Marvel Film Post-credits Scenes

At the end of all Marvel films, there is a scene after the credits.   Each one sets up the next film, or at least an aspect of it.

IRON MAN sets up THE AVENGERS.
THE INCREDIBLE HULK sets up, also, THE AVENGERS but as well as the bit in IM2 where he receives the telling off from Fury.  Or possibly IRON MAN 3 as Stark didn't know about the Avenger Initiative at the start of IM2.
THOR sets up, not to give too much away, THE AVENGERS and quite possibly CAPTAIN AMERICA.

So maybe I'm wrong.  Perhaps they are all there to set up THE AVENGERS.  If so, I think it's a good way to stir interest.  Though, as a nerd, I was already looking forwards to a Marvel film directed by Joss Whedon.

New Host, Same Old Symbiote

So it was announced that the main symbiotes of Marvel would be getting new hosts - I can live with that. The new Carnage will be a woman and the new Venom will work for the Government.

This is the cover to Carnage #2 and he still looks pretty male... Perhaps that will change at the end of the mini - wouldn't want to give away too many details on a cover. Like boob-size - It might be Power Girl!

No, it wouldn't...

But I'm glad Carnage stayed away for a long time, but is now coming back with a new host. Sentry ripped him apart in space, in New Avengers Volume 1 #1 - New Avengers is now on Volume 2. So he's been gone for long enough, and Cletus' death has stuck - if Cletus was the host at the time... It was never discussed, though the symbiote did seem to have a host at the time.

As for Venom - Mac Gargan is being removed as the host and being returned to villain duty as Scorpion. Strange to make a step-back, but someone clearly has plans. And the fact Venom will be an ongoing written by Rick Remender is a good sign.

Venom as a government agent has been done before. A couple of times. But so has the fact 'the symbiote is bonded to the host at a cellular level - so they can NEVER BE SEPARATED AGAIN.' That's the trouble when your ongoing series is actually a load of miniseries run back-to-back over a period of several years... People don't bother to read them all.

Making him a government black-ops agent is fine with me. The host is usually unwilling and resentful - but if you're changing for someone who WANTS to work for the government...

Originally I thought the new host would be Mr Negative. I still think there's a chance of that. Most people's money is on Flash Thompson though. He's an army-man, so the chance to work for his country - whilst kitted out like his favourite superhero - will appeal and make him want to stick at it, no matter what the symbiote says. And if Mac Gargan is any indication, the symbiote talks incessantly. Probably a habit it picked up from Peter Parker...

More On Character Deaths

After my post yesterday, I was asked in the comments about the death of Cable, which also made me remember that another Marvel character was killed off recently.

So, Loki and Cable have both kicked it recently. Both in crossovers, in fact.

The thing is, neither of them are dead.

Loki had a Siege one-shot where he bought off Hela so he would never die - the next month he 'died' in a tearful scene with his step brother Thor. Also, it seems people didn't read that one-shot, as more than one person thinks Loki is dead.

Cable 'died' in the finale of Second Coming whilst holding a time-portal open, covered in the Techno-Organic virus which had threatened to consume him since birth. When the portal snapped shut, his arm was left out of the portal, severing it and giving Hope a great trophy for her wall.

The problem with this is the fact that Cable is a time traveller. If he can't survive being thrown willy-nilly through time via an out of control time portal, nobody can. Sure, he's approaching (if not over) 60 years old by now, but he's a a slippery one. If X-Force don't find him before 2012, I'll be very surprised - he banded the original X-Force together, which is why he joined forces with the most recent iteration twice.

"But Ace, what about the T.O. virus you mentioned?" you may ask! It was probably all contained in his arm. You know, despite it being a different arm from his original, and actually bereft of the T.O. virus, as per Cable & Deadpool... I forget the issue number, but it was after Deadpool had lobotomised him and found a techno-organic alien lifeform that he used to restart Cable's brain.

I'll look it up.

X-Force Special: Ain't No Dog

What's cool about X-Force Special: Aint No Dog?



A fly flying upwards?


It soon becomes apparent that this is a Wolverine story currently in progress, so to speak. A guy hanging from a chain with dead people around. Fairly normal for a Wolverine story...


I like how Logan is portrayed as quite, quite mad. The lengths he'll go to just to get his kicks... Cooler than the kids at school with their smoking.


The next cool bit is in the 'flashback' where Cyclops and Wolverine have a name-calling match. Despite Jean Grey being dead currently, they still dislike each other.


Next comes the sudden Mob, all baying for blood and quite possibly every other bodily fluid. Mobs are always cool.


Then, Wolverine is just hanging around quite unbothered by the masses of people below him. Because he's Wolverine.


And mobs are solved by doing something cool, for instance:


As so:


That's it for story one of the "Special", next up is a solo Warpath story. It's set-up nicely showing him having just mutilated a bunch of Purifiers, as seems to be X-Force's MO currently.


