Marvel Penguin Picks: November 2023
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
X-Men: Blue – Origins #1
No, it’s not a revival of the Cullen Bunn-written “X-Men” series. Nor is it a throwback to the Gold/Blue teams from the early 90’s. This is a one-shot which promises the definitive origin of one of the bluest X-Men: Nightcrawler. Why is he getting a “definitive” origin here? Because the last time it was dug into, we got “The Draco,” one of the worst arcs from one of the worst “Uncanny/X-Men” runs of all time – thank you Chuck Austen. This comes to us from writer Simon Spurrier, who has been chronicling Nightcrawler’s adventures for the past few years through “Way of X,” “Legion of X,” and “Uncanny Spider-Man.” As someone with a vested interest in the character, it wouldn’t surprise me if kicking “The Draco” out of continuity wasn’t on his “To Do” list while writing him. I’m all for seeing that, as well as what Marcus To and Wilton Santos do with the art as well.
…assuming this is collected in the “Uncanny Spider Man” paperback, or whenever it hits Marvel Unlimited. As this 40-page/$6 issue marks a disturbing trend throughout these solicitations.
Superior Spider-Man #1: Celebrating the 10-year-anniversary (god I feel old) of the infamously entertaining storyline. This comes to us from the run’s original writer, Dan Slott, and longtime Spider-artist, Mark Bagley. Not much is said about the storyline being set up here, save for the fact that it involves a new Doc Ock and a villain with ties to the original storyline. I haven’t been keeping up with Slott and Bagley’s “Spider-Man,” but I was a fan of “Superior” so it’s likely I’ll get around to checking this out when it hits Marvel Unlimited…
…because I’m sure not paying for this in print. That “disturbing trend” I mentioned above is how Marvel is raising the prices on a bunch of titles here. While this “Superior Spider-Man” one-shot is billed as a 40-page issue (with ads, as all Marvel comics are), it’ll set you back $6. Meanwhile, if you’re looking to check out the latest issue of something like “Predator vs. Wolverine” which has 32 pages in its latest issue, that’ll also set you back $6. *gets up on soapbox, opens mouth to yell at the clouds* As a longtime comic book reader, I remember when $5 would get you a 48-page prestige-format one-shot with no ads. What we have here is not progress. It’s the very reason Marvel is losing out to YA publishers like Scholastic (who also publish OGNs with Marvel characters like Miles Morales) and the manga industry at large. At this point, Marvel Unlimited comes off as an even better value as now I’m not going to have to read as many comics before my annual subscription has paid for itself.
Deadpool: Seven Slaughters #1: 80 pages for $10, which isn’t as bad, relatively speaking. So what’s the gimmick behind this extra-size one-shot featuring the Merc With a Mouth? It’s all about a week in his life, brought to you by a host of creators, including his co-creator Rob Liefeld. Were I to hazard a guess, the lengthy page count and multiple creators involved have me thinking that this is Deadpool’s answer to the “Spider-Man: Full Circle” one-shot from a few years back. In it, the creators involved told a story where they had to work forward from the cliffhanger the previous creator set up for them. If that’s the plan, then good. I think Deadpool’s unhinged nature will lend itself quite well to this particular setup.
Thanos #1 (of 4): Apropos of nothing, we have a new “Thanos” miniseries. The Mad Titan descends on Earth once again to find something that has been hidden from him. Standing in his way is the latest version of the Illuminati, which is appropriate. Not because they’re a formidable gathering of powers in their own right, but because they hid this thing in the first place. “Random Thanos Miniseries” isn’t something that I’d normally be excited about, but this comes to us from writer Christopher Cantwell and, if nothing else, he’s got a knack for looking at Marvel characters in unusual ways. So I’m at least interested in seeing what he and artist Luca Pizzari have to say about the Mad Titan here.
