Currently Reading: Fear Agent Volume 2 My War

Okay yeah the first volume was pretty great. Heath Huston is one of the baddest of asses and it ends on some rather surprising notes, so needless to say I’m really excited to continue on with this series. Thank you, Rick Remender, for never disappointing. 

And now I’ll be back to my hermit mode and read with no connection to the outside world. 

Currently Reading: Fear Agent Volume 1: Re-Ignition

Rick Remender’s creator owned series ended recently, which means it’s about time I got to reading it! Artist and frequent collaborator Tony Moore joins him for this first volume as we meet Heath Huston, an alien exterminator who’s about to get himself involved in something much larger than a simple extermination. I’m quite excited to read the much acclaimed series especially being that I’ve become quite the fan of Remender’s writing. 

Guys, the solicits for Uncanny X-Force in July have been fixed. No worries:

UNCANNY X-FORCE #27 & 28

RICK REMENDER (w) Issue #27 - PHIL NOTO (a) Issue #28 - JULIAN TOTINO TEDESCO (a) CoverS by JEROME OPEÑA

X-Force land themselves somewhere you’ve never seen them. A new member joins the team! Rising star Julian Totino Tedesco (VENOM: CIRCLE OF FOUR, JOHN CARTER GODS OF MARS covers) joins the best creative team in comics for two issues!

So no, DnA aren’t raking over for two issues, and no, those covers weren’t by John Christopher Tyler. Remender is writing as usual, Opena is doing the covers, and we have PHIL NOTO for another issue!

Venom #9-13, 13.4, 14-15 and #12 Variant

Continuing from that last post, 9-12 are the most recently available arc of this series in which I really think the book gets it’s legs. Whereas in the first eight issue we had an intro to the character and everyone else in the book, this is where it all starts tying together. 13, 13.1-.4, and 14 are all part of a six part event starring Red Hulk, X-23, and Ghostrider which will lead into big developments for the series. 

Then we have Flash join the Secret Avengers, and the fallout of that (how he reacts to it) will start in April, which houses both issues #15-16 of the series. 

SO yeah, this is a highly recommended title, and I can’t say anything but that it’s just going to get better. Pick up the first hardcover, pick up some of the issues, just do whatever you can and get into this series because it’s great. 

Recommended series of the day

I’m always going to be the one pushing anything by Rick Remender, whether it be his Punisher run, Uncanny X-Force, the recently started Secret Avengers, or this Venom series. 

Pictured are the first nine issues of the run as well as Amazing Spider-Man #654.1, which features the origin of Flash Thompson as Venom. The symbiote has been extracted from Mac Gargan (who once again becomes the scorpion) and is now being used by the US Government as a weapon for a new black ops soldier program. Flash Thompson, who had previously lost both of his legs in war, was enlisted by the government to take on the symbiote, who would once again give him legs, as well as giving him the abilities of his personal hero; Spider-Man. 

The first five issues follow Flash on a few missions in which we’re introduced to the supporting cast as well as a couple of villains who will plague him throughout the series, mainly the new Jack-O-Lantern. 

One of the most interesting aspects that comes into play, and which you know will wind up going horribly wrong, are all of the rules and regulations placed onto Flash while using the symbiote. If he doesn’t remove it after a certain amount of time it will start attaching itself to him in the same manner that it did to Eddie Brock and to Mac Gargan. He’s also been said to only be able to use this for a total of 20 missions… but we’ll see if that’s really what happens. You know a character with no legs is going to get attached to the fact that he can walk again. 

The second arc involves Flash with the Spider Island event in which he goes head to head with several characters, one of which is Eddie Brock, former Venom and current (at the time) Anti-Venom. 

Overall, the series is a lot of fun, and just as Remender always does, it weaves an intricate plot. Currently the series has 12 issues, and is about to go into a six-part, month long event co-starring Red Hulk, X-23, and Ghost Rider. 

Uncanny X-Force #10-18, The Dark Angel Saga

Covers by Esad T. Ribic

Top 25 Modern Comic Writers - Rick Remender

Recommended Work: 

• Punisher (Dark Reign, Dead End, Franken-Castle, and In the Blood)
• Uncanny X-Force (#1-ongoing)
• Venom (#1-ongoing)
• Secret Avengers (Upcoming, #21.1-ongoing)

Just to spite me, all of a sudden I find that Marvel has an early solicit for the future release of a Punisher Omnibus collecting everything by Rick Remender. Pictured above are the four collected editions (Dark Reign, Dead End, Franken-Castle, and In The Blood) that hold the material within the upcoming omnibus. 

Rick Remender’s Punisher mega-arc is collected into one oversized volume! Frank Castle has dedicated his life to hunting down and killing evil men. So when Norman Osborn becomes the head of US security, the Punisher sets about taking Osborn down. But when his assassination attempt fails, Frank finds himself in Osborn’s crosshairs. The Hood resurrects several longdead super villains and sends them against Frank … but it is the twisted son of Wolverine who manages to kill the Punisher. With his remains stitched back together, the Punisher is reborn as the terrifying Franken-Castle!

COLLECTING: PUNISHER 1-16, ANNUAL 1; DARK REIGN: THE LIST - PUNISHER; FRANKEN-CASTLE 17-21; DARK WOLVERINE 88-89; PUNISHER: IN THE BLOOD 1-5

According to Amazon, the book is due out mid-July of next year. There’s also a Secret Warriors Omnibus due out around the same time that has all 28 issues of that series, plus the Dark Reign: The List one-shot and the Siege one-shot as well as a couple of Mighty Avengers issues. 

