Marvel Previews Picks: February 2014
There was an article in the Business section of the L.A. Times today speculating on the future of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” in the wake of the ratings slide it has experienced since its premiere. Every episode since then has earned progressively lower ratings, though the fact that this most recent one is said to tie into “Thor: The Dark World” may help turn things around a little. Though the series has been entertaining enough, its thrills remind me more of the action/adventure shows of the 80’s and 90’s than anything else. There’s more “MacGyver” in the show’s DNA than the Marvel Universe, at least at this point. I know that the show needed to establish itself before they could start bringing on the guest stars without seeming like they were catering to the fanboys, but we’ve yet to have an episode that was as entertaining or as clever as the pilot.
My solution would’ve been to throw Luke Cage into the mix. Having a street-level character with a prison background and superpowers into the mix would create some nice tension with the quip-happy cast. Yeah, the fact that he has superpowers would’ve “broken” the show’s premise that it was about the ordinary people in the Marvel Universe. Done right, though, and I don’t think anyone would’ve minded. He’s headed to Netflix for his own series, along with Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist, so I think that’s “S.H.I.E.L.D.’s” loss for the moment. Then again there’s always Moon Knight. He doesn’t have any powers except for the voices in his head telling him to make the world a better place. I’m sure he’d fit right in.
Wolverine #’s 1&2: *stops banging head against wall* WE. JUST. HAD. A. RELAUNCH. It was good too. Yet Marvel seems to think that the Ol’ Canucklehead needs another one when the only real change to this title is in the artist. Ryan Stegman is in, Alan Davis is out. Paul Cornell is still writing this so the real question is WHY? Is the company that desperate to keep the average sales for the character above a certain point? Antics like these are the reason the whole relaunching trend keeps getting soundly mocked online. Yet these new #1’s sell. Though it’ll be interesting to see how long it takes for Marvel to grind down even that advantage.
Fantastic Four #1: On the other hand, sales on Matt Fraction’s relaunch of this and “FF” were tanking so bad that he got yanked off in order to focus on “Inhumanity.” Now James Robinson and Leonard Kirk are in charge and I’m not sure how to feel about that. Kirk’s a fine artist, yet Robinson’s strengths have always been in characterization than plotting. At this point I’m just wondering if the character work here is going to be good enough to compensate for whatever cookie-cutter plot we’re getting. I’ll keep an eye on the reviews to find out how this goes.
The Punisher #’s 1&2: “The Activity’s” Nathan Edmonson and Mitch Gerads take the Punisher to L.A. where, in addition to murdering his way through the criminal underworld, he’ll also be hounded by a military hit squad as well. Given that their previous title only became legitimately entertaining when it abandoned its realism-above-all-else approach, I’m thinking that chronicling the latest exploits of Frank Castle may be right up their alley. Out of all the new #1’s this month, this one sounds the most promising.
She Hulk #1: I read the Dan Slott series when it came out and that was a ton of fun. It found a nice balance between legal shenanigans and superhero action and had an appreciation of traditional Marvel storytelling that was infectiously fun. Now Charles Soule, writer of many DC titles and a lawyer as well, and Javier Pulido are taking crack at chronicling the exploits of Jen Walters. The solicitation text doesn’t give much info beyond the fact that she’s starting a new legal practice, but I can only hope that such a blank slate gives Soule the chance to show everyone why DC has such faith in him. Yeah. It feels funny just writing that here.
Winter Soldier: The Bitter March #1 (of 5): Is now the time for a new “Winter Soldier” miniseries? If Marvel was planning on having the third issue out in time for the new “Captain America” movie, then yes it is. The hook here is that this takes place back in the 60’s and focuses on a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who crosses paths with the title character when he tries to rescue two Nazi scientists. This approach was likely a necessity since Bucky at this time was little more than a brainwashed killing machine. Rick Remender and Roland Boschi are the creative team here so the odds are that it’ll be good, even if I’m not sure how they’re going to deal with the fact that the agent’s failure and death seem certain at this point. I mean, really, can you imagine the story going any other way at this point?
