Required Summer Reading

Marvel Heroes

Dark Passions

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As promised, here's the rest of the vendors for Dark Passions, if you don't like purchasing through Amazon :) Remember, it's on for $1 for 10 full length novels, just for a limited time. Pick up Dark Passion: Dark Romance Boxed Set, and if you love it, please review it! :) We also have a rafflecopter to celebrate. It's on for $1 for 10 full length novels, just for a limited time. Pick up Dark Passion: Dark Romance Boxed Set, and if you love it, please review it! :)   They make their own rules. They obey no one and they have no interest in allowing a woman to change them. They are the men you’ve always been warned about. They certainly have no interest in love or relationships, but they do want to control you – body and mind. They have complete disregard for your feelings and yet possess irresistible charm; they are the very definition of an alpha male. And they will make you swoon. We also have a rafflecopter to celebrate. Please tell your friends, and use #darkpassions in your post! Amazon Barnes & Noble Kobo iTunes Google Play All Romance Bookstrand P.S.  We could really use some good reviews on this boxed set to get some momentum... If you're not interested in buying it, or can't right now, but still want to read it, we'll give you a free copy in exchange for a review on Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble! J.E. & M. Keep – Outcast (Fantasy Romance)  Elin is a half-demoness bandit who was almost grateful it had taken this long for the three outlaws to turn on her. When one of them offers her his protection, breaking a lifetime of precedence, can she dare hope that it might mark a change in her fortunes? Terry Towers writing as Elixa Everett (NYT/USAT bestselling author) – I Conjure Thee (Paranormal Romance)  What would you do to save your child? For Clarissa the answer is simple… Anything Skye Eagleday (NYT/USAT bestselling author) – Sex Research (Contemporary Romance)  University Professor and Researcher Dr. Jacob Desmet is conducting the most extensive study ever done on Human Sexuality. Shauna, his new assistant, will accompany him interviewing couples–including a BDSM Billionaire and his beautiful submissive– who will introduce her to a larger (and more compelling) world of relationships than she has ever known. Aya Fukunishi – Her Submission (Contemporary Romance)  Everyone has a line they swear they’ll never cross, and straight-laced college graduate Kathryn is no different. She’ll soon learn, however, that the lines are hard to see while wearing a blindfold… Emilie Criss – A Stranger’s Hand (Contemporary Romance)  In a near future where memories can be erased and created in hours, Jacqueline Fuller wakes in the home of a stranger who says she is now his. For the price of her freedom, he offers everything she could possibly desire, including answers to questions she never knew to ask. Abby Weeks – Tangled Rose (Contemporary Romance)  Rose has been captured. The MC that killed her father has taken her for use as a stripper. But first they need to show her just how little hope, and how much humiliation, exists in her new life. Cheri Verset – Savage Bikers Lust (Contemporary Romance)  Seeking an exciting life, Madden takes off across the Southwest with dangerous and dominating biker Curtis. She doesn’t realize that freedom has a cost, namely becoming his private toy. Is this the life she really wants? Savannah Reardon – The Queen Slave (Futuristic Romance)  Queen Neenah loses her throne to an invading army and becomes the toy of mysterious, rich, and powerful mogul Max Carrington. With her life turned upside down, innocent Neenah learns that sometimes a man will stop at nothing to win and keep his prize. Adele Allaire – One Night, Three Hearts(Contemporary Romance)  Rose is desperate to become a mother, even if it requires expensive fertility treatments and putting her sex life on a schedule. Her husband recruits longtime friend Matt to reignite their marital passion. Alara Branwen & Christie Sims – Ravaged by the Ogre’s Tribe (Fantasy Romance)  Website Facebook Joshua Michelle Pinterest Joshua Michelle

Jim Lee's rejection letters from Marvel and DC

Kinda gives hope to all the up-and-comers out there, don't it?

