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Marvel Solicitations for May 2009

February 24th 2009 05:51

Once again it's time to check out what Marvel have coming down the pipeline. As usual, the focus is on stuff that interest me, as opposed to adaptations of novels and such-like.

Human Torch Comics #1 70th Anniversary Special

and

Marvel Mystery Comics #1 70th Anniversary Special

There's nothing too extraordinary to talk about here so far as the story goes, but I felt the need to point out that Marvel are celebrating their 70th anniversary. There used to be a trend from the company to ignore its entire output before 1961, so it's nice to see them acknowledging a lot of that stuff now.

Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #1 (of 4)
by Chris Eliopoulos and Ig Guara

and

Fin Fang Four Return! #1
by Scott Gray & Roger Langridge

I'm lumping these two together to highlight Marvel's continuing efforts at publishing things that are Very Silly Indeed. The first involves various pets of Marvel characters, from the teleporting dog Lockjaw, to Speedball's cat, to the Falcon's bird. Also - Frog Thor.

The second involves a bunch of giant monsters from 1950s comics that have been shrunk down to human size, and have to try and survive in the modern world.

Needless to say, I approve of both titles.

Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk #6 (of 6)
by Damon Lindeloff & Leinil Yu

Well, I never thought I'd see the day when this was released. When was issue #1... Five years ago? Six? I think that just leave Daredevil: Target on Marvel's list of stuff not finished by Hollywood people too lazy to get off their asses and write a comic book.

Ultimatum: Spider-Man Requiem Book #1 (of 2)
by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley & Stuart Immonen

For those who are unaware, a revamp of the Ultimate line was announced at New York Comic Con. So far Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men have been cancelled, and a couple of new titles like Ultimate Avengers have been announced. Ultimate Spider-Man is getting the relaunch treatment as well, finishing its run and then going back to #1 with the same writer. I don't expect much to change, but it's been at least passably good since the beginning. It's good to see Marvel not messing too much with a title that works.

Spider-Man: The Short Halloween
by Bill Hader, Seth Meyers, & Kevin Maguire

Because it's worked so well for them in the past, Marvel are grabbing a couple of no-names from TV and letting them write a Spider-Man story (apparently they're from Saturday Night Live, which explains why I've never heard of them). I'm generally against this sort of thing on principle, but it does have pencils by Kevin Maguire...

Howling Commandos #1
by Jesse Alexander & John Paul Leon

Alas, it's just a one-shot, but I'm a sucker for Sgt. Fury stories set in World War II. And with John Paul Leon it's guaranteed to look gorgeous.

Thor: Tales of Asgard #1 (of 5)
by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

It's a reprint series, but it ought to be a damn good reprint series. The Tales of Asgard strips that ran as Thor back-ups were pretty kick-ass, being the first place where Kirby started to expand his style with over-sized panels and mythic action shots. And to top it off this is getting recoloured in the modern style - I've long held that the onlt thing separating the best Silver Age artists from the best modern artists is the colouring. I doubt I'll buy this, but I'll be certain to take a good look.

New Mutants #1
by Zeb Wells & Diogenes Neves

Yes, it's the original New Mutants together again - Cannonball, Karma, Sunspot, Dani Moonstar, Magma and Magik (I guess Wolfsbane is busy eating her Dad over in X-Force). Now I like these characters, but I think putting them back together is a bad idea. They've grown beyond that, some having graduated to full-fledged X-Men, and others moving on to lives outside the X-Men. It's kind of a demotion for them to be a team now. And you know what made them interesting in the first place? They were new, they were learning their powers and their place in the world. Now they're adults, so what is there to do with them? I don't expect this to be good, unless Wells has a really good premise for the reunion.

X-Men Forever Alpha
by Chris Claremont & Jim Lee

It's another reprint book, this one to get people up to speed for X-Men Forever, in which Chris Claremont gets to continue from where he left off 18 years ago. I've written extensively on this, so I won't say much now. But it was supposed to have a new 8-page story as well. There's no sign of that in the solicitations - if it ain't there, I won't be paying up for the reprint.

Genext: United #1 (of 5)
by Chris Claremont & Jonboy Meyers

The other big announcement for Chris Claremont is that he's continuing with GeNext, his tale of a future X-Men team made up of kids of various members. I didn't much enjoy the first mini, as it was a pretty substandard rehash of themes he's already explored to more effect in old-school New Mutants. I won't be bothering with this, as much as I like to support Claremont's books.

