Marvel Comics Unlimited!: June 2013

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Kitty Pryde - Artwork

Dear readers,

You know by now that I adore Kitty Pryde. She was a kid when I was a kid and I loved her development as a character. She’s still a kid in some of the books and over the years has appeared as a more mature young woman and it’s definitely fun to look back at all the different styles (versions?) of Kitty from the various animated cartoons and all of the series by Marvel.

With that, I’m sharing some of my favorite Kitty Pryde pictures and links to the original sources where possible.

 

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

 

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Cosplay Fun?

I’m becoming a big fan of cosplayers - there are some people making a living posing in costumes and selling prints, and I’m all for people making a living doing what they love (I know I do, and I’m sad for anyone who doesn’t).

Here’s a great link for cool supplies for cosplaying http://www.cosplaysupplies.com - check them out for neat instructions on using advanced plastics, polymer clays and even fiberglass to make cool costumes.

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I’m including some of my FAVORITE cosplay pictures from the past few years. I hope you guys will post links in the comments about your favorites too. Side note: let’s keep the comments clean - we all know that if a cosplayer is hot what someone turned on by them wants to do - ya don’t need to say it!

I’ve even included a couple of men for my female readers and others who might be so inclined (not that there is anything wrong with that).

;-)

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

 

 

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Check out http://www.dorkly.com/article/45319/new-york-comic-con-12-cosplay-roundup for some great pictures from the New York 2012 Comic Con. Please share any links to cool cosplay websites and galleries in the comments!

Get cosplay costumes on Amazon here.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Marvel Unlimited - User Interface Upgrade!

Finally, the user interface is easier to navigate. Check out the PREV and NEXT links with drop down views of the issues’ covers ->

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Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

Sunday, June 23, 2013

X-Men Family Tree (FUN!)

Someone sent me this on Facebook, and I thought it is worth sharing. I hope you like it too!

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Remember, a great place to buy comics online is the website of Lone Star Comics. Click here for a complete listing of all the X-Men related titles (including trade paperbacks) available there.

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Of course, I still highly recommend Marvel Unlimited for the low cost $60/year unlimited access to 10,000+ issues of Marvel comic books.

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

AVENGERS - Now on Netflix!

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In case you’ve been waiting, it’s arrived! Check out The Avengers on Netflix now!

Unfortunately, the Edward Norton portrayal of the Hulk is not on Netflix, but don’t worry, there are other options if you want to have a Marvel-movie-universe marathon. Thor is still streaming, but the Iron Man movies have been removed. Instead, take a look at Captain America: The First Avenger. My recommended order: Cap, then Thor, then the Avengers. If after all of that you still ache for some Marvel superheroes, check out the large collection of animated features and series.

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Here’s a partial list:

  • Invincible Iron Man - animated movie where ultra-rich Tony Stark uncovers evil and designs the suit to combat it.
  • Iron Man: Armored Adventures - series with 52 episodes where Tony Stark is a teen genius sporting the retro (late 70s) Iron Man armor.
  • The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes - 2 seasons of good animated fun!
  • Spider-Man (1967) - 72 episodes make up this classic cartoon series centered on Peter Parker and his battles with Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin and many others.
  • Spider-Man (1981) - this single season of Spiderman is poorly animated, as were most cartoons in the early 80s, but it does have some funny spots. Additionally, episode 6 features Magneto - years before the X-Men got a series. Magneto asks for “$100 million in gold” -- CLASSIC!
  • Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends - this was my childhood favorite because I had gotten into the X-Men and Bobby Drake was one of Spidey’s amazing friends!
  • Ultimate Spider-Man - focuses on SHIELD and Norman Osborn with Peter as a 16-year-old.
  • X-Men - this is the first series devoted to the team, and lasted for 5 “volumes” (instead of seasons), with a great deal of Claremont story coverage, including a Dark Phoenix Saga retelling. Downside to that is they don’t do sexy Jean Grey or Emma Frost any justice at all.
  • X-Men: Evolution - returning the team to a time when they are just awkward teens made for a nice twist to this series, which also chose to retool existing X-Men stories far more than they plotted new ones.

As always, click the titles of any shows available on Netflix and your browser will open for instant streaming access!

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

 

Thursday, June 20, 2013

X-Men Forever - Claremont Excellence!

Dear readers,

If you grew up on Chris Claremont’s X-Men and haven’t read X-Men Forever, you are going to be thrilled with his alternate continuity version of X-Men. This story takes place in its own universe, making possible quite a few interesting choices for plotting that wouldn’t happen in a traditional Marvel comic book series.

Avoid the Wikipedia entries at all costs so you can enjoy the stories to the fullest. You will definitely be surprised. The depth at which Claremont builds these characters’ stories is something that really got at me when I started reading. While I’m only on the second volume, the first year (24 issues) was worth every page-turning moment. Knowing that characters live and die adds a ton to the stories as does the complete elimination of worrying about what is going on in the rest of the Marvel universe. While we see tons of other characters like Spider-Man, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, their appearances aren’t restricted to ongoing continuity of the other books.

