The Marvel Thread

[HarryTrotter]

Im really unsure if anyone at Marvel knows how this is supposed to go down.And considering the creative team...Well Hickman can write a good story,but it takes him 100 issues to do that.Slott and Bendis I really dont want to comment.
Dan Abnett is promising in all of this.Loved Gaunts Ghosts.

[Silver Shocker]

I used to read Hickman's Avengers, but I fell out of it and never got back into it. It was too dry for my tastes and I wasn't in love with his new villains.

Dan Abnett (along with Andy Lanning), I loved on the cosmic Marvel books before the new versions of Guardians and Nova. Those were awesome. I don't think I've read much by them since, but I've liked other stuff by them (Heroes for Hire/Villains for Hire was pretty good)

In the spirit of being more positive, Ant Man by Nick Spencer is still awesome. Like Superior Foes before it, I genuinely think it's the best book on the stands right now.

Spoiler

In the latest issue, Machinesmith is made into a straight up comic relief character. I thought it was pretty funny, but it is kinda strange considering he was a legit villain in Brubaker's Cap. That's just one of those things that happen in Marvel/DC comcis a lot these days.

[HarryTrotter]

Continuing on the the whole Iceman reveal: Anyone remembers Chuck Austens run?When Northstar had a crush on Bobby?Yeah,Its kinda funny now. XD

[Tomato]

About Bobby...

Spoiler

Eh... I understand what Bendis was going for, but... This really just doesn't make sense. This reveal relies entirely on Bobby being so deeply afraid of revealing his orientation that he's kept it a secret from everyone around him this entire time. But the people closest to Bobby, the other X-men... they don't care. Heck, Beast actually "came out" (during Morrison's run on the series) despite not actually being gay, for no other reason than to give young people someone to look up to. It just wasn't that big of a deal to him. So yeah, I kind of find it hard to believe that Adult Bobby would be so deep in the closet he wouldn't admit it to anyone, ESPECIALLY when he's freaking surrounded by telepaths.

So... yeah, I appreciate the thought, but... eh.

[crimsonquill]

About Bobby..

Spoiler

Now that we are going into Secret Wars, I'm just getting more convinced that the All-New X-Men (original five) will be left behind in the Prime Timeline.. so they are setting up Bobby's new orientation like a neon sign right off the bat to avoid any more subtle hints in further stories. Angel already got his new wings to avoid turning him into Archangel/Angel Of Death and Cyclops is being trained as a space pirate by his Dad to eliminate his daddy issues and terminal depression.

- CQ

[JeyNyce]

I really don't care if Iceman is gay or not, what really bothers me about it that Jean told him that he was gay.  That makes no sense to me what so ever.  Can you trust a person with telepathic and telekinetic powers telling you stuff about yourself?  For all we know she could be using her powers to make him think that he's gay.  Next issue she be like, "Oh Bobby, I forgot to tell you, not only are you gay, but you're a chicken too!"  Oh well, that's enough of me ranting, I don't read the book anyway.

[SickAlice]

" Don't care " would be my reaction as well. As in " either way ". Normally when you make a big move or drop an important plot point it should have some weight and value to it. I really didn't feel anything other than " Oh okay, great. Moving on? ". And of course they didn't. It read like filler to me honestly. Sort of like the recent Catwoman bit. Many readers were up in arms or on the other end of spectrum saluting the gesture. I didn't really grasp the shock reaction since it read to me as no more impactful than if a character was shown eating a hamburger. I suppose though we live in the buzzword era though that doesn't mean writers need to capitalize on the nature of the beast. I've personally always been pretty strict that something should only be in a story or in frame if it " needs " to be there. If it's essential to serving the plot movement in other words. Else it just serves discombobulation as Ebert put it.

[HarryTrotter]

Strangly enough,I dont think I saw even one argument about this.I guess nobody really cares?
Apparently Chuck Austen was on to something there... XD

[SickAlice]

That's probably a good thing really. It either means society, or at least the comic reading circles have become more lax and adjusted to men being homosexual and/or they actually handled it well enough? Still I felt if anything it was out of place. I don't understand why a character can't be gay or anything else without a big production being made of it. Again though I think it's just a reflection of the times.

