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This was a refreshing week for comic books which were coming off the heels of the Avengers film as well as Free Comic Book Day. While there were many great books this week, One book stood out and above the rest for me.

Fury Max # 1

A few years ago, Marvel released an extremely violent, sexual, and foul mouthed book by Garth Ennis starring Nick Fury. The rumor around the time was that George Clooney was in talks to portray Nick Fury until he caught wind of this book which offended him to the point where he backed out of talks with Marvel which resulted in a Corporate shakeup in the Marvel offices. If this story is in fact true, Garth Ennis deserves a massive handshake from me as I cannot stand anything Clooney touches after his “bang up” job on Batman and Robin, but enough about Crazy Ryan’s ramblings and more on the newest volume of Fury Max.

“My name is Nick fury. I’ve had a bullet in my head since nineteen forty-four. I fight and fuck like a goddamn demon. I lick up war like it was Sugar. These are the things I’ve Done for my country.” This is the opening text bubble from the first page of this book and it sets the tone perfectly for this book. Ennis clearly loves the burnt out as Veteran Approach to Fury and makes it work extremely well as nothing seems to phase him throughout the course of the book. Goran Parlov’s cartoonish style also works extremely well to portray the ridiculousness of this man’s life with his expressions working beautifully with the  eccentric cast surrounding Fury. While this book is slow on action it does show a great deal of promise and I look forward to seeing where it goes

With the impending blockbuster and life changing Avengers movie coming out, there are a few team members that haven’t had their own movies done…yet.  I’m speaking of course about Hawkeye and Black Widow, a.k.a. Clint Barton and Natasha Romanova respectively.  These two aren’t members of the Marvel big three nor a particularly successful comic series, and often have played second string to other super heroes (as they did in Marvel movies). However, each have been great and inspiring heroes in their own right; thus, I want to pay a little homage to Clint Barton as he, and one of his many super identities, drew me into comics even deeper than before.

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Before I begin I would like to state that the Ultimate Universe is the reason I am regularly reading comics today with Ultimate X-men being the very first book I followed on a regular basis and that I am forever grateful to the creators of the Ultimate Universe particularly Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar. That said I feel this is a terrible idea, while I may be biased as I was a huge Ultimate Peter Parker fan which mean that thought of Miles Morales leaves something of a sour taste in my mouth. At this point I feel there is no longer a need for the Ultimate Universe as many of the creators and concepts moved to the primary universe which effectively made it obsolete. This can be seen in the redesign for Hawkeye’s costume and from the introduction of Marcus Johnson also known as Nick Fury Jr. whom is modeled after Samuel L. Jackson much like the Ultimate Nick Fury. Another issue I have is that the Ultimate Universe was designed to be an accessible continuity light place where new readers could start and old readers could enjoy a modern twist on the origins of their favorite characters. This sadly is no longer the case as so many characters have been killed and revived,  the books have been relaunched so many times it has become just as difficult to follow as the mainstream universe. I also feel that crossing the two universes can only muddle continuity even further. That said, I would like to see Marvel end the Ultimate Universe in a respectful manner to give the fans the closure they deserve.

-Ryan

With AvX in full swing and the New 52’s last week of the month upon us, I find myself being rather picky this week with my must buy list.

So you are going to buy anything this week make sure you buy Daredevil # 11

The first part of this crossover was my pick two weeks ago and it should come as no surprise that I loved this issue just as much seeing as how it featured the same creative team. I want to applaud Marco Chechetto for successfully putting out not only three issues in one month but three gorgeous issues in three consecutive weeks. Mark Waid’s dialogue is sharp and the pace is great as always including yet another great moment describing motivation this time coming from Daredevil. My only two issues with this book are that not much seemed to change from the start  and apparently S.H.I.E.L.D exists again despite not being addressed in any of the other books. Despite these flaws, this was a fantastic end to an incredible crossover and if you skipped it last time, you really should reconsider.

-Ryan

A few weeks ago I had the distinct privilege to meet artist John Tyler Christopher at Conglomeration in Louisville, KY. Despite being swarmed by fans and signing autographs, he was gracious enough to grant me an interview.  John is most known for his work with Marvel and Witchblade. You can check out some of his work for yourself at his DeviantArt page. 

John is the sitting on the right, on the left is Sean Fannon and his wife, of sites such as DrivethruRPG and RPGnow. These sites have revolutionized the RPG world. Sean joined our interview about halfway though, but this post will stay focused on John. (The Joint interview will be posted later this week) 

Shawn: How long have you been an artist? Did this start out in grade school or high school?

John Tyler Christopher: Dude I’ve been drawing since I could pick up a pencil. It’s my passion. When I was a kid I actually used to draw monsters. And still to this day, I’m still a huge fan of monsters and creatures. 

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