Winter Soldier – Coming out of hibernation - repost from emta4worldz

Recently began writing again, and though I hated redoing content, this is how I am kickstarting all of these blogs. 

Winter Soldier – Coming out of hibernation

POSTED BY META4MAN ⋅ APRIL 7, 2014 ⋅ LEAVE A COMMENT

One thing I thought about the most as far as writing something again is that I wanted to write about Captain America 2: Winter Soldier.

I began doing reviews about the beginnings of the comic book wave of movies we have been able to enjoy now for more than a decade. I even totally fan-boyed over Spiderman 3 despite the rash of hate it got elsewhere on the web. I enjoyed them, and even at my age, seeing the stories I grew up reading come to life has been magical.

I am not alone as the old guy going to these movies, sometimes I will find a nephew or a date that will go, but mostly, these are my escape times, and this last weekend it was great. Because, now, it’s not as much about my childhood comics as those that I found a few years back when I started collecting. Winter Soldier is a fairly recent phenomenon that I discovered when I once again found a comic shop and looked for something to latch onto.

Mostly, I’ve felt like i used to, abused by the comic companies, stringing plots across titles, faking deaths as promos, yeah, they still do that, but the Winter Soldier plotline was a little better than that.http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/25/why-is-the-winter-soldier-cool . That post explains it much better than nI will biother to try, but I caught a lot of what he was talking about when I started following it some years ago. Like Venom in Spiderman, and Phoenix for X-men, these were the plotlines that Marvel really nailed. (Even if they abused the crap out of Phoenix and ultimately drove me away for a decade with the way they dragged that plotline on and on.)

The movie Winter Soldier is still fresh in my mind, I’m sure the luster will wear off, but by that time, the next one will be coming through, along with Guardians of the Galaxy and more Marvel stuff coming out this year. Best of all, and I have not yet even browsed to see what others are saying, is that this really is a set up for what I hope will be the Civil War Plotline coming to the screen.

That alone was the plotline that got me back into the store, after reading a release about it. And it is already being laid out in Winter Soldier.

Cap is questioning things, and nobody is better suited to maneuver Tony Stark through that than Robert Downey Jr. I can see this coming together over the next couple of summers.

Three Reasons Iron Man is Cooler than Spiderman ..

Four Reasons Ironman is cooler than Spiderman and Four Reasons He Isn't - and a tiebreaker.

Now that the initial rush is over, it's time to assess the true validity of Ironman, now a movie star, and while I'm at it, let's compare him to his recent Marvel theater blockbuster counterpart, Spiderman.

In the Marvel series Civil War, Tony Stark and Peter Parker start out being buddies, and Tony trying to turn Peter into a corporate drone. He even started wearing s special Spidersuit that Tony made for him, with all kinds of big brother gadgets. Of course, that didn't last, and they put on a good fight in Amazing Spiderman #535.

In the theaters, despite Iron Man's good numbers so far, Spiderman is the grizzled veteran, with as many good movies made about him, arguably, as Superman. So, who's better?

Iron Man

Cooler Suit - Without this, there is no point in going on, of course he has the cooler suit. And int the Movie, wow, they do a good job with it, there are only a few Power Ranger moments in this movie. Credit better CGI and John Favreau for doing that.

Cooler Actor playing him - Robert Downey acts like he was built for this part, because he's an excellent actor. Still, he's mailed in some performances before, and this time, he just cruised through it. Have fun cashing that bumped up sequel check Robert, and if you're going to go out and do drugs, hire hookers, and trash hotel rooms, go to Amsterdam or somewhere that it's legal. Tobey Maguire was good in the first movie, then seemed more comfortable as the putz under Venom's control than as Peter Parker. Apparently he thinks Parker is just a whiner, and so, he doesn't really get it.

Cooler Life - No denying this either, millionaire playboy vs. struggling string photographer, hands down, Tony Stark wins despite hits for originality, yes, this is Batman, and plot options. Being Tony Stark is a lot more fun than being Peter Parker, at least as people.

Less Convolution in the Script - This goes just for the movie versions. First movies for comic characters are usually the honeymoon. Okay, take the origin, pick your favorite villain, let it roll. It also sets the pace for the rest of the series, but for the one movie, you have only your own picture to speak for, and Iron Man is good, comparable to them all.

