Marvel August 2006 Solicitations

Agents of Atlas sounds ****ing awesome. Bringing back the '50s Avengers is one of the best ideas I've heard from Marvel in a long time.

The solicitation for Marvel Team-Up is funny. "Lesser known heroes Wolverine and Spider-Man..."

I'm almost interested in Moon Knight because of Taskmaster, but the solicitation makes it seem like Taskmaster will be made a chump of once again. It's cool to see him back in his old costume, though.

Runaways' solicitation and cover makes me think Nico's the one who'll die. That kind of sucks.

Young Avengers/Runaways sounds interesting. I don't see how they'd be at odds over the registration, though. Neither team seems too keen on authority or supervision, which is what the bill is all about.

Ms. Marvel's solicitation is kind of cool on the one hand because of Wonder Man's involvement, but on the other hand... "Julia 'Arachne' Carpenter"? Bleh. I know Jessica Drew came before, but Julia Carpenter's always been Spider-Woman to me thanks to Avengers West Coast. Seems lame that she not only has to change her name but change it to something so crappy, no less. I wonder if she gets a new costume to go along with it.

I was going to drop Thunderbolts but I have to admit, Zemo vs. Cap with Zemo actually on the "right" side this time sounds cool.

Exiles sounds odd. If Bedard plays it for comedy, it could be hilarious. If he tries to be even remotely serious with it, though, it'll probably just annoy me. It looks like the Wolverine from the zombie world that's so inexplicably popular lately will be involved, too.

Goddamnit, I thought I was done with New Excalibur after the first couple issues bored me to tears. A Black Knight cameo means I have to get this arc, though. I wonder if it'd make any difference if I started praying now for Claremont to not **** up the Knight too badly... Awesome cover by Michael Ryan, though.

I wonder how Uncanny X-Men affects Annihilation, given that the Shi'ar empire is supposed to be involved in that somehow, too.

If I didn't know that anything purported to "blow readers' minds" in a Marvel solicitation is nothing but a meaningless platitude, I might have been tempted to get Wolverine: Origins. Luckily I learned that particular lesson a long time ago. I'll probably flip through the issue in the shop to see what Cap's up to in there, though.

Definitely getting that Untold Tales of Spider-Man TPB. It's about time they put one out.

 

Hey if you look it is not Claremont writing New Excalibur now.
Here is hoping the don't mess it up, and maybe put him on the team.

 

Might have to buy almost all of it.

 

For my opinions, just read Corp's.

Also, I have to say that I think the cover design for the Civil War event is ridiculous. It's like they let an intern design it and he didn't get around to it until 5 minutes before it was due. And he was still drunk from the night before when he did it.

The only good thing about the design is that I'll easily be able to identify all the comics I won't be buying for the next several months.

 

Running commentary:

• Is calling Ultimate Marvel "The Gold Standard" Joe Q's idea of a joke?
• Holy ****, a Spidey and Friends team-up? I am so there.
• Brubaker and Lark continue to rock on Daredevil - I love the idea of Foggy having more to him than meets the eye, and that's the thing that'll be explored in this standalone. Fantastic cover by Lee Bermejo, too.
• The idea that Nighthawk is more dangerous that Hyperion, Dr. Spectrum and Power Princess combined is ludicrous. Still, love the cover.
• I hate to buy Civil War (having just spent a small fortune on Infinite Crisis) but it's going to be hard to resist Steve McNiven's luscious pencils.
• ****, a Young Avengers and Runaways Civil War tie-in?
  I'm sorry, wallet. Forgive me.
• I'm sorry, it's not Heroes for Hire without Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Cool concept, though. Might be worth checking out.
• I love Joss Whedon for giving this generation its own version of the Hellfire Club. Can't praise the man enough for what he's done to reinvigorate the X-Franchise.
• Nextwave gets a hardcover? Okay, it was funny for a while, but a friggin' hardcover?! I must have underestimated the sales numbers.
• I'm so down for the Jenkins/Romita Jr. Sentry mini to be collected. I just reread the original series (with Jae Lee pencilling) and it was FANTASTIC.

