To Better Know a Team: The New Mutants

After a laughable number of starts, stops, and reschedules, the New Mutants movie is finally in theaters (at least whichever ones are open). And while I in no way advocate going to see it (for various reasons, including the fact that I doubt any movie is worth risking your life to see, but am certain that if there is one, it's not New Mutants), that doesn't mean we can't take the opportunity to spend some time talking about Marvel's first comic book X-Men spinoff.

I wrote a retrospective on the series back when my reviews of it ended (upon the book's cancellation & relaunching as X-Force), which can be found here; in that article, I hit some of the obvious points (like my favorite covers and favorite New Mutants), most of which remain true today. So here are some different/deeper dives into the world of New Mutants. The movie might suck, but we'll always have the comics.

To Better Know a Hero 2.0: The X-Men

This week sees the release of X-Men: Dark Phoenix, the final X-Men film from Fox (unless that New Mutants movie whose creation may or may not be a collective pop culture fever dream ever gets released). With the X-Men, however briefly, back in the zeitgeist for the moment, I figured it was a good excuse to give the X-Men a Phoenix-focused "To Better Know a Hero 2.0" treatment.

Top 5 Phoenix Hosts

To Better Know a Hero 2.0: The Avengers

There's a little film called Avengers: Endgame coming out this week (maybe you've heard of it?); I wrote a To Better Know A Team post for the Avengers ahead of the first movie, all the way back in 2012, so I figured they were due for an update. But I'm going to try a different approach by highlighting some specific areas of history/lore. If people seem to like this, I may do something similar for other characters/teams in the future.

Top 5 Avengers Characters Without Their Own Solo Series

(For the purposes of this exercise, I'm excluding Hawkeye from consideration on the basis of his run in Solo Avengers and his recent solo series, but if you think that shouldn't make him ineligible, then consider him #1 on this list).

To Better Know The Heroes: Captain America - Civil War

Catching Captain America: Civil War this weekend, and want to know more about all the characters running around in it? Below are links to all the available "To Better Know a Hero" articles featuring the movie's varied rosters. 

Team Cap

Captain America, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, Ant-Man 

Team Iron Man

Iron Man, Black Widow, Spider-Man

The Avengers

To Better Know A Hero: The Punisher

Real Name
Frank Castle

First Appearance
Amazing Spider-Man #129 (February 1974)

Powers and Abilities
Possessing no superhuman abilities, Frank is a skilled soldier and hand-to-hand combatant. He’s accomplished in special forces operations, guerrilla warfare, and stealth tactics, and proficient in countless firearms, explosives, and melee weapons.

Gadgets and Accessories
Punisher uses a wide variety of weapons and gear to wage his war on crime, so much so that Marvel at one point published a series detailing his various weaponry (Punisher Armory). Punisher often travels in a van (his “battle van”) carrying assorted weaponry and surveillance supplies.

Friends and Allies
Microchip (David Liebermen, who provides tech support), Lynn Michaels (a police officer-turned-Punisher copycat), Lt. Martin Soap (the head of the NYPD’s anti-Punisher task force, secretly allied with Punisher), the Marvel Knights (a loose assortment of NY-based street level heroes with whom Punisher occasionally worked), Captain America’s Secret Avengers (the anti-Registration forces during the superhero Civil War).

Click here to read the rest of the post on Pop Optiq! 

To Better Know the Avengers

Heading out to see Avengers: Age of Ultron this weekend? Here's everything you need to know about the Avengers and their titular foe!

Iron Man

Thor

Captain America

Black Widow

Hawkeye

The Hulk

Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch

Ultron

The Avengers

To Better Know a Hero: Daredevil

Real Name
Matthew “Matt” Murdock

First Appearance
Daredevil #1 April. 1964

Nicknames & Aliases
The Man Without Fear, Hornhead, DD, Mike Murdock, Ronin

Powers and Abilities
Daredevil’s senses are enhanced to super-human levels, meaning he can tell if a person is lying by listening to whether their heartbeat skips when they speak, or read a newspaper by running his fingers over the print and feeling the letters raised off the page. He also possesses a superhuman “radar” sense, which enables him to detect objects around him and warns him of danger.

Additionally, Daredevil is a highly-trained acrobat, gymnast, martial artist, and an accomplished lawyer.

Weaknesses and Achilles’ Heels
Well, he’s blind, so there’s that. He also has an inclination towards martyrdom and falling for women at the wrong times.

Read the rest of the post at Sound on Sight! 

X-Men: Days of Future Past Primer

There's a big new X-Men movie coming out this weekend, and anyone who's read at least three words of my writing knows that's a pretty big deal for me. And not surprisingly, I've written a fair amount about the X-Men through the years. In order to get you ready for the movie, here's some stuff you should check out.

