Radio Silence for a While

Hi folks,

You've no doubt noticed that the Blog has been a bit quiet of late. While I've still been tweeting periodically the actual content here has been somewhat sporadic.

As many of you will know around this time last year I was diagnosed with Cancer in one of my kidneys. I had some surgery, which went well, and then began on a period of chemotherapy. That took more out of me than I expected. There's a good few Blog post drafts on here that got started, but just never got finished off. I continued to work throughout that chemotherapy, and often at the end of a day I just didn't have the energy to finish off a post I started, sadly. So while I did have things to say on subjects like S.T.R.I.K.E. appearing in Fear Itself, the cancellation of Alpha Flight or Captain Britain joining the Secret Avengers they've gone unsaid.

For now, anyway.

Unfortunately, later on today, I shall be going back into hospital. I've got to have a bit more surgery, sadly. There's couple of leftover bits of cancer, tiny little things, which grew very slightly despite the chemotherapy. They need removing. I'll then be embarking on six months worth of more aggressive chemotherapy in order to finally clear this out of my system.

Hopefully by September/October time everything will be returning to normal.

For the next week I'll very much be off the radar, in a hospital ward, and without internet access. Which is probably for the best. I don't foresee a combination of me, morphine and the ability to Tweet ending in anything other than trouble... And I'll probably be a little bit quiet for a while afterwards.

In the meantime, if you're curious about my progress, I'm sure that (and I'm very proud to now be calling her my Wife :) ) @need_a_username will post the odd update about me on Twitter.

It's going to be another tough year. But by the end of it I'm sure it will all be worthwhile.

Until the Next Time...

Mark (The Sword is Drawn)

Moonlighting...

Quick Plug Time...

I've been a little busy this past week (Hence no update on here) but I was very kindly asked to do a few mini reviews for the Forbidden Planet International Blog . Not for anything Marvel related, but actually for titles from the Distinguished Competition, and their New 52 relaunch.

Yes. I do actually read books outside of Marvel. I'm very sorry if this shocks some of you... :)

So, if you're in any way interested to hear my thoughts on the relaunches of Stormwatch, Action Comics or Justice League International then you could do a lot worse than hopping over to their site right now.

Thanks very much.

Mark

(Sword)

Panel Beatings: What's in a Name?

From: Dark Guard #1 (Oct 1993)

Words: Dan Abnett
Art: Carlos Pacheco

A 'Commonwealth of Heroes' - From Fan Expo Canada...

Yeah, not exactly a BIG story this one, but something which was spotted scrolling through Newsarama's coverage of Fan Expo Canada this weekend. More specifically the Fear Itself panel.

Anybody who follows me on Twitter will probably already know about my very mixed feelings over Fear Itself as an Event (And its vague claim to be a World Wide Event, almost exclusively localised to North America), but it's often the fallout period from Marvel's big summer Events which the company uses as a launchpad to try new things, and launch new properties. So, it's always worth a look in to see if an obscure character or two might be getting an outing.

It had already been announced at Fan Expo Canada (And frankly what more logical place) that the recent Fred van Lente, Greg Pak, and Dale Eaglesham Alpha Flight limited series was going to be made into an ongoing series. According to Newsarama, at the Fear Itself panel:

Alpha Flight’s Fred Van Lente appeared as well, to great applause from the Toronto audience, and said that the team will next have to deal with being a group of renegades of sorts. He also mentioned their involvement in the Commonwealth of Heroes — it seems Canada isn’t the only non-American team that Marvel wants to talk about. Expect Captain Britain, Taskmaster, and Wolverine to appear in the book's pages soon.

A Commonwealth of Heroes? Okay. Colour me interested. It's hardly a new Excalibur or MI13 series, but any use of Captain Britain in Marvel's greater shared universe is a good thing in my book. Just to remind people they're still out there...


And of course, Marvel acknowledging that the Avengers aren't the ONLY superhero team in their Universe is a bonus, also. :)


Exactly what this 'Commonwealth' will mean (Tongue in cheek or deadly serious) we'll have to wait and see. Keep an eye out for this one. I know I will.


UPDATE: Wait! There's more! Courtesy of Comic Book Resources, an interview with Pak and Van Lente provides us with the following:

What about heroes from other continents? Will they become involved? It seems like another major government-sponsored superteam, England's MI-13, would be especially interested by what's going on in Canada.

Van Lente: Captain Britain and MI-13 will play a role in this series. There's a little organization that's existed for years in the Marvel Universe, but no one has really paid that much attention to it. It's called the Commonwealth Heroes. We're going to be introducing them in future issues of "Alpha Flight." We'll see how Alpha Flight reacts to being a member of a "super" superteam formed from the superhero teams of all these different countries, and the insanity will get ratcheted up even further.

