House of M

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: Olivier Coipel
Inker: Tim Townsend
Colourist: Frank D'Armata
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Publisher: Marvel Comics

What's it about?

Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, is a mutant with magical, reality-altering powers.  After a traumatic event wherein she kills some of her fellow Avengers, the X-Men decide that she needs to be reined in.  Her brother Pietro, aka Quicksilver (he's a speedster), and her father Magneto (the X-Men's main enemy), want to save her and so spirit her away.  The Avengers and the X-Men go in search of the missing family but before they find anyone the world turns white and changes.  Suddenly, mutants are in charge.  They are running things and aren't victimised.  Magneto is a sort of benevolent leader and homo sapiens (us normal humans) are the oppressed.

Only Wolverine can remember how things used to be, so he sets out to put things right.

Seen the film?. Read the book: Captain America, Spider-Man, X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy

Four films in one post, because I'm rather behind!

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
This film is based on a story arc by writer Ed Brubaker and penciller Steve Epting.  The film isn't really close to the books, but it's close enough if you want to experience it in comic form.  Brubaker's run is very highly thought of and is considered a great example of Captain America stories.  If you want to read more Cap'n, the relevant trades are as follows (in order):

Captain America: Man Out of Time - This isn't by Brubaker, but is very very good.
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Captain America: Red Menace
Civil War: Captain America (best read alongside the main Civil War series)
Captain America: The Death of Captain America
Captain America: The Man With No Face - this looks like it's out of print, but should be available digitally on www.comixology.co.uk/com
Captain America: Road To Reborn
Captain America: Two Americas
Captain America: No Escape
Captain America: The Trial of Captain America
Captain America: Prisoner of War

After the Winter Soldier story Bucky got his own series, also written by Ed Brubaker, which is traded as:
Winter Soldier: The Longest Winter - this looks like it's out of print and is going for ridiculous amounts of money, so also check comixology to see if you can get it digitally for a fraction of the price.
Winter Soldier: Broken Arrow
Winter Soldier: Black Widow Hunt
Winter Soldier - The Electric Ghost - this has a new creative team.

Amazing Spider-Man 2
I thought this film was a terrible mess.  However, they did get Gwen Stacy right.  Gwen hasn't been around in the comics for a long time because she was killed by the Green Goblin in 1973.  In the comics, the Green Goblin was Norman Osborn, not Harry Osborn.  You can read the story in the trade Spider-Man: Death of the Stacys.

X-Men: Days of Future Past
Like Winter Soldier, the film isn't the same as the comic that inspired it.  In the comic it was Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) who time travelled (not Wolverine) and there are different X-men involved.  The comic story only takes 2 issues to tell, so plays out rather differently.  It's a good story and worth reading.

The trade collects issues 138-143 from The Uncanny X-Men other series and starts as an epilogue to the Dark Phoenix saga.  Then there is a Nightcrawler story, then Kitty is introduced to the series, we have the two issue Days of Future Past story and the final issue in the collection is Kitty coming into her own and proving her worth as and X-Man.

Guardians of the Galaxy
This film seemed to be the break out hit of the summer.  Everyone seems to love it.  There have been a lot of Guardians comics and it can be quite hard to work out what to read, or to find copies.

The Annihilation omnibus is considered a good companion piece to the movie, however at £95 for the hardcover volume that's probably out of a lot of peoples budgets.  A more reasonable place to start would be Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's Guardians collection. It's currently priced at just under £18 on Amazon, but your local comic book shop might be able to get you it for cheaper.  We have a list of recommended shops here.  Alternatively, try comixology for digital copies.  A complete list of Marvel's cosmic stuff (with lots of Guardians characters) can be found here.

Many thanks to @feemcbee for helping me identify and locate these titles!  If you're on twitter go follow her, she knows her Marvel.

Marvel: Civil War

Writer: Mark Millar
Penciller: Steve McNiven
Inker: Dexter Vines
Colourist: Morry Hollowell
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Publisher: Marvel

What's it about?
A group of young heroes accidentally kill themselves and 600 civilians. This alarms the government who introduce the Superhuman Registration Act - everyone with powers must register with the government and become paid operatives of S.H.I.E.L.D.  If you don't comply, you'll be arrested and charged with treason.

This Act splits the heroes. Iron Man, Spider-Man, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, She-Hulk and others are in support of the Act.  Most of the X-Men, Captain America, Nick Fury and others oppose it.  As the supporters are hired to bring in those that don't comply, the opposing faction go underground.

The book builds on and references other key events in the Marvel universe but you don't need to know about these to read it.  The other events are used to build the case for the Act and explore the moral quandary that the Marvel universe finds itself in.   The supporters believe registration is necessary to ensure new heroes are adequately trained and to ensure a measure of accountability.  The opposers believe that heroes shouldn't be beholden to government (what if government fucks up?) and that registration puts their loved ones at risk. 

Spider-Girl (MC2 universe)

 "No one dies on my watch"

Writer: Tom DeFalco

Pencils: Pat Oliffe

Inks: Various

Colours: Various

Letters: Various

Publisher: Marvel Comics

What's it about?

Spider-Girl is May Parker, the daughter of Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and Mary-Jane Watson.  This series is set in the Marvel Comics 2 (MC2) universe, a sort of What If? parallel reality where creators can explore alternative ideas.  In the main continuity May Parker was snatched from her parents shortly after birth, and is presumed dead.  In this MC2 universe she was snatched but then given back, and is now about 15 years old.  She's a regular schoolgirl - reasonable student, loves basketball and plays for the school team.  As the series starts she is just starting to exhibit her inherited spider powers, more or less the same as her Dad's.

