After a startling trailer at the close of Captain America, there began a long wait for the Avengers film to make its way on-screen. With a cast of wholly qualified actors and a recasting of Bruce Banner (AKA the Hulk) with Mark Ruffalo, and a budget of 220 million dollars to its name, we haven’t been disappointed.

Besting the previous films of the genre released by Marvel, we have an assemble of heroes that demand the screen. While Captain America remained somewhat reserved, his Boy Scout attitude shines through despite the big egos and bigger anger issues surrounding him, allowing for his nature as a solider – as the perfect solider – to stand out despite his lack of superhuman abilities. You know, if you forget the fact that he’s been shown to throw soldiers through the air like rag dolls when he really gets on a roll.

Fighting alongside him is Iron Man, the “genius playboy billionaire philanthropist” that is Tony Stark. With an ego to match his newly built Stark Tower and a suit of armour that can literally blast holes through walls and challenge a god, he’s presented himself as being a screen-hog. This was the biggest issue I had with the film before viewing it, given the fact that Thor demands attention in his very nature of being a god and the Hulk can’t help but receive it…given the fact that he’s a giant green rage monster. There were too many big personalities, even with Captain America being as reserved as he is and the remaining two members of their party – Black Widow and Hawkeye – wishing they didn’t have to play the part of solider.

But it worked. It really, really worked, and I couldn’t be happier that Marvel didn’t totally screw it up. Let’s be serious here: when you bring those six characters together, you’re going to have problems. Not just in terms of in-fighting, but in terms of who to give more screen time, and who to show off more. I really believe they couldn’t have done a better job in evening things out a bit, even with the pair of assassins never really getting much of a story before now. They’ve been developed, and they fit right into the group of supernatural power-houses.

This doesn’t exactly balance out the playing field – the Hulk is generally considered to be the most powerful weapon they’ve got – but it does make for an interesting display of character and heroism in a film that could easily have been dominated by the larger personalities. And this is all ignoring Nick Fury and his can-do, will-do-or-I’ll-shoot-you attitude. With Samuel L Jackson reprising his role as the Director of SHIELD, things are certainly brought up a notch. It’s not just a bunch of action heroes actually doing what action heroes ought to – and many times with added and unexpected hilarity; we’re also given the particular spark of brilliance that Jackson brings to Fury that wasn’t foreseen, given the rewriting of the character. (In the comic books, Fury is portrayed as a Caucasian male, though the rewrite totally works!)

So what does it all add up to? Brilliance. Sheer brilliance. While we avidly avoided the 3D showing, we found it didn’t matter. Post-production really did a number making the fight scenes phenomenal, while the more-than-capable actors – while not Oscar winners in big Drama roles – brought a sense of wonder to the whole film. Never failing to show us who their characters were and what they stood for, we can get a picture of who the men and woman are behind the Avengers.

This is definitely not a film to miss, with laughs, gasps and a final applaud when the credits began to roll to prove that this is a flick that’s appealed to the masses.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Director: Joss Whedon
Age Cert: 12a/PG13
Release Date:  April 26th 2012

His wife, Jean Grey, has lost her abilities, as well as those of Sabretooth. This recurring theme of de-powering mutants has become tired in Marvel, though it allows for Grey and Creed to prove themselves beyond their mutant powers. In hoping to save the humans that remain, they join up with a team called the X-Terminated. With a journalist from a parallel universe among them, narrating the story, we’re led into the new Age of Apocalypse, with the once-dead Scott Summers, Prelate to Apocalypse, back to fight for Weapon Omega.

I was more excited about this series than it deserves. While the AvX comics are going somewhere with the main plot of Marvel, the new AoA is offering us a side story that I hadn’t seen coming. While it’s fun to read, it seems to be lacking in meaning. All the same, it presents us with some interesting dynamics. Just as in the original AoA comics, Cyclops is one of the villains. Contrary to the originals, he doesn’t seem to have any morals to hinder his work.

