I finally read Age of Apocalypse - Was it like a smaller Secret Wars?

Just recently, I crossed another item off my list of stories to read on Marvel Unlimited - I rattled through the X-Men: Age of Apocalypse mini-epic. I don't know what spurred me to go for that precise one, but after the fact, it seems topical - after all, Marvel are about to pull an Age of Apocalypse on their entire universe with the mega-massive Secret Wars event.

That's before we get to next year's X-Men: Apocalypse movie, which probably won't adapt this storyline but might, and recent DC event Convergence, also an AoA-style move, albeit shorter.

So it seemed a good time to talk about it, maybe discuss how these new events are using (or abusing) the legacy of Age of Apocalypse. Spoilers follow for twenty-year-old X-Men comics!

Avengers: Age Of Ultron and the serialisation value of superhero movies

Avengers: Age of Ultron is out now all over the place, and I saw it on the opening Friday. The many solo film stars of the Marvel movies re-unite to take on an evil robot, ruptures form among the team and I'll refrain from over-describing the film as some people might still be avoiding spoilers.

It was good, though - not as no-reservations excellent as the first Avengers movie, due to Ultron not being quite as memorable as Loki and the sheer volume of characters taking away from focus. Sill, among the upper echelons of Marvel movies and successfully kept me invested in the whole Marvel monolith.

Anyway, this isn't going to be a straight review of the movie as there are plenty of those on the internet. The release of Avengers II served as a kinda peak point of a few months where I've been consuming a load of superhero media. Between DC's FlArrow shows, Gotham, Agents of SHIELD, Daredevil and Agent Carter, that's a whole lotta tights and tights-related material.

And that's without even counting Walking Dead and Constantine.

Point being: I love serialised fiction across all mediums, but it kinda started with comics. So I've been thinking a lot about how this stuff translates because... much as I've liked many superhero movies, I feel like TV might be the ultimate medium for them.

Ultimate Spider-Man - A Potentially Pre-Emptive Eulogy

Last week, the Ultimate Spider-Man comic seemed to come to an end. It's hard to be certain, as Marvel Comics are being very cagey about the future of their publishing line, but based on some heartfelt words from series writer Brian Michael Bendis on his Tumblr, it looks like we've reached the end of that book in its current form.

The character may carry on, but sounds like either he'll no longer be written by Bendis or the set-up will be radically changed. Either way, I was inspired to produce some words, as this was a comic that meant a lot to me over the years.

BEST OF 2014 - Comics

Originally, this summary of 2014's comics-reading was going to share space with the books, but those damn prose-hives ended up taking up so much space that I let them have the entire post. So now, that means I could either not list my favourite comics of 2014 or give them an entire post to themselves.

I think it's obvious which way I was going to go. If you want to know what I was reading a year ago, here's the post for that. Now, onwards back into the comics of 2014, a year where my comic book consumption came dangerously close to being defined by a single app...

All You Can Eat Media - Nick vs Netflix, Man vs Marvel Unlimited

In the last few weeks since my birthday, I've catapulted myself hard into the world of unlimited on-demand media. Yes, I already had things like BBC iPlayer, 4OD and American equivalents, but this was the next level: Netflix for TV and the Marvel Unlimited service for comics.

After years of only watching carefully selected shows and targeted media, going back to having a wide range of stuff I might like available and choosing from it has been a strange experience. It's like when I was young and I used to read TV guides and consider watching new stuff.

Only with comics too, which is where the comparison breaks down.

Anyway, after two months in the new world of everything-you-could-ever-want rampant consumption, here are the observations I've made.

Black Panther by Christopher Priest - A Homage

I recently subscribed to Marvel Unlimited, a Netflix-esque system that gives me all-I-can-eat Marvel comics for a fairly low price. Not bang-up-to-date ones, but I've not read half the comics I wanted to over the last decade due to financial concerns, so I can keep trawling for a while.

However, as well as striking out for new material, I've also re-read some old favourites, and I'd like to talk about one of those now: Black Panther by Christopher Priest and various artists, a series that ran from 1998 to 2003. The Black Panther character has existed since 1966, King of a fictional African nation called Wakanda, and mostly associated with standing in the backdrop of Avengers groupshots in the later decades of the twentieth century.

Attentive readers may note Priest also wrote Quantum & Woody, a series even closer to my heart than Black Panther. I started reading Panther due to following Priest over from Q&W, barely knowing who the character was, and Priest made me love it in approximately one issue. If you want a gushing tribute to Q&W, here's one I wrote in September 2012.

But anyway. Black Panther. What was that about?