Spiderman -
Powers, he has real powers - Everything else aside, Tony takes off that suit, he's just like us, Peter Parker, while wanting to hide his identity, can kick Tony's ass. He is ten times stronger, climbing walls, and in the movies, shooting webbing from his hands. Now that's an advantage!

Villains, he has a full entourage of Villains - of all the superheroes, only Batman's villains rival those of Spiderman. Truly, the Green Goblin, Kingpin, Sandman, Doc Ock, and Venom stack up against anyone. Spidey's writer's, while laying some eggs, have also come up with perfect foils to the Peter Parker persona.

Mary Jane - Okay, they may be apart now, again, but Mary Jane is the pinnacle of Superhero women. Okay, this is the old Mary Ann/Ginger argument, but in this article, Mary Jane outdistances any of the paint in bimbo's that Tony gets hanging around, even Pepper.

The Spiderman Relation to Real Life - Spiderman has been around longer, and popular longer. Iron Man as a superhero has never really been defined too clearly. As a follower of comics through the years, I can definitely picture a Peter Parker walking the streets around me. Tony Stark, well, you can only dream about being that guy.

Tiebreaker - Just not fair to let it end like this, so I'm going to make a call. There is one category, the one which took Spiderman to the movies first, and has him outselling Iron man over the years, Heart. Peter Parker is one of the living metaphors for Heart. Not just for Maty Jane, for his life, for his friends, for the world. This guy lives and dies for the world around him, superpowers and all. In reading or watching Spiderman you should always get the feeling that he would drop it all just to be able to save everyone.

Superman, the Geek Test, and the Big Bang Theory

Comic books are sometimes treated as acid tests for someone's geekiness. And in that regard, I'm a full-blown, throwback geek from the dark ages, golden era if you will, but not in any unhealthy way, so get off me. The funny thing about it, is the way that comics always worm their way into pop culture.

Jerry Seinfeld had a bit of a Superman obsession, his takes with the animated Superman in American Express commercials were hilarious.

This season, a Monday night sitcom called the Big Bang Theory has a bit about Superman and several other geek type exchanges. One was brought up on another blog (thanks for reminding me guys)! They also directed me to the YoutTube clip below.

Even in the down years, when comics weren't selling, and comic book movies were not being made. Marvel comics went bankrupt for a while there, but comics were still there on the periphery of pop culture. As if every grown man had a box of comics stowed away in the back of their closet, along with a baseball card collection, and a dirty magazine collection from their teen years. All of these things were kept quiet, in varying degrees and for different reasons. Mostly, it was just our own thing. Like fight club, you don't talk about it, unless you are in one of the safe places, comic book stores, and now apparently, internet chat room and message boards.

Several things have contributed to comic books rebirth. The movie industry for one and CGI effects making it possible to make real action movies from the comic stories that we all grew up loving without making them look like the Power Rangers. Animation is great, sometimes preferrable to me, but the motion picture versions or these superhero stories brought it all into the mainstream. I think mostly because while most grow out of their desire to read comics, seeing it all in the movie theater and on video can't be passed up.

A couple years ago I read some articles and saw some promos that even took me back to the
comic book store, for a growing habit. Of course, I've covered that already on this blog.

Spiderman Crib Sheet

Spiderman, as one of the brightest stars of the Marvel universe, and maybe having the most to lose by revealing his identity, went through a lot because of Civil War.

The whole thing started with Peter Parker seemingly in the pocket of Tony Stark, depicted as both beneficial, with the new suit stark gave him and it's extra robot arms and sleek colors, to the overwhelming control. Peter was the face of the Superhero registration Act, the lynchpin of the whole plotline, and it started out with him and Iron Man acting like Batman and Robin.

A telling sign that the cooperation would not last was when Peter found tracking and recording bugs in his fancy new suit. Then he fought Captain America, winning by default as Cap had to get away, but webbing Cap's shield where he could retrieve it after he left it behind.

When he went rogue, he took Mary Jane and Aunt May into hiding with him, but before they were completely secure, Aunt May was shot by one of the Kingpin's costumed assassins. Peter was grief-stricken, May was hospitalized under constantly changing aliases as they tried to hide from Iron Man and the government. In the end, Tony Stark personally financed May's medical care, through his butler, but there was nothing they could ultimately do, she was going to die.

