More solicits? That means more thoughts & rants!
- I don't for a second believe that all 9 announced titles being canceled will be canceled for long. I imagine the ones where a writer is leaving after an extended run - IRON MAN, FAN FOUR, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THOR, UXM, and HULK - will be relaunched within 6 months or less. For some like FF and NEW MUTANTS, though, the goose could be cooked. FF was a Hickman spin off and may have no need to exist, while NEW MUTANTS was one spare X-book too many when Marvel already has a few they don't need. X-MEN has gone from being "the team up book" to "the Brian Wood book" and AXM is now "the Marjorie Liu book" after all.
- I commented on the Marvel NOW! stuff elsewhere. I see it as Marvel's usual annual status quo altering stuff after a crossover event, only now they're putting on the gas a bit since DC saw some success with their New 52. I don't think Marvel have the stones to reboot their entire universe, but then again, neither did DC. It usually looks like a mess. The roster for UNCANNY AVENGERS is bizarre, and the thought that John Cassaday will be able to produce more than 3-4 monthly issues even if it had 200 years of lead in time is laughable. We'll get a fill in artist around issue 3-5, and then maybe another Cassaday issue, and then the fill in will become the regular and Cassaday at best will draw covers. Regardless, Rick Remender being the writer is a tempting fashion. Havok is in an ugly costume and him being the leader and not Cap would seem odd, although both Cap and Iron Man merrily allowed Luke Cage to be leader for a while and he's got far less actual leadership experience than Havok. I imagine "X-MEN FIRST CLASS" will spark Marvel to do stuff with Alex Summers now. Alas, it is years after WAR OF KINGS, when he could have killed Vulcan and avenged his father; instead Black Bolt got to slay him. I also feel a poor sense of fashion is Havok's secondary mutation. He's had some 4-5 costumes now and all of them are terrible. His best ones were the one from MUTANT X and the get up he had briefly at the end of WAR OF KINGS, but his power causes him to shunt those in favor of more onion rings or tiaras.
- The long national nightmare is coming to an end - Bendis The Horrendous is leaving the Avengers books. Couldn't have happened soon enough. Don't get the door hit you on the way out, Bendy. Now you can go forth destroying some X-Men, like the Unicron of comics. A good chunk of my adult life has been spent aghast at all the underwhelming stories and flat out jaw droppingly terrible things he's done to characters and Marvel in general on that franchise. A new direction can't come soon enough. Now the task remains for Remender, Hickman, and whoever else to begin attempting to rebuild the pieces. Much like with J. Michael Straczynski, why does it seem that there always needs to be a universal reboot after he finishes running a book into the ground?
- With the obligatory crossover done, Remender is back to his actual plot on SECRET AVENGERS including Ant-Man and his replicant people and it looks better already. I will be glad to see that book back to form.
- I am pleasantly surprised that AVENGERS ACADEMY has not been canceled. Sales have always remained above cancellation range, but before the AVX boost they were closer to that dead zone than one would have liked. The past arc or so has been a little past it's prime but I am looking forward to the next one. This one for the solicit, though, seems a tad daft. The same forces who were just killing each other in AVX are now playing flag football against each other? "Sheesh, and they call ME crazy!" the Joker might say. Reminds me of Razorback's first appearance when he considered socking a superhero in the face as common custom for northeastern superheroes, like a handshake. Why is Wolverine, a guy who has gleefully attempted to murder Wiccan and Hope at the first sign of caution, allowed anywhere near children? He's a hypocritical maniac and the only difference I see between him and Sabretooth these days is that the superheroes never endlessly look past Creed's dark side. Wolverine's a monster who pretends that he isn't, but the monster always comes out; Creed at least revels in his monster-hood.
- I will be stunned of the name change helps the comic formerly known as THUNDERBOLTS for long. At any rate, this issue of DARK AVENGERS holds my interest for the clash between squads and the appearance of Cain Marko. FEAR ITSELF yanked him from the book and I don't think he's been seen since. I am glad Parker has a crack at him.