Thanks for screwing with me, Marvel, and releasing a Punisher Omnibus of the stuff I just started collecting >=[

CURRENTLY READING - PUNISHER: DEAD END

I’ve read Frankencastle twice through, but actually never picked up Remenders two prior stories, so now I’m basically going backwards and reading his second book after his third… 

I’m half through and so far it’s pretty good stuff, but mostly humorous “I’m Punisher and I’m just going to kill the crap out of all of you” stuff. Story premise: D-List villains from the past are raised by the Hood to take out Frank Castle, and now he’s fighting through them all. Plus there’s an Annual attached to the book that has Punisher and Spider-Man do stuff together, and that should be fun.

Tan Eng Huat, who did much of Jason Aaron’s Ghost Rider, is responsible for the main stories art, and he actually does better than what I’ve seen of him before, so it’s actually not a bad book to look at. Jason Pearson does the annual, so that should be even more fun with him in there. Pearson FTW.

RICK REMENDER BIBLIOGRAPHY

Marvel:

• Punisher

1. Punisher War Journal volume 2 (#19-25)
2. Punisher volume 8 (#1-21, Annual #1, Dark Reign: The List - Punisher)
3. Punisher: In the Blood (#1-5)

• Doctor Voodoo: Sorcerer Supreme (#1-5)
• Uncanny X-Force (#1-)
• Venom (#1-)
• Secret Avengers (#22-)
• Various:

1. What If? Featuring Age of Apocalypse
2. Wolverine: Purity
3. Dark Reign: The Cabal
4. Thunderbolts #137
5. Age of Heroes #1
6. Deadpool #1000
7. 1 Month 2 Live #2
8. Venom/Deadpool: What If?

DC:

• The All-New Atom: Small Wonder (#21-25)
• Booster Gold #13-14

Image:

• Sea of Red #1-13
• Strange Girl #1-18
• Fear Agent #1-32 (also with Dark Horse)
• Doll and Creature #1-4
• The Last Christmas #1-5
• Sorrow #1-4
• XXXombies #1-4
• Various:

1. 24Seven - I love Living in the City
2. Put the Book Back on the Shelf - Nice Day for a Sulk
3. Popgun - The Death of the Midnight Sky
4. Frank Frazetta’s Creatures

Dark Horse:

• The Man With the Screaming Brain #1-4
• Fear Agent #1-32 (also with Image Comics)
• The End League #1-9
• Gigantic #1-5

Other:

• Kieron Dwyer’s LCD #1-3
• More Fund Comics - Black Heart Billy: Anti-Fashion
• TMNT - The Worms of Madness, and Loops
• Night Mary #1-5
• Classic Battlestar Galactica #1-5
• Red Sonja: Vacant Shell
• The Corps #0
• The Last Days of American Crime #1-3

I’ve only got Frankencastle, Uncanny X-Force, and Venom of Remenders, though I do plan on getting his Secret Avengers as well, but that shows me that I should really get some of his other stuff…

I’d first like to get the rest of his Punisher material as well as Doctor Voodoo, and then Fear Agent, which actually ends this week. Then I’ll branch out. 

populationgo:

Recently it’s been announced that Rick Remender will be joining forces with Rob Williams (Ghost Rider) and Jeff Parker (Hulk, Thunderbolts) to bring a Venom-centric event that will span across six issues. The best part? Tony Moore returns to the interior art.

Read more after the break!

Read More

So this seems like it’ll be really damn awesome, but I don’t exactly like the idea that I have to buy four extra issues (at least they’re not from other series, though, so it’s all in the family). 

BUT TONY MOORE.

Venom #1 is out today!

Rick Remender and Tony Moore team up again to show us what happens when an American hero, Flash Thompson, takes on the role of Superhero, using the famed alien symbiote that has been so villainous in its past. 

I’ll be reviewing this issue after reading it for Population GO, so look out for that!

New series launches in March written by Remender with art by Tony Moore.

Safe to say I’ll be buying in.

Now, I don’t usually do reviews like this, but this issue was such a pleasant surprise for me yesterday that I felt like I needed to share. 

First of all let me give a little background on the series: The series acts as a new volume of the X-Force book, the last of which was written by Chris Yost and Craig Kyle with art by Clayton Crain. Initially the book was praised as one of the best of Marvel, and one of the most violent, however, due to being dumbed down by cross-overs and event books the quality soon took a dive for the worse. The series started with a good, uninterrupted, twelve issue run, and then we got stuck in a crossover with Cable, called the Messiah War, and after another good four issue arc we were pulled straight into the Necrosha event, and then directly into the Second Coming crossover, until the series ended. There was also a three issue mini called “X-Force: Sex and Violence” which was said to have been pretty decent.

With such a bumpy track record the idea of forming a new team seemed like a hit or miss. The premise is that after the Second Coming event Logan and Warren Worthington III (Angel/Archangel) decided to reform the black-ops team behind Cyclops’ back, so what happened was the best band of violent people they could get their hands on. Wolverine, Archangel, Psylocke, Deadpool, and Fantomex. 

Initial response would be “Oh no, not another Deadpool book…” but trust me, the character is handled with skill, and care. And he isn’t the only one. Just after one issue I’ve seen Angel treated better than I ever have before, and Fantomex is even more wonderful than I remember him from Morrison’s run on New X-Men where he created the character. 

So Remender’s writing is pretty much pitch perfect, giving great characterization to each character on the team, but that’s not the only great part about the book: Jerome Opena’s art is some of the best I have seen in a while. I was blown away, visually and by the story, and the series is truly a breath of fresh air. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to find a good X-Book at this time, but Remender and Opena totally remedied that belief with something fun, smart, interesting, and beautiful. 

I cannot recommend this book more, and if you are a fan of the characters present then that is even better. Pick it up, enjoy it, and join me in waiting for next months issue on the edge of my seat.