It’s upon us! Comic book fans and pros alike turn their heads to San Diego, patron saint of Sold Out Hotel Rooms and Panicing Travel Planners, for the Thank-Galactus-It’s-Just-Yearly Comic Con extravaganza. Now, some of you might missing out on the incredible list of secret announcements, apperances and exclusives coming down like a hammer in the next few days (apparently, this year’s musical question from Marvel is ‘Who will rule?’), but never fear! We have October solicitations which will most certainly come up in conferance rooms packed wall to wall with eager fans, people waiting for the panel after this one and journalists, like Yours Truly. So do enjoy these selected noticables out of this month’s sneaky look at what the House of Ideas will provide us in October from the comfort of our own desk chairs.
It looks like we’re not just yet ready for the awesome awesomeness that will be ULTIMATUM as we’ll be getting a Marvel spotlight to fill us in on the details and “March on Ultimatum”, which will recap key issues from what looks to be all of the Ultimate titles so far: “all the way back to ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1 and ULTIMATE X-MEN #1— with stops along the way for ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR; THE ULTIMATES 1, 2 and 3; ULTIMATE ORIGINS; the ULTIMATE ANNUALS; and more — recapping all the key beats leading up to the ULTIMATUM event!” 32 page of recappy goodness will be given to retailers who reorder Secret Invasion #2! odd, considering that the audience who reads the Ultimate line isn’t exactly the same as those who follow the regular Marvel Universe and Secret Invasion. You think the order would be based on Ultimate Spider-Man numbers or something released this month; they can also be bought for $6.25 per 25-issue bundle on their own, which is nice, but it’s an odd thing to see noted within the solicit itself.
A better measure of bundle-to-issue-ordered ratio would be have best measured by the number of Ultimate Annuals coming out this week. As Ultimates 3 runs off the rails, we’ll be getting some plot-point-heavy issues in the form of 48-page blockbusters singling out Ultimate Hulk, Ultimate Captain America and Ultimte Spider-Man. Now, the last time we saw Ultimate Hulk was in Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine, so… it’s about time; a road trip with the dimensionally-lost Power Princess from the Squadron Supreme is a nice place to start, no matter how much we’d rather have seen Logan being torn in half again. Ultimate Captain America and his ‘connection’ to who the recently introduced Black Panther is needs its own book as there is just way too much happening in the Ultimates right now, not to mention Ultimate cap could use a little face time, especially after his little spotlight in Ultimate Origins #2. Ultimate Spider-Man having an annual is pretty much a given (and the only one not being written by Jeph Loeb) and … what’s this? No Ultimate X-Men OR Ultimate Fantastic Four issue this month? Hrmmmmm….
In other Spider-riffic news, Amazing Spider-Man is providing a bevvy of well-paced and crafted stories (and yes, he’s still not married), ending one chapter in the highly-publicized “New Ways to Die” storyline and the return of Hammerhead (did i demand this?), with a small story of Flash Thompson in the Middle East with the military in-between. Each one of these sounds really interesting (yes, even Hammerhead!) and has the added benefit of being an easy book to pick up off the stands with little muss or fuss in regards to previous issues. Amazing Spider-Man is streamlined and ready to ready for boys and girls of all ages.
So what in the world is Spider-Man: Brand New Day #1? A ‘Chronicles’ style reprint book for the new Amazing Spider-Man?? Really? On one hand, this is silly. On the other hand, two issues for $4.99?
In other reprint news, there’s a Monster-Sized Hulk #1 on the way (Super-Sized Hulk? Biggie-Sized Hulk? man, I’m hungry) where he’ll be taking on- you guessed it! -monsters, from Frankenstein’s Monster and a bevy of other creepies and ghoulies brought to us by Jeff Parker and Artist TBA, but I see some guaranteed fun in the works. Add to this Marvel’s answer to All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, Loeb’s Hulk which is going back to King-Sized Hulk for stories of Wendigo and (oh boy!) the Lady Liberators, well… Marvel Studios gets to right again as the Bullpen gives us non-stop action and saves the deep character moments for the director’s cut DVD. Or the TP in this situation.
