'Avengers' #7 Trailer: Hulk Getting Ready to Smash

If you've been reading Hulk by Jeff Parker and Gabriel Hardman, you'd know that Captain Steve Rogers has recruited the Red Goliath (do they call him that?) to help him on a mission to quell a pretty nasty virus concocted by the Leader and M.O.D.O.K.  Naturally Hulk would be invited to give the Avengers a big strong hand... but I'll bet things don't start off as a match made in heaven.

Just take a look at the new trailer for Avengers #7 by Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita, Jr. (on sale November 17th).

The Amazing Spider-Man #229: Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut. Read it for Free!

Do you remember the first time you were introduced to your favorite villain? Usually I don’t. But in the case of the Juggernaut, it wasn’t in the pages of The X-Men where the character first appeared. It was in The Amazing Spider-Man #229, the first of a two-part arc in which Black Tom Cassidy sends Juggernaut to retrieve psychic Madame Web. What was so unique about this villain was that there was sneakery to him. He just shows up in Manahattan in the middle of the day and walks in a straight line until he gets to his prey. “Who is this guy?” I thought. He walks through a police barricade, through a wall of Spidey’s webs, and straight through buildings, all as though they were never there. This guy put the bad in badass.

“Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut” (June 1982) was written by Roger Stern and drawn by John Romita, Jr. who begins to show glimmers of what he can do as an artist in this issue. At the end of the first issue, Juggernaut proves that he doesn’t have an ounce of compassion and Spider-Man becomes totally enraged. The following issue has Juggernaut walking back the way he came and Spider-Man determined to take the villain down. Until then, I was used to villains who kept their plotting and planning hidden. Juggernaut was so different because everything is done in plain sight and he doesn’t care… at all.

For the next week, you can read these two classic issues at no cost on Marvel’s digital site. They currently have a subscription service to read thousands of digital titles for about $60.00 a year. I’m not sold on this service just yet, but I am curious to see what happens when all comic books go digital. Consider this your induction into digital comics reading:
http://marvel.com/digitalcomics/free

Thank You Sir, May I Have Another: Is Kick-Ass 2 Happening?

If you’re waiting to enjoy Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall (the tentative title) in a movie theater, you may have to bring a copy of the comic book with you to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, because it doesn’t sound like a movie is coming out any time soon.

While nothing is official about the fate of the sequel, Director Matthew Vaughn definitely has his hands full helming X-Men: First Class. In the past few weeks the cast has been interviewed and asked about the status of a follow-up to the much loved (somewhat critically maligned) Mark Millar/John Romita, Jr. adaptation.

On September 30th, Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass) told the following to CinemaBlend:
"Mark Millar and John Romita are just writing, possibly writing, the comic book. It’s kind of in Mathew wall court really, and he’s doing X-Men. I think it’s something we might come back to later."

Johnson’s thoughts on the project didn’t seem too dire. However, on October 4th, Chloe Moretz (Hit-Girl) spoke with Collider:
“Yeah, I’d totally love to be Hit Girl again, but I don’t know about Kick-Ass 2. Everyone’s like, ‘It’s just been announced!,’ but I’m like, ‘No, it hasn’t. That’s all rumor.’ I honestly don’t even know anymore. I don’t know anything about a second one. All I know is that there’s a second comic called Balls to the Wall. Hopefully, that will happen.”

Then Lyndsy Fonseca (Katie) expressed the following to Splash Page this weekend at the New York Comic-Con:
"It's going to be a while if it does happen. Everyone's kind of working on other things, and there needs to be more issues of the comic before there's material to do another movie. So wait and see."

Millar seems more optimistic about another big-screen sequel.  He told the following to Splash Page on August 31st:
“We’re probably about nine months away from production starting, at the earliest, because Matthew’s got to do X-Men: First Class."

Let’s hope it does, because Kick-Ass was easily the best comic book movie of the year (sorry Iron Man 2).

Red Hulk Meets the Avengers

Who’s ready for his close-up? Red Hulk. Brian Michael Bendis is going to incorporate him into both of his ongoing Avengers titles. After reading last week’s Hulk I thought the Red Hulk could definitely be an asset to a team book as long as he’s properly characterized and isn’t just there to pound things.

Art by Immonen from

New Avengers #7

Thunderbolt Ross has been a formidable foe for the Green Hulk (I’m aware that’s not his name, but I gotta distinguish between the two here!) for years; I pray he doesn’t become a background character who says things like “Maybe I should knock something over” or “Count me in.” This has been a major beef of mine with some of Bendis’ Avengers characters, specifically Wolverine and Spider-Man.

Bendis shouldn’t present Red Hulk as a heavyweight thug, he could be the strategist of the team, even more so than “Bucky” Cap. My fingers and toes are crossed that this is going to work because, like I wrote last week, there is a lot of potential for this character. One last word, I expect that Stuart Immonen (New Avengers) and John Romita Jr. (New Avengers) to kill with their interpretations on the character; Immonen because there appears to be no limit to his abilities and Romita Jr. because his run on The Incredible Hulk was fantastic.