First, be sure to read my reviews of the two issues whose story serves as a direct inspiration for the film (and also happen to be one of the best and most significant X-Men stories ever).

Secondly, here's a list of all the relevant "To Better Know a Hero" posts on Days of Future Past's major players: Wolverine, Professor X, Magneto and Quicksilver and the X-Men.

Finally, I wrote a little article for Fanboys, Inc. predicting how well (in terms of money) the new film will do relative to the success of the previous films in the franchise. Check that out here.

To Better Know A Villain: Norman Osborn

Heading out to see Amazing Spider-Man 2 this weekend? Here's everything you need to know about Spidey's #1 foe (and be sure to check out this post on Spidey himself).

First Appearance
Amazing Spider-Man #14, July 1964

Nicknames and Aliases
The Green Goblin, Iron Patriot

Powers and Abilities
Norman possess superhuman strength, stamina, and healing abilities as a result of the Goblin serum, a chemical compound of his own design. He also possesses genius-level intelligence and business/leadership acumen, as well as an aptitude for chemical and electrical engineering.

Recently, AIM scientists gave Norman powers similar to that of the Super-Adaptoid, enabling him to absorb the super-human abilities of anyone he physically touches.

Gadgets and Accessories
As the Green Goblin, Norman routinely uses explosive and gaseous pumpkin bombs of his own design, and rides a flying "Goblin Glider" with an assortment of offensive capabilities.

As the Iron Patriot, Norman wore a suit of sophisticated armor similar to Iron Man's, outfitted with an array of weaponry.

Read the rest here. 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Primer

 Heading out to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier this weekend? Here's everything you need to know about the various characters involved.

My original "To Better Know a Hero" post on Captain America can be found here, and an updated look at Black Widow here.

From fellow Sound on Sight writer Sean Tonelli, here's a look at the new film's titular character.

If you want to brush up on the Avengers as a whole, you can find that post here. 

And finally, a brand new "To Better Know a Hero" post from me, discussing the high-flying Falcon, can be found here.

Enjoy!

To Better Know a Hero: Jean Grey

First Appearance
X-Men #1, September 1963  

Nicknames and Aliases
Marvel Girl, Phoenix, Dark Phoenix, Red, Redd Dayspring  

Powers and Abilities
Jean is a mutant born with tremendous telepathic and telekinetic abilities, enabling her to read and control minds, project her thoughts, enter the Astral Plane, mentally lift and move objects, and fly by levitating herself, amongst others.

When augmented by the cosmic Phoenix force, her abilities increase exponentially, enabling her to telekinetically affect matter on a molecular level (changing her clothes with a thought, for example), travel through space, and transform matter into energy.  

Friends and Allies
Cyclops (Scott Summers, her husband), Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers, her daughter from an alternate future), Cable (Nathan Summers, her son born of her clone), Storm (Ororo Munroe, teammate and friend), Professor Xavier and the X-Men, John and Elaine Grey (her parents), Sara Grey (her sister), resurrection.

Click here to read the rest of the post.

To Better Know a Villain: Loki

Real Name
Loki Laufeyson

First Appearance
Venus #6, August 1949 (historical); Journey into Mystery #85, October 1962 (modern).  

Powers and Abilities Loki is an accomplished sorcerer, capable of using magic to shapeshift, teleport, fly, generate energy blasts, ensorcell individuals, and more.

Additionally, like most Asgardians, Loki possesses super-strength, durability, and longevity. He also has a genius-level intellect and is an adept liar and manipulator, capable of conceiving and enacting elaborate, multi-layered schemes.

Friends and Allies
The Enchantress, Skurge the Executioner, Fenris Wolf, Hela, and the Midgard Serpent, Tumblr.

Read the rest of the post here. 

To Better Know a Hero: Thor

Note: This is a slightly-edited re-posting of an earlier "To Better Know a Hero" post about Thor, to celebrate the release of the character's second feature film (because I ran out of time to do a "To Better Know a Villain" post on Loki). 

Forsooth! Verily, Thor doth star in a new film, in theaters now! Before seeing thy film, feast thy eyes on these runes to vanquish thine ignorance about the mighty Thor!

Real Name
Thor Odinson 

First Appearance
Journey Into Mystery #83, August 1962

Nicknames and Aliases
Dr. Don Blake, Sigurd Jarlson, Eric Masterson, Jake Olson, Siegfried, Siegmund.

Powers and Abilities
Thor possesses super-human strength, speed, endurance, durability and longevity thanks to his godly nature. He is also a skilled warrior.