Punisher #1: Soooooo… the purpose of the previous maxi-series from Jason Aaron, Jesus Saiz, and Paul Azaceta wasn’t to end the idea of the “Punisher,” just to write Frank Castle out of the role (semi-) permanently. That’s because this new series has an unknown man assuming the role of the Punisher with (according to the covers) a modified version of his outfit that de-emphasizes the famous skull insignia that was adopted in recent years by many disrespectable right-wing groups. As for who this guy is and why he’s doing the punishing now, that’s not touched upon in the solicitation text here. What is known is that this new series is being written by David Pepose with art from Dave Wachter, which is a creative team that doesn’t do anything for me. I could be surprised when this comes out, though.
Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War – First Strike #1: Everything old is new again and a gang war is set to erupt on the streets of New York after Tombstone is taken out in explosive fashion. “Amazing Spider-Man” writer Zeb Wells handles this one-shot, with the main story looking to run through the pages of that series while also spilling over into tie-ins with other Spider-titles. I’d like to be excited about this, but while Wells’ run on that title started off strong, it’s been getting progressively darker with each arc. Not unlike the Nick Spencer run which preceded his and got me to stop buying the title in print. I don’t think what Wells has been doing here is bad, but it’s quickly becoming un-fun in a way that I don’t like to see in my “Spider-Man” stories. We’ll see if he can bring some of that fun back in this storyline… all about a gang war set to tear the city apart.
Ultimate Universe #1: A one-shot which sets the groundwork for the reinvention of the titular universe. It’s coming to us from writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Stefano Caselli, which implies that it’s going to be quite good. However, Marvel appears to be leveraging this expectation of quality pretty hard as this is a 40-page issue with a $7 price tag. Yes, that’s one dollar more than you’ll pay for the “Superior Spider-Man” issue also solicited here. My hope is that this will be included in the forthcoming collection of “Ultimate Invasion,” but that’s not certain. It’s Marvel Unlimited to the rescue of preventing me from paying an exorbitant cover price for a single issue once again.
Alien #1: Declan Shalvey’s latest storyline gets a new #1 issue to mark it. Is that what Marvel is going to be doing with both “Alien” and “Predator” series from now on? Much in the same way that Dark Horse published these titles as series-of-miniseries while they had the license? Just wanted to point that out here. Oh, and this is another issue which will set you back $6 for 40 pages.
Ultimate Marvel by Jonathan Hickman (& Sam Humphries): Collecting “Ultimate Thor,” “Ultimate Comics Ultimates” #’s 1-12, and the “Ultimate Comics Hawkeye” miniseries. All of this was quite good, with “Ultimates” coming off as better than I expected when I first read it. Unfortunately, a good argument could be made that this is when the Ultimate imprint stopped mattering as much to Marvel as Hickman was convinced/pulled off “Ultimates” 2/3rds of the way through its first year to go tackle “Avengers.” Sam Humphries finished out the year and, even if you weren’t aware of the change in writers, you’d notice something changed as the final issues of that run lack the scale and imagination of what had come before.
Fantastic Four by Ryan North vol. 2: Four Stories About Hope: I’ve got North’s first volume in my “To Review” pile. The short version is that it’s good enough that I’ll be picking up this volume when it comes out. Plus, I’m really curious to see the writer’s take on Dr. Doom. That said, while the writer’s shift to telling (mostly) self-contained one-off stories in each issue is appreciated, it’s one that only mostly works for the entirety of the first volume. It’s also one that may depend more on the quality of the artist illustrating it than the strength of the writing itself.
Doctor Strange by Mark Waid vol. 1: Collecting the first eleven issues of the writer’s run on the title. Which is something of a mistake since it should also collect the “Strange: The Doctor is Out” miniseries which preceded it by a few years and ties in directly to the second arc of this volume. Even so, this was a pretty good run which was cut down before its time thanks to COVID. Not here, though. While vol. 2 will collect the back half of this run, we’ll see if it also gives us the gone-too-soon “Doctor Strange: Surgeon Supreme” series as well.