Image on the right is from issue 56.

This series is about her life - how she dons the Spider-Girl mantle, how she deals with new villains and old heroes, how she manages school life and superheroics, and how her parents support her in her new activities.  It's a basic premise, delivered with a sense of fun and love.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man volumes 1 and 2

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Sara Pichelli, Chris Samnee and David Marquez
Colors: Justin Ponsor
Letters: Vic's Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel

What's it about?
Spider-Man is, as the name suggests, a man imbued with spider related powers.  Most people recognise Peter Parker as the man under the mask, but this series takes place in Marvel's Ultimate Universe where things have changed.  In this universe Peter Parker is dead and everyone knows his secret identity as Spider-Man.

Now there is a new Spider-Man.  He's got a black and red suit and he looks younger than Peter ever looked.  He is Miles Morales, aged 13, African American and with quite a different set up to Parker.

Miles isn't in any way connected with Peter, so this isn't a case of a friend taking up the superhero mantle.  Although Miles got his powers the same way (bitten by a spider), his powers are different (it was a different sort of spider).  He can crawl up walls and has enhanced strength and agility, but unlike Peter he also has a venomous sting and can turn invisible, or at least camouflage into the background.

From volume 1, pencils by Pichelli

Volume 1 tells how Miles gets his powers and introduces us to his life and family and friends, and brings in other members of the superhero community with personal connections to Peter (they aren't always pleased that an unknown has donned the suit).  Volume 2 tells how he deals with his Uncle discovering his powers and trying to use Miles for his own nefarious ends (his Uncle is not a good person). 

A few recommendations

Hi all.  There has been a noticeable lack of posts recently.  I can only apologise.  I think real life has overtaken many of us.  Speaking for myself, I have started a British Sign Language NVQ recently and it's leaving me with very little spare time, so I cannot write full length reviews (heck I can barely think of things I would like to write, let along putting fingers to keyboard).

So instead, I shall share with you books I have recently read that I particularly enjoyed.

Characters of Colour in superhero comics: the women (part 3) and a Spider-man

And so we come to the final entry in the our characters of colour in comics series, looping back to focus on women again..  We hope that we've showcased characters that interests you and we hope that you've been intrigued enough to search out some books.  There seem to be a lot more superhero men than women around, part of this is, I think, because there are more male superheroes than female ones, which is a pity.  Another thing I think we've learnt is that ongoing superhero series tend to feature white people, not characters of colour.  The only way this will change is if people buy more comics with characters of colour in them, showing the publishers that there is a demand.  So please, if you like the sound of any of these characters, buy a copy of the book!

To recap, the previous entries in our series can be found here:

Women (part one), women (part two), the X (wo)men, men (part one), men (part two), men (part three), men (part four), men (part five) and non-superhero comics.

And now, on with the women.

Marvels

Writer: Kurt Busiek
Art: Alex Ross
Letterer: Richard Starkings
Publisher: Marvel

What's it about?
Marvels is the story of the Marvel universe, from 1939 to 1974, told through the eyes of journalist Phil Sheldon.  From the elegant black cover, to the back page, it's an astonishing story of the rise of the superhero and what it means for ordinary people.  As the name suggests, it's a book to inspire awe and wonder, it is truly a marvel.

Marvel Fairy Tales

Writer: C.B. Bebulski
Art: João Lemos (Peter Pan), Nuno Plati (Created Equal), Takeshi Miyazawa (Alice in Wonderland), Ricardo Tercio (The Wizard of Oz and Off the Beaten Path), Kyle Baker (The Friendship of the Tortoise and the Eagle)
Colours: Christina Strain (Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland)
Letterer: Dave Lanphear (Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, off the Beaten Path), Artmonkeys (Pinocchio), Dave Sharpe (The Friendship of the Tortoise and the Eagle)
Publisher: Marvel

What's it about?
Much like Spider-Man Fairy Tales this book contains versions of Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and the Wizard of Oz using characters from the Marvel superteam, The Avengers.  Also included is Off the Beaten path, a version of Red Riding Hood from the Spider-Man Fairy Tales collection, and The Friendship of the Tortoise and the Eagle from X-Men Fairy Tales.

About Formats. The Telephone Book Collection

Christmas is coming up and you may be looking for presents for the comic fans of your acquaintance or maybe you might want to take this opportunity to try some comics. If so, that’s what this blog is for: comic recommendations for the new reader. Of course, graphic novels are quite an expensive medium, probably more than most of us will want to spend on anything less than the closest of relatives. So today we at New readers…start here turn the spotlight on a format that emphasises quantity and economy: the telephone book collection.

Spider-man Fairy Tales

Writer for all: C.B.Cebulski

Letterer for all: Artmonkeys' Dave Lanphear

Off the Beaten Path - Artist: Ricardo Tercio

The Spirits of Friendship - Artist: Niko Henrichon

Eclipse - Artist: Kei Kobayashi

              Colourist: Christina Strain

What you wish for: Co-Writer: Mindy Owens

                              Penciller: Nick Dragotta

                              Inker: Mike Allred

                             Colourist: Laura Allred
Publisher: Marvel

What's it about?
This retells four fairy tales and myths from around the world, using the cast of Spider-Man.  The blurb on the back states that it is' re-imagining the greatest Spider-Man stories through folktales, myths and fables from across the globe!'  As a casual Spider-Man fan I only spotted one specific Spider-Man story woven into these myths, so don't be put off by this text.

The book features four stories -