It’s possibly just me, but there’s something particularly spoilery about the new Marvel solicits, officially released today, in regards to the upcoming Avengers Vs. X-Men event. Thanks to the solicits for the main book and titles like Avengers, Secret Avengers and Wolverine and The X-Men, we now have a pretty good idea of the beginning of the conflict: The X-Men are in favor of the return of the Phoenix Force, because they suspect it’ll restart the mutant race (I thought this had already happened, at the end of Second Coming?), and this brings them into conflict with the Avengers and specifically Captain America, who declares war on the mutants and leads an invasion of Utopia. Oh, and Wolverine is forced to pick sides, as is mentioned in three different solicits.

Here’s the thing: This sounds like a classic “When Titans Clash!” set-up for this kind of story, simultaneously dumb enough and believable enough that I can buy into it easily as the flashpoint that sets the whole thing off. But it also feels like too much detail to know three months before the story actually begins, to me, at least. I get that solicits are supposed to give some idea of what’s happening in the books, and that there are those for whom “It’s Avengers! Fighting X-Men! And there’s Phoenix!” isn’t enough of a hook to actually check out the series, but I’m not sure that what’s been revealed will turn anyone around on a negative opinion, but may turn some people off buying the first issue. Am I being paranoid? Did everyone else see these solicits and think “No, that’s just enough information for me, my mind is now made up?”

The good: Marvel is now offering digital versions of their collected editions through ComiXology. The bad: Pricing on the collections is all over the place, ranging from $6.99 for the 105 pages of Avengers Disassembled to $10.99 for the 135 pages of Daredevil: Yellow, with some collections as much as $24.99 (the 330 page Planet Hulk). The potentially ugly: The prices are nonetheless cheaper than the print editions of each book, which could mean that we’re about to see another protest from direct market retailers (understandably) upset about being undercut on what may be a core part of their business. On the upside, a lot of the material being offered by ComiXology isn’t necessarily in print anymore – yes, I know, that’s an odd choice of “upside” – so it’s not direct competition as such, but nonetheless, it’ll be interesting to see (if any) fallout could follow this product launch.

Teases aside, the fate of Marvelman remains up in the air; Marvel announced that they’d bought the character two and a half years ago, but aside from a couple of reprint projects, they still haven’t done anything with him – especially not what everyone wants the company to do, which is reprint the Alan Moore run and complete the Neil Gaiman run. With Axel Alonso recently promising an update soon, Pádraig Ó Méalóid takes a look at all of Marvel’s public statements to date on the property, and it makes for particularly frustrating reading. Whatever happened to the publishing plan mentioned by Joe Quesada back in 2010…?

The annual GLAAD Award nominees have been announced, and the comic category has some strong contenders this year; both Archie’s Kevin Keller and DC’s Batwoman feature LGBT leads, with the latter’s Secret Six and Marvel’s two nominees, Avengers: The Children’s Crusade and X-Factor all featuring prominent LGBT characters in their core line-up. My biases may push the choice in Kevin Keller‘s favor, if only because of Archie’s boldness not only introducing the character into the traditionally conservative universe but also allowing him to get married – but what do you think? Who deserves the win – and which books (and characters) should’ve made the nominee list but didn’t?

Consider it the cost-cutting exercise you haven’t noticed just yet, but Marvel’s collected editions are getting shorter after the fact. In the last two weeks, the following collections have all been announced as dropping 8 pages from their solicited page count in Marvel’s updated forecasts to retailers: Avengers: Big Three TP, Enders Shadow Ultimate Collection TP, Ultimate Comics Ultimates by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 1 Premiere HC, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 1 Premiere HC, Vengeance HC, X-Factor: Super Unnatural Premiere HC and X-Men: FF Premiere HC, with Fear Itself: Fearsome Four Premiere HC losing 16 pages in the revised solicit. The prices of each book, of course, aren’t changed by their new length.

With all of the upheaval at Marvel in the last few months, it’s not too much of a stretch to guess that this is another part of the same cost-cutting that has apparently seen a new cancellation threshold for series being installed as well as the dismissal of 15 employees in October. What’s unanswered with all of the product updates is what content (if any) is being lost with the eight (or, in Fearsome Four‘s case, 16) pages that have been cut – Covers, sketchbook material or merely endpapers with creator and backlist information? At its new pagecount of 136 pages, Ultimate Comics Ultimates by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 1 still can contain all six issues of story advertised, along with the covers for each issue and still have ten pages left over, by my count; is “all” that’s being lost peripheral extra material?

