Marvel Penguin Picks: May 2023
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Fantastic Four by Ryan North vol. 1: Whatever Happened to the Fantastic Four?
Dan Slott’s run on this title wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t so good that I was sad to see him leave. In his place comes Ryan North, a writer who has made his name on webcomics, indie comics, licensed comics, and plenty of Marvel comics before this one. He’s a talented writer who has been kicking around the industry for so long that this shot at one of Marvel’s A-list series feels overdue for him at this point. He’s also got an interesting setup for this arc as a mysterious event sees the Four mostly split up and encountering their own troubles. Ben Grimm and his wife Alicia go on a road trip and wind up stuck in a time loop. Reed and Sue encounter a small town filled with Doombots. And Johnny, he’s still in New York. A town that hates and fears him along with the rest of his family. What the hell happened? I’m eager to find out what North’s answers are, as well as to see how Iban Coello and Ivan Fiorelli illustrate it all.
Avengers #1: It’s a brand new era for the team that now consists of Captain Marvel, Captain America (Sam Wilson), Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, Vision, Iron Man, and Thor. Their first order of business is fending off the threat of Terminus. While this sounds like business as usual, it’s going to be complicated by an even more sinister threat that’s going to approach the team… as a friend! Writer Jed Mackay and artist C.F. Villa are ushering in this new era, and they sound fine. Maybe enough to get me to check out this series once issues start dropping on Marvel Unlimited at least.
Spider-Man 2099: Dark Genesis #’s 1-5 (of 5), Carnage Reigns: Alpha, Extreme Venomverse #’s 1&2 (of 5): It’s only spelled out in the “Venomverse” solicitations, but May kicks off the “Summer of Symbiotes” event. This appears to be Marvel pushing out a lot of comics featuring the most prominent klyntar, Venom and Carnage. Your interest in this will likely extend as far as the creators and characters involved, which means that only the first two issues of “Venomverse” have something to offer me. That would be Ryan North and Paolo Siqueira telling us a story of Eddie Brock – Spider-Man, and Al Ewing and Vincenzo Carratu regaling us about the time that Black Cat stole something from the Fantastic Four. Oddly enough, “Venom” itself does not appear to be part of this whole “Summer of Symbiotes” business as the solicitation for issue #19 indicates that it’s continuing to carry on with the story it has been telling.
Groot #1 (of 4): Dan Abnett, along with Andy Lanning, wrote a lot of the comics that the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies took their inspiration from. He’s been away from Marvel ever since writing those comics, but now he’s back, with artist Damian Couciero, to give us a story of Groot’s earliest days. Which involve fighting off a Kree invasion of his planet led by none other than Mar-Vell.
Fury #1: Al Ewing writes this one-shot which sees Nick Fury Jr. time travel to his father’s glory days to experience a swinging spy adventure from that era. At least, that’s what I think is going to happen as the solicitation text isn’t clear about that part as it should be. Still, Ewing is writing it, so I’m interested. Better still is that it’s got some great artist illustrating the 56-page affair: Scot Eaton, Tom Reilly, Adam Kubert, and Ramon Rosanas. I’ll have no problem checking this out when it drops on Marvel Unlimited. Unless it’s going to be part of a larger storyline. In which case I wouldn’t mind waiting to read it in print to see how it fits together with what’s coming next.
X-Men: Before the Fall – Sons of X #1: This is one of four one-shots that are meant to be setting up this fall’s big X-event “Fall of X.” Which, with a name like that, sure makes it sound like Marvel is going to be drawing a line under the Krakoan Era of “X-Men” comics. Speculation aside, this issue is also serving as the finale to “Legion of X,” which can count itself as a success in that it actually managed to last for two whole arcs instead of one. It still boggles my mind to think that Simon Spurrier’s Legion-centric “X-Men: Legacy” run, which initially struck me as commercial suicide, is still his most successful “X-Men”-related series after all these years. The solicitation itself sounds vaguely spoilery for stuff that I’ve yet to read in “Legion of X” (review of vol. 1 forthcoming) as well as “Sins of Sinister” so I’ll just say that it looks to involve Legion going against Mother Righteous for all the marbles.
X-Men: Red #11: While I’m sad to see “Legion of X” wrap up, I’m very happy to see that this is continuing. For one more arc, at least. This could just be an extended finale as Al Ewing wraps up all of his ongoing storylines before we head into “Fall of X.” That’d be nice, but not as nice as seeing this series continue for as long as its writer intended it to.
Sins of Sinister HC: This didn’t get the “Above the Board” recommendation simply for the fact that I gave it to the issues that kicked off this event a few months back. It’s currently through the first part of the event and the word has been good so far. Which is to say that you can almost certainly expect a podcast about it once this collected edition arrives (or all the issues are available on Marvel Unlimited).
Star Wars: Hidden Empire: You may recall that I was not impressed with what writer Charles Soule and artist Steven Cummings did with this miniseries’ predecessor “Crimson Reign.” Their attempt to weave an epic storyline about a criminal organization opposing the Empire between “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” has generally failed to justify its own existence up until this point. The solicitation for “Star Wars” #34 indicates that there are some Force-related developments coming out of this miniseries, but I’m not inclined to believe that’s a good idea until I see what they’re doing here. So I’m going into this with very low expectations, but that just means I’ll be in a better position to enjoy things after they’re exceeded. Right?
Thor: Legacy of Thanos: Essentially vol. 5 of the current “Thor” run and, sadly, the last we’ll see of Donny Cates on the title for now. He co-writes two issues here with Al Ewing that see Thor and Venom meet up in space. New regular “Thor” writer Torunn Gronbekk handles the other two issues collected here while the “Thanos: Death Notes” one-shot is included to pad out the page count. Definitely not a bad idea to package the issues like this as completists will get the final issues with Cates’ involvement while also getting a sampling of Gronbekk’s run so they can see if it’s something they want to see more of. As for “Death Notes,” I’m assuming it can be counted as added value as long as the stories within it aren’t terrible!
Gold Goblin: Writer Christopher Cantwell has made a more successful transition to writing in the Marvel Universe than I would’ve expected based on the quirkiness of his early work at Dark Horse. To the point where having him detail the adventures of Norman Osborne’s new superheroic person seems like a really good idea. This version of Norman is well aware of his villainous history, yet is making a genuine effort to do the right thing. The problem is that he’s in a high-stress occupation with all sorts of complications that are pushing him towards a breakdown. It’s not a good headspace for the character to be in, but one that the writer of “She Could Fly” seems really well-equipped to explore with Lan Medina providing the art.