UPDATE:

Walking Dead 100 is hitting the shelves shortly. Orders of over 200 (including the chromium edition) will net you one of the coveted variant editions! If you are not looking to place such a big order I still recommed picking up all 8 covers plus the chromium

New In The World Of Comics

San Diego Comic Con 2012 is just around the corner - July 12-15. Sadly Tickets Are Now SOLD OUT :(

My Newest Article - May 16, 2012

Mixing Media: Marvel’s “The Avengers” and the Future of Comics

So, having seen the new Avengers movie (along with what seems like half the population of the planet, if the first week’s grosses are correct), I feel reinvigorated in my love for Marvel characters and storylines. Without offering any spoilers, there are several aspects of this film that make it stand out from the typical comic fare that has been finding its way to the silver screen on a monthly basis – it incorporates slapstick to avoid coming off as too heavy handed, it stays faithful to the source material while reinvigorating Lee and Kirby’s ideas to make them relevant to a new generation just being introduced to a highly complex universe. Most importantly, Avengers works because it’s the first film to mimic not only the storylines, plots and characters of superhero comics, but their form as well.

The Avengers, in a way that McLuhan would have undoubtedly loved to expound on, invests itself in the most commercially successful aspects of its printed original medium: namely, continuity. The Avengers truly is film’s first summer crossover, a popular phenomenon in comics that combines all of a universe’s favorite titles into a singular epic – in past years for Marvel, these have been Civil War, Secret Invasion and Siege, though the crossover event has been a mainstay in comics for decades. The film version Avengers accomplishes this mixing of media in a far different way from serialized films of the past that have any number of sequels - Avengers condenses several already successful, self-contained franchises without changing actors, cadence or missing a beat in terms of characterization, a feat that no other film has accomplished or has even, for that matter, attempted. Avengers is truly a “super” movie in that it not only draws on all the aspects of the summer blockbuster in the theaters, but it introduces a potentially unfamiliar audience to the highlights of what made these characters in a printed medium so successful to begin with.

Another of the ways that Marvel has attempted to mimic the form of comics in its films is through the use of the epilogue, left dangling at the end of its movies’ credits that hints at the direction potential sequels might take. Not only does this help in establishing continuity, it gives a nod to the fans who are familiar enough with Marvel films to wait until the final credits have rolled to see the “secret” message designed for those who are in-the-know. These final scenes have been, in past Marvel films, arguably the most tantalizing aspects of the entire movie, the “to be continued” thrilling moment of ambiguity and tension that is endemic to the serial comic. The Avengers is no different here, and I have to offer a single spoiler for the movie simply because it’s so compelling.

The final scene appending the credits reveals, for a fraction of a second (and to the cheers of the movie’s audience),that the new villain that the Avengers will be facing in its inevitable sequel (and after several other Iron Mans, Thors and Captain Americas) is none other than Thanos – the Marvel Universe’s most notorious and popular intergalactic villain. Thanos, first appearing in 1977’s Iron Man #55 (coinciding with a rarer and briefer appearance in Logan’s Run #6), is arguably Marvel readers’ favorite bad guy for a number of reasons, most prominently in that he couples the role of madman with that of philosopher, exhibiting high minded dialogue and thoughtful soliloquies at every turn. Most readers became aware of Thanos in 1991’s summer crossover event “The Infinity Gauntlet,” in which we see the mad god of Titan having fallen in love with the avatar of Death. In order to curry her favour, he acquires the infinity gems, jewels that when combined grant their wearer with ultimate power over all aspects of reality. Thanos uses these to eradicate half of all life everywhere, creating balance in an overpopulated universe. He never truly achieves Death’s love (the reader is left as frustrated as Thanos in wondering why his efforts are not enough to please her), and he is, by the event’s conclusion, bested by Marvel’s Greatest Heroes.

“The Infinity Gauntlet” is likely the story that the next feature Avengers film will address, and its forerunners (in the already filming Iron Man 3 and the scheduled Thor sequel) will lay the groundwork for this future summer blockbuster. Marvel, in mimicking the form its comics have taken, is accessing its most successful characters and summer events in order to replicate its victories across the boundaries that are typically erected between media. Thanos’ popularity is already growing in anticipation of this, and his first appearance has tripled in value in the last week alone – his other appearances have similarly risen in value amongst collectors, including the sequels to the Infinity Gauntlet, the Annihilation Saga as well as his short-lived eponymous series. He is also scheduled to appear in Bendis’ new series “Avengers Assemble” in the coming months, and a new run of printings of his most popular appearances are launching in trade paperback form. The extent of this cross pollination is entirely new, and it bodes well for the superhero comics’ fan. In experimenting so widely with form, what results is a hybrid that is neither comic nor movie, but a hybrid that employs the best aspects of both, a synthesis that, despite the impending threat of the end of print publishing, will allow comics to move forward into a new era of readership.

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