The series "One More Day," was Peter trying to find some way to save his Aunt May, and when you run in the circles he has run in, you surely start thinking there is a way around this mortality thing. Nobody could help him, until Mephisto appeared, offering a deal. If Peter were to agree to leave Mary Jane, breaking up what he called "true love", he would restore Aunt May's life.

Mephisto is one of Marvel's versions of the devil. It seems to me that he was the one that brought in the Ghost Rider, but maybe not the father of the former hero they called the Son of Satan. One cool place to find all of those facts out, from far more detail oriented people than me, is the Marvel Comics Database Wiki, one of the places I found to catch myself up.

Mary Jane made the deal for Peter, ending their marriage but making Mephisto agree to several other terms, such as getting Peter out of the jams he was in, mostly from revealing his identity. In the current series, Brand New Day, which may or may not be open ended, everything has changed.

There is a list on the second issue of exactly what happened, but let me put it in a nutshell: Peter is back to living with Aunt May, he never revealed his identity, is not even dating Mary Jane, and is just starting to break the rules against superheroes working without being registered.

Doing this plot turn, around one of the central characters of the whole Civil War saga, is a serious crime against consistency. Really? Making one person forget a secret identity is old hat, but an entire country? It strains the suspension of disbelief.

It was a price they had to pay, somebody had written Spiderman into a corner and he had to get out. If they planned it like they did it, shame on them, but I can accept that they needed to change it up. Peter Parker is essentially living the same five yers of his life over and over, for forty years now, inconsistency might be the rule, not the exception.

It's happened before, more than once. One broken plot string was "The Scarlet Spider," as Marvel tried to find a way to kick start sales for their character back in the 90's. I bought some of these issues, and they are some of the few older comics I have left.

JUST SO NOBODY THINKS I AM DELUSIONAL:
I realize that Marvel is just selling comic books, and have little or no respect for their characters. They will pull nearly any stunt it takes to sell comics and avoid the bankruptcy that they went through in the 90's. I hope they fired the writers who screwed Spidey up this last time and I hope they found someone who can guide his character back to health, of course, ending back up with Mary Jane.

Comic Crib Sheet

I don't think of myself as middle aged, but I am by every definition.
And I don't think of myself as a geek, but here I am writing a blog post about comic books. I also never tire of making light of my own contradictions, or definitions.

All that said, sitting here this evening, I have figured out why I really started this blog, other than a place to eventually show off my cool Ruby comic book Database application.
I can catch everyone up.

I know you're out there, former comic book readers, or casual readers, who every once in a while just want to know what's going on with those characters they grew up with. Unfortunately, like tuning into a soap opera after a couple years and finding out that wait, he's not dead? he's married to..?

here is the crib sheet for comics today:

Captain America, Steve Rogers, died.

Iron Man took over SHIELD, and pretty much the world.

Spider-man and everyone else not rebelling unmasked and registered.

Spiderman broke from the government, became an outlaw, and finally made a deal with the devil. Now he is living as Peter Parker, single, never having revealed his Identity, never having met Aunt May, therefore sparing her life.


Thor has come back from the dead, or wherever immortal Gods go, First thing he did was kick Iron Man's ass for making an android from his DNA and using it in the Civil War.

Bucky is now Captain America.

That's it, I'm trying to keep it short. Also, I don't know what's going on with DC, haven't been sucked back into that vortex, yet.

They Killed Captain America?

This may be old news, but in comic time and plot developments, it is maybe just now time to examine this whole issue. After 8 issues, it is at least not just a cliffhanger trick.
They killed Captain America.
If Civil War, the crossover series and epic marvel tale, did anything, it galvanized Captain America as the hero of heroes. Hell, even the other heroes idolized him, and when he came up against the superhero registration act, well many of the other costumed bunch followed him just because of that. It was one of the most intriguing aspects of the whole series.

And after it was over, when he finally turned himself in, he was killed by an assassin's bullet. Marvel has had little shame exploiting the whole storyline, with many variant and special editions of the issue where it happened, as well as shameless shells of the story published as well. Oddly, it has made Captains America's comic more interesting than I ever remember it, with the cast of characters he left behind.

