Marvel Previews Picks: January 2016
For those of you keeping track at home, another character’s “mutant” status has now been retconned away. It started with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch revealed not to be Magneto’s children or mutants in the pages of “Axis” and “Uncanny Avengers.” Now it turns out that Squirrel Girl has never been a mutant either! WHERE WILL THE MADNESS STOP? Only when Marvel has re-appropriated all of the mutants they can for their film and TV projects from Fox. Interestingly, Fox hasn’t batted an eye at Marvel’s actions here, which indicates that they couldn’t care less about these retcons. After all, they still have Wolverine. And Deadpool. And Magneto. And Professor X. And I could go on here, but I think you get the picture.
Still, one does have to wonder about what Marvel has in mind for Squirrel Girl for them to make this kind of move. Probably to be the Avengers’ ace-in-the-hole when it comes to taking down Thanos in the “Infinity War” movies. She does have a history of taking down the Mad Titan in the comics after all.
Old Man Logan #1: With present-day Logan still dead post-”Secret Wars,” one of his more prominent alternate-future versions comes back to the present day to pick up where he left off. The solicitation text indicates that the thrust of his adventures here will revolve around making sure that the events of the original “Old Man Logan” series from Mark Millar and Steve McNiven never come to pass. It may sound like a predictable setup, but I was one of the few who never really liked that series. In the title’s favor is its writer, Jeff Lemire, who showed that he knows how to write an old, grizzled, badass who is also full of regrets in Jeppard from “Sweet Tooth.” Expect a lot of that character to be channeled into this version of Old Man Logan.
Spider-Man/Deadpool #1: Well over a decade ago, writer Joe Kelly and artist Ed McGuinness brought us Deadpool’s first ongoing series. The rest is history. Now the two are re-teaming for this… Wait, that can’t be right. An ONGOING team-up series between Spider-Man and Deadpool? How do they expect to get more than five or six issues out of this kind of pairing, particularly when both characters can’t stop with the one-liners in their own titles? I could at least see the whole odd-couple setup working in Deadpool’s previous team-up series with Cable. That title also had a strong long-term narrative revolving around Cable’s utopian plans (until he was yanked out of the book) that benefitted from being pitted against Deadpool’s wackiness and unpredictability. With Spider-Man, it feels like we’re getting Wacky and Wackier where one believes that “nobody dies” and the other believes that “nobody dies, after that guy; and him; that guy too; this other person…” I’m skeptical, but you have to think that Kelly has realized this too and does have a long-term plan for this title. We shall see if it works.
Silver Surfer #1: I wasn’t expecting this series to come back for another go-round after its sales had drifted down to cancellation levels prior to its “Last Days” arc in advance of “Secret Wars.” It’s nice to see that it’s getting another shot as Dan Slott and Mike Allred’s take on the character and his adventures was a lot of fun. This time out the Surfer and Dawn Greenwood find out a secret about the most fantastic planet of all: Earth. Say what?
Obi-Wan & Anakin #1 (of 5): Taking place between Episodes I & II, we get to see the Jedi Master and his padawan pushed to the breaking point when they respond to a distress signal on a remote planet. Here’s how this is going to play out: They’ll arrive, find out that not all is as it seems, go on the run for a while, bicker as Anakin gets impatient with his master, then Obi-Wan will find a clever way to turn the tables and pull out a win, while the story will also find some way to foreshadow the padawan’s Dark Side turn before it’s over. I’d like to think that the writer of this miniseries, Charles Soule, has come to the same conclusions I have and has figured out some clever way to subvert my expectations. The ball’s in your court, Chuck.
Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham Book 1: The Golden Age: With Alan Moore’s legendary run finally back in print, it’s time for Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham’s take on the character to get the same treatment. Also, for it to eventually be finished once all of the existing issues have been reprinted. As for the volume itself, the name implies that things are going great in the title character’s new world order. That’s obviously not the case, but with Gaiman steering the ship it should be quite interesting to see the cracks start to form in this superhuman-led utopia.
Secret Wars Journal/Battleworld: Huh. I didn’t see this coming. The two anthology miniseries are getting collected in one volume. I was planning on buying the one that had the story from James Stokoe in it, but now I have to consider whether I want to read the stories from all the other creators featured in this collection as well. Decisions, decisions…
Black Widow: The Itsy-Bitsy-Spider: Back in print after a few years out of it. This collects two miniseries notable for offering rare solo outings for the title character and introducing her younger rival Yelena Belova. She’s fresh out of the Red Room and ready to take the Black Widow name all for herself. Problem is that she’s up against someone who has been in the spy game for a very long time and hasn’t lost a step in that time. It goes about as well for Yelena in these two miniseries as you’d expect, with the second being the better of the two. The first, written by Devin Grayson with art from J.G. Jones, is a fine superhero story, but the second, featuring Greg Rucka co-writing with Grayson and art from Scott Hampton, is the better as it takes its “Face/Off” setup in a direction you wouldn’t expect.
X-Men: Gambit — The Complete Collection vol. 1: His movie may be on the verge of falling apart, but if it does pull through Marvel is here to cash in on it with this first collection of Gambit’s first solo series. I seem to remember “X-Axis” writer Paul O’Brien saying something along the lines of this series hailing from the land of “Far better than it has a right to be.” (I’m paraphrasing here.) That makes me intrigued… but then I look at my existing “To Read” pile and think that it’ll take more than “intrigued” to get me to pick this up. Maybe if I find it on sale during convention season.