Update: Asked and answered, apparently: Marvel collections editor Jen Grunwald tweets at me: “You DO realise that all of Marvel’s comics are now 20 pages instead of 22 so that a 4-issue TPB would drop 8 (etc.) pages, right?” I’d assumed that the pagecount of the stories would’ve been factored in before solicitation – and also that the 20 page stories weren’t behind the 8 page drops, because most of the affected collections have more than four issues in them – but if anyone would know, it’d be Grunwald…

Apparently I blinked and missed the announcement of Marvel’s 2012 convention schedule:

As 2011 rocked, we here at Marvel.com are working on a jam-packed-ride for all the cosplayers, costumers & fans out there! We’re still working on the details, but expect more profiles, photo posts, and con recaps, plus much, much more!

For now, check out Marvel’s convention schedule:

Mar 16-18 – Wonderconin Anaheim, CA.
Apr 13-15 – C2E2in Chicago, IL
Jul 11-15 – San Diego Comic-Conin San Diego, CA
Oct 11-14 – New York Comic Conin New York, NY

First: I swear Wondercon gets earlier every year. Second: Doesn’t that seem a remarkably short list? I know that Marvel tends to keep the official corporate convention appearances at a minimum, but even so, this really seems like the company will be keeping a relative low profile this year. Third: No Disney Con? Or maybe that doesn’t as a convention appearance for some reason?

Last week, Marvel stripped announcements across five days of press conferences, with Next Big Thing events for previously-known events like Remender and Hardman’s Secret Avengers run and the 15th anniversary of Thunderbolts mixed in with artist changes (Walt Simonson joining Avengers), crossovers (“The Omega Event” running through Avenging Spider-Man, Daredevil and Punisher) and a book relaunch (Captain America And…). In comparison, DC lumped the announcement of six new series into one USA Today story.

There’s something to be gleaned from this comparison, but I’m not entirely sure what it actually is just yet: That Marvel knows how to make the most out of what could otherwise be bland status updates? That DC prefers to emphasize the overall “New 52″ line over individual books or individual creators (I feel that Marvel tends to place creators at the center of their announcements, whereas DC’s feel more focused on the characters, DC as a company and the upper echelons of management, but that may just be me)? That Marvel just generally makes more of a song and dance out of things than DC…? If nothing else, that last one does fit the stereotype for both companies, so maybe it’s really just as simple as that – but I can’t stop myself feeling as if both companies could choose to learn from each other in terms of which announcements to emphasize, and which to just leave out there without feeling the need to push.

Marvel has released the cover for Avengers vs. X-Men #1, and as you can see, the Jim Cheung image is going for that superhero classic cover pose – The face-off:

What I’m more interested in, though, is seeing the clues planted in the AvX cover for the rest of the series: Wolverine and Beast are both on the Avengers’ side when the series launches? Well, now we have a better idea of who’ll be crossing sides at some point during the twelve issues, if nothing else…

Something from Axel Alonso’s last CBR piece stuck in my head all weekend:

For “cosmic” to matter, it has to be relatable. For Nova to compete with Spider-Man, Captain America and Wolverine — and we’d love him to — his story has to touch your heart and it has to be grounded in things you can recognize and understand. If the stakes of a Nova story only matter “out there” in space or on some far-flung planet, then no amount of good craft is going to help us reach an audience larger the hardcore cosmic fans.

I think what’s so odd about the statement for me is the idea that things can only be relatable if they’re happening on Earth. Surely a Nova story – or a Green Lantern story or whatever – can be perfectly relatable no matter where it takes place because the reader empathizes with the emotional journey/choices/situation of the characters, whether or not they’re human and living in a location that you can find on Google Earth? I can’t help but think that complaining that the stakes of a story only mattering “‘out there’ in space or on some far-flung planet” is kind of missing the appeal of a lot of sci-fi, not to mention storytelling-as-metaphor, which just seems odd considering Alonso’s history, as well as Marvel’s bread-and-butter of telling stories about people who can do fantastic things far outside the ability of its readers.

That said, it may explain why we’ve not really seen much of the Cosmic books over at Marvel in recent months…

Color me a little disappointed here. The Daily Blam reports that during the Television Critics Association press tour, the Powers pilot that was greenlit may not be picked up after all for the 2012 television season. The show would feature Jason Patric as Detective Walker, Lucy Punch as Detective Pilgrim and Charles S. Dutton as the head of a homicide police precinct. The pilot also stars Carly Foulkes as Retro Girl, Bailey Madison as young orphan Calista, Titus Welliver as Triphammer, and Vinnie Jones as, you guessed it,  mobster Johnny Royale.

Everything seemed to be in place, so what exactly happened? “[It's a] fairly substantial rewrite,” FX president John Landgraf explained, adding that much of the pilot would have to be re-shot. “Right now we’re in the process of deciding whether to pull the trigger on that re-shoot.” After filming had completed late last year and the network screened the show, screenwriter Charles Eglee was brought back to perform rewrites on the script which would retool major aspects of the pilot that didn’t quite mesh well. The Hollywood Reporter described the project as “still in limbo.”

