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Free Comic Book Day 2021 heading to local comic shops in August with 50 titles

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March 20, 2021

A long time from now in a galaxy far, far away–actually at your local comic book shop–Free Comic Book Day is returning for 2021. Often overlapping with the annual Star Wars Day–May the Fourth–this year it’s being pushed out a few months to Saturday, August 14. A good excuse to visit your local comic book shop and get re-introduced to some series you may have missed, the annual FCBD is also a way to check out some titles you may otherwise have overlooked. This week comic book retailers revealed the results of the FCBD committee’s selections for this year’s freebies. What made the cut? It seems plenty early, but now you have no excuse to know what you want when you get to the front of the line. Below, check out some of the covers and titles coming your way for FCBD 2021 this August!

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Three new, giant Marvel omnibus editions promise hours of entertainment

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March 27, 2020

Omnibus 2

If you have a houseful of kids and both spouses at home, all for the first time for longer than a school break, it may start getting… close… soon, especially if you’ve exhausted your collection of games, and finished cleaning out your garage and basement for the second time. If that’s the case, or you’re just looking for some good reads, Titan Books has just the thing, three new, big books that are sure to keep at least a few of you entertained for the coming weeks. The theme is Marvel Comics superheroes, but they aren’t comics. They are part of Titan Books’ ongoing series of paperback novels delving deep into your favorite superhero characters. Each volume, called an omnibus edition, is a hefty volume featuring three novels by a frequent Marvel writer.

Choose from Diane Duane’s Spider-Man: The Venom Factor Omnibus, including the novels The Venom Factor, The Lizard Sanction, and The Octopus Agenda, Christopher Golden’s X-Men: Mutant Empire Omnibus, featuring novels Siege, Sanctuary, and Salvation, and Greg Cox’s The X-Men and The Avengers: Gamma Quest Omnibus, with novels Lost and Found, Search and Rescue, and Friend or Foe?

Diane Duane’s 656-page Spider-Man: The Venom Factor Omnibus is the ultimate look at the life of Spider-Man. For Peter Parker, it’s one counter after another with three major Spidey characters. Each novel confronts a key adversary, Venom, then the Lizard, then Doctor Octopus. But these aren’t the only familiar faces readers will encounter. And it’s not called The Venom Factor for nothing–look for Venom in a key role throughout these three novels.

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Tags: Avengers, Christopher Golden, coronavirus, Diane Duane, Greg Cox, Marvel Comics, Marvel novels, Marvel tie-in novels, Spider-Man, Spider-Man: The Venom Factor Omnibus, The X-Men and The Avengers: Gamma Quest Omnibus, things to do, Titan Books, X-Men, X-Men: Mutant Empire Omnibus

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Free Comic Book Day returns for May the Fourth–Star Wars Day 2019

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May 4, 2019

The annual Star Wars Day, May the Fourth, is back again–an excuse to watch the movies again and meet up with friends and talk all things of a galaxy far, far away. And again it is overlapping with Free Comic Book Day, a good excuse to visit your local comic book shop and get re-introduced to some series you may have missed.

You can’t beat the “gold line” of comics this year, with Jody Houser writing two free comics, Doctor Who and Stranger Things. Jason Aaron serves as a writer on the Avengers issue (including a great Wolverine story), which is always a good FCBD title. Archie Comics has a new Riverdale Season 3 FCBD story. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creator Kevin Eastman is back writing the featured TMNT issue. And fans of the Whedonverse won’t want to miss their copy of the BOOM! Studios twofer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, complete with a great cover by Moon Knight cover artist and Vampironica creator Greg Smallwood. And for adults, Vampirella fans should check out its Issue #0/FCBD issue, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the character, complete with art by Bruce Timm and work by the late Forrest J. Ackerman. Two other interesting titles for the older crowd worth checking out are Antarctic Press’s Punchline with great art by Matthew Weldon, and Shout Comics’ Midnight Sky.

The above issues are also good choices for kids, but some other titles are more targeted at the younger set including Casper the Ghost in Casper’s Spooksville. Dear Justice League lets kids go one-on-one with their favorite superheroes. Go Fish! is a great looking fish tale. You can never go wrong with a new Little Lulu story. Lumberjanes is back with another campfire story. And last but not least, Star Wars Adventures is a great pick for any Star Wars fan this May the Fourth.

