The watchful, completely objective and correct gaze of Soliciting Multiversity now falls upon Marvel’s crop of titles for August! Check out our picks below and let us know what stuck out to you in the comments.
10. Blank Verse
My favorite thing in the world is when Marvel releases one of these “not really a solicit” solicits and I have my work cut by 20%. I’m writing this on Tuesday though, so I’m going to feel like a real dork if whatever this actually is gets announced on Wednesday. I don’t really know what this is going to be since it sounds less like a comic and more like a boss fight from The Binding of Isaac so we’ll just let that be for now.
THE FALLEN #1
CLASSIFIED
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99
9. Second Blank Verse, Same As The First
Apropos of nothing, I would love it if Marvel kept naming comics after Binding of Isaac levels until we got a new Super Hero Squad Comic that was arbitrarily called “The Womb”.
THE ACCUSED #1
CLASSIFIED
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99
8. A Vision For The Future
I haven’t been following much of “All-New All-Different Avengers” so I am curious to see how they’re handling Vision’s latest case of “complete emotional detachment.” I’m also just generally curious to see if a manhunt through time in order to stop one of Earth’s greatest evils doesn’t involve The Vision putting his transparent hand through Baby Hitler’s skull. Maybe he’ll kill, like Henry Ford, or something. I don’t know, I’m just really apprehensive about the idea of “Civil War II” involving time travel, even if it’s just for the tie-in.
ALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT AVENGERS #13
MARK WAID (W) • ADAM KUBERT (A)
LINKING COVER 1 (OF 5) BY ALEX ROSS
MARVEL TSUM TSUM TAKEOVER VARIANT BY KRIS ANKA
CIVIL WAR II TIE-IN!
• Convinced that he has chosen the right side in the war, the Vision undertakes a manhunt through time in order to stop one of Earth’s greatest evils!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
7. Choosing Friends
I have no clue if “Choosing Sides” is meant to be an actual tie-in to “Civil War” or if it’s just a light-hearted anthology sort of deal (probably the latter, Chip Zdarsky, etc.) but I am in love with the line “no one expected the biggest casualty of them all: Friendship.” Every piece of marketing for “Civil War II” should have that kind of writing in their material. “The real Civil War was the friends they killed along the way.”
CIVIL WAR II: CHOOSING SIDES #5 (of 6)
Declan Shalvey, Chip Zdarsky and ENRIQUE CARRION (W)
Declan Shalvey, Ramón Pérez and ANNAPAOLA MARTELLO (A)
COVER BY CAMERON STEWART AND DECLAN SHALVEY
VARIANT COVER BY Ramón Pérez
• As the body count rises, no one expected the biggest casualty of them all: Friendship. Will these Avengers betray their closest confidants to stay true to themselves?
• Featuring Nick Fury, Colleen Wing and Alpha Flight!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
6. Insane In The Membrane
If you haven’t been reading Gerry Duggan’ run on “Deadpool” since 2012, it’s fresh as hell. Even though it’s been very slow at getting to points like Deadpool discovering who killed his parents (we found out in 2014 but he didn’t), it’s the kind of comic that can live up to the hype that the name “Deadpool” drags in. A couple years ago, Deadpool had a second narration box (it even showed up in the bad video game) that he bounced off of for comic relief. It later turned out that the narration box was Madcap, who was separated from Deadpool, and now Wade Wilson is at war with the voice that used to be inside his head, while trying to maintain the grip on celebrity becoming an Avenger brought him. I can’t say it’s the best book Marvel’s putting out, but it’s certainly one of the most consistent.
Continued belowDEADPOOL #17
GERRY DUGGAN (W) • MIKE HAWTHORNE (A)
Cover by RAFAEL ALBUQUERQUE
MARVEL TSUM TSUM TAKEOVER VARIANT COVEr BY JAVIER RODRIGUEZ
SECRET COMIC VARIANT COVER BY SCOTT KOBLISH
CIVIL WAR II TIE-IN!
• Remember when Deadpool’s inner monologues were at war?
• Now, one of those voices is out and about…revealed as MADCAP!
• And he’s got a mad-on for REVENGE!
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99
5. In Thane in the Memthane
I super want to like Ulysses because I’m pretty much down for any character who is around my age, but I don’t have high hopes for Big U. He seems like he’s going to fall into that weird category of Marvel characters who only get brought in as plot devices for crossovers, before immediately getting dropped once their story is done. Like Thane from “Infinity” or Hope Summers from “Avengers vs. X-Men.” Holy shit, I just remembered Hope Summers. Mike Carey doesn’t remember Hope Summers.
CIVIL WAR II: ULYSSES #1 (OF 3)
AL EWING (W) • Jefte Palo (A)
Cover by Francesco Francavilla
VARIANT COVER BY STEFANO CASSELLI
A CIVIL WAR II PREQUEL!
• How did Ulysses join the Inhumans?
• What difficult journey did he have to go through to master his powers?
