Cuppacafe

OK kids, here are my two latest published works, issues # 2 & 3 of The Official Index to the Marvel Universe (V2) Avengers, Thor, & Captain America.

#2 has been out for a bit, but # 3 just came out this past week I believe. I am contributing to the indexing of both the modern (Post WWII) Captain America comics and Thor. Needless to say this is a tad more difficult for me, as I don't really have any where nearly complete runs on either of these titles. Still, we are currently in sections of both runs where I do have quite a number of issues (Although I did have to borrow some early Thor issues from my good buddy, Mark (Thanks pal!).

I know that I contributed to a number of dust jack covers for Marvel hard-bound collections, but I haven't seen the covers yet, so I'm not sure if they have come out as of yet. I'll have to check in on that next week.

OK, now back to whatever was distracting me prior to this post.

The Perfessor

So The Official Index to the Marvel Universe has now moved into volume #2. (Technically, it's official title is Avengers, Thor & Captain America: Official Index To The Marvel Universe, because this time we are indexing Captain America, Avengers & Thor.

For this volume I am working on both Captain America and Thor entries.

How cool is that?

The Perfessor

You heard it, and no, no one was surprised, but Captain America is Back! (or you know, soon will be).

You heard it right, just in time for the 4th of July, Marvel Comics has announced that it is issuing a limited series comic that will herald the return of Steve Rogers to his rightful place as the one and only Captain America.

Well, that’s about it for me right now. Everyone enjoy the holiday!

The Perfessor

Captain America wannabe or homoerotic posturing? Wait, it's both!

sound not req'd for heroic posing music

YouTube link

In keeping with our on-going all Wolverine, all the time theme that seems to have been running through my recent blog posts this past week. I wanted to relate the following story.

So today, as I was out and about running my errands today, I dropped in on an associate of mine and he laid on me a couple of copies of the 2009 edition of the Comics Values Annual. Yep, I’m one of the editors on this price guide (now in its 18th year of publication — I’ve been with them for 17).

This issue features an interview (conducted by your humble narrator) with John Barber, an assistant editor on Wolverine’s comics (published by Marvel — I also wrote the editorial). As with the past several years, the cover art is provided by Mark Sparacio.

It is published by Krause Books, and available now online or at your favorite book store.

The Perfessor

Yep, this is my “Just saw it @ Midnight, and I want to talk about it” mini Wolverine chat. I went to the midnight show (with my newly-minted 18-year0-old son) to the film, and he seemed to like it, although he felt that it needed more of the other X-Men involved with the action.

Personally, I felt that while I did enjoy the backstory which let us in on the fact that Wolverine (and his brother, who winds up being Sabertooth), are about 150 years old, and then we watch at the two lads grow up and fight in virtually every single armed conflict from the mid 1800s to Vietnam, which is when the real story begins. (Interestingly enough, the opening sequence felt a bit like the opening to Watchmen, only with not as cool a soundtrack).

Still, there was much snarling and sharp-edged weapons flashed through the film as well as explosions, and cameos of other X-characters (plus not one, but two tacked-on post scripts that run during the ending credits, as well as one surprise big-name reprise).

The film is fast and furious and plays well into the legions of who Wolverine is (hey, I’ve been reading comics since the very early ‘60s and until recently I didn’t know that Wolvie had this much back story (I stopped regularly reading X-Men in the mid ‘90s). Anyway, even though I recognized many of the characters (there were a couple I couldn’t completely place) and was aware of much of the plot threads that ran through the film, and still rather enjoyed what was going on in the film version of his past.

The interaction between Logan (Jackman) and Creed (Liev Schreiber) plays well and you can see some of the animosity that will keep them at each others throats. We get to see how an already clawed Logan has Adamantium (a super-cool, wicked-hard comicbook metal) is infused into his bones, and why and how he lost him memories (which he doesn’t fully regain until the X-Men trilogy).

On the down side, those of you who don’t know as much about his visceral past might find some of this film a tad tedious, plus as this is all prequel there are no colorful costumes, and many of the characters that you might have gotten used to seeing in the first films simply aren’t here. Dylan felt that most views might want to see more of the kind of large-scale action from the first films, which is missing from this film, as it is much more of a personal story.

What surprised me, was that, yeah, it is a “school/work” night but the Midnight show at my local theater was not quite half full, and much of the “crowd” didn’t arrive until just a couple of minutes before the lights went down and the trailers started to play. In years past, I’ve been to these events with theaters so packed that management opened up another screen. I can’t help but to wonder if the crappy economy and the fact that a not-quite-completed-version was leaked online a month or so back hurt sales.

Still, it was a fun ride, and (I believe) still worth the trip out.

The Perfessor