For some reason Warpath then goes hunting for a bear. He even states he can't be bothered to cook it and no mention is made of it causing anyone trouble. It's cool though, because he's fighting a BEAR!


But what is the coolest part of this comicbook?


The promise of more gory issues of X-Force, of course!

Though my main problem with this comic is the fact it actually did nothing more than give Warpath a tiny bit more character. And show that there are 5,000 Purifiers to every 3 Roman Catholics...

Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1

What's cool - and not - about Giant Size Astonishing X-Men?



First let me bring everyone up to speed. Aliens brought Collossus back to life in the early issues of Astonishing X-Men. Ignoring a couple of story-arcs in-between, the X-Men found that these aliens, from the planet Breakworld, were trying to get rid of mutants as a whole and eventually the planet Earth. They were also told that Colossus was destined to destroy Breakworld. Taking the fight to the aliens, the X-Men and Agent of S.W.O.R.D Abigail Brand (and generic agents) arrived and managed to get into the delicate core of Breakworld with Colossus poised to be the destroyer or the saviour. Oh, and Shadowcat is inside a 10-mile bullet that's just been fired at Earth.

Let me start with the Not Cool... Get that out of the way for what is quite frankly a spectacular finish to Joss Whedon's run.



Emma Frost's powers. She's a high-level telepath with the secondary ability to turn her body into diamond. Useful, no? Only problem is, she can't use both at once. When in diamond "mode" she can't use her telepathy at all. It's been documented in a number of places. So whether this was an artist error, colourist error or editor error, it's still wrong.



Agent Brand is shown to have powers (later explained fully) but once again I dunno who's fault it was, but she uses her left ungloved hand before using her right hand because the left one has a glove on. But since she has fingernails visible, I'm guessing it was an artist error that wasn't caught by the colourist or editor.

Now, complaints are over. This issue has everything you'd want in it!

Passion!


Heroes punching heroes!


Humour!


Suspense!


There's not really much to explain that wouldn't be so much better if you read it. There's a few things I'd like to post about but I've told myself that this isn't a review blog nor a spoiler blog. If someone says to you "What's so cool about the X-Men?" I would like it if you went "Ahh, look at this blog and check out the X-Men tagged posts!"

So: What's the coolest thing about this comic? A Spider-Man panel.



See if you can connect the dots so I can still say I post no spoilers. 10-mile bullet travelling from another planet. Spider-Man's webs have the strength of steel. Hanging from buildings that are many decades old.

She-Hulk #29

What's cool about She-Hulk #29?



Name art!


I simply adore that sort of thing. I can just imagine people introducing themselves in a deep, resonating booming voice. "Hello, my name is TERRY SMITH!" for example, would result in laughter and derision, I would assume - so it only really works with made-up names...

What else is cool? Court room scenes.

Of course these are no longer a fixture in She-Hulk, after her disbarring back between new guy Peter David and old guy Dan Slott's runs. But it's nice to see Peter David referring back if only in flashback to explain why She-Hulk is a bounty hunter.

What else can She-Hulk offer that's cool? Internal monologue:

That leads on to outright violence.



And threats.



And the coolest thing about She-Hulk #29?

A very clear-cut picture of how Jennifer Walters wears a super-stretchy bra.


I've not known the artist to cheesecake-up his issues of She-Hulk, but let's be honest, there's no bra on Earth - or Marvel Earth - that can stretch to contain THAT much difference. In this case, he could have cheesecaked away!

Captain Britain and MI 13 #01

What's cool about Captain Britain and MI 13 issue 1? Captain Britain fighting Skrulls.
Just look at that splash page! I'm not going to go on and on about every artist I like, but just check out that image. Captain Britain's up in the air over London (always the capital cities with these aliens...) ON HIS OWN. Skrull ships, Super Skrulls... Despite the odds, he's kicking arse. Just like the old Captain America would have done - except with more magically-enhanced powers...

What else is cool about this issue?

John Lennon has been a Skrull. Always.

Yeah, not the best artists rendering, but it IS supposed to be Lennon. And it's also 'hinted' that the rest of The Beatles were Skrulls. What with them starting up in '63.

Black Knight, long forgotten by almost everyone, makes a great comeback. It's just very lucky that Skrull decided to arch his back upwards at that precise moment to get that angle...


Spitfire, a character I don't even remember much of, makes a very awesome contribution to the War effort.
Her back story is that she got her powers after a blood transfusion from the android called Human Torch. Yeah, blood from an android, I know...

But seems the side effects of spending 60 years with fake blood in your system kinda makes you a vampire... Maybe she should contact the Galactus-powered Zombies and compare notes on how Skrull blood tastes.

The final thing that makes this comic cool?



A Goodbye To Heads.