Well, here we are rounding out the first month of the new year. Normally, I’d have a look at the solicitations for three months from now and see where we’re going in the mighty Marvel Universe (is there a hand basket involved?), but today we’re going to try something a little different.
I’ve been asked by the fine folks here at Blog@Newsarama to look ahead to this brand new year and write up a little something on the awesomeness that the House of Ideas is going to bring to the table of 2008. Now, I came up with five big things that Yours Truly has added to the ol’ Pull List and or avidly awaited since yesteryear and so I bring to you what I consider to be the future highlights of 2008.
Just copy and paste this into the End of the Year Spotlight in December, will ya?
Before I begin, let me just call to attention what’s missing: Secret Invasion. Believe it or not, I’m not exactly looking forward to yet another series of comics where I can’t trust anything, heroes will betray one another, and a variety of covers with characters as SKRULLS! rather than ZOMBIES! I know that it’s quite literally the Next Big Event from Marvel Comics so I should be looking to find out what is truth and what has been a big FOOLED YOU! from Bendis, but since last year… I’m all tuckered out. So while I may not be looking forward to big green bumpy chins, these are the those little moments, the finer touches on the Marvel Universe that will shine like stars in the new year.
Young Avengers Spotlights
Hey! Remember the Young Avengers? Last seen in Civil War, you’d have thought they have at least popped up from time to time in Avengers: the Initiative but instead we’re going to get a series of one-shots to flesh out characters we saw all too little of. White it’s neat to find out that Wiccan and Speed are the mysterious sons of the Scarlet Witch, it’d be nice if we knew a little more on that story. It’d be nice to know what ‘Kid’ Vision’s doing these days or any of the old gang. New Avengers and Mighty Avengers set the tone of the superhero registration status-quo through their stories; the Young Avengers had a chance to be sort of a legacy book, a fresh look at older characters seen through the eyes of those who want to follow in their footsteps. With the first issue out today, we get a quick catch-up with Patriot from Ed Brubaker and I can tell you that it dovetails rather nicely with the events in Captain America. These should be great books that will hopefully lead to something big later on.
Astonishing X-Men: Second Stage
With Whedon’s run on the Astonishing X-Men coming to a close (well… shipping dates willing on that one), the book that was heralded as the best thing to happen to the X-Men since Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen was given an all new creative team before the last one closed the door behind them. And as much as Whedon’s given a fresh coat of paint on continuity-less adventure mutant comics, I think Mr. Ellis is just the man to give all that a kick in the pants. Let’s face it: the X-Men are very serious these days. Mutant babies facing death, students of the Xavier Institute dying wholesale, dystopian futures coming to the fore, it’s been just madness. And who better to hand off that kind of madness to? Plus, we have the glorious return of Simone Bianchi interior art! All this and great gobs of time, since the project was announced last year with Ellis saying at last years’ Comic Con that the issues should see the light of day by that time the following year. I’m not saying it won’t be late, but I am saying there are some good betting odds. And when Ellis promises “…the usual, you know. Raping your childhoods, using my position to destroy everything you love, displaying opinions you may not agree with and writing with my own voice and personality. All the things people hate in commercial comics these days. And yet, all the things I am specifically hired for. ” I can’t wait to see what comes next.
Avengers: Fairy Tales
X-Men Fairy Tales was a lark. Spider-Man Fairy Tales was a second chance at a great idea. Now, Marvel Fairy Tales is practically its own line and I, for one, couldn’t be happier. Matching up our favorite heroes with the stories that, if not inspired them, inspired us is a neat little trick that strips away some of that ’serious business’ comics can get to and bring things back to where they started. Not to mention that the stories themselves can be a heck of a lot of fun. Steve Rogers as the Boy Who Never Grew Up? She-Hulk in the topsy turvy Land of M? Who says comics have to be grim and realistic to make an impact on the reader?
Two Marvel Movies
On the other hand, who said realism was all that bad? Just think, in May we’ll be watching Adi Granov’s artwork come to life on the big screen. Academy Award nominee Robert Downey Jr. will be stepping into the shoes of Tony Stark. Some of the finest actors have come to the new era of Marvel movies and I predict Iron Man’s going to go right up there with the best of them. Everything has looked absolutely fantastic and everyone working on the project has stepped up to crow their work from the highest media interview. Mind you, The Incredible Hulk movie has been kept under much tighter wraps, and I’ll admit that makes me a little nervous, but now that Marvel has a much firmer hold on their own work these days and producing their own work, well… I’m sure they learned a lesson from the last movie and might even be trying less to talk down their last Hulk movie and letting it all just speak for itself. Don’t think of it as ‘hiding’, more like ‘anticipation’. My courage is screwed to the sticking point, and with reports of seeing the ‘Ultimate’ Nick Fury on both sets, we might even see an Avengers movie before a Justice League one. Just sayin’.
Brand New Day
THAT’S RIGHT! I’m looking forward to the stories that’ll come from Brand New Day and there’s nothing you can do about it! The writers, the energy, the fantastic art and the back-to-basics approach to the flagship character of the Marvel U, I’m facing front as a True Believer like never before! Considering how much I’d been looking forward to some sort of vacation for Peter Parker, some break from one crazy event stunt to the next, I’m disappointed it had to come at Mephisto point but hey! The past couple issues have been fun and funny, a real live Spider-Man titles for ALL-AGES, and I think they’re going to stay that way! MWHAHAHAAHA!
Please leave your hate mail below and next week, we’ll look back at the April Solicitations and hope for a little more info and a little less CLASSIFIED.
