The Greatest Avengers Story I Ever Read

Blog Post #18

I wrote the below review about the trade paperback and added my filmmaker's opinion about how we can see an adaptation!

Avengers: Under Siege by Roger Stern
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Way back when these were originally published (1986-1987) I read the original printing of these issues Avengers #270-277-- written by Roger Stern and illustrated by John Buscema and Tom Palmer.

I had been reading the Avengers for about six months when this storyline came up and I thought it was one of the best comic book stories I have ever read. I guess Marvel Comics did too and published this storyline in this trade paperback.

Led by Baron Zemo, the newly formed Masters of Evil formulated a plan to not only defeat the Avengers, but completely decimate them.

The Avengers line-up at the time of the siege was:
Captain America
Captain Marvel
Black Knight
Hercules
Wasp

Joining later was:
Thor
Doctor Druid

The Masters of Evil were:
Baron Helmut Zemo
Absorbing Man
Blackout
Black Mamba
Fixer
Goliath
Grey Gargoyle
Mister Hyde
Moonstone
Screaming Mimi
Tiger Shark
Titania
Whirlwind
Yellowjacket

The Wrecking Crew
    Bulldozer
    Piledriver
   Thunderball
   Wrecker

The panel from the Avengers book that introduces the Masters of Evil

As you can see the numbers were stacked against the Avengers and The Masters of Evil took on the Avengers piece by piece. Just when you thought there was no way the Avengers could survive…well you have to read the book, but everything in the end was not a happy ending.

Ultimately though it was a great storyline filled with action and plot twists and as Oliver Sava, A.V.Club.com put it "Roger Stern and John Buscema's 1986 story arc 'Under Siege' finds Avengers Mansion under attack by a new Masters of Evil, leading to one of the purest superhero-vs.-supervillain team fights ever put on the page.”

FILMMAKERS OPINION
As stated this was one of the greatest superhero/supervillain battles ever and of course given the success of the Avengers movie (2012) this would make a great follow-up…but it’s just too expensive to ever make into a live action film.

The fights in the book were awesome and bombastic and possibly could be filmed, but the amount of characters, heroes and villains would just be too much.

I think for an ANIMATED film it could be a great adaptation.


*You can read this story yourself in the trade paperback "Avengers: Under Siege". Look for it at your library or book retailer.

RELATED:
Another Cool Black's Mad Meditation "Ranking the Solo Avengers Movies" click the graphic below to read it!


View all my BOOK reviews

Magna Carta Holy Grail - The Cool Black Review

MAGNA CARTA HOLY GRAIL

Before I start, some background.

On June 16 during the fifth game of the 2013 NBA Finals, Jay-Z was featured in a new commercial by Samsung where he announced that his twelfth studio album would be titled, Magna Carta Holy Grail and would be released on July 4, 2013. He was seen speaking to producer Rick Rubin in the studio about the album saying, "The album is about, like this duality of how do you navigate through this whole thing, through success, through failures, through all this and remain yourself." The commercial featured producers that are confirmed to be on the album including Timbaland, Swizz Beatz and Pharrell Williams. The album was available for free download on July 4, 12:01 a.m. EST, to the first one million Samsung mobile device users via an app. —Wikipedia

Watch that spot below.

I was watching that fifth game of the 2013 NBA Finals when that commercial came on and in the subsequent days when the online hype reached a fever pitch I posted the below on social media.

Let me tell you about this #MagnaCarta. I'm a Jay-Z fan, I bought his last Ep #LiveInBrooklyn and will probably buy this new one, no frontin, BUT let me be clear unless he was holding them for this album Hov's mic skills have fell the f*ck OFF! I can't remember the last time I heard a Hov verse and said "YOOOO that was the sh*t!" I mean the best MC on #WatchTheThrone wasn't Hov. Let's keep it real. Bringing in all these superstar producers? *Yawn*  I'm not a fan of JUST hot beats I'm a fan of wicked rhymes and effortless spitting. Give me the complete package or don't do it!  I'm still a fan, but don't expect me to fall for the okey doke because you got some other stars on the album. If that's it he needs to as his t-shirt says #GoHome.

Well it seems like hot beats may be enough because I have to admit MCHG was one of the best hip hop albums of summer 2013. As stated MCHG has some superstar producers and the beats aren’t just hot, they’re smoking hot! 

From the album opening Holy Grail featuring Justin Timberlake to the old school sounding beats of Picasso Baby (both produced by Timbaland) the album don’t stop with the hot tracks. 

Pharrell comes through with the bangers Oceans (featuring Frank Ocean) and BBC featuring NaS, but it is Timbaland that reigns heavy over MCHG. Timbaland worked on 7 out the 14 songs, an astounding SIX of those seven are HOT! It has to be said that Timbaland has co-credits on most of these songs, but most of them he has “chief credit”.

Among the best Timbaland songs are the best use of a Biggie sample I’ve ever heard on JAY Z Blue. The song cleverly blends samples from "My Downfall" by The Notorious B.I.G. with Jay-Z’s vocals. Timbaland also produced the R&B sounding Part II (On the Run) featuring Beyoncé that is mostly R&B, but a great “sequel” to Hov & B’s 03 Bonnie & Clyde. The other HOT tracks Timbaland worked on were the aforementioned Oceans and FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt.

In the end, Hov’s rhymes aren’t as innovative as they used to be, but they’re good enough to still make hot songs and in this case one of the hottest albums of the summer. I really have to say that. After giving much shade and skepticism over the way he announced the album, I think he deserves as much.

Below is what I thought were the HOT tracks.

1. Holy Grail (featuring Justin Timberlake) HOT

2. Picasso Baby HOT 

3. Tom Ford HOT

4. FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt (featuring Rick Ross) HOT

5. Oceans (featuring Frank Ocean) HOT

6. F.U.T.W.  

7. Somewhereinamerica  

8. Crown warm

9. Heaven

10. Versus (interlude)

11. Part II (On the Run) (featuring Beyoncé) HOT

12. Beach Is Better (interlude)

13. BBC (featuring NaS) HOT

14. JAY Z Blue HOT

15. La Familia

16. Nickels and Dimes warm

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