Showing posts with label free comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free comics. Show all posts

Tuesday, 28 October 2014

This Week in Free Comics (28/10/14) - Comixology Declares Civil War!

With the recent announcement of the slate of films surrounding Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Three, it's no surprise that, seven years later (and counting), Marvel will create a new wave of hype around the Civil War narrative. The 2006-07 event concerned the battle between government and costumed superhero (manifested as the Superhero Registration Act, SHRA for short), and led to a division between heroes that resulted in the death of Captain America. Marvel's new Comixology freebies are quite handy, as rather than serving as an introduction to the much-publicised, controversial event series (written by multi-talented Mark Millar of Kick-Ass), it's an introduction to the tie-in books which created a much larger universe than is hinted at in that seven issue series. Sounds a pretty sweet deal to me!


Personally, I would say that the Front Line tie-in stands out the most and as the most original. Although some readers might prefer the superhero perspective, what Front Line does is it removes itself from the physical 'front line' of war and places it within the media's 'front line' of newspaper representation of the events, as conducted through the Daily Mail and our (vastly underated) protagonist of Phil Urich - which is an especially crucial element within modern society. I definitely understand why some might prefer not to read the more political perspective, but especially with the outstanding writing by Paul Jenkins, it's worth checking out. There's back-up stories, including a five-page one in each issue which juxtaposes the superhero Civil War against a real-world conflict. In this case, it's the American internment camps during the 1940s which held prisoner to Japanese American citizens. It's grouped together with an anonymous poem written in 1943. It's not very relevant to the Civil War storyline at all, but if one ignores Spider-Man's presence to the right of each panel, it's a moving piece of American history drawn by Kei Kobayashi which really receives no attention.

Fantastic Four is probably the least-useful of the tie-ins, as ASM spotlights Peter and Tony's partnership, whilst New Avengers shifts its focus to Captain America (the cover star), a perspective not really covered within the tie-ins in the Captain America, which looked more at the wider cast of Sharon Carter and Bucky.

Sunday, 1 June 2014

This Week in Free Comics

Marvel Unlimited

I can't find any on this story, or even a #1. Somewhere, in a dusty Kiehl's store in New York, someone will be reading that #1 and telling me why I myself, over in the UK, need to buy anti-aging cream. It reunites The Winter Soldier team of Cap/Falcon/Widow, because movie synergy guys. Kiehl's did another Marvel Custom story a year or two back (which seemed to think Cap's origin was in 1943, because movie synergy guys), but that seems to have disappeared from the internet. It's standard Marvel Custom fare, but the art's decent enough; it kind of reminds me of the more recent Secret Avengers in its style.
It's another Infinity tie-in, but the fact is, it's always great to see some more of Kid Gladiator.

Comixology
I actually missed FCBD because on the day itself, I kept on bumping into friends, so when I finally managed to get to my local comic store at 2pm, all they had left were Donald Duck reprints; so it's good to see Comixology putting this stuff out there for those that missed it or digital only people, if a couple of weeks late.

The Guardians story is just exposition. There's some OK moments; some amusing anecdotes, but the fact of the matter is that it's just Tony Stark informing Flash Thompson (and the reader) who the Guardians are. The art's OK but not brilliant.

Rocket Raccoon was fun - and it looks like it takes place during the DnA era, judging by costumes (Yay!), although half of the issue is devoted to an Ultimate Spider-Man story I didn't read.
The 2005 limited series, not the original series.
  • Comixology are doing an iTunes 12 Days of Christmas sort of thing, where they're offering a free comic a day to herald the start of the summer. So far we've had 6 days of an issue from the acclaimed story Batman: The Black Mirror, along with some Dynamite, BOOM! and Valiant series, and MLP from IDW. It's good to see some more niche titles being given wider publicity through this; you can sign up for daily email notifications too. The whole thing puts me in the mood for frappes, iced drinks and ice cream...

Thursday, 22 May 2014

Free Comics: More Number Ones! More Number Ones!