This really is a shame, especially with the success of The Walking Dead and Smallville‘s 10 year run, I think this program would be a great addition to any line-up FX might have planned. Maybe a lead in to the second season of American Horror Story?

Readers and Powers fans, what do you think about this situation?

This is interesting: After the trial on Fantastic Four #601, Marvel seems to be moving towards the “self-cover” format for its titles – wherein the paper stock for covers and interior pages are the same – with the following titles being switched to the format according to the most recent shipping update:

Another trial, or perhaps the start of a push towards a new format for Marvel books in general…?

Todd Allen continues his look at Marvel’s surreal collected edition policies over at The Beat, but the must-see comment comes from Charles Vess in the comments:

It would be nice if they actually paid the creators whose work they are reprinting. A year after their Warrior’s Three collection which featured a cover and over 100 pages of my work I received one (!!) comp copy and no word of any sort of reprint or royalty fee. Of course it might not have sold very well. Now I see that they are cobbling together 3 or 4 Spider-Man GNs into one enormous, hideously produced, hardcover. My long ago GN ‘Spirits of the Earth’ which I wrote/drew/painted is one of them. We’ll see what they do about that one. In contrast, DC provides 25 comp copies and a royalty check sent ever 4 months. Hmmm… now who would you work for?

Ouch.

And also: This seems almost unbelievable, right? I’m not the only one who reads that and thinks “Oh, that must be wrong,” surely – I’m not meaning to call Vess a liar, because I firmly believe that he’s telling the truth, but Marvel doesn’t pay reprint royalties or even give creators notice that they’re reprinting their work?!? That just seems breathtaking. Even if that’s only the policy on work of a specific age… I am genuinely stunned. That’s appalling.

If you looked at the list of top-selling collections and OGNs yesterday and thought, “Wait, where’s Marvel?” then this Publishers’ Weekly piece might answer your question in a depressing way:

The problem is that Marvel is inconsistent in what they keep in print. A series with 8 volumes in it will frequently have two or three of the middle volumes out of print. Some titles that should be evergreen sellers, like Secret Wars, will be randomly out of print. To compound the frustration felt by retailers, when titles come back in print, they sometimes are reprinted in a different format entirely… The 10-volume Essential Amazing Spider-Man has volumes 5, 7, 8 and 9 out of stock and the 8-volume Essential Fantastic Four only has volume 8 in stock.

“They’re a publisher that publishes their trade books like they’re periodicals” says [Chicago retailer Eric] Kirsammer, who adds, “They don’t really have a backstock. I’ve been told by Marvel they don’t.”

Today’s Marvel Next Big Thing call has revealed that Captain America and Bucky is to undergo a revamp and become Captain America and Hawkeye for a storyline before bringing on a new co-star in future arcs… which makes me realize that Marvel’s real Next Big Thing is stealth team-up books. Not only do now have Captain America and, but November saw the launch of Avenging Spider-Man – which is a Spider-Man team-up title to all intents and purposes – and we already have X-Men, which is as close to an X-Men Team-Up as we’re likely to get anytime soon.

I’m actually a really big fan of Team-Up books when they’re done right (I was even tempted by Deadpool Team-Up numerous times, but could never get over my intense disinterest in Deadpool as a character. Sorry, everyone), so I find myself more taken with this trend that you might expect. I admit to preferring shorter team-ups than the six-issue arc model (in part because it means more team-ups on an annual basis, which generally produces more likelihood of obscure characters being dropped into the mix; I want to see Spider-Man and Nighthawk Team-Up, dammit), but Avenging, at least, seems fast enough on the changing of co-stars for now. But what character will get their own team-up ongoing next, I wonder…? I mean, surely Wolverine could do with one now that that franchise has lost both Daken and X-23 as ongoing titles…

The news that Hostess is to file for bankruptcy should send nostalgic shivers down the spines of superheroes worldwide, given the multiple crimes the company’s snack foods helped prevent in the 1970s and ’80s; from 1975 through 1982, ads for Hostess Fruit Pies, Twinkies and other products appeared in both Marvel and DC comics, each one an original one-page strip featuring a superhero from that publisher’s stable using the “tasty snack” of choice to distract criminals, monsters and other ne’er-do-wells from destruction, thievery and other unfortunate rampages against society. For those who haven’t seen them, the strips were variations on a theme, all written to the same basic formula but weirdly enjoyable for that very reason, reducing characters to stereotype and snack-obsessed mindsets; there’s a selection available here for you to sample them for yourself. Of course, for those of us who grew up reading these strips, the very name “Hostess” has a very specific nostalgia, not so much for the snacks themselves, but the ads, and the kinds of comics that they appeared in. Remember when comic book ads weren’t just for more comics and the occasional movie or TV show…?

