Soliciting Multiversity: Marvel’s Top 10 in October 2014

Rounding out this week of Soliciting Multiversity’s is our look at what is coming from Marvel in October. It’s an interesting mix of things to say the least, but it is our duty to crawl through it all and give you the highlights — and we take our duty very seriously. It’s very serious duty.

10. The Event Singularity Has Almost Been Reached

Because the old grey events they ain’t what they used to be, “Axis” is going to be the single most hyper-compressed event perhaps in the history of events. This is probably due to Marvel wanting a big event to cap-off their Marvel NOW! era (which kicked off with “Uncanny Avengers,” which has been leading to this story) and then remembering that they had other things going on in their universe (ie ‘Time Runs Out’), but to say that “Axis” is a blink and you’ll miss it event hardly does it justice.

So not only does October kick off “Axis” with three issues of the nine-issue series, but there book will also be three spin-off minis to go alongside it (“Revolutions,” “Hobgoblin” and “Carnage”) and five tie-ins (“All-New X-Factor,” “Loki,” “Magneto,” “Deadpool,” and of course “Uncanny Avengers”) for a total of 11 “Axis” issues in a month.

Do you have a summer birthday? Do you remember how, at the end of the school year in elementary school, they’d have that day where all the summer birthday kids would get some kind of recognition, because your birth-timing sucked and you don’t get a day to yourself where everyone has to be nice to you but people still like getting cake and pretending birthdays matter? “Axis” feels like that, where someone realized that you can just line up events like kids and shove cake in their face because who cares about it being special.

I know I’m being sarcastic here, and look, “Axis” does sound fun. I will be buying it; I like Rick Remender and I like Adam Kubert, and I’ve been following “Uncanny Avengers” since launch. It’s just weird that we’re at that point where Marvel feels the need to have events go bumper to bumper, retain length but be released in a smaller frame of time because reasons. To quote Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. Also, one event a year is fine, please, because otherwise what the fuck’s the point of calling it an ‘event.'”

AVENGERS & X-MEN: AXIS #1 (OF 9)
RICK REMENDER (W) • ADAM KUBERT (A)
Cover by JIM CHEUNG
VARIANT Cover by SKOTTIE YOUNG
DEADPOOL PARTY VARIANT COVER BY Chip Zdarsky
DEADPOOL PARTY SKETCH VARIANT COVER BY Chip Zdarsky
VARIANT COVER BY MILO MANARA
INVERSION VARIANT COVER BY TBA
PREMIERE VARIANT COVER BY TBA
YOUNG GUNS COMPLETE VARIANT COVER
ACT I: THE RED SUPREMACY
• The Red Skull has exploited the gifts of the world’s greatest telepath to broadcast pure hatred across the globe. Now, born of the murder of Charles Xavier, World War Hate has begun.
• Tony Stark discovers a secret truth that will upend not only his life, but also the lives of everyone he cares for.
• Can The Avengers and X-Men finally unite? Would their combined strength be enough to hold back the darkness of the Red Onslaught?
• Magneto murdered the wrong man, releasing the greatest evil the Marvel Universe has ever known. Now Rogue and Scarlet Witch are all that stand in its way.
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99

9. Thunderbolts, We Hardly Knew Ye (Again)

It came a lot later than I think anyone expected, but “Thunderbolts” has finally reached its ending. It only took a couple creative team changes to get to that point. Unfortunately, it is happening at the end of the first arc of the new creative team, one that I was really excited to see get a chance to tell some stories. Ben Acker and Ben Blacker kill it in the Thrilling Adventure Hour, and their “Thunderbolts” annual was really rather good; it’s a shame that we won’t get to see what other plans they might’ve had in store for the series.

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But alas. All the characters are getting wrapped up in other books anyway, I guess. I’m sure Acker and Blacker will have something else excellent crop up soon.

THUNDERBOLTS #32
BEN ACKER & BEN BLACKER (W)
KIM JACINTO (A)
Cover by DAVID YARDIN
• The Punisher vs. the Thunderbolts – FINAL CHAPTER
• Will the Thunderbolts prove to be the complete failure Punisher believes them to be?
• This final issue of the series will reveal all.
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$2.99

8. Get Guardians

Going into the future to bring back the Guardians of the past, Dan Abnett is back in Marvel Cosmic to tell the continued story of the original iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy. This was certainly teased in that big “Guardians of the Galaxy” #14 special (which was the 100th issue if re-numbering wasn’t a thing to happen), and I would imagine that for fans of classic Marvel Cosmic there will be a lot of fun in store for this book. And, hey, while I have you here, did you know Dan Abnett was one of the people we talked to for Guardians Month? We even talked a bit about this book!

