Batman: Arkham City Videogame Trailer

Comic Guru's Top 25 Featured Comic - Hulk

The Abomination is dead. His corpse was found in a small Russian city called Dimitri. Doc Samson, She-Hulk, SHIELD Director (Tony Stark), Commander Maria Hill, and Thunderbolt Ross investigate the crime scene.

Doc Samson believes that a new Hulk is responsible. And that he used a Hulk-killing weapon to end the Abomination's days.

Suddenly the Winter Guard (AKA the Soviet Soldiers, a Soviet group formed by the Red Guardian (male version), Ursa Major, Crimson Dynamo and Darkstar) arrive and strongly invite the Americans to leave Russian soil at once.

Doc Samson refuses and throws the first punch of the fight between the two groups. Ross stops the fight when a small kid, perhaps the only survivor from Dimitri, appears saying "Kpachasi... Kpachasi...": which means "Red" in Russian.

Perplexed by their findings, Samson and Ross decide to visit the number one authority on Hulk beings: Bruce Banner. If a Hulk did kill the Abomination, that Hulk could not be Banner because he's locked up in a cell that's miles below the surface in the new Gamma Base located in Death Valley, Nevada. So then, who is the new Hulk?

Meanwhile, in the snowy mountains of Alaska, we see Rick Jones with bare chest and torn pants, next to a pipeline, watching a large fire that some men are trying to put out, saying to himself "What have I gotten myself into?"

EMPIRE MAGAZINE'S REVIEW OF THOR

The Comic Guru is currently beavering away on his own review of Marvel's recent hit, Thor, which will grace the pages of this blog shortly.

In the meantime, we thought we'd bring you Empire's take on the film....

“If, like John Cleese in the classic Monty Python sketch, you’re an avid consumer of fermented curd (albeit of the cinematic variety), only to find that there are no cheesy comestibles to be had, you may be in for a similar disappointment with Kenneth Branagh’s Thor, the latest in Marvel’s self-financed superhero flicks. At first glance, all the ingredients for a cheddar convention to rival the likes of Flash Gordon are there — ginormous sets, larger-than-life characters (one of whom has a blond barnet any page-three stunna would kill for) with ridiculous names and powers to match. But Thor is too knowing to stock up on the movie mozzarella. What it is, though, is tremendous fun, and further proof that Marvel Studios knows how to handle its back catalogue.



He’s a tricky one, the Odinson. Unlike Iron Man, Hulk or Captain America, he’s a god. An actual god, with awe-inspiring powers and a rich back story. There’s a lot to get through, and this is the sort of material that has to be handled with the utmost care, lest it go in any number of directions: pompous, cheesy or, most damaging of all, unintentionally hilarious. Things could go from bad to Norse. 

Thor plunges you straight in, following a pre-credits stint in New Mexico, to a dense 30-minute sequence in Asgard where we meet all the major players — Thor, his dark-haired brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), their father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) — and the notion that these extraordinarily powerful beings have been at war with a race of Frost Giants. And not only is it done with a straight face, but the sweep of the material, with vast tracking shots through stunning Asgardian landscapes, is by far the biggest thing Marvel has attempted; this is fantasy on a cosmic scale. 

It’s bewildering at times, condensing nearly 50 years of comic history with a speed that can mean characters are paid scant lip service. You suspect there’s a lot of material on the cutting-room floor — Rene Russo, as Thor’s mother Frigga (stop sniggering), might want to have a word with her agent, while the core relationship, between Thor and Loki, doesn’t really get going for a while. 

When it does, though, as Loki manipulates the esurient Thor into defying his father’s orders, kicking Frost Giant butt and ultimately getting the heave-ho from Asgard, it’s powerful stuff.

After Marvel set Branagh to direct — another leftfield choice to go with Jon Favreau, Joe Johnston, Joss Whedon and Shane Black — you sensed that their model was the Bond films, with tech gurus (in this case, the mighty Vic Armstrong) ensuring the bells and whistles were up to scratch, while the directors bring their own skill-sets to bear. And when it comes to making Shakespearean material — and the relationship between Thor, Loki and Odin positively reeks of the Bard — work on the big screen, Branagh has no equal. 

So as father and sons square off against each other, it’s heady stuff, the three H’s attacking the material, and each other with fury and intensity straight from the West End stage. In one scene, Hiddleston’s Loki, a complex and surprisingly layered villain, confronts Odin about his true origins. It’s intimate and affecting, yet as thundering and loud as you’d imagine gods would be.

Then, once you’re up to speed, the film yanks Thor off to the modern day and tackles the thorny issue of his near-omnipotence by separating him, and his powers, from his enchanted hammer, Mjolnir.

There’s a neat tonal shift, as human beings meet Thor (and, later, in the film’s funniest moment, the Warriors Three and Sif) and find everything he does or says ridiculous. Here, Hemsworth — the Australian actor who impressed so much with his one-scene cameo in Star Trek as Kirk’s doomed dad — comes into his own, adding new layers of humility and humour to his blustering God Of Thunder. At one point, Thor fights off hospital orderlies with an outraged, “You DARE attack the son of Odin?!?”. The fish out of water stuff works like a charm. Hemsworth emerges from this a true star, adept at action, good with comedy, swell at the romantic stuff with Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster (there’s a romantic streak a mile wide here) and cut like Kate Middleton’s engagement rock. 

In fact, you’re instantly intrigued by the prospect of seeing Hemsworth on screen with Robert Downey Jr. (and Chris Evans) in next year’s The Avengers. Marvel copped flak for turning Iron Man 2 into essentially an extended trailer for its big gamble, and has clearly learned a lesson. Yes, SHIELD is involved. Yes, Jeremy Renner shows up for one spectacularly pointless scene as the ace archer, Hawkeye. But Thor, ultimately, stands on its own two feet. We’ll toast that with a glass of mead and a feast fit for a king. Hold the cheese.

Verdict
Turn off the snark-o-meter, and this is a return to form for Marvel, introducing a new hero we’ll be happy to see again in, oh, about a year or so.”

4 Stars (out of 5)

Reviewer: Chris Hewitt
©2011 Empire Magazine.

IGN's Top 100 Super Heroes: #20-1

Comic Guru's Top 25 Featured Comic - Spawn

Al Simmons , once the U.S. government's greatest soldier and most effective assassin, was mercilessly executed by his own men. Resurrected from the ashes of his own grave in a flawed agreement with the powers of darkness, Simmons is reborn as a creature from the depths of Hell. A Hellspawn. Now Spawn must choose between his life on Earth and his place on a throne in Hell

Comic Guru's Top 25 Featured Comic - Fear Itself

In this time of global anxiety, of economic turmoil and mass hysteria, Sin, the new Red Skull, has made an awesome discovery...a shameful secret that will rock the foundations of the Marvel Universe! A revelation that will divide father and son, turn friend against friend, and herald the rise of Fear personified. HE IS RETURNING... and the world has nothing to fear but FEAR ITSELF. Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen bring fans the biggest Marvel since CIVIL WAR!

2000AD Front covers to end of 2010