It’s that time of the month again! You’ve seen what we like at Dark Horse, you’ve seen what we like at DC, and now we look at Marvel comics. It’s going to be a grand ol’ time.
For the full Marvel solicits, check them out on CBR.
The End of an Era
“Captain America,” “The Mighty Thor,” “Journey into Mystery,” “Uncanny X-Men” “Incredible Hulk,” “Invincible Iron Man,” “Fantastic Four,” “FF,” “Uncanny X-Men,” “New Mutants,” and “X-Men: Legacy” are all ending in October. “Avengers,” “New Avengers” and “Avengers Assemble” all mark the end of Bendis’ epic run on the franchise. Daniel Way writes his final issue of “Deadpool.” Up is down, left is right and nothing makes sense!
Then again, when we say ending, we really mean “until the books are relaunched with #1s and new writers next month.” It’s an interesting time to be a Marvel fan, watching a lot of creators who have defining runs on characters and franchises now leaving them, handing reigns over to who knows. It’ll be interesting to see what announcements November holds.
Though the “worst” ending is by far “Journey Into Mystery” by Kieron Gillen, which should run forever and ever. Harumph.
And Now For Something Completely Different
I suppose we should at least mention Marvel Now!, right? I mean, enough coverage has been done on it that I don’t anything I could say here would inform anything at all. You know it’s happening though, yes? Marvel’s “don’t call it a reboot” relaunch?
Ok, then. Then enjoy the above cover for “Uncanny Avengers” and we’ll leave it at that.
Those Missing Solicits
As we spied during SDCC, there were a whole bunch of books that weren’t announced during the solicit phase in order to keep them under wraps to be announced at the convention. Those books are:
- Marvel Now Point One (assumedly another anthology title)
- A Plus X #1 (assumedly a What If? title)
- AvX Consequences #1-5 (weekly “AvX” fallout book)
- A-Babies vs X-Babies #1 (the greatest comic ever?)
- Minimum Carnage Alpha (the long teased “symbiote event” that acts as a crossover between “Venom” and “Scarlet Spider”)
- Ultimate Comics Iron Man #1 of 4
- Punisher War Zone #1 of 5 (seemingly relaunched Greg Rucka/Marco Checcetto book, now some kind of mini – perhaps even an “event”)
- Red She-Hulk #58
Out of all those, the ones the personally interest me are “Red She-Hulk,” “Minimum Carnage Alpha” and “Punisher War Zone,” but hey, I’ll probably reading all of them due to our Weekend Week In Review segment where I’ve been doing all the “AvX” coverage you could ever want.
Death Celestials
It was teased in the most recent issue of “Defenders,” but October’s #11 sees Fraction and McKelvie bringing a new breed of Celestial to Earth — the Death Celestial. I can’t wait.
End of Days
It’s a bit late assuredly, last discussed in 2007, but now the epic Daredevil jamboree that is “End of Days” is coming. A canon story set in the future and written by longtime Daredevil writer/fan Brian Bendis with David Mack, and illustrated by “Daredevil” legends Klaus Janson and Bill Sienkiewicz, it’s the return to grim and gritty Daredevil stories that I’ve been missing since Mark Waid took over the title. Hopefully I won’t be the only one.
The Spaceknights Are Coming!
It looks like Marvel is going to be recollecting the 2000 “Spaceknights” mini-series that attempted to re-introduce the characters into the Marvel U, only to be never seen or heard from again (until DnA brought back a single knight at the end of “Thanos Imperative”). We know Marvel has a plan for a cosmic push, what with Thanos popping up in Avengers, and while we don’t know to what extent the Cosmic Marvel U is coming back, the fact that they’re re-printing old Thanos stories and now a mini-series about the Spaceknights, it seems to me that Marvel is trying to hint at what direction they’re going in with the return of Cosmic Marvel.
Oh, and there’s that Keatinge/Elson “Thanos” mini and the end of Bendis’ “Avengers Assemble,” a Thanos-centric story-arc featuring the Guardians of the Galaxy. Your homework has been delivered. Are you ready to go Cosmic?
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Kelly Sue + Emma Rios = Aw Yeah!
One of the best announcements at SDCC was that Kelly Sue and Emma Rios are teaming up for a creator-owned series at Image called “Pretty Deadly,” but hey, having the same awesome duo behind “Osborn” now doing two issues of “Captain Marvel” is pretty great as well. (No offense to Dex Soy intended, obviously). Plus, a lovely Dodson cover!
If you’re not excited about “Captain Marvel” with news like this, I just don’t know what to tell you.
Cullen Bunn Comes Back To Wolverine
When Jason Aaron was announced as leaving “Wolverine,” it was subsequently announced that Cullen Bunn would be taking over for him. However, in between this week’s one and done by David Hine and an arc by Jeph Loeb, it was unknown if Bunn was just a place-holder writer until a new ongoing writer was booked.
Well, hey, look who is back! Cullen “Sixth Gun” Bunn himself is back, and he’s brought Paul Pelletier with him! Bunn makes a great follow-up to Aaron as both writers employ similar themes in their work as well as have an obvious love for longcons and Westerns, so here’s to fingers being crossed for the best on Bunn’s upcoming run with the character.
Wolverine MAX Launches
Because you don’t buy enough Wolverine comics, Marvel will now be expanding the MAX line to give the ol’ canucklehead his own bloody book. I guess it’ll be similar to “Wolverine: The Best There Is”, but with a more obvious branding. This book will be written by Jason Starr (who wrote some “Punisher Max” back in the day) and illustrated by Connor Willumson, and will be Marvel’s fourth MAX book of recent history (following Punisher, Deadpool and Fury).
I don’t remember Jason Starr’s “Punisher Max” admittedly,
