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Teen Titans vs Web Warriors

Teen Titans (5): Nightwing, Donna Troy, Raven, Cyborg, Beast Boy

Web Warriors (12): Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man (India), Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Punk

Swinging through the air like a team of acrobats, the Web Warriors land in the middle of the arena to face their opponents. Spider-Ham takes center stage, reveling in the excitement. “This is astounding! It’s like that whole Spider-Verse thing, except we’re up against a bunch of teenagers instead of an inter-dimensional demon!” he exclaims.

On the opposite side, Beast Boy locks eyes with the pork creature, astonished. “Guys, c’mon. They have a pig on their team but you all make fun of me!”

“At least the pig hails from another dimension and could be zapped back there. You on the other hand are just an insufferably annoying Earthling,” Raven remarks.

Impatient, Spider-Man Noir fires his gun. “Are we here to fight or bicker like schoolchildren!” he shouts.

“I like him,” Raven says as she draws up an interdimensional portal.

“Titans go!” Nightwing gives the order as the teams clash. The fearless leader squares off with Spider-Punk, delivering a swift kick just as his opponent jumps in the air to evade the attack.

“You sure you’re not missing a Blink-182 concert pal?” Nightwing says to his metal head opponent as he delivers a couple of blows with his staff.

“I’ve got plenty of time to kick your ass first bluebird,” Spider-Punk retorts as he unleashes a blast of his organic webbing.

Meanwhile, Donna Troy and Spider-Gwen engage in stealthy combat, trying to anticipate the other’s moves.

“You really waste your time with these losers?” Gwen asks as she swings in the air.

“Says the chick who fights alongside a talking pig,” Donna replies. Before her opponent can trap her with her webbing, the mighty Amazon warrior charges toward Gwen with her impenetrable shield, knocking her out instantly.

To her right, Cyborg unleashes a powerful blast, trying to hit Spider-Man.

“Awwww yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh!!! Swing around all you want. Ain’t nothing you can do to shield yourself from these guns baby,” Cyborg proclaims. Yet despite the sheer force emanating from his opponent’s arm, Pavitr Prabhakar waits for the energy from the blasts to die out. Once he has a chance, he goes on the offensive and uses his web shooters to tangle Cyborg’s arms together. Cyborg however remains unperturbed, smiling as he takes advantage of the fact that Spider-Man is now attached to him to swing him around and throw him across the arena.

“Touchdown baby!” he exclaims.

As she effortlessly deflects the string of gunshots and webbing that Spider-Man Noir fires at her, Raven nonetheless admires the tenacity and skill of her opponent.

“I must say, this has been fun. Maybe I’ll see you at Hot Topic sometime?” she says.

“I come from a different time period,” he replies.

“Not a problem. I’m not exactly from around here either,” she says with a slight grin.

Before Beast Boy can show off anymore to Spider-Ham by transforming into every farm animal imaginable, Raven unleashes a powerful spell which instantly silences the Web Warriors, and fills the arena with a shadowy overture.

WINNER: Teen Titans

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New Gods  vs Big Hero Six

New Gods: Orion, Highfather, Lightray, Mister Miracle, Big Barda

Big Hero Six (15): Hiro Takachiho, Baymax, Sunfire,  Honey Lemon, Go Go Tomago, Wasabi no Ginger

Sunfire, no stranger to conflict, immediately begins barking orders at his team, Big Hero Six with military precision. “It seems we’re meant to fight? GOOD! I’ve been ground restless for a good fight! Together, there is no opponent that we cannot defeat, we hit them hard, and we hit them fast.” Flames grow around his lower body and he rises above the rest of the team. Baymax and I go in high, the rest of you low. Hiro, watch them, find a weakness, and report it as soon as possible.”

The New Gods are beings of immense power. They’re more than slightly annoyed to be a part of this cosmic game, though they know they’ll win either way. Looking across the dirt lot, they see the somewhat unassuming Big Hero Six and need no pep talk, no commands. They see their opponents charging, and simply storm off themselves.

Orion’s Astro harness affords him access to battle first. “Motherbox, what am I dealing with?”

PING! “Subject has flight through pyrokinetic projection. Is capable of accelerating the rate at which a subject’s molecules interact with one another, raising the temperature dramatically.” PING!