The news that Walt Simonson is not only returning to Marvel, but drawing Brian Michael Bendis’ last arc on Avengers, makes me think about Marvel’s talent management vs. DC’s. For whatever reason – I’m tempted to say “The fact that there’s little else to work on, there” – Marvel has a tendency to use big name creators on big name books, as opposed to DC, where the same creators often work on smaller, more personal, projects. It’s not just Simonson – who, in his time at DC, bounced around titles like Wonder Woman, World of Warcraft, DC Universe: Legacies, JSA Classified and his Orion series that still really, really deserves to be collected thank you very much – but consider Warren Ellis, who went from barely touching the DCU when he was under DC Exclusive (His footprint was, what, one JLA Classified arc?) to writing Ultimate Fantastic Four, Astonishing X-Men and Iron Man for Marvel as well as Nextwave, newuniversal and Secret Avengers; Andy Diggle, whose DCU work consisted of, I think, Green Arrow Year One before jumping ship to Marvel and Daredevil and Thunderbolts; or Brian Wood, who didn’t work on any DCU characters before going to Marvel and starting Wolverine and The X-Men: Alpha and Omega.

There’s almost certainly more to it than Marvel offering (a) a lot of money and (b) not a lot of choice of available projects to creators; in Wood’s case, at least, we know that he had pitched for DCU work and not landed the gig, and for all we know, Diggle and Simonson were in similar boats (Somehow, I doubt that Ellis falls into the same camp), but I find the disconnect interesting. It feels like it’s only recently, with Jeff Lemire and Scott Snyder’s lead, that DC has really become comfortable with using “Vertigo creators” in their DCU books, and so perhaps that also contributes to the weird discrepancy. But it ends with interesting results, such as this Simonson news, which Marvel can easily play as “Comics Great Walter Simonson Returns To Superhero Comics!” without that much fear of contradiction.

In case you’d rather watch the Avengers save the world than fight the X-Men, Marvel has come with something for you to like… literally: an Avengers Facebook game. Avengers Assemble, created by Marvel and fellow Disney subsidiary Playdom, will allow players to create their own characters to join Earth’s Mightiest Heroes alongside all manner of familiar faces; according to Marvel’s VP of Games Production TQ Jefferson, there will be more than 100 characters throughout the game to offer easter eggs for longtime fans:

You don’t need to know 75 years of Marvel continuity to understand what is going on, but if you do, those elements are in there.

According to USA Today, the game should be launched within the next three months, just in time for the ramp-up for May’s big movie.

Ignoring that fact that the new six-issue mini spinning out of the twelve-issue mini Avengers vs. X-Men is called AvX:Versus, making the full title of the comic Avengers Versus X-Men Versus (It’s just like “DC Comics” actually being “Detective Comics Comics” if you think about it too much), I have to admit kind of loving the idea behind the series, which seems to be “Avengers vs. X-Men might not have enough fights in it, so here’re six more issues of fights so that no-one feels like they’ve missed out.”It simultaneously makes me wonder what is going to be in the twelve issues of Avengers vs. X-Men if there isn’t going to be enough space for fighting, and reminds me of the awesome structure of Steve Englehart’s Avengers/Defenders War, which took great pains to show each member of each team squaring off against their counterpart so that everyone got to see their favorite in action (I can but hope that each chapter starts with the logo for the starring characters).

For years, comics have seemed to be moving away from what used to be called “slugfests,” in favor of more complex stories and a somewhat nervous attempt at literate legitimacy, so Versus seems both a surprise and a welcome blast from the past. Is it too much to hope that Englehart himself will be rescued from relative comics obscurity for a chapter within this anthology series…? Probably. I’m still somewhat on the fence on the main series – I mean, it’s really Civil War 2: This Time It’s Schism, isn’t it? – but this seemingly gratuitous, punch-happy spin-off? Potential guilty pleasure of the year.

So, we know that Marvel has Avengers vs. X-Men planned for 2012, as well as Avengers Assemble and Brian Michael Bendis’ “Ultron War” storyline amongst other big events. Which of these, if any, are the subject of tomorrow’s Marvel Mystery Liveblog, which promises both special guests and a major announcement from the publisher? Or should we be expecting something that’s not even been hinted at just yet…?

The announcement is timed for 3pm EST tomorrow. You have until then to speculate away.

Are we far enough away from last week’s comics now that I can write about the end of one without spoiling it for everyone? Possibly not, so join me under the jump if you’re not that worried that I’ll spoil Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #8 for you, please. (more…)