Marvel Civil War II: Sides are chosen to "Protect" or "Change" the Future in new teaser posters

It's time to divide the Marvel Universe as we know it once again, as friends and allies are going to take sides and make a stand for a cause as the "Future" becomes the subject of tension and arguments in "Civil War II" - a follow-up to the decade old battle that saw Iron Man and Captain America battle over a Superhero Registration Act that required heroes to register and reveal their identities to the public.

Now via Marvel.com and Comic Book.com, meet the sides in this new war - led by Captain Marvel/ Carol Danvers and Iron Man/ Tony Stark.

On the side of those who want to "change the future" and use the abilities of the Inhumans to predict crimes before they happen, Captain Marvel leads the likes of Captain America/ Steve Rogers, She-Hulk, Hawkeye, and Spider-Man/ Peter Parker in making sure they can make a difference before catastrophe hits.

On the other hand, Iron Man stands opposed to the idea, and gathers a team with the likes of Daredevil, Star-Lord, Captain America/ Sam Wilson, and Black Widow to make sure to "protect the future", keep it unaltered, and make sure justice is served properly without pre-empting it.

Civil War II hits on June, with a prequel coming out on Free Comic Book Day this year on May.

ICYMI: Captain America: Civil War: Possible Promo Art goes online & MTV interview w/ Avengers stars

In case you haven't seen it yet, this pretty awesome looking promo art teasing Captain America: Civil War went up online courtesy of Marvel Cinematic Universe's Facebook page.

Also the cast of Avengers: Age of Ultron, which includes Chris Evans/ Cap, Scarlett Johansson/ Black Widow, and Jeremy Renner/ Hawkeye, tease up the upcoming Cap sequel to MTV... With their Earth's Mightiest Heroes' partners in Chris Hemsworth/ Thor and Mark Ruffalo/ Hulk clearly feeling left out of the fun.XD


‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’ Cast Teases ‘Captain America: Civil War’ | MTV News

Captain America: Civil War hits on May 6, 2016.

Marvel: "Planet Hulk" teased for 2015

Add another teaser (via Newsarama) to the growing list of stuff Marvel has planned for Summer 2015.

Planet Hulk... With lots of Hulks. She-Hulk. And even a Savage Captain America with an axe.

What does it mean? We'll find out eventually.

Marvel teases "Civil War" and "Age of Ultron/ Marvel Zombies" crossovers for 2015

After announcing to the world in this past weekend's New York Comic Con that they were going to bring a new "Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars" crossover event in May 2015, Marvel is further upping the ante by teasing even MORE events that revisit past ones and may further establish that something big is going to go down next year, where Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theaters and more of the Marvel Universe's landscape changes drastically.

The teaser seen on top (via Superherohype) of course is revisiting the classic 2006-2007 comic book event called "Civil War", which was written by Mark Millar and illustrated by Steve McNiven. The event saw a "Superhero Registration Act" enacted that divided the hero community and saw Iron Man champion the pro-registration team while Captain America rebelled and fought with the anti-registration side. Spider-Man was caught in the middle, and initially sided with Iron Man until tragic events made him defect to Cap's side. Unfortunately he revealed his secret identity to the world, and lots of changes were done to the Marvel Universe when all was said and done.

How this 2015 teaser speaks about revisiting a classic, we'll just have to wait and see.

On the flip side, Marvel also released a teaser image of a "Age of Ultron/ Marvel Zombies" crossover (via CBR).

What does it all mean? Again, we will find out soon enough from the House of Ideas themselves.

X-Men Divide and Reform into Two Teams in "Regenesis" come October!

After the events of the X-Men storyline "Schism" conclude and Uncanny X-Men ends with issue #544 on September, a (predictable) reboot will ensue and we will see the birth of two new X-Men comic series come October - namely Wolverine and the X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #1!

Obviously, the split after schism is very real, with Wolverine will be leading his own team of merry mutants (with the new book taking its name after the 2008 animated series "Wolverine and the X-Men"), while Scott Summers/ Cyclops builds his own group in the relaunched "Uncanny X-Men" series. It's not known who's going to who's roster thus far, but the poster above seems to hint (or mislead) us at who will be at Wolverine's team or Cyclops' team. Safe bet is by the time Schism ends, we'll know what the full rosters of both will be.

Overall, it's very reminiscent of the Avengers split after Civil War (with New Avengers and Mighty Avengers), and we'll see a rivalry form between the two teams I bet. For more insight and info on the story, visit the source pots at Marvel.com or Newsarama!

