X-Termination : Q&A with David Lapham, Marjorie Liu and Greg Pak

By Jim Beard (originally posted here at Marvel.com)

Age of Apocalypse #13
 cover by Greg Land
(click to enlarge)

Sometimes X-Men events get so big it takes more than just multiple titles to contain them; it requires more than one reality.

The universe-jumping X-Termination will spill out not only from its own Alpha and Omega bookend issues, but also into Astonishing X-Men, X-Treme X-Men and Age of Apocalypse beginning this March. We contacted Marjorie Liu, Greg Pak and David Lapham—the respective authors of the aforementioned X-titles—and posed a few questions to them about alternate realities, alternate points of view, and lots and lots of alternate X-Men.

New Photos From Marvel's Iron Man 3!

Robert Downey, Jr. stars as Tony Stark/Iron Man in "Iron Man 3"

Stop what you're doing, and take a peek at four new photos from Marvel's "Iron Man 3," in theaters May 3, 2013!

Week In Review : All New X-Men #2 + Thor God of Thunder #2 + Witch Doctor Mal Practice #1

Hey folks, welcome to another new week of reviews! We've got three very exciting and anticipated titles for you today. Some surprising results and some great finds for you to check out as well as a surprise after the reviews, so let's get to it!

- Always Assistive Akshay

All New X-Men #1 (Marvel)

Story : Brian Michael Bendis

Art : Stuart Immonen, Wade von Grawbadger

(Reviewed by Akshay Dhar)

Well, it's finally here, the much anticipated (re)debut of Brian M. Bendis as the scribe for an X-Men book after he turned the mutant world upside down waaaay back in House of M in 2005. Now that catastrophe has been reversed thanks to the recent finale of the much-hyped but really mindlessly boring Avengers Vs. X-Men - which could have been so much better – and the world is replete with mutants again.

When last we saw Cyclops (a.k.a Scott Summers) in the genuinely awesome AvX: Consequences mini-series, he was torn on what path to take – to be a martyr or to keep fighting or to face justice for what he has done. It was really well handled and the closing moments of that series lay the base for this one with Scott having escaped thanks to Magneto and his new allies. This series picks up that thread and shows us a determined and motivated “Team Cyclops” who are now renegade, kicking arse and taking names. I quite liked that and had been waiting for it.

Week In Review : Edgar Allen Poe's The Conqueror Worm #1 + Judge Dredd #1 + Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow #19

Edgar Allen Poe's The Conqueror Worm #1 (Dark Horse)

Story & Art : Richard Corben

(Reviewed by Anirudh Singh)

Ah, what an intriguing concept. Turn one of Poe's acclaimed poems into a one shot comic book. Edgar Allan Poe lies in that rare literary hallowed ground where a writer/poet always yearns to tread but fears immensely to do so. For to do so would be to walk in the shadows of giants. Not everyone is ok with that. It invites comparison and critique from the highest circles and rounds of amateur barbs as piercing as they are uninvited. However you have to realize that most of this criticism is with good cause. You don't just touch a Poe poem and be done with it. You best be prepared to bleed a part of your soul into that work and make it shine real good. Cause if you don't. Then one of these nights you might just meet the master himself. And then you will bleed.

Week In Review : B.P.R.D 1948 #2 + Captain America #1 + Deadpool #2

Hey folks!! Welcome back to another week - we're running a little late, but here's some of our picks from the week past. 

New reviews of this weeks books will be here this weekend so stick around!

B.P.R.D 1948 #2 (Dark Horse)

Story : Mike Mignola and John Arcudi

Art : Max Fiumara

(Reviewed by Anirudh Singh)

Well awesome another BPRD book. I cannot get me enough of these books. They never disappoint and each book leaves me with the growing realization that the end of the world will be brought about when Hellboy breaks out of Hell and runs loose - on Mignola's schedule, not the Mayans'. But that is a personal view. Anyhow, 1948 serves as a throwback, taking us into a simpler time when The Professor was still a little green around the edges and Hellboy was a little monster learning the ropes from his army family. Which means it is a time when some major reveals can really happen. But alas, my hopes are undone.

So far.

Week In Review : 47 Ronin #1 + Before Watchmen Moloch #1 + Colder #1

Pardon the belated posts this week folks, the festivites of Diwali (amongst other things) had us terribly short on time and we were not able to post these up sooner! 

47 Ronin #1 (Dark Horse)

Story : Mike Richardson

Art : Stan Sakai

(Reviewed by Anubhav Dasgupta)

There is a saying that the tale of the Forty Seven Ronin is the definitive Japanese story. From what I’ve gathered, it’s a tale that more or less commands a huge chunk of their culture, much like our myths of Ram and the Mahabharata.

“To know the tale of 47 Ronin is to know Japan.”

