All-new Wolverine, the best there is at what she does

It has been a few weeks since my last post and I want to thank you all for the feedback I recieved for it. It was great. It sparked a lot of conversations that I really enjoyed. Even disagreeing with people about comics and storylines is fun.
Since then I've been trying to think up sime ideas for new posts. It's been a bit of a challenge because I've been really busy writing my next novel and me a friend of mine just started a new podcast about comics. We're two episodes in and it's been a lot of fun. Check it out at http://comicconsultants.podomatic.com/rss2.xml. If you like comics and enjoy the banter you hear between people in your local store I think you'll like this one.
This week in lew of the lack of material I have I thought I would give a review on a newish series that I've started to read. I've been very impressed with it and so I wanted to share with you all.
The series I'm talking about is the All-new Wolverine.
For those of you who haven't read my earlier posts I've talked about how I checked out of the big two companies in comics, Marvel and DC. I still read comics but stuck to the more independant titles. In another earlier post I think I mentioned that I was getting back into them.
Why?
To tell the truth I missed them. I missed seeing the heroes I grew up with punching each other in the face and reading about the adventures and struggles they faced. I strated with one of my favorite heroes Captain Marvel formally Ms. Marvel. It's a great book and I love the direction of the character. Maybe someday down the line I'll talk more about her, but for now I'll move on. I also picked up other books, such as the new Ultimates, A-force, and Guardians of the Galaxy. All of them have been great reads. The last book I picked up was the All-new Wolverine.
Now I have to admit I was a little wary of picking it up. I mean I have always loved Wolverine and I don't care what you say he's everyones favorite X-man. If you say someone else is your favorite your lying. They're your second favorite and Wolverine is your first. Anyway after the *SPOILERS* death of Logan the Wolverine Marvel needed someone to fill his shoes and be the best there is at what he used to do, so they picked I think the logical choice and went with his daughter/clone X-23. Also known as Laura Kinney.
Now I don't really want to get into her history too much because to different people it can be interpreted in different ways. Like the beloved Harley Quinn X-23 got her start in cartoons. She first appeared in the show X-men Evolution and then later in comics she appeared the NYX #3. A great little series about modern teens getting their mutant powers. There was more to it but thats a basic enough premise. She later showed up in Uncanny X-men and then had two mini-series about her origin. She was a pretty popular character and people enjoyed seeing a new female wolverine character.
She started to make big waves when she started to appear regularly in the Uncanny X-force. She had a cool black and silver costume and could be seen letting loose regularly.
The thing I find most interesting about the character and what I think makes her so compelling is the relationship she has with Logan(Wolverine). X-23 was essentially born to be a weapon. She had virtually no family life to speak of and has learned nothing but combat since birth. Wolverine of course had somewhat of a normal life at least until his mutant powers developed, and for him it was down hill from there. He was later trained to be a weapon. The difference is he made a choice. He recognized his talents and put them to use. X-23 was forced into it. It's a life few people understand. Logan does because he was forced into the weapon x program, which we all know gave him his awesome adamantium skeleton, so he understands people doing things to you against your will. Throughout X-23's character development we see her struggle with the way she was born and the way she is now. She's not like anyone else. Her social skills are non existant but she knows how to kill a person a million different ways without popping her claws, and she can go feral when provoked or baited with a certain pheromone.
So who else knows about killing people and about controlling that berseker rage. Well Wolverine of course. Its what he's best at after all.
Over the years we see these two grow close. A sort of master and apprentice or father and daughter relationship. He's trying to teach her how to exist and be happy in the modern world. As seen in the All-new Wolverine it worked, sort of. She is a more confident character and has no trouble dealing with threats when they occur and unlike Wolverine shes controlled her killing instinct much better. She also is not afraid to take what she wants and we see that a few times in the series, and we see that she will not be controlled by anybody.
I just want to give a big kudos to writer Tom Taylor and artists David Lopez and David Navarrot for delivering a stunning first six issues. It was full of action and some laughs. The All-new Wolverine goes up a against an evil corporation who has secretly tried to clone her. She joins a band of those clones to fight back. We see lots of famous appearances like Dr. Strange and the Wasp. Also the first arc really tries to establish that Laura Kinney is the Wolverine throughout the Marvel universe and not just in the X-books. Which I feel like they did a pretty good job with. It was a quick run I couldn't put down. The later issues are just as good. Tom Taylor and David Lopez stick around to lead Wolverine into Civil War 2.