Speaking of Guardians Month, by the way, now is as good a time as any to once again bring up Guardians Month here at Multiversity, a month-long benefit for Bill Mantlo. All month, we’re posting Guardians of the Galaxy-related pieces created by some of our favorite artists, and at the end of the month there will be an auction of many of the pieces of original art to benefit Mantlo, creator of Rocket Raccoon. Please read more about Bill and his story here, and if you feel moved to donate to Bill yourself, you can do so by clicking here.

GUARDIANS 3000 #1
DAN ABNETT (w) • GERARDO SANDOVAL (a/C)
Cover BY Alex Ross
sketch VARIANT COVER BY Alex Ross
VARIANT COVER BY Skottie Young
VARIANT COVER BY GERARDO SANDOVAL
DEADPOOL 75TH VARIANT COVER BY TBA
Blank VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
• Dive right into the action as the original Guardians of the Galaxy—Vance Astro, Yondu, Martinex, Starhawk and Charlie-27–try to save the future universe from the menace of the Badoon.
• But what happens when the Guardians discover something behind the Badoon…something even worse than they could have ever imagined?
• The very future itself is in danger, and the only possibility of salvation relies on the shoulders of this ragtag, bombastic group of underdogs. Thrown together by fate and fighting against intolerable oppression, how can they even hope to survive the first issue?!
32 PGS/Rated T+…$3.99

7. Spider-Verse Gets Going

September will bring the “Edge of Spider-Verse” mini (which ends this month), but October sees “Amazing Spider-Man” start to get in on the Spider-Verse action. And what does it bring? The new Ms. Marvel, in her first time (to my knowledge) being featured by a different writer outside of her original series! That it is Dan Slott seems a good choice to give Kamala a whirl, as he certainly has the right voice for her. Besides, everyone likes a good team-up.

Plus: Spider-UK? You had me at U.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #7
DAN SLOTT (W) • GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI (A/C)
VARIANT Cover by JAVIER PULIDO
DEADPOOL 75TH VARIANT COVER BY TBA
HASBRO VARAINT COVER BY TBA
STOMP OUT BULLYING VARIANT COVER BY TBA
• Peer over the EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE!
• Spidey teams up with Ms. Marvel in a high-flying (stepping in Kamala’s case) adventure!
• Who is Spider-UK and what does he have to do with SPIDER-VERSE?
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

6. The All-New All-New Ghost Rider

So Tradd Moore announced that #5 was his last issue, so I guess now is the time to fully acknowledge Damion Scott not as a fill-in artist but the new ongoing artist. Which is just fine with me, because while I like Tradd bunches and bunches, a) I’d rather see him finish “Luther Strode” and b) Scott is excellent as well. And, hey, they couldn’t have picked a better issue to announce this full-time switch, because #8 of the new “Ghost Rider” book seems like quite a big deal as Johnny Blaze shows up, having been freed of his time in “Thunderbolts” (RIP).

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The new “Ghost Rider” series has been very enjoyable so far. I’m excited to see what will happen here.

ALL-NEW GHOST RIDER #8
FELIPE SMITH (W)
DAMION SCOTT (A/C)
DEADPOOL 75TH VARIANT COVER BY TBA
GHOST RIDER VS GHOST RIDER: OLD SCHOOL VS NEW SCHOOL!
• Age vs. Youth, East vs. West, Car vs. Motorcycle!
• Can All-New Ghost Rider stand up to the Spirit of Vengeance or will Robbie lose his soul in the battle?!
• Guest starring the ORIGINAL Ghost Rider, JOHNNY BLAZE!!!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

5. TLÖN? TLÖN!

If you’re like me, you were probably asking yourself what the heck Tlön was while reading the solicit. (Actually, if you’re really like me, you probably got really distracted by Tradd’s amazing cover up there, because holy wow is Tradd Moore becoming one of the most intricate artists in comics or what?)

But in a quick search of Tlön on the ol’ Google, I found that Tlön is part of a story by Jorge Luis Borges, entitled “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.” Here’s the Wikipedia blurb for those of you who didn’t Google yourself (bolding is my own):

In the story, an encyclopedia article about a mysterious country called Uqbar is the first indication of a massive conspiracy of intellectuals to imagine (and thereby create) a world known as Tlön. Relatively long for Borges (approximately 5,600 words), the story is a work of speculative fiction. One of the major themes of “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” is that ideas ultimately manifest themselves in the physical world and the story is generally viewed as a parabolic discussion of Berkeleyan idealism — and to some degree as a protest against totalitarianism.
Although the story is quite short, it makes allusions to many leading intellectual figures both in Argentina and in the world at large, and takes up a number of themes more typical of a novel of ideas. Most of the ideas engaged are in the areas of language, epistemology, and literary criticism.

So, hey, this is probably Ales being his absolutely least subtle ever in writing the solicit, right? (Assuming Ales wrote the solicit.) Ales certainly wears a lot of his influences on his sleeve, with the most recent issue referencing Godard’s Contempt, a film in which artistic creativity clashes against the reality of how much it costs to make art in the first place. It seems now that we’re about to get arms-deep in “SA’s” Tlön.

