Here it is! At last…. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR! Here’s the full trailer and below I recorded a little commentary. So pull up the trailer on a another device and play my commentary to go along with it! Friends, this looks fucking mind blowing…
My commentary:
Hey, guys
By now a lot of you have probably seen Thor: Ragnarok. I saw it and thought it was a blast, if you’ve haven’t had the chance yet, check out our podcast, “The World’s Best Podcast with Paul & Tim”, where we discuss and review (with spoilers) Thor: Ragnarok. It’s one of our best Episodes and we had a lot of fun making it.
I’m always looking for an opportunity to talk about comics. This seemed like a great opportunity to recommend some Comic Books/Graphic Novels to read AFTER you’ve seen Thor: Ragnarok. This film was filled with references and Easter Eggs to some classic Marvel stories. Much of the plot and story elements of Thor: Ragnarok are heavily influenced by 2 or 3 Marvel Graphic Novels, which I’ll list below. I’m also including a few books that are great places to start if you’re looking to read some great Thor or Hulk stories, but aren’t sure where to start.
I’m a big advocate for the medium. Anytime I write an article about great graphic novels, I usually include an Amazon link for the comic book I’m recommending so our readers can easily find the book if they decide they want to check it out. This wasn’t part of any promotion we’d arranged with Amazon, I just wanted to point people in the right direction. But World’s Best Media has grown way beyond the blog I started. We want to continue to give you all of our great podcasts, articles, reviews, videos and more of the best content possible. So, now if you decide you want to purchase one of the graphic novels, movies, or any other stuff we recommend, by going through the Amazon links we provide (like the ones below), a small percentage of the money goes back to us at World’s Best Media to help keep us up and running. So if any of you want buy any of the things we recommend, going through our Amazon Affiliate link would be a huge help and massively appreciated. We don’t ask that you go out of your way, but if you’re going to buy something on Amazon anyway, It’d be great if you went through our links. Thank you so much for all of your support.
Now, here are the best Comic Book/Graphich Novels to read after you’ve seen Thor: Ragnarok…
Planet HulkWritten by Greg Pak/Art by Carlo Pagulayan & Aaron Lopresti
Planet Hulk is sensually Gladiator in space starring The Hulk instead of Russell Crowe. That’s one hell of a hook. In the Marvel comics there’s a group called The Illuminati, they consist of key, powerful individuals from each corner of the Marvel Universe, all of Marvel’s different groups like The Avengers, X-Men, FF, etc. are represented in some form form or another. They include Tony Stark, Doctor Strange, Reed Richards, Charles Xavier and more. They’re kind of a bunch of pricks actually
Fearing that he will eventually become too dangerous and get out of control, The Illuminati (the pricks that they are) form a plan to trick Banner and send him (Long with the Hulk off Earth permanently ). They pick an uninhabited, ideallic, peaceful planet with everything he needs supplied on the ship to live out his natural life in comfort. In the eyes of Illuminati they are protecting the planet Earth and giving their friend Bruce Banner what he’s always wanted: some peace, to be left alone (Sure, justify it all you want you fucks). Being geniuses and all, you’d think that once Banner was on the space ship and a tape plays explaining what his so called “friends” had done to him, that The Illuminati could have predicted The Hulk would go apeshit and fuck up the space ship. Which, of course, he does. This knocks the ship off course and instead of landing on paradise planet he ends up on Sakaar , or as The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy called it, “The Gaping Asshole Of The Galaxy: 2016”. Ruled by a tyrannical King, one of the biggest parts of Sakaar’s culture is their Gladiator matches. The upper class of Sakaar watch various alien beings fight to the death. Using a device that allows the King of Sakaar and his minions to control Hulk, he reluctantly becomes a gladiator in the Gladiator Arena. Needless to say it’s fucking awesome. I’m sure you can imagine The Hulk would be pretty fucking good as a gladiator , even on an alien plane. The device keeping him a slave only keeps him from escaping, otherwise when he’s in the arena The Hulk cuts loose big time. It doesn’t take long for Hulk to becomes their star gladiator and eventually after making some a few friends and even falling in love, he leads a revolution to free all the slaves. I’ll stop hear because that’s the basic set up and it wouldn’t want say anymore to ruin the story. One of the unique and touching things about this comic is that out in space, The Hulk doesn’t look like a monster (he’s still scary to the other aliens when he wants to be) and all of admiration, acceptance and love that he was denied on Earth, he found here on this far away planet. It’s a great story with a gut punch of an ending which I won’t spoil here. The vast majority of The Hulk stuff in Thor: Ragnarok is from the Planet Hulk story. But not just that there are places and characters that are important in the comic that pop up in the new film. Including Korg the rock man and Meek his little friend he carries around, they’re key characters in Planet Hulk. Don’t think that just because you’ve seen Thor: Ragnarok that the Planet Hulk storyline is spoiled, it goes in some very different directions. It’s a modern classic Hulk story and any Hulk or Marvel fan needs to give this one a shot.