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Posted By: Nathan P. Mahney - Category: Comics

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What I Read This Week - 20-02-09

February 20th 2009 07:34

Well, that's enough of me banging on about X-Men Forever. I'll try to keep that under wraps until it comes out in May. For now i'l restrict my self to comics that actually exist, and specifically the ones that came out yesterday.

G.I. JOE: ORIGINS #1
by Larry Hama and Tom Feister

This is the second title in the IDW G.I. Joe relaunch. Where Chuck Dixon's book focuses on the Joes already in action and investigating Cobra, this book supposedly shows the formation of the team. Except that Hawk's already there, and Stalker's already there, and Scarlett's already there, so it kind of feels like we've joined in the middle, and doesn't seem to different from the other book.

The story sees Duke and Scarlett sent on a secret mission into the Nevada Desert, while elsewhere some random millionaire is on a shooting spree. To be honest I didn't quite catch it all. The characters aren't introduced suffuciently, and I couldn't quite follow the action. It didn't help that the characters were often distractingly grotesque - if Tom Feister is the regular series artist I'll have a hard time enjoying this.

It's a shame really, because I was looking forward to this book the most. It's better than the Chuck Dixon one, but I feel like IDW has kind of sucked the fun out of Joe in going more plausibly military. I liked the gonzo mix of military action with crazy supervillain terrorists that the Marvel run had. I'm hoping things head a bit more in that direction soon, or I might not stick with it.

TRANSFORMERS: MAXIMUM DINOBOTS #3
by Simon Furman and Nick Roche

This starts well with a cool scene for Shockwave, and after that tumbles downhill with a massive fight scene between the Dinobots and whole load of Sunstreaker clones. The story is fine, but the art is muddled and obscured by the colouring. There's also the problem with how this ties into All Hail Megatron, but that's irrelevant. This is OK, but there are better Transformers comics out there.

UNCANNY X-MEN #506
by Matt Fraction and Terry Dodson

The many interweaving subplots continue, with Emma having bad dreams, Angel and Beast still assembling their Fringe Science Team, refugees flooding into San Francisco to live with the X-Men, and Colossus infiltrating the Russian mafia. It's not quite as good as last issue, but with this much stuff going on X-fans are bound to find something to like. It's good to see Uncanny on the right track again.

X-MEN: KINGBREAKER #3
by Chris Yost, Dustin Weaver and Paco Diaz

The set-up for War of Kings rumbles along adequately, with Havok and his crew escaping and preparing for the 'final' confrontation with Vulcan. (That's the third one of those we've had so far?) Yost puts everything into place well enough, and manages to make even minor characters like Ch'od and Raza come alive. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it does the job. I just can't shake the feeling that it's going to be ultimately meaningless given that we know Vulcan is a major force in War of Kings. Unless he kills the Starjammers...

X-MEN: LEGACY #221
by Mike Carey and Scot Eaton

Thanks goodness for X-Men: Legacy. Mike Carey's been knocking it out of the park since #200, providing what is easily the best X-book on a consistent basis. This issue sees Professor X and Gambit looking for Rogue in the Australian Outback, only to find a series of holographic scenarios from the past trying to kill them and her. As always the references to the past are welcome (even if the costumes are way off for the Muir Island Saga) but they don't get in the way of enjoying the story. Good stuff.

YOUNG X-MEN #11
by Marc Guggenheim and Rafa Sandoval

Another forgettable issue of a series that's going to be cancelled with next issue - and there's an indication of how far the X-Men brand has fallen. There was a time when any old trash with an X on it was going to sell, but those days are gone. Anyway, there's a glimmer of interest here, with a dying Dust helping Donald Pierce to escape from the X-Men in exchange for him saving her life. And the ending would be a shock if I actually cared about Dust. But she basically has no personality, and is the epitome of the token muslim - I could literally tell you nothing else about her personality. I won't shed a tear to see this one go.

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Posted By: Nathan P. Mahney - Category: What I Read This Week

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X-Men Forever: The Current Status

February 19th 2009 06:45

As I mentioned last week, Marvel announced at the NY con that Chris Claremont was returning to the X-Men with X-Men Forever, a title in which he's being allowed to rewind things back to 1991 (when he quit the titles) and continue his X-Men story from where he left off. Obviously it's not going to be in regular Marvel continuity, but I have to say that I'm more jazzed about this title than the supposedly 'real' ones. And since I'm so excited about, I thought it would be fun to run through where the X-Men were at the point that this title picks up.

