May 2012 Solicitations

[Specter313]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=37089

 

[CrimsonMist]

FuryMAX!
TWO issues?!

 

[THANOSRULES]

Thoughts:

Avengers Ad Nauseum to be expected, I am mildyly hopeful for AvX and very excited for Avengers assembled. There is just nothing more comforting to me than Mark Bagely, certainly not the "greatest" artist to wield a pencil, but possibly the best mix of work ethic, quality lines, relyibility, and enthusiasm. He's my 2nd all time favorite artist next to Jack Kirby, for much of the same qualities.

FF- just when you think Marvel has a cosmic book you end up with a Wakanda arc. Pass..goes to show why I've never been a regular FF supporter.

Defenders- I should be excited about this sucker..but im not.

 

[venom892]

...and the double shipping continues to kill me.

 

[CConn]

I think I may have to try Avenging Spider-Man just to see what the Immonens are doing.

 

[THANOSRULES]

By the way, 15 years ago did I ever think i'd be saying 'avengers ad nauseum'?

 

[CConn]

But yeah, the double shipping the the .1s blow.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Yay! Even after cutting 6 books recently Marvel's shipping STILL puts me over budget by about $30 (aided by DC's Batman Annual to be fair) So the running total is now 4 months and... is that 10 or 11 issues of Venom?

Yeah, I'm thinking I'm just going to have to drop that book. It's $6 saved so that helps cut costs some. I was debating on picking up all the Court of Owls tie-ins but with this much output from Marvel I'll just stick to the comics I'm currently buying.

Other than that I think I will be picking up the Avengers Academy AvsX tie-ins since they deal with the X-Students, who I'm a fan of. It'd only be temporary though. And while I was thinking about skipping on AvsX: VS, I'm very interested in reading Captain America vs. Gambit. I was actually thinking about how good that matchup would be just the other day but didn't expect it to happen or be more than a panel or two since Gambit's not the rising star he used to be. I'm just picturing the Shield being thrown and Gambit's agility getting around it but his getting a finger on it and watching it fly back to cap fully charged.

But yeah, I'll have to trim some more that month and hope for shorter shipping the following month but knowing Marvel that's not going to happen. At least when AvsX settles down there's a good chance I'll be dropping most if not all the Avengers titles that I buy. That'll save me $12 a month right there... depending on the creative team and cast of the books post-Bendis.

 

[CConn]

I would skip the Court of Owls tie-ins. I doubt they'll be all that important.

Although I am going to get The Dark Knight, because it might actually be good with Winick writing.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'm gonna get it, hold my breath, and pray that Winick knows how to write Tim Drake better than Finch knows how to draw him.

 

[Dread]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=37089

Thanks for the link! Rants/thoughts ahoy!

- Naturally, AVX chugs along for it's second phase. The main story at this juncture seems to be tracking down the Phoenix and it's host before it consumes the planet/solar system. The biggest dilemma I have here is the Avengers act like they've been involved in this before, when they never have. Every single time the Phoenix has been involved in something, it has been an X-Men story. Which isn't their fault, but it comes off as awkward. Ms. Marvel is the only one who sort of qualifies as she ran with the X-Men a bit in the 80's and went into space with them, but even that is a stretch. Still, it is an "omega level threat" and all. I expect them to act like jerks to each other. Imagine a story, however, which involved both teams uniting against Kang and the X-Men holding some war room meeting as if they'd ever battled Kang before in their careers, and you can see the awkwardness.