[Tomato]

What's insane is that they *did* have a char come out without it being a big deal, in a book I'm pretty sure was also written by bendis, and it was not even that long ago. It was back in Uncanny Xmen, with the kid who mirrors traits or whatever.

[HarryTrotter]

If I see the sentence: The Iceman cometh out,one more time Im gonna have to kill someone.Wasnt funny the first time people,not gonna be funny ever.
Anyone else thinks that Sunspot buying AIM wont stick for long?

[detourne_me]

Not just Morph, that same month Bling! Came out in adjectiveless X-Men, too. I wrote about it a while ago, naively hopeful that Bendis was working on something good.

[HarryTrotter]

Magneto: That wasn't me.
Wolverine: Oh really now?
Magneto: That was actually Xorn's evil twin brother, possessed by the sentient mold Sublime, pretending to be me, pretending to be Xorn.
Beast: That defies all logic!

Axel Alonso: Continuity does not need fixing,why would you want that? 

[SickAlice]

Well and first off a little about myself: I work in politics on and off helping secure LGBT rights in the US. I've spent a lot of time in mayors offices and drop-in centers towards this end. So diversity and equality are high priority for me. Just to excuse myself from any verbal faux pas here.

I guess in real life if you find out a friend is gay or an associate and you make a huge production about it that would make you sort of a jerk? Now Northstar for example, or Anole. These characters were just gay and that's who they are, then we moved on. It wasn't this thing were the people who knew them were up in arms or something. Obviously to if you lived in a world were people suddenly grew wings and fly and what not the normal personal traits wouldn't have the kind of impact that they do in our real world (and really at this point in 2015 shouldn't anyways, imo). Yet here how many pages of attempted shock value? Iceman could have been like " I'm gay guys " and Jean is like " We know and we're cool with that. Your Iceman and that's what matters to us. " Kind of like how well Future Foundation handled having Tong be trans.

It isn't a big complaint here mind you but just saying it was out of place and lacking in tact. More something a say heterosexual college fratboy might write from a lacking P.O.V. on how homosexuality works. And yeah as you pointed out Tomato...Bendis. He's a great writer in his own season but he's, well, he has a real Spanky's Clubhouse demeanor about him as well often displays a lack of tact. So not really a surprise seeing him not handling social moments anymore than not seeing Slott handle romance (he has that Secret Wars title to prove me wrong here but otherwise, the guy just write romance).

Moving on decent enough book anyways, in a lot of ways I'm not looking forward to seeing the current line-up and environment of most of Marvels books go away during Secret Wars. The Schism thing is pretty convoluted but I find the team and school structures to be rather enjoyable as is.

[HarryTrotter]

Out of the left field a bit,but you know whats the best Marvel comic(s) ever?Marvel Adventures.Seriously,its superior to canon in every way.That why they canceled it,I guess.

[JeyNyce]

Marvel is going Gwen crazy.  Starting in June, some of their cover will have Gwen Stacy with a hero's power.  Some of them includes:

The InGWENible Hulk
Gwenon
G.W.E.N.D.O.K.
Dr Strange-gwen
Thor, Gwen of Thunder
Iron Gwen
Marvel made up these names, not me.  Looking at some of the covers they do look interesting, but I hope they stay as just covers.

[HarryTrotter]

Well that Avengers/Attack on Titan crossover was retarded. 
Adjectivless Avengers were just sort of bland. 
Uncanny Inhumans pretty much establishes that mutants were replaced.With Inhumans poping eveywhere and only around 200 mutants left.Something that I kinda only noticed now: New Thor is blonde,wears a silver mask,and we dont know her true identity--She is A CHAR. 

[SickAlice]

First issue of SW certainly didn't pull any punches. My eyes are swollen. " Could " have been longer yet it got the point across as is so maybe not. All I can think of the say on the matter.

[laughing paradox]

I haven't been really reading comics for the past year (with the exception of The Walking Dead and The New Avengers) and I got Secret Wars #1.

My god, this is how you start an event. I loved the roller coaster effect I felt while reading it. It's also nice to see what New Avengers was finally leading to, with all the incursions and the Illuminati and the Cabal.

I can't wait to continue reading on.

[HarryTrotter]

New Thors identity is reveled before the issue was out.Im just gonna say: I tawld ya so! XD

[JeyNyce]

New Thors identity is reveled before the issue was out.Im just gonna say: I tawld ya so! XD

All the fans though one way, but Marvel tricked everybody by thinking it was that way, but at the end it was the one way all along, make sense? 

