Tuesday, April 25, 2017

All-Star Batman – My Own Worst Enemy | Comics

In order to cure Harvey Dent to get rid of his villainous Two-Face persona, The Dark Knight takes on a cross-country trip!

In New Jersey, Auggie Mac's Diner was having a sunny summer day with its regular customers and patrons but then suddenly Batman comes crashing down through the window with two other hired guns; Firefly and Killer Moth following his tail.

He makes a quick work of them both by wrapping the former in his cape and incapacitating the latter by  stabbing into his wrist gauntlet as they were about to threaten the lives of civilians present there. Before he catches his breath, two mechanical arms of the mercenary and former Suicide Squad member Black Spider pulls him from behind.

He throws Batman into a nearby picket fence after dragging him off the diner thinking him outgunned but soon, The Dark Knight comes back at him with a chain saw to take him down. Firefly recovered and came back to take a shot at him when he is engaged but ran with tails between his legs after receiving a cold stare from the Bat.

Batman then finds himself up against the mob of locals seeking a bounty on his head and Two-Face appears from behind. As the crowd shoots him down, Batman quickly grabs Harvey Dent and cutting all communications, hits the road in a truckers' rig.

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All Star Batman – My Own Worst Enemy | Comics

It all started a while ago when Gotham's former District Attorney and an old friend of Bruce Wayne; Harvey Dent reaches out to him for his help to locate a formula which would allegedly got rid of his twisted Two-Face persona and cure him forever.

Despite his own doubts and Alfred's protests, Bruce decides to help his old buddy anyway to give him a chance to become normal again and takes off with Dent in his Batplane to a 500 miles long journey. Dent's alter ego secretly puts a back-up plan of causing an acid rain over Gotham in motion to make sure Batman never succeeds.

In addition, Dent's alter ego made an open offer to anyone who would stop them from reaching destination of paying a combined fortune of Gotham's three biggest crime lords and then a missile is fired at the Batplane, which knocks it down.

This is how they ended up on New Jersey earlier and now the Caped Crusader comes face to face with the crowd of heavy-hitters like Amygdala, Killer Croc and King Shark in his road-trip. This trio of muscles tried their best to crush their enemy into puddle for that huge stack of cash dent offered but they all eventually sought defeat one by one.

Moments later, Cheshire and Copperhead sneak attacks on Bats with poison darts, forcing him to jump off the train they were travelling. Upon resurfacing, more men came out of nowhere and shot Batman down before transporting them to a new location.

Meanwhile, Black Mask, Great White Shark and The Penguin of Gotham Organized Crime secretly meets master assassin Anatoli Knyazev AKA The Beast for a road kill. He agrees to one condition and asks them to clear the mess he is going to leave behind for this job. What these crime bosses didn't know is how messy it is going to be.

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Evil Over Good

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All-Star Batman – My Own Worst Enemy

With the Rebirth of DC Universe, two of most celebrated superstar comic-book creators of recent years have teamed up for an all-star saga of The Dark Knight. Featuring first five issues of the ongoing series, there was another sub-plot "The Cursed Wheel" by the same writer and artist Declan Shalvey (28 Days LaterMoon Knight) as well.

Acclaimed comic-book writer Scott Snyder (American Vampire, The Wake) and Eisner Award-winner renowned artist John Romita, Jr. (Superman – Before Truth, Superman – The Men of Tomorrow) finally unites to collaborate in their first adventure of All-Star Batman ongoing story titled "My Own Worst Enemy".

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Road-Trip Action

Batman's new young sidekick Duke Thomas played an important part in the main story and in additional sub-plot as vigilante hero The Signal. Also, the Caped Crusader went against Court of Owls, acting as Dent's goons while lesser-known villain Gentleman Ghost and Royal Flush Gang had a cameo appearance in the entire plot.

The key focus shifts on the menacing bad guy Anatoli Knyazev, once known as KG Beast and is seen as most ruthless than any iteration of him ever played before. This is probably because he is now a part of Batman legacy in DC Extended Universe and was quite intimidating in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
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Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Secret Empire | Comics

Captain America turned out to be a true believer of Hydra ideals and siege control from within as he planned out!

