When it comes to comic books, I feel like a lot of new fans often struggle to figure out where to come into stories. For example, people will go out to the cinema this summer to see the Thor movie, and upon seeing it they might be interested in checking out the Thor comic book. The only problem is that this summer also features the Marvel event Fear Itself, which appears to be deeply tied to norse mythology (i.e. Thor), which will in turn cause a company wide spill out of stories all tied to the main event series. Even with two Thor books to follow (Journey to Mystery and The Mighty Thor), now isn’t exactly the best time to get into the regular Thor books for someone who has never read a Thor title (although Marvel press releases for the Mighty Thor would probably argue otherwise, and understandably so).
So what’s a new fan to do? Is there a place where someone seeing X-Men:First Class, Thor, or Captain America: The First Avenger can find a good, stand alone series centering around the character they want to see more of? Why yes, Virgina, there is a series: Marvel’s bourgeoning Astonishing line.
Check behind the cut for a few musings over Astonishing X-Men, Spider-Man/Wolverine, Thor, and the upcoming Captain America series.
In 2004, Marvel began publishing a new series called Astonishing X-Men, giving a select squad of characters from the famous mutant group their own place to have side adventures in canon. Under the pen of Joss Whedon and the pencils of John Cassaday, the 25 issue run is arguably one of the most universally praised, loved, and celebrated run of X-Men from the past decade (outside of maybe Morrison). Completely friendly to new readers and even introducing a new character while bringing back an old one, Astonishing X-Men managed to bridge a nice gap between brand new fans as well as long time die-hards. And that’s why in February of last year, Marvel decided to capitalize on the idea of “side-canon” storytelling, expanding on their Astonishing line to allow new creative teams in to help make explicitly new-reader friendly material.
Since then, we’ve had four mini’s delivered/announced and one new ongoing started, all of which make the legitimate effort of being rather universally accessible. The nice thing about Whedon’s run is that most people who might be into comics but just never took that extra step know who Joss Whedon is, as his name certainly has a great hold with the general nerd community. His name alone brought in people who might not normally read an X-Title, and while Marvel might not be able to do that every time with name recognition alone, they can still elaborate on the initial idea of what made Astonishing X-Men so great. Astonishing was something that didn’t spend all it’s time following up explicit canon. Yes, there were references and pay-offs (such as Colossus or Cassandra Nova), but for the most part it was easy to get into and read along simply as a story starring mutants. People understand what the X-Men are supposed to be, and the 25 issues that followed are more than enough for new readers to grow an attachment to the group (let alone one particular member).
So what do we have now? Well, in the Astonishing X-verse, we have just seen the end of Warren Ellis’ three-arc story, featuring brand new creations to the X-Verse (such as Ghost Boxes) and with three different artists: Simone Bianchi, Phil Jimenez, and Kaare Andrews. The series was very sci-fi and allegory heavy, but at the same time it’s just as easy for new fans to hop into it starting with Warren Ellis’ run at issue #25 as it would be for old ones, and it’s rather easy to enjoy Ellis story without previous X-knowledge as it’s all relatively self contained. Ellis simply reuses his own ideas within the story as well as his distinct characterization, and each artist brings a little of their own “something” to the book in three rather different artistic styles, at least one of which should resonate with new readers. Now is also one of the best times to hop into Astonishing X-Men as the book now features two writers, Daniel Way and Christos Gage, in alternating writing shifts as they both handle two separate “side continuity” stories (which started this week). Both promise to be within modern X-Continuity, which should help new readers transition to the Marvel U proper if they so desire, while still maintaining their distance as separate entities.
But that’s just the X-Men. On top of that title, we have three character centric mini’s: Spider-Man/Wolverine by Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert, Thor by Rob Rodi and Mike Choi, and the upcoming Captain America by Andy Diggle and Adi Granov. All of these titles exist solely within their own continuity from all-star creative teams, which make it really nice for new readers to hop into. Since these are also character centric pieces, it really helps new readers get a grasp of what these characters are like within the comic books as opposed to just on the big screen, and there’s no worry that someone might not know “that thing that happened back in issue #305 where that guy did that stuff.” As long as the readers have an open mind, the stories so far delivered have all flowed rather naturally. These are all rather recognizable characters at this point, so that alone makes for a good entry point.
Oh, and might I add that the creativity shown in Spider-Man/Wolverine by Aaron and Kubert is rather astonishing, and fans of any medium should really be able to get into that, because Wolverine holding a gun to a living planet version of Doctor Doom is pretty damn incredible, especially when illustrated across a three-page spread by Kubert. Don’t believe me? Look at the image below, and click to embiggen that bad boy.
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| Yeah. Wow indeed. |
The only general complaint average fans have about most of these series is that a lot of them become “long box fodder” given that they are probably buying every “main” series already, but I’ve often found that you usually get out what you put in when it comes to a mini series. If it’s from a creative team you respect or a character you love, the titles are definitely worth a look, and so far the line hasn’t been disappointing. Besides, if you’re a new fan looking for an entry point, these are simply the beginning of your long boxes, which will hopefully grow in size as you branch out for more.
We all come to superhero comics for one reason or another, but we stay because of the characters. In a medium as vast and large as this one, there are literally thousands of stories that you could be reading, but as much as the endless to cape or not to cape battle rages along, there’s still no denying the power of the superhero. These characters endure the test of time due to the different creative takes on them, and part of the Astonishing line is simply to explore on that (heck, anyone not interested in the Cap mini featuring Adi Granov art probably needs an eye exam!). These are character centric stories, and for brand new fans that’s the best place to start – especially those coming to comics randomly out of a movie theater and looking for a nice and easy place to start reading.
Hopefully as the year goes on, Marvel will expand the Astonishing line beyond what they have, but currently it’s perfectly set-up for the assumed influx of movie fans with Cap, Thor, and X-Men all coming out this summer. With a line that promotes new reader friendliness as well as respect for long time fans (those reading Astonishing Thor might have noticed some fun/underused comic references from Rob Rodi and Mike Choi), the Astonishing line is very well set to be Marvel’s next big marketing point.
