Marvel Previews Picks: August 2020

This is going to be a weird round of “Previews Picks,” as you might have guessed.  With the comics industry slowly working its way out of shutdown, August’s Previews are going to look veeeeeeeery similar to June’s.  With a few exceptions sneaking in here and there.  In Marvel’s case, there are only two:

Maestro #1 (of 5):  “Future Imperfect” is widely regarded as one of the best Hulk stories ever written.  In it, the Green Goliath is taken into the future of the Marvel Universe only to find out that every superhero is now dead.  Killed by a tyrant known as the Maestro.  It’s up to the Hulk to stop him, except that — and spoilers for a 30-year-old comic ahead — the Maestro IS the Hulk’s future self.  How did he get that way?  We didn’t get much in the way of answers, but this future version of the Hulk has proved popular enough that he keeps popping up in just about any kind of story he can be inserted into.  Maestro’s creator, and writer of a defining near decade-long run on “The Incredible Hulk,” Peter David, is back to tell the story of the character’s rise, with artists German Peralta and one of his former “Hulk” collaborators Dale Keown along for the ride.  I’ll be picking this up when it’s collected because David’s a reliable writer and I’m sure he’s had this story kicking around in his head for a while now.  One does have to wonder what shape it’s going to be in if it’s been kicking around ever since he wrote the original story, though.

Fantastic Four:  Antithesis #1 (of 4):  This has the same retro feel as the miniseries above, but it’s not calling back to a specific story.  Rather, the retro feel comes from former “Fantastic Four” writer teaming up with legendary “X-Men” and “Batman” artist Neal Adams — illustrating Marvel’s First Family for the first time.  The solicitation for this issue has the FF working to stop a meteor from colliding with Manhattan.  Were I a betting man, my guess is that this is just the lead-in for the real story which will make itself known by the end of this issue.  Waid is such a writer that I’ll give anything he does a shot.  Adams, on the other hand, is someone who I’ve always been more familiar with by reputation than his actual work.  Usually whenever I hear about his current projects, it’s because he’s also writing them and the results are usually described as “certifiably bugnuts” in some corners of the internet.  With Waid handling the writing, that’s not likely to be the case here, so we’ll be able to enjoy Adams’ art on its own merits here.