As with last week, it looks like Marvel Unlimited are shifting from a focus on synergy (Silver Surfer to tie-in with Dan Slott's new series; a bunch of Captain America and Winter Soldier issues; a great selection of Spider-Man) to the coveted number one.

After over a year, Marvel have revamped the Get Started With Free Issues section on their site to a wider selection of issues, ranging from classics like 1602 and Marvels, mid-2000s works like Runaways, She-Hulk and Young Avengers, and naturally a number of Marvel NOW! titles as well. It's good to see an update; its previous spatterings of Heroes Return perhaps wasn't best representative of Marvel's output, and it's good to see the added diversity here too. Keep note there are some issues on the site: Captain Marvel links to the most recent volume, whilst Daredevil's page is empty (although they both work on the app.)

I've basically all of the issues before in their 'Marvel 700' offer back in 2012, but it's a good selection.

Not listed on the site is the finale of Dennis Hopeless' Battle Royale send-up, Avengers Arena #18.

Captain America and the First Thirteen #1 and Amazing Spider-Man #41 remain up.

Also, on a personal note: as my AS exams finish this week, I'll be able to keep up with the blog a little more regularly over the next two weeks. I've had some posts on Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 drafted but not finished, so I'll see about posting them within the next couple of days.

Now, how's about we get some free Claremont X-Men? Anyone?

Friday, 16 May 2014

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

This Week in Free Comics (13/05/14)


Marvel Unlimited
There's people who read this series?
Hello, minimalist film poster.
Not only do we have another series which adds only "Last Stand" to the title (not a good sign), but it might not be a double negative, but jeez... that title is ugly. Cataclysm is one word too many.

Marvel Unlimited are also offering Amazing Spider-Man (volume 3) #1, including production drawings and everything, free to new Unlimited subscribers through their Comixology site with the code PARKER14.

Monday, 28 April 2014

This Week in Free Comics (29/04/14) - 'Battle of the Atom' and 'Arms of the Octopus'

Marvel Unlimited

Overall, we have a number of partially completed series:

Battle of the Atom


The Arms of the Octopus
Infinity
Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #3 and #5

Comixology 


Comixology have also issued $5 free credit to anyone who has previously bought comics on the app, in light of the changes to their iTunes and Android app (they no longer accept iTunes or Google Play Credit.) Pretty good, especially for 99c sales where the credit divides (just about) equally. (The credit expires on 25th May.)

Monday, 14 April 2014

This Week in Free Comics (15/04/14) - A Whole Bunch of Meh

(Note: Apologies for not updating recently, but I've been busy. I've worked on the notes for Winter Soldier today, so those will be up next week. As I'll be in Amsterdam for the next few days, I won't be able to post anymore; so I'm putting this up in advance just with stuff from Marvel Unlimited.)

After All-New X-Men last week, we get the second part of The Arms of the Octopus. It's OK, but nothing special. The trade is available pretty cheaply anyway, bemusingly paired with the tritest $3.99 comic of last year: Wolverine: In the Flesh, something which I'm pretty sure would have been literally free a few years ago.
It's a photocomic. And I thought that was the realm of Tokyopop. One would expect that taking stills from an animated show would be ideal in a, you know, stylised comic book. You can tell they're screengrabs.

Is anyone even watching this show anyway? I'm pretty sure Ultimate Spider-Man is miles ahead of this.

Early in this series, Marvel were actually pretty cool. What we essentially got was an anthology of neat little vignettes, telling tales from Peter's/Spidey's life perhaps a little better than the TV series itself.

It's a photocomic.

We have DVR's, iTunes, iPads, DVDs, the marvel.com website, even... is there anyone who actually buys this stuff? To place TV on paper is simply archaic. The panel design is a lot more dynamic than with Agents of S.M.A.S.H., but if you've seen the episode, there's literally no need to read it. (I guess it's a viable alternative to watching the episode.)

Wednesday, 9 April 2014

This Week in Free Comics (08/04/14) - Captain America!

