Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Netflix Tuesday

In eager anticipation of Marvel’s Avengers Age of Ultron (coming this May!), we’re revisiting the Marvel universe via our favorite armchair tour guide: Netflix.

From time to time, we’ll share some of the top subscriber rated Marvel shows available for streaming, add our spoiler-peppered two cents, and invite your input in the ready and waiting “Comments” section. It’s gonna be Marvel-ous!

Okay, okay - we’ll try to keep the corny puns to a minimum.

We kicked off our Marvel-by-way-of-Netflix adventure with Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Season 1. The premier season of this big-show-that-could garnered 5 stars from streaming subscribers.

While we initially felt that the show didn’t quite live up to its hype, or to our own sky-high hopes, what gradually won us over were its moments of crackling, Whedon-esque humor and — another Whedon staple -- the earnest, yet realistically developing sense of familial camaraderie that the disparate agents build over the course of the season.

Those strong points, coupled with the fact that we unconditionally love Agent Coulson, want to know exactly why Director Fury went to such extreme lengths to save him, and whether or not what was done to him will keep on messing with his little balding head, will be enough to make us quickly click “Add to My List” and start binge watching Season 2 as soon as it becomes available for streaming.

Honestly though, there are other winning characters on the show that we’ve come to root for, and about whose secrets and mysteries we’d like to learn more; Skye’s 0-8-4 origins, May’s ambiguous feelings for Coulson, and (spoiler alert!, but c’mon, it’s already Season Two in real-time!), can Agent Ward ever be trusted again?! We’re not so secretly hoping he can. We’re also eager to see Fitz alive, well and awkwardly nerding his way around with the team again.

What do you think?

What did you think of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Season 1? Did you watch it in real-time or catch up with it on Netlflix? Is it a meaningful addition to the Marvel Universe? Or just a shameless exploitation of the Avengers movie popularity?  Are you watching Season 2 now?  How’s it compare with Season 1? Don’t shield (!) us from your thoughts, give them a share below in the comments section.

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• Secret Avengers - Issue 1

Ben's Top Marvel and DC Titles from 2014

Are you ready for my favorite Marvel and DC titles for 2014?

Harley Quinn

My first pick for the Marvel and DC is Harley Quinn. If you’re not reading this, it is probably the funnest book on the shelf! Palmiotti and Conner just knock it out the park with the writing and Hardin is a fantastic artist. But one of the beautiful things about it is that you always get an Amanda Connor cover, so you can’t go wrong there.

Justice League 3000

Justice League 3000 is one of the books I’m afraid is going to land on the
butcher’s block. This book is set — obviously — in the year 3000. The Justice League has been cloned, they’re sent to fight five uber powerful beings that have set out to take over the galaxy. And Giffen has his typical humor, great storytelling, super heroics and you get some Booster Gold and some Blue Beetle, written by the man who knows how to do it.

Batman

We’ve also got Batman. I don’t think much needs to be said about this. Snyder and Capullo have taken the character that grew kind of stale and given it a fresh spin — they don’t just go to the well. Well, he sort of does, we’ve got Joker, we’ve seen Clayface, but he’s created villains that I believe are going to stand the test of time and become one of the rogues' gallery and prominent ones at that.


Trillium. Although this looks like an indy, this is a Vertigo title. Jeff Lemire
is someone to watch. If you haven’t seen some of his other stuff, you’ve got Lost Dogs, you’ve got Underwater Welder and Essex County. Trillium is a time-crossed love story about a woman at the end of time, where the human race is almost extinct, and a man who’s an explorer from the 30s. They come head to head. They switch places. The book makes you flip back and forth. You feel just as lost and disoriented as them. It’s a really emotional, really powerful story and it’s well worth reading.