Comic Book Review: Siege #4

At last, after weeks of delays and anticipation for what's coming next, the final issue of Siege finally hit shops, bringing the early 2010 Marvel mega-event to its conclusion. However, after taking a seat and reading through over 3o pages worth of comic book action, this is all I have to say...









THIS WAS SEVEN YEARS IN THE MAKING?!




Siege #4
Written By: Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrated By: Olivier Coipel

This is it. The final battle for the fate of Asgard and Earth is here. Everything will change once everything is said and done, and how it will affect the entire Marvel Universe remains to be seen.

Oh my god, I don't know what to think anymore.

After all the time spent on comic-altering events like Avengers Disassembled and Civil War, we get a lackluster ending that's more disappointing than it is anti-climactic. I enjoyed the build up the first few issues... and now we get THIS ENDING?! Forgive me for saying this, but I don't have the heart to describe the events in great detail other than point out the flaws and predictability this entire issue gave out to its readership. Squandering Loki and Norman Osborn's villainy was one thing, but turning the Sentry into the Void and giving him a send off like that?! Preposterous. Look, I'm all for the Heroic Age and the return of Captain America and the Avengers to prominence and all, but it really could have been done in a more convincing manner. I feel cheated, and absolutely disappointed that everything built up in Civil War has gone down the drain, becoming nothing more than a passing mark in the oh-so-flawed continuity of the Marvel Universe. What's more, all the evil and corruption Norman Osborn has spread through the Dark Reign has quickly dispersed in a mere four issues, and it sucks just to think that everything is "back to normal" just like that. This is worse than bringing a dead character back to life so effortlessly (Captain America Reborn, I'm looking at you), and it makes me wonder how things would have been if careful planning and better storytelling were involved.

Brian Michael Bendis did a number years ago when he broke the Avengers and sent their entire ranks into a spiral of comic book hell. He rocked our world by introducing an all star cast in New Avengers, and spearheaded several tales and events that would see them thrown into different situations resulting in epic stares and showdowns. I find myself utterly speechless at the way he capped Siege, and it's sad to note that while I'm glad good guys finally get their absolution from all the superhero registration hubbub, I'm not convinced by the transition to the Heroic Age. Like I said earlier, I feel cheated by the way this issue presents itself, and all that mattered in the political landscape of the Marvel Universe suddenly falls off the window.

Bendis has been known to be a dialogue centric storyteller, but none of that is felt here in Siege. It's as if Marvel just wanted to end the confusion and attract new readership by presenting the Heroic Age, unflawed and full of innocence again. Seeing the plan of making Asgard the final staging ground between good and evil just didn't really grab me much in the beginning, and seeing how everything goes after the smoke cleared is just displeasurable. I wanted to see a final battle worth talking about. Instead, all I'm gonna be talking about is how an omnipotent entity like The Void could have his ass kicked so easily by... A Hellicarrier?! Not only that, but Loki himself has a change of heart... and dies a pathetic death? Everything here is a fleeting moment, and if it wasn't for the heroes getting their victory handing it to Osborn's ass the way he deserves it, I wouldn't be paying attention to Siege at all. Olivier Coipel's art is still striking, but even that can't save the fact that this issue, or the entire Siege for that matter, is all about the hype for quick change, not superb storytelling.

Since the end of Siege brought about the end of the previous core Avenger titles, you may want to catch up on those as well, including the one shot epilogue books - New Avengers Finale #1 and Siege Epilogue: The Sentry Fallen Sun. These and the other tie-ins are not required reading if you just followed the bigger tale, but they expand the story in great detail and see how the heroes deal with certain issues in the aftermath of the fall of Asgard. Now that the Heroic Age is coming, expect a new number of Avengers related books to hit shelves starting next week, and while I'm happy to see new team ups and the good guys back in the saddle, it all feels repetitive and not too exciting anymore (save for the Secret Avengers, which is written by Cap scribe Ed Brubaker). I'll probably put my Avenger radar on standby anyways, but for what it's worth. Siege #4 just didn't deliver to my expectations. Hopefully for you reading this, it will be different.

Rating - 3/10

Iron Man Spotlight: The Diminishing Intellect...

A few days ago, I posted a little update on the current status of Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, in today's Dark Reign infested Marvel Universe. Once a brilliant and calculating force in the superhero community, Tony's now on the run and his genius intellect has been reduced to a pathetic state. His woes have only intensified as of late due to his inability to control complex machinery, forcing him to constantly downgrade his armor, with his current model being the classic Red and Gold. For all the lowdown on his pitiful situation, you can refer to my previous Iron Man Spotlight Post: the Rise and Fall of Tony Stark.