Personally I'm not the biggest fan of big event series crossing into my ongoing series books, but they found a way to keep the story focused on whats happening in Wolverines world and not so much on whats happening in the Civil War 2 main book.
I suggest issue 9 where *SPOILERS* she dives into Fin Fang Fooms mouth to save Old Man Logan. Now that is the kind of fantasic shit I like to see.
Anyway I think this series is a great jumping in point for new readers looking to fill that Wolverine void. Also I think shes great for young female readers to check out. She's a strong female character that takes no crap. Another in a long line that Marvel has showcased recently. She also, I feel address appropriately for the job. Her outfit is just like Wolverine's with slight modifications, but her body is completely covered.
I mean come mid drifts look cool sometimes bit they're totally impractical in the superhero game. 
Those of you who are die hard Wolverinr fans and don't like to see a woman rocking the blue and yellow I have something to say. Grow the hell up. Logan if he were real would be proud thay she took over his yellow spandex. Don't cry to me either about him being dead. He'll be back. Once Fox releases the X-men righta back to Marvel there will be a big party in which we can welcome back our favorite Canadian mutant. Until then I'll happily being following the All-new Wolverine and the adventures she has.
Thanks again everyone and keep reading.  

Are comic movies ruining comics? Part 3 Conspiracies and combined universes

If you are an avid reader of comics you're no stranger to big events. By this I mean a new book, usually a mini-series, will feature several heros banding together and facing some new threat. It's like the biggest team up stories. We get to see all of our favorite characters conversing with one another outside of their individual books. Historically it's been going on for quite some time, but recently it tends to happen a few times a year.
In fact some of the big ones have had movies named after them. Civil War, Age of Ultron, Days of Future Past, and Age of Apocolypse. These four were the big ines in recent years. These four titled events in comics were huge and took the characters we liked and took them to places we really hadn't seen them go before. One thing the movies did though was take these titles in name only, and didnt completely reflect the stories as they were presented in comics.
Now to be fair the closest was probably civil war. The comic essentailly had Iron Man and Captain America facing off with one another. The movie captures that pretty well and gave us enough back story through previous movies that it made sense. Days of future past was also close. They at least jumped from the past to the present but the characters involved weren't quite same. The other two I mentioned took the name only and did what they wanted.
That's fine I'm not here to argue about that. I'm not the biggest fan of it but whatever.
The thing is the four movies I mentioned were two different teams. Two were Avengers movies and two were X-men movies. Now some of you who aren't avud readers or don't really pay attention to movie studios or movie/comic news may be wondering why haven't the X-men and Avengers teamed up in a movies yet.
Well I'm here to tell you why.
Even though in the comcis the two teams have worked together on several occassions the likely hood of thwm doi g so in film is slim. X-men film rights are owned by Fox while we all know now that the Avengers Marvel filming properties are owned by Disney. Two completely different film studios. Who it seems do not want to share. Now that may not be true if Disney because they got Sony, who owns filming rights of Spider-man to share him, so maybe Disney is willing to share and Fox wants to keep the mutants to themselves.
Some of you may be thinking that can't be true. Fox wouldn't do that.
Fox has been releasing X-men movies pretty consistently since first class and with each one, in my opinion, I feel like they've missed the mark. They're big exciting special effects fight 'em ups but not much story. At least not the kind that made us all fall in love with the X-men years ago. The thing is as long as Fox keeps making X-men movies they get to keep the filming rights, and it appears to me they don't want to give them up.
Marvel it seems has recognized this in not only the films but the comics as well. Since the X-men are mutants I believe the rights to the term mutants are tied together so in Marvel movies they can't use mutants. Except it seems the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are no longer mutants. At least according to the Avengers Marvel movie universe. Fox also has the Fantastic Four filming rights and despite the less than mediocre movies they've produced they're still going to make more.
Insert joke about beating a dead horse here.
Anyway now that I've told that story lets get into conspiracy. What I'm about to say is pure speculation but I believe on some level it's the truth.