Thor: Dissassembled Wrtten by Mike Avon Oeming/Art by Andrea Di Vito
In the early aughts, a legendary comic book writer named Brian Michael Bendas began his run on what would become a classic run on the Avengers franchise. Before the main event you series began, he wrote a miniseries that set up the events of his upcoming Avengers run called Avengers Disassembled. Avengers Disassembled had a massive impact on the Avengers comics that are still being felt today, over 15 years later. The Avengers would never be the same. Along with this massive status quo change, many of the flagship Marvel characters got the similar clean slate treatment where big cataclysmic events happened in their lives. So there was Iron Man Disassembled, Captain America Disassembled, and most relevant here Thor Disassembled. Thor Disassembled is the biggest influence on for Thor: Ragnarok besides Planet Hulk. In the story, Ragnarok the Apocalypse for the Norse gods has begun. Loki, Hela, Surtur The Fire Demon, and Fenris Wolf all play a huge part. Ragnarok was an event that had been prophesies for centuries, so the Asgardians knew that one day this day would come. Much like the events of Thor: Ragnarok, Thor, Odin , Loki, and all the other gods were destroyed along with Asgard. However in Norse mythology death and rebirth is cyclical. Much like the revolving door of life and death in Comics. After Ragnarok it was destined for the gods to be reborn and starting with Thor, the new all father, Odin’s time having past. Though beloved by some, this is not a fantastic graphic novels by today’s standards. There are other Thor books that a excellent reads (a few I’ll list below). While Thor Disassembled isn’t great when compared to Marvel’s storytelling out put over the last 15 – 18 years. It’s not going to be one of your favorite comic books of all time., but it has some great moments especially if you’re interested after seeing Thor: Ragnarok. Asgard and everyone in it are completely take off the board in the Marvel Universe for several years after this story. However, that is far from the end of Thor Odinson and The Asgardians in the Marvel Universe.
World War Hulk Written by /Art by John Romitta Jr,
After years of living a happy life and ruling the planet Sakaar with a wife and child on the way Hulk was finally at peace. Until the ship that brought him to the planet Sakaar in the first place (built by The Illuminati, these fucking guys again) suddenly explodes in a devastating wave killing Hulk’s pregnant wife, unborn child, dear friends, and more. Hulk has anger issues in the best of times, so after this, well… woe unto those who stand his way. As far as the Hulk Is concerned, The Illuminati are responsible for this death and destruction. Hulk gathers his greatest and most trusted warriors (including Korg the rock alien from Thor: Ragnarok) and comes to Earth in a Sakaaran Warship, seeking vengeance with brutal and unstoppable wrath. These fuckers finally pushed The Hulk too far. Thus World War Hulk begins. The Hulk has one main target, those pricks in The Illuminati: Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, Namor, and unbeknownst to Hulk (the deceased, at the moment anyway) Charles Xavier. He means to make them pay for the lives they took and the mistakes that they made. Many classic comic book questions like who would win in a fight between The Hulk and (X) are answered here. This is balls to the walls action, but there are some great character moments throughout. Including some surprising revelations about exactly who are Hulk’s friends and who are his enemies. It’s a great book and a great sequel to Planet Hulk.
Thor: God of Thunder Vol.1 Written by Jason Aaron /Art by Esad Ribic
Thor: God of Thunder was started by Jason Aaron during Marvel’s, Marvel Now ! Initiative. It was by far one of the best books that came out at that time. Even though there’s been all kinds of crazy Marvel events and Thor books under new names, Jason Aaron’s Thor epic is still going strong, just under the new name, The Mighty Thor.
Thor: God of Thunder follows Thor through the eons and focuses on Thor at three very different points in his life. The past, present, and the distant future. The past, when he was a young irresponsible drunk, hanging out with the Vikings on Midgard, slaying any monster he could find, sleeping with any women he could find, and spending the entire time drinking copious amounts of ale. His dream is to one day weird the mighty Mijonir. This is not the Thor we know today, this is the Thor who is not yet worthy to wield the mighty Mijonir. He loves Earth and the humans who occupy it, but he doesn’t have the same humility and respect for humanity that we tend to see in Thor, but the hero is in there.