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This is volume one’s link here, as is the image above.

The second volume is available here or by clicking the link below. Note: the finale of the series is not available on Marvel Unlimited. A thorough plot summary is available at Uncanny X-Men dot Net here.

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Click this link to see all of the trade paperbacks on Amazon.

 

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Weekend Reading -> Age of Apocalypse <- More Images Part 1

Comic book fans,

I’m on a strictly AoA diet this morning, so I’ll be posting some cool covers and panels as I get through some issues. If you haven’t read the Age of Apocalypse, you’re missing one of the classic Marvel stories of the modern age!

As mentioned before, there are many trade paperbacks in the AoA series, available at Amazon here.

A much more complete way to read the story is the hardback X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, but it retails for $125 (or $86.31 on Amazon), or you can enjoy the reading order in the link here, assembled using resources from Amazon, Comic Book Herald and UncannyXMen.net.

Reminder: another great place to buy back issues at fair prices online is My Comic Shop. Be sure you check your local comic shop first, because every town lucky enough to have one should support them! Use the locator here to find one if you don’t know of your closest location. Thanks to Comic Shop Locator for that link!

 

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More to come!

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

Weekend Reading -> Age of Apocalypse

Dear readers,

Weekends are a great time to make use of your Marvel Unlimited subscription! Check out these two pages from the first issue in the Age of Apocalypse crossover arc and get to reading!

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Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Other Blogs and Resources for Comic Book Geekery!

I post mostly about the fun stuff I find on Marvel Unlimited and quite a bit of that is based on building clickable link lists for all of the issues and tie-ins for crossover events and comic book series where the MU interface (unfortunately) does not contain the issues in proper order.

There are a ton of resources I use to find the right reading order for the big crossover stories since the trade paperbacks rarely include the tie-ins and Marvel’s own site is almost useless as a search tool. I’ve introduced readers to some of my favorite sites, which I’ll list next, but below that, I want to tell you about other blogs and websites that you might not know about. By the way, it is probably important to know that some of these sites aren’t actively updated, but that is ok since many of us are interested in older issues anyway.

Here are the sites I’ve talked about so far:

  • Comic Book Herald - Dave Buesing’s excellent site contains fantastic posts about all things comic book and geekery fun! His recent post about Arrested Development is just one example of his brilliance. I link to his reading order guide on every blog page because it is the best!
  • Comic Vine - owned by CBS interactive, don’t hold that against the site, as it is a great resource for comic books of all publishers. Check out the results of this search for Phoenix Force!
  • Phil the Comic Guy - a cool blog with a guy who has a real interesting approach to his reviews: he tells you what he thinks, straight up. He’s also great at putting together excellent read order guides, such as this one or A vs X.
  • Uncanny Xmen Net - the site for X-Men fans. It’s full of great links, descriptions of issues and so much more.

I’ve been reading some other blogs and sites lately:

Addition courtesy of a friend on Google Plus -> http://www.comics.org <-

Here's one of my favorite pieces by JamieFayX, Hope - The Mutant Messiah

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What blogs and forums do you like?

 

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

Friday, June 7, 2013

1602

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In the list of “reimagined” Marvel Universes, the 1602 series is definitely among the most unique, and I dig it. If you want to get the hardcopy, order it on Amazon where it is available from under $4 in hardcover format.

Interesting artwork is just the start of this tale expanding on the idea: what if Marvel’s heroes appeared in the world 400 years earlier?

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Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Age of Apocalypse - Giant Crossover (Reading List)

This massive mid-1990s crossover event is one of the biggest events to ever occur in the Marvel Universe. The core story is that the son of Professor X, Legion, travels to the past to kill Magneto and fix the ongoing conflict between Magneto and both humanity and mutants. Unfortunately, Magneto was saved from death by Professor X, causing the timeline to collapse and instantly change, with Legion no longer existing and no person save time traveller Bishop aware of the consequences (or the “real” history).

There are many trade paperbacks in the AoA series, available at Amazon here.

A much more complete way to read the story is the hardback X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, but it retails for $125 (or $86.31 on Amazon), or you can enjoy the reading order below, assembled using resources from Amazon, Comic Book Herald and UncannyXMen.net.

We definitely have Uncanny XMen.net to thank for the unique understanding of which stories to read first inside the one-shot that starts the series, how the later (anniversary) issues factor in and so much more that adds fun to the story. Please read their post here for a detailed explanation of the crossover. At the bottom of this post is a complete listing of all the issues they’ve reported as relevant with hyperlinks to the Marvel Unlimited issues. Only a few are not available digitally at this point.

In my mind, the keep it simple listing of the story is the best approach to enjoying it, but this is just a tiny chunk of the issues seen as important to the more dedicated fans. Again, read the entire set found near the bottom of this post to get everything, including the 2005 additional stories.