And that’s not far off from the truth. 47 Ronin feels like a very Japanese tale. There are some stories that just feel classy, that feel noble, like Seven Samurai, Citizen Kane, Kumonoso Jo and this comic feels like one of those stories. It doesn’t cheat you with gimmicks and cheap shocks, but simply tells a story, and a good one at that.

Week In Review : Avenging Spiderman Annual #1 + Happy #2 + Masters of the Universe: The Origin of Skeletor OS

Avenging Spiderman Annual #1 (Marvel)

Story : Rob Williams

Art : Brad Walker (pencils), John Livesay (inks), Chris Sotomayor (colour)

(Reviewed by Anant Sagar)

The Thing and Spidey have been teaming up quite a bit lately. That and Spidey has a good relationship with the FF so this team up makes sense.

The good part about this issue had to be the art. Its fluid and the characters are really well drawn. Spiderman looks fluid and flexible and seems to jump from panel to panel with ease.

Having a team up with the Thing and throwing in the “Richards Kids”, Franklin and Val, makes it fun. Those kids are fun to read. The dialogues given to them made me laugh.

Week of October 24th Reviews : Bravest Warriors #1 + Deadpool #63 + Talon #1

IT'S TIME! ONCE AGAIN! FOR EVERYBODY!! TO COME ABOARD THE ZEROOOOOOO-DAY TRAIN!!!!
...so enjoy folks. Cheers.
- A-bit-embaressed-by-that Akshay

Bravest Warriors #1 (Boom Studios)

Story : Joey Comeau

Art : Mike Holmes

(Reviewed by Akshay Dhar)

Well it's safe to say I've never read a comic quite like this one. (And I picked this out of the 4 inaugural covers because I'm a huge Star Wars – original trilogy! – nerd...)

I should start by saying, “FANS OF ADVENTURE TIME, REJOICE!” For you see, this series is also created by Pendleton Ward, the brains behind that cult favourite series. And a pretty entertainingly bizarre creation it is indeed! We follow a teen-age interstellar/galactic super-group that is as kooky and quirky as any I've ever seen.

I've never really dabbled in Adventure Time, so this was a bit of an experiment for me and an exercise in trying out something out of my regular sphere – a good habit for anyone to have.

Marvel NOW Review: Uncanny Avengers #1 + Red She-Hulk #1

The big world-changing, ground-breaking, soul-shaking (yadda, yadda, blah, blah, insert more standard hype here, etc...) event that has been building over at the House of Ideas is finally here!Marvel NOW officially launched last week with the first of the new wave of titles - Uncanny Avengers and Red She-Hulk.

Today our own dynamic(-ish) duo of Mayank and Akshay take us through them both to see whether these measured up to all the hype!

Red She-Hulk #1

Script : Jeff Parker

Art : Carlo Pugalayan & Wellington Alves (pencils), Val Staples (colours)

Mayank says:

The second release under the “Marvel Now” banner for last week. The focus of Hulk shifts from father to daughter, from Red Hulk (RULK) to Red She Hulk (Betty Ross), while Rulk moves to the new team of Thunderbolts (along with Elektra and Punisher.. man that’s gonna rock!). Jeff parker continues to play around with the concepts he introduced and I gotta say man, I am loving this book. This title isn’t going to change your life, it’s not going to make you think or try to prove its relevance by using real world scenarios or create pseudo-reasons for a hero vs hero fight... but this is the most fun I had reading a comic book in quite some time.

Week In Review : Cyber Force #1 + DC Universe Presents #13 + G.I.Joe:Snake Eyes #18

Another new week and more new comics! Welcome back and here's our picks of the weeks from amongst the flood, enjoy!- Editor

Cyber Force #1 (Image/Top Cow)

Story : Marc Silvestri & Matt Hawkins

Art : Khoi Pham

(Reviewed by Akshay Dhar)

It's interesting to see the relaunch of Cyber Force in the wake of all the other Top Cow Universe titles being given the revamp after all the madness over in Darkness, Witchblade and Artifacts.

I've been a big fan of most of the Top Cow books for a long time, but somehow Cyber Force never quite caught on as much – I keep meaning to sit down and reread the lot properly or some such, but never gotten around to it and now I'm glad!

This new volume of creator (and Top Cow founder) Silvestri's flagship team-book actually is off to a very promising start.

THE GOOD in all this is that we've got an intriguing new storyline that I think would be fun regardless of whether or not you've ever read the series before – creating a dystopic new future for us all that carries echoes of concerns we all have about the future of our world and society and throwing in a healthy amount of intrigue, mystery, twists, action and concepts. By the end I was very much wanting

[BREAKING NEWS!] NYCC 2012: He's Alive!! Agent Coulson Lives in Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D.

I want this T-shirt!