One character stood out, Bucky, Cap's WW2 sidekick, called Winter Soldier and released from a life of work as an assassin himself and without many of Captain America's inconvenient morals. While everyone else was lamenting their hero's loss, Bucky just went out to kill whoever was responsible.

In the end, he ended back in the custody of Iron Man and SHIELD, unofficially because Iron Man, the image of authoritarianism in the whole Civil War series and now running SHIELD, had a special message and mission for Bucky, Captain America wanted Bucky to carry on his legacy. Anyone who didn't see this coming, even in my scanty recap, raise your hands and go to PBS Kids, otherwise, follow along with me.

Bucky is now Captain America, check him out. I'd review the issue but I am sure others are doing that, I bought it, and enjoyed it, and like the look of the modified Captain America. This may be one of those few gems, this issue, Captain America #34, which you will wish you had bought or kept in 20 years. The comic book lottery ticket, as I call them. It was enough for me to go back and buy the variant cover at the comic store, which I noticed had been turned around and put towards the back of the row on the rack, sure sign that Comic-book guy at the store was thinking as I was.

Comic Obsession - Why?

I have a little bit of a comic problem, I can't quite let them go. I'm not "Comic Book Guy", never was, but I've always gone back to the rack and bought comics, even after managing to kick them for a while.

I am talking about them like an addictive substance, maybe that's a little bit of other parts of my life coming through but it's mostly because the shoe fits. One of the things that irritates me about comics most is the way they constantly mix metaphors. Ha Ha.

Still, I've gotten something from them through the years and have been in line for most of the real attempts at making my old heroes into motion pictures( The Hulk, Elektra and a couple of others don't qualify for me). I've been reading comics since the '70's, with steady gaps in my following back then too. I just can't stick with anything it seems. I had Hulk #182, where Wolverine first appears, had it for years, but when I was ten, I thought it would be cool to cut out the little figure and play with them, yea, I did that. I had the entire first appearance of Venom, and the X-men's when Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Rogue first appeared. Are my geek credentials there for you yet? I had the Joker killing Robin, and Ghost Rider when he was fun.

I had a select set of comics I liked, and followed them semi-constantly over the years, but as a comic fan, eventually you realize they are constantly bending you over. I started getting pissed when Marvel came up with their endless series of crossovers. The first big one was "the Secret Wars," where all the heroes went off to fight and you ended up having to buy extra comics just to follow it. Then, it was the Phoenix saga, recently condensed and made into a movie, which stretched me to my limits on what I would buy and ended just as stupidly as the movie.

That ended it for me with Marvel for a while. I switched to DC, and the Flash, Justice League, Green Lantern, and the big one, Batman. I'd always followed DC a little, but those always seemed like the types of stories that just got churned out. Yea, I know that nearly no comic, and none of the popular ones were any great leaps in story-telling, but they absolutely had their moments. For instance, when Flash went on trial for the alleged murder of one of his villains. And, the Justice League made me laugh out loud on a regular basis.

Then I got tired and dropped out for a long time. Now I'm back.
It all started when I saw an advertisement somewhere about a new crossover, Civil War, from Marvel that promised to deliver real consequences, and set the heroes against each other over a government act for all heroes to register. Yes, it was a rehash of the whole mutants vs. government plots of virtually every X-men title, but only to start. I was prepared to be disappointed, but found my way to the comic book store and began following it.

It wasn't bad, and seeing the heroes I had followed, pitted against each other and showing something resembling real, complicated reactions to the issues. I'm not of the opinion that my superheroes have to have feelings, and almost any time they have tried to mix them into a comic, it's been melodramatic and boring, but it was done well. Well enough to nearly pull me back in.

Add to that they have brought back one of my early favorites, Nova, given him his own comic, and a few new characters that I like, and I am back more than I ever was before. Oddly, maturity has made me more of a comics fan.

I've been collecting comics again now for a couple years, all of them nicely bagged and boxed, and spent a good amount of time this last month building a database and adding them to it.

Then there's the whole deal of starting a blog about it and writing an overly long introductory post.
It's safe to say I'm obsessed.