Avid readers of comics will have noticed this change but those who aren't I want to fill you in. The X-men don't really exist in the comics anymore. Now thats not to say the they've been wiped from existance within the confines of the Marvel universe but they don't matter. X-titles used to make up a huge portion of Marvel titles and in the 90's helped to carry the company. When the Marvel films really got kickstarted with Iron Man, heroes like him began to come into the spotlight, and because the X-men movies had come out earlier, they were all sharing in the same succes. The characters in the Avengers began to grow and th X-men were growing with them. The events I mentioned earlier always involved both teams in big ways. Then the success of the movies began to grow and fans were flocking to Iron Man movies and Captain America movies because dammit Marvel was doing it right, and the future X-men movies not so much.
Earlier I mentioned that comics have started to reflect the movies in some respects. Characters would look like their film counterparts and some stories would change just enough so that film and comic were parrallel in a lot ways. It appears that recently this has escalated beyond costume and power modifications. Such as the combination of universerses and the loss of focus on other characters.
Now here we are in the present and if you walked into a comic star you would notice a surprising lack of X-men and Fantastic Four comics. The charcters still exist in the pages but they've been moved to the back burner. Fox owns both film titles and doesn't seem to want to give them up. Mo matter how bad the movies they put out are. While in the books Marvel is queitly sideling the characters or moving them from other teams. That's not to say they're no X-men books left but the quality of them has dropped. The original Fantastic Four seems to be nowhere in sight. According to the more recent Secret Wars mini-series. They are buildinf universes.
This I think makes a great segway to the combining of universes and Secret Wars was the book where it happened.
By all appearances the Ultimate universe was on its way. There were several series that led to the demise of that universe, but it all wrapped up nicely in Secret Wars.
I won't go into that book really. I feel that series really needs its own blog, but imagine a series where DrDoom is god and he rules a planet compiled of the multiverse. Whatever you picture in your head is probably pretty accurate.
Anyway now the original Marvel universe exists with some Ultimate flair mixed in it.
(something by the way a certain editor amd cheif said would never happen, and if it did then they had run out of ideas... Just sayin) I havent see Nick Fury yet but part of me thinks he will be Sam Jackson Nick Fury. The Agents of Sheild from the Tv show now exist within the pages of the Marvel U. The Inhumans who have been utilized in the Marvel cinematic universe are now big characters and apart of big ongoing plots.
What I'm getting at is old movies deals and who owns certain cinematic rights are affecting our comics. Whether this is a bad thing or a good thing I leave that up to you. Personally I would like more X-men in my comics and I don't want to see Marvel movies to stop coming out, so in a lot of ways I'm okay with it. I also have to give thecreators at Marvel tremendous credit at putting out such great stories, while working with out characters that used to be top sellers. What they're doing are making you appreciate classic characters that had small followings of people who would snatch up the most obscure of appearances when they could, but now those characters are headlining books.
I think it's a great time for comica and movies and if I know anything about either is it will change. It always does. If you aren't happy with the current events happening take a break for a few months and come back it will be very different.
Thanks to everyone who made to part 3. I hope you enjoyed it.
Till next time readers.

Did comic movies ruin comics? Part 2 The birth of new universes

On part 1 I reflected that the X-men movies only brought on a costume change. Now this was true but as time went on the costumes did go back to a superhero feel and not so much the biker leather look the movies gave the films. This was of course a minor change at first and was one, I feel, we as comic readers could handle. The X-men did go through another big change because of films later but I'm not going to get to that just yet.
It will makes sense later I promise.
Let's very quickly reflect on Sam Raimi's vision of Spider-man. As a Spider-man film goes it was quite good. Never before have we seen the wall crawler swinging around Manhatten with such ease. It was beautiful for it's time. Well I believe the first two were. The third unfortunatley was plagued by fan demands, an exhausted Raimi, and an impatient studio, so I don't blame him for an emo Peter Parker dancing down the street.
That particular movie did have some effect on the comic but not in our regular Spider-man books. Instead it helped to create a new universe. It's what came to be known as the Ultimate universe. It should be noted here too that the X-men movies also helped this new universe get established because at the time it and Spider-man were the only marvel movies out there that were doing really well, also they were first two books in the ultimate universe, Ultimate Spider-man and Ultimate X-men.
Now for those of you unfamiliar with the Ultimate universe I'll give you a quick summary. The Marvel comics we all know from our youth started in the 1960s, roughly. Some heroes like Captain America and Namor actually started in the forties, but Marvel really established itself in the sixties with Spider-man, X-men, Hulk, Fantastic Four, etc. Essentially teenage Peter Parker got bit by a radioactive spider in 1961.