Avengers

On to Marvel. I said “Top Five” and four of them were DC – imagine that, I’m a Marvel kid! But, Avengers and New Avengers go hand-in-hand. I count these both as one because they’re both written by Hickman; they’re both the core of the Avengers Universe and, quite honestly, the core of the
Marvel Universe. You know, you’ve got your X-men section, you’ve got your Spiderman section, you’ve got your space section, but this is everything that’s been happening, everything that’s bled into Infinity. You’ve got the Illuminati trying to stop the builders who are destroying earth after earth after earth. Making choices like destroying earth to save ours, and then you’ve got the Avengers who are good guys, who ultimately find out about it and have to do something. This is stuff that’s going to spin into the big event here in 2015 and Hickman’s doing a fantastic job!

Comic shop owners' anthem rocks

This came out two or more years ago. How did we miss it? Well someone finally shared it with us and we love it. Plus, this video really gets the word out about how cool comics are. You think they really read comics?

The song is by Canadian Band +Courage My Love.

Find Courage My Love online:

Website: ILoveCourageMyLove.com
Twitter: @CourageMyLove
Facebook: ILoveCourageMyLove

Instagram: @CourageMyLove

Soundcloud: CourageMyLove

New Comic Books This Week

Ben covers the highlights from new comic book week. There's some great stuff in here, including sexy Lobo.

New Comics for Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Ride The Wild Spinner Rack - Part 3

Editor's Update 10/17/2014: The Ride The Wild Spinner Rack series appears in multiple posts, including, so far, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Enjoy.

RIDE THE WILD SPINNER RACK

Part 3: Kid Stuff

I was possessed.  My comic book obsession was such that right after the last bell rang on my junior high school Wednesday afternoon, I would literally RUN a couple of blocks down 54th Street to H Street, where I would turn left and sprint the last half mile to Womble’s Drug Store (now a bagel shop).

That’s right, if you were to drive that part of H Street around 3:00 on a Wednesday afternoon, you’d see a nerdy 13 year old racing up the street as if being pursued.

When I got to the store, I’d stop and stare at the latest arrivals: Avengers 17 (“Four Against the Minotaur!”), Strange Tales 133 (Dr. Strange SHARING the cover with The Human Torch and The Thing in two different stories), X- Men #12 (“The Origin of Prof X!”), and all the others.  The only thing that came anywhere close to my love of comics was my love of music.

“They’re disobedient, disrespectful oafs!
Noisy, crazy, dirty, lazy, loafers!
While we're on the subject: Kids!
You can talk and talk till your face is blue! Kids!
But they still just do what they want to do!
Why can't they be like we were,
Perfect in every way?
What's the matter with kids today?”

“Kids” Bye Bye Birdie

Transformers: Windblade Issue 1

Windblade, Issue 1, Stone Cover

It's been a while since I read Transformers, but when I found out about the creative team on Windblade, I immediately picked it up.

Transformers: Windblade features the talents of two creative women, writer Mairghread Scott and artist Sarah Stone.

There are plenty of good interviews to be read in addition to some brouhaha over this female creative team. Suffice it to say, in the opinion of this humble reviewer, Mairghread and Sarah have written and drawn an amazing book, and it's exciting to see these two take on this Transformers story together.

Transformational Robot Art

I've read some Transformers in the past. The thing that gets to me sometimes is that the

Episode 7 - The Cosplay Connection Plus Movies

Godzilla returns

Patrick Clarke and Short Nerdy Man’s Jay Wheeler join Ben to talk about cosplay, the new Godzilla movie, and future DC movies. Plus: DC Movies and favorite Kevin Smith movies.

EmpiresCV.tv Ep155 - Meet Captain Dylan Hunt the Pug on Thursday

 Folks can't seem to get enough of Captain Dylan Hunt, aka, The Captain. She'll be in the shop this Thursday all day, so please stop in to meet her.

There are some great books out this week, so have a look at the video. It's about 4 minutes long.

EmpiresCV.tv Episode 154 - New Comics and Sac Con on Sunday

 In this episode, in the first minute, we shares how you can win free tickets to this weekend's Sac-Con. Note: To participate, you have to visit our FB Page and comment in the post about this video.

After that, we talk comics! Enjoy, and take some time watch Ben and special guest Jay Wheeler talk comics on Jay's show, Coffee & Comics.