[murs47]

What a fantastic second issue to Secret Wars! So much flavor! Mmmmmmmmmmm!

[SickAlice]

Good golly Sinister is so cool! I can't even the last time he jobbed much less had anything other than a high showing on panel.

[SickAlice]

Big Marvel day. Can't sleep. Going to sleep though so I can get my butt to town. There really isn't much on my Marvel pull list I'm not geared up  for today.

[SickAlice]

Just finished reading A-Force. Really owns up to it's hype.

Spoiler

- The Megalodon is a pretty huge cameo. I'm not sure how they're going to play it out but that's a hat tip The Masters Of Doom story arc by Mark Millar. Anyone recognize it?
- No kidding, when Namor and Co. showed up, right then as I was reading that page the A-Team theme was playing on the television. 

[HarryTrotter]

I did read a few issue of SW and Im not sold on the event.Dont get me wrong,Frank Castle Sorcerer Supreme is probably the coolest concept Marvel ever came up with,but this is just impossible for one person to read...so many tie-ins and preludes etc...I didnt even touch the main series,Im pretty sure I missed 50 issues od prologues and thus I cant understand nothing.   
On the whole disscusion of cool,Captain America and Devil Dinosaur team-up. 

[JeyNyce]

I'm really enjoying the side stories.  Planet Hulk, Battle World and A-Force were all a good read.  My only complain is that A-Force was quick, as soon as it started to get interesting, it was over.

[SickAlice]

I'm playing it like Convergence. I'm in the event for the main series, in this case because I'm following Hickman out from back on F4 and not requiring myself to look at anything else. I consider it a great opportunity to clean up both pull lists else I'm looking at whatever and if I like it I keep it if not I don't pick the next issue (usually the latter which my bank account is liking).

- Spade: You don't have to read the tie-ins to get the main story. If you thought those were an ajoined plotline that's probably why you got confused? That bit with Dr.Strange *spoilers?* is the only thing I can think of actually though one could as well get that online and pass (unless you like MODOK centric stuff, not my cup of tea). That was what I meant by marvelwiki blowing it, oddly since their whole thing is cataloging alternate timeline characters and in this they messed up almost all of them right out the gate. They for example listed the Dr.Strange in the main series as " 616 ". It isn't, that one's fate was revealed in Battleworld #1. The one in the main series is from 1602, it was even stated on panel. The red haired Thor is also not King Thor. King Thor has white hair and an eyepatch. I digress the tie-ins are pick and choose. Your not retaining part of the plot by reading Spider-verse or something. Marvel let Hickman keep his own story pretty self contained. I'd say Ultimate End though does highlight ALOT though and is probably a good one to tack on with the main book. Honestly at this point I think Time Runs Out and Ultimates are the only " needed " reads but really we live in an age with the internet so there's not really a good reason to be uninformed. There's literally an individual wikipedia or at least fanpage for every comic series these days with cliffnotes.

You are not wrong that there are a HOLY-GUACOMOLI! amount of books being published in this though. Word is Marvel is cutting it's venue way down after SW. No kidding, probably to make up for the loss they're going to incur over this over-saturation effort. Ironically too as that's exactly why they ended up bankrupt back when yet they keep making the same mistake over and over again. You'd think avoiding that route would be straight up instinctual for them by now. And really no one should be faulted nor even consider shaming themselves if they pass over more than half of these books. If you don't actually own an LCS I can only imagine you would have to actually choose between 1.) Every Secret Wars title or 2.) food. I want to say something here as well about being wary of going with the flow and the talk on the street as it is in internet terms but minding guidelines most of the top promoters you find on the comic forums are not who they are saying and you should take any " you must buy " and information you come along with a huge grain of salt.

- JeyNyce: A-Force is an ongoing JeyNyce. The story continues in issue #2 like any normal comic would. Most of the SW tie-ins are mini-series for that matter. Unless you mean the issue itself was really short?