In the Ultimate universe however Peter Parker gets bit by a radioactive spider in the year 2000. The Ultimate universe is essentially the Marvel universe if it started in modern times. It was a good idea. New and old creators could build new worlds and tell new stories they might not have been able to tell in the old universe because the old universe had such a long continuity, but with the Ultimate universe anything was fair game. It was also great for new readers. They could come into stories about their favorite characters from the ground up and not feel burdened with years of back issues that they feel they have to read to be caught up on the current story.
Whew! Thats the shortest I could sum it up so lets continue about movies.
I told you that story about a new universe to tell you this one. 2008 comes around and Iron Man makes it to the big screen and it is a huge success. I won't go into what made it a big success but if you follow the superhero movies you know why. This was the movie that essentially started it all. It's what brought us to Captain America Civil War today. Iron Man waa a movie about a B level hero, C in some cases, that bumped him to A level status and jump started a whole new film universe. Eight years of Marvel films and tv shows that all share the same universe. When I was kid reading comics I would dream of this happening, and it didn't start happening till I was almost 24.
Better late than never.
Now being an avid reader as I've proudly expressed you can't help but notice what they do with certain characters and story plots. If you've ever read a book and seen the movie you'll understand. Unlike a book though comics are perpetually in a state of act 2, with no act 3 coming. (Not going to lie I got that from Kevin Smith. I like the guy, he knows what he's talking about.) In saying that superhero movies based off of an ongoing property can virtually end up anywhere and with anyone in them. If a comic has been going on long enough it's probably covered any eventualality you can imagine, and some have gotten strange. Anyway the big thing we all noticed I think was the reveal of a character we never expected. He was tucked away at the end of the credits. Come on you remember...
That's right, Nick fuckin Fury.
Except he was, as shown in the comics, the Ultimate universe Nick Fury. Who is black and was by played by the great Samuel L. Jackson. Hell even in the comics he's drawn to look like Sam Jackson. Where as in the regular Marvel universe that started in the 60's Nick Fury was white.
Personally I've been swayed over time that the Sam Jackson Fury is a good choice.
Now just hold on minute because it's going to get interesting. I can tell I'm losing some of you in the back. 
The thing is the Iron Man they introduced in the movie was the regular Marvel U. Iron Man. With the exception of him being in Iraq instead of Vietnam. To avid comic readers who follow both universes it looks as if the films are combining the two universes. It was strange and I know some didn't like it but it worked well together.
It also sold a lot of comics.
Comics that started to change. Not at first but subtle and slowly. The Ultimate Marvel universe started releasing more books. Newer titles of our favorite characters being brought up in the modern world. Sometimes these books and characters looked as if they were pulled straight from the movies and others looked like they were ready made to be movies. Costumes didn't look too fantastic that they couldn't exist in the real world and yet surreal enough that the characters could still be identified as superheroes.
Now because the Ultimate universe was new there wasn't really changes per say but additions to a new universe. The regular Marvel universe changed the most. Old characters got updated looks and personalities. Origins were slightly updated. As new Marvel movies came out villians that may have been low level were brought into the spotlight because they were featured in the new movies. It was an exciting time, tons of new stories were being written. Characters we've heard from maybe once a year, those characters that had cult followings began to take the spotlight. Marvel went through a series of large events that kept changing the status quo every year and with each new year came new movies and with that year the comics would still try and reflect what was happening in the movies or copying their look.
Granted the events Marvel went through weren't entirely movie driven. There was some great writing being done and some awesome art as well. The stories being told were huge and all encompassing in their scope of the entire Marvel brand. It was a good time but a dark time. The villians were winning for quite a while, and the heroes had few victories. What victories they had were epic and kept the readers hungry for more, new and old alike. Everything was changing as were the movies. The comics reflected the movies and the movies reflected the comics. It was a fans dream in a lot of ways.
Then something happened. I'm not sure what it was or who made the decision but two universes started become one and two long running series were not on the forefront of the comics anymore, while others were pushed to the front and all because of movie studios and legal jargen and quite possibly some greed. 
Next time I'll dig into that and wrap up this series of "are movies ruining comics?" I will have an answer at least about what I think anyway. Thanks for reading everyone and stay tuned for part 3.

Did comic movies ruin comics? Part 1 X-men in leather.

I have had a hard time trying to figure out exactly what this blog should be. It started as a way to promote writing, and in many ways it still is. I still plan to talk about upcoming books and the current books I've written. Lately though you've seen my various rants and opinions about comics and then monsters.