In much the same way, Sabretooth is against the Big Bad that overshadows the world, and humans are the victims of their self-appointed dictator. Add to that the Sentinels and things have gotten messier: they fight to kill humans.

So, it’s still a different story. Indeed, without Apocalypse on the battlefield, things seem a little less daunting. In saying that, it’s humans against mutants, with the Shadow King and the immortal Weapon Omega fighting on the same side. Things really couldn’t get worse for humanity, so it seems this series will present a bit of a struggle in terms of plot. I can’t see how Marvel can make it work if they can’t offer the possibility of victory to the protagonists.

Issues #1 and #2 serve as a good introduction, however, and it’s creating an interesting story so far. I await the third issue to reconcile some of the bigger issues at hand, such as the existence of the X-Men, or a similar force, to fight for the humans. In previous renditions of AoA, there has always stood a force of good to fight off the evil. Now, it seems, the two greatest forces for good are either evil (Wolverine) or powerless (Jean Grey). It will be interesting to see how the world copes without its saviours.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The artwork is, as always, up to par, which is to be expected from a comic book from Marvel. However, with a story this big, which I perceive to the beginning of the next step for Marvel, it needs the strong plot and developed characters to back it all up. The end result is a torrent of heroes fighting heroes, emotions being thrown equally as hard as fists and energy blasts, and the overwhelming sense that something is either going to go really well, or really poorly.

It’s no surprise, then, when we see yet more of the badass-ness of Hope coming to the pages, and while we can be sure that Cyclops is and always will be a bit of a dark horse when it comes to being an ass, he certainly displays his best traits on the battlefield. One has to wonder why he would risk the world at the hands of the being that took his first wife, which explains part of the divide between fans over who they want to win: Avengers or X-Men.

With the battles playing out beautifully on the pages and the Phoenix Force getting ever closer to Earth, issue 2 has given us something more to think about: what if the Avengers can’t stop it? What if, even if they reach Hope Summers, they can’t do anything against her?

It’s more than enough to make this reader come back eagerly in two weeks’ time for issue 3.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The brief intro to Avengers Vs X-Men comes from Issue #0, which focuses on the Scarlett Witch and Hope Summers. The biggest problem is that Wanda Maximoff, as a mutant, has caused her species to become somewhat endangered. Hope has the power to change all that – see the Five Lights arc to understand – as the mutant messiah. There are some massive surprises in store, of course, but the main issue with Hope is that she’s seen, by the Avengers, as a treat.

This brings us through to Issue #1, when the first fight begins. It’s Avengers versus X-Men, trying to decide the fate of mutantkind, and possibly the world. So things are a little less than calm.

I have to admit, I was wary picking it up. Excited, but wary. It’s not often that two big groups collide like this, and there’s a reason: so many stories and so many characters can become difficult to manage. For the reader, especially one who hasn’t read every issue of X-Men since No More Mutants – the event that made mutants endangered and took the Scarlett Witch (Wanda) off the X-Men’s Christmas card lists – with the accompanying issues of the Avengers; the stories are so massive with so many major turning points that it requires a lot of attention to detail to pick up what’s happened, and perhaps a visit to the Marvel Wiki site.

In saying that, the first issue and the prelude worked wonders in getting me hooked right from the start. The series is looking up, within its first pages, to becoming one of the game changers in the comic book world, at least as far as the mainstream publishers are concerned. Trying to make a battle about more than the powers at each side – a god like Thor up against a desperate Colossus, or the whole of the Avengers trying to take on a super-powered, fully-charged Hope, for example – can be difficult, but with the two stories of Wanda and Hope to keep things going, and the extra-special surprises in store that can possibly be seen from a mile away by avid fans, will make this story different. It’s not just about the violence on the battlefield, and that’s apparent from the offset.

Add to that the already brilliant standards of art-work and we’ve got a winner. It will divide fans into Avengers- and X-Men-groupies, change the Marvel universe forever (you know, until they do a rewrite and undo all the brilliance) and take a stand against Marvel’s competitors, especially with DC’s New 52 coming into their 8th issues.

