We’ve looked at Dark Horse, DC and Image, and now it’s time to go up against the second of the Big Two as we look at Marvel’s solicits.
Of couse, the format has been changing. While the Dark Horse solicit commentary remained relatively similar to how it always has been, the DC commentary was just a whiney rant and the Image commentary wasn’t even commentary, it just showed off what looked good (because it is hard to continuously write “this looks awesome” for the majority of their line). So what does the Marvel solicit commentary hold?
Find out after the cut, and check out the full solicitations here.
I Don’t Have Anything Interesting To Say About “AvX”
For the past two months I’ve opened up with some light commentary about “AvX” and how many tie-ins there are, but I’m running out of ideas of what to say. I guess I could tell you that not including the main “AvX” book, there will be 11 tie-ins, 5 of which are X-Men and 5 of which are Avengers, but I don’t think that says much. It sas there are a bunch of tie-ins, and we always knew there would be.
What I will say is this: “AvX” #6 is written by Jonathan Hickman and illustrated by Olivier Coipel and it takes place after the Phoenix has chosen its host, which we all assume will be Hope but probably won’t be at this point. To me, a book with Hickman’s name on it says “buy”, so I can’t imagine it won’t be pretty entertaining.
That and the Walt Simonson illustrated issue of “Avengers” starring the Protector will probably be fun.
The Most Helpful Solicit Of All Time
The following is the solicitation for “Spider-Men” #1 by Bendis and Pichelli, out in June:
SPIDER-MEN #1 & 2 (of 5)BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W)
SARA PICHELLI (A)
Issue #1
COMIC SHOP VARIANT ALSO AVAILIBLE
PICHELLI VARIANT ALSO AVAILIBLE
RAMOS VARIANT ALSO AVAILIBLE
Issue #2
MARTIN VARIANT ALSO AVAILIBLE
PICHELLI VARIANT ALSO AVAILIBLE
32 PGS. (EACH)/Rated T+ …$3.99 (EACH)
Oh, so THAT’S what the comic is about!
Brian Wood And The X-Men
Brian Wood writing a book is enough to sell me on it, but Brian Wood writing two X-Men titles is clearly yet another attempt at Marvel to cater specifically to me. Now he’s writing a story in “Ultimate X-Men” that will feature Kitty at the helm as taking over the reigns of “X-Men”, which has been a lot of fun for a side-continuity book, and I can’t wait to see what he has planned.
Really, though, what excites me is that David Lopez is illustrating “X-Men”. Lopez isn’t the fit you might assume on first glance; he drew “Mystic” for Marvel’s CrossGen reboot attempt, after all, and that looked like a Disney animated feature. Yet, the more I think about it, the more I am really excited to see what Lopez brings to the table for the X-Men, especially with Wood at the helm.
This Does Not Seem Like A Good Idea To Me At All
Re-mastering “Amazing Fantasy” #15 so it looks more “modern”? Really? Why is this happening? This to me sounds about as good of an idea as re-mastering all of the Beatles mono work in stereo. Re-printing the issue in anticipation of the movie is one thing, but this just sounds stupid.
Another New Iron Man!
That cover kind of hits the nail on the head with its use of previous covers in the background, but I get the feeling that Matt Fraction feels the need to come up with a new look to Iron Man at least once a year.
It makes sense ostensibly, don’t get me wrong. Stark is constantly inventing things. Of course he’s going to make new suits! It just strikes me as funny how many times this has happened from Fraction alone since his run began.
Premature Praise
I like Sam Humphries. I like Ramone Perez. I have “John Carter: The Gods of Mars” #1 sitting here, waiting to be read. It came out today, after all.
But this is a noticeable line from the solicit to the fourth issue: “The very talented Sam Humphries and Ramon Perez bring you a John Carter adventure that has fans raving!”
No offense to Humphries and Perez, but that solicit was released before the first issue was released, making it an assumption — and you know what they say about assumptions, don’t you?
This isn’t to say that the book is bad. It isn’t. Far from it, even. But even so, that solicit is a bit silly.
Casanova: Avarita #4
As the solicit reads,
One of the most critically acclaimed series of the year comes to its catastrophic conclusion. CASANOVA: AVARITIA #4 answers every question (almost), solves every riddle (kind of), and explains absolutely everything you ever wanted to know about the world of CASANOVA (in a way). Casanova Quinn, hated on all sides by tyrant and hero alike, must flee from time and space, aim one batch of enemies at the other, kill everybody and save everything simultaneously. Don’t be afraid: you are an apocalypse dreaming of butterflies + the first part of reincarnation is dying…
Bring. It. On.
Things That I’m Surprised Didn’t Happen Sooner
Brian Bendis is certainly Marvel’s most prolific writer of today, and one of the titles that gave him that name was his longstanding work on the Avengers franchise. Now, in addition to those “Daredevil” and “Ultimate Spider-Man” omnibuses you can try to find, Marvel is releasing a mondo omnibus of Bendis’ Avengers work from “Disassembled” up to where “Secret Invasion” kinda sorta began (the last issue of “New Avengers” you get in this is #31, which is where the Skrull Elektra was revealed).
Not only that, but you get a pretty good deal overall for this book – six extra issues, one with content by Warren Ellis, and art by folks like David Finch, Steve McNiven, Frank Cho, Mike Deodato, Howard Chaykin, Leinil Francis Yu, Olivier Coipel, Pasqual Ferry, Jim Cheung, Alex Maleev, Dan Jurgens, Rick Mays, Marc Silvestri “and more.”
This is some of the best stuff Bendis has done at Marvel, and it comes highly recommended. No matter what you think of his current output, positive or negative, this whole omnibus (again, when put up next to “Daredevil” and “Ultimate Spider-Man”) is the reason that people fell in love with Bendis at Marvel.
Oh, Right — and the Zomnibus!
We made a news posting about the Zomnibus when we first heard about it, but we didn’t know what was in it. We just made guesses.
Turns out we were only partially right. This bad boy contains “Marvel Zombies 1-5”, “Dead Days”, “Apes: Prime Eight”, “Evil Evolution”, the “Black Panther” crossover, “Return”, “Supreme” and the original “Ultimate Fantastic Four” story. That’s a lot of zombie bang for your non-zombie buck.
I’ll be honest: Marvel Zombies is a fun concept over all, and it’s pretty good but it’s not great. Generally speaking, that content is rather hit or miss in terms of quality. However, if zombies are your thing, this is a damn good deal, because the amount of good you’ll get over the amount of meh is a good enough ratio.
Continued belowPlus, “Marvel Zombies 5” was incredibly under-rated, and more people need to see what a great team Howard the Duck and Machine Man make.
Obligatory “You Should Read Jeff Parker’s Run On Hulk” Of The Month
You really should read Jeff Parker’s run on “Hulk.”