Now, I don't expect to enjoy AVX very much, but the only benefit of the 5 writer team is I have a 50/50 shot it could be readable. I mean, I still like Ed Brubaker's work, and overall Jonathan Hickman is still fine. Bendis the Horrendous is still just that, and the damage his stories have done to the Marvel universe and no end of characters give Handbook writers nightmares - no writer has inspired more usages of the phrase, "somehow surviving" in Handbook bio's before. The wild cards are Jason Aaron and Matt Fraction. I liked Aaron on GHOST RIDER but ever since he's been ropey. Matt Fraction is the definition of hit or miss; you either get the awesome writer of THE ORDER or the corporate hack behind FEAR ITSELF. Still, how do five writers write something? Do you assign consonants to one, vowels to another, nouns to another, verbs to a fourth and the last guy gets to dot i's? Does each writer have specific characters they write dialogue for and it's almost like a session of DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS? Or do they all check off the editorial checklist of THINGS THAT MUST HAPPEN and more or less make a script of the record of the meeting?

At AVX: VERSUS, though, I draw the line. I am not interested in WWE grudge matches, especially when they're so awkward. Rather than give people the battles they might want to see in extended form, you get awkward match ups. Because when people think "Avengers vs. X-Men", they think, "Namor vs. Thing" from the last issue. Gambit vs. Captain America? Has Captain America ever lost a fight against another superhero, that wasn't the god damned Batman (via a fan poll)? It certainly won't be to a has-been like Gambit. It's wrestling logic - popularity trumps all. And in fairness, Gambit really has nothing Cap hasn't seen before. As for the other match, Spider-Man beat Juggernaut before, and I doubt the new version has anything new for him. But, Spider-Man is more allowed to be beaten on panel, so it's a toss up. I still see "Cluggernaut" as a terrible compromise to a long term problem for two characters. Via misuse and underuse, Marvel had nothing to do with Colossus and no way to change it. Via overuse and massive beatings, Juggernaut no longer worked as a force of nature villain. So, merge the two into one cosplaying behemoth, and you have a plot for a bit.

- Avengers Academy double ships, and the kids from Generation Hope are prisoners? I doubt the cadets would be for that. A battle with Shaw could be fun, though. Hopefully Gage recaps whatever X-complicated continuity is happening with him. I heard he has amnesia now.

- X-Men Legacy has an oddball collection of Avengers to battle Gage's oddball collection of X-Men. Not bad!

- A 5 issue mini series showcasing the Hulk beating up other heroes? Didn't we already have WORLD WAR HULK? And HULK? And WORLD WAR HULKS?

More to come!

 

[THANOSRULES]

Yeah but even though cap would beat gambit, it should be a good fight..with Caps skills I would expect most guys to put up a good fight and cap would have trouble truly dispatching anyone super quick.

I mean Batroc Ze Leaper does , why not gambit.

 

[runawayboulder]

Gambit is NO Batroc.

 

[DeGenerate10]

Dear Lord how many double shipments are they having?! I can't afford all of this

 

[SpideyInATree]

I was hoping that I could avoid it but Marvel has decided to double ship Daredevil now it looks like. Ugh.

I'm glad I got that subscription to Amazing Spider-Man because it seems if you are reading that book this month will kill you in the wallet. The normal two issues. Then an annual. Then a, what people say is a one shot, with the End of the Earth stuff. So that's four Amazing Spider-Man books in one month and they are ALL at a 3.99 price tag. That's brutal.

I really want to drop Daredevil because of the double shipping because I'm tired of Marvel's horrible business practices but the book is too good and I'll hang on for now but it things get any worse I'll just drop Marvel completely.

 

[THANOSRULES]

Oh yeah..T-bolts looks interesting as well.

 

[CConn]

I'm probably most upset by the Exiled thing. I just started reading JiM, I'm not ready for a crossover yet.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

How awesome would it be if the Captain Marvel on the cover of Secret Avengers were Genis-Vell instead of Mar-Vell. The Kree united... behind a crazy a**hole.

Avengers Assemble's cover makes me physically ill.

I wish Lee Weeks were actually drawing Hulk Smash Avengers instead of just providing covers. Although the interior artists do look pretty good as well.

Whoa, Cullen Bunn's co-writing Venom now? Neat.

Oh snap, She-Hulk in Avenging Spider-Man? That should be fun.

