Marvel Previews Picks: February 2021
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
X-Men #18
The solicitation text reads: “It’s been a long time since the team went into the vault. A long time.” This is a reference to the three-mutant team of Laura “Wolverine” Kinney, Synch and Darwin who were tasked with infiltrating the home of the Children of the Vault back in issue #5. We were led to believe that this was a spectacular failure on two fronts. The first being that the last time we saw the team was after they made it into the vault and were recognized as intruders by its A.I. Now, while it’s a virtual certainty that they survived whatever countermeasures the vault set against them, the final page of that issue indicated that, due to the way time flows in there, five hundred years have already passed for the team.
In terms of setup, issue #5 promised an AWFUL LOT. Now writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Mahmud Asrar get to deliver on it. Given Hickman’s consistency in paying off this kind of thing in the previous series he has written, I’m not just expecting a lot, I’m also expecting it to be pretty good as well. So it should be well worth reading when I check it out in paperback or on Marvel Unlimited.
King in Black: Marauders #1: Another month, another round of tie-ins to the event. This one is unique since most of the X-Books aren’t making an effort to tie into it. (The exception being “S.W.O.R.D.” which is, understandably given its remit, using it as a springboard for its first storyline.) “Marauders” does have a good reason to get involved in Knull’s conquest of the Marvel Universe, seeing as how they’re the tip of the spear for the Hellfire Trading Company and an invading alien god is going to be bad for business. At leas, that’s how I imagine Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw are seeing it. Kate Pryde might have a slightly more humanistic perspective on things. Luke Ross illustrates and regular “Marauders” writer Gerry Duggan scripts this issue, so it’s possible that he may try to sneak some relevant plot points for the main series into this one.
Savage Avengers #18: Conan and Deadpool break out of Rikers Island during Knull’s Reign to break into the Hellfire Club. Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write. It also sounds like good reason for me to start catching up on this series now that I know that its writer, Gerry Duggan, is still capable of delivering quality work.
X-Men Legends #1: Fabian Nicieza wrote a lot of “X-Men” comics back in the 90’s. Some of them were good. Some of them were forgettable. Some of them were overly complicated to the point where Betsy Braddock wound up in the body of a Japanese ninja whose own mind was swapped out at the same time and became her own character, and that’s why it was hard to write a good Psylocke story until Rick Remender did it in his “Uncanny X-Force” run. Where was I going with this? Oh, right. Nicieza is back with another veteran of the 90’s, artist Brett Booth, for a series that looks to channel that 90’s “X-Men” vibe as Cyclops and Havok deal with the Shi’Ar returning to Earth in search of the Forsaken One. Whether or not that sounds like your idea of a good time will likely depend on how you remember the writer’s work from that era. (Though I do have fond memories of his “Cable & Deadpool” series before other plans for Cable derailed it.)
Amazing Spider-Man #59: Mister Negative comes looking for Martin Li. I’m sure this is going to work out well for Spidey. Let’s see if he takes the logical route and tells Mister Negative that’s not possible because he is Martin Li. I’m sure he’ll take that well…
Doctor Strange: The Oath HC: I feel like I mention this series whenever it’s solicited again. For good reason because this Brian K. Vaughan/Marcos Martin joint is one of the best “Dr. Strange” stories ever. Good enough to warrant the hardcover treatment it’s getting here and worth picking up in this format if you’ve never read it before.
Venom vol. 5: Venom Beyond: For this latest volume, and the last one before “King in Black” kicks off, Eddie Brock faces off against a foe who tears his reality apart and sends him and his son Dylan to some kind of nightmare dimension. Which sounds about right for what the characters have been put through in the course of this series so far. The twist is that while they’re said to meet some familiar faces there, one of them is someone who Eddie may not want to leave. No points for guessing what’s going to happen to this character by the end of the volume. I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong about that, however.
Amazing Spider-Man by Nick Spencer vol. 11: Last Remains & Amazing Spider-Man: Last Remains Companion: The “Kindred” storyline that writer Nick Spencer has been building since issue #1 reaches its climax in this volume. Given that the last time the writer paid off a long-running storyline was in the mediocre “Hunted,” I can’t say that my expectations are running all that high. That said, Spencer has been running this game for longer so I hope he’s put much more planning into this. I will say that it was nice to see that he and “Amazing’s” editorial learned at least one lesson from “Hunted:” They put the tie-in issues into their own volume. The tie-ins to that storyline didn’t add a whole lot to it so, even if they’re being co-written by Matthew Rosenberg, it’s nice to see them put aside into their own volume where we’re not required to read them.
Iron Man by Christopher Cantwell vol. 1: Big Iron: Cantwell moves up in the Marvel Universe as the new writer for Shellhead’s ongoing stories. Given that Dan Slott’s run didn’t live up to expectations, the new writer doesn’t have a high bar to clear. Which is good as the solicitation makes mention of facing down old-school villains like Arcade and Absorbing Man. However, the real villain of this storyline is a character whose name I’ve heard mention of before, but don’t have a whole lot of familiarity with: Korvac. We’ll see if Cantwell and artist Cafu can do a good job of catching me up when this volume arrives.
Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The New Republic vol. 5: This gets a mention because it collects the “Dark Empire” “trilogy.” “Trilogy” is in quotation marks because while parts one and two are six-issue miniseries, part three isn’t even labeled as such and is essentially a two-issue wrap-up to the whole thing. The trilogy deserved better, it really did. Mainly because the first miniseries is one of the series that got me into comics in the first place. While it isn’t as good as I remember, it still held up better than I expected during my last re-reading of it. So if you’re curious about the time that Luke Skywalker went to the Dark Side, how the Emperor came back from the dead (the first time), and how Boba Fett survived the Sarlacc, this volume has you covered.