Time to get in some thoughts/rants about the solicitations. Spoilers ahoy.
- For a character who is supposedly on a dead-pool, the Thing sure is popping up a lot in cover art. There are some who think this is a deliberate ruse, but I doubt it. Killing off the Thing would be code that in no way would it last long. He's the most popular of the Four and the only one who has ever sold away from them. I doubt he's the one who bites it in a couple weeks. He's front and center for the covers of FEAR ITSELF and NEW AVENGERS.
- FEAR ITSELF looks like it will combine the subplots from CAPTAIN AMERICA and THOR to a degree (the two movies coming out in 2011 - say it with me, SYNERGY). Sin unleashes some ancient Norse fear demon and it screws over the Marvel Universe. Sort of sounds like the plot for the Captain America film (Red Skull/Hydra beam in Norse creatures during WWII). The irony is at 7 chapters, it will be shorter than most of Fraction's arcs for INVINCIBLE IRON MAN and thus could be tighter paced. Immonen's artwork is always a treat, and to be fair Fraction used to be good and has never written an event before. Still, I'm not especially looking forward to this. Ironically, I am more looking forward to the FEAR ITSELF: THE HOME FRONT anthology series from Christos Gage and Pete Milligan.
- Back at the New York Comic Con, Marvel claimed they'd be cutting their prices in 2011. It came hours after DC's line wide announcement and people who said that Marvel just made it up to try to counter DC were being unrealistic. Well, then we got weeks of Marvel trying to say they were misquoted after January's solicits showed no price cut in sight. David Gabriel went all over the web to clarify that we wouldn't see price changes much until April. Well, here we are. Marvel claimed they wouldn't launch a new ongoing series at $3.99 for the debut issue, and they're liars. The relaunches of MIGHTY THOR and JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY are both $3.99. Both are ongoing titles; MIGHTY THOR is just THOR with a new #1 and a new title, likely because sales have slipped below 55k or so and he has a movie coming. JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY is basically THOR FAMILY with Gillen. And while I am pleased to see that a slew of mini series, such as POWER MAN & IRON FIST, are $2.99, I still see a slew of ongoings and mini's that are needlessly $3.99, and they're mostly the top selling books. The books that rule/clog the Top 25-50 or books that Marvel wants to, such as FEAR ITSELF stuff. We have a lot of annuals and so on this month.
Compare this to DC. They cut their prices to $2.99. No whining. No being a *****-ass sissy about it, denying it and then changing their tune. They have the balls to promote their low price and have the low price in large font on the cover, not hide it in Type 4 in a corner like Marvel does. No hemming and hawing, no lies. It sucks that I'm mostly disinterested in their complicated universe, because DC's making all the right moves when it comes to the price war.
- Sadly, leaving THOR for JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY will not save my wallet anything. If this week wasn't a small one I might have dumped THOR tomorrow. We'll see how Gillen does, but his 11 issue THOR run was the best that volume has had.
- If an Ultimate character dies, and no body reads about it or reacts, is it still an event? That's the metaphorical question USM faces now.
- SECRET AVENGERS #12 has Rogers back in a Cap suit and wearing a helmet that looks like the movie one. Stunning, really. And it looks like the team may actually fight the Shadow Cabinet. So soon, Brubaker? I was really enjoying seeing the team fight nothing but nameless minions for the last 11 issues. Think in issue #13, they could fight a real super-villain? Any super-villain? Like they do in every single guest appearance outside their own book? I'll take Eye-Scream at this point.
- AVENGERS ACADEMY looks interesting, but some of it looks familiar. A godlike being alters reality and shows our kid cast a glimpse of some horrible alternate future thing. In order to prevail, the kids have to overcome their worst flaws and fears in physical form. Wasn't this an arc of TEEN TITANS? Still, as this is the best Avengers books on the racks, I have faith that Gage will make this plot workable.
