Marvel Previews Picks: January 2020

Above-the-Board Recommendation:

Star Wars:  Doctor Aphra vol. 7 — A Rogue’s End

So it turns out that this is the final volume of Doctor Chelli Aphra’s adventures.  The return of her deadliest adversary/employer makes a certain amount of sense (even if it was a dick move on Marvel’s part to spoil it in the solicitations), and we’re also promised a reckoning with her old flame Magna Tolvan.  Which is absolutely going to be awkward (squared) considering how the last time they saw each other, Aphra had rewritten Magna’s memory to make her believe she had killed her in order to save herself from said employer.

If that kind of makes Aphra sound like a bad person, then you’ve hit upon the dominant theme of writer Si Spurrier’s run on this series.  No, making your protagonist out to be a walking trash fire only to have her confront her failings doesn’t sound like the kind of story you’d expect to read in a “Star Wars” comic.  It is the kind of thin I expect to see from Spurrier and his willingness to pursue such a storyline in a licensed comic like this is why I keep following him. That said, I have no doubt that Aphra will make it out of this volume alive.  Whether or not she’ll emerge from it a better person, that’s the real question here.

Oh, and in case anyone at Marvel is reading this, I would totally buy an oversized poster of the cover for this volume.

Venom:  The End #1:  Marvel has a half-dozen new “The End” one-shots out this month and is reprinting the collected editions of “The End” stories for Wolverine, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and Hulk.  (The last of which is the one you should pick up if you haven’t already since the story from Peter David and Dale Keown is pretty great, and it also contains the classic “Future Imperfect” story from David and George Perez.)  These new one-shots seem to have a varying degree of relevance when it comes to creative team and character. I mean, it makes sense for Joe Kelly to write “Deadpool: The End,” while “Captain Marvel: The End” and “Miles Morales:  The End” at least have the writers for the characters’ current ongoing series, Kelly Thompson and Saladin Ahmed respectively, handling them. Then you get to “Captain America: The End” from Erik Larsen and “Doctor Strange: The End” by Leah Williams and you’re left wondering, “Why are they writing this story?  What meaningful contribution did they make to this character to qualify them for this job?”

I imagine a lot of people will say the same about “Venom:  The End,” but not me. That’s because it’s being written by a creator who I know is going to take “The End” concept and do something insane with it.  The creator in question is “Empowered” creator Adam Warren. He’s no stranger to the Marvel Universe, having written miniseries like “Livewires” and “Iron Man:  Hypervelocity” for the publisher. It’s been years since he’s done anything for them, so it’s kind of surprising to see him come back for this one-shot which spans trillions of years and will see Venom become the last protector of all life in the universe.  All due respect to Larsen and Williams, but I doubt that their plans for their one-shots are even a tenth as crazy as what Warren has planned. Now we’ll just have to see if the artist known as Chamba can keep up.

Thor #’s 1&2:  And lo, after many years and many stories, Jason Aaron has laid down his pen in chronicling the adventures of the Asgardian God of Thunder.  Having created many of the best “Thor” stories in many years, who would be foolish enough to try and follow in his mighty footsteps? Why Donny Cates, that’s who!  The writer who managed to make sales go up on a “Thanos” title and who finally got me to start reading Venom’s ongoing adventures is now the new writer on “Thor” with artist Nic Klein.  He’s also the inheritor of the status quo Aaron left behind where Thor is now the new King of Asgard. I’m sure he’ll be a better king than his father was — the bar is kind of low in that regard.  As soon as he clears up the matter of this “Black Winter” that’s heading his way, first.  

Guardians of the Galaxy #1:  While I’m hyped for Cates on “Thor” I was surprised to see that his tenure on “Guardians of the Galaxy” would only be twelve issues.  I guess he was only meant to be on the title long enough to pick up the pieces of the team after the fallout of “Infinity Wars.” Still, I’m not too sad that he’s leaving.  Not when he’s being replaced by “Immortal Hulk” writer Al Ewing with Juann Cabal providing the art for the first arc (and more, I hope). Ewing’s shown over the years that he’s got a real knack for taking note of a character’s continuity and finding new ways of looking at it which in turn leads to some startling stories.  Which will likely include this one as the Guardians have to deal with the return of the Olympian Gods to an already chaotic universe.

