Marvel Previews Picks: October 2014
As I write this, in the last few days we’ve been hit with announcements of an all-new female Thor, Sam Wilson stepping into the role of Captain America and the “Superior Iron Man.” All of these announcements were either made through a major media outlet or got some form of attention outside of the usual places associated with comics news. As far as what the announcements mean for the comics, I’m sold on following the adventures of at least two of these characters. “Thor” will still be written by Jason Aaron, and Rick Remender will show us how Sam Wilson adapts to being “Captain America,” only now the art will be provided by Stuart Immonen. So that’s another definite plus right there. The only question mark for me here is “Superior Iron Man” which has writer Tom Taylor and artist Yildray Cinar chronicling a more aggressive Tony Stark as he moves his operations out to San Francisco. I’m not familiar with the work of either creator, so this could either be their big break or a sign that they’re going to remain on the mid-card for future projects at Marvel or DC.
Also noteworthy is the fact that Marvel editor Tom Brevoort is apparently taking $100 bets that these changes won’t be reversed by the time “Avengers: Age of Ultron” hits theaters next year. While I’m sure they’ll be reversed at some point, I wouldn’t take that bet with him. While putting Peter Parker back as Spider-Man in time for “Amazing Spider-Man 2” was a great coincidence, that particular story had over a year and a half to play out and explore its central concept. Reverting these above-mentioned changes after less than a year strikes me as far too cynical a move even for Marvel. I’d be more willing to take a bet that had the changes being reversed by the time each character’s new movie comes out.
Avengers & X-Men: Axis #’s 1-3 (of 9): Of course, all of these changes are going to have to have some basis in the comics. You can probably bet that the events of Marvel’s latest crossover will likely have a good deal of bearing on that. This time, the crisis is the Red Skull using the psychic abilities of Charles Xavier’s brain to unleash World War Hate across the globe. Readers of “Uncanny Avengers” should also know that the Red Onslaught is referenced here, so it looks like this storyline is going to have a great deal of relevance to the events of that title. Seeing as how the crossover is also being written by Remender, that shouldn’t be too surprising but it should result in some good comics.
All-New X-Factor #15: “Axis” looks to have a lot of tie-ins to other titles in the Marvel Universe. Far more than we’ve seen in previous events like “Infinity” and “Age of Ultron.” This title is a case in point. What’s noteworthy is the solicitation text, which goes, “Washington is burning! Will Serval Enterprises’ X-Factor put out the fire? Or will they watch it burn?” Letting the capital burn seems like a real DICK MOVE so I’m going to guess that X-Factor will be putting out the fire.
Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy #’s 1-3 (of 7): So after the comics which promised Wolverine’s death in the last round of solicitations come the comics showing us how everyone is dealing with it. This month alone has writers Charles Soule and Tim Seeley focusing on X-23 and Sabretooth. Seeing as how the “Death of Wolverine” hasn’t even been published yet, I’m going to wait and read it first to see if it’s an event that actually merits a follow-up that’s even longer than the event itself.
Thanos: A God Up There Watching #’s 1-4: A lot of weekly series this month. You’d think that Marvel is trying to compete with someone on that front. Anyway, if you were wondering what became of Thanos’ son Thane and the Black Maw after they lit out for parts unknown in the wake of “Infinity,” then wonder no longer. Now the son of the Mad Titan is on a quest to find out his father’s history and his own future as well. Given that the rumor is that Thane is one of the characters in the background of the first “Time Runs Out” issue of “New Avengers,” this could be worth a read just to see how he gets from one event to the next.
New Avengers #25 and Avengers #’s 36 & 37: Just in case that, amidst the raft of other events going on this month, “Time Runs Out” is still going on over in the core “Avengers” titles. Speaking of things that could be lost in the “event-frenzy” of these solicitations…
Hawkeye #22: This is the final issue of the series and Matt Fraction is back with regular artist David Aja for it. Given that the series ran completely off the rails, schedule-wise, over the past year, I’d love to know the story behind that tale of mismanagement. Let’s hope the final arc is good enough to get past that and serve as an example of the series at its best.
Men of Wrath #1 (of 5): Jason Aaron and Ron Garney team up to give us this creator-owned tale of the coldest hitman to ever come out of Alabama and the job he takes that may decide the fate of his cursed family. Coming from two creators who have done great work together over the years, I’m expecting this to be a great read. What’s interesting is that this is being published through Marvel’s Icon (read: creator-owned) imprint rather than Image, where Aaron is currently doing “Southern Bastards.” Either the writer is testing the waters to see which company offers a better deal for creator-owned comics, or Garney currently has an exclusive deal with the company that prevents him from working elsewhere at the moment. In any event, it’ll be interesting to see if the next creator-owned project Aaron and Garney do together will be through Icon or Image.
Original Sin HC: Speaking of Aaron, the Marvel event series he wrote is collected here along with the companion miniseries “Original Sins” and material from the latest Marvel “Point One” anthology. Just so you know.
New Avengers vol. 4: Perfect World and Avengers vol. 6: Infinite Avengers: Each of these collections has an irresistible story hook to them. With “New Avengers,” it’s the idea of the Illuminati taking on an ersatz version of the Justice League in the latest incursion. In the case of “Avengers,” the memories Captain America lost when the Illuminati removed him from the group are restored to him. That’s certainly going to result in a lot of angry conversations, and likely some entertaining reading for the rest of us.
Original Sin: Hulk vs. Iron man & Thor and Loki — The Tenth Realm: Just a public service announcement to anyone reading the titles featuring these characters — these two collections are the next volumes in each series. In the case of “Hulk vs. Iron Man” it’s also the finale for Mark Waid and Kieron Gillen’s respective runs. It seems to be a bit anti-climactic to go out with a crossover tie-in, but Waid and, in particular, Gillen, have gotten some good material out of such events before. So there’s a reason to be encouraged there. With “Thor & Loki,” this is the story where we find out that they’re actually related to Angela, and that that instead of the Nine Realms of Asgardian myth, there’s actually a hidden Tenth Realm. Asking us to swallow two big retcons like that seems like a pretty tall order. Let’s see if Aaron and “Loki” writer Al Ewing can make us buy into them.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man vol. 1 — Revival: With this, Miles’ first reboot gets its first collection, and… Wait. It’s not a hardcover! “Ultimate Spider-Man” is FINALLY doing away with the premiere hardcover format and going back to softcover editions first. That is great news as far as I’m concerned. What about the actual content of this volume? It looks like we’ll be getting the inevitable “Miles Morales meets Peter Parker” storyline that they were going to have to do at some point, with some Norman Osborn as Green Goblin business thrown in for good measure. This sounds interesting enough; however, finding out how Miles deals with the fallout from revealing to his dad that he’s the new Spider-Man promises is what I really want to see.