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99
4.The Biggest Casualty of Them All
I know I just joked about how “Choosing Sides” had a dumb tagline with ‘The biggest casualty of them all: FRIENDSHIP!” but that seems like such a stronger variable here than it was in “Civil War I: The Phantom Menace.” I think a lot of that has to do with how differently comics are written now than they were a decade ago. With more of a focus in Marvel on the day-to-day, we’re seeing a more organic relationship develop among different characters across different titles. Captain Marvel alone has dynamic connections to so much of the Marvel Universe (Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel, War Machine) that the upcoming conflict will actually be a powder keg of interpersonal trauma. Cool. I hope Captain Marvel doesn’t go full “Evil 2006 Iron Man” and throw Jessica Drew’s baby off a bridge.
SPIDER-WOMAN #10
DENNIS HOPELESS (W)
JAVIER RODRIGUEZ (A/C)
CIVIL WAR II TIE-IN!
• Jessica Drew is a hard-boiled private eye who’s got a newborn baby, so she’s trying to steer clear of this whole “CIVIL WAR” thing.
• But when a startling new case lands in her lap, keeping herself out of the conflict becomes impossible…
• …and so does taking Carol’s side of things.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
3. ???
My favorite part of this isn’t how Marvel’s putting out a crossover with whatever a Tsum Tsum is, it’s how Tsum Tsum expects us to know what they are. “In case you’ve been living under a rock,” the solicit starts, “Tsums Tsums are HUGE!” With who? Children? Children who still play Pokemon and whatever a Skylander is? Tsum Tsums sound less like a real toy and more like a fake Japanese product JJ Abrams would make up for an ARG to promote one of his movies.
MARVEL TSUM TSUM #1 (of 4)
Jacob Chabot (W) • DAVID BALDEON (A)
COVER BY CHRIS SAMNEE
VARIANT Cover by GURIHIRU
PHOTO VARIANT AVAILABLE
MARVEL TSUM TSUM 1 CLASSIFIED CONNECTING VARIANT A AVAILABLE
JAPANESE GAME VARIANT ALSO AVAILABLE
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Tsum Tsums are HUGE! Well, not LITERALLY (they’re actually pretty tiny) but these seemingly cute and cuddly creatures are sweeping the globe! So what happens when these pint-sized piles of fur find their way into the Marvel Universe? After a crate of them falls to Earth en route to THE COLLECTOR, one small group of Brooklyn teenagers will find out! Featuring all of your favorite Marvel heroes and villains, this is sure to be TSUM-thing you won’t want to miss!
32 PGS./All Ages …$3.99
2. The Greatest Power Of Them All… Friendship
I joked in my recap of “Civil War II” #0 that Ulysses’s power (which gave him a vision of a burning Manhattan) just lets him see times in Marvel’s history where Manhattan has been on here. Since issue #5 mentions something about the truth behind Ulysses’s power, I will blow a damn gasket if I was right all along. This theory is going to become my new “Simon Hurt is the main villain of the Arkham games.” I will go to my grave defending this theory. Mark Millar could’ve put her in one page of the original “Civil War” series, and that would’ve given me one thing to like about “Civil War.”
Continued belowCIVIL WAR II #5 (OF 7)
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W) • DAVID MARQUEZ (A)
Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
B&W VIRGIN CONNECTING VARIANT F COVER BY KIM JONG GI
VARIANT COVER BY MICHAEL CHO
CHARACTER VARIANT COVER BY PHIL NOTO
The devastating fallout from the first half of this event is enormous and being felt in every corner of the Marvel Universe. The truth about Ulysses’ future-seeing power is revealed and it is a game changer. Sides are irrevocably drawn and the gauntlet is thrown for the biggest battle in Marvel Universe history. And that’s just the stuff we can tell you. All this, and the story goes galactic!
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99
1. Elsa Bloodstone
“A-Force” skyrocketed to the top of the list by throwing Elsa Bloodstone onto the team. In case you don’t know her, she’s the best part of anything she’s in. Bloodstone was in one of the best “Secret Wars” tie-ins (“Marvel Zombies”) and was the best part of the best thing Marvel’s ever done (“Nextwave”). I haven’t been keeping up with “A-Force” because I can’t buy every comic book in the world, but putting Elsa Bloodstone on the team is a significant event.
A-FORCE #8
KELLY THOMPSON (W) • Paulo Siqueira (A/C)
BLACK PANTHER VARIANT COVER BY RAHZZAH
CIVIL WAR II TIE-IN!
NEW SERIES ARTIST PAULO SIQUEIRA STARTS HERE!
• Civil War has come to A-FORCE! As the team is wrecked by a personal tragedy things only get worse when a predictive vision proclaims one of A-FORCE is a murderer. CAPTAIN MARVEL attempts an arrest, creating a rift that may very well mean the end of the team, and setting in motion a chain of devastating events that affect far more than just A-FORCE. Meanwhile foul-mouthed, gun-toting ELSA BLOODSTONE just unofficially joined A-Force. Looks like we’re gonna need a bigger boat…and a verrrrry big black censor bar.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
