By now most of you realize that I’m a big Iron Man fan. I don’t think that the character was ruined in the Civil War (which may be a topic for a post sometime in the future, maybe). I’m cautiously optimistic about the upcoming Iron Man movie and my biggest concern is how the armor is portrayed.

The A-Team

In the comics, Tony Stark has gone through many iterations of his armor, constantly refining the design and making some mission specific armors. His first armor in the comics was a clunky, grey suit that he had to cobble together out of spare parts in a manner that would make the A-Team proud. Well, it looks like the movie is going to give us more than one version of the armor and will include a version of his grey armor.

Ain’t it cool news has revealed the first picture of armor from the upcoming movie.

The first glimpse of Iron Man

I was going to include a scan of the cover to Tales of Suspense 39 (the first appearance of Iron Man) so you can see the original comic armor, but then I found that a comparison already exists over at Oof! Blog! Argh! The thumbnail image of the cover has a mouse-over contextual menu that says “Click to embiggen”. And we all know that “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man”. So there you go.

Excellent.

I don’t read Ultimate Marvel books.

Ultimate Iron Man

I don’t have anything against the Ultimate Universe, and I’m glad that Marvel has found success with it. It just isn’t my thing. One reason I stay away from it is money. With the cover price of comic books being what it is, I’m always looking for a reason not to buy something (it’s a shame, but that’s reality folks). But the biggest reason is that I am so personally invested in the main Marvel U (the 616 Universe for my fellow Marvelites out there). I just figured that characters who are almost the same as the characters I know, but not quite, would be difficult for me to enjoy. It turns out that I was right.

You see, after much deliberation, I decided to read Ultimate Iron Man. Ultimate Iron Man is written by Orson Scott Card (author of Ender’s Game) and illustrated by Andy Kubert and Mark Bagley. This is not a lightweight creative team. I really enjoyed Ender’s Game and I’m a huge Iron Man fan. My curiosity finally got the better of me, and I had to see what Card could do with Iron Man.

I had a hard time enjoying it.

The thing is, it was well written and beautifully illustrated. If I wasn’t an old school Iron Man fan, I think I would have really enjoyed the book. And therein lies the problem. It wasn’t Iron Man. At least not the Iron Man I know. The person in the book was so different from the Tony Stark/Iron Man that I’m used to that I couldn’t get into it. I guess that’s the double-edged sword of iconic characters. If they just changed the name so it wasn’t Tony Stark and Iron Man, I probably would have said it is an Iron Man rip-off but I really liked it. Although, I probably wouldn’t have bought the book if it wasn’t called Iron Man.

I applaud Marvel for trying new ideas and I hope their Ultimate line continues to sell well and bring in new readers. I’m actually glad that I don’t love everything Marvel publishes. Diversity in comic books is healthy for the industry.

However, if you are an Orson Scott Card and/or Andy Kubert fan and you are not too steeped in classic Iron Man continuity then I can recommend giving this book a try. But if like me, you are a big fan of the 616 Iron Man, then you might want to try something else.

Here are some classic Christmas comic recommendations.

Ambush Bug Stocking Stuffer

First is the Ambush Bug Stocking stuffer. It’s hard to believe this heart warming Christmas story has been out for 20 years.

Do you like toys? Do you like stories about toys?

How about stories about zombie toys that hunt down and eat other toys?

That’s the kind of wonderfulness that runs through the fever dream that is the Ambush Bug Stocking Stuffer. If you are an Ambush Bug fan and you haven’t read this then you really aren’t an Ambush Bug fan and it’s time to admit it. There’s a group of people who can help you.

If you don’t like Ambush Bug, there may be a medication that might help you. Maybe not.

If you don’t know if you like Ambush Bug, then what are you waiting for. Hunt down this comic and give it a read. You’ll thank me.

The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special

Next on the list is The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special. This story is classic Lobo. It comes from the golden age of Lobo, before the Main Man became over exposed.

In this heartwarming gem of a story, the Easter Bunny, tired of living in the shadow of Christmas, hires Lobo to kill Santa Claus. How can this story not be good?

You get to see the Main Man storm Santa’s compound at the North Pole. You get to see why being an elf might suck. You get to see a knife fight between Santa and Lobo.

That needs to be repeated. You get a knife fight between Santa and Lobo.

This is another classic that your collection can not do without.

And for a little bonus…

Here’s a fine fan film based on The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas comic book. The story is changed some, and you don’t get the knife fight, but it is still a fun ‘ol time.

The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special

Happy Holidays from ComicBrain!

Ok, I just read Civil War #5.

Civil War #5

If you haven’t read it but plan to then you might want to stop reading. I’m going to try to avoid any spoilers, but I can’t guarantee it. (When I’m done writing this, I’ll probably be too lazy to go back and edit the spoiler alert, but it’s just that kind of unknown that makes these posts so exciting to read.)