At the recent "Marvel Television Presents" panel at New York Comic Con, Head of TV Jeph Loeb announced that Clark Gregg would reprise his role as Agent Phil Coulson in the live-action pilot “Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D.” Gregg previously played Coulson in “Iron Man,” “Iron Man 2,” “Thor” and “Marvel’s The Avengers,” as well as Marvel One-Shots “The Consultant” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer.”

NOTE: If you haven't watched those last 2 videos, go to youtube and watch them now, great little mini's made by Marvel and watchable for free, made to fit in between the other Marvel movies and the Avengers!

- Always Aware Akshay

Special Alan Moore Update : Rants and Comic Announcements

Welcome to a special news update edition of the Wayfarer folks!

Today we bring you some highly entertaining and some exciting news from the much-revered, ridiculed, confusing, scary, god-like but undeniably talented and legendary scribe you all know as Alan Moore. His series like Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell showed his literary power and made people start looking at comics more seriously - Watchmen still being among the top books recommended to new converts. He's also known for his remarkable re-imagining of established characters like Superman (For the man who has everything), Batman (The Killing Joke), Supreme, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, etc, etc... He even did a 3-part series called Lost Girls along with his wife that was pretty amazing, albiet skirting the very edges of artful vs. pornographic story-telling.

Christopher Nolan’s "The Dark Knight" trilogy : The Comic Connections

With The Dark Knight Rises having stormed theatres around the world and the epic trilogy coming to a close, there is a lot of discussion on various sites and pages about how much this trilogy is loyal to its comic book counterparts.
Well the good news is that it is to a large extent.

This article tries to prove how well the researched the trilogy was by showing all the cues, characters, story points and details that Christopher Nolan and his fellow writers adapted from various iconic comic stories/arcs to create a whole new Batman for a new age!

Click to Enlarge!

(It will either prove that, or that I'm an utter and total nutter who see's things everywhere that are just not there!)

I've tried to break these elements down and give you the titles of the stories/graphic novels/collections where they seem to have originated, of course only the movie-makers can know what's true and what's not.
But here, I ask YOU - think you know your caped crusader? Check this out and see what you knew and all the stuff you might've missed, the inspirations for some great movie moments.

DCnU 1st Year Anniversary Special #1 : Heroes Missing

DCnU : The Missing Pieces, the Heroes we've lost!

One year.

One long, year of the DCU New 52. One long year filled with roller coater ups-and-downs that have delighted and aggravated fans across the comic-readership spectrum.

There have been first attempts at crossover, some successful (Night of Owls, Rotworld) and some... not so much (The Culling, Basilisk Rising) and – so far – three waves of releases including the titular first wave of 52.

There are books I've loved and books I've hated and some that aren't quite in either camp – others still that started at one place and jumped to another. The point of all this is, dear reader, that it's been pretty crazy as you're well aware.

BUT! This first year over and DC releasing a whole slew of #0 issues this week, we're looking at finally getting at least some of the many questions about origins and continuity answered (hopefully) through these titles.

With this in mind, we here at Comic Addicts are starting a series of weekly specials that will cover various aspects of the DCnU, from reviews to top-10 style lists and others. Starting now! (so click ahead and read on!)

Campfire and Mark Tully honour our Youngest Writers

For those of you that may have missed it, there was a great new step taken this past week – not just for comic fans and writers, but for free-thinking and creative kids everywhere.

On the 1^st of September (i.e., last Saturday) at Pragati Maidan, Delhi, the good folks over at Campfire Graphic Novels hosted the first ever Campfire Young Writer of the Year Awards. Attendees were also in for a treat because Sir Mark Tully was the guest of honour and was accompanied on the stage by Campfire Chairman, Keshav Thirani. To quote the hosts intent for the event:“It was a celebration of the creativity of youth.”

Comic Review : Aghori #01 and #02 (Wayfarer Special!)

I think something short-circuited in my brain just now...

Like you dear reader, I've seen the previews, I've heard the rumours and scoured the facebook groups and people I know for anything I could on this new series and found little beyond what the folks at Holy Cow Entertainment put out there. They played this one close to the chest and now I can see why. This is a very a well-executed and bold new step from Indian creators, the art alone elevates this to a new level of amazing and the production values are impeccable.

(NOTE : Check out some of the preview pages we've got for you here!!)

Series writer Ram V is a very new face on the Indian comic scene and with the aid of his collaborators in this project - that I know for a fact came about amazingly fast (for more history on all this, check out our earlier interviews and coverage, all linked at the end of this review!) - may well be one of the most promising I've come across so far.

