Marvel Previews Picks: March 2020
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
X-Men: Grand Design Omnibus
The first three hundred issues of “X-Men” are unique among Marvel comics of that length in the sense that the majority of them were written by one person: Chris Claremont. Even then there’s a lot of sprawl in his run and that’s even before you try to reconcile it with the weirdness from the first sixty issues or so. Enter Ed Piskor. The “Wizzywig” and “Hip Hop Family Tree” creator had a vision: To condense those three hundred issues into one cohesive saga over six oversized issues spread across 488 pages (according to the page count in the omnibus).
Did he succeed? From what I’ve heard, the answer is yes. To the point where not only is his work being reissued in one omnibus edition, but it’s also spawned another “Grand Design” project: “Fantastic Four” from Tom Scioli.
There are a couple of catches, however: The single issues and subsequent collections were issued in an oversized format and I can’t tell if the omnibus is going to keep those same dimensions. Also, if you went and bought all three volumes right now, it’d save you $10 over the $100 cover price of this omnibus. So maybe this isn’t so much a recommendation to buy this omnibus as it is a reminder for me to get all three existing volumes of “Grand Design” before they go out of print.
Strange Academy #1: Doctor Strange opens a school for magic in the Marvel Universe. While the good Doctor will be part of the faculty, so will Scarlet Witch, Brother Voodoo, Magik, Hellstrom, and the Ancient One. It’s basically Hogwarts in the the Marvel Universe and it frankly seems kind of odd that the publisher hasn’t done this concept yet. Skottie Young is a terrific artist, but he’s only writing this time around. At least the buzz off of his “Middlewest” at Image suggests he’s stepped up his game after “I Hate Fairyland.” Humberto Ramos will be providing the art and he sounds like a damn near perfect fit for this kind of project.
Spider-Man Noir #1 (of 5): I thought that the character’s appearance in “Into the Spider-Verse” was enough to get Marvel to reprint his existing stories, and that would be that. My guess is that collection must’ve sold out pretty fast, which is why we’re getting another miniseries, this time courtesy of writer Margaret Stohl and artist Juan Fereryra. While I have no experience with the former, I’m familiar enough with Ferreyra to believe that he’ll knock it out of the park with this miniseries. Mind you, this is just going to be a miniseries — I don’t think the character is popular enough to sustain an ongoing series.
Hellions #1: So it’s an “X-Men” team run by Mr. Sinister and featuring Psylocke, Scalphunter, Wild Child, Nanny, Orphan Maker, Empath, and Havok. If ever a mutant team looked like it was created by filling in some Mad Libs. Still, Zeb Wells is a writer who’s delivered a number of good stories at Marvel over the years like the “New Warriors” miniseries that preceded the team’s destruction in “Civil War.” So even though this particular team doesn’t look like it has a reason for having the roster it does, I’m willing to bet there’s a reason for it. Artist Steven Segovia is on hand to help sort through this madness.
Cable #1: Is the new Kid Cable actually popular enough to support his own ongoing series? I wouldn’t think so but writer Gerry Duggan and artist Phil Noto are determined to find out. Speaking of Duggan, I know that I promised a podcast on the “Infinity Wars” event he wrote to see if he’d be worth following as a writer again. I got the “Complete Infinity Wars” collection, read it, and… promptly became backed up by several other concluding series that were more worth my time than that one. Hell, between talking about “House of X/Powers of X,” “Best of 2019,” and “Happiness” my podcast schedule looks to be full through February at the moment. I suppose I’ll get around to talking about “Infinity Wars” eventually, once the backlog of things I really want to talk about clears up.
Outlawed #1: Apparently there was some big tragedy among the stories in “Incoming,” the big $10 one-shot which served up a bunch of teasers for Marvel’s 2020 storylines. It was so great that the United States has now outlawed teen superheroes. Yes, that’s right. Teen superheroes are now outlawed in the Marvel Universe. I could tell you that THIS WILL NOT LAST, but it won’t matter because my guess is that this storyline is going to be pitched at a much younger (and hopefully less jaded) audience that will have no problem accepting its premise. Doing the pitching are “Ironheart” writer Eve Ewing and occasional “Thor” and “Hulk” artist Kim Jacinto.
