So, the wonderful people at DK publishing teamed up with Marvel to release Marvel’s The Avenger’s Encyclopedia.
Granted, when you see the word encyclopedia, “fun” is probably the furthest thing from one’s mind, but reading is fundamental, right? It is just what it says it is: a comprehensive look at one of Marvel’s most expansive and encompassing franchises. All the big names like Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Incredible Hulk, etc. seen in the recent Marvel movies are examined through key storylines, which provide origin stories up to current cannon.
Where the book truly shines is in connecting lesser-known Avengers to the overarching universe. Long time fans already know about Spiderman, Wolverine, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and the like being members of different iterations of Avenger teams, but seeing names like Sandman, Venom, Squirrel Girl, and Mr. Fantastic may come as a surprise. Finding out how they became part of various Avengers factions and their role with the team is always interesting. I have to say, my favorite part is the major storyline synopsis in between chapters.
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For those of you who do not have access to a towering comic book collection, Marvel’s The Avenger’s Encyclopedia has you more than covered. They introduce the arc and provide a point by point breakdown of what happened and how it impacted the Avengers or, in some cases, the Marvel universe.
All in all, this is a real straightforward situation. If you have love for anything Marvel, you want to learn more about your favorite characters, or you’re looking for a good way to get into something new, this book is definitely the move.
You can purchase Marvel’s The Avenger’s Encyclopedia for $40 on the DK website.
I finally got a chance to use my Wonder Woman journal. Okay, I lied. I haven’t used it; it’s just too pretty to use. I don’t want to vandalize it with my terrible handwriting and insignificant rambles.
The cover is made out of a sturdy material that is scuff and scratch resistant. With Wonder Woman’s infamous symbol debossed on the front, I feel like I’m part of a secret agency on Earth that works for her. I’m lame, I know, but hey, what do you do? To know more on how to tab viagra treat erectile dysfunction, as they are easy to consume and non-invasive. Chiropractors in Los Angeles are trained health professionals who prefer recommending such medicines to their patients. levitra online cheap Your partner needs to know how you feel and sildenafil online no prescription wants to see them for charging up. This market was not left untapped and there are several brands of herbal cheap viagra prices that one can live through.
To help readers feel like they are even more a part of the DC Universe, Insight Editions included several pages filled with sketches and notes from yours truly. During a battle with Cheetah, Wonder Woman loses her journal and leaves you with the beginning of a looming, great battle. I love this journal. It’s durable, 192 pages, and there’s even a little pocket on the inside of the back cover. I didn’t think Wonder Woman would have a journal—when would she have the time or where would she keep it—but I can believe this one is hers.
You can order Wonder Woman’s or Superman’s journal from Insight Editions for $18.95. I hope a Batman journal is next!
Rather than following the review trend of saying whether a movie is worth seeing, I’ll be bypassing that whole tradition as many of my readers cannot be persuaded or convinced either way. Therefore, I’m going to use Age of Ultron as a prime example for something that interests me as a writer and consumer: multi-layered narratives.
What I mean by a multi-layered narrative is a scene in which there is more going on than what is actually portrayed. Often times in the Marvel Cinematic Universe there are hidden ideas only long-time fans might catch. This same technique can also add depth to many of the characters, either by alluding to past films, or acknowledging comic lore. This is usually just a passing reference to something else, but in some instances there can be a lot of emotion injected into these instances.
Black Widow must calm The Hulk a few times with a “lullaby”.
For example in Age of Ultron there are romantic connections between Natasha (Black Widow) and Bruce (The Hulk). These intense exchanges are made even more potent when considering these two as persistent characters. Bruce knows being with Natasha is dangerous. He’s afraid to hurt her or any innocent person, but when confronted with this, Natasha mentions how she is also a monster in her own way.
Black Widow’s past is extremely dark and tragic, explaining her roughness.
Even though Marvel has never created a Black Widow film for her blood-stained back story, there have been hints in the movies. Most recently in Age of Ultron, viewers receive visualizations of the psyche of most of the cast via the Scarlet Witch. Wanda (Scarlet Witch) uses her powers to show the Avengers’ horrors from their past, present, and possible future. It’s during this exchange viewers get a visual portrayal of Natasha’s past and what was done to her to make her one of the deadliest assassins in the world.