 

You didn't underestimate the sales numbers, they are just trying to milk it dry.

By the way did you notice there is no new issue of Nextwave in August.

 

Yeah, the Civil War cover design seems awfully lazy. What genius decided, "Hey, here's an idea: let's cut the cover artists' workspace in half and put plain text on a monochrome background on the other half!" They should've gotten the guys who designed the layout for the Xandarian Worldmind files over in the Annihilation books to work out a CW design. Those guys did a fantastic job on the Worldmind stuff.

Also, I win again. I have to confess, though, the CW stuff does sound more interesting than I would've given it credit for. Millar's name still keeps me from reading the central mini, but I think I may end up checking out a few more of the tie-ins than I thought. The FF one in particular sounds better than I thought it would.

 

August looks pretty good for Marvel. Chameleon and Mysterio returning to the pages of Spider-Man in the same month! Coincidence? I THINK NOT! I'll definitely be looking forward to those issues.

Captain America...Daredevil...looking fantastic as always.

Frontline sounds more and more like it's going to be an awesome book. I'm going to have to pick that up when it comes out.

The Ultimate annuals sound good as well.

And the Ultimate Clone Saga starts in the pages of USM. That is definitely going to be one VERY interesting story arc.

 

The zombies series is popular because it was a lot of fun to read
Glad we cleared that one up What makes you think zombie wolvie will be involved though? But I definately got the vibe it was being played for comedy. Speaking of which is it me or was the exiles destory all monsters story line comedy gold?



BTW am I the ONLY one not 'feeling' Joss' latest run? I just find the Hellfire Club INCREDIBLY boring.

 

Zombie Wolverine is right there on the cover.

 

That Exiles idea is beautifully ludicrous.

 

I missed it me am stupid

 

Thoughts on the August Solicts:

- Everything ULTIMATE looks good to me, although that's if you actually like Ultimate books. More Ultimate Annuals, and USM, UF4 and UXM trudging along with storylines I am interested in. I must say I put the most pressure on USM, if only because it is the "Neo Clone Saga" and because Bendis has a shot at recreating Scorpion, a fave rogue of mine who's been all but ruined almost ever since Lee and Ditko created him (making him a "crazed brute" without much cunning that he had as a detective has held Gargan back ever since, easily allowing, say, Venom, to take the mantle that should have been his). I'm also curious as to whether Carey will be able to keep UF4 in order after Millar ends his revitalizing run on it. And Charlie "Moon Knight" Huston on Ultimates Annual #2? Interesting. Plus, more Kirkman on UXM, where he does no harm and maintains the House that Vaughan Reassembled.

- CIVIL WAR trudges along, and I probably will be getting several titles and tie-ins. The cover scheme of it makes it easily recognizable, although it does shrink the cover art. They're going for "edgy"; 8 years ago it would have been called "Civil War X-Treme". So this isn't as bad. While I am wary of the direction of both Millar and Marvel, I have to admit to being more interested in this event than I was with HOM last year; an improvement is an improvement. I'll be getting the main title, Frontline, X-Men, maybe glance at an ASM tie-in (that book officially hasn't thrived without a crossover in over half a year, not a good sign of a stable book), New Avengers, maybe Wolverine, and of course, the best for last, YOUNG AVENGERS/RUNAWAYS.

- AGENTS OF ATLAS is a project I read about in WIZARD #176 and I can't wait for. Looks interesting, with great art from Leonard Kirk as usual.

- MTU of course trucks along, with another Wolverine & Spider-Man team up to maybe desperately pull up sales. Hey, I can't blame 'em. THING was axed, and this book may be next. The problem is that neither Spider-Man or Wolverine guest appearences have dramatically effected the sales of a book since about 1997.

- I may actually buy SPIDER-MAN FAMILY: AMAZING FRIENDS. So sue me.

- Naturally I'll be getting ANNIHILATION and the Nova Files books, as I've bought some of the preludes. Not a big cosmics fan, but something different can be good.