Orion cranks up the speed, locks onto Sunfire and launches out a blitz of Astro-Force. Sunfire soars over the first volley, around the second, swerves on a dime to avoid a thrid, turns back to erupt a stream of plasma at Orion, and

WINNER: New Gods

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Defenders vs Archie’s Super Teens

Defenders (2): Doctor Strange, Hulk, Silver Surfer, Namor, Valkyrie

Archie’s Super Teens (15): Pureheart the Powerful, Superteen, Captain Hero, Mighty Moose, Miss Vanity

The Archie Super-Teens stand in colorful spandex. Miss Vanity pulls out her cellphone to observe herself with her companions. Just as she thinks she’s gotten them all in the right light take a selfie her background is eclipsed with green.

WHOMP! The Hulk comes crashing down, scattering the teenagers. “HULK SMASH!” The Hulk pounds down into the ground, sending gravelly undulations over the fallen Super Teens.

All five teens stand up and a few take to the air. “I don’t think that this guy knows who he’s messing with!” Pureheart glides down and wallops the Hulk.

“It seems our green friend may have been a tad hasty.” Doctor Strange observes, “Perhaps another course of action would be recommended.”

“Yes, like perhaps showing these whelps that the Defenders are not to be trifled with.” Namor takes to the air and punches Pureheart. While his first victim is reeling, he turns to Captain Hero and punches him down as well.

Just as Namor turns to a third target, Superteen launches herself at him. “Nice trunks!” Betty Cooper teases as she punches Namor, much harder than he was expecting.

“Yeah, but I think you forgot the rest of your costume?” Miss Vanity adds.

“I think his wardrobe has little effect on the outcome of this battle.” Doctor Strange floats above the fight below. “I’ve used the Eye of Agamotto to discern that you’re all void of magical protections.” He claps his hands together and opens them into his familiar hand gesture. He circles his arms around in front of himself and chants under his breath. Five red bands appear around the five Super Teens. They struggle and squirm, but are all unable to escape.

WINNER: Defenders

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The Deadside

The Deadside, a cold, heartless purgatory. The air hangs thick with decay as the teams from this bracket are seated in a giant stadium made of twisted bone and dark magic. There’s a low hum of far off screaming and a dim purple light radiating from somewhere casting odd shadows throughout the land. The seats are a pale grey, and the ground a washed out brown detritus. As each team looks around they notice the remaining seats are filled with Deadsiders, zombies, and demons. Master Darque looks on from his Emperor’s throne, as the bizarre occurrence played plays. Unable to move and very confused, trying to make sense of a their new surrounding, their glances dart from familiar faces, to complete strangers, to monsters, and back. Without warning, ten individuals, the Justice League of America and the Great Lakes Avengers, disappear and materialize in the center of the stadium.

There’s a flash of purple light and strangely, the two teams deem it necessary to fight one another. The game is afoot.

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The Microverse

Standing around in a barren room, clearly somewhere, on some Earth, a hodge podge of heroes and villains scramble their wits to figure out where they are, and how they’ve gotten there. Suddenly, they begin to shrink, tinier and tinier, until it, completely invisible to the naked eye, they eventually gathered into an entire universe that exists within the subatomic, where quantum physics that govern our world vanish, and our fighters are able to slip through the very fabric of time and space, the fantastic microverse.

As our fighters shrink they notice what, at first appears to be a toy stadium, then perhaps a stadium for dolls, and finally they find themselves surrounded by an extravagant arena. The Psycho-Man, seemingly as larger than the area itself looms over the walls. He sets three fingers n his Psycho Control-Box and slides the effects of “Fear, Doubt, and Hate” as intense as he can. His steely gaze fixes on the stadium, and his old foes the Fantastic Four are immediately lifted from their seats and pit against the Crime Busters.

 

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The Rock of Eternity

There’s a clap of thunder, a flash of lightning, and instantaneously there’s hundreds of fighters in a cramped stone cave. Behind them, a dark nothingness, which they cannot pass. Ahead, a small light. One among them knows exactly where they are, he floats up, and fly to the leads. Not sure why, but knowing there’s nowhere else to go, the rest follow. As a herd, the grouping walks through the corridor, past larger than life facsimiles of the Seven Deadly Sins, towards a growling light at the end of the tunnel.

