Lately I’ve been rocking Marvel’s new Dr. Voodoo series. I’m a sucker for all the old Marvel horror/supernatural characters. I just recently managed to complete my Werewolf By Night collection including the hard to find (and hard to afford) coveted first appearance in Marvel Spotlight #2! But I digress the subject here is Dr. Voodoo AKA Brother Voodoo as he was better known from his first appearances in the early ’70′s Strange Tales issues 169 & 170:

Brian Michael Bendis modernized the character somewhat recently in the pages of New Avengers. Jericho Drumm got promoted to Doctor Voodoo (oddly enough that is what Roy Thomas originally called the character when he brought the concept to Stan Lee but Stan said no -BROTHER VOODOO!). According to Bendis’s story Dr. Strange “fell from grace” and the Eye of Agammato had to choose a new Sorcerer Supreme. After a lot of flying around looking at possible candidates (including among others Dr. Doom and Daimon Hellstrom the Son of Satan) Jericho Drumm was chosen. So he got a cool amulet, scarlet cloak of levitation, a black body suit and a creepy staff with attached dangling shrunken heads to go along with the upgraded nomenclature. Speaking of the creepy staff -get this -the heads SCREAM crazy unpronounceable stuff at his opponents when he uses it’s dark mojo! Awesome!

Art by Jefte Palo from Doctor Voodoo #1.

Shortly after the events in the pages of New Avengers he got his own book. I’ve read the first 3 issues now and I’m really loving it. It’s creepy and dark but it does have that goofy old school Marvel fun to it that always sucks me right in. Unfortunately these odd ball decidedly NON-main stream comics tend to not make it very long and get canceled after 12 or 14 issues (see Blade’s last series). I really hope Dr. Voodoo Avenger of the Supernatural is the exception to this rule . So please do pick it up if you like great Marvel horror books.

I made this widescreen wallpaper from the cover of issue 2 (art by Marko Djurdjevic). Click the thumbnail below for a full-size 1920×1200 version. Or click here for a 1680×1050 version.

A few of my hopes for Marvel in 2010:

1) I REALLY wanna see Norman Osborn get his ass kicked. He needs to go down and go down HARD. As fun as the past year of comics has been I am soooo ready for the good guys to WIN.

2) The Mouse should stay out of the House. I hope Disney stays out of the editorial & creative side of Marvel comics.

3) Dark Avengers should be canceled right after Osborn’s incarceration/death.

4) I’d like to see Dark Wolverine, Wolverine Weapon X and Wolverine: Origins be rolled into ONE Wolverine book called “Wolverine”….this would be a MONTHLY book and would start with an issue number around 400 or 500 or so (it would absorb all the issue numbers of all previous and current Wolverine comics). I KNOW they won’t really combine all those books but I would like to see Weapon X and Origins combined into one book titled “Logan” & the regular Wolverine book does need it’s issue number count to return to “normal” (300+ by now). Obviously my math needs checked here but you get the idea.

5) Skaar please GO AWAY. Talk about wearing out one’s welcome! I was with Greg Pak all through Planet Hulk. That was some GOOD STUFF right there. But Skaar needs to leave Incredible Hulk alone. PLEASE return Banner-Hulk! We need him! Skaar is a soulless unrepentant MONSTER. We have enough of those in real life. We need a HERO.

My tenth favorite series of 2009 is Darkhorse’s Conan. Darkhorse is doing a GREAT job with all the Robert E. Howard properties. It’s been great all the way through. Many were worried about what would happen with this series after writer Kurt Busiek left. Tim Truman has done a good job filling those BIG shoes. The art by Tomás Giorello is terrific and gives the book a real Frazetta-Fantasy feel. Another highlight of 2009 was the arc by the legendary artist Richard Corben. FANTASTIC.

Number nine is Marvel’s Thor series. We waited and waited and waited for Thor to return after it was canceled a few years ago. With the superb writing of J. Michael Straczynski the wait was definitely worth it. Too bad with the upcoming Siege universe wide event Straczynski is gone from the book and Marvel it seems. I’m still not convinced his costume needed a makeover (does the god of thunder really need chain-mail?) but I can live with it.

Number eight is Wolverine Weapon X. With the “main” Wolverine title taken over by Daken “the Dark Wolverine” for many fans Jason Aaron is writing the “real” flagship Wolverine book right here. This has been a near perfect take on the character and it doesn’t hurt having artist Ron Garney doing what is arguably his best work ever.

Number seven is Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Season Eight). Buffy creator Joss Whedon continued the TV show as a comicbook and it is an absolute joy to read. With great art by Georges Jeanty and a rotating crew of excellent writers (mostly from the show) this just couldn’t be any better.

Matt Fraction’s Iron Man has been a consistent must read all year. This book featuring the wonderful art of Salvador Larroca would be perfect to show a non-comic reader as an example of just how GREAT a super-hero comic can be.

Super-star writer Brian Michael Bendis teams up with former Alias artist Alex Maleev for this darkly moody super-hero sci-fi spy thriller. It just doesn’t get much better than this!

