Showing posts with label Nick Spencer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nick Spencer. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Amazing Spider-Man – Back to Basics | Comics

Spider-Man goes back to basics with rekindled love with Mary Jane, a new roommate and a dangerous new villain!

After his latest victory over Norman Osborn as the Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker is trying to get back at his feet and what better way to do that other than hanging out with Mary Jane Watson, the love of his life? However, he finds him awake at 5 AM at the sound of his roommate playing Call of Duty: Latveria with all those speakers on.

The person, Fred Myers is also a known super-villain Boomerang, other than being his roomie who just moved in alongside his friend Randy Robertson. Lately, he robbed a museum and former Kingpin turned current mayor of New York, Wilson Fisk allowed him to escape. This made Spidey suspicious but he can now keep an eye on Fred from home.

The next thing he knows is Avengers, Defenders and X-Men are trying to fend the city from an alien invasion. Spider-Man jumps right in to help fight this army of insectoids and he sees Human Torch falling victim to one of those. Soon, he sees all of the assembled heroes were having their face swallowed up by those creatures except him.

He noticed a pattern in the portal that the biomasses were coming from and to see if he is right, Spidey leaps towards it, only to hit by a glass bubble. He sees master of illusions, Mysterio standing on the other side and quickly bursts in to subdue him.

The judge gets bored with Mysterio monologuing at his hearing and then Janice Lincoln, daughter of mobster Tombstone and former Beetle of the imposter Sinister Six team shows up to defend his case but before doing that, she starts puking bugs. The entire courtroom is swarmed with hordes vermin and everything around them starts collapsing.

amazing spider man back to basics marvel comics nick spencer
Amazing Spider-Man – Back to Basics | Comics

This looks a lot like those schemes Quentin Beck would put out and he seeks an exit while everyone else is seemingly being massacred but he instead finds himself surrounded in dark with an entity that has a history with him and sent Beck after the wall-crawler. Wrapped around in a huge centipede, this new foe heralds doom for the hero.

Peter thought he saw enough weirdness for then but didn't expect a sudden encounter with Fisk only a week ago. Even though very strict to all other vigilantes, Wilson seem to publicly accept him to separate him from his peers. Then he is accused of plagiarizing his doctoral degree and his entire academic credentials got literally trashed.

This fiasco has made him lose the job at Daily Bugle and in spite of him not being guilty; he couldn't come clean about it without revealing his secret identity and the time when Otto Octavius took control over his body. Though Mary Jane laughs it off for the ridiculousness of the whole thing but unfortunately, Aunt May didn't took it very well.

Tired of making the same mistakes again and again, Peter decides to turn his whole life around by going back to MJ and resume his relation with her. Things did started falling in line as Empire State University calls him in to give him a second chance to re-submit his doctoral thesis on recommendation of faculty member Dr. Curt Connors AKA The Lizard.

Though Parker is freaked out to see Connors in his reptilian persona, he assures that there is an inhibitor chip on his neck to make sure that he doesn't hurt anyone. He is also working on reverse engineering an Isotope Genome Accelerator to separate his two personalities. At that very moment, Black Ant and Taskmaster broke in to steal it.

Since he cannot stop them without blowing his cover, Peter causes a chemical explosion and Spider-Man arrives to rescue. Before leaving, he recognizes and greets Parker among the crowd. All of a sudden Peter and Spidey became two different persons moving ahead with their own lives, one with Mary Jane and other with crime-fighting.

So, when the Tri-Sentinel shows up next time wrecking the city MJ and Pete goes to a bowling alley, while everyone's friendly neighborhood wall-crawler goes to fight the murder-bot of mutants! One of them however become powerless, another one has thrown responsibility out of the window but how does Kraven the Hunter got mixed into this?

tri sentinel spider man marvel comics peter parker ryan ottley
Genocidal Tri-Sentinel Returns

Here is your links to buy "Amazing Spider-Man – Back to Basics" from Marvel Comics in issues on Amazon.

Amazing Spider-Man V5 01

Amazing Spider-Man V5 02

Amazing Spider-Man V5 03

Amazing Spider-Man V5 04

Amazing Spider-Man V5 05

Here is your link to buy "Amazing Spider-Man – Back to Basics" from Marvel Comics on Amazon.

Amazing Spider-Man – Back to Basics

To shake things up from the core and getting a fresh new start, Marvel Comics hired a brand-new creative team of writer Nick Spencer (Ant-Man – Second-Chance Man, Doctor Strange – Damnation) and artist Ryan Ottley (Haunt, Invincible) in 2018 for "Back to Basics" storyline for the newest monthly ongoing volume of Amazing Spider-Man.

Collecting the first five issues of the series, Nick actually did a pretty impressive beginning as he laid foundation for upcoming arcs yet to come and Ryan was at his absolute peak as well. Going back to the roots, they bring back some of the old villains who, although are not Carnage or Goblin-level scary but troublesome enough, to get back at Spidey.

peter parker vs. spider man marvel comics
Peter Parker Vs. Spider-Man!

Aside from the regular folks in the life of the hero, Black Cat, Black Panther, Black Widow, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Gambit, Groot, Hawkeye, Human Torch, Iron Fist, Iron Man, Jean Grey, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Old Man Logan, Rocket Raccoon, Rogue, She-Hulk, Star-Lord, Thing, Thor and Vision made a cameo.

Overall, "Back to Basics" really went back to the deep roots of Amazing Spider-Man legacy and nitpicking details to deliver another "Brand New Day" for the hero. The inclusion of penciller Humberto Ramos (Champions – Change The World, Extraordinary X-Men – X-Haven) for a bonus back-up story was also a treat for long-time fans.
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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.

secret empire marvel comics nick spencer hydra cap
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.

secret empire marvel comics avengers leinil francis yu
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

Here is your links to buy "Secret Empire" from Marvel Comics in issues on Amazon.

Secret Empire 0

Secret Empire 01

Secret Empire 02

Secret Empire 03

Secret Empire 04

Secret Empire 05

Secret Empire 06

Secret Empire 07

Secret Empire 08

Secret Empire 09

Secret Empire 10

Here is your links to buy "Secret Empire" from Marvel Comics on Amazon.

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.

secret empire marvel comics hydra cap leinil francis yu
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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