If you’d like to read “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” you can do so right here.

SECRET AVENGERS #9
ALES KOT (W)
MICHAEL WALSH (A)
Cover by TRADD MOORE
DEADPOOL 75TH VARIANT COVER BY TBA
• TLÖN? TLÖN! How many more secrets are going to be uncovered? In this issue? Like, right now? MANY!
• Hawkeye and Deadpool work together to stop a deranged mullet-wearing ex-wrestler! But Deadpool has a SECRET!
• Maria Hill figures things out! DOOMED ESCAPE ATTEMPT! DESPERATE SCIENTIST! LAST HOPE! Erhmagerd, is BLACK WIDOW alive?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

4. The Return of Icon

I’m sure you, like me, was quite surprised to hear that there would be a new creator-owned series on Marvel’s Icon, an all but dead imprint. To see that it was a new series written by Jason Aaron was probably even more surprising (who has his own ongoing with Jason Latour over at Image). But, hey, Aaron and Ron Garney are responsible for one of my all-time favorite Wolverine stories, so them teaming up once again in order to tell their own story is OK with me, no matter what imprint it finds itself at home at. This is something that seems perfect in the wheelhouse for both of them, especially after “Wolverine: Weapon X,” so I say bring it on.

MEN OF WRATH #1 (of 5)
JASON AARON (W) • RON GARNEY (A/C)
VARIANT COVER BY STEVE DILLON
Ever since Great Grandfather Isom killed a man over some sheep, a black cloud has hung over the Rath family. Now, over a century later, Ira Rath, the coldest hitman ever to walk on Alabama soil, has taken a job that will decide the fate of his cursed family once and for all. Writer Jason Aaron (Southern Bastards, Scalped) and artist Ron Garney (Weapon X, Thor: God of Thunder) team up once again, to bring you the story of a Southern family, whose only heirloom is violence.
32 PAGES / FC / M…$3.50

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3. The Unseen

I don’t mean to spoil anything for you, but in “Original Sin” there’s this whole bit about The Unseen, a figure who has been lurking in the shadows protecting us all from massive threats we didn’t even know about. And at the end of #6, it is posed to a cast of characters that one of them will have to take on the mantle of The Unseen, continuing his duties in space to protect the world from things they never even know about.

How fortuitous it is, then, that there is this solicit from the creative team of Ales Kot and Marco Rudy for a series in which Bucky is “operating on an intergalactic stage” that is also “following the tragedy of “Original Sin.”

I’m in.

BUCKY BARNES: THE WINTER SOLDIER #1
ALES KOT (W) • MARCO RUDY (A/C)
VARIANT COVER BY SKOTTIE YOUNG
DESIGN VARIANT COVER BY Marco Rudy
ARTIST VARIANT COVER BY Steve Epting
DEADPOOL 75TH VARIANT COVER BY TBA
BLANK VARIANT ALSO AVAILABLE
• Following the tragedy of Original Sin, what becomes of Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier? Find out in this new ongoing series.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

2. Spiderakira

Inspired by Paul Pope and Katsuhiro Otomo, I geeked the heck out over Gerard Way and Jake Wyatt’s SP//dr, in which a little girl named Peni Parker inhabits a robo-Spider suit that itself is powered by a sentient spider. I just wanted to remind everyone how exciting this sounds here, is all.

EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE #5 (of 5)
GERARD WAY (W) • JAKE WYATT (A/C)
VARIANT COVER BY GREG LAND
EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE
• What or who is SP//dr?
• Gerard Way (Umbrella Academy) makes his Marvel debut with Jake Wyatt (Ms. Marvel, Indestructible Hulk) establishing a new universe and the incredible Spider character who inhabits it!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

1. The Real, Final Finale of “Hawkeye”

As confirmed by Fraction in the latest installment of his and Kelly Sue’s newsletter, “Hawkeye” #22 aka ‘El Dorado’ is the finale of the series. As he wrote,

It’s gonna be longer than twenty pages. I shouldn’t say how much longer until I get final confirmation. I’m dragging my feet a little on wrapping it up but… well, it’ll be done this week. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, and then that’s it for me. Hard to say goodbye I guess (funny; I drag my feet on all my last issues).

Will we actually see it in October? Likely. Fraction gave the status of all the issues in the same newsletter (#19 was at press last week, on sale July 30th; #20 is being wrapped by Wu, #21 is with Aja) so they have time to do it. Still, it’ll be very sad to see the series go. A book that helped re-define a big part of Marvel’s mission statement, it’s decidedly been one of the best books every month it comes out, late or not. I’ll certainly miss it when its gone.

It’ll be exciting to pick-up the eventual “Hawkeye” omnibus, though!