Avengers #32: What do Mephisto, Dracula, Namor, Red Widow, and Hyperion all have in common? They’ve all got some kind of axe to grind with the Avengers. Either personally or to further their own agenda. I don’t know if this is going to be the beginning of the end for Jason Aaron’s run, but this isn’t the kind of thing you do when you’re starting off or in the middle of your run on a comic series. Original, and ostensibly regular, artist Ed McGuinness returns to illustrate this arc. (At least I hope he’s doing this arc and not just this issue.)
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #’s 1&2: You know who we haven’t seen much of since Marvel took over the “Star Wars” license? Boba Fett. You’d think that they’d have at least given the Mandalorian man of mystery his own miniseries by now so one has to wonder what the holdup has been. That said, while this is the first new (ongoing?) series to feature him, he’s not the star here. That’d be Valance, the cyborg bounty hunter first introduced in the now-surprisingly relevant pages of “Han Solo: Imperial Cadet” and featured in the “Target: Vader” miniseries. Here we’re told that he went on a mission some time ago with Fett, fellow bounty hunter Bossk, and his mentor Nakano Lash. This mission went all to hell when Lash sold the other three out, leaving them lucky to escape with their lives. Now Lash has finally resurfaced and Valance is determined to beat his old partners to his mentor all for the sake of some answers. “Galaxy’s Edge” and “Journey to the Rise of Skywalker: Allegiance” writer Ethan Sacks and “Jedi: Fallen Order — The Dark Temple” artist Paolo Villanelli are on hand to deliver a bounty of good writing and art.
X-Men by Jonathan Hickman vol. 1: So why isn’t this the “Above-the-Board” recommendation for this month? Obviousness aside, I still have yet to read “House of X/Powers of X.” What can I say, bargain-hunting for a $60 hardcover is hard when you don’t want to settle for Amazon’s paltry 10% discount (at the time of this writing). I’m sure that it, and this will be great since Hickman has yet to disappoint me. I’d just like to have read what’s available before I start to get REALLY excited about this latest “X-Men” relaunch.
Doctor Doom vol. 1: Pottersville: More than any other Marvel villain, it’s easiest to believe that Doom is the one who truly sees himself as a hero. He genuinely believes that everything he’s doing is for the betterment of his people and his country, even if it’s actually for his ego and to FINALLY PUT THAT CURSED REED RICHARDS IN HIS PLACE!!! For his first ongoing series, Doom finds himself to be a man without a country as he’s falsely accused of an act of terrorism regarding the first international effort to create an artificial black hole. Who can he turn to in his time of need? Taskmaster? M.O.D.O.K.? Blue Marvel? Mephisto? Here’s some free advice for the Doctor: Just avoid Mephisto. “Halt and Catch Fire” co-creator and “She Could Fly” writer Christopher Cantwell writes and Salvador Larroca provides the (hopefully not overly photorealistic) art.
Iron Man: The Ultron Agenda: I didn’t mention it above, but there’s a LOT of “Iron Man 2020” tie-ins being released this month. I’m only giving lip service to this one because it’s basically vol. 3 of Dan Slott’s run on “Tony Stark: Iron Man.” The “Machine Rights” uprising has begun and Ultron is looking to find some way to manipulate it for his own ends. Clearly that’s a problem, but Machine Man also has his own thoughts about Machine Rights as well and lately he’s come off as the kind of individual that believes his aims will be best achieved through violence. Dan Slott, with co-scripters Jim Zub and Christos Gage are on hand to show us whose side Tony Stark will take, while regular penciler Valerio Schiti is joined by Juanan Ramirez and Francesco Manna.