This week, we get a bunch of issues exploring a few sources of inspiration for The Winter Soldier: Steve's first meeting with Sharon Carter (also the first appearance of Batroc the Leaper, #75); Falcon's first appearance (#110), but also several other monumental occassions in the Captain America canon: alternative versions of the role: the second Bucky (or, following retcons, the fourth), Rick Jones (#110, an issue beautifuly drawn by Jim Steranko); Nomad, Steve's brief identity during the Nixon era (as the issue opens, "Captain America lies behind him [Steve Rogers] in the rubble that is politics, 1974..., #180); John Walker, Super-Patriot/The Captain, who takes up the role after Steve refuses to serve as Captain America on an official capacity (#332); his death in the 1990s (#445); and also his more recent death and rebirth, with Bucky taking up the mantle: #25, #600 and Rebirth #1. 

We also see some origin tales: #255, a revision of events of 1940 from Stern/Byrne's infamous run; Captain America Comics #1, the hilariously 1940s version of events; Avengers #4, which brought Steve two decades forward in time into the modern era. I've been reading some early DC stuff recently on Comixology, namely the origins of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. The comics of that era were a special breed: pre-Comics Code violence, fonts used in dialogue which should adorn posters, not speech, and an art style which is strangely unrefined. Perhaps not to be read for more serious reading - but merely affectionately; a point of comparison to how books have changed from 60 page anthologies to modern epics by Brubaker and co.

Jack Kirby's lackluster 1975 return (#193); the recently resurrected limited series, Living Legend (originally supposed to be released in 2011 as Astonishing Captain America, with stunning art by Adi Granov); that time Cap ran for presidency (#250), which has become a recent sticking point in the Ultimate universe, and his first solo appearance in Tales of Suspense (the Iron Man story is also there), are included here as well as two OK relaunches: 1996's Heroes Reborn and Remender's Castaway in Dimension Z arc in the most recent volume.

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

This Week in Free Comics (01/04/14)

Perhaps Comixology are fooling us, because their offerings this week are light to say the least.

Silver Surfer Infinite Comics #1

This is such an improvement on last week. It's a great (full length) story from the Point One issue, reads kinetically in the Infinite Comics format (or, as Bleeding Cool call it, 'decampi',) and I am engaged with Allred's pop art aesthetic and Slott's narrative ideas beginning to form.

Sure, the Doctor Who parallels are obvious. A lonely figure who can transverse the stars using an abstract, everyday object, joined by a young female companion in her 20s. We join them in media res, just as we joined the Doctor and Susan in An Unearthly Child. (Most Doctor/companion teams, we are able to see the roots of their friendship. Here, we are introduced to Dawn Greenwood in the midst of their travels.) The Surfer, our main protagonist, makes a conscious choice to land on an alien planet; the 'bigger picture' of space seems replaced with fun adventures.

But as a device to entice new readers? It's such a great idea: give them something free which tells a full story, acting as a sample without losing money but probably getting more attention. (A $6 book, by the way, is far from a sample: it's an annual.)

Marvel Unlimited

Nova #8

Another Infinity tie-in.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #3

Meh, the art's pretty.

The Trial of the Punisher #1 (of 2)

A limited series from 6 years ago finally reaching print. It's good, let me tell you that. Any modern Punisher fan, I direct you to this book. Guggenheim should keep writing comics; Francis Yu should definitely continue to draw them. It's a 23 page book (haven't heard that in a while) which takes longer to read than a 23 page book usually does. (This is a good thing.) I don't know if it will be collected in trade given the story length, but I recommend checking it out.

Thor: Road Force #1-2

A superhero team based on a motorcycle company How very exciting. Marvel Studios have been tied with Harley Davidson since The First Avenger, but the fact they are able to make six issues with The Avengers, Iron Man and Thor I really, really do not understand. It's dragging a promo comic into spin-off territory. Who even seriously reads these except for cheese factor? A comics fan can't expect the pinnacle of storytelling, and a Harley fan can't even expect pictures of sexy bikes.

