The Heroic Age: The Avengers #1
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler: John Romita Jr
Inker: Klaus Janson
Colorist: Dean White
Letterer: Cory Petit
Price: $3.99
Marvel Comics
Release date: May 19. 2010

After the last few years worth of Avengers stories where they are constantly on the run or fighting a lot of street level villains, Avengers #1 gets us back to the old school, “Let’s take on a classic threat” story. The action gets moving quickly, and I’m glad to see that writer Brian Michael Bendis wastes no time setting up the team and getting straight into the story.

Kang has come back with a line straight out of Back to The Future. It’s your kids, mighty Avengers, you have to come to the future to stop your kids! It seems this issue is adapting the story from the Next Avengers animated movie from a few years ago. They have certainly taken the character designs for the kids from that movie and used them in this issue. It’s an odd choice for me, and I don’t know if seeing the movie will spoil the last page of this issue (I’ve never seen the Next Avengers movie), but this is the kind of story I think I would like to see out of an Avengers book.

I may not be able to make comic book movies, but I can kick your ass. I am a big comic book fan and read Kick-Ass a while back and really enjoyed it. That being said I was extremely nervous and excited about seeing this movie’s translation from comic book to movie. Well the time finally arrived for me and I got to see another one of my favorite comics on the big screen.

Now that I have seen the movie I have to say I really enjoyed it overall. One thing that stands true for most adaptations to film is that not everything translates perfectly from print to the big screen. As seen with Wanted a couple years ago this is nowhere near a straight translation from print to screen. The movie started production when only four issues of the comic had been written.

There will be people upset by the changes but overall they make sense for a big screen version of the story. I really hope people come into the movie with an open mind. I am sure that anybody with a chip on their shoulder from Wanted will probably not enjoy the movie as much as it should be enjoyed.

Well enough small talk let’s kick ass and start up a little SPOILER TALK about one of the most action-packed movie of the year so far.

Below are my spoiler filled thoughts on the movie Kick Ass. Don’t forget to add your spoiler filled thoughts at the end of the post in the comments section.

Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie
Paperback
By Mark Millar, Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman
Art by John Romita Jr.
Titan Books
Release date: February 23, 2010

F*ck Crime! Kick-Ass.

I’ve been a Kick-Ass fan since before the first issue of the comic hit stands way back in February of 2008. The first viral marketing campaign for the comic was brilliant and it had me excited for the book even before it debuted. The dream team of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. didn’t hurt either. The awesomeness of the comic lead to a movie deal and the rest (we will soon see) is going to be history. Whether the movie catches on with mainstream audiences is yet to be seen, but it sure looks like it was a fun film to make.

Those fine fellows over at Titan Books sent us a copy of Kick-Ass Creating the Comic, Making the Movie and I couldn’t be more thrilled. At first glance you might dismiss the book as being little more than a lame movie-tie in whose sole purpose is to pilfer your wallets, but you’d be sorely mistaken. The book is so much more than that. It does a nice job of satisfying fans of all sorts. The comic fans will enjoy the insights from creators Millar and Romita and the film crowd will be salivating over on-set photos and film stills.

It’s a good time to be an Avengers fan!

This May we can look forward to a double dose of new Avenger books with some great creative teams behind them. Marvel recently showed off two similar ad campaigns for two not so similar books.

Last week came the announcement that Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr. are teaming up to relaunch the classic Avengers book with issue #1 and this week word surfaced about the second Avengers series called Secret Avengers. The superstar creative team of Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato will be bringing that story to life.

So far the classic Avengers series has five confirmed members on its roster — Hawkeye, Captain America, Spider-Woman, Thor, and Iron Man. (Bendis confirmed on Twitter that this is not the complete roster.)

Both titles launch in May.

It looks like Black Panther and War Machine might be two of the Secret Avengers but I have no idea about the others. Who do you think the Secret Avengers in the teasers are? Check out the covers here below.

Marvel announced today who will be the new artist on The Avengers when the series relaunches in May with a new first issue.

Personal favorite artist John Romita Jr. will join writer Brian Michael Bendis as they launch what Marvel is calling “The Heroic Age.” [Read Marvel Comics Promises “˜Heroes Will Be Heroes Again’ In “˜Heroic Age’]

Along with the announcement came a new image from Romita, showing the new Captain America, Bucky Barnes. (Check it out here at right; click for larger, full view.)

We know that the new series will feature the return of the Big Three (that’s Captain America, Thor and Iron Man) to the Avengers, although we don’t know the rest of the team yet.