Take a look at some covers and previews to books available free (supplies may be limited) at Elite Comics or your local comic book shop today only:

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Whiskey Cavalier–The next crimefighting duo series begins this week on ABC

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February 25, 2019

Review by C.J. Bunce

After the 2019 Academy Awards recognized genre films Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and gave top awards to Green Book and Roma, ABC aired the pilot for a new series. Whiskey Cavalier begins with a solid pilot episode, and you can find it in its weekly timeslot beginning Wednesday evening on ABC. It borrows from two familiar sources for network TV: the spy genre, like Mission: Impossible, iSpy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Avengers, and Chuck, and the “will they or won’t they” investigation shows like Moonlighting, The X-Files, Bones, Castle, and Private Eyes. Whiskey Cavalier–the military/NATO spy call sign for FBI agent Will Chase (yes, that’s his name), stars Scott Foley opposite CIA Agent Francesca “Frankie” Trowbridge, played by Lauren Cohan. It’s more action and fun than drama–a good thing that works for this offbeat new series.

The first episode finds Agent Chase as a sad sack agent, recently dumped by his French girlfriend, crying as he listens to songs from his break-up mix tape, assembled from recommendations from other FBI agents. Those familiar with Michael Dorman’s lead character in Amazon Studio’s series Patriot will see much in common between the leads. Chase doesn’t have his heart in his job until he’s in action, and then he becomes full-on Jack Ryan (actor Scott Foley has a vibe crossing Jack Ryan series star John Krasinski and White Collar co-star Tim DeKay, and the pilot includes a humorous reference to his Chris Evans’ Captain America appearance).

As Chase tries to intercept an alleged hacker/thief/traitor, CIA Agent Trowbridge steps in, and that’s when the chemistry begins. You can almost hear the 1970s movie trailer voice-over: “What can happen when we combine this sensitive FBI agent and this tough-as-nails CIA spy? Can they work together to save the world without killing each other?” And yet, the pilot was edited into a fast-paced drama, not at all bogged down in origin story, and it supplies a supporting cast of characters that seem to gel from the start, played by Ana Ortiz, Vir Das, and Tyler James Williams. In brief, it’s fun and it works.

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Marvel’s Contest of Champions brings all of the best Marvel universe characters together

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January 16, 2019

Review by C.J. Bunce

Marvel Contest of Champions is a 2014 mobile fighting game from Kabam, released four years ago on iOS and Android, boasting more than 100 million players. Based on ideas generated from the 1982 three-issue Marvel Comics series Contest of Champions by Mark Gruenwald, John Romita Jr., and Bob Layton, players select superheroes from across the history of the Marvel universe to battle each other. Both the original comic and the game key in on the scheming machinations of Grandmaster and the Collector, and if the idea sounds familiar, it may be because it was also featured in Marvel’s big screen Thor: Ragnarok, with Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster pitting Chris Hemsworth’s Thor against Mark Ruffalo’s Planet Hulk-inspired gladiator Hulk.

Initially intended to be based on Marvel’s Super Heroes Secret Wars comics, the Contest of Champions video game features more than 100 playable characters, and includes dozens of others. The characters as realized for the game and the game environments is the focus of a new book from author Paul Davies, Marvel Contest of Champions: The Art of the Battlerealm. The book represents one of the rare assemblages of so many characters from all segments of the Marvel universe. Showcasing the story by Sam Humphries and artwork by Gabriel Frizzera, Luke Ross, and others, the book is full of great character designs, concepts, and final selections. It even takes readers beyond the events of Infinity War, although the game does not adhere to the movies.