We'll start with the big team: The X-Men. Having just returned from space with Professor X, the X-Men have reformed as a functioning team for the first time in a while. Since their return they've defeated the Shadow King, rebuilt the mansion (which had been lying in ruins for several years) and welcomed the original X-Men back into their ranks. With about thirteen X-Men, there were two rosters: a Blue Team and a Gold Team. The roster of the Blue Team is Cyclops, Beast, Wolverine, Psylocke, Gambit, and Rogue. The Gold Team's roster is Storm, Jean Grey, Iceman, Archangel, and Colossus. In addition, we have a supporting cast in the mansion that's made up of Professor X, Banshee and Forge. And presumably Jubilee is around somewhere as well. The first mission that this team had was against Magneto, who had retreated to Asteroid M with a whole lot of nuclear missiles. During the battle that ensued, Magneto was betrayed by his acolyte Fabian Cortez, and died.

Anyway, that huge line up of characters came about mostly because there were two X-Men books at the time. With just one book to deal with, Claremont seems to be moving back to a single roster pretty quickly. From the promo pieces that have already been released, it seems that the team will be: Professor X, Storm, Cyclops, Rogue, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Beast, Jean Grey, Gambit and Sabretooth, with a government liaison in Nick Fury. It's a strange line-up given the status quo at the time, but I'm going to try and come up with some theories as to why it might come about as I run through the characters and the issues they'd been dealing with.

Professor X: Charles has been out in space for a good 5 years worth of comics, so he doesn't have a lot of ongoing plots at this moment. The main change that he's just undergone is that his legs were recently broken again by the Shadow King (he had previously been able to walk for a number of years). So he has being back in a wheelchair to deal with, and I suppose the death of Magneto would shake him up as well. Not to mention that he's in charge of the X-Men for the first time in ages.

Cyclops: Cyclops just came of a long stint in X-Factor, and recently sent his son into the future to save him. In regular continuity we know that the kid returns as Cable, but here that whole story could be different. It's also interesting to note that X-Factor (as in the original X-Men) were big celebrities. That was forgotten when they rejoined the X-Men, but I'd love it if Claremont remembered that. It should also be noted that Cyclops and Storm are on the same team, and they've traditionally butted heads over leadership before. That could be an ongoing concern…

Beast: Not a cat! Yes, it's going to be good old ape-Beast, my favourite iteration of the character for certain. Other than that, he's just had an ambiguous break-up with Trish Tilby. He may also be stronger than usual, as during X-Factor he had been powered up a lot. That's another thing that was quietly forgotten, but there's no reason for Claremont not to go with it.

Archangel: He still has blue skin and metallic wings, and is still struggling with his darker side. There's also a relationship with cop Charlotte Jones that he's involved in. But he's not in the core cast, so perhaps his control issues lead to him leaving the team for some self-exploration?

Iceman: Iceman didn't have much going on, besides a relationship with Opal Tanaka. Claremont has a habit of ignoring Iceman, and unsurprisingly he's not in the core cast. Maybe he decides to get serious with Opal?

Jean Grey: Marvel Girl or Phoenix, whatever you want to call her. She's in the team, looking very Phoenix-like in the promo art. And there had been a few hints about her growing power at the time, particularly when she regained her telepathy. I expect Claremont to delve into the Phoenix stuff. It'll be a lot less confusing with just one writer. Oh, and she's alive, which is more than can be said for regular continuity.

Wolverine: Wolvie's not in the team, but given the stuff he'd been going through that's not surprising. His healing factor had been failing, and he was becoming a shadow of his former self. Then there had been an attempt at brainwashing by the Hand which had failed, but left him seeing images of Carol Danvers and Nick Fury everywhere. And then in his own book he'd just found out that most of his memories were false… You can see why he might want to take a holiday. I could see Logan being used as a character who is off having his own adventures, and popping in occasionally to help out.

And then there's Claremont's original plan for the character, which was to have Logan re-brainwashed as a Hand assassin and become a major villain for two years. If he goes ahead with that we have a pretty neat explanation of why he wouldn't be on the team.