Jim Lee posted some of his rejection letters on Instagram a while back, and a few were picked up by bloggers. More recently, writer Brian Michael Bendis shared Lee's Marvel rejection letters on Tumblr.

It's interesting to see how many times (and how directly) Lee was rejected before he finally got an acceptance letter.

Of course, he didn't let rejection get to him, and editors made sure to include encouraging remarks.

When he finally did get an assignment, Lee jumped right into it, even adjusting the assignment when he saw the need to.

The end result looks pretty decent but a far cry from Jim Lee's later work. Lee would look back fondly on this time. Note Purple Girl's black leather jacket, included as instructed.

Of course, Jim Lee went on to be the X-Men artist of the late 80s and early 90s - even getting his own new title before leaving Marvel to co-found Image Comics.

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Today Jim Lee's designs are the guide for most of DC's heaviest hitters, and he's serving as co-publisher of the company that rejected him more than once!

A superheroic twist on Norman Rockwell's The Runaway

Medieval Batman Armor Is Wicked

Paul O'Flaherty 

Deviant Art user Azmal created this amazing, all leather suit of armor which gives us a taste of what Bruce Wayne would have been wearing if he has kicking as back in medieval days.

Head to toe full custom all leather suit of armor. The concept set in a medieval inspired fantasy universe.
It all started as your every day veg-tanned leather and was heavily wet-molded throughout. Faceplate is removable btw.

13

Top 10 Most Powerful Comic Book Characters

Comics books have brought joy to millions and millions worldwide. Everyone has the personal favorite hero from comics, but they are all puny compared to the guys on here. This list has been a long time in the making. Thousands of characters had to be considered – but ultimately only ten were chosen. Be sure to mention your own favorites in the comments. Oh – and if you like comics and lists relating to them, be sure to check out the Top 10 Significant Moments in Comic History.

10 Apocalypse

Publisher: Marvel Comics
First Appearance: X Factor vol 1. #5 (June 1986)
Origins: Cairo, Egypt

En Sabah Nur is reputed to be the first mutant on earth and also the most powerful. He scores an impressive 39 out of 42 on Marvel’s official powergrid. Apocalypse has control of his body on the atomic level to go along with tremendous energy absorption and energy projecting abilities. His powers are greatly enhanced due to his mastery of alien technology specifically genetics and biochemistry.

9 Darkseid

Publisher: DC Comics
Origins: Planet Apokolips
First Appearance: Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen # 134 (November 1970)

Darkseid is worshipped as an “anti-god”. He is a supreme conqueror who is one of the greatest threats to the DC universe as he seeks to control all living beings. Darkseid is capable of unleashing unimaginable amounts of energy through his “Omega Effect” beam. He is also immortal and has displayed immeasureablee levels of strength, stamina, endurance, and mental abilities.

8 Anti Monitor

Publisher: DC Comics
First Appearance: Crisis on Infinite Earths #2 (May 1985)
Origins: Qward

Very little has been revealed about this character. What is known is that A-M is the embodiment of all the anti-matter in existence. This makes him a threat to the entire omniverse through his near limitless cosmic powers. It has been alluded that his purpose was to eliminate all matter in the omniverse, leaving only anti-matter behind. This would essentially make him “God”. Anti-Monitor has shown the ability to absorb entire universes, manipulate matter and energy on a cosmic scale and transform the very essence of reality.

7 Imperiex

Publisher: DC Comics
First Appearance: Superman #153 (February 2000)
Origins: Unknown

Imperiex is the DC Comics version of Galactus. A being whose plan was to hasten the end of the universe by collapsing galaxies into super black holes and create a new, perfect universe with the corresponding release of energy. Imperiex wields near omnipotent power derived from the big bang and has been described as an energy being requiring a material shell. It has shown the ability to project immensely powerful energy blasts and exert its will through a near infinite supply of “probes” which are capable of annihilating entire planets.

