Geek Syndicate Issue 8 | Page 24

Geek Syndicate
A Look Back at 2013

The big events of Marvel and
DC were one example of geek
frustration. Age of Ultron,
which had been teased for
some time in the Marvel Comics
Avengers’ books fell flat. Brian
Michael Bendis has a knack
for handling character driven
stories and a mixed record
when it comes to event comics
- for every Siege success, there
was a Secret Invasion flop. It
therefore came as no surprise
that Age of Ultron didn’t quite
hit the mark. On the bright
side, the fallout had a rather
far reaching effect that is currently rocking the Ultimate
Comics universe with Hunger
and Cataclysm. On the DC Com-

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Image © Marvel Comics, 2013

This last year had its share
of hits, misses and surprises
on the geek front. As I pore
back over the list that I compiled for the Geek Syndicate
Magazine in late 2012 (Issue
005 – ed.), I note how it was
filled with some stabs in the
dark and some hopeful successes. Some of which made
good. The controversial Superior Spider-Man comic series took off, Marvel Cinematic
Universe Phase 2 launched well
with Iron Man 3 and Thor: The
Dark World, the Young Avengers returned with a hipster
groove, the Doctor Who 50th
anniversary year came up
trumps with news and treats,
and GTA V landed to critical and commercial success.
Unfortunately 2013 also had
a fair few things that didn’t
quite cut the mustard.
ics front, the big event ‘Trinity
War’ was a winding build up to
a rather different, somewhat
unexpected, event – Forever
Evil, where the bad guys take
over the DC Universe courtesy
of the warped versions of the
Justice League of Earth 3. The
latter event will carry into 2014
but it was rather annoying to
see a debut event of the DC
New 52 be a mere six-part prologue to another event.
DC Comics’ Threshold was a large
disappoint