To Better Know A Hero: Wolverine

In honor of the release of The Wolverine, the second solo film featuring Hugh Jackman as the X-Men's Wolverine, in theaters this week, I've reformatted and slightly updated my original "To Better Know a Hero" post on comics' favorite mysterious mutant with razor keen claws. Also, be sure to check out my X-amination of his original miniseries and subsequent adventure in Japan from Uncanny X-Men #172 and 173, two stories which reportedly were significant influences on the new film. 

Real Name
James Howlett

First Appearance
Incredible Hulk #180, October 1974 (cameo), Incredible Hulk #181 (full).

To Better Know A Hero: Superman

This week sees the release of Man of Steel, Warner Bros. attempt to rejuvenate the Superman film franchise following the snoozefest that was Superman Returns, and, presumably, finally get around to launching a cinematic superhero universe to rival Disney/Marvel's. More importantly, the release of the film finally provides me with an opportunity to do a timely post examining the history of comics' first superhero (also, be sure to check out friend-of-the-blog Blam's Adventures in Comicology blog. where, amongst other things, he is in the midst of a daily Superman cover retrospective celebrating the character's 75th anniversary.  

Real Name
Clark Kent/Kal-El 

First Appearance
Action Comics #1, June 1938
  
Nicknames and Aliases
Supes, The Last Son of Krypton, the Big Blue Boy Scout.

To Better Know a Hero: Iron Man

I was going to do a post on the Mandarin in preparation for Iron Man 3, but time got away from me, laziness, etc., etc., so instead, here's a reformatted and slightly updated version of my original "To Better Know A Hero" post on Iron Man, from back in May of 2008.

Real Name
Anthony "Tony" Stark  

First Appearance 
Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963)

Nicknames and Aliases 
Shellhead, Iron Avenger, the Cool Exec with a Heart of Steel     

Powers and Abilities 
Tony Stark is a mechanical and engineering genius, as well as a wealthy industrialist, able to create and upgrade fantastic technologies, including his ever-evolving Iron Man armor. He’s also been trained in hand-to-hand combat by Captain America, and of late, taken to calling himself a “futurist”, with the ability to scientifically predict future events. It’s unclear if this is a super power or not, and is mainly used as validation for some of his more recent dick-ish actions.

To Better Know A Villain: Bane

This Friday sees the release of The Dark Knight Rises, the third film in Christopher Nolan's acclaimed Batman trilogy, featuring Christian Bale as Batman and Captain Picard's clone as Bane, that guy in the trailers with the speaker over his mouth you couldn't understand very well at first, but now can. With the film poised to make all the money, ever, and since, relative to the likes of the Joker or Penguin, Bane is a pretty unknown Batman villain, I figured he was worthy of some discussion (and also be sure check out Dr. Bitz's 100% accurate rundown of Batman himself here. Don't forget to click on the pictures).

Real Name
Bane

First Appearance
Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 (Jan. 1993)

Powers and Abilities
Bane has trained himself to peak human physical condition, and when augmented by the drug Venom, his strength, speed, agility and durability is pushed to super-human levels. Bane also possess a genius-level intellect and is a master strategist and martial artist.

To Better Know a Hero: Spider-Man

While pretty much everyone agrees it's somewhere between dubious and ridiculous to reboot a film franchise only five years after the release of the last film, that doesn't change the fact that tomorrow sees the premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man, Sony's reboot of its Spider-Man franchise, featuring that British Facebook guy as Peter Parker and the fetching Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. Putting aside the relative merits of a reboot or the film itself, at the very least, it gives me an opportunity to take a long overdue look at Marvel's resident Webslinger.

Real Name
Peter Parker

First Appearance
Amazing Fantasy #15, Aug. 1962

Nicknames and Aliases
Spidey, Webslinger, Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly, Ricochet, Prodigy, Dusk, Hornet.

To Better Know a Hero: Green Lanterns

So Green Lantern has been in the news a lot lately, the "real" news, even, thanks to DC's recent reveal of the character as gay. However, as is usually the case, non-comic book news site don't quite know/aren't telling the whole story, so I figured now was as good a time as any to create a Green Lantern primer. Because, as is usually the case with comics, nothing is ever that simple...

To Better Know a Team: The Avengers

Unless you've been living under a pop culture rock lately, it's no secret that tomorrow marks the debut of Marvel's much-hyped, years-in-the-making blockbuster feature film starring the Avengers. In an effort to piggy back on that hype and to enable our readers to nod approvingly at whatever winks to the fans are included in the movie, here's a look at Earth's Mightiest Heroes (and here are links to past "To Better Know a Hero" profiles on the various Avengers appearing in the film: Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Hulk, and Iron Man).  

First Appearance
The Avengers #1, Sept. 1963