The Spider-Man: Breakout trade paper back collects the five issue Spider-Man: Breakout miniseries that was originally published between June - October 2005. Breakout expands upon some of the events that occur in the first few issues of New Avengers. Basically, if you haven't read the New Avengers Vol.1 trade paper back, you'll struggle to make much sense of Breakout. To re-cap, New Avengers began with a prison break, instigated by Electro, that results in the escape of a large number of supervillians from the island prison call "The Raft". A number of heroes, including Spider-Man, are in the area, and attempt to stop the breakout. These events are the catalyst for the formation of the New Avengers.

Breakout opens sometime prior to the events featured in the New Avengers, and focuses more on two rival criminal factions, who have a world class beef with one another. Once the breakout occurs, these two factions take their problems out on one another, with New York as the back drop. Spider-Man is caught in the middle.

As the New Avengers haven't officially been 'assembled' yet, Spider-Man is left mostly on his own devices to figure out why the two groups are trying to kill each other, and why they've stayed in New York when they could have skipped town already. Are they looking for something? Or someone?

Breakout is a strange miniseries, and I can't really figure out what the motivation for it was? Perhaps Marvel wanted to capitalise on the popularity of Spider-Man a little more, and decided to rush this one out, but I still don't see how this warranted it's own miniseries. The problem I had with breakout was that it doesn't really add anything to the New Avengers story, and it's more about the villains than it is Spider-Man, although that's not necessarily a bad thing.

As far as tie-ins go, this is probably one of the more unnecessary ones that I've read. While the story following the villains is interested, I'm not sure that it's deserving of it's own series. The artwork is good, and the characters are interesting enough, but it still, I can only give this a generous 6 out of 10. Fortunately I picked this one up for a couple of bucks in the last TFAW scratch and dent sale, otherwise I may not have felt so generous in my assessment.

The Dark Phoenix Saga is arguably the most recognised and referenced stories in the X-Men catalogue. It has served as the inspiration for much of the original X-Men animated series, as well as the X-Men live action movies. The Dark Phoenix saga is featured in X-Men Vol. 1 #129-138 during 1980, and now collected in trade paper back X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga.

When talking about the Dark Phoenix Saga, it's important to know that originally the Phoenix actually was Jean Grey, at the height of her powers, and was not simply a cosmic entity linked to her, as is the case since the character was retconned by Marvel in later issues.

In an earlier arc, Jean Grey was exposed to radiation from a solar flare, which unlocked her powers so she achieved all her telepathic and telekinetic potential. She turned into a 'being of pure thought', and upon reforming herself once she returned to Earth, took on a new costume, identity and wielded the power of the "Phoenix". After repairing the damaged M'Kraan Crystal, she saw the danger her powers posed on voluntarily kept them under control. These events led into the Dark Phoenix saga...

Recognising her immense power, Jean Grey became the target of Mastermind, as he attempted to gain the favour of the Hellfire Club. With the help of the White Queen, an evil Emma Frost, Mastermind (aka. Jason Wyngarde) projected his illusions directly into Jean Grey's mind, making her believe that she was actually living in period times as Lady Grey, Wyngarde's lover. Through Mastermind's manipulations, Jean Grey joined the Hellfire Club as the Black Queen, a role that lead to the breaking of the barriers she had created to keep the Phoenix under control.

When the X-Men came to her rescue, her love for Cyclops broke the psychic hold Mastermind had over her. At the same time though, the last of the psychic barriers keeping the Phoenix in check was also broken. Jean Grey's mind and body was taken over, and she called herself the "Dark Phoenix".

After a brief battle in which the Dark Phoenix hand the X-Men their asses on a silver platter, Dark Phoenix grew hungry, created a wormhole, and disappeared, transporting herself to another galaxy, devouring the power of a star, which in turn went nova, causing the deals of billions of innocent aliens in the process. A passing Shi'ar space craft spotted the carnage, and attacked the Dark Phoenix, in an effort to stop any further destruction. Before they were destroyed, the Shi'ar were able to transmit a message to their Empress Lilandra, warning her of the threat. Lilandra gathered a posse of intergalactic butt kickers, including the Kree and Skrull empires, who all came to the same conclusion. The Dark Phoenix was bad news, a bigger threat than Galactus, and needed to be stopped immediately.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the X-Men and Beast (who was a member of the Avengers at the time), devised a plan that would nullify the powers of the Dark Phoenix long enough for them to defeat her. Lucky for them, because before they could say 'Magneto's hairy nipple', the Dark Phoenix had returned to earth. Their plan worked and Professor X was able to rebuild some psychic circuit breakers, in order to keep the Dark Phoenix's powers at a more manageable level.

