Dawning of the Heroic Age

A couple months ago, in an earlier blog, I speculated that The Sentry may have been too powerful a character to keep around the Marvel Universe. With his seemingly-unlimited powers, and his suffering from multiple personality disorder, it seemed like he was destined to be destroyed, because he was too great a threat to the safety of everybody in the Marvel Universe – Be it an innocent bystander on Earth, an unfortunate member of the bird-like Shi’Ar race, or even the bizarre Popuppians. And The Sentry was intelligent enough, himself, to recognize this fact, and had Thor throw him into the sun.

So, now, Norman Osborn is no longer in charge. H.A.M.M.E.R. is back to being known as S.H.I.E.L.D., and Steve Rogers is the new “top cop” in the Marvel U.

The overall feel of this era of the Marvel Universe is much lighter than the one that began with AVENGERS: DISASSEMBLED in 2004 and ended with SIEGE in 2010.

In 2004, there was an overabundance of mutants in the Marvel Universe. It seemed like every third character that was introduced was a mutant, for no reason other than just so another origin wasn’t needed to be written.

The Avengers experienced their worst day in history, when the Scarlet Witch went insane and killed Hawkeye, Vision, Jack of Hearts, Scott Lang/Ant-Man, and cause She-Hulk to go into an insane rage.

Even when the New Avengers were founded, it was because of a breakout at The Raft, Marvel’s maximum security prison, and an endless number of super villains escaped.

During the next six years, the world was completely changed to an alternate version where mutants are the dominant species, only to be changed back to its previous state, but with less than 1% of the mutant population retaining their X-Gene.

Due to a super villain attack on a school, the heroes were divided on whether or not the new government-mandated registration-if-you-have-super-powers was a good or bad idea, and found themselves in the midst of a superhuman civil war, which ultimately led to the death of Steve Rogers, aka Captain America.

While Cap was gone, it turned out that there was an invasion from the alien shape-shifting race known as the Skrulls. And when they proved too much for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, it was the Green Goblin himself, Norman Osborn, who saved the day and publicly killed the Skrulls’ queen, putting him in the role of #1 security guy. So what’s he do? Hires a bunch of other villains to be his version of the Avengers.

But, this time around? Everything is optimistic. Things are being fixed. Norman Osborn’s Dark Reign of terror is over, and the good guys are in charge, again.

Steve Rogers has founded a new team of Avengers, and the first mission’s roster includes Steve, Bucky Barnes as Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Spider-Woman… up against Kang the conqueror?

Steve’s also founded a team of black-ops Secret Avengers, consisting of his girlfriend Sharon Carton, The Beast, Valkyrie, Moon Knight, the irredeemable Ant-Man (Eric O’Grady), Nova, and War Machine.

And coming later this month, there’ll be yet a THIRD team of New Avengers, consisting of Ms. Marvel, Wolverine, Spider-Man, The Thing, and Jessica Jones, being led by Luke Cage.

With three Avengers teams actually consisting of Avengers, the world has got to be a safer place, right?

…Right?

I guess time will tell.

Phoenix Comicon 2010 by Linda

From my perspective, Phoenix Comicon was AMAZING!

After much preparation, the day finally arrived where we could set up our booth. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the week, I had been stricken with an abscessed tooth and, although on the mend, was still recuperating, so I didn’t participate in this part. Still, I was very encouraged to learn that we had a great opening night – making more money at the Con than we did in the store! This would continue to be the trend for the next few days, although I also noticed that store activity was also greater than usual. Comics were in the air.

On Friday, I had the privilege to work our booth all day, along with Avery and Sean. Andy manned the store for the few hours we were open. I really enjoyed myself! It was great to be a part of the energy, to watch the Con really gaining momentum, as costumes became wilder and more prolific as the weekend unfolded. The vendors were all gearing up for Saturday, purported to be the busiest day of the Con. I absolutely loved that we had the WorldWide Villains and Tosh Delaney in the booth next to us, since they have been guests at our store many times and it felt like home. Andy had also done some art in Tosh’s newest publication, so that was cool too.

We had a good Saturday, although I wasn’t at the Con during the day. I was at the store from 10 am till 7 pm; and we had a pretty good day at the store too! I actually enjoyed hanging out there, although my thoughts were constantly with our booth at the Con – the guys were all so busy, they didn’t update me on anything until almost closing time!

After I closed the store, I headed out to the Con so that Avery and I could attend the Guests of Honor Dinner. The table settings were festive and impeccable. The food was great. The company was superb! We got to sit with Tony Parker and a few others that we hadn’t met before. I was sort of surprised that there were no speakers or introductions of the Guests, but all in all, it was a fun night.