Here’s my reading order:

  1. X-Men Chronicles #1
  2. X-Men Chronicles #2
  3. X-Man Annual '96
  4. X-Men Alpha
  5. Generation Next #1
  6. Astonishing X-Men #1
  7. X-Calibre #1
  8. Gambit and the X-Ternals #1
  9. Weapon X #1
  10. Amazing X-Men #1
  11. Factor X #1
  12. X-Man #1
  13. Amazing X-Men #2
  14. Factor X #2
  15. Weapon X #2
  16. Gambit and the X-Ternals #2
  17. X-Calibre #2
  18. Astonishing X-Men #2
  19. Generation Next #2
  20. X-Man #2
  21. Age of Apocalypse: The Chosen
  22. Astonishing X-Men #3
  23. Factor X #3
  24. Amazing X-Men #3
  25. X-Calibre #3
  26. Weapon X #3
  27. Gambit and the X-Ternals #3
  28. X-Universe #1
  29. Generation Next #3
  30. X-Man #3
  31. Astonishing X-Men #4
  32. Generation Next #4
  33. X-Calibre #4
  34. X-Man #4
  35. Factor X #4
  36. Gambit and the X-Ternals #4
  37. Amazing X-Men #4
  38. Weapon X #4
  39. X-Men Omega
  40. X-Universe #2

So, there you go - an afternoon and evening of Marvel Unlimited reading!

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!



Special thanks to the fans at UncannyXmen.Net for the exhaustive listing of related tie-ins.

Listing of issues from UncannyXmen.Net:

01) X-Men: AoA One-Shot [3rd story]

02) X-Men Chronicles #1

03) X-Men Chronicles #2

04) Tales from the Age of Apocalypse - Sinister Bloodlines #2 (Not Available Digitally)

05) X-Man #minus 1

06) X-Man Annual '96

07) X-Men: AoA One-Shot [2nd story]

08) Tales from the Age of Apocalypse - Sinister Bloodlines #1 (Not Available Digitally)

09) X-Men: AoA One-Shot [1st story]

10) Blink #1

11) Blink #2

12) Blink #3

13) Blink #4

14) X-Men Alpha

15) Generation Next #1

16) Astonishing X-Men #1

17) X-Calibre #1

18) Gambit and the X-Ternals #1

19) Weapon X #1

20) Amazing X-Men #1

21) Factor X #1

22) X-Man #1

23) Amazing X-Men #2

24) Factor X #2

25) Weapon X #2

26) Gambit and the X-Ternals #2

27) X-Calibre #2

28) Astonishing X-Men #2

29) Generation Next #2

30) X-Man #2

31) Age of Apocalypse: The Chosen

32) Astonishing X-Men #3

33) Factor X #3

34) Amazing X-Men #3

35) X-Calibre #3

36) Weapon X #3

37) Gambit and the X-Ternals #3

38) X-Universe #1

39) Generation Next #3

40) X-Man #3

41) Astonishing X-Men #4

42) Generation Next #4

43) X-Calibre #4

44) X-Man #4

45) Factor X #4

46) Gambit and the X-Ternals #4

47) Amazing X-Men #4

48) Weapon X #4

49) X-Men Omega

50) X-Universe #2

--) Last three pages of Blink #4

51) X-Men: AoA One-Shot [4th story]

52) X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #1

53) X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #2

54) Exiles #60

55) Exiles #61

56) X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #3

57) X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #4

58) X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #5

59) X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #6

My addition: What If? Age of Apocalypse #1

 

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Best Kitty Pryde Comic Books

Kitty Pryde was one of my early favorites in the X-Men. First, I was a kid when she was first a kid in the comics. Second, she plays into some very important stories like Days of Future Past. Finally, she has a pet dragon! On Wikipedia (Kitty Pryde) the story of her name is explained. She is named after a classmate of John Byrne’s from art school and has taken to using her initials (K.D. Pryde) because of how popular the character has become.

Sometimes they even draw her hot!

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According to Comic Book Vine, she appears in over 3200 issues.

Here are my favorites:

  • Uncanny X-Men #141 and #142 - this is the Days of Future Past storyline that is the basis for the upcoming X-Men movie.
  • Uncanny X-Men #143 - oddly, the next issue is a great Kitty-focused issue when Kitty spends Christmas alone at the X-Mansion.
  • Uncanny X-Men #153 - Kitty’s Fairy Tale
  • Uncanny X-Men #168 - “Professor X is a Jerk” - also features the Paul Smith cover that was our first Kitty-might-be-sexy cover - which no doubt was inappropriate because she should’ve been about 14 or 15 at the time
  • Astonishing X-Men
  • Kitty Pryde - Shadow & Flame #1#2#3#4 # ● #5
  • “God Loves, Man Kills” Marvel Graphic Novel #5 - special edition finally on Marvel Unlimited. It’s a great Kitty Pryde story anyway, where she debates evil anti-mutant religious zealot Reverand Stryker on live television

Tons of great Kitty Pryde stuff on Amazon!

Kitty Pryde is a fun character for X-Men fans, especially those of us who grew up with her.

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!