Chad Tries Marvel Again! - What?!

So as some of you who follow me on Facebook are aware, I'm dipping my toe back into the Marvel stream. DC is, frankly, just pissing me off. As much as I love indy titles, they aren't characters that I'm intimately familiar and passionate about. The storys are amazing to be sure, but they aren't characters I have HISTORY with. Sometimes that HISTORY adds to the experience.

So I decided to give up my hatred of Marvel and get back into the stream of things. So I JUST got 'Amazing X-Men #1' which is the story of the return of Nightcrawler (not a spoiler, he's on the freakin cover, calm down). Did I buy it for Nightcrawler? No.

I'm a loyal fan of very few Marvel characters, Firestar is one of them. So when I saw that Firestar was going to be on this team I figured, "Eh, what the hell? May as well give it a shot. I've never read X-Men anyways. Besides, I'll give me an excuse to listen to Corwin's show." (I support your efforts my friend, I just haven't read X-Men/Avengers so there was no need to listen. But I did listen to the first show. Quality layout my friend.)

It was pretty good. Supernatural + pirates + Firestar + McGuinness art = Pretty freakin cool. Now I don't know whats happening or why, but at least I'm in semi-familiar territory.

That being said, I'll be picking up this series for at LEAST the first arc to give it a shot. So I decided to open up to Marvel some more. Got the most recent previews.

Something that caught my eye? 'Avengers World #1'. No idea what this storyline will be doing or why, but WHY did I choose it? Same reason I chose 'Amazing X-Men'. A character I love is on the cover: Captain Universe. Plus Thor is in there and I'm a sucker for Thor stuff. So I'll give it a shot.

And then I saw the first Marvel TPB that caught my eye in awhile. Warlock by Jim Starlin: The Complete Collection TPB. Whoa. 70's Marvel? I'm willing if they're offering. No idea what I'm getting into, but I'm happy.



So that makes the Marvel I'm reading the following list:

New:

'Avengers World' by Hickman & Spencer
'The Amazing X-Men' by Aaron & McGuinness

Old:

Warlock by Jim Starlin: The Complete Collection TPB

That may not be much to you, but it's a heck of alot from ZERO. Why am I telling you all of this? Well, two reasons.

1) If DC is pissing you off, just give someone else a chance.

2) Marvel fans, fill me in on what I need to know going into 'Amazing X-Men' & 'Avengers World'. I'm not going to go find old stuff to catch up, may as well tell me point blank.

and...ok, a third reason...

3) Give Marvel junkies another place to talk on these boards (but you SHOULD check out Corwins EPIC show thread as well).

So...thoughts?

Chad, Chad, Chad...welcome to the Red side!

I'm glad to hear you're jumping back into Marvel but Avengers World is like Act 2 of Jonathan Hickman's Avengers run.  (Which is completely Cosmic BTW). I'm sure World is a good jumpoing on point but you will want to go back to Avengers, New Avengers and Infinity.  Fear not Captain Universe appears in Avengers #2.  Did you drop Nova?  Have you read Bendis' Guardians of the Galaxy?  Marvel's Cosmic scene is on the rise.

As for the X-Men...they come in all different flavors.  Jason Aaron is writing Amazing X-Men but he's also like 37 issues deep in Wolverine and the X-Men.  Try Bendis' All New X-Men as well as Brian Wood's X-Men.  All very different kinds of books.  If you're a Cyclops fan then Uncanny X-Men is where it's at.

Hopefully I haven't overwhelmed you.


OH and thanks for the shot out!

There are three podcasts in my network, EMP, EMX and MwaP (Merc with a podcast).  All may have explicit content.

EMP is Avengers-centric and can be listened to by everyone...(just PLEASE don't go back to episode 1...the early eps are terrible!  LOL).  We (Myself, Alex and Viet) basically cover all the books for you whether you've read them or not.

EMX is X-Men-centric and very much the opposite of EMP. It's all overindulgence crammed into a one hour time limit with no editing.  We go into the reviews assuming you've already read all the titles...honestly it's just an excuse to goof off and talk X-Men comics.  We (Myself, Alex and Viet) have a guest host every episode.

MwaP...lol...if EMX is overindulgence then MwaP is like Bill and Ted.  Scott and I  just go off the rails and act like a bunch of damn fools.

"I'm not going to go find old stuff to catch up, may as well tell me point blank." -Chad Bokelman

Yeah, I'm not going to read all of that. Sorry my friend. I appreciate the list should something happen in the titles that drives my curiosity insane, but I'm done with back issues of stuff I don't know for sure I'm going to like. If I hunt down back issues anymore, it's to fill in runs of stuff I want but am missing (Firestorm, Static Shock, Kyle Rayner run, All Star Squadron/Infinity Inc, etc.)