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Mary Jane should have been a Skrull. Then the divorce comes easy when Skrully Jane is killed. The original Mary Jane is released from whatever holding cell she’s been in for years. Since he never married the rel Mary Jane, they are no longer together. Much better than Mephisto.
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Marvel used that scenario back in the 80s to end the Johnny Storm/Alicia Masters marriage. I remember thinking it was kind of lame as well, but probably not as bad as the “deal with the devil” thing.
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
The past couple issues have been fun and funny, a real live Spider-Man titles for ALL-AGES, and I think they’re going to stay that way! MWHAHAHAAHA!
In “Brand New Day,” Peter Parker is presented as a lazy, irresponsible, self-centered, vaguely misogynistic idiot, a) whose entire adult life has been a failure, b) who mentally describes girls as sluts for *gasp!* kissing him, c) whose own Aunt May is ashamed of him, d) who can’t outwit a mugger, either as a crime-fighter or as a guy who can’t even remember to cancel his credit cards, and e) who has absolutely no likable or admirable qualities whatsoever.
In short, he is neither “super” nor a “hero,” in any possible sense of either term, even when compared to the worst of his adolescent immaturity in the Lee-and-Ditko days, and I no longer have any desire to read about his life.
If this is the only way that people can “relate” to him, then they don’t deserve to have a “hero” to which they can “relate.”
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Hey, you put “forward thinking” and “Marvel” in the same lead line. You crazy ironists!
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Mark – it’s like reverting Spider-Man’s status quo to the ’70s, and calling it a “Brand New Day.”
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Is there even a need to point out how there already ARE “all-ages” Spidey books out there, that were around long before BND? As if kids are going to comic shops anyhow.
There’s probably little point in pointing out (again) how a character who makes Faustian deals isn’t exactly a role model for kids. Give it a rest, Marvel apologists.
Enjoy your “new” (as in, decades OLD) Spider-Man.
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Morrison.
Jones.
Final.
Crisis.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Thank you, K-Box, for that installment of “Reading the Least Charitable Interpretation of a Character Into Every Action”.
Remember, folks, if you’ve ever been unemployed for long periods of time, overslept, or through financial difficulties had to live with a relative while you got your life together, you’re WORTHLESS!
January 24th, 2008 at 1:43 am
Evan,
I thought I was being quite charitable, considering that Quesada and Slott’s stated mission is to turn Peter into a “lovable loser.” Problem is, there’s absolutely nothing “lovable” about Peter as he’s portrayed now.
And while your points about Peter’s missteps in this issue would be valid on an individual one-by-one basis, they’re negated by the fact that the story shows Peter unemployed and oversleeping and unapologetically mooching off of his parental figure for food and lodging AND flat-broke, not only a) ALL IN THE SAME DAY, but also b) all in the same day for THE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS of days in a row, so, yes, barring some sort of extraordinarily disastrous circumstances beyond his control, I really can’t harbor any sort of sympathy for him here, if only because I’ve known countless people in real life, living under far greater hardships and with far fewer resources than Peter, who have not behaved like the total jackass fuck-ups that Peter is portrayed as here.
During those times in my life when I was looking for work, you can bet your ass I never slept in, and right after I got out of the service, when I was searching for a place of my own, I paid my parents rent for a room, and chipped in for my portion of the groceries. Maybe it’s just me, but that seemed like the RESPONSIBLE thing to do (not that “responsibility” has anything to do with Spider-Man, or anything).
But according to Wacker, that’s not who Peter is, because in his interviews, the very first way that Wacker chose to describe Peter is as someone who infuriates everyone around him, and who everyone wants to see go away, precisely because he’s such a freeloading idiot. As such, I don’t know why you’re getting upset with me for implying that Peter is “worthless,” since Marvel itself is deliberately choosing to present him that way, both in his “reintroduction” to the readers, and in their promotional interviews about him.
January 24th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Did you leave Millar & Hitch’s Fantastic Four off this list purposely or by omission? I’m kinda looking forward to that.
Agree with you on the Skrull invasion (yawn!) It can’t get over soon enough.
Also strongly agree on Spider-Man. While OMD was a world-class f-up and insult of the highest order, BND has been a fun ride so far.
January 24th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Some of the YOUNG AVENGERS “Spotlight” issues could be good, but the issue with Wiccan and Speed is already an editorial disaster, judging from the villain that was picked for the issue, namely, Master Pandemonium. Did the writer, Aguirre-Sacasa, or anyone else at Marvel bother to read the SCARLET WITCH miniseries and see that Master P.’s appearance therein was based on the Witch’s children being imaginary, etc.? Will there be a sequence in which Master P. asks the two youths, “What are you doing here? I thought you were imaginary. . .” and the boys reply (not in unison), “Well, you see, Vision II, using memories downloaded from Vision I’s brain, told us how Wanda unknowingly transfigured lost souls she’d captured, and after Mephisto blew up, those souls made their way into the bodies that our mothers gave birth to, but those women were just surrogates. Wanda’s our *actual” mother–she has to be, or we wouldn’t have these powers. . .” Might Master P. then say, ”What you’ve just told me makes absolutely no sense at all.”?
I doubt that he will, but he should. The way in which Heinberg “brought back” the twins was the worst example I’ve come across in a commercial publication of someone who doesn’t know how to write SF/fantasy fiction attempting to write such fiction. The connection between the twins and Wanda exists only in Heinberg’s imagination, and indicates that he knows as much about metaphysics as Bendis knows about science.
I know that YOUNG AVENGERS was lauded by some, but that was apparently based on admiration of Heinberg’s smooth dialogue, and a dismissive attitude toward plot content.
SRS