6 Thanos

Publisher: Marvel Comics
First Appearance: Iron Man #55 (February 1973)
Origins: Titan (Saturn Moon)

Sure, many a villain threatens to destroy the universe but Thanos is the only one who can actually do it. He possesses immeasurable levels of intelligence, strength, endurance, stamina, and durability. Thanos also has exhibited the ability to manipulate enormous amounts of cosmic energy. An obsession with the female embodiment of death, led him to gain control of the infinity gauntlet, ascending him to godhood. Thanos used his power to destroy half the life in our universe by simply snapping his fingers. 

 

5 Galactus

Publisher: Marvel Comics
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #48 (1966)
Origins: Planet Taa (Pre- Big Bang)

The only survivor of the universe that existed before the Big Bang, Galactus consumes entire planets for nourishment. He has displayed god like abilities, including manipulation of molecules on a cosmic scale, conversion of matter to energy and vice versa, teleportation across great distances, erecting impenetrable force fields, etc…, all on levels beyond human comprehension. His intelligence, stamina, and endurance are also beyond any known method of calculation. Galactus is also able to scan the thoughts of virtually any known being.

4 The Presence

Publisher: DC Comics
First Appearance: More Fun Comics # 52 (February 1940)
Origins: Silver City

The Presence is the DC comics version of the Judeo-Christian God. It is the highest being in their very complex religious cosmology which includes a second tier of “gods” such as the New Gods, Greek Gods, Hindu Gods, etc. Although it has been described as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent; it has also been mentioned as having appeared at some point after the beginning of reality as we know it. This ambiguity lowers The Presence’s ranking as it is generally credited with the creation of only one universe (DC), thus it may or may not be the original creator.

3 Abstract Entities

More specifically: The Brothers, Eternity, Death, Infinity, Lord Chaos, Master Order etc.
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Origins: N/A
First Appearance: N/A

They can be considered abstract concepts that have shown the ability to manifest themselves physically in order to reveal themselves or their motives to conscious beings in the omniverse. These entities have at one time or another exhibited “god like” power within their respective realms. It is not clear, however if these entities take action through their own will or if they are controlled by a higher power.

2 The Living Tribunal

Publisher: Marvel Comics
First Appearance: Strange Tales #157 June 1967
Origins: N/A

The Living Tribunal is a virtually omnipotent and omniscient entity whose purpose is to safeguard the omniverse from imbalance. Tribunal is perfectly impartial and has shown the ability to accomplish anything it sets its will to; including the willingness to sacrifice millions to save billions and sacrifice billions to save trillions. There is absolutely no limit to what The Living Tribunal can accomplish in order to maintain balance or eliminate threats. Nevertheless; Tribunal is second to one.

1 The One Above All

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Origins: N/A
First Appearance: Doctor Strange Vol 2, #13 (April 1976)

Creator of all realities in all timelines in every single part of the omniverse. TOAA is essentially “God” and therefore nothing can possibly exist without him. This makes TOAA more powerful than all beings or entities combined. His true identity has been alluded to as being Stan Lee, the legendary comic book creator.

Jamie is the founder of Listverse. He spends his time working on the site, doing research for new lists, and cooking. He is fascinated with all things morbid and bizarre.

10 Little-Known Facts About Your Favorite Comic Book Characters Gareth May April 12, 2013

Superheroes: they’re everything we wish we were ourselves (apart from the spandex; that stuff chafes, apparently). But so many of our favorite comic book characters very nearly weren’t what they are today. In fact, they had to go through many chops and changes before they became the characters we’ve loved, feared and revered through the decades. So here are ten little-known facts about your favorite comic book characters:

10 Marvel Feared That Spider-Man Would Scare People

Spider-Man is without doubt one of Marvel’s most famous, popular, and money-spinning characters. But Spidey was very close to being kicked in the wastepaper bin mere moments after making it off the drawing board. Martin Goodman, head of Marvel at the time, told Spider-Man creator Stan Lee that he thought the new hero was a “rotten idea” for a comic book hero.