One can only hope that Marvel keep throwing punches like this; the market could use the continued excitement that is a new and bold series. It’s definitely one worth keeping an eye on.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

As it is with every film with subtitles, the viewer can get used to reading them and watching the action on-screen at the same time rather quickly. Indeed, only during the less important scenes does the audience really have trouble keeping up with the dialogue and the film. Troll Hunter was no exception; the start of the film is slow enough to let us adapt to reading subtitles, without being so boring that we lose interest.

Unfortunately for the three college students in charge of filming, no one told them trolls were real or gigantic. Following what they believe to be a poacher, the students unwittingly get themselves involved in the life of Norway’s one and only troll hunter, hired by the government to keep the myth a myth and the citizens safe.

It’s a fun cast to watch as they go about the routine of, as the title suggests, hunting trolls. There are plenty of opportunities to laugh, and more than a few tense scenes when we get a real view of the film’s antagonists.

The CGI allows for the most realistic portrayal of the trolls as possible, considering the wholly mythological origin of the creatures. Thanks to the lighting and the camera used, we can accept that in the world of this film, the trolls really do exist. It doesn’t look like they were pasted into the environment using a green or blue screen, and I call that a success. So many films have such poor special effects that I wonder why I waste my money watching them, but Troll Hunter goes to show that  Hollywood isn’t the only place where the work gets done and done well!

Let’s be frank, though: this film isn’t for everyone. If you don’t like fantasy or films shown from the point of view of a hand-held camera (even if it is done documentary style like Troll Hunter), you won’t like this film. However, if you can get over the genre and the camera work and the subtitles (and let’s face it, Norwegian is an awesome language to listen to, even if you don’t understand it), you will love this film. It’s clever, it’s exciting and it has trolls. Trolls. Are. Awesome. And, even better, trolls haven’t been used that much in cinema. They remain in children’s stories, and while some of these stories help build the folklore in Troll Hunter, they are mostly just background material.

So, given that it’s fun and exciting and it has trolls, you really don’t have an excuse not to watch it!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Director: André Øvredal
Age Certificate: 12A
Release Date: UK and Ireland (cinemas) – September 9th 2011

I never quite got the tagline!

In the middle of Oscar Season, we find ourselves with a Science Fiction coming-of-age film that decides to give the world the middle finger… telekinetically. Three teens with suddenly developing superpowers find themselves learning more about themselves and each other in one of the most hyped up films of the past few months. I’d been waiting a long time for this one to come out, with small clips appearing online and in cinemas every now and then to feed the excitement.

The problem with Chronicle, however, is the way in which it’s shot: hand-held cameras. Thanks to Cloverfield and the Paranormal Activity films, anything shot with a camera set up by a character becomes something of a cliché. While the film doesn’t rely solely on specific cameras – the footage doesn’t seem to be of importance at all – the use of multiple cameras covers all angles. Until the first camera change, it seems as if it’s just a repeat of the above-mentioned films. Then it becomes more annoying, with camera changes happening frequently throughout the film.

That’s my biggest criticism of what is otherwise a very enjoyable film. The story is simple and straightforward, with a number of obviousness to the plot. But while it doesn’t contain many twists and turns to keep audience interest, gimmicks and games played by the teenagers ensure it doesn’t need to rely on them. It’s more to do with fun and excitement than telling a fantastic story, making this the antithesis of an Oscar film right when everyone else in Hollywood wants the same thing: the award.

I can’t criticise the acting or the characters. The three teenage boys fulfil some of the basic stereotypes of high school – the jock, the popular guy, the guy obsessed with how he looks to other people, the loner – but with the added bonus of superpowers to shake things up a bit. There’s real chemistry between the actors, which can be hard to pull off with all male leads, and it becomes entirely believable that they could be friends.