Cover to Invincible Iron Man #17. Stark's days are surely numbered...
For this post, I decided to focus on just how dire the consequences of Stark's actions were after deciding he decided delete the information contained in his brain and prevent it from falling into Norman Osborn's hands. The process in the past few issues has been a handful for Stark, and now, we see the full effects of the devastating mind deleting process come to fruition. Newsarama provided a peek into the latest issue of IM due next week, Invincible Iron Man #17. It is with this next page that makes Tony's plight all the more grieving:

Using an internet cafe in the middle of Russia, Tony Stark tries to send a simple email to Maria Hill, although with great difficulty. His grammar is obviously suffering at this point as he has difficulty composing words into his message. How the mighty have fallen.
This, and the last two issues of World's Most Wanted, will finally see how disassembled Tony's gonna get when he encounters Norman once and for all (I think). What will his fate be in the next chapter, Stark: Disassembled? Let's hope for the best that he'll pull through as he always does. After all, he is Iron Man... right?

Iron Man Spotlight: The Rise and Fall of Tony Stark...

The Invincible Iron Man soars high.
Iron Man. Love him or hate him, we all know he's coming back to the Big Screen next year... but what's happening to armor clad hero in the comics nowadays? I'll bring you guys up to speed with what I know so far, and trust me, Tony Stark's life isn't all fun and games now.

As one of the most iconic heroes in the Marvel Universe, The Invincible Iron Man has endured a lot of pain and sadness in his life that many would have considered torture to go through. He's fought the good fight for the sake of humanity as a armored adventurer, and used his genius and intellect to construct powerful suits of armor to aid him in his crusade. That power, however, came at a price, and he's always been forced to make decisions that compromised his beliefs and friendships over the years. Recent events have led him to do what many readers would see as "The Ultimate Sacrifice", but will his actions be the death of him? It sure looks that way with the way writer Matt Fraction is handling things.

Things go south for Tony Stark... Literally
With the ongoing storyline World's Most Wanted, Iron Man's life has turned upside down. If there was any way to describe Tony Stark today, the word "Pitiful" comes to mind. In the last few years of his superhero career, he's literally become a man who had everything... and then nothing. Rising to the top of the hill as a figurehead of the Super Hero Registration Act during Civil War, IM won the fight and became Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, changing the landscape of the Marvel Universe and dividing the superhero community altogether.

After the events of Civil War, Cap perishes in a hit perpetrated by the Red Skull. This scene takes place in the pages of Civil War: The Confession, in which a tearful Tony regrets his actions which led to the loss of a dear friend and fellow Avenger.
His actions indirectly led to the death of Captain America, his long time comrade and fellow member of the Avengers. While he continued to promote peace and goodwill through registration, he failed to intercept a secret invasion by the alien Skrull race that quickly took him and the world by surprise. With the help of his fellow heroes, Stark managed to turn the tide and win back Earth, yet he was still held accountable for his mistakes. He literally fell down in disgrace when he was booted out and replaced by Norman Osborn after being blamed for not intercepting the alien threat right away. Not wanting his tech and data ending up in the wrong hands, Stark uploaded the SHRA database into his mind, and had the other remaining copies infected with a virus, much to Norman's chagrin. With the assistance of Pepper Potts and Maria Hill, he makes a run from the organization he led once, now reformatted and renamed as H.A.M.M.E.R.

Iron Man is losing his marbles... And Tony can't do a damn thing about it.
Adding to Tony's problems is he's systematically deleting the information he has stored in his brain, which is in turn affecting his intelligence and causing him to downgrade his armor... until he eventually becomes a far cry of his brilliant self. In short, Tony Stark was a made man... and now he's a wanted fugitive, trying to evade Osborn and his H.A.M.M.E.R. agents every step of the way.

A preview of the wraparound cover to Invincible Iron Man #20, which begins the Stark: Disassembled Arc. The Mighty Thor looks on at a shattered Tony Stark; a scene that eerily parallels Iron Man's private "conversation" to the body of the fallen Captain America in the pages of Civil War: The Confession. Pic from Marvel.com
Now, all that Tony has done has come crumbling down. In a sense, karma has come back to bite him so hard that he will barely get out of his predicament alive. While the storyline has a few more issues to go before it ends, we're already previewing the next chapter in what could be the end of Iron Man as we know him. Stark: Disassembled will chronicle what happens to Tony after the events of World's Most Wanted... and will he ever be the same again? Time will tell. For now, that cover from Marvel.com looks mighty familiar... An ironic reverse of what Tony did before everything hit rock bottom.