Wednesday, 26 March 2014

This Week in Free Comics (25/03/14)

Comixology

A preview of a preview, essentially, presented as a post-conversion Infinite Comic (hint: it isn't effective.) Don't read it.
  • Captain America: Theater of War

With The Winter Soldier just around the corner (as in, released today here in the UK), it seems like a great time for Marvel to get these Paul Jenkins one shots some more attention. They released them free as part of their '700' digital offer a year ago, and it was great to be able to finally read them then. These four extra-sized issues form the second harcover/trade paperback of the series, which goes pretty cheap on Amazon. I remember all of them being a great read ('America the Beautiful' maybe wasn't so great), but my favourite probably goes to 'Ghosts of My Country' - which was amongst the first comics I bought, back in 2011. Spanning four centuries of conflict, it explores the 'ghost' of Captain America, per Brubaker's run, and his appearances at key American events. If you need to check it out for even one thing, it's Elisa Bonetti's artwork. Really, it is gorgeous. Perhaps some will find this to be over-indulgent American patriotism, but I like it. 'To Soldier On' is kind of like The Chosen, exploring Captain America within the context of modern, Middle Eastern conflict, but having read not exactly great things about Morrell's epic, this is probably the better of the two. The other three one shots (which I've yet to read), 'Operation: Zero Point', 'Prisoners of Duty' and 'America First!' were written by different creative teams, and in fact 'Operation: Zero Point' (a World War II tale, featuring none other than Einstein) became the UK annual for The First Avenger, published by Panini. It would be good if the other three one-shots were available as free issues like these four, but I will hunt out the trade at some point.

Marvel Unlimited
Wonder-Man+Beast is an interesting judgement of WHAT THE HELL IS BEAST DOING laws of time, etc., etc., etc., but a weird pairing and maybe a little too nostalgic for my liking.
Vampire Jubilee+Captain America vs. Nazi vampires. It isn't as interesting as it sounds. Cap takes up the tutor role again, but it just falls flat.
Meh. It's a side-story with characters I've never heard of.
You know I love it.

(I promise I will get back to the timeline soon - I'm currently working on revising the notes for Captain America: Patriot, and should be onto Brubaker's Winter Soldier soon. I know I said initially that it was going to be a weekly venture, but with school and a burgeoning pile of comics, it's more likely to be every few weeks.)

Tuesday, 11 March 2014

This Week in Free Comics (11/03/14)

Comixology

Marvel Unlimited
  • Avengers Arena #1 is awesome, but probably best with the rest of the series rather than on its own. A great, and unusual, continuation from Runaways and Avengers Arena. 
  • Infinity: The Hunt shouldn't really be called Infinity. A cool premise of a Harry Potter-esque competition between the Marvel Universe's super-powered schools, but it's just talking. I liked it, but it is really set-up for the next three issues.
  • Secret Avengers #1 is surprisingly good in setting up the direction of the series. Admittedly, they've moved onto volume 3 now. But for a series which concept I was kind of unsure on, the first issue really turned me around. Black Widow and Hawkeye are great together. I can't say I like Nick Fury Jr., but Coulson is cool.

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

This Week in Free Comics (04/03/14): Winter Soldier!

Perhaps unsurprisingly, to begin the month of March, Marvel Unlimited now has a bunch of free issues up centering around the Avengers, Winter Soldier and Black Widow. An awesome way to tie into the next askjg.nkd,lflleodl;s film of 2014 (after The LEGO Movie, because what teenager doesn't love a film with Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Han Solo in?)
*and Morgan Freeman
**and Will Ferrell

It's a really great introduction to Brubaker's run: we have 6 issues from Captain America (#1 has been offerred free on here for the past year), the first issue of Reborn, and 4 issues from his recent Winter Soldier run. All of these issues headline new arcs, except #50 which is an (awesome) anniversary standalone, and #14 of Winter Soldier, which concludes the 'Black Widow Hunt' storyline.

Comixology


Marvel Unlimited