My advice: if you’re looking for something fun, a film that’s not glaringly made-for-the-Oscars, check out Chronicle. It’s a short film (at 83 minutes) that packs a punch and makes for an eventful experience with laughs, expectation and excitement along the way. The alternative is to wait for it to arrive on DVD and Blu Ray and watch it as a summer film – it seems a few months premature in that sense. Either way, it’s fun and worth the watch.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Director: Josh Trank
Age Certificate: UK and Ireland: 12a
Release Date: February 1st 2012

Looking back at that story arc, though, I’m less than impressed. While the idea of a remorseless serial killer bonding with an equally deranged alien symbiote is a good one, the delivery was off. Instead of something genuinely chilling we got a two-dimensional, almost cartoonish character who was often more tiresome than terrifying.

But I always thought the potential was there, and writer Zeb Wells is proving me right with his current Carnage USA mini-series from Marvel. Today we’re going to look at the first two issues. All you need to know comes right after these ads.

Carnage USA Issue 1

The concept of the story is this: Cletus Cassidy wants to take over the world, and he’s starting in a small town in Colorado, USA.

And that, so far, is it. It sounds like a hokey idea on paper, but Wells is really nailing the execution of it, and the series is already turning into one of the best Marvel stories I’ve read in years.

Things start slowly as we are introduced to some of the residents of the sleepy town of Doverton. We see kids playing, pensioners sitting on their porch, even the town drunk being half-carried home by friendly townsfolk. And then Cletus Cassidy turns up and what happens next is out and out… well, Carnage.

And what a Carnage he is. Cletus doesn’t come over in the “ooh, I’m mad, me!” way he has in many of his other appearances. He is portrayed here as cruel and sadistic. There is a real undercurrent of danger in everything he says and does, so that even when he is behaving “normally” we never know what he’s going to do next.

As the town falls to Cassidy and his ‘other’, the US Government starts to take notice. The Avengers are sent in to bring Carnage down, and in one of the few weak points of the story they get their asses handed to them in about five seconds flat.

Seriously, I suspect my grandmother could’ve done more to stop Carnage than Cap, Wolverine and the rest of them did, and my grandmother has been dead for 18 years. Their shocking performance was enough to pull me out of the story for a second, but it’s the only foot Wells puts wrong in the opening issue, and without giving too much away it does make for a fantastic big splash panel in the final pages.

Spider-Man himself manages to escape in issue two, thanks to the intervention of some of the surviving townsfolk. How this will play out remains to be seen, because much of the second issue is devoted to the five new symbiote characters that are introduced. Yes, more symbiotes. You’d think the idea had been stretched far enough, but apparently Wells disagrees. I’m going to trust him for now and see how it goes, but none of them really do much for me on the basis of this issue.

Fortunately, we’re treated to some more scenes with Cassidy being proper sinister. He is using his ‘other’ to work the townspeople like puppets, and the sight of him clutching the baby of a woman he has deemed his ‘wife’ as she kneels on the floor begging for her child’s life reveals just how dark a tale this is shaping up to be.

The artist, Clayton Crain, is on top form here. I’m a huge fan of his hyper-realistic style which reminds me in many ways of the work of Alex Ross. The way he paints Carnage himself is particularly revolting. Never before has a symbiote looked so gloopy and alive, and Crain’s artwork takes an already strong story and just lifts it to a whole new level.

Critics of Crain’s style say his panels are often too dark and muddy, and that occasionally happens here. But this is the type of story that needs “dark and muddy”. It’s the Spider-Man equivalent of the Brad Pitt movie, Se7en, and Cletus Cassidy is shaping up to be every bit as psychotic as Kevin Spacey’s John Doe character in that movie.

I read both of these issues in digital format, and Crain’s artwork impressed me so much that I’m going to seek them out in print just so I can flip through the pages and absorb the images any time I like.