So yes, that would certainly suggest that we're talking about an actual organisation of Superheroes from across sections of the Globe, coordinating efforts, or at least sharing common information and goals. I like this idea. It'll be interesting to see where they go with it...

Panel Beatings: Killpower meets The Hulk...

From: The Incredible Hulk (vol 1) #409 (September 1993)

Words: Peter David
Art: Gary Frank

Panel Beatings: Not a Wizened Monk, that's for sure...

From: Battletide #1 (Dec 1992)

Words: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art: Geoff Senior

Captain Britain to be part of an Avengers team. No. Really, this time.

Yes. I know that we've been here before. With Steve Rogers even offering Brian a place on the Avengers, and his accepting...

Yeah.

I know.

But this time the promise has come from none other than Tom Brevoort. I promise I'm not stalking Tom (No. Genuinely not. Honest). But following on from questions asked on Mr Brevoort's Formspring last week, others have been a bit more direct in trying to pin down info on where we'll be seeing Captain Britain next.

Well... that may be a one word answer. But potentially a rather good one word answer. With Brian's Avengers status having been left hanging for so long it seems that we might finally be getting an answer. Which Avengers title, and under what circumstances? Well, we'll have to wait and see.

I've long since protested that Captain Britain is a sound choice for Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Near limitless strength, an ability to see magical hexes as physical manipulatable objects, and a practical scientific knowledge of interdimensional travel and how to achieve it. And of course he makes any such Avengers team a bit more International. Which can only be a good thing.

Not sure when "SOON" will be, obviously. But I will say it's great to see quite so many people asking Mr Brevoort about Brian. Last year that would probably have just been me. :)

Marvel's a bit clogged up news wise right now, with Fear Itself, its aftermath, the new X-Men line-ups. But I'm sure we'll find out where Brian fits sooner or later.

I'll keep 'em peeled...

Panel Beatings: Show Yourself!

From: Originally printed in The Daredevils #1 (January 1983). This coloured version from X-Men Archives: Captain Britain #2 (August 1995)

Words: Alan Moore
Art: Alan Davis

We WILL be seeing Captain Britain again shortly, and Clan Destine next year.

It's been quite a while since we last saw Captain Britain in current continuity. I mean Steve Rogers even offered him membership of The Avengers last year, but nothing really came of that.

We have been very lucky recently that Rob Williams has been incorporating him in his mini event The Iron Age, in which there is an excellent story revisiting Cap during the famous Jaspers Warp storyline by Alan Moore and Alan Davis (And a little bit from Dave Thorpe too). But that has been a retro appearance. I think many of us had been worrying that both he and MI13 had been forgotten.

Well, luckily that seems to be changing...

The following question recently was asked and answered on Tom Brevoort's Formspring account:

Well, that sounds promising. Any appearance would be great after all this time. However, I think a few people were a little concerned that Mr Brevoort's comment may be in reference to The Iron Age, which obviously is still in progress. So, another poster queried that recently:

So, there you have it. And if Tom Brevoort is willing to go on the record to say something really IS going to happen this time, it's going to happen.

The only questions are how, when and where. So keep an eye out for that.

There's also a bit of an update this week on a project I've actually been following 2008. Some longer standing reader will remember that a few years back Alan Davis announced that while Marvel would not be continuing with his ClanDestine series in a traditional form he was going to continue the story of the Destine family in the form of a series of Annuals. Well, after that last post I put up on this it all went a bit quiet again. Alan Davis was being given other projects at Marvel, and it seemed those annuals had to go on the back burner for a while.

Until now.

In this week's Comic Book Resources column with new Marvel Editor in Chief, Axel Alonso, the following little titbit pops up:

Finally, Colduo is looking for some news on a favorite Marvel creator. "I have just picked up the Killraven mini series that Alan Davis did a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed it, great story. It reminded me of how much I enjoy his work and the fantastic talent he is. Are there any plans for Alan to have him write and draw another mini-series? Anything would be great especially anything with Captain Britain or Clandestine?"

Alonso: I'll turn this one over to the dulcet tones of Tom Brevoort. I've gotta get my hair done.

Tom Brevoort: It's a good time to be an Alan Davis fan, Colduo! Not only has Alan illustrated "X-Men: Schism" #4, the climactic issue of that mutant-dividing series, not only will he be joining Ed Brubaker for a storyline in "Captain America" in a few short months, but Alan has also written and illustrated a trio of connected Annuals that will be hitting the stands in January and February! They feature, respectively, the FF, Daredevil and Wolverine, and while each one can be read individually, they also connect to one another to form a larger mosaic. And Alan's ClanDestine characters play a major role in all three stories, which together serve to reveal one of the most long-wondered secrets in the Clan's recorded history: what became of Vincent?

 That final snippet, once again, coming from Tom Brevoort. So January 2012 is the time. And you heard it, we're finally going to find out what happened with Vincent. I honestly cannot wait. It's been a long time coming.