In the present, we see the Thor we know and love, the god that has become worthy to wield the mighty hammer. Thor: The Avenger. Hen he may be god, but he’s the type of guy you’d like to hang out and have a beer with. He’s gained some depth and humility since his younger days and learned the value of responsibility.
Finally we see millennia into the future where Old King Thor is one of the final gods in existence. Midgard has burned. Thor is The All-Father to a ruined and desolate Asgard. His only company is the wave after wave sent to him by Gor The God Biutcher. He is in a constant state of exhaustion to keep the army of his vicious and me at bay. Thor looks a lot like Odin here, he’s missing an eye like we see in the movie, and he seems to be missing his left arm. I’m not sure what the arm is made of, but it look similar to the material The Destroyer is built from. Any, even though I’m sure he‘d like his flesh and blood arm back, the one that’s forged for him functions exactly like a “normal” arm. We find out later in the story that after Thor lost his arm, the dwarves, the best smiths and makers in all of the nine realms forged him an arm prosthetic that makes him as good as new.
The common thread throughout the story, as we see Thor in these three very different points in his life is Gorr The God butcher. He’s basically a serial killer for god‘s. An absolute sadist and one of the dangerous most dangerous foes Thor has ever encountered. Why he is doing this and how he became so powerful is revealed throughout the story, so I won’t spoil it here. But it’s a fascinating and thought provoking story. Future All-Father Thor is keeping Gorr’s minions at bay, but Gorr’s real weapon is the Necrosword. This is rather cool Easter egg from Thor: Ragnarok. For reasons unknown, Hela wielded The Necrosword in the film. All that crazy black shit she could use to attack people and the fact that she was seemingly unstoppable, a lot of that came from the Necrosword, a incredibly powerful weapon. Don’t get me wrong, Hela is monumentally formidable on her own, but with the Necrosword she’s nearly impossible to beat. And to be honest I do not think she died in the destruction of Asgard. (Also, the inclusion of The Necrosword make hopeful we may see Gorr make an appearance in a Marvel film down the line)
That “God Butcher” storyline is probably one of the best Thor comics that has been written in years and it kicked off a run that continues to be one of my favorite books to come out month after month. When all said and done it will be hard to choose which story from this epic Thor run that is my favorite. Jason Aaron will be remembered as one of the greatest Thor writers we’ve ever had. If you like Thor at all this is an absolute must.
Indestructible Hulk Written by Mark WaId/Art by Various
Indestructible Hulk is a great series from long time comic book writer Marc WaId. Basically, Banner has come to terms with fact that he and The Hulk are one being, he’s made his peace with the monster inside him. But he wants to be remembered for more than just the destruction caused by The Hulk. People often forget that Banner is in the same intellectual league as men like Tony Stark, Reed Richards, and Hank Pym. With the possible exception of Pym, because he created fucking Ultron, these men will be remembered for their incredible scientific achievements. While Banner will be remembered for being a monster. So, Banner approaches Maria Hill who is the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. at the time. He proposes that she sets him up with a lab, resources and staff to build wonders: new, clean renewable energy, cures to cancer, solutions to the negative impact of climate change, etc. In return, she gets The Hulk. Even though he’s gone to extraordinary lengths to greatly reduce the risk of turning into The Hulk, Banner has realized that Hulk episodes are inevitable. When that happens, it’s Hills job to step in and aim The Hulk wherever the smashing needs to be done. Because there’s no shortage of bad guys, terrorist groups, and super villains up to no good on, a daily basis, all around the world in the Marvel Universe. It’s really fun book with great art that does something different with The Hulk: Bruce Banner Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.. There are a lot of great guest stars from throughout the Marvel universe including Tony Stark, Thor, Beast and many more. Waid’s entire run on the series is collected in one easy to read volume. Highly recommended.
Honorable Mention:
Ultimate Wolverine Vs Hulk Written by Damon Lindelof/Art by Leinil Francis YU
Wolverine and The Hulk are long time rivals. Even though this story technically takes place in the Ultimate Universe (Before it merger with Marvel Earth-616 or Marvel Earth Prime as it’s now known. Wow. What a nerdy sentence. I’m proud of myself) it’s a great story with some very minor, superficial things that carried over into Thor: Ragnarok. The fact that the story has beautiful art and was written by the creator of LOST is a big draw too. Great book to check out.
Avengers Disassembled Written by Brian Michael Bendis/Art by David Finch
This was the main story that Thor Disassembled tied into. This is NOT required reading if you’re just looking for cool Hulk and Thor stories to read after you’ve seen Thor: Ragnarok. However, it is the beginning of Bendis’ modern classic Avengers run, which ran for close to a decade. Fantastic Avengers stories. Start with Avengers vol.1 Breakout and keep going from there if you’re hooked.