I'm more curious as to as flat out what's happened to get us where we are now? Like, the bare bones with a little meat left over. What key things do I need to know to enjoy Avengers World? What key things do I need to know to enjoy Amazing X-Men? And what things do I need to know that MIGHT come into play into these titles given the characters in them?

I know that's like asking for a history report, but maybe there's specific episodes of podcasts to listen to or reviews/recaps online/etc.

I'm probably just being stubborn but I'm really just at a point where I'm like "Ok, I'll start here. I'm not going back, I'm not buying trades just to 'know' things. I'm starting here and going forward. I don't like it? I'll drop it. Easy peasy." Know what I mean?

cage_narleigh wrote:Yeah, I'm not going to read all of that. Sorry my friend. I appreciate the list should something happen in the titles that drives my curiosity insane, but I'm done with back issues of stuff I don't know for sure I'm going to like. If I hunt down back issues anymore, it's to fill in runs of stuff I want but am missing (Firestorm, Static Shock, Kyle Rayner run, All Star Squadron/Infinity Inc, etc.)

Have you read any of Hickman's stuff before?  (Fantastic Four/Future Foundation, Secret Warriors, S.H.I.E.L.D.) His story telling is long form and develops as it goes.  Everything that happens from the first issue and onwards will play into the final issue.  But I understand you don't want to pack issue hunt.  I'll give you 5 issues of Avengers World before you're ready to go back to the beginning of Hickman's Avengers run.  It's been heavily cosmic so I know you'll dig it.  Hell just read Avengers #1-3.

I'm more curious as to as flat out what's happened to get us where we are now? Like, the bare bones with a little meat left over. What key things do I need to know to enjoy Avengers World?

Bare bones for Avengers?  

The Universe is broken.  The Builders have seeded life in the Universe.  They send their robot Adelphs out into the Universe.  Adelphs decide if a world is worthy of evolution or extinction.  If evolution is the answer they remove two eggs from their chests from which an Nihilo (gardener) and Abyss (judge) is born.  (The Nihilo creates or evolves life while the Abyss judges a Nihilo's work...at least that's all that's been revealed.)  Then this group of 3 travel from planet to planet either evolving of eliminating life.  

Well a group arrives on Mars, Ex Nihilo his sister Abyss and their Adelph begin to judge the Earth.  Ex Nihilo decided to evole humankind and sends evolution bombs to Earth from Mars.  The Avengers confront them, get spanked and send Cap back to Earth by himself.  Cap recruits some new Avengers (including Captain Universe to go back to Mars.  And that's just the first three issues.

Now in New Avengers we have the Black Panther who witnesses the sky turn red.  Then another Earth appears in the sky.  This world is blown apart by Black Swan who did it to "save" our Earth.  Panther ends up defeating Black Swan but calls the Illuminati (Iron Man, Mr Fantastic, Beast, Black Bolt and Namor) for help.  Something broke the Universe and because of this there is chain reaction that has been set in motion where different universes are colliding with Earth as the focal point (and incursion).  So if two Earths touch each other both Earths and their Universes are instantly destroyed.  So far the only way to stop the collisions is to destroy one of the Earths.  But since it's a chain reaction eventually a different Earth will try to collide with ours again.

Infinity is about the Builders who are making their way towards Earth and destroying every civilization they run across.  Earth is their ultimate target because of the incursions.  So while the Avengers go off into deep space to fight the Builders Thanos raids the Earth in search of

Spoiler:

.  Right now in Infinity the Avengers have led the Galactic Council to victory and this is happening on every Planet.



Avengers World will pick up in the aftermath of Infinity...that's about as barebones as I can get...

What key things do I need to know to enjoy Amazing X-Men? And what things do I need to know that MIGHT come into play into these titles given the characters in them?

Azazel is Nightcrawler's father who is considered a demon.  
Nightcrawler is dead.
Wolverine has his own school, Jean Grey Insititute of Higher Learning.

I know that's like asking for a history report, but maybe there's specific episodes of podcasts to listen to or reviews/recaps online/etc.

You can start with Episode 55 of Earth's Mightiest Podcast.  All the episodes are time stamped so you can skip to the parts you want to listen to...either that or hit wikipedia.

Hope that helps!

Did I scare you off Chad? Or are you nose deep in the Avengers?

Nope. lol

Sorry.

