Marvel Entertainment is continuing to build the Marvel U for the mainstream and for newer comic book fans by re-introducing us to The Guardians of the Galaxy! We’ve known for a while that Guardians of the Galaxy is to be one of the films in Marvel’s next phase starting with Iron Man 3 this summer and culminating with Avengers 2. If you’re a digital comics reader then you’ve been treated to a couple of free Marvel Infinite books introducing Drax and Rocket Raccoon, two of the Guardians.

Guardians of the Galaxy #1 is now on store shelves and it’s most definitely a story on a cosmic level. Earth has become a pivotal planet in the galactic chess game, but the Guardians have made it off limits so there are sure to be some major battles on the way. To make the transition into this cosmic story a little easier, writer Brian Michael Bendis has brought Iron Man into the team so there’s at least one familiar face — or helmet! Writer Neil Gaiman is coming in for at least one issue later in the run, so that’s sure to add an odd flavor to this series.

To get you geared up for Marvel’s cosmic story, we have some images here below from Guardians of the Galaxy #1!

Veronica Mars is one of those television series that has a small, but vocal fanbase. If you bring the long-cancelled show up to a hardcore fan, you may as well grab a cup of coffee (or a stiff drink depending on the fan) and cop a squat because the conversation is going to be long and one-sided. They are like a smaller version of Firefly fans, but more on that later. The show’s creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell have been desperate to revive the show in feature film form basically since it was cancelled after it initial three-year run. Warner Brothers never believed there was enough of a following for the series to merit the big budget studio affair that comes with the creation of a feature film. Finally, Thomas was able to get the WB to agree to foot the bill for a limited theatrical run, the marketing of the film, and the distribution of the film in digital form (VOD, iTunes), if he could come up with the shooting budget.

Bell and Thomas crafted a film with a minisule $2 million budget. Then they put it to the fans on Kickstarter to make the movie happen. The goal was to get the full film budget in 30 days. The full $2 million was accumulated via Kickstarter in just under 10 hours. Rewards for those who donated were many, starting from updates during production and a copy of the script on the day the movie premieres for just a $10 donation all the way up to a speaking role in the film for a $10,000 donation. So the money is in place and plans to go into production are underway. The movie will be shot this summer and have a limited theatrical release in early 2014 before heading to digital distribution.

Guardians of the Galaxy Infinite #1
Published by Marvel Comics for the Digital App
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Michael Avon Oeming
Release date: March 6, 2013
Price: FREE

Marvel announced a new type of digital comic called Infinite last year with a few books that didn’t release on a regular basis. They were sold separately in the Marvel Comics App or came packaged with other digital books. They were promoted as the future of digital comics and in execution the format truly took advantage of reading a comic book on a tablet or similar device. The feel was cinematic but the core experience was still that of a comic book. Also, when reading these books you weren’t constantly flipping the tablet or phone from portrait to horizontal depending on the panel. Those original stories were just teasers to regular comics, but they did show a glimmer of something that could be cool. Then, there was nothing.

Finally now we get a new Infinite book featuring The Guardians of the Galaxy called Guardians of the Galaxy Infinite.

Marvel Comics is all about the Avengers and the X-Men these days. The thing is the Avengers books have been pretty good for quite some time. That can’t be said for the X-Men books outside of Joss Whedon’s somewhat convoluted but still entertaining run on Astonishing X-Men. Lately though the Marvel Now! resets of the X books have been fairly solid books. So of course with that success, it’s time for an event!

Xtermination follows Nightcrawler as he attempts to return to his home world even if it means the destruction of Earth. This event comes from creators David Lapham, Marjorie Liu, Greg Pak, and artist David Lopez and it brings together X-Men from Astonishing X-Men, Age of Apocalypse, and the ridiculously titled X-Treme X-Men.

Marvel promises a major throw-down between Nightcrawler and Wolverine in this event. We have some images from Xtermination #1 set to hit brick and mortar and digital stores in March, so check them out here below.

Confessions
Buckcherry
Deluxe CD | CD | MP3
Century Media
Release Date: February 19, 2013

Buckcherry is special for a lot of reasons, but the main reason of note is that they’re one of the very few modern bands that have really captured that great sleazy 80’s-era L.A. sound made so popular by bands like Guns n’ Roses and LA Guns. They aren’t putting on an homage to the era and style of music; they’re simply one of those bands.

The band has gone through lineup changes after breaking up completely back in 2002, but Josh Todd on vocals and the neverending riffs of Keith Nelson have kept the band on track regardless of what other changes happened internally or externally as far as what’s popular musically. The band’s first three albums, Buckcherry, Timebomb, and 15, are near hard rock classics with two cuts from 15 (“Crazy Bitch,” “Sorry”) making that album the band’s most popular to date. Their fourth album, Black Butterfly wasn’t as strong as the previous releases and it made me wonder if they had run their course musically. The most popular song on that album, titled “Too Drunk,” was actually replaced with a Deep Purple cover when the album was re-issued. Then we got All Night Long, which was a return to form as far as album oriented music from the band goes. Most of the songs on the album, not just the singles, were great just like those first two albums.