This blog you're reading will be the latter by the way.
I'm only stating this because I'm sort of hoping it will give whoever is reading this a look into the mind of a writer. Now I'm no Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, or Mark Twain, but maybe you'll get some insight into why I like to write books about a red headed cowgirl battling monsters in a post civil war united states. Maybe though I can make you smile at musings and possibly look at things in a way you haven't thought of.
Or I can help you burn 5 minutes by reading this. Either way I'm glad I could help.
The topic I wanted to talk about or talk at you about is comics and their adapted movies and whether or not they may be ruining the comics. First off I want to tell you that I love comics, like a lot.  They were what first helped me to like reading and they taught me quite a lot. Not only just providing lots of entertainment but through the X-men I learned about segration and the possibilty of what the next step of evolution could be. Spider-man let me know it was okay to be a nerd and that I could still get the girl despite not having awesome powers, but by being a good guy... The powers would have been nice though.
It's been about 20 years since I've been delving into the graphic art form and more than half of that time I spent working for a comic book store. It was by far the best job I ever had. This I feel like gives me some knowledge to both sides of comics. The seller and the reader, and by the way I am a reader, I do collect but I enjoy reading my comics over and over again far more than I do reading once and sealing them away forever. Now that being said I believe I have some valid opinions on the matter.
Like any comic fan any movie adaptation that ever comes out is a big deal. Even today when we can't get through a year without seeing at least 4 superhero movies and possibly 2 or 3 others that aren't superheros but are based off of comics, but growing up it was an even bigger deal. Movie studios just didn't do that. The best we really got was Christopher Reeves Superman and Michael Keaton Batman, which I believe still hold up today. As for Marvel the best we got were some campy Captain Americas, a never released Fantastic Four, and Dolph Lungren as the Punisher. Not really a lot to work with, but as comic fans we ate that shit up and as those movies came out they didn't affect the books we were reading month to month. Sure Batman's costume was completely black for awhile like in the movie but not a big change. Our books continued on unhampered by Hollywood success and leaving us dreaming of possible what if scenarios for the comic book movies of our dreams.
Now fast forward to Robert Downy Jr in the first Iron Man. Holy shit! What a good movie. A million comic fans the world over exploded with joy at this movie. It had most of what we ever dreamed a comic movie should have. Don't get me wrong the first X-men was great and gave us quite a lot as did Spider-man, but Iron man hinted at the start of a new universe. It didn't end there it delivered, so now we're several movies in have two Avengers movies out and Captain America and Iron Man are punching each others faces in on screen, and they're the same actors that starred in everyone of the films. Could it not get any better?
(Just a side not this post is very Marvel centric. Yes DC is doing big movies too but really Marvel is and has been doing it right for awhile. Just sayin.)
If we're talking movies I have to think that absolutely it's going to keep getting better. When it comes to our comics though I'm not so sure. Ever since X-men was first released on the big screen and we saw our favorite mutants in black leather the comics began to reflect that. Don't get me wrong Grant Morrison's run of the leather clad X-men was awesome. I still re-read it to this day but I have to wonder. Did that have to happen?
Now I understand that in order to market your movie that's based off of a property it makes sense to have that property be similar enough that people will want to buy both. Thus the movie makes money and the property makes money. It makes sense I get it. People see the movie want more so they go to comic store and buy the comic. The comic now, because of the movie, looks like the film. New readers come into get more of what they experienced in the movie and because the characters are dressed in the same biker look, the consumer feels good about their purchase and doesn't feel too lost in the storyline that took hundreds of back issues to develop, and old readers get a fresh new story and look at some of their favorite characters.
Some would consider this a win win. This after all was a costume change. The X-men did't go through any event that changed their history or how charcters interacted with each other or themselves. At least not at first...

I have discovered that this particular line of thought is going to need much more than one blog post. I don't want to give you a novel to read on the internet, so this ends part one of "Did comicbook movies ruin comics?" Stay tuned for part two it's going to get deep.
Also if you enjoy this blog give it a follow or follow me on twitter @thebeardedjon. Check my two novels too. If you're in the mood for a supernatural western check out The Wendigo and the Werewolf, or if you want some epic fantasy with DnD undertones check out Child of the Moons. Both can be found on amazon in paperback and kindle. Thanks every one part two coming soon.