Henry10MARVEL'S APRIL SOLICITATIONS: TAKE 2!!!
January 19th 2007 07:15
Ok, given that I got a bit sidetracked when talking about Marvel's releases for April, I'm back today to give the list a more thorough treatment. I covered the major Civil War related stuff last time, but there are a few other new releases I feel like I ought to bring to your attention:
SPIDER-MAN/FANTASTIC FOUR #1 of 4: Normally I wouldn't bother to highlight this miniseries - it has all the signs of being an excruciatingly insignificant piece of filler. But the writing credits say Jeff Parker, and the pencilling credits say Mike Wieringo, and they're both awesome. Parker has been entertaining me all year with such fun books as Marvel Adventures: The Avengers and Agents of Atlas, so I expect this to be a hell of a lot of fun. Throw in Wieringo, whose style is perfectly suited to this kind of series, and you've got what looks like a top-notch book. I'm sure it'll still be insignificant, but what does that matter really?
OMEGA FLIGHT #1 of 5: This has been in the works for a long time, but it's the "of 5" part of the title that's interesting. It was originally marketed as an ongoing series, but it looks like economic reality has set in, because now it's a limited series. It's a relaunch of Alpha Flight, whose high superhero concept was "hey, we're Canadian!" This time it's spinning out of Civil War, with heroes who have fled to Canada to escape the Registration Act. The cast is really weird: there's Guardian and Talisman, who are old-school members of Alpha Flight; there's the second Spider-Woman (now called Arachne), who has been seen fleeing from America in the pages of Ms. Marvel; there's the USAgent, who is kind of a neocon Captain America, and seems to be there as a spy; and there's Beta Ray Bill, who is weird cyborg/alien with the powers of Thor. I have absolutely no clue how this cast is going to function together, and that's intriguing. Mike Oeming is writing, and he can usually be relied on to make things work. Scott Kolins usually does good pencils as well, so I expect the book to be decent at worst.
INCREDIBLE HULK vol. 3 #105: It's the final part of Planet Hulk, which will have been running for a mind-boggling 14 parts by this point. The story has been pretty good, with Hulk trapped on an alien planet, forced to fight as a gladiator, leading a rebellion, smashing shit up, the usual stuff. It's been a classic formula well executed, which is as much as I ask from my superhero comics. This issue will be important though, because the conclusion of Planet Hulk leads into this year's Big Event: World War Hulk. You see, the reason the Hulk is on that planet is that a group of Marvel heroes got together and blasted him off into space so he'd stop wrecking shit. Which means that when the Hulk comes back, he'll be pissed. The rest writes itself really. But this issue will be important to the whole thing, I'm sure.
LONERS #1: This is a spin-off from, of all things, Runaways. Now Runaways is a perfectly well done book (not that I like it much) but it's not exactly a top-seller. It will be soon, because it's being handed to Joss Whedon, but the fact remains: the characters being featured in Loners were in the book when it was selling bugger all. It doesn't sound like a good marketing strategy to me, but anyway. The gist of the book is that these guys are a sort of 'Superheroes Anonymous' group, trying to give the whole thing up. It doesn't sound like my thing, to be honest. I generally dislike books focusing on teenagers, I don't particularly like Runaways, the most popular character in the cast is probably Darkhawk, and writer CB Cebulski has done nothing to impress me ever. I expect it to be crushingly average.
NOVA #1: And now, starring in yet another short-lived series, it's... NOVA! Poor old, Nova, he's just one of those characters. He keeps getting his own book, and then people keep not buying it. At least this time he's being spun out of the successful Annihilation event, we're he's been the lead character, and his situation is a direct consequence of what happened there - he's the last surviving member of the Nova Corps, a sort of intergalactic police force with cool helmets. The reliable Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning are at the helm, so this one could be good. Not that I expect it to sell anyway...
And of course, the best thing Marvel will be releasing in this month:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN OMNIBUS VOL. 1: It's a 1,000 page book that contains the entirety of the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko run of Spider-Man, and it just might be the greatest thing ever ever. This is the best run of Spider-Man comics there ever was, and it's nothing like what came after it. There's a really cynical and bitter undercurrent that gives this stuff an edge that was glossed over when Ditko left the book. Seriously great, groundbreaking stuff, and you could crush a small baby with it.
And of course, the best thing Marvel will be releasing in this month:
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