- Between AVENGERS ACADEMY, AVENGERS, and AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE #5, there seems to be a lot of reality warping going on. Is Jack Of Hearts really back? And it seems that even on a bi-monthly schedule, it is already running late. A:TCC #4 shipped this month. The next issue should ship in March, not April. With a lead in time that was so long that Jim Cheung is using costumes about 4 years out of date, and with a bi-monthly schedule, this book STILL misses a month. Appalling. Simply unprofessional. Any sign that Alonso as EIC would run a tighter ship is not obvious now. The fans and the franchise deserve better than a creative team who clearly do not care about producing a timely product.
- CAPTAIN AMERICA #617 promises a development with Bucky that "no one ever expected". If it involves Bucky being convicted and/or escaping prison and Steve starting on the road that gets him back behind the mantle of Captain America by around July, well...not only is that not a development "no one ever expected", it is the development EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD WHO IS CAPABLE OF READING FICTION EXPECTED. I know solicitations are written as ads, and likely by editors or drones in marketing, but please, man, for once in my life, I would like for Marvel to not take their audience as bloody fools. Just once. Please. To be fair, Marvel has kept Rogers out of the mask for longer than even I expected. I don't think Barnes has a future if he is not Captain America, at least as a solo star of his own book. But even his tenure as Cap has remained an ensemble book, in which he gets captured in every arc, so perhaps a return to his fugitive Winter Soldier status (where he's wanted by the law, but still does good while he can, Bill Bixby Hulk style) may work out, and may be what Brubaker always intended.
- I will not try MIGHTY THOR. In fact I may be gone before the relaunch. Fraction's THOR has not been good at all, and for $3.99 an issue, frankly, even giving it six issues is a bit much.
- Both AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and FF are "classified" this month. That's fine. Seriously, if Spidey joins the Four officially, I am all for that, completely. That's a great direction. And if so, it also implies that, as I've been betting, Reed bites it.
- Like VENOM #2's riff on a classic Todd MacFarlane cover. I never read Rick Remender before and to be honest whether I even try this book will depend on how the ASM .1 issue goes. I already read too many books it seems. If Venom does turn out to be John Jameson, he will be tied with Hank Pym for most superhuman identities (Col. Jupiter, Man-Wolf, Stargod, Venom, and John Jameson, Cap pilot). Flash Thompson is also likely.
- Now, DEADPOOL #1000 was a simple riff on Marvel's own renumbering schemes (much as DEADPOOL TEAM-UP starting with #900 and counting backwards). But then we got WOLVERINE #900 & #1000 and now SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #1000, and it's dead straight. Marvel is beyond parody. Why stop there, ya pansies? I want to see WOLVERINE #1,000,000,000,000,000,000.1, with 5,000 variant covers drawn by everyone who ever drew or draws for Marvel (and if dead, drawn by their relatives). Make that price gouging market flooding abomination happen, Bordello Of Ideas. The horrific irony? It's written by John Ostrander, who I still like for his H4H run of the late 90's, and drawn by Mike Ryan. And while I am certain that all 56 pages will not be original material (if we are lucky, 32 pages will be), it still will probably be a solid one shot story that I'll likely buy, damn it! This is why people download comics illegally.
- So much Spider-Man material! You'd think he could support so many spare spin offs. Ahahaha...he can't. Not since 1996.
- People are dazzled that SPIDER-GIRL #6 is not listed as the last issue? Give it a while. YOUNG ALLIES #7 wasn't either, until a "whoops, it's dead!" line in Previews popped up months later, and that issue 7 would never happen. So it isn't that I doubt SG #6 is coming...it is that I wouldn't bet my life on seeing issue #9.
This book is a mix so far. Overall it is great. But I didn't expect the tone to shift in the second issue, and now what made Spider-Girl unique in issue one, one of the few things she had left after her origin and powers were ripped from her, is gone. Now she's just another orphaned, nomadic female lead character, like alllll the rest. I'm sure Tobin will do it well, but I still think something was lost for no real reason. Hopefully the series proves me wrong, because I'm aboard for it. I do get tired of Susan Richards being the only heroine in Marvel and even in superhero comics who is allowed to have a still living and thriving family that she interacts with on a monthly basis.
