Waughbag: War!

[JonWahizzle]

The drums of war are being beaten once again in the comic landscape. This time, it’s Marvel marching in, declaring a (nother) major event that will probably “change the Marvel universe FOREVER!” So what are these cryptic images of Thor’s shattered hammer (happens to him a lot, doesn’t it), Iron Man’s bullet-holed helmet, and Wolverine’s seared to the bone forearm supposed to mean?

Beats me, but it’s a safe bet that we’re getting another event soon. What? So soon after Avengers vs. X-Men you say? Well, yeah, it’s how Marvel runs now. Event begets event begets event. “House Of M” led to “Civil War”, which led to “World War Hulk”, which led to “Secret Invasion”, which led to “Dark Reign”, which led to “Siege”, which led to…

I could go on, but I’m getting a headache. Remember when “Siege” was coming out, and Marvel said that it would be their last event for a while? Seems cute that they said it now, doesn’t it? Events are so prevalent now that people are getting tired of getting tired of events! I’ve seen on the interwebs rumblings that there will be some creative shake ups at Marvel following Avengers vs. X-Men, so perhaps this will lead to whatever this “war” is into a more positive light.

While this may be another Fear Itself waiting in the wings, I’m personally holding out for these images to be teasing “The Ultron War”, the event that Brian Michael Bendis hinted at in one of the .1 issues of Avengers with Bryan Hitch. With Bendis leaving the Avengers titles soon, one would think that this event leading to the return of the mass-murdering robot to be a safe bet. Lord knows I’d love to see current roster of Avengers (including the Secret, New, and Academy teams) face off with Ultron, my favorite villain of theirs.

Having just read the “Ultron Unlimited” trade from Kurt Busiek and George Perez this week, I really want to see more of Ultron in the current Marvel universe. In fact, the hints have been there for a while now. There’s the already mentioned .1 issue of Avengers, which all but showed Ultron within it’s pages, but also the timeline shown in the first storyline of the relaunched Avengers series, in which Earth’s Mightiest Heroes traveled to a possible future. Ultron also figured prominently in the opening issues of the Bendis-penned Moon Knight series that recently wrapped. Granted, it was the disembodied head of one of his robot duplicates, but still, it was a Bendis-written story that teased Ultron, he’s gotta be coming.

While I’m holding out hope for an event that I’m actually, legitimately looking forward to, like many of you I’ll be waiting until San Diego Comic Con, when Marvel will finally reveal “The Ultron War”. Or “The Avengers War”. Or most likely, “The Relaunch War”.

And this is what I get for writing on this topic BEFORE the week is out. It’s a new Punisher series, titled, you guessed it, “Punisher War Zone”. I’m not changing anything above, as I’m still holding out hope for the Ultron War, but of course, it’s typical Marvel to release ANOTHER Punisher title. Or maybe it’s a storyline? Regardless, the fact of the matter is that we have Punisher presumably fighting the Avengers, an okay concept until you realize that he’s just a guy and that anyone of the people shown in those pictures would mop the floor with him, and probably has.

Marvel, just STOP already.