If you've been paying attention to internet "news" about comics you may have seen everyone browning their trousers over a woman being Thor and a black guy being Captain America. There's been calls of torches and pitchforks and all the typical internet stupidity that one would see from those outraged about comics that they don't read.
For those who saw these stories and are curious about what is going on and haven't been keeping up with the books, the whole thing is revolving around a storyline that Jonathan Hickman has been doing. There's going to be a time jump, and what's the point of the time jump if everyone is exactly as they are now. So, we get to see some fun change ups.
The problem is that this is getting some interest from people who haven't been reading the Avengers books and its honestly a lot to catch up on. So, here's a really horrible recount of everything.
Illuminati: "We be the smart dudes that make big heavy choices, and don't tell no one."
Black Panther: "A parallel Earth almost crashed into us! What's up with that?"
Illuminati: "We don't know. Join our club?"
Black Panther: "OK."
Reed Richards:"The multiverse is dying. We're all screwed."
Ironman: "We got this."
Reed Richards: "Another parallel Earth!"
Illuminati: "Get the Infinity Gauntlet! Who's gonna use it?"
Ironman: "Get Steve to do it!"
Infinity Gauntlet goes blooey.
Namor: "You dumb-ass! You wrecked our Gauntlet!"
Ironman: "We may have to blow up the parallel Earths to save ours."
Cap: "Not cool!"
Ironman: "Gotta do it."
Cap: "Don't be a dick."
Ironman: "You're out of the club. Enjoy your mindwipe."
Later.
Ironman: "Hey Steve, help me build a really awesome Avengers team."
Cap: "OK."
Weird stuff happens on Mars.
Weird stuff happens of Earth.
Spider-man gets turned into a douche.
White Event. Cause New Universe is cool.
Thanos: "Child support sucks! Killin' all my bastards!"
Ironman: "Something is kicking everyone's ass in space and is heading this way."
Cap: "We'll go help!"
Thanos: "The Avengers have split! Let's wreck their shit! Is my Gauntlet here?"
"Its busted, but the Time Gem may be around."
Thanos: "Cool. Go find it while we're here."
Gladiator: "The Builders are dicks. We're gonna kick their asses."
Cap: "We'll help."
Gladiator: "Whatever."
...
Gladiator: "Oh shit! The Builders are dicks and are kicking our asses!"
Cap: "OK, I've got this."
Namor: "Black Panther is a dick and has your Time Gem. Go kick his ass."
Thanos: "Hey, BP, all your base belong to me. Now, where's my kid?"
Black Bolt: "You're a dick!"
Thanos: "Screw you! Gimme my kid!"
Black Bolt: "Terrigen bomb! Suck it, you purple-faced douche!"
Thanos: "Dick."
Gladiator: "Thanks for kicking the Builder's asses. Thanos done took your planet."
Cap: "Well, guess we gotta kick his ass too."
Gladiator: "Got your back, homie!"
Thanos: "Gonna kill my kid."
Thane (Thanos's kid): "Nope."
Ironman: "More parallel Earth keep wrecking each other and some of them have people on them."
Reed Richards: "We got a bomb."
Hulk: "I know what you've been up to."
Ironman: "Join our club."
Hulk: "OK."
Reed Richards: "Here comes another Earth."
Ironman: "We gotta destroy it."
Dudes from parallel Earth: "Not cool! Y'all are dicks!"
Doctor Strange loses his shit.
Illuminati: "We really don't want to kill a bunch of people to save everyone."
Namor: "Y'all are pussies. Imperius Rex, bitches!"
Parallel Earth go boom.
Illuminati: "Not cool, Namor! You're a dick."
Namor: "Whatever."
...
Namor: "Got me me a new crew. Gonna wreck some stuff."
Cap: "I remember now! Tony is a dick!"
Ironman: "Chill!"
Cap: "You're a dick, and I'm gonna kick your ass!"
Time Gem.
Time travel things.
Cap gets back.
Cap: "Ironman is a dick and so are the rest of the Illuminati. We're gonna kick their asses."
Illuminati: "Oh shit!"
And that's pretty much where we're at going into the next issues. Its going to jump ahead about eight months and the separate titles will be catching up over the next eight months. If you want you can go ahead and hunt down the trades to get a better idea of everything that's going on. Its good reading.
Have fun.
There are times when I hate people for how they use language, and I'm including myself in this declaration. Yeah, as a former English Major I have been known to completely butcher the language, but I figure having a B.A. in English doesn't mean I have to be snooty about it. Sometimes though I like to use words and language as they are supposed to properly be used. When that earthquake caused the terrible tsunami in Japan I told my buddy I thought it was awesome how the effects of that quake could make it all the way to the west coast crossing the entire Pacific. I then caught grief from him about how could I refer to anything having to do with that quake as "awesome".