Running S.H.I.E.L.D. these days, Captain America sends Captain Marvel leading Alpha Flight alongside Guardians of the Galaxy on space to hold a line of defense when a huge Chitauri Wave shows up. From Helicarrier bridge, Steve sends Ironheart and Iron Man to work up a Planetary Defense Shield that was taken down earlier by a Hydra bomber.

In the mean time, a group of super-villain attacks New York who was all former prisoners of Pleasant Hill and The Defenders were sent to take care of them. Hyperion and Quasar goes down while Nitro explodes in the middle of Manhattan. Announcing a state of emergency, Secretary of Defense made Steve Rogers command of national security.

The Shield suddenly goes back operational and cavalry arrive at New York as Avengers Unity Division, causing the villains flee. Before they could celebrate this victory, Commander Sharon Carter receives transmission of a collision with another Helicarrier and within moments they are under attack by Hydra goons under control of Doctor Faustus.

Cap then steps up telling everyone to hold their fire and the Hydra agents hail him as their Supreme Leader before taking Sharon into custody, who is baffled to learn that Steve was a traitor. Carol tries to communicate about opening a portal to Earth but Rogers made it clear that he want them occupied behind the shield with Chitauri waves.

Before being ambushed, Tony Stark A.I. eventually figured out the Chitauri invasion was a ploy to lure out the heavy hitters off Earth and the shield was never down. As Baron Zemo engulfs the island of Manhattan in a Darkforce dome using Blackout's powers, Iron Man sends out a distress call for heroes to assemble and Hydra takes over White House.

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Secret Empire | Comics

In a new world order established by the evil empire, Inhumans are being forced to register and all mutants moved to New Tian. From his internment, Rick Jones passes a data to reveal the truth about Hydra Cap through a young hacker named Rayshaun Lucas to Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Totally Awesome Hulk and Viv Vision of the Champions.

Resistance against the regime is formed by Ant-Man, Black Widow, Giant-Man, Hawkeye, Hercules, Quicksilver, Rescue, Stingray, Thing, Tigra and Wonder Man. Cap has been leading a Hydra' version of The Avengers with Black Ant, Deadpool, Odinson, Scarlet Witch, Superior Octopus, Taskmaster and Vision to ruthlessly deal with any threats.

Neither Rick, nor Sharon agrees to swear loyalty to Hydra and when Rick is sentenced to death by a firing squad to make a statement, he dies saying "Avengers Assemble". Meanwhile, Steve reunites with Madame Hydra to acquire the Cosmic Cube and rewrite history of World War II. They then raze the entire city of Las Vegas with their Helicarriers.

Upon analyzing info sent by Rick, Tony came to conclusion on how the sentient Cosmic Cube named Kobik has altered Cap while saving him during "Standoff" fiasco after she was befriended with Johann Shmidt AKA Red Skull. Steve became a perfect soldier to Hydra, who then overthrew Shmidt to complete his own plan to rule the world.

So, he tried for Winter Soldier to join Hydra and his refusal led Zemo to launch a drone plane with Bucky in it. Kobik was shattered into fragments that got scattered in places and finding all of the pieces is the only way to turn things around as they once were. Cap is also actively looking for the Cube to reshape reality as he see fit in Hydra's image.

Natasha Romanoff takes it upon herself to kill off the evil Cap and the Champions tagged along to her help. Ant-Man, Hercules, Mockingbird and Quicksilver volunteered to go and retrieve all the Cube fragments with Tony and Falcon agreed to help them cross the border. However, he ended up taking his old mantle of Captain America once again.

Things started escalating as they show up at the doorstep of Ultron, now wearing the skin of Henry Pym. In the mean time, Hydra Cap struck treaty with enlists The Punisher as his enforcer and brings back The Incredible Hulk back from dead. All of these led to a grand showdown when the X-Men showed up right before an unexpected revelation.

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Dread of Distrust

For more information on Secret Empire event, you can check out these links below.

