Editor’s Note: Usually, the MC2 operates without any sort of editorial jiggery-pokery (to borrow a term from Justice Scalia), but I felt that the people best qualified on the Multiversity staff to discuss these new announcements were our intrepid MC2 trio. I asked, and I received. Enjoy! – Brian
Jess Camacho:
The All-New All-Different Marvel Now reveals have me feeling very mixed. There’s a lot offered here but the creative teams don’t all seem to mesh completely and there some characters missing completely that doesn’t make a ton of sense. I’m sure we’ll see some top secret announcements at SDCC but it doesn’t change that these books as a whole left me underwhelmed. I’m usually not this person but if we’re going to compare this to DCYou in terms of an actual attempt at promoting diversity. There are far less women and people of color on the creative teams and I think that’s a problem. All-New All-Different should mean something in regards to that but this just sort of feels like the same. Some titles I really enjoyed are gone and the most glaring omission that feels illogical is “Black Widow”. Given the amount of criticism Marvel has faced in terms of merchandising, it makes no sense that she’s left out of this lineup. Again, there’s a good chance more titles will be revealed at SDCC but it still doesn’t take away from the fact that this lineup has issues. Of course, as a Marvel reader, there are titles I’m interested but it was much harder to pick them out because there just isn’t a lot.
Most Interested: “Spider-Man” #1
I’m over the moon that Miles Morales is THE Spider-Man. He’s easily one of Brian Michael Bendis’ best creations and Sara Pichelli is a fantastic artist that simply doesn’t do enough mainstream work. Miles offers something different from Peter Parker and if you’re going to do a true relaunch to get new readers, you can’t go wrong with a character that still feels new.
Most Interested: “Ultimates” #1
I’m excited about this for a couple of reasons. The first is that the team doesn’t feature a single character I don’t like and that never, ever happens for me with team books. Second, how the hell does Galactus fit into this? He’s a giant, planet eating being and now he’s joining up with Captain Marvel and Black Panther? This sounds epic as hell and with this creative team at the helm, I have little reason to doubt that they can give us something very good.
Least Interested: “Carnage” #1
Why are we still trying to make Carnage happen? I mean really, there was no other character more deserving? I could name at least 20 Marvel characters off the top of my head who would be more deserving of a new solo series.
Least Interested: “Old Man Logan” #1
This is a top notch team on a book I can’t get behind. Old Man Logan was a novelty. It was a story that worked in a very specific way and doesn’t need to be revisited. This feels like one of those easy cash in titles but I’ll be the first to admit that I’m completely ready to eat crow over this. I’d like to be wrong but I can’t help feel like this is a waste of talent.
Alice W. Castle:
Most Excited About: “Ultimates” #1
To me, the most underrated series of the Marvel Now publishing line was “Mighty Avengers” and its sequel series “Captain America & The Mighty Avengers”. Al Ewing’s writing was consistently fun and managed to juggle a very large cast and give them all a reason to be in the book and have their voice be heard, even when saddled with event tie-in after event tie-in. Seeing Ewing’s name alongside Kenneth Rocafort above a team with Blue Marvel and Monica Rambeau means that Marvel’s new “Ultimates” is more than likely a spiritual continuation of that story.
And it doesn’t hurt that the team is a collection of some of my favourite Marvel characters ever.
Continued belowLeast Excited About: “Silk” #1
This was a more tricky one. I was rather underwhelmed by Marvel’s new lineup of titles and so there were more than a few candidates I could throw in here, but the one I kept coming back to was “Silk”. Let me explain: I love “Silk”. I think the character is fantastic and is a fresh spin on the Spider-Man mythos with some incredibly fun writing from Robbie Thompson and unbelievably gorgeous art from Stacey Lee. What I’m not excited about, though? The idea of Silk heel turning and becoming a criminal in this new universe. I sincerely hope this teaser is a work and that Silk is actually still the hero I feel in love with, otherwise I just don’t know if I can be excited for this book.
James Johnston:
Most Excited About: There are a few of these titles that I’m sure are going to be really good (“Illuminati”and “Karnak” immediately spring to mind) but I want nothing to blow me away more than “Old Man Logan.” That’s a character that should work (he’s Wolverine turned to 11), but I have never cared about anything Old Man Logan related. The initial series was too Mark Millar for me and the “Secret Wars” tie-in is questionable to say the least. But at least that has the incredible Andrea Sorrentino and, when teamed with “Green Arrow” partner Jeff Lemire, I only expect good things from this title.
The major reason I’m looking forward to this series is because its one of the few multiversal transitions that clearly makes sense. Even Miles is only coming to the 616 because he deserves to be off Ultimate Earth, you know? Old Man Logan, meanwhile, has to deal with filling in the boots of a Wolverine who was a thousand times better than he was. A hero, a leader, a fucking headmaster. People are going to look to put OML at the front of the mutant movement since it’s been lacking a clear figure head after Logan passed and Scott went insane. Young mutants will look to Old Man Logan to lead them, even though he’s also the one who killed them in another life.
At the very least, give me a scene of Quentin Quire meeting OML and smirking so hard his mouth falls off.
I also want to mention how delighted I am at the possibility of CM Punk’s “Drax” #1 being about Drax leaving the Guardians to join Alien UFC. I hope the first issue is Drax beating the life out of characters like Cohn Jena and Triple H. No relation.
Least Excited About: Any team book with an adjective in the title. That’s the new “#1” of unfortunate modern comics trends. Adjectives for team books used to make sense until we started treating them like a mom at a 1970’s key party. It used to be a way of telling teams apart (“New Avengers” is the new roster, “Young Avengers” are the teen heroes) but now it’s just all over the place. Off the top of my head, I can’t even tell you which team books are which based off the names, save for “All-New All-Different Avengers” and “That One Where They’re in AIM”. Even then, I have to go back and check which comic is the one where the Avengers are in AIM. I just checked and it’s “New Avengers”. I legit thought it was “Astonishing”. Oh well.
I’m sure I’m going to end up loving a few of these adjective books come October, but I can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed since they seem so similar. The X-Men books in particular have it far worse, and they in general come off as the weaker titles in this crop. Some of the single titles look cool (always down for an “X-23” series) but the teams seem interchangeable which wouldn’t be such a problem if not for the titles. Marvel books succeed really well when they stand from the pack (“X-Statix”, “Ms. Marvel”, etc.) and a lot of these teams seem to be more or less interchangeable. I don’t mean to sound like such a Whiny Wally about something as mundane as a title, but if a guy who follows comics 24/7 has trouble differentiating books how is the customer trying Marvel for the first time going to do?
