What You Should be Reading : Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man hits the Big Time!

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I’m usually not one for clichés, but Spider-Man and Wolverine are right up there in my list of all-time favourite comic book characters. The story goes that I came back to reading comic books three and a half years ago, a time when both characters were beginning with their respective iconic runs, with the rotating team of Web-Heads (Joe Kelly, Dan Slott, Fred Van Lente, Mark Waid etc.) on the Amazing Spider-Man and Jason Aaron (of Scalped fame) on Wolverine : Weapon X and later the new volume of Wolverine (and now Schism and Wolverine and the X-Men). For today though, let’s just save the talk on Aaron’s Wolverine for another day and concentrate on what Spidey’s been up to of late.

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The Run-Up

See, the story leading up to Slott’s solo run really starts with the Spider-Man crossover event One More Day , co-penned by the then ASM writer Joe Michael Straczynski, a.k.a. JMS (grudgingly) and the then Marvel Editor-in-Chief (and now Chief Creative officer) (Seriously, someone cast this guy as Perry White already, he loves being called chief) Joe Quesada. It involved Peter Parker making a deal with Mephisto (essentially The Devil) to save his (once again!) dying aunt in exchange for his marriage with Mary Jane Watson being erased from history. It was basically Marvel’s attempt to de-age Spidey and bring him back to his “more relatable roots”. Fans were obviously angry and plenty threatened to boycott the series. The initial year or so of Brand New Day, which was essentially what followed One More Day, was a critical disaster, as the writers were too concerned with establishing the new status quo and new villains, who felt a lot like rip-offs of classic members of Spidey’s Rouges gallery. However, once the dirty work was done,

NOTES AND SCREENGRABS FROM THE AVENGERS TRAILER

 So yes, finally on the 11^th of October 2011, Marvel has released the first theatrical trailer for the Avengers.

If you have been living under a rock the size of Switzerland, you can check it out down here.

• We know Nick Fury has some kind of information on an impending threat either from Loki or someone else in a sequel, which is why he starts assembling the team.

Yeah, I'll take a Royale with cheese... (Click to enlarge awesome-ness!)

• The general tone Mark Ruffalo’s Banner is being handled with seems similar to Norton’s, which will hopefully make this transition a lot smoother.

FML! (Click to enlarge awesome-ness!)

• ScarJo farts fire.

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A quick word with Abhijeet Kini, doodler extraordinaire!

Hi Abhijeet. Its great to have to speaking to us today hopefully we'll get lots of info out of you on whats ahead!

So its been almost nine months since the Delhi Comic Con, and we are now edging towards Comic Con Express - Mumbai. Excited?

Totally! Having the comic con come to my city was something I had always been waiting for, and here it is!

The horror... (Click to enlarge)

What made you decide to take a booth this time around at the convention and what can your fans expect to find there?

I had a lot of interactions with people at the Delhi Comic Con, without a stall to start with, and it was nice to see people finally being able to put a face to the names they’ve read in bylines - mine being one of them. So I decided to go for one this time around and have people know where to come and find me. Also, I’m going to be having some limited edition merchandise, featuring my artworks on it. Also on sale is an ambitious project I have been working on along with talented Delhi-based writer Anupam Arunachalam, called “Milk and Quickies”. We are completely looking forward to have people read this one!

Whats next after UBiMa? We have heard rumours of a sequel and there are definitely fans of the character looking to see more Bee-hari action – any light on the horizon?

Haha, I have heard similar rumours about the sequel too. And if they are true, well, the Bee-hari hunk would be back soon…we’ll have to wait and see. Besides this, I have been busy over the last few months with a couple of comics for Tinkle (more on that soon) along with the usual Tinkle stuff I do (Butterfingers, Defective Detectives, Sea Diaries, etc), and also some independent projects, one of them being “Milk and Quickies”.

Review: HABIBI by CRAIG THOMPSON

Who says you can't write a Graphic Novel about Islam? 

 There have been a lot of issues for anyone trying to depict Allah or his Prophet Muhammed. 

Cartoons, like that which was published in Jyllands-Posten, a Dutch newspaper caused controversy which ended up with the cartoonist having a Fatwa (holy kill order, assassination) placed on him. The offending cartoon can be found below. 

And that was from a Dutch cartoonist. 

Recently, a very important and interesting graphic novel was written by Child Psychologist Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, a Kuwaiti. The 99 series is based around the 99 names of god in Islam. 

Exclusive RAJ COMICS Preview: Antardwand

Credits

Antardwand. The inner struggle.

Bhokal - The protector of the fairy folk, the warrior who fights for truth, justice and freedom is back in a awesomely drawn issue by Hemant, with a story that looks extremely promising!

Continuing from Dhikkar, Antardwand promises to be an intruding tale of Gods, Demi-Gods, Sages, Saints, Power, Struggle and the ultimate attainment of Power.

Intro: Antardwand - The Inner Struggle

Prince Alop is after the Bhokal Shakti and has started an intense penance which will bring him what he currently desires.

This has caused some hoolaboo among the Devta Gan, who assemble to discuss the situation with Shiv.

The preview looks very promising and after Dhikkar, I am kindda excited to read all about Bhokal’s origin which in itself, by the way, is one of the first "Origin events" in the Raj Universe - all of which is happening after the actual character launch. Most of the origins until now have been given around the early starting days of the character, like Nagraj, SCD, Doga etc. This series is a new direction that Raj has boldly decided to go and that too for a character that is already well set.

So the inner struggle continues and I just can’t wait to get my hands on this one!

Halloween Film/TV Recommendations for Comic Geeks

In keeping with the wonderful advice we give you, our readers and fellow geeks, along with staying within the Halloween spirit today we're going to help you with a dilemma you may be facing. You may be asking yourself, "How do I fulfill the need for something creepy to watch AND get my comic book fix at the same time?" Well here is a list of films and TV shows that will hopefully help to fix that problem.

Swamp Thing

Either the films or the TV series will work. It has mutants, action, and suspense. Not to mention that it stars a comic book hero who can manipulate the elements, and oh yeah, bring people back from the dead. How cool is that?!

The Incredible Hulk

For this one we recommend the series rather than the movies. Why? The series had a much more Frankenstein's monster feel to it. Of course there is also the comic hero thrashing on the bad guys too.

Hellboy

The live action films and the animated ones are great for that comic book creature feature need. There are monsters galore, evil spirits, and a demon trying to keep the peace. Besides, what's not to love about a wise cracking demon doing a blue collar job?

REVIEW!! Year One: Batman / Ra's Al Ghul

Writer: Devin K Grayson
Art: Paul Gulacy
Collects: Year One: Batman/Ra’s Al Ghul issues 1 and 2

After so long, we return to the caped crusader in a series of one shots titled as Year One which detail the first meetings of Batman and his cohorts with Gotham city psychopaths (Year One: Two Face, Year One: Scarecrow) or just detail their experiences with handling the hero job (Batgirl Year One, Robin Year One, Nightwing Year One, Metamorpho Year One). Nowadays, any title which connects to Batman’s early days or preliminary experiences with crime fighting is automatically considered to be a Year One story (Batman and the Monster Men, Batman and the Mad Monk, Batman: The Long Halloween), all brought about by the phenomenal success of the original, one and only one Batman: Year One with story by Frank Miller and art by David Mazzuchelli (see review here).


Well, this isn’t one of them.