Goodman sincerely believed that the character would struggle to ingratiate himself with Marvel’s adoring fans, for the simple fact that people were scared of spiders—so they’d supposedly be scared of him.

9 Superman Was Originally a Bald Megalomaniac

Let’s list Superman’s visual attributes: tall, handsome, with a charming smile; broad shouldered, and with a full head of slicked-back hair. But things could’ve been very different indeed.

The son of Krypton’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, originally conceived of The Superman as a telepathic scientist obsessed with world domination. And the kicker? He was bald. An evil Professor Xavier if you will. Butby the time Superman had found a publisher—a six year process—the character had become the dashing hero, with a full head of hair, whom we know and love today.

8 Captain America Had to Change His Shield

One of Cap’s most popular features has to be his shield. He’s walloped Hitler with it, rescued it from the deepest, darkest depths of the sea, and beaten various villains to a pulp with his silvery shield of justice. But the shield was originally intended to be very different from the versatile disc-shaped one adorning Cap’s front covers today.

Joe Simon and Jack Kirby originally dreamed up a heraldic-shaped shield. But rival comic publisher MLJ already had a patriotic character called The Shield who had a very similar looking heraldic logo on his chest. Due to legal pressure from MLJ, Marvel (then “Timely”) changed the design—and by the time Captain America made his first appearance in America Comics No.1, in March 1941, the new shield had been penned, inked, and signed off.

7 Stan Lee Worried Daredevil Would Offend People

Although Ben Affleck did his best to butcher the character in the movie version of the comic, Daredevil fans are some of the most loyal comic books followers out there (right up there with fans of DC’s Flash). But the acrobatic avenger of the streets very nearly fell from his perch a few moments after taking flight.

Stan Lee made it clear to the Marvel team: if there were even the vaguest whiff that the comic was causing offense to blind people, or blind organizations, he would pull the book from the shelves quicker than you can say Matt Murdock.

6 The Hulk Was Supposed to Be Gray

What’s the first thing you think about when you imagine the Hulk? The fact he’s bright green, right? Well, this very nearly wasn’t the case. Stan Lee always intended for the Hulk to be grey—and so he was, in the very first issue of the series The Incredible Hulk in 1962.

This didn’t last for long, however. Due to the fact that there were major problems with the inconsistency of the printing, they ended up having to choose a color instead. One of the most consistent colors in print at the time was green, so they opted for that.

When the comic book was first made into the classic TV show, the executive producer Kenneth Johnson pushed for the Hulk to be red, to symbolize anger. And in a further twist, as printing has become more proficient, a grey Hulk has appeared numerous times in the modern comic era. How long will it be until we see him in red?

5 The Joker Was Going to Die in Batman No.1

The Joker has to be the best super villain of all time. But Batman creator Bob Kane was ready to kill off the evil jester in his very first appearance. As with many of Batman’s early villains, the plan was to have the Joker die through some fatal accident. Batman’s editor Whitney Ellsworth saw potential in the character, however, and forced Kane to include a panel showing the Joker coming back to life.

 4 Venom Was Going to Be a Woman

When the Symbiote—an evil alien-suit which takes over its host—was discarded by Spider-Man, writer David Michelinie didn’t know what to do with it. Eventually, he decided to give the suit to a woman. But Michelinie decided that she needed to hate Spider-Man so much that she wanted to kill him, so he plotted out a story which, in true comic fashion, is massively convoluted.

Brace yourself—this plotted version went as follows: a heavily pregnant woman is traveling in a taxi cab; Spider-Man distracts the driver, and the cab crashes into her husband. The husband dies in front of wife’s eyes, and she loses her baby due to the shock. She ends up institutionalized with mental illness, and promises herself that she’ll avenge the deaths of her husband and her baby.

When Michelinie moved over to Amazing Spider-Man, he pitched that very idea to his boss, who said that the readers would never see a woman as a realistic physical threat to Spider-Man. Eventually, Michelinie came up with the character of Eddie Brock instead—the name eventually becoming synonymous with Venom.