Not only do I ge the Lady Liberators in Hulk, but She-Hulk as well! Peter David is rolling with the Loeb punches and taking Shulkie into a sexy Deodato cover as the Lady Liberators are used to pull plot in both books! I know! That’s weird if you think about how much you had to forget her appearance in one book and her total opposite motivation and reactions in her own title. Gosh, this almost sounds like… dare I say it? Continuity between titles? In either case, however it’s handled, PAD is going to write a pretty interesting take on my favorite super-heroine team.
But it does look like they’ve dropped off the Secret Invasion bandwagon, leaving us with 15 books (plus Power Pack!) to cover the great Skrull War. Since this month brings us issue #7 and appears to be winding down, the two Avengers titles seem to be coming back from recap hell and are coming right at us with stories of… Captain Marvel, Marvel Boy and the Hood. Someday, folks, the Avengers will show up in their own book again.
And maybe it’s just me again, but the Power Pack vs. Skrulls series sounds … really cool! It’s like if you took your kid to the comic shop and they wanted to read Secret invasion too, but you thought it might be a little much for them? From the solicitation: “Power Pack is after it! Franklin Richards, H.E.R.B.I.E., and Smartship Friday are after it! The Skrull agents impersonating the Power kids are after it! Intergalactic bounty hunters Ambercombie and Finch are after it! And no one wants it worse than the fierce Skrull Warpriest Kho’ja, who possesses all the Pack’s powers! What is it? Well, we’re not going to tell you. This is just a solicitation. But it’s the prize that lies at the heart of the PUZZLE PLANET!” You’ve got all your invasion points, you’ve got the awesome power combo gig plus silly puns and a huge cast of characters. It’s Marvel’s Secret invasion kid’s meal! Why yes, I AM hungry!
So, you’re thinking to yourself, ‘*phew!* The summer is over and the scourge of Wolverine one-shots is over.” You take a look at X-Men: original Sin #1 and BAM! The secret reason Wolverine really joined the X-Men! The ‘Original Sin’ storyline coninues in X-Men: Legacy #217 and possible Wolverine: Origins. Well, apparently Logan is the biggest challenge and the biggest failure of Xavier’s career (really? More than Vulcan? He might be ruling an empire right now!), so expect secret backstory, twists and turns, you know. Another day at the X-Offices.
Storm is back with a four-part mini-series of her own (that doesn’t have her in the title) called ‘X-Men: World’s Apart’ that promises to change Storm forever. Hrm. No Black Panther issue coming out this month.
Other than these surprising surprises (and boy there’s a lof of them!), we’ll be getting the Halo: Uprising hardcover collection (oh, expect this release date to be changed) and Marvel Zombies in softcover, a surprise considering how well the story sells in its current format.
What do you think? Anything catch your eye? Go see Marvel Comics’ FULL October 2008 Solicitations and post your picks here.
Excelsior.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Silly to complain about Marvel giving away those Ultimatum promos, in ratio to the amount of SI number twos sold;[most likely] it was every comic shop’s biggest Marvel seller, meaning retailers get the best deal out of all possible title options Marvel could have done. I imagine, in some way, they felt this was a good way to feel out each stores “Marvel foot traffic”, and appropriately reward them with freebies.
July 24th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Amazing Spider-Man is streamlined and ready to ready for boys and girls of all ages.
And yet, the actual numbers of readers per issue is now lower than it’s been in seven years, and the rate of sales decline shows no signs of slowing.
When are all these new readers supposed to start showing up?
July 24th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
re Amazing Spider-Man sales
You have to look at the combined sales of the three Amazing books per month vs. the pre-BND sales of Amazing plus Sensational plus FNSM. I think the Amazing 3x is clearly winning.