- I love how every single man, woman, and child who saw "THE AVENGERS" left the theater going, "Hey, Black Widow was more awesome than we'd thought" and Marvel has responded by pimping Hawkeye and dismissing that any actress playing any superheroine role could sell in interviews. I've considered Fraction & Aja's HAWKEYE, but I don't know. I've been burned by Fraction before.
- ASM looks to ramp up the Hobgoblin and Kingpin plot, which is fine. I love how Slott cycles in subplots here and there and different ones rise to the fore.
- Seriously, does the phrase, "this month, guest starring Wolverine" really incite anything but a groan in most people? Regardless, he's in WINTER SOLDIER this month for no damned reason. Yay. I suppose I could be fair and note that Logan did help save a young Natasha Romanov from the Hand with Capt. America decades ago, and he has some things in common with Barnes. I just kind of hate seeing him, and the more people who run into Winter Soldier, the more laughable his "I want the world to believe me dead" bit becomes. It's not quite as bad as Moon Knight still being considered "an urban legend" after 30 ****ing years of existence, but it's close. That said, Wolverine doesn't share things with teammates; even useful bits like telling the Avengers the Agents Of Atlas weren't evil until they'd already fought a bit.
- I seriously doubt a Captain America Team Up book can last much longer.
- The end of the Brubaker era on CAPTAIN AMERICA is a big thing for me. Sure, some of his recent arcs have been past his prime, but the latest one was good and I am looking forward to an endgame. 7 years is a long time to be writing a solo hero title and unlike JMS on ASM, he'll get to leave without a major scandal or people hating him. I only read CA for him (and belatedly at that), and I wonder if I'll read CA again without him.
- I am stunned that DEFENDERS has yet to be canceled. That book is sliding down the Top 100 and by next month I imagine it will be out of them. Given Fraction's pedigree I imagine sales expectations are higher. I imagine the book may be allowed to finish it's arc but I will be stunned if it is still solicited in December.
- End of FANTASTIC FOUR by Hickman; had it's bumps but overall, fond memories. I don't think anyone has been on that book as long since Mark Waid.
- DAREDEVIL, speaking of Waid looks awesome. Even if for a villain named Coyote, he looks nothing like a coyote.
- SPACE PUNISHER is still the stupidest thing in print I have seen in a long time. I know Marvel has been sacking tenured editors and employees lately, and whatever hack approved that I hope is gone.
- In the "Odd Reprints" department, they're collecting and reprinting the SPACEKNIGHTS series from 12 years ago. Now, it was odd to reprint the last BIG HERO 6 series until news hit that Disney wanted to make it an animated film. Are the SPACEKNIGHTS on their radar, too? And if so, could Disney's lawyers and big bucks get ROM to be reprinted? One could argue the SPACEKNIGHTS would be a fine franchise for some sort of media.
- FIRST X-MEN still does not impress me.
- GAMBIT has a series again, at his lowest ebb of popularity? Got to love Marvel. They stupidly wasted a BLACK WIDOW attempt years before anyone would have cared and now they're back to thrusting out the Cajun has been.
- X-MEN LEGACY is ending, a book I only started reading for Christos Gage. It hasn't been a bad book but it's rarely been great and I can't say I will miss it from my pull list much.
- The fact that UNCANNY X-MEN is being ended/relaunched barely more than a year since it's last relaunch proves once and for all that Marvel editorial plans for absolutely nothing but the present year and doesn't think ahead much at all. Most industries would call that treading water. But not in the crazy niche market of comic books, where new ideas are abandoned ideas and new customers are old customers! It is as if Ike Perlmutter, reclusive billionaire CEO of Marvel, is merely a parrot who can only say, "Awk, reboot with a new #1, AWK, REBOOT WITH A NEW #1! Perlie wants some layoffs!" And since Ike hasn't been photographed in public in a decade, maybe he really is a parrot. I find it hilarious that Marvel publishes stories about evil eccentric billionaires causing trouble, and they're run by one.
- Glad VENOM and SCARLET SPIDER aren't canned, but I am a bit wary on a MINIMUM CARNAGE crossover. That said, both were allowed their own solo time to be fair. It just seems like too few Marvel books are allowed to be their own thing instead of just being one cog in one long slog of a narrative.
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