Secret Empire (Comics) Wikipedia

Secret Empire (Comics) Marvel Wikia

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Secret Empire Prelude

Secret Empire (Softcover)

Secret Empire (Hardcover)

In 2017, Marvel Comics hired writer Nick Spencer (Ant-Man – Second-Chance Man, Doctor Strange – Damnation) and illustrator Daniel Acuna (Uncanny Avengers – Avenge The Earth, Uncanny Avengers – Counter-Evolutionary) to conceive the plot for "Secret Empire" crossover event, which is collected in a limited series that ran for eleven issues.

Then there were a group of artists David Marquez (Defenders – Diamonds Are Forever, Defenders – Kingpins of New York), Leinil Francis Yu (Operation – Zero Tolerance, X-Men – The Hunt for Xavier), Paco Medina (New X-Men – Mercury Falling, New X-Men – Nimrod) and Steve McNiven (Civil War, Death of Wolverine) to fill in for some extra.

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Hydra Supreme Leader

Pages that are drawn by artist Andrea Sorrentino were the literal down point of the entire story as some of the characters were completely unrecognizable from their appearance. Artist Rod Reis on the other hand, did quite fine compared to the former.

Following the events of "Time Runs Out" and "Secret Wars", everything was restored and Steve Rogers came back to existence alongside many others. When trying to save his life after an attack from Crossbones, sentient Cosmic Cube Kobik actually created a new version of Captain America that was loyal to Hydra and the real one became a memory.

Turning Captain America into a fascist and altering reality to let Hydra assume control was a bold move by Marvel though, or maybe rather stupid one. Bringing Hank Pym/Ultron hybrid into the mix as well as the deceased Green Goliath was unnecessary. Turning Frank Castle into an agent of the uprising evil empire was also really uncalled for.
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Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Aquaman – Black Manta Rising | Comics

Previously, Black Manta attempted to publicly discredit Aquaman, when the King of Atlantis welcomed personnel from all over the world in Spindrift Station embassy. Manta is eventually subdued after a fight and taken into custody but was rescued by an unknown third party.

It was a secret global terrorism cell called N.E.M.O. who rescued him to use him as their pawn against Atlantis but he slays the Fisher King and immediately assumes control over N.E.M.O.

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Aquaman – Black Manta Rising | Comics

With under-boss Black Jack at his side, Manta plans on his scheme of destruction against Arthur Curry and everything he cares for. Meanwhile, Aquaman returns to his kingdom after he had a scuffle with American government as a result of a serious misunderstanding and all his loyal servants awaits their king.

As Arthur was already thinking about Superman warning him to sorting things out, Elder Koah approaches him about Mera of Xebel, who has to undergo traditional rituals if she is to marry him, which angers Arthur but Mera agrees to do so anyway.

When learning of a apocalyptic prophecy from Widowhood, Mera comes to an inner conflict whether to marry her love. The surface world is attacked again by Atlantean force and Arthur suspects the involvement of The Deluge but Corum Rath believes otherwise.

N.E.M.O. secretly orchestrated the release of the monstrous Shaggy Man who laid waste of Atlantis and heavily bruised Arthur before he took care of him. Things went so bad this time that the entire Justice League came looking for Aquaman in his kingdom.

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Unstoppable Shaggy Man

Here is your links to buy "Aquaman – Black Manta Rising" from DC Comics in issues on Amazon.

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Aquaman – Black Manta Rising

Following the first story-arc 'The Drowning' from DC Rebirth wave, DC Comics presents the second storyline from eighth monthly volume of Aquaman that collects issues #07-12 from the monthly series.

Writer Dan Abnett (Annihilation – Conquest, Annihilation – Nova) who helmed the previous story also plotted this one with aid from artists Brad Walker (Action Comics – At the End of Days, Action Comics – Bulletproof), Phil Briones (New Suicide Squad – Monsters, New Suicide Squad – Pure Insanity) and Scot Eaton (Swamp Thing, Black Panther).

