Marvel Penguin Picks: August 2025
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Godzilla vs. The Marvel Universe
Now see, the miniseries being solicited now is “Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe.” It’s completely different from this collection of one-shots from several creators here. I’m actually not being sarcastic here because the one-shots collected here are a bunch of era-specific tales that have the Big G taking on Marvel Mainstays like the Fantastic Four, Avengers, and X-Men at different points in their careers. I imagine the idea is to make these one-shots easily accessible to people who don’t normally follow the regular adventures of these characters, yet still offering some deep-cut continuity Easter Eggs for longtime fans.
Of course, the real attraction here will be in seeing how all these superheroes take on the King of the Kaiju. While I’d bet that the numbers involved in the Avengers and X-Men teams will give them an edge in raw power for this fight, the likes of Thor and Spider-Man fighting solo are going to require some kind of cleverness. Like the kind that we’ll undoubtedly see from the “Fantastic Four” issue written by Ryan North and illustrated by John Romita Jr. I’m expecting that and the “Thor” issue from Jason Aaron and Aaron Kuder to be the highlights here with the rest of the stories having the opportunity to pleasantly surprise me.
X-Men of Apocalypse: Alpha #1: Because everything old is new again and with Jeph Loeb currently having a very successful return to “Batman” with “Hush 2,” Marvel clearly wanted some of that success. So we’re getting another return to the “Age of Apocalypse,” that classic story from the 90’s which Loeb was also involved in. Only, it doesn’t look like we’re actually returning to that alternate timeline – it’s going to be crashing into the Marvel Universe. Which, okay, fine. Maybe we’ll get a solid story about how the characters involved interact with their alt-universe counterparts. I wouldn’t bet on it given Loeb’s recent track record, but this is going to have art from Simone De Meo, so it’ll at least look good.
Marvel-All-On-One #1: EVERYONE IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE FIGHTS THE THING!!! Sixty-four pages for eight bucks of splash pages and double-splash pages illustrated by Ed McGuinness. I’ll admit that actually sounds like a good time on its own terms and I hope that it gets reprinted as part of an upcoming “Fantastic Four” collection. Why that series? Because this is being written by Ryan North, which means that it may even have some clever writing to go along with the sure-to-be-stellar visuals.
Black Cat #1: Does the world need another ongoing series about the adventures of Felicia Hardy after the previous ones didn’t make that much of an impression? When this one is being written by G. Willow Wilson of “Poison Ivy” and “Ms. Marvel” fame, then the answer is “Yes.” This is apparently spinning out of events from “Amazing Spider-Man” as Felicia embarks on a new career of super-heroism with the Lizard first on her hit-list. Still, it’s unlikely that someone who has straddled the hero/villain line like she has for so long will be able to commit to one side without some consequences. After her work on “Poison Ivy,” it should make for some quality reading to see Wilson dig into the issues there. Gleb Melnikov illustrates.
Imperial War: Black Panther #1 & She-Hulk #1: It isn’t a proper Marvel event if there aren’t any spinoffs or tie-ins to it and Jonathan Hickman’s cosmic epic is getting two here. With the man himself co-writing both alongside Victor LaValle and Stephanie Phillips, respectively. The Black Panther one sounds more interesting as T’Challa has to deal with the accusation that Wakanda was behind the assassinations that started this war, and a couple of angry Hulks as well. Meanwhile, She-Hulk has to put aside her law degree to maintain order on New Sakaar. Call me crazy, but I think it’d be more fun and interesting if Jen Walters didn’t have to do that and tried to bring order through INTERSTELLAR LITIGATION!!!
Uncle Scrooge: Earth’s Mightiest Duck #1 (of 4): An alien race known as the Connoisseurs has come to Earth to pillage its rarest possessions. Standing in their way is the greatest adventurer the planet has ever known: Scrooge McDuck. Except he’s not fighting them bill-and-webbed-foot, he’s taking them on inside his mind as these aliens have found an even more appetizing treasure waiting for them in the form of Scrooge’s memories. This comes to us from writer Jason Aaron, following up his “Scrooge McDuck and the Infinity Dime” one-shot, which I hope will be collected alongside this miniseries when it’s over. I don’t doubt that Aaron will deliver an over-the-top story that will compete with the likes of Carl Barks and Don Rosa for scale, but we’ll see if he can manage the same level of heart as either of them. I’ll be more impressed if he even manages to respect the continuity of either creator’s Uncle Scrooge stories as well.
