Marvel Previews Picks: August 2014
There has been a lot of interesting information coming out of the Diamond Retailer Summit being held in Las Vegas this past week. Probably the most interesting bit (don’t worry about spoilers, they’re flagged at the bottom of the page) is the fact that Marvel is successfully teasing the fact that they might finally reboot their comic universe. Granted, this was done in the form of announcing a new “Avengers” event called “Time Runs Out” where the titles will jump forward eight months and the threat of the universal incursions in “New Avengers” finally comes to the attention of/becomes a threat to everyone in the adjectiveless title. While a new event is business as usual, this event was said to involve something Marvel has never done in its 75-year history and given the universe-destroying nature of the threat here “rebooting” looks to be the go-to idea here.
Let me put my cynical fanboy hat on now and say that this sounds like a TERRIBLE idea. While the history of the Marvel Universe is filled with lots of contradictions, plot holes, and plenty of stuff that people would love to forget, it still works a lot better than the mess DC has made with theirs over the years with all of the reboots of varying success they’ve had. To throw all that out in the hopes that it’ll produce some sustained sales growth, well… the people at Marvel may want to take a closer look at how DC’s line is doing these days. The fact that a lot of the “New 52” has lost steam since the reboot is probably a pretty good indication in itself that this buzz Marvel is generating for “Time Runs Out” is clever misdirection if nothing else.
Original Sin #8 (of 8): Speaking of annual Marvel events, this one reaches its conclusion in August. Then begins the annual waiting for the collected edition on my end.
Guardians of the Galaxy #18: In which we’re promised the explanation of how Star-Lord escaped the Cancerverse in “The Thanos Imperative.” Given that it looked like the character, along with Thanos and Richard “Nova” Rider all DIED at the end of the event, you’d think that explaining how they survived it would have been a priority once they started coming back. At this point it means that Bendis either has a really clever idea he’s been saving to give the title some extra excitement after a year and a half on the stands, or he’s just crossing a plot point off to appease the fanboys who won’t stop asking him about it. I want to believe the former, but the fact that he hasn’t done it yet means we can’t discount the latter.
Ultimate FF #6: “The END of the FUTURE FOUNDATION” is bullet-pointed here. This strikes me as kind of a big thing to tease for the sixth issue of any series. Maybe… too big?
Superior Spider-Man #32: But didn’t this title just END? Yeah, it did with some mighty impressive sales too. So of course Marvel wants to keep the magic going for a little while longer and here we are with the first of a two-part prelude to the “Spider-Verse” event later this year. To be fair, this issue and the one that follows it do have some significance to the “Superior Spider-Man” story as they explain what happened to the character after he blinked out of existence along with Horizon Labs back in vol. 4. Between this title and the annual collections of Dan Slott’s “Big Time” run on “Amazing Spider-Man,” I’m pretty much onboard with anything he does involving the character these days. Here’s where I’d say that I’ll be picking this up when it’s collected, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out where or how this story is going to be reprinted in paperback form in in the future.
Moon Knight #6: From the solicitation text, “Don’t miss the conclusion of Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire.” That’s some awful grammar right there, but the implication seems to be that this is the team’s last issue on the title. If so, that’s pretty disappointing. Even though Ellis has done a not-inconsiderable amount of work for Marvel over the years, everything he has done recently has either been in six or twelve-issue runs. We have yet to see the writer take on an ongoing title for an extended period of time, and I was hoping that this title was going to be it. At least it means I’ll only have to buy the first volume of this series. I also pity the fool who has the thankless job of following up what looks to be a run defined by the style of this particular creative team.
She-Hulk vol. 1: Law and Disorder: I think this is a first, as the legal eagle title character is going to be written by an actual lawyer. In this case: Charles Soule. Now even though the man has been prolific enough over the past year in a way that puts Bendis at his peak to shame, I have yet to read anything he has written. That’s going to change once the next volume of “Swamp Thing” comes out, yet I’ll be picking this up as well. Dan Slott showed that in the right hands, the legal troubles facing the inhabitants of the Marvel Universe can be great fodder for funny stories. Soule is also joined, four four issues here, by another artist I really like: Javier Pulido, which means the book is going to have a distinctly appealing look to it as well. I say it a lot in these Previews Picks, but “I’m optimistic.”
Daredevil vol. 1: Devil at Bay: Heh. Because Daredevil’s now working out of San Francisco. GET IT? Anyway, this is the first collection of the issues from Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s “soft reboot,” and I like the fact that the series is now going “straight to paperback.” Less appealing is the fact that this will be arriving before the final volume in their previous run hits paperback. Well, I guess I know what I’ll be looking for at Comic-Con in July…
X-Men: The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix: Collects several miniseries dating back to the late 90’s/early 00’s. I have fond memories of Scott Lobdell and Gene Ha’s original one, and never got around to reading the follow-up they did. The problem is that I read it back in high school and there hasn’t been a lot of superhero material that I originally read back then which has held up today. Tempting, though I think I can wait until I see it for half-off at a convention to find out how good it is now.
Jessica Jones: The Pulse Complete Collection: Re-branded as such in advance of the Netflix series that will be featuring the character sometime next year. This was Bendis’ attempt to integrate the title character into the Marvel Universe proper by having her work the superhero beat at the Daily Bugle. There were originally three volumes of this title, of which I only bought two. That’s because the second was a tie-in to the writer’s epically-delayed “Secret War” series and I wasn’t interested in spoilers. Given the quality of that title, I don’t think I missed all that much by skipping out on vol. 2. Anyway, the first and third volumes were good, with the third essentially being another volume of “Alias” thanks to the presence of original artist Michael Gaydos. Worth picking up if you liked reading about Jessica in “Alias.”