- Dwayne McDuffie proved he could write both big name and no-name heroes well in JLU, so I'll be on-board for BEYOND!. Heck, it's got Spider-Man in his classic threads, to boot!

- Thanks to CLAWS , Wolverine will once again be in 3 books a month (not including any X-titles, or MTU, or New Avengers), and Marvel wonders why some people believe he is overexposed. Although to be fair, Spider-Man is back to being in a bajillion books again.

- On board for ETERNALS, basically for Gaimen.

- Also on board for GHOST RIDER and MOON KNIGHT. Go gritty heroes! Although if Taskmaster could take down the Avengers, I don't see how Moon Knight has much chance. But maybe its like DBZ; take on a bad MF, and you get "rep". Sort of like anyone who was anyone in that show beat Frieza. Hey, years ago at Marvel, that "MF" was either Sabretooth or Venom. You weren't "in" unless you fought Venom in the 90's. Everyone fought Venom. Everyone.

- Always on board for more RUNAWAYS, with ASTONISHING X-MEN being the only X-book of interest now that DEADLY GENESIS has finally sputtered to a close.

 

Woo Ultimate Spider-Woman!

 

How is Joss' current arc working out? I picked up the first issue but wasn't too impressed (but that might be because I just dont like the HC).

Why is everyone hating on Mark Millar all of a sudden? I might not agree with his politics most of the time, but I think he's a great writer...

 

I've been hating on Mark Millar for a long time. Nothing sudden about it. I just think his Marvel work is pretty much all crap, except for The Ultimates. That was all right, but I didn't think it was as brilliant as his fans claim. I think a big part of its success lies with Bryan Hitch's jaw-droppingly amazing artwork. His Spider-Man and Wolverine runs were beyond crap, though.

 

Last issue was awesome of Astonishing X-Men. A very messed up psyche evaluation of Cyclops. Awesome if you like the character. Intriguing if you don't. Either way, pick it up.

Hate on Mark Millar? That's proposterous (I can't spell that damn word) Millar and Morrison are my two favorite writers, followed by Johns and Bendis.

I personally thought his Wolverine and Spider-Man work was beyond awesome.

Just goes to show that there's different strokes for different folks

 

Preposterous.

 

Ultimate Spider-Woman looks interesting, but unashamedly familiar to a "female black spider" design I recall seeing in SPIDER-GIRL. Plus, Julia Carpenter technically had the black costume first, so it was unsurprising. It beats a "21st century" redesign, because those usually involve spikey armor.

As for Millar, he's a great action movie writer who often can become too much of a loudmouth for his own good. When he keeps himself in check, like in ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR, he's golden. However, when he goes too far off the deep end, especially into his Extremist Liberalism (as in, literally blaming America for everything so long as a Republican is in power, but treating it like Nirvanna when Clinton was in charge), his work can suffer, as ULTIMATES 2 has. Even without that, sometimes he seems mired in darkness; I liked his work on ULTIMATE X-MEN, but seeing Vaughan's 20 issue run strip away a twinge of the dark cynicism helped the book mature into something more stable. I'd rate him as a "hit or miss", or "someone who needs supervision". He'd probably work better as co-writer, because he is efficient at action and at building suspence for the build-up chapters; its the climaxes where he sometimes underwhelms.

 

Didn't ready Spidey but I loved his wolverine run...seeing him fight all the heroes was cool, and I just thought it was very well done.

 

She may look like a "female black spider" from Spider-Girl, except that her costume is crimson and not black.

 

It sounds like Spider-man will be outed by then.

 

Man, looks like a lot of awesome stuff coming out.

 

Yeah, that's why I said that she looked "familiar" and not a direct copy. Plus, Bagley's interiors are not always the same as the covers, so she may look more crimson on the cover. Considering that she's likely tied into the whole Clone/Venom/Carnage mess, that explains the motif.

I wonder if Venom will see a return? Bendis left the door open after the anti-climatic way that arc ended (although I actually didn't mind the ending as much as some fans did; USM didn't reach that low for me until CARNAGE).