I've never read Parallel Lives before. Looks like I'll be picking up the re-issue of that.

Holy s***, Patrick Zircher is taking over on Captain America after Alan Davis leaves? This series is getting some ridiculously awesome art talent. Kind of a shame that Brubaker's writing hasn't been up to the artists' standards so far. But supervillain witness protection does sound like a cool premise (that is thankfully unconnected to WWII).

Captain America and Hawkeye looks like it'll be fun. Cap and Hawkeye vs. dinosaurs. What's not to love? Also, Cullen Bunn is writing this as well. Dude's really getting around at Marvel.

AAAH, Rulk crossover with the Legion of Monsters. That's gonna be f***ing awesome!

I almost want to try Incredible Hulk just for the absurdity of the Punisher fighting him... but I probably won't.

Ugh, goddamnit, it looks like Hickman's gonna start doing in Fantastic Four what drove me right off of his SHIELD series. Rewriting the past is not an acceptable substitute for not having any good ideas for the present. It's just a .1 issue, though, so maybe it'll remain relatively contained.

Huh, Exiled? Looks interesting. Not liking the "gods made mortal" part or the fact that they're introducing yet another mythological person whose only noteworthy attribute is that they're "mightier than Thor himself." But I like Gillen and DnA, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Wow, Chris Samnee on Daredevil now? This book keeps getting better.

Hahaha, what the f***? Fixer kills his past self? Thunderbolts be crazy. Also, not double-shipping for once. Ironic, given that virtually everything else is this time.

 

[Dread]

More rants/thoughts:

- Marvel has never heard of too much of a good thing. More double shippings ahoy. While T-Bolts takes a break for once, we have AVENGERS ACADEMY, VENOM, DAREDEVIL, and CAPTAIN AMERICA doing it, with FANTASTIC FOUR essentially doing so with the .1 issue, and those are just the books I buy. The case of VENOM is a bit absurd since we already have the "Circle Of Four" clogging February. Marvel's theory is that since spare one-shots or mini's or even annuals sell poorly next to regular issues, they'll just publish more regular issues. Since new series rarely last, they'll instead invest in more of existing ones. The dilemma here is that the strategy is the same - find a way to force fans to buy more material they have plainly shown they don't want. Eventually this has to hit critical mass. It would be nice if one day Marvel was run by a rational adult who was able to recognize reality for what it is, the market for what it is, and plan accordingly. Instead it is run by man-children who only see what focus groups or nostalgia tells them the world is. And their boss is an eccentric billionaire (Ike Perlmutter has refused to be seen in public or film for roughly a decade) who'd rather cut a penny than invest a dime to make a dollar.

- Chris Samnee is a fine addition to DAREDEVIL. Khoi Pham, however...is not the artist I would imagine would fit on the book. I assume the over-publishing is not kind to the sort of innovative artists the book's format required. Waid's stories should be good, as usual. That isn't to say I dislike Pham - his art is fine so long as he's not the one inking it. But he's not the same artist as the types who seem to be flourishing on DAREDEVIL lately. But I could be wrong.

- More Spider-Man crap! Despite having a .1 issue, he also gets an annual. END OF THE EARTH chugs along and looks very good. There's a spare one shot for it, but that's a fraction of what was spat out for SPIDER-ISLAND and I'll likely get it. It is ironic that Marvel is reprinting the PARALLEL LIVES graphic novel, as that was the novel that retconned the fact that MJ had known (or strongly suspected) that Peter was Spidey since they were neighbors as teenagers and she saw Spidey leave his window once.

- Scarlet Spider disarming a nuke, and the Avengers showing up? I guess Kaine'a paranoia wasn't unfounded. Neil Edwards on art is a fail for me - his style couldn't contrast more with Stegman if he tried.

- CAPTAIN AMERICA looks interesting, with Patrick Zircher on art and a plot about villains in witness protection. Marvel has a slew of retired villains who escaped Scourge, so why not?