Readers and game players will find it difficult coming up with characters from Marvel Comics not incorporated into Contest of Champions. In the book they’ll find updated versions of all the superheroes (and many villains) from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, plus the X-Men, Deadpool, Old Man Logan, X-23, Spider-Gwen, Ghost Rider, Howard the Duck, Hyperion, Jane Foster’s Thor, Miles Morales’s Spidey, Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel, Spawn, Dark Phoenix, She-Hulk, Moon Knight, Cable, Gwenpool, Mephisto, Blade, Carnage, and the Inhumans. Plus there’s the Netflix Marvel series characters, lesser used characters like the future evil Hulk called Maestro, Magik, M.O.D.O.K., Sentry, Sentinel, Sabretooth, Agent Venom, Morningstar, Guillotine, Karnak, Kang, Doctor Voodoo, Black Bolt, and Venompool. Both Angela, grand-daughter of Odin, and King Groot are brilliantly realized in the game and the book (shown above).

Here are some preview pages from Marvel Contest of Champions: The Art of the Battlerealm:

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Twenty-movie Marvel festival coming to AMC theaters for Labor Day weekend

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August 16, 2018

As part of the continuing celebration of 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that kickstarted filmdom’s modern superhero blockbuster chapter, AMC Theaters are getting the entire team back together for an eight-day movie marathon nationwide beginning Thursday, August 30. Get ready for the Marvel Studios 10th Anniversary Film Festival. Marvel has converted three early films in the series to IMAX for the first time: Iron Man, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Incredible Hulk. So the entire 20 film series will be screened in IMAX, plus many of the films will also be screened in 3D.

The announcement arrives with the home video release of Avengers: Infinity War, now available on Blu-ray and Digital HD, 4K, and DVD. If you missed Infinity War, check out our review here (and catch all our Marvel Cinematic Universe reviews below). This is your chance to catch up any or all of the films you might have missed in the theater, including the three 2018 releases Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Ant-Man and The Wasp. And it will give many younger viewers the opportunity to see some great superhero movies from the early days of the MCU on the big screen for the first time.

The big day of the festival appears to be September 3, with a great single-day line-up: Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Ant-Man and The Wasp. The series will run over Labor Day weekend, with four films per day from August 30 through September 5. On September 6, AMC will screen two fan-favorite films, to be selected by a fan vote. See the Marvel Studios 10th Anniversary Film Festival website for more details. It also seems likely based on past screenings that AMC may offer some kind of bundled purchase price for multiple shows. Check back to the website as the end of August nears for any additional promotions.

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Advance look–Free Comic Book Day is back this Saturday

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May 4, 2018

If you love comics and especially if you haven’t read a comic book in years then this Saturday’s Free Comic Book Day is all about you. See what you have been missing at comic book stores across the United States as shops hand out free issues of new comic books from your favorite franchises and publishers: Marvel, DC Comics, IDW, Archie Comics, Image, Dark Horse, Titan Comics, BOOM!, Oni Press, Aftershock, and more.

Marvel fans won’t want to miss out on the lead-in to the new Avengers comic book series discussed here at borg.com earlier this week. Doctor Who fans will find all-new stories featuring the 7th, 10th, and 11th Doctors and the first appearance of the 13th Doctor! Today is May the Fourth–the annual Star Wars Day, and tomorrow Star Wars fans can find Han Solo and Chewbacca facing off against Zuckuss and 4-LOM from The Empire Strikes Back in Star Wars Adventures. Riverdale features a story with Betty and Pop at the Chock-lit Shop. In all, 52 new FCBD stories will be available. Keep in mind not all stores will have every title available and most stores limit each person to five issues to meet demand.

While you’re there, take a look around at the shop and purchase a comic or graphic novel or two. Don’t know which one? How about New Ultimates: Thor Reborn, or Wonder Woman: The True Amazon? If you liked Avengers: Infinity War, ask to see the shelf of Thanos and Avengers titles. Getting ready for Ant-Man and The Wasp coming to theaters? Ask about all the available related titles. You don’t know who this Venom character is that Tom Hardy is playing in the new movie? Your comic shop can get you caught up for Venom. Do you like Batman, Miss Fury, the Bionic Man, Squirrel Girl, Spider-man, The Eternals, Ghost Rider, Ghost, Wolverine, Silver Surfer, Moon Knight, Liberty Meadows, classic Archie Comics, Guardians of the Galaxy, Green Arrow, the Shadow, Star Trek, Valerian and Laureline, or Katy Keene? Just ask, and someone will point you in the right direction. Giant trade paperback editions are much less expensive than you might think, and they can get you caught up quickly on years of content.