The tunnel opens to large rock, floating in the nothingness. A giant being in a white robe with a long white beard who seems to be encompassing the entire landmass smiles and booms out,

“I AM THE WIZARD SHAZAM, AND I AM HERE TO DO MY PART IN FAIRNESS TO CREATION.”

There’s a blinding white light and a shatter of thunder. As the heroes and villains sight is slowly restored, through quickly blinked eyes, they find that they’re all seated in a magnificent dome, floating softly on cloud seats and covered by pulsating yellow electricity. Just as any of them can even start to comprehend their bizarre new surroundings, and the Trinity of Earth 1 and the Circus of Crime from Earth 616 vanish from their seats and the find themselves standing  on the hard tanned rock in the center of the stadium.

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Battleworld

In the distant reaches of the universe, far, far from planet Earth our contestants appear on an uninhabited planet of patchwork pieces. Soon after they appear in the barren wasteland of this empty planet an arena appears around them, a tall extravagant stadium filled with hordes of cheering onlookers. Each team separated from one another in stasis bubbles floating above the crowd.

Soon they hear a loud disembodied voice, “I AM THE BEYONDER! I HAVE BROUGHT THE GREATEST FANS OF SPORT THAT HAVE EVER EXISTED TO WATCH AS YOU FIGHT–”

Hovering over the stadium, a figure in a high collar, white polyester track suit sits atop a throne, “–FIGHT FOR MY ENJOYMENT!” Soon, the Avengers and the Freedom Fighters are inexplicably released from their seats and onto the arena floor. The fans roars, alien and human fists thrown up into the air, hungry to see these mighty heroes engage in gladiatorial combat.

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Ultimate Comics Exclusive: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 & 2 Megazord and Dragon Zord Breakdown Variants!

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers #1 Janice Chu Megazord Breakdown Exclusive Design Variant Boom! Studios 2016 PRE-SALE Ships 3/2/16
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #1 Janice Chu Megazord Breakdown Exclusive Design Virgin Art Variant Boom! Studios 2016 IN STOCK NOW!
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers #2 Janice Chu Dragon Zord Breakdown Exclusive Design Variant Boom! Studios 2016 PRE-SALE Ships 3/30/16
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #2 Janice Chu Dragon Zord Breakdown Exclusive Design Variant Boom! Studios 2016 PRE-SALE Ships 4/6/16

We’re super excited announce our exclusive variant for Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #1!

This beautiful virgin art variant WON’T assault your eyes with messy store logos all over the front cover, and simply showcases the breakdown design for the iconic original Megazord by the incredibly talented Janice Chu. In fact, we loved this cover so much we’re getting a breakdown of the DragonZord for issue #2! We’re also offering it for the special price of $9.99 exclusively for website pre-orders–this price will definitely go up once it’s released so make sure to get yours today!

This awesome cover ships out on March 3rd, but the print run is super limited so be sure to order yours today before we sell out!!

We also have the incentive variants for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 and #2  for sale!

 

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers #1 1:100 Dustin Nguyen Variant PRE-SALE Ships 3/2/16
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #1 1:100 Dustin Nguyen Virgin Art Variant
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers #1 1:50 Kevin Wada Team Variant PRE-SALE Ships 3/2/16
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #1 1:50 Kevin Wada Team Virgin Art Variant
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers #1 1:25 Montes T-Rex Zord Variant PRE-SALE Ships 3/2/16
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #1 1:25 Montes T-Rex Zord Red Ranger Variant
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #2 1:50 Joe Quinones Variant PRE-SALE Ships 3/30/16
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #2 1:50 Joe Quinones Variant PRE-SALE Ships 4/6/16
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #2 1:25 Gomi Montes Dragon Zord Variant PRE-SALE Ships 3/30/16
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #2 1:25 Gomi Montes Dragon Zord Variant PRE-SALE Ships 4/6/16
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 1:1 Retailer Incentive Party Variant Pre-Sale Ships 3/2/16Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 1:1 Retailer Incentive Party Variant Pre-Sale Ships 3/2/16
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 1:1 Retailer Incentive Party Variant
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 Green Ranger Unlock Action Figure Variant Pre-Sale Ships 3/2/16
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 Green Ranger Unlock Action Figure Variant
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Klaus #1

Klaus 1 (of 6)
Written by Grant Morrison
Illustrated by Dan Mora
Boom Studios

My love for Grant Morrison is conditional: reading his collected works is a generally wonderful, mind-blowing experience. He understands and manipulates the medium of comic books in ways no one else has done. He resurrected the X-Men with a plethora of out-there ideas we still have today, like Emma Frost turning into diamonds and Weapon X program actually being roman numerals, with Wolverine as the tenth subject. His Final Crisis crossover explored the nature of stories themselves, and his work on the New 52 Action Comics made me like a Superman title for the first time. But his single issues can be pretty inscrutable, and it’s hard to remember that he almost always has reasoning behind his wacky presentations.

