SIM Anime and Gaming Club

---posting on behalf of our member Travis---

1st May, 2013 

Let's do a review of what happens to Superheroes in their comic’s universe during the time their movies come out, staring with Iron Man:
In 2008, Matt Fraction became the prominent writer of Invincible Iron Man, introducing a conflict against Obadiah's son.
Unfortunately for Iron Man fans, the following year was the worst time to be Tony Stark, the man who lost everything to Norman Osborn.
After hitting rock bottom in the spring of 2010, he got back on his feet with a new company and armor, just in time for Iron Man 2.

During the time X-men Origins: Wolverine came out, the main title was being occupied by Mark Millar's alternate universe dystopia “Old Logan”.
In the sister title “Wolverine: Origins” the storyline was dealing yet again with Wolverine’s fight against his murderous son who’s status as a killer was on the rise.
In 2011, four superhero films came out. The first was Thor. Around the movie’s release date, marvel published several series starring Thor, apart from the flagship title.
Shortly after the movie’s release in May, the main series was relaunched as “The Mighty Thor” with a storyline regarding Asgard’s continuing existence in Broxton, Oklahoma, and the Silver Surfer’s arrival to seek help to drive away Galactus.
Later that summer came the company-wide crossover event Fear Itself, which focused on the return and destruction of Thor’s banished uncle, The Serpent.
The event concluded with a battle between the two and with both of them dying. Thor was later brought back to life in the spring of 2012.

In June of 2011, X-men: First Class came out. Not much happened with Marvel’s merry mutants during that time other than when Kieron Gillen became th sole writer for the flagship series and that the series got caught in the Fear Itself event. However, shortly after that fiasco, came the status quo changing Schism, where the X-men ended up splitting into two camps: Cyclops and his Utopia base near San Francisco forming the Extinction team that fights for mutantkind’s survival, and Wolverine’s X-men who return to Westchester, New York to reopen the school for gifted youngsters to teach them how to use their powers to integrate into human society.



Later that summer was DC Comics’ cinematic entry, Green Lantern. Around the movie’s release, Hal Jordan, the main Lantern in the franchise, he and his power ring bearing brothers in arms get right in the middle of the conflict known as War of the Green Lanterns, which involved donning the rings of other similarly colored lantern corps, and Hal killing a corrupt Guardian of the Universe, leading to stripping of his ring and title. In September the same year, the new series begins with the powerless Hal being dragged into a conflict by his longtime nemesis and former mentor Sinestro, who is now granted the position of a Green Lantern again.

In late July, Marvel released their next superhero film as the final film of their Avengers Initiative, Captain America: The First Avenger.
During that time, in the comics, Steve Rogers resumes his title of Captain America, after his successor Bucky Barnes appeared to have been killed in action during the Fear Itself storyline.
The relaunched series was written by longtime Captain America Writer Ed Brubaker, who has been writing the title since 2005.
At the same time, another series also written by Brubaker featured Cap teaming up with partners from the past and present: Bucky, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Namor, and Black Widow.



Then came 2012, the year of the release of the most anticipated superhero movie everyone was waiting for – Marvel’s The Avengers.
Two interesting comics were going on during that time, in the main Avengers storyline, written by Avengers veteran writer Brian Michael Bendis, the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes went into war with Marvel’s premiere team of mutants the X-Men, involving an incoming cosmic force and the fate of the world.
At the same time however, Bendis started writing a new Avengers series titled Avengers Assemble, starring the team roster from that summer’s blockbuster on a canon, but standalone adventure.

Later that summer, Marvel’s reboot of the beloved wallcrawler, The Amazing Spider-Man leapt onto the big screen. Around that time, our hero is put into a dangerous situation as his prominent foe Doctor Octopus holds the entire planet hostage in Ends of the Earth.
To make matters worse, he puts a bounty on Spidey’s head to stop him from foiling his pot, and that means having even the Avengers to bring him down. By the end of the year, writer Dan Slott made a bold move by killing off Peter Parker and having the role of Spider-Man given to Doc Ock, who now has his mind planted into Peter’s body. Starting 2013, the era of the Superior Spider-man began.

The last Superhero movie of 2012 was DC’s and Christopher Nolan’s third and final installment of The Dark Knight Trilogy: The Dark Knight Rises.
When it was released in July, the Batman comics at that point in time were concluding Batman’s first case since the New 52 reboot. The case in question was the Court of Owls, secret illuminati that has been controlling Gotham behind the scenes for centuries.
During that summer, the Court began their assault on the city, targeting important elites and officials, and Batman with his team spent a night protecting the targets and finding out who is behind the Court.
In May that year, came the revival of Grant Morrison’s hit series Batman, Incorporated. The series was a continuation of the Dark Knight’s global fight against crime by recruiting superheroes from around the world to face the terrorist entity known as Leviathan.
Recently, the series has come to a low note as Batman not only loses an agent in his international crusade, but also a family member.

In the coming months, we will be treated to more superhero films such as Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, The Wolverine, and Man of Steel.
Who knows what storylines would come up during the movie’s run?
It is said that Wolverine’s upcoming story arc, written by Paul Cornell will be called Killable, which somehow ties with the plot of this year’s movie if the trailers are anything to go by.
Only time will tell us what to expect. I look forward to knowing what storylines the companies can come up with to bring in the fans of the movies.