If you’re in the Kansas City area check out Elite Comics between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., where you’ll also find lots of deals, get your Avengers issue signed by writer Jason Aaron, and meet other creators–and there’s cake. Or use this comic book store locator to find your nearest participating shop. Here’s an advance look at all 52 covers from the FCBD 2018 comic books you will find Saturday, a look inside the pages at some artwork from the Avengers issue, plus a video about the event:

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First look–Marvel Studios officially releases full Comic-Con trailer for Avengers: Infinity War

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November 29, 2017

First revealed at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, finally, four months later Marvel Studios has released the full trailer only a few thousand fans had been permitted to see.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe–The Avengers, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and the Guardians of the Galaxy–comes together in one film: Avengers: Infinity War.

Check out the first trailer for Avengers: Infinity War:

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Tags: Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Infinity War trailer, Marvel Studios, SDCC 2017

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First look–Thor and Hulk clash in first trailer for Thor: Ragnarok

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April 10, 2017

In Marvel Studios third film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe featuring Thor, Thor: Ragnarok, we catch up with Chris Hemsworth’s Thor–absent from last year’s Captain America: Civil War. Where’s the golden-haired hammer-wielder been? In the first trailer for the film we see him imprisoned on the other side of the universe without his hammer and struggling to return to ward off the destruction of his homeworld and the end of Asgardian civilization, at the hands of an all-powerful new threat, the ruthless Hela, played by Cate Blanchett.

But first he is captured Spartacus style and thrown in an otherworldly Thunderdome. To survive he must face off against a rather angry and unforgiving fellow Avenger—the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). How did Hulk end up on the other side of the universe as a warrior in Sakaaran gladiatorial combat? We’ll have to wait and see.

Directed by Taika Waititi, produced by Kevin Feige, Thor: Ragnarok introduces characters old and new: Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Idris Elba as Heimdall, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, and newcomers Jeff Goldblum (Grandmaster), Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie), and Karl Urban (Skurge).

Check out this new trailer for Thor: Ragnarok:

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Tags: Anthony Hopkins, Avengers, Cate Blanchett, Chris Hemsworth, Hulk, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban, Kevin Feige, Mark Ruffalo, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Comics, Taika Waititi, Tessa Thompson, Thor, Thor: Ragnarok, Thor: Ragnarok trailer preview, Tom Hiddleston

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Tickets on sale now for Marvel 11-movie mega-marathon, plus new Avengers 2 trailer

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March 5, 2015

We’ve talked about and sat through many a movie marathon in the past four years here at borg.com, with The Lord of the Rings Marathon, The Dark Knight Marathon, the first Avengers Movie Marathon, the Cornetto Marathon, and The Hobbit Movie Marathon. But those won’t quite compare to what’s coming your way, spanning two days, April 29-30, 2015. For those willing to spend more than 27 hours in the theater, you can soak up the entire Avengers series of movies in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” plus Guardians of the Galaxy as a bonus– eleven movies in total–at the Ultimate Marvel Movie Marathon. It all leads up to the premiere of Avengers 2: Age of Ultron in advance of its May 1 national release.

You can buy advance tickets now here, but don’t wait too long as shows in many cities will sell out. Major chains are all participating, including AMC Theaters, Cinemark, Megaplex, and Regal Entertainment Group, among others. Check out this insane schedule:

April 29

6:00 p.m. IRON MAN

8:25 p.m. THE INCREDIBLE HULK

10:35 p.m. IRON MAN 2

April 30

1:00 a.m. THOR

3:10 a.m. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

5:30 a.m. THE AVENGERS

8:48 a.m. IRON MAN 3

11:15 a.m. THOR: THE DARK WORLD

1:45 p.m. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

4:20 p.m. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

7:00 p.m. AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (in RealD® 3D)

Some theaters are planning a double feature with 2012’s The Avengers plus Avengers 2. Check local listings for showings as the premiere date gets closer.

And after the break, check out the third full trailer for Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, with a peek at Paul Bettany’s new villain, The Vision.

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