Thanks for reading!
-Paul
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These fuckers at Marvel, they got me REAL fucking bad! Gimme Phase 4, Phase 6, PHASE FUCKIN’ 20!!! I’ll take it all! Thor: Ragnarok marks Marvel’s 17th film with 3 more in active stages of production, with several more in the planning stage. Then there are the Netflix series, with The Punisher debuting later this month. Runaways premieres on Hulu in a few weeks and Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. comes back mid-season. I must admit there have been a few hiccups on the TV side of things (I’m glad Marvel’s first true DISASTER was an Inhumans miniseries on ABC. Because really, who gives a shit?), but otherwise Marvel has me by the balls and they are not letting go. If they keep making movies like Thor: Ragnarok, they can lovingly hold onto my balls as long as they want.
I love how the non-Avengers Marvel movies have become less about individual heroes like Marvel Phase 1 and more about team ups of a few prominent Marvel heroes under the banner of one of the big three (Cap, Iron Man, Thor). Though I love the character of Thor, what really sold me on the movie was the fact that it was going to be a team up film with the Hulk with a little side of Doctor Strange. Then when that 1st awesome, METAL trailer came out, they had me hook, line, and sinker.
The Thor films are interesting components of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I love the first one and I think the first half of that movie has some of the most creative and interesting filmmaking in the entire series on display. Kenneth Branagh was an inspired choice to direct the first Thor film and I’d love to see him come back and play in the MCU sandbox again. In my opinion the second movie is the weakest in The MCU (Fuck you, Tim! Iron Man 2 rules, baby!). So where does Thor:Ragnarok stand? Well, it’s a whole hell of a lot of fun.
It’s certainly extremely different from what’s been done before not only in other Thor films, but in MCU films in general. It’s a unique movie and once it gets started, it’s a crazy roller coaster ride that doesn’t stop until the end of the movie. The film flys by. This is largely thanks to the influence of director Taika Waititi. However, if these films don’t have some heart, some emotional center to latch onto, I feel they lose something. Fortunately, the film doesn’t forget to make you care about it’s characters. All of the best of the Marvel films have had a really strong emotional center built around strong characters, innovative filmmaking, and fun action sequences.
(“Loki listen, this is never easy to say, but it’s time we put Dad in an assisted living facility. Oh! You banished him to Earth? Problem solved, then.)
I think one of the best things about the film is the continued development of the relationship between Loki and Thor. Loki is someone that we should hate, but I found myself rooting for him to find some redemption. Which brings me to another point I enjoyed: the villains are not black-and-white, with stupid, vague goals and motivations. Hela was an interesting villain and it was fun every time Cate Blanchett was on scene as this character. She looked like she was having a blast, but her character wasn’t without depth. I wouldn’t put her in the top tier of Marvel villains like Loki or Kingpin or Ultron, but she’s certainly not a bland villain like Malekith or even Ronan The Accuser.
(Say what you want about me, but I think Cate Blanchett looks crazy hot like this)
Of course we can’t talk about this movie without talking about The Hulk. I don’t think fans of the Planet Hulk storyline will be disappointed. It would be an exaggeration to say that this is a full on adaptation of that story, but characters and elements from the story are incorporated into the movie that I was pleasantly surprised to see were included. Nothing in this movie with the Hulk quite beats the gladiator match between him and Thor that we’ve seen pieces of in the trailers (Loki’s reaction to seeing that Hulk is the reigning Champ is priceless). Personally I felt The Hulk wasn’t quite the scene stealer other reviews have made him out to be, but I love me a good Thor and Hulk team up.
(Just as this picture was taken, Stan Lee realized he had just shit his pants.)
I have a nitpick about The Hulk which is sort of the spoiler, so I’ll get into that on our podcast “The World’s Best Podcast with Paul & Tim”. We’re going to do a deep dive into the film and talk full spoilers. So keep an eye out for that and make sure you see the movie before you listen to the podcast. The are some huge, surprising, game-changing developments in this movie. No single character in the MCU has ever had such a massive status quo change.
I was surprised that the movie lived up to its title. This really is Ragnarok. Like Norse Mythology Ragnarok… well kinda. Norse Ragnarok by way of Marvel Comics. For you comic book fans, this movie borrows as much from Thor: Disassembled as much as Planet Hulk. Fans of the comics will probably be able to guess where things are going for Thor and The Asgardian part of the MCU by the end of the film.There’s a mid credits sequence that makes the future somewhat less clear. I don’t even want to vaguely speculate on the meaning of the mid-credits scene because it could be interpreted as Spoiler-y (More on all of this in our podcast). All in all I enjoyed this film a lot. I do not think it is as good as it’s being made out to be. It’s a very good movie, but not in the top tier of the Marvel films. But whether you are a Marvel fanatic or just movie fan who enjoys a good sci-fi romp, go see Thor:Ragnarok, you’re guaranteed to have a good time.
