Comic Features

Making The Panel – Comic Con International

Comic Con is the largest convention for comics in the country, but year after year there are hundreds of new attendees that have never gone to a con in general. Consequently, there are hundreds of people that A) have no idea what to do or expect and B) still have no idea what to do even after attending the year before.

This article is designed to help you see the Panels and Speakers that you so need to see.

A Panel is when a company or person has a time blocked out in a room to promote their work or answer questions from the audience. Some big reveals happen at Comic Con in the form of Comics, Movies, TV Shows and Video Games, making it a once in a lifetime experience.

How to Survive Comic Con International

With Comic Con just under a month away, we here at PAC have put together a weekly series of “pro tips”, if you will, on the dos, the don’ts and the musts of Comic Con. This year’s Con looks to be the biggest one yet, and we all know each year ushers in “fresh fish” side by side with the veterans. If you’re not careful, you could be eaten alive and miss out on seeing your favorite celebrities or on getting the tons of free crap.

We’ll not only have our survival guide articles leading up Comic Con International, but also coverage during the Con itself, including a gallery of attendees in full Cosplay outfits, the booth babes, and the random giant Picachus.

Bagged and Boarded: Ultimate Avengers 2 #3

Welcome to “Bagged and Boarded”, a series of articles by Kevin Beckham and Dustin Cabeal. In “Bagged and Boarded” two comic fans express their thoughts/opinions about an issue or comic event.

“Nick Fury’s Avengers have assembled: Black Widow, The Punisher, a new Hulk, War Machine and Hawkeye are souped-up and ready to face Hell…literally. Evil’s emissary comes in the form of The Ghostrider, a mysterious new villain sent to collect Satan’s debts: human lives. But how do you fight the devil and his men? With big guns and even bigger cojones. Who lives, who survives? Who knows? But it’ll be one hellish ride!! Join superstars MARK MILLAR and LEINIL FRANCIS YU in another heart-pumping adventure!” – Marvel.com

You Missed That Issue! – Invincible #12

Welcome to a new series spotlighting some of the best single issues in comics from the past decade. You will not find Watchmen, Sin City, Dark Phoenix Saga or Action Comics #775 anywhere on this list. These are comics that, with a little effort, you’ll find on the Internet or lost in the back issues of your comic book store. Because this article is not a review, and since these issues are not necessarily new, any surprise, cliffhanger or death will be spoiled in an attempt to show why the book shouldn’t have been missed. So that being said, welcome to: You Missed That Issue! Invincible #12.

Character Affinity: Thunderstrike

You know what would be really cool, if Marvel would bring back Thunderstrike to the 616 universe. You read that correctly, I would like to see Thunderstrike back in the Marvel universe. For those of you who do not know, Thunderstrike was a character back in 90’s that became Thor for a short time after his disappearance in the Marvel universe. Once Thor returned, Odin creates a new weapon calling it Thunderstrike hence the characters creation.

I know, not a lot of people enjoyed Thunderstrike, at best he’s Thor-lite. But come on, Marvel has brought back other characters: Wonder Man, Mockingbird, Bucky, and WarMachine. Some of these characters were a great idea to bring back, others eh… not so much. But for some reason they’re here to stay. So why not bring Thunderstrike back from the dead?

Top of the Month – May

Welcome to Top of the Month. A feature article in which the writers of PAC (that’s Player Affinity Comics) chooses their top and bottom picks for the month. These are books that shipped in the month of May.

Top Single Issue
Dustin – Titans: Villains for Hire Special – This issue returned Deathstroke to his former glory.
Kevin – Titans: Villains for Hire Special – It made me care about a character that I never knew existed.
Neil – Flash #2 – Barry Allen might be a criminal!?! Dang that was cool.

Character Affinity: The Sentry

After Marvel’s Dark Reign and Siege events, one character became rather prominent in both series. In fact he was almost as widely used as Norman Osborn or Loki. Sadly, The Sentry (Marvel’s answer to Superman) had his life span cut short at the end of the Siege. Which is sad, since they never used him to his fullest potential. Oh wait, they couldn’t because he was crazy.

In fact, that was the brilliance of the character. It’s as if Paul Jenkins (creator of the Sentry) said let’s put Superman into the Marvel world but restrain him in every possible way. For those not familiar with the Sentry let me explain. Robert Reynolds is schizophrenic with super powers. As a teenager he drank a stolen formula from a research lab in a desperate attempt at getting high. This gave him the power of one million exploding suns and turned him into the Sentry. Later he would be erased from the memories of everyone in the world including Marvel’s superheroes. This was due to his arch-nemesis the Void.

Bagged And Boarded – Return of Bruce Wayne

Welcome to “Bagged and Boarded”, a series of articles by Kevin Beckham and Dustin Cabeal. In “Bagged and Boarded” two comic fans express their thoughts/opinions about an issue or comic event.

This week we discuss DC Comic’s Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne 1 of 6.

The most anticipated series of 2010 is here! Superstar writer Grant Morrison tackles his most ambitious project to date with THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE, a special six-part series that chronicles the return of the original man behind Batman’s cape and cowl! Each issue spans a different era of time and features the dynamic artwork of one of today’s artistic juggernauts, starting with Chris Sprouse (TOM STRONG) on the extra-sized issue #1 – DCcomics.com

Bagged and Boarded – Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis

Welcome to “Bagged and Boarded”, a series of articles by Kevin Beckham and Dustin Cabeal. In “Bagged and Boarded” two comic fans express their thoughts/opinions about an issue or comic event.

ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS #1 of 5

COVER BY: Kaare Andrews                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
WRITER: Warren Ellis 
PENCILS: Kaare Andrews 
INKS: Kaare Andrews 
LETTERED BY: Chris Eliopulos

Bagged and Boarded – War of the Supermen

Welcome to “Bagged and Boarded”, a series of articles by Kevin Beckham and Dustin Cabeal. In “Bagged and Boarded” two comic fans express their thoughts/opinions about an issue or comic event.

This week we discuss DC Comic’s: Superman, War of the Supermen issue one. Written by James Robinson & Sterling Gates. Art by Jamal Igle and ink from Jon Sibal. We have included DC’s synopsis of the issue for those of you who are unfamiliar with it.

“The Battle for New Krypton! This is it! The storyline the SUPERMAN books have been building to since 2008 has arrived! Superman has never faced such a difficult challenge – how can he stop the two worlds he loves from destroying each other? General Zod has been waiting for another shot at Earth for years, and with 100,000 supermen on his side, it looks like it’s his war to win! But on Earth, General Lane has an ace up his sleeve that will level the playing field quite nicely!” – DCcomics.com