Oh, and his healing factor will be at a manageable level. If this guy gets incinerated, he's going to stay incinerated.

Sabretooth: Which leads me to Sabretooth, who's an interesting addition. To this point he'd been little more than a psychotic killer, and certainly not the sort of guy the X-Men would want on the team. But he can be controlled with 'The Glow', a thing telepaths can do that stops his killing urges. And perhaps if Wolverine's a villain, the X-Men feel that they need Sabretooth to combat him?

Claremont's original plan was for Sabretooth to be Wolverine's father, which could still be valid here.

Colossus: Before rejoining the X-Men recently, Colossus had been an amnesiac living in Soho as a painter, and involved in a relationship with Callisto. He's not in the team, so I figure that's the life he'll return to.

Nightcrawler: He's been a member of Excalibur for a long time, formed when the X-Men were presumed dead. But now that they're back, there's no reason for him not to rejoin. Alas, my Excalibur knowledge is patchy, so I don't really know what's going on with Kurt at this time. But he's never been a priest, and his father isn't some devil-mutant guy. It's more likely that Claremont will go with his original idea of Mystique and Destiny as Kurt's parents, especially since Marvel are much more open to the whole gay angle these days. It'll just be good old classic swashbuckling Nightcrawler, which is always awesome.

Kitty Pryde: Along with Nightcrawler she's been in Excalibur, and will probably return for the same reasons he does. Claremont's had lots of ideas for her since his return, and I expect him to run with them. Is she the next Saturnyne? Is her natural state still to be intangible?

Storm: Storm has been leading the team for umpteen years by this point, and is in a relationship with Forge. Other then that there's not a lot that springs to mind, but it's Claremont, you know he'll find a way to put Storm front and centre.

Rogue: The most significant thing that Rogue might be dealing with here is that she recently got rid of the Carol Danvers persona in her head, so it's possible that she'll be quite different than usual. Also, she's not necessarily going to fall in love with Gambit, and that's a big plus.

Gambit: Speaking of Gambit, this guy is a total mystery now. He's only been around for about 12 issues, and nothing is known about him. Claremont's plan was for him to be an agent for Mr. Sinister, which is a possible direction. But I'd take a good bet that he'll end up vastly different from how he is in regular continuity.

Psylocke: She was just turned Asian recently, and brainwashed by the Hand. There had been some rumbling about whether she could still be trusted, so maybe she'll end up as a Hand assassin. Or maybe she's off having adventures with Wolverine.

Jubilee: Jubilee had been Wolverine's sidekick for a while, and I expect her to remain so if he's not a villain. That would be neat, if Wolvie, Psylocke and Jubilee are all off have side-adventures together. Oh, and whenever Claremont wrote Jubilee she was undetectable to most kinds of sensors. I expect him to pick that back up.

Banshee: Had no plots ongoing, and will probably leave with Moira to help her through her recent trauma with Magneto.

Forge: He's in a relationship with Storm, but Destiny had prophesied that he'd eventually end up with Mystique. Otherwise, he didn't have much going on either, and his story was really finished when the Adversary was dealt with. Still, Claremont's the only person who knows how to write the guy well…

X-Factor: Currently that team works for the government under Val Cooper, and consists of Havok, Polaris, Multiple Man, Wolfsbane, Quicksilver and Strong Guy/Guido. This is something else that Claremont could change at a whim, but these are traditionally characters that Claremont has had at the sidelines.

X-Force: The former New Mutants, now led by Cable. There are a lot of characters here that I expect Claremont to grab eventually, particularly Cannonball and Sunspot. Cable's another interesting character now, because at this point there was very little established about him. We knew he was from the future, and that he looked exactly like Stryfe, and that he was a cybernetic mercenary. The rest is up for grabs.

And now, some villains! It must be kept in mind that Claremont has outright said that he won't be using the traditional villains, except for the Sentinels. That's a bad move for this book, I think – surely the fanbase for this book wants to see the old villains as done by Claremont? It's a nostalgia piece, really, and can't benefit from trying not to be one. But anyway, it's not likely any of these guys will appear in major roles. I'll cover them nonetheless.

Magneto: Just died, and according to Claremont he will stay that way. In fact, he's declared that anyone who is dead in this title won't ever come back, which is pretty awesome.

The Shadow King: He was just defeated, but Claremont's original plans called for him to around for a while longer. It's also obvious from his later work that he has more ideas for the character, so I'd expect him to show up again.