Final Grade: B
Or
8/10
Thanks for reading!
-Paul
I’ve always said that one of my goals when I started this website was to increase awareness of comic books to the general pubic. Comics aren’t a genre, they’re a storytelling medium, like film or books. In recent years comics have begun to receive more respect, but I still try to do my part to fight the good fight on behalf of comic books.
This week Marvel Comics released Marvel Legacy #1, it was an extra long special issue to set up important characters and storylines in upcoming Marvel books. Lately, if you were to pick up a comic featuring one of Marvel’s most famous characters, the person you’re expecting to see probably isn’t the star of the book. For example, Captain America was Sam Wilson A.K.A. The Falcon, Thor is Jane Foster, Thor’s ex-girlfriend, Spider-Man is Miles Morales, and that’s just naming a few. Iron Man and The Hulk also feature different characters than Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. In my opinion, almost all of these are excellent books and have been richer reading experiences by not having the “classic” version of the hero as the star of any of these given books. Don’t get me wrong Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Peter Parker and all the rest are still banging around the Marvel Universe in some for or another. But it’s been a period of “passing the torch” to another generation while the traditional Marvel heroes take a step back or take on other roles.
Now it seems that Marvel is bringing the “classic” versions of these heroes back to the forefront in a big way, with Marvel Legacy #1 leading the charge. Now, it’s definitely not the best book for someone whose never picked up a comic books before. It’s a little crazy and all over the place, but I say dive in head first and get lost in the crazy-ass Marvel Universe. If you’re a little confused, just go with. Over the next few weeks and months Marvel’s going to be relaunching a whole bunch of new books featuring both the “classic” versions of Marvel’s heroes and the new characters we’ve come to love (or in the case of someone like Sam Wilson, a classic character returning to his traditional role, The Falcon). Those books are likely to be much more accessible to new fans. They’re fresh start books, a place for new readers to catch up. For those of us, (like myself) who love the new characters who’ve taken up the mantle of iconic heroes, I’m happy to report that they’re not being pushed away or forgotten about. Marvel is just bring back some of our old favorites back to join in on the fun.
There are some great moments in Marvel Legacy #1 including this teaser of what’s inside, because who doesn’t want to see the very FIRST Avengers team? The AVENGERS OF 1,000,000 B.C.!
(Team roster, from left to right: The First Iron Fist, Starbrand: Earth’s built in defense system, The Phoenix, a young Odin holding the mighty hammer Mjolnir, The First Black Panther, Agamotto: Earth’s First Sorcerer Supreme, The Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance riding a fucking Mastodon)
If you’re not that familiar with comics, but maybe have seen some of the movies or TV shows, pick a couple of characters that you like most and pick up their new books spinning out of Marvel Legacy #1. That’s what’s great about going to your local comic book store, sure you can download books on your tablet through apps like ComiXology, but at your local comics store, the people who work their can help you find the perfect book for you. They can be your guide on this great adventure and believe me reading comics feels like an adventure in the best way.
So either go to your local comic book store or download it on ComiXology, but read Marvel Legacy #1 for all it’s craziness and then go read the new book featuring your favorite heroes.Because there are some great books coming down the pipe. Here’s a look at some of the books Marvel is putting out after Marvel Legacy#1 as well as the full list of new and relaunched books coming up this fall (Note: Don’t be intimidated by the issue numbers on the covers of these books, they might as well be #1, they’re fresh starts, but Marvel wanted to honor the legacy of these books by bringing them back to their original numbering. Trust me, it’s not as confusing as it sounds)
Here’s the full list of the new Marvel books and stories debuting in the coming weeks and months:
As always, thanks for reading
-Paul
I know I’m not the first person to say this, but I really think Marvel is just fucking with DC at this point. A few weeks ago, DC drops the Justice League trailer and Marvel is all “That’s a nice little trailer you have there.. Fuck you, here’s Spider-Man: Homecoming!” Last week DC announces that Joss Whedon is writing and directing a Batgirl film for them, so today BOOM! Thor: Ragnarok!
The Thor movies have been the weakest of the standalone Marvel films so far, but this looks fucking spectacular! We live in a wonderful time to be comic book fans…
Here’s the trailer:
World’s Best Media 