Marvel Penguin Picks: July 2023
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
X-Men: Before the Fall – Sinister Four #1
I honestly can’t say that I’m crazy about the idea of an “X-Men” event called “Fall of X.” Just from the name alone. Mutants have spent so much time getting the short end of the stick that it was both a revelation and a relief to see them finally step up and demand the respect they deserved from the rest of the world in “House of X/Powers of X.” The changes in those miniseries were so sweeping that it felt like only a matter of time before the status quo was resumed. I’m guessing that time is finally upon us.
If nothing else, it appears that Kieron Gillen and the rest of the X-writers are doing their best to make this an interesting fall from grace – which is really all you can do when you’re trying sell what looks like a downer of a story. “Sinister Four” gets the nod for this month not just because it’s looking to make sense of one of the wilder twists the franchise has thrown at us in recent memory. Which would be the revelation that there are not one, but FOUR clones of Nathaniel “Mister Sinister” Essex running around these days. Gillen doing this for the character he’s most cleverly reinvented in the Marvel Universe would be noteworthy enough. He’s taking it a step farther here, though, as he introduces us to their latest atrocity here: They’re dating each other.
It makes an awful kind of sense as it plays into the character’s arrogance and sense of superiority. Who else would be worthy of dating Sinister… than Sinister! Only Gillen would be audacious enough to broach such an idea, so it makes sense that he’s going to try and put it to the page, along with artist Paco Medina. By the way, my money is on Classic Sinister and Doctor Stasis being the happy couple as opposites attract.
…or maybe they’ve both figured that’s the easiest way to get the other to drop their guard so they can put the knife in their back.
Amazing Spider-Man #31: Advance-solicited for August and billed as the start of the big Spider-Event of Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr.’s second year on the title. What could it be? Why, it’s the wedding of Randy Robertson and Janice “The Beetle” Lincoln. Peter Parker is Randy’s Best Man, and Janice’s father Tombstone is going to walk her down the aisle. Uness Wells and Romita are planning an anti-climactic, self-aware stunt where the wedding goes off without a hitch and the “event” is just four more issues of everyone talking and commiserating about the wedding, it’s a safe bet that something will go wrong here. Start placing your bets now as to who will be crashing it, whether or not Randy and Janice will actually be married, and who won’t make it out of the reception alive.
Marvel Age #1000: I’m not sure what this anniversary issue is meant to celebrate, but you really can’t argue with the quality of the creative teams that will be contributing to it. J. Michael Straczynski & Kaare Andrews. Dan Slott & Mike Allred. Rainbow Rowell & Jamie McKelvie. Mark Waid & Alessandro Cappucio. Ryan Stegman and Steve McNiven – by themselves! AND MORE! It’s a 96-page one-shot that certainly sounds worth the $10 cover price. As for me, I’ll have no problem checking this out when it hits Marvel Unlimited.
Moon Knight #25 & Moon Knight: City of the Dead #1 (of 5): Clearly writer Jed MacKay must be doing something right here if he’s managed to get an ongoing “Moon Knight” series to issue #25. Not just that, but also to spawn what Marvel is calling an Event Series in “City of the Dead” as well. MacKay isn’t writing it, however, as David Pepose has the honors there. As for how these two issues are connected, that’s less clear. Issue #25 has the title character searching for answers about Marc Spector’s last mission with the Karnak Cowboys mercenary group while “City of the Dead” has him traveling to the titular place to help a barely alive runaway who made it to the doorstep of his Mission. It all sounds fine for what it is, so it’s really the hype Marvel is spinning here and the longevity of the main series that’s making me curious about seeing what MacKay has been doing here.
What If…? Dark: Loki #1: Before Jason Aaron came along, Walt Simonson was the most celebrated “Thor” writer out there – no question. His expansion of the mythos and the legendary adventures he sent the character on set a bar that no writer was able to match for decades. He’s returned to the character and his world occasionally since then, with his latest being this “What if…?” that involves Loki. As for what it’ll actually be about, the solicitation is rather cagey. However, the cover shows Surtur and Jormungand behind a Mjolnir-wielding Loki, so it doesn’t look good at all for the Ten Realms.
X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1: Gerry Duggan returns again to write the latest installment of this annual event, now billed as the start to “Fall of X.” So if you do decide to shell out $9 for this 80-page one-shot, prepare yourself for nothing but bad times within. I could be wrong, but with an event title like that it’s best to adjust your expectations accordingly.
Star Wars: Dark Droids #1: Also described as “Scourge of the Droids” within the solicitation, this prelude to the next “Star Wars” event involves droids across the galaxy going out of control. The question here is when it hits Triple-Zero and BT, will we notice or will they just keep murdering any uninteresting organics who come near them? This comes to us from writer Charles Soule and artist Luke Ross, who brought us the bulk of “War of the Bounty Hunters” which was… fine. I mean, the event itself was decent enough but the “Crimson Reign” follow-ups left something to be desired. So it’s not going to take a lot for “Dark Droids” to improve upon the previous event. The hope here is that it won’t have its one big twist in the opening issue, and will actually have some surprises in store for what follows.
Thunderbolts: Uncaged Omnibus HC: Collects everything from the series written by Jeff Parker after Luke Cage came onboard as the team leader. The writer turned the team into a supervillain rehabilitation/work-release program that was apparently quite good. I did read the volume which collected the issues Parker wrote before this status quo change and I enjoyed it but didn’t get around to collecting the rest of it for reasons which are lost to me now. I was considering picking this up and making it this month’ Above-the-Board Recommendation, but then I checked and saw that all of the issues collected here can be read on Marvel Unlimited. So there you go.
Venom vol. 4: Illumination: It looks like Al Ewing is taking over full-time writing duties on this series, which isn’t a bad thing since his issues have been the better parts of the first two volumes. There’s some talk about Venom’s most powerful form, and the truth about the Garden of Time and Eddie’s other incarnations being revealed at last. Which is good. Payoff is good. However, I’m most curious about how “Dark Web” will be impacting this series as there have been some significant changes to Venom there that I’m interested in seeing how they’re reflected in this series. Also, this volume collects original artist Bryan Hitch’s last issues on the title with CAFU being his replacement. I’m expecting something of a style clash here, but it should turn out fine based on what I’ve seen of the artist’s work over in “Iron Man.”