Gareth S. Young - - 1000 Trillion Suns

...Iceman! The Fab Five Robert "Bobby" Drake was created in 1963 and is one of the founding five members of the X-Men. He has appeared regularly over the last fifty years in multiple incarnations of the X-Men comic books and in other teams like X-Factor, The Defenders, and The Champions. The character has also made appearances in cartoons and movie adaptations. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby initially created Iceman using the Human Torch as the template, except giving him the "opposite" power. In the early books, Iceman had the appearance of a snowman in boots, and only later changed into the more crystal clear version more commonly known today. He also underwent a "secondary mutation" that for a time had him stuck in his ice form. Cold hearted? Bobby is an honest, forthright and sometimes cocky character, his status as the youngest of the original X-Men giving him certain allowances for his brash behavior, although he remained that way as he got ...

...Chris Claremont. Claremont plots the demise of your fave X-Men In the pantheon of comic book writers, Chris Claremont's name is often buried behind the likes of Neil Gaiman (Sandman), Alan Moore (Watchmen, The Killing Joke), Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One), Grant Morrison (All Star Superman), Warren Ellis (The Authority. Planetary) and Stan Lee (Everything Marvel created in the mid to late 60s), and yet Mr. Claremont has probably left as big an impact on the world of comics as any of them. Chris Claremont's first X-Men Chris Claremont wrote the comic book series "The Uncanny X-Men" for Marvel for an unprecedented sixteen year stretch. During that time, he worked with legendary artist John Byrne on two seminal comic book storylines: The Dark Phoenix saga and Days of Future Past, both of which have been borrowed heavily from in the X-Men movies. Claremont got a cameo in the worst X-men movie - X3 Established characters, w...

Comic books! Okay, technically C is for comic books, but I'm going to spend the next month blogging my way through the alphabet and talking about comic series, characters, or creators along the way. So, where was I? A is for... ...Alpha Flight The Alpha Flight team was created in the late 70s by legendary X-Men artist John Byrne. Initially, the Canadian super-team were introduced to battle the X-Men and take their Canadian berserker - Wolverine - back home to Canada, however, a few years later, Marvel approached Byrne to write and draw the team in their own ongoing series. Thirty years ago, whilst on vacation, in Florida, in a mall, in a bookstore, I found a selection of Marvel comics on a rotating wire rack near the back of the store. It was here I picked up the first comics of what would become a thirty year collection. One of those comics was Alpha Flight (volume 1) #45. What I enjoyed from the get-go was the hugely diverse and exciting group of characters in the ...

Back in 1982, a trip home to Virkie in the Shetland Islands, after visiting my Gran in Ayrshire, would involve a couple of buses, a train and two flights. The trips weren't terribly long, but my folks had to tow around a 9 year old (me) and a 7 year old (my wee brother) and so, to keep us quiet some of the way, they bought us comics. Choosing comic books as a kid is easy, you pick the coolest covers. So, from the small selection at the newsstand at Kilwinning Railway Station I picked... Ghost Rider (Vol.1) #67 - Cover by Bob Budiansky (Apr 1982) The Avengers (Vol.1) #218 - Cover by Don Perlin (Apr 1982) I had no idea who any of these characters were. (This was decades before Robert Downey Jr would turn Iron Man from second string hero to box office titan.) Ghost Rider looked scary and cool, with his flaming skull and motorbike. An obvious choice for a nine year old. The Avengers all look horrified and apparently unable to stop whatever is going to happen. An ...

One of the lucky ones Superheroes used to be better-known for their four-color shenanigans in comic books than their hi-definition antics down at your local IMAX theater. In fact, comic books almost faded into obscurity as comic book shops closed, print runs declined and the only people who cared about them were a generation of fans hanging onto their childhoods. I don't deny I am one of those people. I am one of the lucky ones, born at just the right time to see comics change from kids entertainment to mature, grown-up storytelling. The Golden Age Yours for a paltry $3.2 million... The first appearance of Superman (1938) is regarded by collectors as the beginning of The Golden Age of comics. Batman (1939), Captain America (1941) & Wonder Woman (1941) were also born during this period. The recent  $3.2 million sale of the "holy grail" copy of Action Comics #1  shows that interest in these characters is still through the roof, although most people know the...

I've already talked about the Ten Worst comic book casting decisions, so now it's time for the best, and a couple of them might surprise you. I took to twitter and asked my tweeps who they thought was well cast in comic book adaptations. Of course the answers were rich and varied (and often involved Chris Hemsworth's muscles), but there was a clear winner. And I think I agree. Wait until you see the size of my Hammer! Uh, not him... So, without further ado, here's the ones I thought Hollywood got right: Ten Best Okay, I know, technically I'm Superalien... 1 - Christopher Reeve (Superman - Superman) The 70's produced some of Hollywood's most enduring icons and every one of them was up for the role of Superman. Guys like Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Warren Beatty, Nick Nolte and Ryan O'Neal were all considered for the role. Marlon Brando, in what amounted to an extended cameo, also had casting approval and vetoed Sylvester Stallone...