I'm going to start with Avengers World and see what I start craving.

i like nightcrawler

Yeah, I've fallen behind on all of my reading, not just Marvel but ALL comics. I lost my job towards the end of Decemeber (no worries, I'm already at a new one where I get MORE money) but I've been kept busy and the lapse in employment has led to a space in my finances. Once I get back on track financially and everything (shouldn't be too long) I'll be catching up on what I've been missing (and buying the stuff I really wanted like the Warlock tpb I mentioned above).

What do you guys think of the LanternCast doing an episode all about everything ELSE geek related we're watching/reading/etc.? Or maybe just skipping the listener feedback segment for one episode and instead talking about that stuff?

cage_narleigh wrote:Yeah, I've fallen behind on all of my reading, not just Marvel but ALL comics. I lost my job towards the end of Decemeber (no worries, I'm already at a new one where I get MORE money) but I've been kept busy and the lapse in employment has led to a space in my finances. Once I get back on track financially and everything (shouldn't be too long) I'll be catching up on what I've been missing (and buying the stuff I really wanted like the Warlock tpb I mentioned above).

What do you guys think of the LanternCast doing an episode all about everything ELSE geek related we're watching/reading/etc.? Or maybe just skipping the listener feedback segment for one episode and instead talking about that stuff?

Sounds like you want to do a Geek Talk episode. I think we can skip feedback for an episode once in a while.

DaoFAQ wrote:

cage_narleigh wrote:Yeah, I've fallen behind on all of my reading, not just Marvel but ALL comics. I lost my job towards the end of Decemeber (no worries, I'm already at a new one where I get MORE money) but I've been kept busy and the lapse in employment has led to a space in my finances. Once I get back on track financially and everything (shouldn't be too long) I'll be catching up on what I've been missing (and buying the stuff I really wanted like the Warlock tpb I mentioned above).

What do you guys think of the LanternCast doing an episode all about everything ELSE geek related we're watching/reading/etc.? Or maybe just skipping the listener feedback segment for one episode and instead talking about that stuff?

Sounds like you want to do a Geek Talk episode. I think we can skip feedback for an episode once in a while.

Well not "skip" so much as postpone. We'll still get to the feedback we'd normally do in the next episode. But I was trying to see if a once a month "geek talk"-like segment would be something people wouldn't mind hearing.

cage_narleigh wrote:
Well not "skip" so much as postpone. We'll still get to the feedback we'd normally do in the next episode. But I was trying to see if a once a month "geek talk"-like segment would be something people wouldn't mind hearing.

We're going to start doing B.Y.O.B. episodes either quarterly or every other month...don't be surprised if I ask you on!

Bump!

We want to know how you're Marvel reading is going!

Corwin wrote:Bump!

We want to know how you're Marvel reading is going!

Completely caught up (if issue #3 is the most recent) on 'The Amazing X-Men'. REALLY enjoying it. This is FUN comics. Am I familiar with everything? Nope. But this one is just detached enough that I don't have to be.

I picked up 'Avengers World' issue one in the shop and flipped through it. Eh. The concept grabbed me in PREVIEWS, but somehow the art just pushes my interest away.

I've decided on getting 'Thor: God of Thunder' in trade for sure (at some point) and I'm still wanting that Warlock trade. But right now I need to get my finances back in order and get into a rhythm with this new job before I start spending extra money I may not actually have.

As far as everything else goes? IDK. I'm paying more attention to Marvel's side of PREVIEWS lately. That new Silver Surfer series looks cool. But that's the only thing that caught my eye thus far.

cage_narleigh wrote:

Corwin wrote:Bump!

We want to know how you're Marvel reading is going!

Completely caught up (if issue #3 is the most recent) on 'The Amazing X-Men'. REALLY enjoying it. This is FUN comics. Am I familiar with everything? Nope. But this one is just detached enough that I don't have to be.

I picked up 'Avengers World' issue one in the shop and flipped through it. Eh. The concept grabbed me in PREVIEWS, but somehow the art just pushes my interest away.

I've decided on getting 'Thor: God of Thunder' in trade for sure (at some point) and I'm still wanting that Warlock trade. But right now I need to get my finances back in order and get into a rhythm with this new job before I start spending extra money I may not actually have.

As far as everything else goes? IDK. I'm paying more attention to Marvel's side of PREVIEWS lately. That new Silver Surfer series looks cool. But that's the only thing that caught my eye thus far.

You don't like Stefano Caselli? Dude! I love his art!



It was the main thing that drew me to Secret Warriors.

Thor God of Thunder is absolutely fantastic. Marvel would be insane to do an over sized hardcover or omnibus.

What questions about Amazing X-Men did you have?