First I want to gripe about the ads. It should be common courtesy to the fans that every comic book has more pages of actual, you know, STORY than ads. Marvel appears to have forgotten this little bit of etiquette. Fix this Marvel.

But I didn’t come here to talk about the ads. I came here to talk about the draft. The super hero draft, that is. When Civil War was first announced I really liked the idea. I saw a lot of potential in the story. But like many other readers, I’m not thrilled with the execution so far. The biggest problem is the characterizations. I recognize the names and the costumes, but nobody is acting like their histories suggest that they would. It is hard to accept all of these former best friend good guys turning on each other so quickly. As soon as the super hero registration act is passed into law, the different super heroes start punching each other in the head. So much of it doesn’t feel right. I’ve spent some time trying to figure out the individual motivations, and I tried to justify it by saying people often don’t act rationally in the face of conflict. But these are people who fight cosmic battles to save the Universe every other Tuesday. They can handle the stress.

So my question is should I have faith in Marvel? There are still two issues left to go. Will everything make perfect sense at the end? Will I look back and say that taken as a whole it is a great story? I have my doubts. So much of the story seems to be change and shock for the sake of change and shock and shoehorning a story around it.

I’m going to stick it out until the end, and I hope to write a piece on how great the story turned out to be. But if it doesn’t work out, Marvel will have a real mess to clean up, but I guess that’s the case in any war, secret or otherwise.

Books of Doom #1

I’ve been asked to make some more recommendations, and I’m happy to do so. Today’s recommendation is Books of Doom, written by Ed Brubaker, illustrated by Pablo Raimondi with covers by Paolo Rivera and published by Marvel. Books of Doom was originally released as a six issue mini-series, and has also been released in collected hardcover. The trade paperback collection of the story can be pre-ordered now and should be available on store shelves in a couple months.

This is the Doctor Doom story I had been waiting for. Doctor Doom has long been my favorite super villain. But that is based on who he is more than on the stories I’ve read with him in them. Doom is such a larger than life character that it is hard to use him correctly (in my opinion). This is the leader of a sovereign nation after all. Doom has his own ambassador to the United Nations for crying out loud. This is not your average super villain. He should not be out in the streets of New York trading punches with some costumed hero. Doom demands a worthy story.

Books of Doom #6

And that’s what you get with Books of Doom. Books of Doom tells the story of how Doctor Doom became who he is. The story covers the years from the earliest moments of his life to his taking control of the Latverian government. It is one of the greatest origin stories I’ve ever read. Ed Brubaker is one of the best writers in the business. His narrative style is excellent and he makes the character of Doctor Doom accessible. I’ve always liked the scientific genius side of Doctor Doom, but I’ve never been a big fan of the mystical sorcerer side. Brubaker successfully melds both aspects of Doom’s origin, which is no small feat. He also does an exceptional job of growing the character through the series. You have sympathy for the small child born into a harsh life, and watch as the combination of his difficult life and his amazing talents twist him into the villainous dictator that he finally becomes.

Page of Doom

I really wish George Lucas had let Ed Brubaker write the Star Wars prequel scripts. Brubaker clearly knows how to tell the origin of a great villain. (Lucas clearly doesn’t.) I highly recommend pre-ordering a copy of the TPB. If you just can’t wait, you can probably pick up the entire mini-series off of eBay. And if you really want to trust my recommendation (and who wouldn’t?) go out and pick up a copy of the premier hardcover edition.

There are apparently some efforts being made by the comic industry to get monthly comics more widely available. Some comics can be bought in a 7-11. But let’s face it, those 7-11 comics are meant to be gateway comics to get new readers hooked (I have doubts about how that can work given current cover prices). Once you’re hooked, you have to go somewhere else to get your books. I used to go to a local comic shop (LCS), but I don’t have one close to where I live now. I miss going to an LCS. I think the thing I miss most is browsing the rack of new comics, picking up things I didn’t have on my pull list.

However, in this modern digital world of ours there is hope. You see, this marvelous information super-highway of ours does more than just bring you this blog. It brings you the option of the online comic shop (OCS). I have been using mycomicshop.com for quite a while now and it has been great. I haven’t tried any of the other services out there, so I can’t really compare and contrast, but I can describe my experiences with this one OCS. mycomicshop.com is a full-featured OCS with an online “megastore” where you can buy back issues and supplies as well as their subscription service. I guess the only real downside to the subscription service is that you have to know what you want to order months in advance since that’s how things are ordered through Previews. I get my books shipped to me monthly, although there are more frequent shipping options available. The hardest part has nothing to do with getting comics mail order. The hard part is trying not to exceed my budget by too much. There are so many more books that I’d like to get each month but I just can’t justify the cost. But that’s a topic for another time.