Category: Marvel
December 30 / / Comics

Staff Picks: Our 10 Favorite Comics from 2015

2015 has been a great year for comics – we got two reboots from Marvel and DC, Image kept pumping out winners, and some of the best series from 2014 kept going strong.

It’s also been a great year for Shortboxed! We managed to hit lots of cons up and down the California coast, made it up to Seattle for Emerald City Comic Con, visited some comic book shops overseas, and we got to attend the mecca for comic book geeks, San Diego Comic-Con. We also added another member to the Shortboxed crew this year, Jeremy, who’s been crushing it with his reviews and opinion pieces! All this on top of reading some amazing stories from our favorite creators this year! So thank you to all of our readers and followers on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for allowing us to geek out with you and connect over this passion of ours.

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September 28 / / Comics

Recommended Reading: Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens #1 Review

It’s been 32 whopping years since Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was released. 32 years since the death and destruction of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader. But Skywalker and crew didn’t live happily ever. As part of the journey to the next record breaking movie this December, Marvel Comics fills in the gaps between the two major events with Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Shattered Empire.

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September 22 / / Comics

Recommended Reading: Marvel’s Princess Leia 1-5 Review

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Alderaan Shot First

It’s common knowledge that Alderaan shot first which prompted the destruction of their home world. But have you ever wondered what happened to the Alderaanians that were vacationing on Hoth when Vader eradicated the warmongering people? Well, now you’ll know. Officially.

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September 15 / / Marvel

The “All New, All Different” Marvel Universe

If you’ve been following along with what’s being going on with the Marvel Universe right now, you’ve noticed that your favorite books have been missing. If you haven’t been following along, then don’t feel bad, it’s quite confusing because Marvel’s summer story arc, Secret Wars, has been dominating their current lineup.

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If you’re not too familiar with the 1984 Secret Wars, the story revolved around a place called Battleworld where a supreme being called the Beyonder brought the characters of the Marvel Universe together to fight it out. So, what’s the difference with this summer’s Secret Wars? Everything, except the name of the story arc and the place Battleworld.

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June 25 / / Comics

Just the Facts: Ant-Man

Heya Shortboxers, we’re back with more Just The Facts. We’ve looked at Suicide Squad and Aquaman before. In this post, we’re going to learn about Ant-Man! The Ant-Man movie comes out in just under a month; it’s time to become more familiar with our tiny hero.

In our Aquaman post, we lamented that many people would be new to Aquaman, but Ant-Man? We imagine there’s whole new level of newness. In addition to the surprise of Ant-Man getting a dedicated movie, we were also surprised that he is played by Paul Rudd of all people! Now, don’t get us wrong, we love Paul Rudd. We just never pictured him as a superhero. Alright, that’s enough of Paul Rudd, let’s get to the main event: Just the Facts: Ant-Man.

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January 13 / / Marvel

Recommended Reading: Avengers Forever (1998) Review

Don’t feel bad if you have to read pages from Kurt Busiek’s Avengers Forever several times over to understand what’s going on. Traversing space and time to save the entire human race from existence in all time lines is no easy task. It fact, it literally took thousands of Avengers.

Here’s the gist: Immortus, the Master of Time, defender of the time stream is set to kill Rick Jones. For Rick Jones, as you’ll find out, is the key to the most powerful force in the universe, the Destiny Force. Just when Immortus’ soldier, the Tempus, is about to smash an incapacitated Rick Jones, Kang the Conqueror warps into existence to stop him and the hordes of soldiers Immortus plucks from the past to fight for him. Here’s the catch – Kang IS Immortus. Just a younger, more counquerer version of him. As Kang starts to slowly lose to Immortus’ strength, Rick Jones inadvertently triggers his Destiny Force to pull in 7 Avengers from the past, present and future. Now they must ally with one of their archenemies to defeat an even greater threat, Immortus. Still with me?

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January 7 / / DC

Choose Your Own Adventure: Physical vs. Digital Comics

I’ve been an avid comic book reader ever since I stepped foot into my first comic book shop, years ago in the early 90’s. It was one of those hole in the wall stores behind a Montgomery Ward department store that had an assortment of comics, toys, and collectible cards. This was what I considered my local comic store, and, I left the store every Friday with a bag of goodies to keep me busy until the following week. Fast forward to today and I still make the trek to my local comic store every Wednesday to pick up a bag of goodies, but there is another way that I consume comics, too, through the digital realm.

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December 22 / / Marvel

Recommended Reading: Secret Wars (1984) Review

The year is 1984. Mattel teams up with Marvel to create a line of officially-licensed action figures based on Marvel characters. Someone decides that the best way to promote these toys is to create a 12-issue comic book series that includes all of the characters, and the now-classic Secret Wars is born.

While Secret Wars may have been born out of pure promotional tactics, it has cemented itself as a modern classic by being the first major crossover event of its kind. Back in 1984, big crossover events didn’t really happen, so the thought of pitting Marvel’s best superheroes against it’s best villains was a fairly groundbreaking concept.

So how exactly did they bring all of these characters together?

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