Bad luck comes in threes, so the Shi'ar arrive, abducting the X-Men, informing them that the Dark Phoenix had killed billions and had been sentenced to death. Professor X, who was tapping Lilandra at the time, challenged the Shi'ar to a duel of honour. If the Shi'ar won, the Dark Phoenix would be killed, if the X-Men won, she would be granted mercy.
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Wolverine and Mystique are two of the X-Men universe characters that I find most interesting, although much of Wolverine's mystery is quickly being eroded (see Origins). The Wolverine: Get Mystique trade paper back collects Wolverine issues #62-65, and follows on from the events seen in the X-Men event, Messiah Complex.

The story begins with a flash back. Wolverine is beaten, dragged outside and tied to a post to be shot by a firing squad, a voice next to him asks if he's a murderer. The voice turns out to be Mystique.
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War Games was a Batman cross-over/event that ran in DC Comics between October 2004 and January 2005. The War Games story arc appeared in all the Gotham related titles running at the time, Detective Comics, Legends of the Dark Knight, Nightwing, Batman: Gotham Knights, Robin, Batgirl, Catwoman, Batman, and Gotham Central. The War Games story arc has since been collected in three trade paper backs, Batman: War Games, Act One - Outbreak, Batman: War Games, Act Two - Tides and Batman: War Games, Act Three - Endgame.

The story begins with Stephanie Brown (aka. Spoiler), trying to redeem herself in the eyes of Batman, after recently been fired as Robin. In an effort to regain Batman's confidence, and hoping to take back her Robin mantle, Spoiler sets into motion an elaborate contingency plan Batman had developed in the event of widespread gang violence. In essence the plan involved gathering all of Gotham's crime figures together and to unite them under a single crime boss, Matches Malone, and alias used by Batman to infiltrate Gotham's organised crime. In effect this plan would have given Batman control of Gotham's organised crime, if it were to go to plan. Unfortunately, Spoiler was not aware that Batman and Matches Malone were the same person.

When Spoiler gathers the crime figures without Batman's knowledge, and with Matches Malone an obvious no show, things turn pear shaped, and the gangs go to war with one another. Batman and friends are immediately drawn into the action, trying to put an end to the war before Gotham is destroyed.

In the chaos, The Black Mask appears, a villain that shares a history with both Batman and Bruce Wayne. An opportunist, the Black Mask decides to step into the role Matches Malone was intended to play. With Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Oracle, Batgirl and Catwoman stretched to breaking point, Spoiler is captured and tortured by the Black Mask. When Black Mask learns the truth behind the War Games scenario being played out in Gotham, he has all the information he needs in order to take control, and rule Gotham City's underworld.
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I just read on the Marvel website that Joe Johnston has signed on to direct the Captain America movie. This is pretty big news, actually I hadn't even heard that a Captain America movie had been confirmed.

Any way, here's what Marvel have to say on their website:

Joe Johnston has signed on to direct Marvel Studios' "The First Avenger: Captain America" based on characters developed by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. The film will be produced by Marvel Studios' President Kevin Feige. Executive Producers on the project are Louis D'Esposito, Stan Lee and Marvel Studios' Chairman David Maisel. Paramount Pictures will distribute "The First Avenger: Captain America" worldwide. The film will come to theaters domestically on May 6, 2011.

It what some people might view as a concern, Johnston's track recorded is not exactly golden. He has previously directed "October Sky," "Jumanji," "Jurassic Park III," "The Rocketeer" and "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids."

I have to admit, I had been very close to dropping Wolverine Origins up until volume 4 (collecting Wolverine: Origins #16-20 and Annual #1), in which did just enough to maintain my interest, largely due to the appearance of Captain America, Bucky and Nick Fury in the World War II flashbacks. The appearance of Deadpool on the last page of issue #20 had me eagerly anticipating the release of volume 4.

I pre-ordered Wolverine: Origins Volume 5 - Deadpool Premiere HC (Wolverine) from Amazon, fortunately before the value of the Aussie dollar took a nosedive. Wolverine: Origins Volume 5 collected issues #21-27 (even though Amazon only list it as containing #21-25) and begins with Deadpool having been hired by a mysterious third party to catch and kill Wolverine. The action takes place in San Francisco, and basically follows Deadpool doing what he does, running around, wise cracking and blowing stuff up. The running battle spans three plus issues, as you'd expect of two guys that can pretty much heal from any wound. In the end though, it's Deadpool that gets the upper hand, managing to bring Wolverine down.

As Deadpool has Wolverine restrained and strung up over a swimming pool, with the intention of drowning him, Wolverine's son Daken arrives and proceeds to cut off poor Deadpool's hand. Daken flicks the switch that would drop his old man into the water, however an explosion throws Wolverine against a wall and he remains on land. A single handed Deadpool then goes toe to toe with Daken. In the mean time Wolverine is able to free himself. » Read the rest of the entry..