Coulson Lives

In The Avengers, everyone was sad when Agent Coulson died, and with good reason. He was a great character. But some people say that things aren't as they seem. I don't know about you, but I've been keeping up with Stan Lee on Facebook and Youtube, and there's something I've noticed in some of his videos. On his Youtube channel, there are many different types of videos, including a series of cartoons titled Bad Days, which is about comicbook characters having bad days (I probably didn't need to explain that). But anyway, in a fair amount of these little cartoons, the words "Coulson Lives" appear in the background for maybe one or two seconds. It might be in graffiti, on a passing vehicle, or anything like that. If it was just once, I'd say maybe Marvel is just trolling us (and doing a good job of it). But it's been in way more than one video, so I was thinking something might be up. If I remember correctly, Coulson was wounded from a fight with Loki, then pronounced dead by another character. He looked pretty dead to me, but it wasn't one of those deaths that can't be faked or secretly survived, like falling into lava or something like that. So I suppose he could have survived and they faked his death to motivate the Avengers. To be honest though, that would surprise me. I think it would be more reasonable if they found another explanation (NOT time travel!). However, I did hear that not only is Joss Whedon working with Marvel on a TV show about SHIELD, which is already awesome, but that Phil Coulson is going to be in it! And apparently it will take place after the events of Avengers. If that's true, I feel like the Coulson Lives messages were a subtle way of telling just the fans that we haven't seen the last of him.

Marvel Now

Warning: I don't consider myself an angry nerd, but this will be an angry post. Now that I've warned you, let's get into it:

I recently heard that Marvel is going to do their own version of the New 52. I don't have all the facts yet, so I don't know whether to be angry or glad. If they still plan on continuing the already existing Marvel universe, and simply making another one to start fresh, I'm glad. That means they'll get more new readers without driving any away, which means they'll make more money and be able to make more cool stuff. If they plan on replacing the current Marvel universe that's been going since the 40's, then I should be the director of SHIELD, because I am Fury (that wasn't my best pun, but I'm still proud of it). The Marvel universe is quite possibly the longest continuous story in the history of mankind, and if they plan on just ending it and starting a new one, well, that's just not ok with me. To me, that sounds like Marvel saying "Oh yeah, all those comic books you bought in your years of devotion? Those are the past now. If you want to stay a respectable Marvel fan, you have to support our decision to abandon that continuity you love so much"..... I may be overreacting. Especially since I'm not 100% sure that's what's happening. Then again, I may not be. About 97% of the titles I read are from the Big 2. When DC announced their plans for the New 52, I thought: "Well, at least I'll still have Marvel for the beloved complexity that only a true fan can understand". Right? Wrong. If Marvel ends and restarts their mainstream universe, then WHAT DO I HAVE NOW?!! TELL ME THAT, MARVEL!!!! Sorry, that happens to me sometimes. And is it just me, or does this idea remind you of numerous evil plots to destroy human civilization and start again in order to mold it to the plotter's liking? For example, Centrius, the High Evolutionary, the dude from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, the dude from Mission Impossible 4, kind of the Doomsday Killer from Dexter, etc. Plus, unless they get Stan The Man to write A LOT of their new material, they'll be nullifying his works, and they can't exactly get King Kirby to do any art for their new titles,  since he's kinda dead. Which is really too bad, since Stan Lee is probably the coolest person in the comic book industry, and with some more modern art techniques, I'd love to see what Jack Kirby would do. Without The King and The Man, how can they begin a proper Marvel universe? I'm sure they have a lot of smart people over there, so why can't they come up with some other way to boost their popularity? There's always another way! WHY DID IT HAVE TO COME TO THIS?!!! Now that I've released all that... whatever that was, I'll end by saying that Marvel has done tons of things I liked and a couple I didn't (Brand New Day, anyone?), but discontinuing their decades-long continuity would be, in my eyes, their worst decision yet.