Marvel Previews Picks: August 2018
Who’s representing Marvel at the Eisners this year? They’ve got “Hawkeye” for Best Ongoing Series, “Black Panther: World of Wakanda” and “X-Men: Grand Design” for Best Limited Series, “Black Bolt” for Best New Series, Brian Stelfreeze and Julian Totino Tedesco as Best Cover Artists for “Black Panther” and “Hawkeye” (respectively), and Ed Piskor for Best Coloring on “X-Men: Grand Design.” It’s a better showing than usual for the company, but if you look a bit closer you’ll notice something about most of these nominees. “Hawkeye” and “Black Bolt” have both been cancelled. “World of Wakanda” would fall into that boat too if it wasn’t for the fact that it was retroactively declared to be a miniseries. Maybe next year Marvel will manage to have published at least one Eisner-nominated ongoing that’s set to continue after it has received its award.
And in some completely unrelated news the “Hellstorm Omnibus HC” collecting Warren Ellis’ first work at Marvel has received an upgrade. Instead of a “Parental Advisory” it’ll now be sporting an “Explicit Content” tag, making it a proper mature readers title. I guess that’s one way of saying it has aged well after all these years? It does make me more interested in picking it up when it comes out, however.
Fantastic Four #1: Back because “YOU DEMANDED IT!” as the solicitation says. Not because, with the Disney/Fox merger still happening, Marvel will finally have the TV/film rights to their first family back under one roof to go with the comics. Anyhow, this latest relaunch comes to us courtesy of Dan Slott and Sara Pichelli which sounds like as solid a creative team you can ask for. Slott has demonstrated many times over the years that he’s great at hewing to Marvel superhero traditions while finding ways to subvert them along the way while Pichelli has shown that she’s a remarkably slick artist who’s as good with conversation as she is with action. My only concern is that as Slott will also be writing “Iron Man” concurrently with “Fantastic Four” his attention might wind up being divided and we’ll get less interesting stories from both titles. Still, I’m all aboard for the “FF’s” return and to see this team interact with the Marvel Universe once again.
Extermination #’s 1&2 (of 5): For a while it seemed as if the time-traveling original team of young X-Men, introduced by Bendis and Immonen in “All-New X-Men,” were going to stay in the Marvel Universe. I was fine with that, and then Cullen Bunn wrung a (quite good) story out of undoing their lack of a need to return home in “X-Men: Blue vol. 3.” Unless this is just an event to give the team some more exposure, “Extermination” is teasing the need for these time travelers to return to their own time after they’ve been targeted for death by forces not mentioned here. Ed Brisson writes the event and Pepe Larraz illustrates it, which is fine by me. My only concern is that if this isn’t the event that sends them home, then what is it trying to achieve? I’ll be waiting for the collected edition to find out.
Infinity Wars #1 (of 6): With the release of “Infinity War” it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Marvel’s latest event was going to have something to do with the Infinity Gems. Now they’re back on Earth wielded by characters who don’t fully comprehend their power. Oh, and there’s this new character, Requiem, who was introduced in the prologue “Infinity Wars: Prime” that’s going to be important to this story. I should be more excited about this than I am, but that’s what having Gerry Duggan write this event gets you. Mike Deodato Jr. is illustrating it, which means it’ll look great, at least.
West Coast Avengers #1: Essentially the off-brand more fun version of “Avengers” as “Hawkeye” writer Kelly Thompson reunites both Hawkeyes, Kate Bishop and Clint Barton, and teams them with Gwenpool, America Chavez, Kid Omega, and some guy named Fuse. I’ve liked what I’ve read of Thompson’s “Hawkeye” as well as most of the cast she’s rounded up for this new team. Considering that the talented Stefano Caselli is onboard as artist and I think you’ve got another series that I’ll be wanting to check out once its collected editions start rolling out.
The Punisher #’s 1&2: No longer a “War Machine,” just vanilla Frank Castle for this new series. Matthew Rosenberg is still writing the character and I still have yet to get around to reading anything he’s written. Eventually, though. “DMZ’s” Riccardo Burchielli will be illustrating this new series and he’s a pretty solid choice. Still, it’s hard to get excited about another take on the Marvel Universe version of this character, particularly since there’s no real hook to his adventures here. We’re told that his time with the War Machine armor has left Frank with a taste for bigger game and that he’s going to get some “otherworldly help” in this regard. Is another team-up with Doctor Strange in the cards? Or will he try selling his soul to Mephisto only to find out that he’s overdrawn? *rimshot* We shall see.
Edge of Spider-geddon #’s 1&2 (of 4): “Spider-geddon” is the title of the next big Spider-event and just like with “Spider-verse” we’re getting a prequel miniseries spotlighting alternate-universe Spider-characters. While Spider-punk returns for the first issue, the real news is the return of the anime-influenced SP//dr in the second… at least, that’s what Marvel would have you believe. While the solicitation text mentions that Peni Parker was “one of the most requested heroes” from the previous event, that’s simply not true. Spider-gwen was the big breakout from the “Edge of Spider-verse” miniseries as her ongoing series can attest to. I’m sure Marvel was expecting SP//dr to be the breakout character, as her issue was written by Gerard Way and saved for last in the miniseries. A few years later, Peni is finally getting her second shot in the spotlight and while original artist Jake Wyatt is back, Way could only be bothered to come back as a co-writer (or maybe just a plotter/co-plotter) for this issue. Such is the life of a potential breakout character who doesn’t.
Star Wars: Thrawn: When the Expanded Universe of “Star Wars” was declared to be non-canon after Lucasfilm was bought by Disney it was inevitable that its best parts would find their way back into canon. In that regard, just about everyone predicted that’s what would happen to Grand Admiral Thrawn who brought the New Republic to its knees in Timothy Zahn’s “Heir to the Empire” trilogy. So not only was Thrawn brought into this new continuity via the “Rebels” cartoon, but Zahn even got the chance to write a new novel detailing the character’s rise through the Imperial ranks. That’s what’s being adapted for this miniseries. Normally I’d have no time for a comic adaptation of a novel, but I’ve heard that they’ve given writer Jody Houser plenty of liberty to adapt the story into a new medium. With art from the reliable Luke Ross, I think I’ll wind up giving this collected edition a look when it comes out.
Star Wars: Darth Vader — Dark Lord of the Sith vol. 3: The Burning Seas: In which the title character is tasked with bringing Mon Cala to heel, along with Wilhuff Tarkin. If that sounds bad, seeing what these two do to make it happen will probably be even worse. There is hope, however, as Kieron Gillen has mentioned that this volume and vol. 8 of “Star Wars” subtitled “Mutiny on Mon Cala” are essentially a stealth crossover with Charles Soule handling the “before” part of the story and Gillen taking on the “after.” While I’m expecting this volume to be a self-contained story, it sounds like you’ll have to read the “Star Wars” volume to get the happy ending.
X-Men: Red vol. 1: Hate Machine: The color-coded title implies that we’re to think of this as the third flagship “X-Men” title which is really pushing it. Can a franchise really have three flagship titles? That said, I’m going to give this a shot as its writer, Tom Taylor, has shown that he has the chops for the job with his work on “All-New Wolverine.” As a bonus, he’ll be continuing to write Laura and Gabby here as they’re both members of the team along with Gambit, Nightcrawler, Namor, and newly-resurrected team leader Jean Grey. They’re up against a global frenzy of mutant hate, which sounds like a normal Tuesday for the X-Men. I’m sure they’ll be fine.