Week In Review : All-Star Western #12 + America's Got Powers #3 + Web of Spider-Man #129.1

Hey folks! Another new week, another bunch of new comics for you! This week we got a trio that covers some excellent titles from the Big-3! Enjoy!- Waiting-for-the-weekend Akshay

All-Star Western #12 (DC)

Story : Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray

Art : Moritat

(Reviewed by Anant Sagar)

Ah, Jonah Hex! What new madness have you brought before us.

All-Star western takes place primarily in Gotham City back in the days of the wild wild west. Not the Will Smith movie. With our heroes (of sorts) Hex and Dr. Arkham captured and chained, we wonder what in God’s name is going on. Their “guest-star” this time, a crazy young lady by the name of Tallulah Black, has managed to escape the chains our friends are caught in and ends up saving their backsides all by herself. And boy is she violent! Chops of heads with an axe, throws knives, shoots bad guy brains out - damn this girl is nuts. She’s also tappin' Jonah!! Not much about Jonah Hex in this issue, seems to be very backstory driven about his meeting with Wayne (yes, Batman’s ancestor). But apart from the little bit of action with the crazy chick, this issue kind of bored me.

Art’s ok, story is ok. Re-readability was just not there for me.

SCORE : 5 / 10

Week In Review : Archer and Armstrong #1 + Deadpool #59 + Idolized #1 + Pathfinder #1

Another week gone by and a lovely new load of comics coming your way!We've been busy getting the new avatar of Comic Addicts ready for you so only a few new reviews this week, but we've picked some awesome ones - 3 shiny new #1's for starters! So enjoy and stick around, loads more comic goodness to be had with Comic Addicts.- Already-craving-the-weekend Akshay

Archer and Armstrong #1 (Valiant)

Story : Fred Van Lente

Art : Clayton Henry

(Reviewed by Akshay Dhar)

The world is wiped clean, a new one arise - secret sects, immortals, a spiritual quest, mythos, clever religiosity, fighting. Yeah, this issue has a lot going for it.

Tells the story of a deadly young warrior named Obidiah Archer, trained in multiple martial arts – but looks to be barely out of his teens – who is a religious zealot, trained since childhood by his parents (who are heads of a quasi-religious/christian-y cult/sect) to be a warrior with a mission. And then he is sent out into the REAL world – for the first time in his life. His first “friend” is a familiar looking fellow named Armstrong who drinks and bounces at a bar where Archer... creates some ruckus. And then things start to get crazier and a wee bit scarier – for Archer anyway.

Nicely written out with a sufficient amount of character development and a good mix of plot building, action and a hint of humour, the issue was a joy to read and I was sad to see it finish.

Week In Review : Hawkeye #1 + Infected #1 + The First X-Men #1

Three more #1's folks! This week has been choc-full of new-comic goodness and we've got some doozies here for you today! The hotly anticipated Hawkeye and First X-Men as well as IDW's new offering. Enjoy!
- Always-helpful Akshay

Hawkeye #1 (Marvel)

Story : Matt Fraction

Art : David Aja (linework), Matt Holingsworth (colors)

(Reviewed by Anubhav Dasgupta)

Marvel is winning.

I can’t believe I typed that. I’m a harcore DC guy and I typed “Marvel is winning.”

Now, I don’t know a lot about Hawkeye beyond what I’ve read since the Heroic Age. I wasn’t really a fan until I read last year’s Hawkeye & Mockingbird by Jim McCann, which was amazing fun. But this one… it’s textbook. It’s brilliant. It’s so good that it makes making brilliant comics look easy.

This comic doesn’t have any epic fights between super-powered heroes or alien invasions or another stupid plot involving the Phoenix, rather it’s a human story. It’s what happens when Hawkeye isn’t 'Avengering'. It’s what Clint Barton does when he isn’t hanging around with Tony Stark or Steve Rogers.

Week In Review : Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe #1 + Harvest #1 + Think Tank #1

Welcome to another new week of comics and to start things off we have a trio of fantastic new #1's that we think you will really enjoy!

So what are you waiting for? Read on!

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe #1 (Marvel)

Story : Cullen Bunn

Art : Dalibor Talajic (art) and Lee Loughridge (colours)

(Reviewed by Anant Sagar)

Yes true believers, you read that correctly. Deadpool kills the marvel universe.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Deadpool finally lost it and went all out against everyone? What would happen to Wade? Would he kill or be killed? A DP vs FF face-off - who would survive?

All such questions are now answered.

The issue begins with the Watcher telling us of the death of the Fantastic Four. Deadpool kills them all. Gets his head blown off by Sue Richards, grows it back (Yes, this is a “what if” and he has his healing factor here!) and kills her too.

Now as we continue, we find out that DP was actually brainwashed, or that a minute super villain by the name of Psycho Man tried to brainwash him. But the results were somewhat different than what was expected. Psycho Man’s plan was to brainwash Earths super villains to make an army for himself.