One of the best exchanges between the two.
This makes conversations and encounters between Widow and Hulk that much more complex.
Joss Whedon is a master of using these layered characters to their highest potential. He crafts these lines and scenes with the intent to set off those connections in the minds of his viewers. Different people interpret entertainment in different ways, but Joss uses his awareness of those interpretations to bring out some of the most memorable moments of our time in film.
It’s not just the Avengers films in which these themes are challenged. Marvel’s policy of having its films and comics take place in their own universes provides lasting connections beyond the time spent with each work. What immediately comes to mind is Tony Stark’s character in Iron Man 3, which takes place shortly after the Chitauri invaded New York in The Avengers.
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Stark is one of the most complex characters in the Avengers’ lineup. He goes through many transitions during the films, from struggling with being Iron Man publicly to post traumatic stress from New York’s invasion. This battle affected Stark’s character tremendously, driving his motives since.
For example, in the scene above, Stark must save passengers falling out of a plane. JARVIS calmly tells him he can only carry four out of the thirteen passengers. Stark’s heroism and quick wit saves the day, but that refusal to listen to logic is the key element. Stark wants to save everyone and do better than he did in New York, blatantly ignoring all reason. That battle scared the hell out of Stark, giving him a reason to push himself and his technology beyond its limits.
Stark’s fear of alien invasion leads to the creation of Ultron and Vision, with a little help from Banner.
It’s this complexity of characters combined with writing that uses these layers that makes the MCU. Without this combination, many films wouldn’t hold up on special effects alone. In a way, this recent care put into each movie has been there from the very beginning. Marvel has always told complex stories since its origin and using those flawed and human characters to their fullest potential.
Marvel in comics and in film has touched on everything from political situations to homosexuality, making it one of the most diverse companies in entertainment. Most tales touch on more than just action, or good guys thumping evil doers, but often take the time to go deeper into the human condition and current issues.
Age of Ultron is filled with interesting exchanges between characters that are worth studying in greater detail. Therefore, I challenge consumers and scholars alike to consider the deeper meanings of some of the best films of our time. Also be sure to share these findings with me and Giga.
Til next time, I’ll be counting down the days til Marvel’s next film, Ant Man.
Lois Lane, the fearless Daily Planet reporter, is equally as iconic as DC Comics’ seminal hero Superman, but she usually serves as a supporting character. Author Gwenda Bond, however, reverses those roles while asking, “Who was Lois Lane as a teenager?” The result is Lois Lane: Fallout, a new YA novel (that appears to be the first of a series).
Sixteen-year-old Army brat Lois Lane moves to Metropolis where she gets a job as a reporter for a new online newspaper for teens called the Daily Scoop. She then learns a classmate, Anavi, is being tortured by a trio of bizarre bullies called the Warheads. The trio seem to have invasive mental powers thanks to a virtual reality video game.
Fallout is two parts Smallville and one part Sword Art Online. Like the former, it features a popular comic book character in her formative years. Lois, though young, is almost exactly the character fans know and love from the comics, albeit a bit immature. She’s tackling the typical problems a teenage Army brat has to deal with—constant moving, adjusting to new schools, trying to make friends—but with her trademark stubbornness. She may be rough around the edges, but it’s obvious she’d do anything to help the less fortunate, as evidenced by her efforts to protect Anavi. What starts as a simple problem leads to a complicated web of industrial subterfuge. Regardless, underneath all that is the important lesson of intervening to stop bullying.
The plot of Fallout, as I alluded, is reminiscent of the anime Sword Art Online (which is based on a series of Japanese light novels). Lois discovers that Anavi is a gamer and plays a new VR game called Worlds War Three using a holoset. The Warheads also play the game, and they often oppress her in the game, too. The game itself could be described as the bizarre lovechild of World of Warcraft and Mass Effect, creating an MMO featuring both dragons and aliens (among other things). While the game is a huge part of the story, the characters dive into it only a few times, which is to its credit. It would’ve been too easy and cliché to set the story in the VR world. The novel may as well have been a Superman/Sword Art Online crossover fan fiction at that point. Plus, it makes more sense to defeat the villains in “real life” than in the video game. Should this become a series, I don’t know if the VR game will be featured. I’d rather it wasn’t, or at the very least not used as the focal point of the plot.