I have a similar conditional love for Christmas. Togetherness, family, and general goodwill tend to be strong draws for me, but the anxiety of holding to ever-more-ridiculous expectations can kill the season. So when Alan at Ultimate Comics handed me the first issue of Grant Morrison’s six-part Christmas series, I cringed.

And it turns out, this is the best single issue of a Grant Morrison book I’ve ever read. The story is an exploration of Santa Claus before the red suit and reindeer, a charmingly serious tale that pulls back before going too grim. In this version, Klaus is a hot, bearded muscle daddy in Northern Europe who comes in from the wild to trade pelts in the town of Grimsvig. Grimsvig is under totalitarian rule by the cruel Lord Magnus. All the men are forced into labor at the mines, and the children are forbidden to play in the streets. Magnus enjoys warm fires and gives lots of toys to his bratty son while Klaus is beaten by town policemen and has his goods stolen. After his escape, Klaus plays a tune on a flute that attracts ghosts (or aliens? Or monsters? This was the Morrsion-est part of the otherwise straightforward book) who put him into a trance, and when he wakes up, he has a sack full of toys he’s carved and a thirst to go spread some gosh-darn holiday cheer.

The story is clear and moves briskly through a standard but interesting fantasy set-up familiar to fans of Game Of Thrones. Dan Mora’s art is gorgeous and expressive, displaying the majesty of the harsh winter while also giving plenty of hot Santa beefcake. The holiday spirit is incorporated as a heroism, as giving value to joy moreso than the physical nature of the gifts Santa is loading up. Holiday tropes are emerging in this story, but it’s not winking and laughing about the eventual Madison Avenue Santa display. I think this is a great setup for a November book, and I recommend folks hit Ultimate Comics to pick up this great, bloody little stocking stuffer.

Matt Conner for Ultimate Comics

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From Under Mountains

From Under Mountains #1
Art and Colors by Sloane Leong
Story and Script by Claire Gibson
Cover and Story by Marian Churchland
Image Comics, Inc
I grew up reading a socially-damning amount of fantasy novels, and I have let most of that drop away from my prose reading. I have enjoyed small amounts of fantasy in my comic books, but it has been tough to find straightforward fantasy, books that thrill to knights on horses and witches in forests and don’t need to keep winking at you to make sure you caught the clever twist that sets them apart. So I am pleased to let you know that Ultimate Comics is carrying the first issue of a confident straightforward fantasy ongoing series, From Under Mountains.
The story is a stitching-together of beloved tropes, dedicated to world-building more than plot movement. In one piece, young Isme tends to her village’s elder woman as she summons flame, wind, and frost into the scariest shadow monster since Game Of Thrones. In another, a twenty-year-old princess chafes at her father’s treatment of her brother as an educated heir but herself as a marriage strategy. In the third, a young woman attempts an assassination but finds the monster has gotten there first.
The writing is sparse and clear, naming exotic new kingdoms without falling apart in baroque language games. The characters are distinct and showcase a range of the experience of women in this world, from mystic to noble to mercenary. The art is lush and textured, and in reading, I kept hearing sound effects like a fire crackling or a whistling desert wind despite the lack of any onomatopoeia on the page. This builds a vivid reading experience of watching this as a movie with no background music, setting a clear tone and gravity. The sequence of creating the monster was, in particular, surprisingly detailed and subtle, with silhouettes only visible through a careful second read. The monster herself has a delicate blend of feminine beauty and dark danger, and I hope to see more of her.
Fans of fantasy should keep this series on a close watch. It’s not too flashy, and it’s proving a serious understanding of some of the best parts of this genre. You’ll be telling your book club all about it.
-Matt Conner for Ultimate Comics