February 2008 Solicitations

[JackRembrandt]

There are certainly books that are worth every penny of the cover price, that's for sure.

 

[Dread]

The more I see of Messiah Complex and its conclusion, the less excited I am for it. It feels like the nineties. It feels like we've done all this already.

Well, DUH. Marvel & DC have essentially been using the 90's models of "endless events" and "varient covers" for the past few years now. The X-Men franchise suffers "spin cycle syndrome" worse than literally every other franchise in Marvel at some points. But, I shouldn't judge an event I am not reading.

Marvel is kicking off 2008 pretty well in my opinion.No real dependence on events,just solid separate ongoing titles.

Until you remember that Bendis' SECRET INVASION begins Summer 2008. Enjoy it while you can.

Thoughts on the solicts for Feb. 2008 so far:

- Really, the fact that a solict is drolling over Millar & Hitch alone makes me squirm. It took them HOW LONG to finish ULTIMATES 2? Do we have ANY guarentee that we'll see THREE issues before delays totalling 2, 3, 5, 10 months occur? ANY? No, we don't. Between Hitch's photo-realistic work and Millar's health, they may very well be the SLOWEST creative team of the 21st century (unless you count Frank Miller & Jim Lee on ALL STAR BATMAN, but that is critically panned anyway). People knock Alex Ross for JUSTICE, but that series started bimonthly, and ended bimonthly, on time. Quite frankly with the track record of these two, 1 issue every 2 months would be an effort worthy of Hercules. So I really don't give a crap about this so far. Will it be of good quality? Probably. Millar was gold on UFF. But am I prepared to wait 15 years for a 12 issue run? Not at the moment.

- So instead of having Whedon & Cassaday's last issue of ASTONISHING X-MEN be #24, perhaps an oversized issue at that, Marvel goes for GIANT SIZE ASTONISHING X-MEN #1, to milk an extra few bucks out of hapless retailers who overorder any #1 from Marvel anyway. What possible reason is this aside for pure, cynical greed? So, AXM #23 will be followed by #24, which starts Ellis' run. Silly, really. Maybe I would be more forgiving had this story had any weight to it whatsoever. But it has none. The core X-books have abandoned it, as it is a universe unto itself. No major changes to any character, such as maybe Cyclops being able to control his blasts, can be transferred over to the core books unless some hapless writer comes up with a dip**** excuse ("Oh, I can control my powers now, but I have been acting and talking like I can't to, uh, fool my enemies, even in the comfort of my own home with my own allies"). And what CAN happen? The Breakworldians, aliens no one in their right objective mind cares about, either live or die. The X-Men finish their 1 billionth alien invasion story, and we move on with MESSIAH COMPLEX. Urg. But I'm sure it will look pretty. Still, why the hell do we need a Giant Size #1 for this? Just make #24 double-sized. Was that so friggin' hard!?

- X-MEN: FIRST CLASS looks cute, but it always does. Still, if that low selling book can get an ongoing, so can THE LONERS, damn it.

- I am still iffy on ULTIMATES 3. Joe Mad doesn't compliment 2 volumes by Hitch well, and Loeb's Marvel work has ranged from "good" to "intense suck" since he went exclusive. I have zero interst in more ULTIMATE IRON MAN by Card (his first volume was way too slow in pace, even without massive delays) or any of ULTIMATE HUMAN (what is the point? A whole mini for Iron Man vs. The Hulk? Did Marvel NOT fail when they tried that with Wolverine? Was this NOT done better by superior writing & artistic talents in WORLD WAR HULK #1!? Way to milk off your upcoming movies, Marvel). Not even Bendis mooching my beloved toddler franchise, the Spider-Friends, will get me back on USM. I am unsure if I still will be reading Ult. XM by Feb. 2008, and I see that Kirkman is going with the simpliest solution to Mr. Sinister and making Apocalypse real after all. Sigh, how predictable. Carey's UFF, which is the best Ultimate title right now, still looks spiffy. A shame Ferry seems to be gone by then, as well as Brooks.

- So, the honeymoon is over between Cage & Jones; the Skrull-****ery breaks them up. Maybe I would care if Bendis hadn't sucked this sort of well dry. All his stories DO is depict superheroes breaking down, shattering their relationships and/or teams, because life gets so bleak. Least it seems that way on NEW AVENGERS. It is like Winick and AIDS. Like, did I really care that Civil War destroyed the first band of New Avengers, when they were hardly a team that fully assembled twice? And Bendis can talk two sides of his mouth, claming "I'm being new and innovative" one minute and then evoking moves Stan Lee wrote in the friggin' mid 60's (the "Quirky Quartet" move). Either your crap is retro or modern, not both. Pick an excuse and stick with it. Anyway, the NEW AVENGERS SPECIAL was actually an all around good issue, but I am hardly surprised by this occurance. One day Bendis will literally run out of character relationships to strain, destroy, and shock us with ruining...and then he'll leave the book to someone else.

- YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS is a silly way to keep the franchise alive because it would be better if Marvel, for once in their existance, stood up to a H-wood writer and settled on a creative team for another volume; Heinberg has zero interest in writing more, so move on. But, this is better than nothing after a year, and Brian Reed handling the Capt. Marvel/Hulkling stuff looks to be instant gold.

- I looked at MIGHTY AVENGERS #9 and thought, "Oh, no." I thought that because I do not want Bendis writing Dr. Doom. He will write him the same way he writes every single character; Doom will talk like a child (perhaps discussing urine for a page, as Bendy had Reed Richards do in USM), he will repeat the last 3 words spoken by the person speaking to him, and he will probably be defeated by a female Avenger, likely Spider-Woman. Granted, Bendis writes Namor well in ILLUMINATI (granted, which he co-writes with Brian Reed), but Doom and Namor are not the same. Bendis really has no middle ground with characters; he either will write them well, like The Hood or Purple Man, or he will almost deliberately write them in the most ******ed way possible because he either doesn't like them or feels they need to be "Bendisized" to be "relevant". Granted, Bagley on art will be good, and MIGHTY AVENGERS at least so far has been dumb, overrated fun. It is less offensive than NEW AVENGERS. So long as you forget that the entire cast screwed over their best friends in CW and have done zero to redeem themselves to be rootable (Oooo! Ms. Marvel feels bad! Whisper felt bad about nuking people during the Holocaust in MCP #3 and Magneto was less than thrilled, because when it counted Whisper STILL DID IT, much as when it counted, Ms. Marvel sold out her friends), MA is enjoyable. But, good lord, I don't want Bendis near Doom. Dr. Doom has suffered being stuck in random FF stories or off in the background, and is too regal a foe, to be risked into Bendis' Bipolar writing for me. But...I'll likely read it.

- CAPTAIN AMERICA looks good, although trusting Alex Ross with the design was a mistake to me. They should have had more faith in Epting; he designed Winter Soldier, after all.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

(Oooo! Ms. Marvel feels bad! Whisper felt bad about nuking people during the Holocaust in MCP #3 and Magneto was less than thrilled, because when it counted Whisper STILL DID IT, much as when it counted, Ms. Marvel sold out her friends),

To be fair, Ms. Marvel did help Arachne get across the border to Canada as a means of making amends.

 

[GNR]

Dread,I'm not planning on reading Invasion anyways,and I've been staying away from all Avengers titles,so I should be in the clear.

 

[Dread]

To be fair, Ms. Marvel did help Arachne get across the border to Canada as a means of making amends.

Yes, while throwing her boyfriend Shroud in prison without a wink. Luckily, he probably escaped after the "final battle".

Anyway, Ms. Marvel then merrily went along with tricking Spider-Woman into Iron Man's ploy to use Captain America's death to try to lure the NA out by claiming Rogers wasn't dead.

Y'know who has conviction? Justice in AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE. When he sees the **** start to stink, he has been progressively making more and more of a stand, coming to a head in issue #7. Now, he's got principles, and I root for him.

Dread,I'm not planning on reading Invasion anyways,and I've been staying away from all Avengers titles,so I should be in the clear.

Good for you. Seriously. Congrats.

I'm stuck supporting Bendis events I hate out of fanboyism.

'Course, a positive Dread review is a boring Dread review. Least I seem to get more energy out of complaining, and Bendis seems intent on being a complaint mastermind. He just never improves for long, or adds so many con's to his pro's that it hardly is worth mentioning. He is best with co-writers or short one-shot tales and he does neither very often. It is POSSIBLE that SECRET INVASION won't suck, but he's 0-2 with DISASSEMBLED and HOUSE OF M in terms of quality, so I'm hardly expecting anything but poo. Stinky, stinky poo.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Do we have ANY guarentee that we'll see THREE issues before delays totalling 2, 3, 5, 10 months occur? ANY?

Yes, in that the word from Dublin is that Hitch has finished 7 issues already.

- So instead of having Whedon & Cassaday's last issue of ASTONISHING X-MEN be #24, perhaps an oversized issue at that, Marvel goes for GIANT SIZE ASTONISHING X-MEN #1, to milk an extra few bucks out of hapless retailers who overorder any #1 from Marvel anyway. What possible reason is this aside for pure, cynical greed? So, AXM #23 will be followed by #24, which starts Ellis' run.

Actually, #24 ships in December (yeah, right), and then the whole run climaxs in GSAXM #1.

- YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS is a silly way to keep the franchise alive because it would be better if Marvel, for once in their existance, stood up to a H-wood writer and settled on a creative team for another volume; Heinberg has zero interest in writing more, so move on.

According to Heinberg on WordBalloon, they are examining their options for the next volume since he said he won't be back any time soon (although the Writers' Strike may have changed his position; who knows?).

So far, both of Cheung's covers for this series have been the main character against a backdrop of heads of various classic Marvel characters; Patriot/Cap, Hulkling/Captain Marvel. Is this a continuing theme, or just for these two covers, I wonder? (will Vision's issue be a collage of classic images of himself?)

 

[JackRembrandt]

Doesn't it make a lot more sense to just stop buying books that you don't enjoy?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Dread will never stop reading books he hates. I think he's a closet masochist at this point.