As much a horror story as a superhero tale, Carnage USA is shaping up to be something really special. Whether the slew of new symbiotes will drag it down in future issues remains to be seen, but for now I’m hooked in for the ride.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

You can pre-order the hardback collected edition of Carnage USA from Amazon now. Doing so helps support ThePhantomZone.

If you don’t know about the Clone Saga then I’m not going to be the one to inflict it upon you. Suffice to say it was one of the worst, most convoluted Spider-Man stories in the character’s history, and that your life is all the better for not having read it.

There wasn’t much good that came from the Clone Saga, but there were a few potentially interesting characters contained in its apparently endless pages. One such character was Kaine – a deformed clone of Peter Parker who was twisted in both body and mind. He was one of the villains of the story, although his motivations and loyalties shifted with virtually every issue.

Anyway, fast forward 15 years or so and Kaine popped up in the pages of the recent Spider Island story arc. Without giving too much away, Kaine was presented with the opportunity to sort his act out, and the damage to his body was repaired. Fast forward another couple of months and Kaine is now the star of his very own series, Scarlet Spider. But is it any good? On the basis of this first issue it’s looking promising.

Kaine is a man on the run. Haunted by the memories of his past life as a proper wrong ‘un, he is attempting to flee the US and set himself up in a beach hut in Mexico. He plans to get money by beating the crap out of some low level criminals and stealing their loot, which he does in impressive style in this issue’s opening pages.

Things turn sour for poor Kaine, though, when he discovers a big metal crate full of dead folks who were being illegally smuggled into the country against their will. Down there among the flies and the rotting flesh he finds one survivor, and despite his better judgement he brings her to the closest hospital.

That, as far as Kaine is concerned, is the end of his involvement, but events of the story soon begin to drag him back in. He wants to run, to be able to forget his past and live a normal life, but the old Parker (clone) luck seems determined to get in the way.

What makes this such a promising issue is the character of Kaine himself. The tagline on the front cover reads “All of the power. None of the responsibility” and that sums the concept up perfectly. Kaine is Spider-Man, but without the love of Aunt May to guide him, or the tragic death of Uncle Ben to set him on the path to hero-dom.

This is not a tale of a Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Hero, it’s the story of a man torn between protecting himself and making amends for his past wrongdoings. Kaine’s moral compass is still spinning at the end of this first issue so it is unclear whether he’ll become a hero or a villain, or something else entirely. Because this is Marvel, it’s almost certain to be the former, but the path Kaine takes to get there could make for an interesting journey.

This is a strong first issue by writer Christopher Yost (X-Men, Batman) and the artwork by Ryan Stegman compliments it perfectly. I can’t wait until February to find out what these guys can do with issue 2.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Released on DVD back in August (and BluRay, if you fancy), Source Code was one of the films that got away from me when it first came out: it’s got action (everything a man needs in a film, right?), a good cast of characters (everything a woman needs? Okay, now I’m stereotyping) and a science fiction element (everything we love!). Featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga and a cast of special effects to blow your mind in their subtlety, it’s not one to miss.

The basic premise: Colter Stevens (Gyllenhall) has eight minutes to find out who set off a bomb on a train travelling to Chicago. When the eight minutes are up, he come back to reality. It should be simple enough, or so say his commanding officers, to find out who planted the bomb. The aim is to prevent a further attack. The problem: he’s only human, and he might have fallen in love with Christina (Monaghan).

While facing up with this new, er, problem, there’s also a train full of people to both save and to put up with. Things could definitely be a little less complicated for him. With a cynical comic, a panicky student and an eager businessman to survive, and only eight minutes at a time to try find the bomber, he really can’t afford to have feelings for anyone.

Overall, it’s a great film. It wasn’t an award-winner in 2011, but it’s certainly worth the watch. The plot isn’t overly complicated (always a risk with a “time travel” film): in terms of the train, the same scene is lived and relived, while the control centre follows the progress his findings have on the crime. It makes for an easy to watch story with some explosions that rival Michael Bay films and a number of special effects that make for some nice transitions between reality and the source code.

