Comic Book Review: Secret Empire / Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man - Free Comic Book Day Edition - Marvel Comics

The following two reviews come from the same comic book.  They are from the special "Free Comic Book Day" edition.

Secret Empire
Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Andrea Sorrentino

The heroes of the Marvel Universe are in a tumultuous battle with Hydra.  Things are not going well and it is about to get a whole lot worse.

Captain America has been Hydra the whole time despite 70 years of fighting them.  I'm sure the preludes made sense of it but it just doesn't interest me at all.  I read this comic book and Secret Invasion #0 but I think that is as far as I will get.  Let me know when Captain America is back to normal.  It's a comic book event and there is no way he stays a villain.

On the bright side, Andrea Sorrentino is a fantastic artist.  I really enjoyed the visuals in this comic book, even if the story itself does not really get me excited.

Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man
"...Time Flies"
Written by Chip Zdarsky
Pencils by Paolo Siqueira
Inks by Walden Wong, Cam Smith, Jay Leisten & Paolo Siqueira
Colors by Frank D'Armata

Peter Parker is attempting to have lunch with Mary Jane Watson, head of Stark Industries but as always, some super-villain just happens to be causing mischief/mayhem.  Peter must leave to become the Spectacular Spider-Man and take on The Vulture.  There may be an extra person in play however...

This is more like it.  Lots of fun dialogue, a superhero in action and trying to juggle his personal life at the same time.  He takes on an old foe and meeting someone else who seems to be taking Paste Pot Pete's gimmick.  There were not many pages as this was a tease for the upcoming Spectacular Spider-Man series in June.

The art looks really good in this comic book.  A Spider-Man would be a tough series to take on since there are so many tall buildings and perspectives for the artist to draw.  This team did a wonderful job of doing this.  The buildings were detailed without being a distraction on the panels.  There is so much to love about Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man.  It looks like I will be adding this to my pull list at my local comic shop.

What are your thoughts on Secret Empire?  Will you be picking up Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man?

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One Man's Soapbox: A Disconnected Marvel Shared Universe

A Disconnected Marvel Shared Universe

I recently finished the first three seasons of Agents of SHIELD, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the end of season three. I will admit I was very harsh after watching the first season, there wasn’t much to like about the start of the series. However, for the most part many of my concerns went away by the end of season 3 with the exception of one, the MCU’s shared Universe. This is one of Marvels greatest strengths, who didn’t love those end credit scenes that led to Captain America and Thor, however this also may be its biggest weakness.

Let’s ignore the fact that Agents of SHIELD has now gone three seasons with no appearance from any of the Avengers or MCU characters outside of Nick Fury, Maria Hill and Sif. The bigger issue is continuity, this especially is the case with the last two Captain America Movies and to a lesser extent Ant-Man. Let’s start with Hydra, its had a presence not only in Agents of Shield but also Captain America, Ant-Man and Age of Ultron, and before I get started with my point, lets remember that I realize Hydra has many heads and when one is cut off another grows in its place. With that being said it always seemed like I was watching two different universes telling the same story. By the end of Winter Soldier both SHEILD and HYDRA have crumbled with SHIELD being disbanded and the top brass of HYDRA taken down. However by the mid point of Season 3 of Agents of Shield we have two Shield Agency and the true power of HYDRA, and there doesn’t seem to be any plans to cross those two back over in the near future.

Are you confused yet? Are you like me, wondering how the television and Cinematic Universe haven’t crossed yet even though they are ultimately shared? Well its about to get worse, cause now Im adding in the Netflix series. 

The entire plot of the first half of season three of Agents of Shield is the race to uncover humans with powers before HYDRA can locate them. But what about Jessica Jones, a human with powers yet the cross over never happens. Then it happened again during Captain America: Civil War. While in a need to add members to his team, Tony Stark goes out to locate a teenager named Peter Parker. While I understand from a fan stand point how awesome it was to see Spiderman suited up with the other Avengers, wouldn’t Starks first choices be Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage or even Deathlok? 

We are slowly starting to see the effects from the issue plaguing a shared universe concept, first Agent Carter was canceled and then the planned Agents of Shield spin off was canned, its only a matter of time when Agents of Shield gets the ax and is nothing more than a distant memory we pass over on Netflix.

So even though Marvel teases us with an idea of a share universe, they ultimately don’t see the need to address this in any of their movies. So for fans like myself, with each passing movie and season there is a bit of disappointment when we realize that the chance to see some one like a Daredevil, The Punisher or even Ghostrider team up with the likes of Iron Man and Captain America are beginning to fade away. 

Maybe we wont ever see the ultimate team up, maybe we will in one of the upcoming Avenger movies only time will tell. Until then, lets just hope that our favorite Agent of SHIELD finds his way back to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, cause Coulsons man crush on Cap is just way to entertaining. Let us know what your thoughts are of Marvels shared Universe by leaving a comment below.

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