I was prepared to hate this book, I really was. I HATE the idea of these twisted psychos using the names of my beloved Avengers. Bullseye is NOT Hawkeye. Venom is NOT Spider-Man! And yet I can’t stop reading this stuff. It’s been fun and fascinating watching Norman Osborn’s madness play out, but surely this series HAS to end shortly after Siege completes?

Ultimate Spider-Man continues to entertain despite the crazy “restructuring” of the Ultimate Universe. I thought I might actually drop the book after Mark Bagley left. But I kept reading and was glad for it. It’s funny, charming and action-packed. It quite simply NEVER disappoints.

Brian Michael Bendis tore the Avengers apart and remade them using a combination of his own personal favorites (Luke Cage, Spider-Woman) and Marvel Mainstream heavy hitters (Spider-Man, Wolverine)…and somehow it just worked. Now 60+ issues later it STILL works. I LOVE this book.

It’s hard to believe a Captain America comic could be this intriguing without Steve Rogers….and for quite a while there it had NO Captain America either! But this book has been a non-stop action thriller thanks to the fantastic writing and twisted plots of writer Ed Brubaker.

So there it is -my Top Ten of 2009. Agree? Disagree? Make your case by hitting the comment link.

American Cancer Society

&

Make a Wish Foundation

I finally got a chance to see Marvel’s new Incredible Hulk movie. It was great. Finally we can all forget about the mediocre at best Ang Lee Hulk movie from 2003. This one stars Edward Norton as Banner and the always delightful Liv Tyler as Betty Ross. Edward Norton is quite convincing in a restrained but intense performance that does remind me a bit of the Bill Bixby TV version (and that’s NOT a bad thing).

Liv Tyler is fantastic in pretty much everything I’ve ever seen her in and this is no exception.

The Hulk himself is all CGI…and it WORKS. Early trailers had a lot of folks (myself included) a little worried that it looked too much like CGI. It appears the rumors about them going back over it all and subtly altering the skin tones and such were correct as the final footage is fabulous. They even got the Hulk’s size correct. Just look at this:

PERFECT! Now THAT’s the Hulk! The Hulk is NOT a 20 foot Mighty Joe Young as the Ang Lee version seemed to suggest in some scenes.

And YES you DO finally get to hear the Hulk say: “HULK SMASH!”

As great as the Hulk footage and battles are the love story aspect of Betty and Bruce is not neglected either. The scene where they embrace in the rain is particularly touching and memorable.

This Hulk movie has it all and I really couldn’t be happier with it. There are even a few unexpected nods to the Hulk TV series:
-the piano refrain bits in the soundtrack
-Bill Bixby in footage from Eddie’s Father
-Lou Ferrigno as a security guard (didn’t he do that in the Ang Lee one too?)

There is a bit at the end just before the credits roll (which I won’t reveal here for the few unspoiled) that further builds upon the Marvel Film Universe connecting this movie with another Marvel hit (not too vague am ?). Love it.

Lastly I should mention that bit at the very beginning of all these Marvel Movies where the animation flips through some comic book pages –for a lifelong Marvel fanatic like me that is very nearly a religious experience. This is a GREAT time to be a Marvel fan!

As bad as that omission is my main beef with the transformation is three-fold:

1) They chose NOT to import any old posts! WTF?????????

2) They chose NOT to import any of previous members account info. This means our post count & original join date are DELETED and reset to ZERO.

3) Now here is the biggest insult to injury. Now I could easily live with point #2 except for this:

If you have a forum account with OTHER Imaginova “communities” like for instance space.com or livescience.com you can stay logged in and participate on Newsarama’s new comic message boards. This means you can have a 2005 (or earlier) join date with 20,000+ post while posting on Newsarama. WTF?? Who thought THIS affront was a Good Idea?????????????

So as far as I’m concerned Imaginova ruined Newsarama. And although the new site LOOKS great it’s rapidly looking less and less like a Comic News site with the front page full of articles about non comic related movies like Kung Fu Panda. Whatever.

I will certainly miss Matt Brady, Vaneta Rogers and the gang but for now I’ll be spending more time with the competition over at Comic Book Resources.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment….

and The Daily Cross Hatch has an interview with Gerard Way posted here:

http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2008/05/13/….

Last weekend my Father-In-Law gave me a big stack of Silver-Age comics for my birthday. Among them was this odd gem from 1964. Apparently it’s fairly rare as it doesn’t seem to be listed anywhere in ComicBase. of course I DO plan to add it. Anyway I thought this was good timing falling into my hands during this awful election year. Is there some special meaning here for all of us?

WOW! I finally got a chance to read the conclusion to Annihilation Conquest. The art above is from issue #6. This has been a great series and the art team of Tom Raney, Scott Hanna and Frank D’Armata was just flawless. Everything shimmered, glowed and crackled. With visuals like that one seems to HEAR the sounds of the various lasers & cosmic energy bolts. What a fun read. If you haven’t been picking up Marvel’s Nova & the Annihilation minis go get ‘em! And the new Guardians of the Galaxy is coming soon. Cosmic Marvel hasn’t been this good in years!

Click here for a 1.7 meg 1680×1050 widescreen wallpaper version of the above scan.