So far, both of Cheung's covers for this series have been the main character against a backdrop of heads of various classic Marvel characters; Patriot/Cap, Hulkling/Captain Marvel. Is this a continuing theme, or just for these two covers, I wonder? (will Vision's issue be a collage of classic images of himself?)

I'm guessing it'll be pictures of the previous Vision. They seem to be pairing the character up with the Avenger they're based on or have some connection to. Patriot/Cap, Hulkling/Captain Marvel; if the trend continues, Vision 2.0 would get the old Vision, Wiccan and/or Speed would get the Scarlet Witch and/or Quicksilver, Kate would get Hawkeye, and Cassie would get her dad.

 

[Valechan]

I really hope Wiccan's issue will bring back Wanda for good. I miss her

 

[Crosis]

Cripes, they really screwed up Exiles.

That was one of my absolute favorites...and Claremont just ran it straight into the ground.

"It's Gambit! And Rogue! But Gambit is actually Namor!!!"

Kill me now.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, I'm glad I dropped Exiles before Claremont came on. It's just a shame that Grummett's going to be wasting his talents on that trash.

 

[Crosis]

Yeah, I'm glad I dropped Exiles before Claremont came on. It's just a shame that Grummett's going to be wasting his talents on that trash.

I stuck with it for one arc. Then he brought in Psylocke and Shadowcat and unceremoniously booted out Spidey and I just said "Ah, hell."

I know it's supposed to be an X-title, but it doesn't make much sense, storyline-wise, that they would ONLY pull mutants for the team. I was really happy when they started to get away from all that.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

Yes, after throwing her boyfriend Shroud in prison without a wink. Luckily, he probably escaped after the "final battle".

Just making a small correction.

Anyway, Ms. Marvel then merrily went along with tricking Spider-Woman into Iron Man's ploy to use Captain America's death to try to lure the NA out by claiming Rogers wasn't dead.

Yes, except she did so because she was trying to have her friend brought in safely rather than die while on the run. Maybe it was a dick move, but it wasn't as if she did it while she was rubbing her hands together laughing at the thought of Spider-Woman stewing in a cell.

Y'know who has conviction? Justice in AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE. When he sees the **** start to stink, he has been progressively making more and more of a stand, coming to a head in issue #7. Now, he's got principles, and I root for him.

I agree, but you really can't compare the two. Their experiences with the Initiative have been radically different from one another.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

Yes, after throwing her boyfriend Shroud in prison without a wink. Luckily, he probably escaped after the "final battle".

Just making a small correction.

Anyway, Ms. Marvel then merrily went along with tricking Spider-Woman into Iron Man's ploy to use Captain America's death to try to lure the NA out by claiming Rogers wasn't dead.

Yes, except she did so because she was trying to have her friend brought in safely rather than die while on the run. Maybe it was a dick move, but it wasn't as if she did it while she was rubbing her hands together laughing at the thought of Spider-Woman stewing in a cell.

It happens all the time in real life, are all those people bad people?

Y'know who has conviction? Justice in AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE. When he sees the **** start to stink, he has been progressively making more and more of a stand, coming to a head in issue #7. Now, he's got principles, and I root for him.

Their experiences with the Initiative have been radically different from one another, its hard to compare the two.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I stuck with it for one arc. Then he brought in Psylocke and Shadowcat and unceremoniously booted out Spidey and I just said "Ah, hell."

I know it's supposed to be an X-title, but it doesn't make much sense, storyline-wise, that they would ONLY pull mutants for the team. I was really happy when they started to get away from all that.

It really doesn't need to be just an X-title, though. What's so wrong with just having it explore alternate Marvel universes as a whole. Bedard did that quite well, and Winick did it before him. "With an Iron Fist" is one of the best arcs in the series' history, and that's barely X-related. It's such a waste of the series' potential to just pigeonhole it into the X-universe.

 

[Crosis]

It really doesn't need to be just an X-title, though. What's so wrong with just having it explore alternate Marvel universes as a whole. Bedard did that quite well, and Winick did it before him. "With an Iron Fist" is one of the best arcs in the series' history, and that's barely X-related. It's such a waste of the series' potential to just pigeonhole it into the X-universe.

I wholeheartedly agree. Especially since it never really ties in with any other X-titles anyway, not that isn't a bit forced, so why bother with the pretense?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Because Claremont sucks, I guess.

 

[Silver Knight]

Who on Earth is on Warbound 3 cover?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

They mixed up the covers for Warbound and Damage Control. The Warbound cover should be the one with the Leader pummeling Brood.

 

[JackRembrandt]

That JR Jr. Damage Control cover is unrecognizeable as being his work.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah. He doesn't often draw dogs, though. Maybe that's why.

 

[JackRembrandt]

Good point. I like it, though. But then, I like most everything he does.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

JR Jr.'s one of the best the industry's ever seen, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[JackRembrandt]

I would agree with that. He's certainly the best all around artist right now. But, I think he's earned the right to be compared to his father and the rest of the legends.

 

[SuperMonkey]

newuniversal, newuniversal. where art thou, newuniversal?