Sunday morning, I headed out for the last day of Con – I had a couple of hours before the store opened. Things were already gearing up for the final day. We had decided to run a blow-out sale which moved a LOT of merchandise for us – something that we really needed to do. So, again, a great success.

When I closed the store, I headed back for the inevitable loading. It got complicated. I think the system may have been the best it could be, but it broke down in a few places, and I was stuck waiting for over an hour. We finally worked everything out, loaded up the car with all it could hold in all of 5-10 minutes, and Avery and I headed back to the store. Andy and Sean waited for Sean’s friend to come with the truck for the bulk of the boxes.

I still need to enter the sales and we still need to put away the comics we still have left, but all in all, it was an awesome weekend!

You can see pictures at our Facebook page.

Phoenix Comicon preparation

We are down to the home stretch now…. only two more days until we are at Phoenix Comicon. We are excited! This is our first year having a booth at the show. Last year, we were there, handing out flyers, but it’s not the same. This year, we are busily choosing what to bring with us and getting it all ready.

Our store looks like a cyclone hit it – boxes in front of our back issues bins as we choose what to take with us – and plans galore. This year, we are introducing our newest product – something very new and different! We now have custom short boxes, covered with art work done by Andy. Each box is individually created, and we have some beauties! We can also do themes on request. Isn’t that fantastic? Wouldn’t you like your comics stored in a box decorated with your favorite themes rather than the plain white? In the future, we will also be decoupaging boxes, and we also have a fantasy artist who will be drawing for us. Decoupaging is MY specialty, and I hope to have at least ONE sample done before Thursday.

All in all, it’s an exciting time – AND a scheduling nightmare! Comic Zone WILL be open at our Scottsdale location throughout the whole Con…. but I really want to encourage you to join us there.

Phoenix Comicon is really special, and this year’s lineup is superb! Where else can you go to be around so many like-minded people?

Look us up while you are there. We are at booth #610 – right next to our friends, World-Wide Villains. See you soon!

Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine Hulk And The Flash Combined

A British 19-year-old boy, originally named George Garratt, legally had his name changed to “Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine Hulk And The Flash Combined.”

Little does he realize that his name has a typo, as the proper spelling for “Spider-Man” includes a hyphen.

Also, reportedly, his grandmother is so upset by the change, she is no longer speaking to him.

Read more at: http://gfestblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/british-teen-changes-name-to-captain.html

This was too amazing to NOT share.

First Friday shut-down

Friday was my birthday, and it was also First Friday. For the past several months, we have participated in First Friday. A friend of ours has allowed us to set up a table at her space so that others can know about Comic Zone.

Well, this past Friday didn’t go as planned. For one, it was my BIRTHDAY! Did I really want to be working HARD on my birthday? As a matter of fact, yes, I did. I love Comic Zone and anything I can do to make it successful makes me happy. So, I was really okay with that part. However, because it was my birthday, some friends took me to lunch, and afterwards, I didn’t feel so well. I’m not sure why – all I had was salad and hummus – but for some reason, I was feeling blech. Hanging out in 100˚ heat didn’t sound like as much fun. But, Comic Zone prevailed, so I bit the bullet and we headed on down to 5th St.

When we got to the shop, no one was there, so we just set up on the lawn as normal. Then, just as we finished, our friend’s new partner arrived, and said that he wanted to set up there and we’d have to move. Lovely. At that point, I wanted to go home. I began to think that maybe I hadn’t been feeling well because we weren’t meant to go to First Friday this month.

But, again, Comic Zone prevailed, and we moved everything over to the other side of the sidewalk, on the lawn between the sidewalk and the street. And we waited.

Business doesn’t really begin to pick up at First Friday until about 9 pm. Between 6-9, there are lots of people looking and a few small purchases, but we really don’t get going until later – and then it is non-stop for 2-3 hours! But if we don’t set up by 4 pm, all of the streets are closed off, and we don’t get a good parking spot.

So, there we sat, and waited… helping a few customers, answering lots of questions, etc. Two guys came up with clip boards, and asked us if Comic Zone was our store. We said yes, and then they proceeded to tell us that we were not allowed to vend there due to zoning laws, that we had to be associated with a shop. We told them that our friend rented the shop we were in front of, but he said that wasn’t enough, that we couldn’t even have an exchange of money outside. It all had to be done inside. Who knew? We asked why all of a sudden, and they said that the vending was just getting out of hand and that they had to reign it in. He gave us an hour to take everything down.