- WINTER SOLDIER earns a demerit for the solicit bragging about how cool the series itself is. That sort of self congratulation is reserved for Mark Millar Icon books, thank you. That said, the series has gotten off to a solid start.

- DEFENDERS #6 seems like an Iron Fist issue, and the cover looks spiffy. I imagine whatever happens with Misty Knight at the end of VILLAINS FOR HIRE will prep for her and Danny to reunite at some point under Fraction.

- T-Bolts looks fine, but the time travel arc is a distraction from the fact that Jeff Parker seems to refuse to write antagonists into his arcs - all he does is have his heroes bounce around fighting odd stuff. After a while that gets weak, and part of me wonders when that magic finally runs out for me for longer than 1-2 issues here and there.

 

[marcy17]

Hey its good information. I like it ..!!

 

[Dread]

Hey its good information. I like it ..!!

Welcome to Super Hero Hype, marcy17

(Hey, I do that when I notice someone's post count is under 20 sometimes.)

 

[Max J Power]

I collect 7 Marvel books right now (as well as Batman and Fatale) and 5 of them are double-shipping in May. I probably wasn't going to renew my subscription to Invincible Iron Man that ran out last month, but now it's a certainty. Even the price of a mail subscription is too much when I'm buying 14 issues in a month instead of 9.

On the plus side, it appears that Captain America & Hawkeye is only $3.99 for the first issue, so I might not drop it after all.

 

[CConn]

If I bought everything I'm interest in, my March pull list would be:

Uncanny X-Men #12
Wolverine and the X-Men #10
Wolverine and the X-Men #11
Secret Avengers #27
Avengers Academy #29
Avengers Academy #30
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #10
Venom #17
Venom #18
Captain America #11
Captain America #12
Incredible Hulk #8
Defenders #6
Daredevil #12
Daredevil #13
Uncanny X-Force #25
X-Factor #235
X-Factor #236

Which is pretty awful. I'm already skipping JiM and AvX...might even add Uncanny to that list if it ties heavily into AvX.

 

[flash13]

All I need is Daredevil and Winter Soldier.

 

[runawayboulder]

Finally got around to reading these......

I'm still very skeptical about AvX and I plan on treading lightly as far as what books I get. I'm not committing to any books outside of the one's I normally get despite the fact I've been waiting for Wanda to be involved with the Avengers again and the resolution of the Hope/Jean/Phoenix angle.

Lee Weeks is a god! Those Hulk covers are outstanding work.

Cullen Bunn does get around like Corp says. It looks like Marvel has a ton of confidence in this guy. He seems to have a lot of talent and now that he's co-writing Venom, it could be a passing of the torch from Remender on Venom.

Christ, look at all these Spider-Man books! See, this is the s**t I'm talking about with Marvel. Dan Slott made it clear in his interview a while ago regarding Ends of the Earth being self contained. Yet, Marvel takes this opportunity to drop a 1 shot tie in, along with an annual. and let's not forget his secondary title, Avenging Spider-Man. They are acting like a bunch of sneaky pricks. They're getting burned by DC with tactics like this and will continue to do so. I'm almost rooting for DC at this point because it would serve Marvel right.

I hope Zircher is here to stay on Cap. One, because he's damn good and two, because there needs to be a constant artist on a book so early into it's run. Rotating artists is one thing, changing them every arc is another. I'll miss Davis, his work was terrific as always but I knew he wasn't going to stay on the book for long.

I enjoy Aaron a lot but I don't know if I can be anymore patient with The Incredible Hulk. I'm not really into the book enough to pay for it on top of all of the double shipping, point 1 flooding going on.

Oh look, another OUTSTANDING cover by Paolo Rivera for DD#12. The man is a genius.

I've been looking forward to FuryMAX for a while now. Ennis and Parlov make a great team. I'm just glad to see the MAX line live on in some way.