‘Avengers Versus ‘X-Men’ Teasers
Marvel has unveiled seven new advertisements for their upcoming mega-crossover ‘Avengers Versus X-Men,’ showcasing individual members of each team squaring off as well as the first news of an upcoming crossover starring street-level crime fighters Spider-Man, Daredevil and The Punisher, entitled ‘Omega Effect.’
First, as for the ‘Avengers Versus X-Men’ images, some of the pairings (Storm versus Thor) are pretty straight forward, while others (Luke Cage versus Beast) are slightly more surprising. One thing is for sure though, this will be a super hero brawl like no other! Here are the images, with a few comments and my predictions as to the outcome of each face-off.
Luke Cage versus The Beast – Hmmm, not a clear match-up, but it’s sure to be a good fight! Gosh, I’m not sure who would win here! Luke has unbreakable skin, but Beast can be pretty ferocious! (But Cathy Kammer woud kill me if I voted against Luke Cage, so he’s my predicted winner!)
Thor versus Storm – Both command the weather, but Thor is a Thunder God, whereas Storm is simply a mutant. I have to give it to The Odin Son! (Also, didn’t Storm just join the Avengers? That was a brief stint!)
Spider-Man versus Ice Man – I think the real question here is, which side will Ms. Lion take?! You’d think all Ice Man would have to do is freeze Spidey in a huge block of ice, but that Spidey is pretty hard to pin down. Plus… he always wins. No matter how adverse the situation, he always finds a way to power through. So I’m going with Spider-Man on this one! (Man! So far, the Avengers are doing 4/4! This might be a landslide… not that I’m writing the book or anything.)
Ms. Marvel versus Rogue – Awwww man! It just got personal! Last time these two fought, things went extremely poorly for Ms. Marvel when Rogue absorbed all of her powers and memories… permanently! Rogue lucked out and scored super strength and the ability to fly. Ms. M gained a new power set and served as Binary for several years, before regaining her old powers and returning to her most iconic identity. Rogue, meanwhile, lost those powers to keep her more in-line with her depictions in the live-action X-Men movies and the cartoon ‘X-Men: Evolution.’ But if history repeats itself, this could be the first X-Men upset! This bout goes to Rogue!
Iron Man versus Magneto – I still feel odd thinking about Magneto as an X-Man, but what can I do about that? Also, shouldn’t Magneto just be able to gesture and send Tony Stark flying? Well, I assume Stark will be wearing some ceramic armor that defies Magneto’s mutant powers. Also, as high-profile as Stark is right now, with ‘The Avengers’ movie coming out, I’m going to give it to him this round.
Black Widow versus Psylocke – Otherwise known as the battle I care absolutely nothing about. Neither character has ever done anything for me. Psylocke has vast telepathic abilities and ninja training. Black Widow was played by Scarlet Johansen in ‘Iron Man 2.’ Psylocke for the win!
So by my estimation, The Avengers (a.k.a. Earths Mightiest Heroes) should soundly trounce the newly fractured X-Men. A few big names are omitted, like Captain America and Cyclops. So we’ll have to wait and see how those characters get divvied up.
Get ready for some fisticuffs! ‘Avengers Versus X-Men’ #1 is written Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman and Ed Brubaker. It will be drawn by John Romita Jr, with a cover by Jim Cheung and goes on sale on April 3rd, so mark your calender and prepare to watch the fur fly!
‘Spider-Man’ / ‘Daredevil’ / ‘Punisher’ Crossover
In other Marvel news, writers Greg Rucka and Mark Waid will be collaborating on a crossover entitled ‘The Omega Effect’ starring Spider-Man, Daredevil and The Punisher. The story actually spins out of ‘Daredevil’ #6, which I reviewed, wherein Daredevil comes to possess the Omega Drive, an ultra high-tech drive that contains in-depth information on the biggest criminal cabals in the Marvel Universe. He actually tricks these factions into entrusting him with the drive (made from a scrap of a Fantastic Four costume, i.e. unstable molecules), which essentially makes him the most dangerous man on the planet. In ‘The Omega Effect,’ The Punisher, Frank Castle somehow learns that Daredevil has this and wants it for himself to use on his war against crime. Spider-Man is deployed by Reed Richards (inventor of unstable molecules) to keep the other two from killing one another and to safeguard the Omega Drive.
The crossover kicks off in ‘Avenging Spider-Man’ #6 in April and will then cross over into ‘Daredevil’ #11 and ‘The Punisher’ #10. Mark Waid relaunched ‘Daredevil’ recently and upon reading issue #6, I was won over as a regular reader. Rucka’s ‘The Punisher’ is insanely good! (Here is my review of issue #6!) Scott West reviews ‘Avenging Spider-Man.’ Check out his review of issue #2 here!) The first two issues of that book were written by Zeb Wells, but Rucka and Waid will be stepping in for this upcoming arc.
Marvel Second Printings
And finally, in one last bit of Marvel news, the company has announced it will be going into second printings of several recently released books: ‘Scarlet Spider’ #1, ‘Avengers Annual’ #1, ‘Avengers: X-Sanction’ #2, ‘Carnage USA’ #2, ‘Defenders’ #2, ‘Incredible Hulk’ #3, ‘Uncanny X-Force’ #19. These join other recently announced second printings of ‘New Avengers Annual’ #1, ‘Avengers: X-Sanction’ #1 (two versions), ‘Carnage USA’ #1, ‘Incredible Hulk’ #1 and #2 and ‘Uncanny X-Force’ #18.
So many big events coming up! I’m not sure my wallet can take it, but there’s no way I’m missing out on such huge goings-on!