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A League of His Own

Though the title of the story has the name of Aquaman's life-long arch-enemy Black Manta, he actually manipulated the entire plot from beyond the reach. Aside from Aquaman and Mera, the story features appearance of Batman, Cyborg, The Flash, Green Lantern, Superman and Wonder Woman in particular.
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Batman – I Am Suicide | Comics

Ex-Suicide Squad member Psycho-Pirate's mental manipulation previously drove the powerful meta-human Gotham mad and he spent all of his life force fighting the entire Justice League. His sister Gotham Girl remained mentally scarred and unstable by Pirate's manipulation in Wayne Manor.

So, Batman decides to get Psycho-Pirate back to fix her up. In Santa Prisca, Bane has his men bring the Pirate to him to help him get rid of the addiction of Venom. To restore Gotham Girl's psyche, Batman takes it upon himself to a suicide mission of acquiring the villain from Bane's fortress.

He visits Arkham Asylum cells to recruit inmates needed for his cause accompanied by Dr. Jeremiah Arkham. With his own Suicide Squad consisting of Bronze Tiger, Jewlee, Punch, Ventriloquist and Catwoman, he heads for Peña Duro prison on the island of Santa Prisca to confront the only man who once broke him.

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Batman – I Am Suicide | Comics

As they were flying over the sovereign airspace of Santa Prisca, the Batwing is shot-down and hundreds of Bane's militia then tries to physically overwhelm Batman, who gets caught purposefully. Even without the help of venom, Bane brutally punishes Batman for invading his sovereign country and mocking his laws, then locked him up in the very cell where the latter grew up.

He also reminds The Bat that just because he has he has invaded his land, his friends in the Justice League cannot come for him either. After setting his bones right, Batman eventually escapes from his captivity after a lot of struggle to lead Ventriloquist and Catwoman to the inner cell-blocks, while constantly reminding himself that he's going to break Bane's damn back if he doesn't give up Psycho-Pirate to him.

Bronze Tiger hands over former Peña Duro escapee; Punch and his lover Jewlee to Bane in return for a favor he was about to ask to him. Meanwhile, The Dark Knight fights through the armed forces, scales the prison, lands into the nearby ocean and swims back to finally confront Bane.

However, before Bronze Tiger could act according to Batman's plan, Catwoman jumped into the middle of them and revealed the plan to the villain to save her own life from a certain death sentence in exchange for a plane and a lot of cash to help her disappear forever.

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Assault on-Santa Prisca

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Batman – I Am Suicide

Following the first smashing "Rebirth" arc of "I Am Gotham", DC Comics brings us the second story of The Dark Knight in "I Am Suicide" in 2017. The story is developed by writer Tom King (The Omega Men, Robin War) and artist Mikel Janín (Justice League Dark, Superman – The Final Days of Superman), in issues #09-15 of the third ongoing monthly volume of Batman.

The last two issues contains a bonus-tale detailing the impending fate of Catwoman titled "Rooftops", pencilled by artist Mitch Gerads and showcases a large number of second string villains from Batman's Rogues Gallery.

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Dark Knight Descending

The first five issues of the arc features the core storyline of Batman's suicide mission, where his trusted butler Alfred Pennyworth, Suicide Squad director Amanda Waller and his newest protégé Duke Thomas also had minor appearance during the course of the plot.

The aftermath of "I Am Suicide" will led the arc to "I Am Bane" storyline, which will feature one of the most brutal confrontations of Batman and Bane of the Prime Earth continuity.
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Wednesday, April 12, 2017

The Clone Conspiracy | Comics

When J. Jonah Jameson's father Jay was hospitalized with a deteriorating health, a New U Technologies representative Dr. Rita Clarkson offers them advanced tech to save his life and Jonah takes the offer. To impress him further to promote the company, they even brought back his deceased wife Marla.

Later, Peter was forced to approach New U to save life of Jerry Salteres of Parker Industries, who recovered but started triggering Peter's Spider-Sense. So, he sends Prowler to investigate, who learns of The Jackal's involvement in all these but before he could inform Peter, he is killed by Electro and then brought back.

Meanwhile, Jay's health condition worsens and despite undergoing a surgery, he still passes away. Following his funeral, Peter goes to see Jerry but his wife tell him that New U had taken her husband when he started decaying when he forgot to take prescribed meds.