Loki: Agent of Asgard #1: A Loki solo series? I’d be excited about this if it weren’t for a couple things. It’s not written by Kieron Gillen, who has demonstrated that he gets the character better than anyone else I’ve ever read. It is written by Al Ewing who… I have no real opinion about. He’s done a bunch of stuff for Marvel over the last couple years, none of which has stood out for me. I’ll be taking the good ‘ol “wait and see” approach with this one.
X-Force #1: Man, there sure are a lot of these this month. Anyway, after the current “Cable & X-Force” and “Uncanny X-Force” have yet to set the world on fire either through their sales or creatively, the company has apparently made the surprisingly rational choice to pare them back into one title. It looks like we’re going back to the “mutant black ops” team approach that has served the title well in the past with Si Spurrier writing and Rock-He Kim illustrating. What I’ve read of Spurrier’s work has been entertaining even if he trends towards the deeply quirky. That may be enough to allow this latest take on the title to stand out, or lead the series to die an even quicker death than its latest incarnations. No, really. Those are the only two options. Well… I guess lingering for a while in mediocrity is an option, but that doesn’t seem likely with Spurrier involved.
Wolverine & the X-Men #’s 41&42: On one hand, I’m sad to see this series go. Even when it wasn’t at the top of its game, it was still pretty entertaining. Had it continued on, however, there’s the chance that Jason Aaron would’ve run out of ways to make the title’s insanity endearing or even entertaining. Better to go out now while we’re still getting entertaining stories from it (more on that tomorrow).
Brilliant vol. 1 HC: Wasn’t this originally solicited a while back? Consider this another casualty of Bendis’ heavy Marvel Universe workload. A creator-owned title with his longtime “Ultimate Spider-Man” collaborator Mark Bagley, it had “college-age geniuses” trying to solve the mystery of superpowers. Given that it’s Bendis, I’ll be picking this up when it arrives in softcover. Here’s hoping it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger. Seeing as how “Scarlet” has fallen off the proverbial scheduling cliff, I can’t even begin to imagine when we’ll be seeing more of this.
Amazing Spider Man: Family Business HC: Marvel’s second title in their original graphic novel line. Warren Ellis’ “Avengers: Endless Wartime” set a rather low bar for this title to overcome so let’s hope that co-writers Mark Waid and James Robinson don’t phone it in here either. That said, this is a story about Peter Parker’s sister who is apparently a new creation for this story. Given that this story also involves the Kingpin, my personal spider-sense tells me that Peter’s being set up for something. I am kinda curious to find out what it is, though.
Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted HC: The print edition of the online “Infinite Comic.” Though I’m always up for more “Wolverine” when Jason Aaron is writing the character, I’m not paying $35 for a 168-page collection. Even $30 for the inevitable softcover feels like too much. This has “pick it up at a convention” written all over it for me.
Uncanny Avengers vol. 1: The Red Shadow: Oh what a long strange trip it has been since we were dealing with this. Instead of four issues for $25, I’m paying $20 for five issues. Having done the latter a few times now, I can live with it. As for whether or not this story is any good, we’ll see about that in February.
FF vol. 2: Family Freakout: If there’s an upside to Fraction’s run tanking like it did, it’s that Marvel has apparently decided to collect the rest of his run on this title in one go. I’m appreciative of this since they could’ve split the eight issues collected here into two volumes of four. The main “Fantastic Four” title is also being collected in this format, but “FF” is the only title I’m interested in. It’s a uniquely quirky take on the book’s supporting cast with art by the always excellent Michael Allred. All I can hope for here is that he and his brother Lee, who was brought in to script based on Fraction’s plots, can bring everything to a proper conclusion without it feeling rushed.
Young Avengers vol. 3: Mic-Drop at the Edge of Time and Space: Will there be a trade paperback from any company with a title better than this one? I don’t think so, but I’d love to be proven wrong here.
The Superior Foes of Spider-Man vol. 1: Getting the Band Back Together: One wouldn’t think that the success of “Hawkeye” would spawn any imitators, yet I’ve heard that this title does a good job of capturing the feel of that title. Coming from “Morning Glories’” Nick Spencer, this title gives us a grounded take on some of Spider-Man’s most notable villains as they try to get ahead in the supervillain world. With Steve Lieber on art, I’m intrigued and looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.