While some have complained that Lois, despite being a strong woman, is too often rescued by Superman (I’d argue she just has a tendency to get in over her head), she’s quite competent here. Only once or twice does another character have to bail her out of trouble. Yet at the same time, she doesn’t mind being rescued. Bond could have easily turned her into a so-called “feminist heroine” who pretends to be invincible, but her Lois is willing to be vulnerable, although that usually requires people to crack her Army brat shell. They discover that website order cheap viagra always calculate their ovulation and have sex at any time, right up until Sunday. In cialis on line discover for more these cases, prior to surgery and during the “waiting period,” alternative treatments are certainly worthwhile and more effective than doing nothing at all, and are infinitely preferable given the extreme nature of the surgical treatments. Kamagra tablets for erectile dysfunction contain sildenafil citrate, the same ingredient used in cipla cialis italia . Man using stuff of nitrates containing nitroglycerin must shun taking nitrate pills as combination of both tablets in body deeprootsmag.org cialis 10 mg may often not get erection for sexual intercourse.
As is typical with YA, the heroine serves as its narrator, and Lois’ rampant snark never ceases to be entertaining. Bond perfectly replicates Lois’ distinct voice. It really is like hearing a young Margot Kidder except in present-day. Lois’ reactions to the scantily-clad elf princess avatar her co-reporter creates for her in the VR game are particularly poignant and funny. This book’s style has a fairly unique feature: the inclusion of texting/internet chats. The paragraph structures and fonts change whenever these come up, visually signaling to the reader the change. By transcribing these chats, it makes them easier to follow. Interestingly, while Lois is usually a notoriously bad speller, these chats are free of typos and have only a few emoticons or other Internet lingo. Was this a creative license on Bond’s part? Regardless, it’s better for reading purposes.
Most of these conversations are with an enigmatic boy whose username is “SmallvilleGuy.” Well, he’s enigmatic to Lois, anyway. Bond throws in many subtle hints that even the most casual of Superman fans will know this fella is in fact Clark Kent. He never gives his real name, and other than seeing his avatar in the VR (a blue-eyed alien, ironically), he and Lois never meet. While he plays second fiddle to Lois, he’s no incompetent sidekick. He’s proficient with technology and uses his connections within an internet group to gather information for Lois, as she investigates the technology firm behind Worlds War Three. He saves her once within the game—by firing laser beams from his eyes—and helps out during the climax, but for the most part he simply supports Lois’ efforts. Understandably, Lois wrestles with how she feels about him, constantly telling herself he’s just a friend despite their meeting in the VR game feeling like a date (this is YA, after all, the heroine must struggle with such things). It’s a great transposition and foreshadowing of what fans know will come in the future.
Which leads to one of the book’s minor flaws: the rest of the supporting cast isn’t as compelling. Lois’ parents are interesting enough, but her cohorts at the Scoop don’t hold as much intrigue. It’s not that they’re poorly written, but because “SmallvilleGuy” is—or rather, will be—Superman, they’re overshadowed by him. Other than the Warheads, who turn out to actually be pawns, there’s no real villain in the story. There’s a CEO and a few scientists at the end, but they’re hardly ever seen. For a book inspired by comic books, this seems a bit strange. Also, Bond is fond of characters who shrug only one shoulder for some reason. Most of them do that at least once. A nitpick, I know, but it happens a lot.
Regardless, Lois Lane: Fallout is a wonderful read for even the most casual of Superman fans.
How much do you know about the Marvel Universe? A lot? Like, a lot, a lot? In celebration of Free Comic Book Day, this Saturday, May 2, put your knowledge to the test. MorphCostumes (formerly Morphsuits) has designed a Marvel Comics quiz to challenge even the most devoted fans.
Once you’re done with the quiz, let us know in the comments how you did, and then shop for your favorite Marvel costume.
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If the embedded quiz doesn’t work, take the quiz on the MorphCostumes site.
Marvel in comics and in film has touched on everything from political situations to homosexuality, making it one of the most diverse companies in entertainment. Most tales touch on more than just action, or good guys thumping evil doers, but often take the time to go deeper into the human condition and current issues.