Well, our friend wasn’t there that night – just her partner. We told him, and he didn’t say a word. The zoning folks went in to talk to him too. We packed up and left.

So, no more First Fridays for us in downtown Phoenix.

It was fun while it lasted, for sure, but I am really okay with not peddling comics on hot summer nights anyway.

In the meantime, we are exploring other gigs, other possibilities, so stay tuned.

Iron Man 2

First impression? Fantastic. Not quite as good as the first movie, but far better than most sequels. It’s too bad IM2 came out three weeks AFTER Kick-Ass, because while it definitely carries Kick-Ass’s momentum, it doesn’t necessarily build upon it. Had the two movies been reversed, I think IM2 would’ve felt a lot more special than it does, now.

Below are random notes as I think of them:

Changes a-plenty to many characters’ origins and backgrounds, but nothing that Bendis, Millar, or Warren Ellis wouldn’t have done in the Ultimate Marvel Universe. A much bigger role from Sam Jackson as Nick Fury, this time around. Scarlet Johansson as the Black Widow (Natalie Rushman/Natasha Romanov) was kind of superfluous, and her fantastic fight scenes are unfortunately severely overshadowed by Hit-Girl’s, but she was a welcome addition to the cast, at least for the eye candy. Don Cheadle replacing Terrance Howard as Lt. Col. James “Rhodey” Rhodes (War Machine) was 100% unnecessary from my perspective. Unless there was something going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about, I don’t think the change was a wise decision.

Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko (or Whiplash, if you must) was awesome. It was the first time I ever felt as though Whiplash/Blacklash was a threat to Iron Man, but he was QUITE a threat. Sam Rockwell’s role as Justin Hammer was very entertaining. I don’t know much about Hammer’s character in the comics, but I completely buy the film’s version being a solid interpretation.

Robert Downey, Jr. owns the Tony Stark role. It will be a shame when he can no longer play the Golden Avenger due to real life getting in the way. Gwyneth Paltrow is also a solid return to form as Pepper Potts. She’s got a smaller role this time around, but is just as essential to Tony Stark’s life. And the after-credits bit will pump up audiences for Marvel’s next movie offering.

I feel that Iron Man 2 is a worthy successor to the first movie, despite what the critics may have been saying. I’ll see this at least once more in theatres, and it is definitely going to end up on my DVD shelf.

Post-Free Comic Book Day 2010 message from Andy

As just the second FCBD that I’ve participated in as a retailer, I was very excited at yesterday’s turnout. As a business co-owner, it was wonderful to have so many new faces in our store. As the guy who works at the store, it was absolutely fantastic to see so many of our regular guests returning to see what the comics publishers were offering for free. And as just me, it was so much fun to get to hang out with so many of my friends, throughout the day.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to give a huge thanks to each and every person who came in and helped make May 1, 2010 one of my favorite (if completely exhausting) days, ever. And an even huger thanks to Tom Leveen and his wonderful wife, Joy, for shilling Tom’s new book, PARTY. We still have a few copies left, which Tom has pre-signed for their future owners. Come on in and get one before they’re gone!

Superhero Parties

Comic Zone is venturing into a new arena.

As of May 1st, we will be sponsoring Superhero Parties – mostly as birthday parties, but we will accommodate any kind of party. We are working in partnership with buzzberry’s to offer these parties.

Here is our current flyer announcing our parties:

SuperHero Parties

For your party, call us and we’ll walk you through the process. Just think of how much your little one will LOVE having his or her favorite comic book hero at the party! What a hit! And Mom and Dad, no cleanup! We do it all!

South Park Joker

The first number zero comic?

Avery and I were talking about the history of comics funnily-numbered comics, today, and we were wondering what the very first number zero comic was. We knew Wizard had released a bunch of 1/2 issues, and Marvel had released all the #-1 issues in July of 1997’s “Flashback Month,” detailing a bunch of stories that took place prior to the #1 issues of each series. But what was the very first #0?

We first pontificated that it may have been 1994’s ZERO HOUR #0 from DC Comics (which was actually the sixth issue in the series, as it had a countdown gimmick – And it may have possibly been the first comic to have a countdown), but then I recalled that Valiant comics had released an X-O MANOWAR #0 around that same time. We checked, and it had a publication date of August, 1993. So, as far as we can tell, X-O MANOWAR #0 from Valiant comics was the very first number zero issue.

Can any of our loyal Comic Zoners out there help us come up with an earlier one? I think that this would be a very interesting bit of trivia to know!