Iron Man 2020 #1 (of 6):  The regular “Iron Man” series is nowhere to be seen this month.  Instead, we’ve got the first issue of this miniseries from regular writer Dan Slott and his “Amazing Spider-Man” part which sees Tony Stark’s brother Arno don his own version of the Iron Man armor.  Arno’s an interesting choice to have as a protagonist for this miniseries. What we’ve seen of him in the first two volumes of Slott’s “Iron Man” suggests he has some sinister motives, but isn’t aiming to be the latest supervillain to grace his brother’s rogues gallery.  So it’ll be interesting to see how he manages the two sides of the “Robot Rights!” debate without one side destroying or enslaving the other first.

Marvels X #1 (of 6):  Remember the “Earth X” series of maxiseries from Alex Ross, Jim Kreuger, John Paul Leon, and Doug Braithwaite?  It’s getting a VERY belated prequel in this six-issue miniseries written by Ross and Kreuger with art from Well-Bee.  In it, a boy named David lives in the Marvel Universe. What was once a place of heroes now only holds monsters who come for him every night.  David’s only hope is to get to New York where Captain America and the remaining heroes live. It’s been a while since I’ve read “Earth X,” but I remember enough of the Captain America from that series to know that David better brace himself for some disappointment.  Though I liked “Earth X” and its sequel “Universe X,” my enthusiasm for the series ran out after the first half of “Paradise X.” I’ve kind of wanted to finish that series off at some point, so any interest I have in this prequel is effectively shelved until I get around to doing that.

Hawkeye:  Freefall #1 (of 5):  After Matt Fraction and David Aja’s run on the character, I can’t really dismiss a solo Hawkeye book out of hand anymore.  More than that, now that I’ve realized Matthew Rosenberg is pretty good writer I’m even more inclined to check out this new miniseries with art from Otto Schmidt.  Someone’s running around in Clint Barton’s old Ronin costume and he’s got to find out who before all of New York’s criminal underworld wants him dead. More than they usually do, I would think.

Immortal Hulk:  Great Power #1:  Guess what?  You’re getting THREE issues of “The Immortal Hulk” this month.  That’s what success gets you in the Marvel Universe these days. I should probably mention that two of them are the expected issues of the ongoing series while the third is this one-shot from writer Tom Taylor and artist Jorge Molina.  In it, Bruce Banner wakes up during the night and realizes that he’s not the Devil Hulk anymore. That begs the question, where did the Hulk go? The answer is “Into Spider-Man!” So if you thought Peter Parker’s life was tough before, wait until you see him having to share a body with a cunning mind that wants to end civilization.  Yes, I think this is a promising setup. Mainly because I trust Taylor to deliver on it.

Star Wars #’s 1&2:  Charles Soule is a sucker for difficult remits, isn’t he?  Not only did he sign up for “The Death of Wolverine,” but also “The Return of Wolverine,” trying to make “The Inhumans” a thing, and following up the excellent Gillen/Larroca run on “Darth Vader” with his own take on the character.  Now he’s set to take on his biggest challenge yet: Writing an ongoing “Star Wars” series without Han Solo! That’s right, the new “Star Wars” ongoing series is taking place between “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi,” when everyone’s favorite scruffy-looking nerf-herder was chilling in a block of carbonite on a wall in Jabba’s palace.

How does Soule plan to compensate for the loss of roguish charisma?  Well, you may recall that he also wrote a “Lando” miniseries shortly after Marvel started publishing “Star Wars” comics again.  That’s right, the galaxy’s smoothest operator is set to be a part of the main cast for this series and suddenly everything seems all right again.  I imagine we’ll also see how Luke dealt with the revelation of who his father really is and how the Rebel Alliance got its act together after fleeing Hoth.  In any event, Soule has delivered every time he’s stepped up to the “Star Wars” plate and with Jesus Saiz providing the art for this opening arc, I see no reason to expect less from him come January.

The History of the Marvel Universe:  Mark Waid takes the entirety of Marvel history and streamlines it into one cohesive, coherent narrative?  With art from Javier Rodriguez? YES PLEASE!