"Awesome" is currently the "cool". "Cool" is nearly antiquated now. Thank you, Bill and Ted.
When I referred to what happened as "awesome" I meant it in the classic sense. I was in awe of the effects of the quake. I saw the video of the waves coming into California. It really made me consider the power of our planet. Certainly I would not refer to a natural disaster which killed many people as anything ressembling "cool".
I'm bringing this up because of something that I talked about today with Federali and Joey Part Deux up at Kings. We were talking about Marvel's INFINITY storyline
and event. Last post I made a joke about how it was a tie in to the new Disney video game since they both kicked off inside of a week of each other. Here's the thing, this storyline is offically three issues in, but its been building in multiple books for a while. Hickman's set the stage for something that's really huge.
Let's look at what's going on.
A group called The Builders are taking out everything in their path. The Avengers have ties to the Kree and the Shi'ar, and the Builder's path is heading forwards Earth. Captain America has taken a team into space to join with the major players in the Marvel Universe to combat this.
Back on Earth the Illuminati have been busting their butts to try to save Earth and the Universe from the collapsing of the Multiverse and parallel Earths crashing into our earth. This process destroyed most of the Infinity Gems. And we have Namor and the Black Panther going to war with each other, so there's back-stabbery afoot.
To top things off, Thanos is looking to put the curb stomp on the entire planet and has sent his generals, the Cull Obsidion, to get the last Infinity Gem and put away anyone who gets in their way. As such, ironman and the Illumanati, instead of prepping to take on the Builders in case Cap's team and the rest of the Universe can't stop them, are in it up to their necks dealing with one fired-up mad Titan.
Seriously. Holy crap, that's a lot going on. And that's just a brief overview.
There we are talking about this storyline and there's just one word that I could think of to describe, and I didn't even want to use that word because of every goober online using it to describe anything remotely above average: "epic".
This thing is freaking epic.
This is like Hickman is saying to the funnybook fandom and the internet, "Yeah, that word you've been misusing? I'm taking it back."
Because, as the Missus said earlier and paraphrasing THE INCREDIBLES, "When everything is epic, nothing is epic."
This past week Disney released it new DISNEY INFINITY game on multiple gaming platforms. Game Informer is saying this is going to be one of the top 5 games this year. Lots of hype, but the game itself is pretty remarkable. Characters from Disney and Pixar movies that everyone loves coming together for us to play with and giving us the ability if create worlds to run these characters around in.
Its not surprising that Marvel, being owned by Disney, would put out a tie-in comic to really get as many people as they could on board. The first issue of INFINITY came out last week, and Jonathan Hickman has guided his AVENGERS series to this event, much like the nice folks over at Gamestop have been collecting thos pre-orders. The cross marketing has been subtle, and fortunately Hickman has been very careful not to overplay things.
Both the comic and the game deal with multiversal concepts. The game does branch out a bit more as it allows players to explore multiple Earths wereas the comic just sticks to the Marvel U that we know. There has been a lot in NEW AVENGERS dealing with "incursions" which stem from a chain reaction caused by on universe in the multiverse being destroyed and the other universes reacting to that void. Has of yet I have found no such destruction of a Universe in the video game, although to be fair I haven't played through the MONSTERS UNIVERSITY segment of the game, nor purchased the CARS and THE LONE RANGER expansions.
The big feature in the video game is "The Toy Box" which lets you create, customize and populate your own world with various things you earn in the adventure protions of the game. You have ability to alter and erase elements as well. Hickman cleverly inserts this element into the comic with the Builder characters. These are essentually gamers on a cosmic level whom really enjoy Sim City and Civilization type games in which they guild and nudge species towards goals. They also seem to like a bit of Pokémon as they'll work to evolve species as well.
These builders have gone a bit nutters and are wiping out worlds. They go after the Space Knights and the Kree in the comics. This is a clear cut message to old school ROM fans, there's a new age upon us and they have not qualms about breaking out the magic wand from the game tools and deleting whatever they don't like. However, it must be noted that these Builders are not the good guys. In fact Captain America is leading the Avengers into space to help confront them. This echos something unwritten in the game but the message is clear throughout much of the gameplay: "Its better to create and nurture an idea than to just wipe it away."
So my compliments to Disney and Marvel for such a great game launch and tie-in event comic. Many people were worried that Disney would lean on marvel a bit after the acquisition to put out book that push the Disney brand, but I'm happy to report that even though Marvel is paying its due to its parent company, its doing so in a very entertaining fashion.