Predator Kills the Marvel Universe #1 (of 5): Hoo-boy. I thought “Predator vs. Wolverine” was all right, and have yet to check out the subsequent “Predator vs. Black Panther” and “Predator vs. Spider-Man” miniseries. Credit where credit is due, it appears that writer Benjamin Percy has been building up to this from his previous miniseries as we have a Predator King launching an invasion of Earth with a vibranium arsenal and a “surprising” ally. My issue here is that this is a “Predator” invasion of Earth which feels completely at odds with the nature of the character. Worse, it runs the risk of diluting their appeal as we appear to be running smack into the Inverse Ninja Theorem here.
Originally coined by Christopher Hastings as part of “The Adventures of Dr. McNinja,” the Inverse Ninja Theorem posits that while one ninja is an elite, nigh-unstoppable strikeforce, an army of ninjas is just cannon fodder. If we’re having an army of Predators attack Marvel Earth, then I wouldn’t expect them to be successful for long. We’ll see if Percy manages any interesting writerly shenanigans in order to get around that issue, or just make this miniseries readable at all.
The Ultimates by Deniz Camp vol. 2: All Power to the People: Welp, time to see if Camp can actually make his take on the Ultimates interesting. Or, if we’re just going to get more real-world concerns injected into superhero action that water down both of these things. Making the big death teased at the end of vol. 1 would be a start, and the idea of Luke Cage working to undermine the Maker from behind bars sounds neat. We’ve even got a promising mini-arc in the form of an assault on Asgard to remove Loki from power. That said, it’s hard to be excited for any of these after Camp and artist Juan Frigeri delivered a vol. 1 that was completely lacking in the excitement and widescreen appeal of the original series and didn’t have anything interesting to replace them with.
Ultimate Spider-Man by Jonathan Hickman vol. 3: Family Business: This, on the other hand, can’t come soon enough after the cliffhanger we got at the end of vol. 2. The short version is that Peter and Harry are currently at the mercy of Kraven the Hunter, and even if they manage to deal with him, they’ve still got the rest of the Kingpin’s Sinister Six to deal with. Fortunately for Spidey and the Green Goblin, these guys don’t appear to be all that good at playing together. All this and The Sandman menacing the Parker family on vacation. Can’t wait!
Immortal Thor vol. 5: Death of the Immortal Thor: Kind of seems like a foregone conclusion when you’re up against someone called Nrgl – Lord of Murder-in-Darkness. As well as the Utgard-Loki too. Complaints about the price of these volumes aside, Ewing’s run has been interesting as he seeks to put Thor through a series of trials designed to test his worthiness as a god and king. So if he’s planning to kill off Thor in this volume, I can only assume this is because it’s part of his larger plan for the character.
Which will be continuing in this month’s Thor #1 with new artist Pasqual Ferry. Thor may die in vol. 5, but the Asgardians are big on the whole cycle of death and rebirth. Which is why when we’re told that a man with a hammer is waking up in New York City after all the other gods have been forgotten, we should all know what’s really going on here.
Eddie Brock: Carnage vol. 1 – Killing Me: At the end of “Venom War,” a gravely wounded Eddie Brock crawled into a church to die, only to find the Carnage symbiote waiting for him with a deal. Now Eddie is Carnage’s new host and he’s determined to direct its unrepentant homicidal tendencies by having it go after people who really deserve it. First on the list there are cyborg killing machine Bushwhacker and the murder artist known as Muse. The latter of which “Daredevil” fans will recognize as one of the big villains from Charles Soule’s run, which the writer is importing here. Seeing a guy like Eddie Brock, has has consistently tried by not always succeeded in doing the right thing try to manage a monster like Carnage is a good setup for a series. While I’m not expecting any surprises here, Soule should unpack that setup well while Jesus Saiz illustrates the drama and action with style.