Inner Conflicts with Marvel

When it comes to comics, i have to have to FULL picture. Take DC Comics for example. With their New 52 format, they've re-started their entire universe. (If you don't know about the New 52, you could always check out my earlier posts... please? I've had like 3 views in the past week.) As it stands now, i read over half of DC's monthly releases. The titles i don't read monthly I buy in collected volumes. Basically I've read about 85% of DC's collective universe.
Marvel is a different story. I've always had mixed feelings for the title that the company publishes. the X-Men are great but there's like a million of them and there's always like 20 ongoing X-Men titles at any given time.

The series is so bogged down by continuity it's almost impossible to just pick up the series. Did you know there are two mutant schools now? Yeah. One ran by Cyclops and the other by Wolverine. That's right. The immortal, claw welding psychopath is now teaching children. But wait. Wolverine isn't immortal anymore because terrorists from a miniature universe decided to sap Wolverine's healing factor. Well at least the other school is taught by Cyclops, Professor  Xavier's star pupil. No way anything could go wrong the-

What was that? Cyclops is recently escaped from jail where he was imprisoned for allowing the Phoenix Force to inhabit the bodies of the X-Men and almost destroy the world a billionth time?

Great.

Spider-Man's okay too except no, not really. He's a 30 year old man who hops around New York City in bi-colored long-johns and who has more anxiety and depression then Hamlet. Don't get me wrong, Spider-Man is a great character and when he was younger (like high-school and college days) the costume choice and the forced witty humor made more sense. 

There hasn't been any growth in Spider-Man since he realized that "with great power there must also come great responsibility". And even then he allowed Gwen Stacey to get thrown off a building to her death. Because THAT'S responsible.  What Spider-Man needs is more character growth. More love and respect from those who write th-

What was that? Doctor Octopus switched his mind with Peter Parker's while Ock was on his death bed? So Parker's dead and the Good Doctor is now Spider-Man? The sad part is it's a great series. REALLY great. And it's all going to go down the drain. Everyone knows Peter Parker will come back. EVERYONE. So once he does we just go back to two years ago before any of this happened.

Then there are the classics: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, THE AVENGERS. The only problem with these characters is the movies that Marvel has been releasing. With the popularity of the movie franchises Marvel has been changing and upgrading their characters to better fit with the movies. I have two examples of this: Nick Fury and Phil Coulson.

In The Avengers Fury is played by the irreplaceable Sam Jackson. Well those of you who knew about Nick Fury before the movies probably know that he's an old Caucasian man in the comic books. (Except the Ultimate version, which is the one the movie based Fury off of.) Well now we have a white Fury and a Black Fury. Except no we don't, because that's confusing. Around the time that Marvel released Superior Spider-Man, Fury was rebooted as an African-American. I'm not the kind of guy to get upset over something like changing the race of a character (Miles Morales is a great Ultimate Spider-Man) but it is pretty confusing.

Then we have Coulson. Who died in the Avengers but not really. I guess he just got down-sized to a TV show or something? Now there's a Phil Coulson of the Ultimate Marvel universe and in the mainstream Marvel Universe. I don't even know what the guy is useful for at this point. 

Forever...

Forever Evil is the first company-wide cross over event DC Comics has released since The New 52 reboot. The cross over occurs in the aftermath of  Trinity War, itself a three title cross over occurring in the Justice League, Justice League Dark, and Justice League of America titles. With all these Leagues involved it is little surprise that the end of Trinity War resulted in the introduction of The Crime Syndicate.

The Crime Syndicate is the other-world counterpart to the Justice League. It's members, Ultraman, Super Woman, Owl-Man, Johnny Quick, Death-Storm, Atomica, and Power Ring, act as twisted reflections of the Justice League  and act as those reflections as well. The Syndicate appear in the final pages of Trinity War and proceed to cripple the world by shutting off all power, moving the moon the block the sun, and eliminating the Justice League.

Forever Evil is a 7 issue event with three 6 issue limited series showing what else is happening in the world. These titles include Arkham War, where Batman's rouges gallery faces off against the forces of Bane for control of Gotham City; Rouges Rebelion, where the Flash's Rouges... rebel against the Syndicate; and A.R.G.U.S, which focuses on the last stand of the forces of good.

Along with these titles, regular series like Suicide Squad, Justice League, Constantine, Justice League, Trinity of Sin: Phantom Stranger, Justice League of America, Trinity of Sin: Pandora, and Justice League Dark have been used to tell additional stories in the Forever Evil story-arc. The most notable would be Forever Evil: Blight which has been taking place in the combined titles of Phantom Stranger, Constantine, Pandora, and Justice League Dark.

Something else I'd like to point out is how Forever Evil has been handled. The month before the release of Forever Evil #1, DC Comics held "Villains Month' Where every title under the New 52 was put on hold and replaced by 52 Villains issues. I bring this up because this month helped to distance me from the heroes. By the time Forever Evil rolled around, it felt like the heroes have been gone for a good while.

Well done. 

Gone in a... Flash

 -Spoilers for Teen Titans #27-28-

The Flash is probably one of my top five DC heroes. He has an interesting cast of side characters and an even more interesting rouges gallery of villains. However my favorite aspect of the Flash's story is Kid-Flash.

The original Kid-Flash, Wally West, was a founding member of the Teen Titans, and after a cross-over titled Crisis one Infinite Earths, West became the new Flash. (The previous one had died.)

The second Kid-Flash, Bart Allen, is the one i grew up reading about. According to his back-story he is Barry Allen's (The original Flash) grandson from the 31st century. I'm not sure how Bart can be Barry's grandson and still be born 10 centuries from now, but that's a post for a different day.

This was all before the New 52. After the universe altering events of Flash-Point, The Flash legacy was changed as well as everything else.

After the New 52...

First, Wally West hasn't yet been mentioned in the pages of The Flash or Teen Titans and we're about three years into the New 52. Instead Bart Allen is now the first Kid-Flash as well as a founding member of the Teen Titans. This isn't necessarily a bad thing... As I said above, Bart Allen is the Kid-Flash i grew up reading.  However... The origins of this Kid-Flash have finally been revealed and it breaks my heart.

In the New 52, Bart Allen still comes from the future, but his REAL name is Bar Tor. So there's that. A name isn't so important though, and I'd be able to get past that, but on top of everything else it's revealed that Bar Tor is a war criminal responsible for the death of millions of people, then sent back in time as a part of a witness relocation program in the future... This was revealed in issue 27, and the series ends with issue 30. So i think it's fare to say Bart Allen's time as Kid-Flash is over...

On a related note, I have heard rumors of Wally West appearing in the New 52. Originally, West was the nephew of Iris West, whose brother (In the New 52) turns out to be the new Reverse-Flash. Which means if West becomes the Flash's sidekick once more, he could possibly have a super-villain dad.
So that could be interesting.