Peter sneaks into New U looking for Jerry and eventually finds him or his nervous system in a stasis tube. Rhino and Electro came on call for security by Miles Warren but is taken down quickly. He shockingly discovers Gwen Stacy standing nearby and couldn't avoid being smacked by tentacle arms of his old foe Doctor Octopus.

The Clone Conspiracy | Comics

In an alternate universe that was completely ravaged in an outbreak of the Carrion Virus, Scarlet Spider was running from a horde of zomibe-like inhabitants of San Francisco. He managed to secure a research note for a possible cure and asked his secret ally for a portal to jump back home.

Meanwhile, The Jackal arrives to release Spidey from his clutches as Octavius had him on ropes and offers a tour around along with Gwen. He took the wall-crawler to a room to show him that he has brought back every deceased member of his rogue's gallery who ever died on his watch and even rehabilitate them.

Seeing all of them together, the web-slinger expected a fight but instead they remain surprisingly unprovoked. His former allies Dr. Ashley Kafka, George Stacy, Jean DeWolff and Prowler showed up siding with the geneticist. Peter's friends were also brought back to convince him to work with Warren as he wishes to use his tech for good this time.

Suddenly, George Stacy pulls out his gun at Gwen stating she is not his daughter and she admits to be Spider-Gwen before she jumped off quickly to escape through a vent with Spider-Man. She and Kaine Parker came to this world to help Spidey prevent a Carrion Virus outbreak that would start as a result of his alliance with Jackal. Kaine already kidnapped the resurrected Gwen Stacy while she came to assist him.

When the real Gwen starts decaying for not taking her pills, she is taken to Horizon University for care. Anna Maria Marconi learns from him that he is trying to stop Peter because he is responsible for a wide-scale pandemic of Carrion Virus as a result of his partnership with Jackal in dozens of reality.

Knowing that Gwen's cell degeneration can lead to a possible Carrion Virus outbreak, Anna tries to contact authorities but police Chief Anderson tips off The Jackal on their location, leading Rhino and Electro breaking in and take Gwen along with them. She told them to take Scarlet Spider as well because he might have a key to a cure for them all.

Anna Maria willingly tags along to help them stop the decaying. Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen arrived too late to help them but The Kingpin approaches them with information to find Miles, so that he pays for defiantly bringing back Wilson Fisk's deceased wife Vanessa.

For more information on The Clone Conspiracy, you can check out those links below.



Dead No More

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A 2017 crossover event, "Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy" is mostly centered on a five-issue Spider-Man limited series from Marvel Comics, written by Christos Gage (Civil War – House of M, Thunderbolts – Secret Invasion) and Dan Slott (Spider-Man – Big Time, Spider-Man – Dying Wish), while Jim Cheung (Avengers – The Children's Crusade, New Avengers – Illuminati) served as artist and Gabriele Dell'Otto (Annihilation – Nova, Annihilation – Ronan) provided cover arts. Although, the story at first seemed like a repetitive clash between Spider-Man and The Jackal, it unfolds as more.

The Jackal’s Master Plan

Parker Industries and New U Technologies being responsible for a dystopian future seemed like a fresh take on the series. Scarlet Spider and Spider-Gwen was also enjoyable because they both played their important part that helped the story advance further while Peter Parker did his part.

A huge gauntlet of fallen enemies of everyone's favorite wall-crawler including Big Man, Eduardo Lobo, Barton Hamilton's version of Green Goblin, Hitman, Hobgoblin, Jack O'Lantern, Kangaroo, Massacre, Mirage, Montana, Mysterio, Ox, Rose, Spencer Smythe, Spider-Slayer, Stilt-Man and Tarantula showed up.

Mysteries regarding The Living Brain and consciousness of Otto Octavius are finally cleared up by him. Also, the ambiguity around Miles Warren's identity came to a conclusion that even the most veteran fans probably haven't probably guessed.

A brand-new monthly ongoing Ben Reilly – Scarlet Spider series with its first storyline titled "Back In The Hood" by Peter David (Hulk – Destruction, The Other – Evolve or Die) and Mark Bagley (Hulk – Banner DOA, Venom – Lethal Protector) begins publication immediately after these events along with monthly Amazing Spider-Man series.
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