What really got me about Source Code was the repetition of scenes. While we see the train a number of times, with the same small things occurring over and over again, the differences make for distinguishing the replays of the event. The ways in which different choices affect the course of events becomes strikingly obvious in some instances, while the futility of other actions becomes immediately clear in others.

While other films along the same lines – such as Deja Vu - stretch believability to its limits, Source Code maintains a degree of plausibility within the plot. Yes, the whole thing is made up and the technology will likely never exist, but it doesn’t seem so improbable to re-create the events in a simulation.

If you’re looking for a good night in with something for everyone, this is the one to pick. Filled with excitement, it wont’ disappoint.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Director: Duncan Jones
Release date: April 1st 2011
Age certificate:  12A

Except taxidermy. No-one wants a fortnightly collection about taxidermy.

The latest collection to hit newsagents is the Marvel Ultimate Graphic Novel Collection which comes courtesy of Hachette Partworks. It claims to collect some of the most important stories in the Marvel Universe into exclusive hardback editions with some exclusive bonus content tacked on for good measure.

The books retail at £9.99 from issue 3 onwards, but part one is available now for just £2.99, and part 2 will be available for £6.99 when it is released in a week or two. But in these dark times of austerity, should you be chucking your cash at this? Short answer: “Yes, probably”. Long answer continues after the ads…

Hachette has been very clever in its choice of the first book to release in the series. It’s the classic Amazing Spider-Man tale, Coming Home, written by J Michael Straczynski with pencils by John Romita Jr. For those of you unfamiliar with the tale, it was first published in comic form back in 2002 and ushered in a new era in the life of Peter Parker.

Sick of playing second fiddle to the rest of New York, and equally fed up of having people kidnap and/or attempt to murder her, Mary Jane has given Peter the elbow, leaving him heartbroken and confused. As if that isn’t enough, a mysterious figure named Ezekiel, with powers not unlike his own turns up and starts messing with his head. Ezekiel also warns Peter that a great danger is coming that is unlike anything he has ever faced before. A few pages later, when said danger – new villain, Morlun – does turn up, the action kicks into overdrive and Peter is caught up in the fight of his life.

The reason I say Hachette has been clever in their choice of story is not just because it’s one of the best Spider-Man stories of the past 10 years, but because it’s essentially a tale about beginnings. Peter is beginning a new life without Mary Jane, he starts a new job, meets a new ally and a new enemy on the same day, and begins a journey of self-discovery that helped keep the character fresh and exciting for the next decade.

Straczynski is on top form here. He takes Spider-Man back to basics and reminds us why we love the character in the first place. This is a Spidey who is willing to risk everything – his life and his secret identity – in order to protect innocents. This is a Spidey who refuses to back down or run away if it means putting anyone else in danger. This is a Spidey who knows all too well that with great power comes great responsibility.

There is a lot of action in these pages – and I mean a lot – and the fighting and swinging stuff is drawn perfectly by Romita. The only part of the artwork I have issue with is the way Romita draws faces. More often than not they look oddly ape-like, and in the scenes where Ezekiel first makes his appearance he looks more like X-Men’s Beast than someone with spider-powers as he leaps and swings through the city.

Despite all the action, it is Peter’s intelligence that ultimately saves the day, which is a nice touch, and something we sometimes don’t get to see enough of.  Straczynksi gives us a character that is Peter Parker first and Spider-Man second, and the story is all the stronger for it.

So, do I recommend you pick this first issue up for £2.99? Yes. God yes. The paperback is available on Amazon for £9.00, and for less than a third of that price you’re getting a nice hardback edition with a few pages of extra artwork and character biographies. The next issue in the series is the X-Men’s Dark Phoenix Saga which collects Uncanny X-Men #129-137. This is another steal at £6.99, and I’ll definitely be grabbing my copy as soon as it appears in the shops.

For more information on the Marvel Ultimate Graphic Novel Collection, check out the official website.