Marvel Previews Picks: June 2019
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Spider-Man: Life Story
When Spider-Man debuted in 1962, Peter Parker was 15 years old. 57 years later and he’s… what, twenty-something in his comics right now? Yes, aging does work kind of funny in superhero comics that have been published continuously for that long. But what if Spider-Man had aged in real time over the years? What kind of adventures would he have had? These questions are what writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Mark Bagley are going to try and answer with this miniseries. Bagley’s done enough work involving the Ol’ Web Head for me to know that this is going to be a great-looking miniseries. Zdarsky is the wild-card here as, while I’m familiar with his art, I’ve yet to actually read anything he’s written. I’ve heard good things about his work on titles like “Howard the Duck” and “Amazing Spider-Man,” and while he’s still rising in the ranks at Marvel to get assignments like writing the current “Daredevil” series, that in and of itself isn’t a guarantee of quality. (Paging Chuck Austen…) I’ve still got every expectation that this will be a good read, which is more than I can say for the Spider-title that Marvel is hyping in these solicitations.
Spider-Man #1 (of 5): “ J.J. ABRAMS WRITES ‘SPIDER-MAN!’” is what Marvel wants the big headline for this series to be. Except that’s not really true. He’s co-writing this with Henry Abrams, his son, with Sara Pichelli providing the art. That kind of setup would still have me suspicious as to how much Abrams the Older is contributing to this comic. Except that he has actually gone on record as saying that he’s basically talking over the plot with his son who will be doing the actual scripting. Doing something like this for his son makes Abrams an awesome dad. Unfortunately I don’t buy comics based on that metric. I’m not sure of anyone who does. It’s certainly not worthy of the hype that came with the announcement of this miniseries. Best to just stop talking about it until it arrives and we can see if Abrams the Younger has inherited any of his dad’s skill at writing.
Strikeforce #1: Writer Tini Howard and artist German Peralta give us a new ongoing title that aims to explore the dark underbelly of the Marvel Universe as a new threat rises out of it. On board to combat this menace are Blade, Angela, Spider-Woman, Winter Soldier, Wiccan, Monica Rambeu, and Daimon Hellstorm. This sounds… fine. I dunno, it takes a better hook than “exploring the dark underbelly of the Marvel Universe” to get my attention these days. Probably worth checking out if you’ve got a special attachment to any of the characters featured here.
Marvel Comics #1001: If nothing else I applaud Marvel for their commitment to this particular gimmick. And for putting out another issue to pad out the collected edition.
King Thor #1 (of 4): Jason Aaron’s run on “Thor” has really been about two versions of the character. The one in the present and the one in the future. While the ongoing “Thor” series will tell us what happens to the one in the present, this miniseries is meant to show the fate of Old King Thor. As foreshadowed by the last couple of issues to feature the character, this fate is going to involve one last fight with his brother Loki. Expect a knock-down, drag-out brawl for the ages especially since Aaron’s original artistic partner on “Thor,” Esad Ribic, is reuniting with him to draw this last story.
Tony Stark: Iron Man #16: Kicking off a new storyline, “The Ultron Agenda.” The AIs of the Marvel Universe are rising up and looking to show their fleshy overlords a thing or two. Leading the charge is none other than… Machine Man? That’s right, Aaron Stack’s pro-robot agenda has escalated into outright violence, likely leaving Stark no choice but to put him down. This isn’t entirely out of character with how my favorite version of Machine Man was written — big surprise, it’s the “My robot brain needs beer!” take seen in “Nextwave: Agents of Hate” — but it sure sounds like it’s going to be a lot less fun than that. Please prove me wrong Mr. Slott.
Doctor Strange #20: This is the last issue? But I just finished reading vol. 2 and I liked what Mark Waid was doing with the character. It’s rare that I hope a series is being immediately relaunched the following month, but that’s exactly where I am with regards to how I feel about this title.
Black Bolt HC: Marvel tried for years to make the “Inhumans” a thing and failed for a number of reasons. One of them was that most of the comics they published featuring these characters were only just “Okay.” “Black Bolt,” reputedly, was not one of them. Saladin Ahmed’s story of the Inhuman king breaking out of an interstellar prison and making his way back home wasn’t just liked enough to make people disappointed when it was cancelled with issue #12. No, this series even managed to score an Eisner nomination for best ongoing series. After it was cancelled, of course. Now the series is getting an oversized hardcover collection so that people like me who skipped the single issues and previous collected editions can see what all the fuss was about.
Captain America by Ta-Nehisi Coates vol. 2: Captain of Nothing: Coates borrowed a lot from Ed Brubaker’s run in his first volume of Cap’s adventures. What I appreciated least about this was how he had the title character one step behind the bad guys even when it looked like he had scored even a minor victory. Which is how Cap starts this volume in prison after he’s been accused of the murder of Gen. Thunderbolt Ross. I don’t expect the character to stay in prison for the whole volume, but I’m going to be very disappointed if his eventual breakout winds up playing right into the hands of those who were behind his imprisonment.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: No, I can’t say that I was all that excited to read a comic about the latest themed addition to Disneyland. Nothing against writer Ethan Sacks and artist Will Sliney, but they didn’t seem like the kind of guys who’d be able to get me to care about it. Then I noticed in one of the solicitations that part of the plot is going to involve an old adventure of one Doctor Chelli Aphra. Not only do I like the character, but I’m also encouraged to see the comic acknowledge the wider “Star Wars” continuity like this. Well played Mr. Sacks.
Mutant X: Complete Collection vol. 2: Wherein Captain America blows up the moon near the end of the series. Part of me is tempted to pick up this collection just for purposes of hatereading it. Then I take a moment and remember how much fun Paul O’Brien’s reviews of these issues were to read when “The X-Axis” was in full swing. Probably better to save myself the $40 and just go read those again as opposed to picking this up.