 3 Iron Man Was Created as a Dare

Stan Lee and artist Don Heck created Iron Man at the height of the Cold War in 1963, when the American people were very much aware of war and its impact on their lives.
On paper, Tony Stark offered no alternative to this; in fact, he really wasn’t the most like-able superhero at all. He was an arms dealer, a bit of a womanizer and more arrogant than possibly any other comic book creation.

But this was the point. Lee was challenged by his publisher Martin Goodman to create a superhero who was also a “wealthy capitalist war profiteer.” Lee took on the challenge, believing all the while that Stark would be a big hit—and he was dead right.

Perhaps one of the reasons for Iron Man’s success was the fact that he was loosely based on the celebrity Howard Hughes, who embodied many of the superhero’s traits in real life. And when the artist Heck first sketched the hero, he imagined the popular actor Errol Flynn.

2 Wonder Woman Was Created as a Feminist Ideal

Throughout the Golden Age (1930s and ‘40s) and the Silver Age (1950s and ‘60s) of Comic Books, the industry had many critics. One such critic was Fredric Wertham, a child psychiatrist who believed that comic books were turning American youths into perverted juvenile delinquents.

In true comic book fashion, however, a hero saved the day. Dr. William Moulton Marston was not only an American psychologist, but also a passionate advocate of women’s liberation. And Marston had the complete opposite view to that of Wertham, believing that comics could have a considerably positive affect on kids’ ethical groundings.

To prove his point, Marston created Wonder Woman in an attempt to educate Marvel’s readers about feminist ideals (Marston believed that a period of ‘American matriarchy’ was coming . . . although he also believed this would, in part, be achieved through the enslavement of men via seduction).

Of course, the comic-book hater Wertham saw the worst in this new character, and despised what he called the “lesbian overtones” of the book. We should also bear in mind that Marston was rather liberal in his personal life; he lived in a house with two women, and had children by both of them. In fact, both his wife Elizabeth and his mistress Olive were huge influences on the creation of Wonder Woman.

Incidentally, Marston was also responsible for inventing one of the early polygraph machines—which is the reason why anyone caught in Wonder Woman’s lasso is compelled to tell the truth.

1 Wolverine Was Nearly Called The Badger

Wolverine was created by writer Len Wein, because he needed a character who could do battle with the The Incredible Hulk. The Wolverine made his debut in issue 181, way back in 1974, as a Canadian special agent ordered by a government department to capture Hulk and “bring him in.” 

The early Wolverine displayed many of the traits—the claws, the yellow-and-blue costume, and the mask with the pointed ears—which would remain when he became a fan favorite as a member of the X-Men. But things could have been very, very different.
The character of Wolverine was conceived when Wein decided that he wanted to create a character who would be popular in Canada. He knew that heroes based on animals were a big hit in the US, so he brainstormed Canadian animals, eventually narrowing it down to two: The Wolverine and The Badger.

Thankfully, Wein’s editor stepped in and suggested that the connotation of a wolf would make for a better superhero . . . and so the entire Marvel Universe dodged a bullet of considerable size. “This summer! In a cinema near you! The Badger!” just doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?

Gareth May is an author and the co-editor and founder of His ‘n’ Hers Handbook—a lifestyle website for couples with a geeky twist.

His debut book, 150 Things Every Man Should Know, published in November 2009, was selected as one of the best books of the year by The Independent on Sunday. It has been published in the USA, Russia and China. His second book, Man of the World, was published in June, 2012. Born and bred in Devon, he now lives in London.

Awesome BATMAN, BATGIRL, and NIGHTWING Geek Art Series

Artist Stanley Lau has created this incredibly rad series of Batman geek art that also features the characters Batgirl and Nightwing. Lau has a very cool style that I think many of you will really like. My favorite is the Batman Beyond image above... what's yours?