomo)

Detective Comics #857 - Greg Rucka / JH Williams III

Fantastic Four #571 - Jonathan Hickman / Dale Eaglesham / V (Eaglesham)

Immortal Weapons #3 - Rick Spears & Duane Swierczynski / Timothy Green II

Incredible Hulk #602 - Greg Pak / Ariel Olivetti / V (Super Hero Squad Variant)

Ms. Marvel #45 - Brian Reed / Sana Takeda

Spider Woman #1 - Brian Michael Bendis / Alex Maleev

Superman:Secret Origin #1 - Geoff Johns / Gary Frank & Jon Sibal / V

Uncanny X-Men #515 - Matt Fraction / Greg Land

Wolverine:Old Man Logan Giant-Size #1 - Matt Millar / Steve McNiven / V,2 (Ed McGuinness, Paolo Manuel Rivera)

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Don't Crease The Piece of the Week

Last week was a good one for comic books. A plethora of amazing stories/art (from good to amazing) - Flash:Rebirth, Green Lantern, Blackest Night:Titans, Batman & Robin, Fantastic Four/Incredible Hulk/The Darkness & Pitt (as I mentioned below), and Dark Wolverine. Even Dark X-Men:The Beginning #3 was surprisingly good.

That being said, this was a tough choice. But my pick of the week goes to:
X-Force #18
Writer:Christopher Yost & Craig Kyle / Artist: Mike Choi & Sonia Oback

This is by far the best of the X-Books out there right now. Yost & Kyle do an excellent job of capturing the essence of each character, whether it be a main or supporting member. Yes there are many sub-plots going on but it doesn't feel over-saturated (though I love the series, the Green Lantern/Blackest night arc & tie-ins seem a little much sometimes). The primary plot is the capture of X-23 and her reunion with her old handler:Kimura. Though Kimura seems to be enjoying herself (see above), Laura is far from things getting any better for her (and thats if she does).
I cannot to say enough of Choi & Oback's artwork. Choi's penciling is spot on and Oback's beautiful use of greys & dark colors captures the drama of the writing.
Equal parts of good story telling and action. And there are lots of it. If you are an X-fan, a definite must read.

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