AVENGERS - Now on Netflix!

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.

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!!!

 

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.

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.

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

 

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!