My Artwork

Here are some more of the new pieces I'd done since my last post.

To start off - here's an update on my winning piece for the "Design you own Transformer" contest. Added some colors to my B&W piece.

Next is Baron Karza, the Big Bad from the Micronauts. My all-time favorite line of toys.

Here are the DC characters: Raven, Dove, Booster Gold, Hawkman, Brainiac-5 and DC's top duo - Blue & Gold!

For more of my artwork, please visit my IG account where most of them are posted.

https://www.instagram.com/jmloke/

Here are the Marvel characters: Doc Samson, Clea, Psylocke & Gambit.

And then the bad guys: Carnage, Destiny, Mystique, Magneto (White), Terrax the Tamer & the Goblin Queen.

Comic Review - Avengers:The Children's Crusade

Title/Storyline

Avengers - The Children's Crusade 1-9

Publish Date/Year

2010

Creative Team
Story: Alan Heinberg 

Art: Jim Cheung
Publisher
MarvelStory
The Young Avengers (Wiccan, Hawkeye, Patriot, Stature, Hulkling, Speed, Vision) battle the Sons of the Serpent.When Hulkling (Wiccan's gay boyfriend) gets blasted, Wiccan temporarily losses control with a sudden outburst of power and ends up putting all of the Sons of the Serpent in a coma. 

After seeing what Wiccan did, the Avengers (Iron Man, Captain America and Ms.Marvel) wanted to take him back to the Avengers Tower to talk about his powers. Wiccan's display of power sparked questions about him & his twin brother Tommy's (Speed) relation to the Scarlet Witch (Wanda). Magneto (Wanda's dad) shows up and asks the twins to help find their mother - the Scarlet Witch. The Avengers and Young Avengers (now with Magneto) compete to be the first to find Scarlet Witch. The Avengers' objective was to neutralize Scarlet Witch but Wiccan wants to find her as he believes that she was not responsible for the death of millions of mutants (back in M-Day).

Wiccan finally finds Wanda but isn't sure if she a still hero. The Avengers & Young Avengers battle over Wanda while Dr Doom waits for his opportunity to seize the prize - Wanda. Determined to rescue the Scarlet Witch from the clutches of Dr Doom, Magneto, Quicksilver, and the Young Avengers form a team to infiltrate Doom's kingdom. But their invasion of Latveria threatens to become an all-out war when the Avengers stand in their way while Wanda comes face to face with a mysterious stranger.

Magneto fights Dr Doom while Avengers battle Young Avengers. The reappearance of time-traveling Iron Lad unleashes Wanda's reality-altering powers upon the time-stream itself, changing the Universe.
Marvel has a clever side-story to explain why Iron Lad appears at this point in time.

Scarlet Witch returns with her full powers and summons Ultrons (yes, in plural) and Kree ships to try to kill herself but Wiccan stops her. Using her powers Wanda discovers that Wiccan and Speed are reincarnations of her twin children. The newly returned Scott Lang (Ant Man) learns that his daughter Cassie is now a Young Avenger called Stature. Wanda tells the Avengers that she wants to reverse M-Day and re-power the mutants who lost their powers. She succeeds in restoring Rictor's (from X-Factor) powers. 

It's the Avengers vs. the X-Men with Young Avengers and X-Factor caught in the middle. The 4 teams battle to determine who will hold the Scarlet Witch responsible for M-Day. The revelation of the Scarlet Witch's godlike powers the secret of her murderous rampage in Avengers Disassembled (resulting in the destruction of Vision and the Avengers Mansion.) creates a rift between the Young Avengers.The Young Avengers find themselves on the wrong side in their final battle against the combined Avengers and X-Men. The Young Avengers have no one to turn to except each other as they are forced to fight the heroes they idolize, resulting in a new lineup and direction for the Young Avengers.

Artwork
Jim Cheung has grown and improved so much from his days back in CrossGen (boy, do I miss their books, especially their compendiums - Forge & Edge) where he, and big names like Steve McNiven & Greg Land first made their names.To me, Jim Cheung is in the same league of my favorite artists as Bryan Hitch, Alan Davis & George Perez. Anytime I see their names on the books, it doesn't matter what book it is or who's writing it, I'd get them. He's just that good. His art is beautiful and totally suitable for comics.

However, there are a couple of artists whom I consider to be very good but have lately been rather sloppy with their work. They include 2 from his CrossGen cohort - Steve McNiven (Captain America & Civil War) & Greg Land (Sojourn & Uncanny X-Men). With a few others like John Cassaday (Planetary & Astonishing X-Men), John Byrne (sadly...he did Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four & Alpha Flight) & Leinil Francis Yu (Secret Invasion)

Additional Comments

As far as I'm concerned, this is a major milestone in terms of storyline because Scarlet Witch had been put under cold storage since Avengers Disassembled and this marks her return to the Marvel Universe.

And this is indeed a fitting maxi-series to bring her back! Love it. Read it if you haven't done so already!

Movie Review (Not) - X-Men Days of Future Past

The entire list of X-Men characters (and a couple who aren't) are finally out. I've also included their images from the comics so non-comic fans can see how well/badly Hollywood has done with their character designs. 

This is a very good version of Kitty by a cosplayer, but then, I love Ellen Page, so, I'll just have to wait and see.Based on the 2 mugshots, both Blink and Bishop look pretty good so far. FASSBENDER! 'nuff said!

 I have hated the Hollywood design for Mystique since the very first X-Men movie back in 2000 but viewers seem to like it so much that the look stuck. I guess people would like looking at a virtually naked blue chick on the big screen. Sigh....
 Nope, don't like the funky long hair.
 Nope, don't like the not-so-funky short hair.
 Sunspot was 1 of the founding members of the 2nd Generation of X-Men called the New Mutants (introduced back in the late '80s) but have since graduated to become an X-Man along with fellow New Mutant - Sam Guthrie (aka Cannonball). Both Sunspot & Cannonball are coincidentally also current members of the Avengers. 
Unless you're a long-time X-Geek, most cinema-goers or even new comic fans may not be familiar with this character called Bolivar Trask, as he was created waaaaay back in the '60s. He was the creator of the Sentinels, 1 of the X-Men's perennial enemies.

 
Warpath is the younger brother of 1 of the earliest New X-Men - Thunderbird, who died very early on in one of their missions. Currently, Warpath is a member of the black-ops arm of the X-Men called the X-Force. I'm not quite sure why he is listed as having the power of flight here in the image.
 
Here are some more non-character images but are from/for the movie.