The Hellfire Club: The X-Men have been allied with them, so I don't expect them to be major villains. But Emma Frost will probably remain unredeemed, and the Hellions won't be dead.

Sinister: Will Claremont revert this guy to his original conception of a hundred-year-old guy trapped in the body of a ten-year-old? I hope so. He also had a cool story idea that involved Sinister taking over the school, and I hope he uses it here.

Apocalypse: This guy was never really a Claremont villain, and he was just seemingly killed on the moon. Not likely to appear, I think.

The Reavers: Now these guys need to be addressed pretty soon. They're still active, and when last seen had driven the X-Men through the Siege Perilous, crucified Wolverine, and assaulted Muir Island. An arc dealing with these guys should be on the cards pretty early.

Well, that's all the speculation that I have in me. Needless to say, Claremont has a lot of things to build on, and now he has the freedom to do it without interference from editorial and other writers. I'm jazzed to see what new directions he's going to take things, but I also hope he doesn't forget the old stuff – the appeal of this title for me is in seeing how he would have wrapped up all of these plots and loose ends. I'll have to wait until May to find out!

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AT LAST: MY DREAM COMIC

February 10th 2009 08:03

The New York Comic-con took place over the weekend, and if there's one thing that I've noticed, it's that it's a damn good time for me to relive my comic-book childhood.

First, there's the IDW Transformers line, and specifically those being written by Simon Furman. Furman wrote the best TF stuff back in the day, and he's still pretty good. He's now so synonymous with the characters that it would be hard to picture the franchise without him. Transformers was the second title that I started collecting as a kid, and I loved Furman's stuff back then. I still like it a good bit

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ON THE WATCHMEN TRAILER

December 17th 2008 02:56

So watched the Watchmen trailer a few weeks ago, and Christ it looks revolting.

Here's the problem - it looks like a super-hero movie. I realise how stupid that sounds, given that it's based on a superhero comic. But Watchmen was different. It had a dirty, grounded feel. The movie should look more like Taxi Driver than the X-Men

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WOLVERINE: ORIGINS TRAILER

December 17th 2008 02:42

The trailer to Wolverine: Origins has debuted. Check it out here:

Really Long Link
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THIS WEEK'S REVIEWS 28-10-08

October 28th 2008 07:53

This week it's something of a Hasbro-fest, as I review All Hail Megatron #4 and the preview issue for IDW's G.I. Joe relaunch.

TRANSFORMERS: ALL HAIL MEGATRON #4
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THIS WEEK'S REVIEWS 14-10-08

October 14th 2008 05:24

It's another light week, with just two comics that I read. X-Men: Original Sin #1 begins the crossover between X-Men: Legacy and Wolverine: Origins, while Transformers Spotlight: Sideswipe #1 is bizarrely the conclusion of an ongoing story.

X-MEN: ORIGINAL SIN #1
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TRANSFORMERS: ALL HAIL MEGATRON #1-3

October 7th 2008 07:02

The IDW relaunch of the Transformers franchise just trundles along with little fanfare. It's a long way away from the heady days of the Dreamwave series debuting at the top of the charts, but I've been enjoying things. IDW have to this point taken a more restrained approach to the storytelling than Dreamwave did, and the result is certainly more cohesive.

But now we have a different writer handling the reins, and the old rules have changed. I'd like to applaud IDw on this point - as much as I love Simon Furman and would like to have his babies, he's been writing these characters, and variations thereof, for over 20 years. You know what you're going to get. Sure, it will be solid and it will be entertaining, but it will also be familiar. And to be honest, Furman's best days are well gone. I wouldn't want to see him wholely excised from the franchise, because he's proved his worth time and again, but I'm glad there's room for other voices to chime in with their take

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STATE OF THE COMIC NERD ADDRESS

September 30th 2008 07:54

Heh. It feels like I'm doing these more now than the actual posts.

Anyway, I still have no internet access at home. To top it off, I don't even have my own computer at home at the moment, so scanning comics and making supposedly witty observations about them is right out. Not helping matters is the fact that I'm not really all that interested in comics at the moment. I'll probably cycle out of my RPG/fantasy phase at some point, but for the moment that's where my passion lies, and this site has fallen out of use because of that

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February 2009

4 Posts

December 2008

2 Posts

October 2008

3 Posts