- SUPER HERO SQUAD ONLINE HERO UP is being offered for .50, to hook the kids. For 22 pages. Wait. So, maybe Marvel DOES know how to promote something cheaply as a promotional expense to try to hook in newer, younger readers (or their parents). They just choose to not do so for their entire line because they're greedy or short sighted. Gotcha.
- ANNIHILATORS, as usual, looks awesome. A $5 book doesn't suck when it is two books in one!
- By April, will the sales of BLACK PANTHER: MAN WITHOUT FEAR be so low that Marvel will ask themselves what they were thinking? Marvel hindered the sales of WOLVERINE...WOLVERINE, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, by trying to trick his steady audience into buying Daken. Sales flopped and have not recovered in the long term. Now they risk the same of a smaller audience that read Daredevil. It's mindless decisions like this that give people the impression that anyone off the street could work for a comic book company.
- POWER MAN & IRON FIST looks like it is shamelessly delving back into Iron Fist's kooky 1970's street fu world, and that's great. The Marvel Handbooks seem to believe that El Aguila was depowered during M-Day, so I am curious how he'll be handled here. At any rate, the first mini was the highlight of SHADOWLAND and I expect better from this one. Van Lente has usually been very reliable.
- HEROES FOR HIRE #5 also looks cool, with Iron Fist, Paladin, and Falcon getting to the root of things. That's also been a surprisingly good relaunch.
- You have a mini called HAWKEYE: BLIND SPOT, which is obviously the next arc on what would have been HAWKEYE & MOCKINGBIRD had it not been canceled (then merged with BLACK WIDOW). Obviously, Jim McCann had something big for Clint that Marvel has to publish. Is it losing his vision? Because golly, I'd have no clue to expect that.
- ONSLAUGHT UNLEASHED chugs along, and it's probably not a good sign when I like the artwork on those Humberto Ramos covers more than I have ever liked Filipe Andrade's interior artwork. It's possible that he really hits this series out of the part, but who knows. The cover is interesting, as it seems to have some winged reptile man there who I don't recognize. The solicited, but never published, YOUNG ALLIES #7 was going to feature Toro's home country buddy, who went by "the Dragon". Will McKeever do a shorter version of that here?
- THUNDERBOLTS #156 is interesting; it seems John Walker wants to expand the program. I guess he and Cage figure the main team is working well enough, at least without Crossbones as a part of it anymore (seriously, what WERE they thinking with him?). Any takers on who makes the Beta Team? The cover shows Ana Kraven, Abomination, Absorbing Man, Batroc, Mr. Hyde, Sandman, and Dark Beast. Well. I'm not sure Dark Beast was ever arrested, and the X-editorial office clings to their characters and never shares like a pimp with a non-paying john. Any tanker would make Juggernaut seem more useless than he sometimes is, so I'm not betting on Abomination. Both Sandman and Batroc have been heroes, or at least had streaks of honor, in their histories, and Batroc would be a good choice to replace Crossbones as the "expect fighter without super powers" member. He also is a Cap villain. I imagine some mileage could be gotten out of Mr. Hyde, much as SECRET SIX used to do with Mad Hatter, so he's possible. I'm not feeling Ana Kraven or Absorbing Man, but you never know.
- Marvel still has 4 Deadpool titles, not much different than in March.
- NAMOR: THE FIRST MUTANT #9 ships. Let us take a moment and think of all the launches or relaunches that have not seen 9 issues.
- This is the official start of the Gillen era of UXM. Other issues had Fraction co-writing.
- Wolverine has 6 books; albeit 2 of them are his "WolverWaynes", Daken and X-23. Marvel; not 1996 anymore. Tuck 'em back, cut the price, if you want a recovery.
- The first RUNAWAYS digest is getting a reprint. When I read 'em, they were $7.99 each. Now they're $9.99 each. Ah, the times. Still, no higher priced than most manga.
I'll check them out when I get home and give my 2 cents tonight.
And away we go!