-
My picks so far:
- Secret Wars: Staying with until conclusion
- Ultimate End: Staying
- A-Force: Staying obviously. I actually believe 100% this series if no other will not end after Secret Wars does. They could not have marketed a comic better than this to be honest.
- Planet Hulk: dropping
- Deadpools Secret War: I have it but haven't read but DP is an auto stay for me. That's my break from the serious stuff now that She-Hulk isn't in print
- Battleworld: I don't know. I thought the first issue was boring and again I don't care about MODOK. But this is an anthology series and every story stands to be different. Something might happen here that I want to see. I guess I'll play it by ear.
- Spider-verse: Staying I guess but honestly I wasn't doing backflips. The character depth is great as they point out in the backpage but the story itself is weak. That 6th *spoiler* though pretty much snagged me
- Master Of Kung-Fu: I only wanted one thing from this book and that was to not even bother with it. Somehow I grabbed one issue anyways. This book is a sleeper hit and Secret Wars Shang-Chi is the best Shang-Chi ever!!! Staying all the way.
* - Last Days: Like with anyone else this is a gimme. I'm following out any books I was already reading so there are no new hooks here.
-----
Projections:
- Inhumans: I dropped Inhumans pretty early on. Issue 5 or 6 I think? I like the Inhumans a lot but this incarnation did nothing for me. I don't even think I'll look at this one.
- Journal: Anthology so same opinion as Battleworld. Playing this by ear/depends who shows up in the issue.
- Ghost Racers: I'm heavily into Ghost Rider, any version of even but this looks cheesy as heck. I'll give the first issue a shot though.
- Thors: On my pull list. I love Marvel NOW Thor and I already dig the Thor Corps concept.
- Age of Ultron vs Marvel Zombies: Almost no interest short of the fact that Elsa is the protagonist.
- Starlord and Kitty Pryde: This is for all intents and purposes a continuation of Legendary Star-Lord just retitled. I like that series so I'm following this.
- Runaways: I was sold the second they announced it. Don't let me down.
- Korvac Saga: Retitled continuation here as well (Guardians 3000). I like that book and love Korvac so I'm staying with this.
- Red Skull: I missed this one somehow. I heard the title, zero interest. read the synopsis (dark, gritty and edgy...lol), zero interest. Saw the inspiration (Heart Of Darkness), saw the line-up...holy moly the cast! Giving it a shot.
- Siege: Gillen writing Agent Brand. Absolutely. I'd wear a t-shirt of it.
- Secret Love: Just a 1-shot so it won't really break my bank. This one has a big wealth of talent jumping into it. The idea off doing a shout out to the romance age of comic books itself is intriguing. Yeah I'll buy one.
- 2099: Following Peter David to this. I'm a huge fan.
- Where Monsters Dwell: Not on my pull list. I'm indifferent. Imo Garth Ennis is at his best when he's not actually writing over the top borderline X-Rated material so I could see this having a lot of depth, however the core concept and characters hold no interest.
- MODOK: See: No interest in MODOK.
- Inferno. I'm a classic X-Men fan so yes. I'm already in love with the characters they introduced for this already.
- Old Man Logan: The original story made me puke, I mean I actually did throw up. I'm not going anywhere near this one, no offense to anyone who does. That series was just too gross for me.
- Infinity Gauntlet: I like scifi so I pulled it but I'm wary of what the content is going to be like.
- X-tinction Agenda: See: Inferno
- Weirdworld: No interest in Arkon and fairies. Pass.
- Mrs.Deadpool: This was my first definitive " yes " when I was making my pull for the event. I don't care if this the worst read ever because I'll be too busy staring at Shiklah in awe of how such a thing could even come to be. The fact that the monsters are in this helps as well.
- AvX: I have no interest in Skottie Young and I never have. I actually draw cute cartoons better than he does for one and he's the one that's a professional. For two I do think he is talented and shows it when he challenges himself but he keeps taking the lazy way out and drawing this garbage instead all the while diminishing his real art skills over time. It's fine to cartoon, sure, but even the elders in that field will tell you if you don't continually stretch outside of that single style your overall skills will diminish and your art will lose it's soul. I get even more irked by the fact my bonus covers are constantly dominated by this huey as well my bonus backstories. Does he give Marvel discount? Thank Doom Marvel actually sprung the extra dough to get Ross to the covers for SW instead of that manchild. I may have died from the sheer banality. That also means Howard The Human is a no as well. On a side note what even is that? Isn't the whole appeal of that character supposed to be that he's not human, rather a duck? That would be liking publishing a book about Steve Rogers: Gas Station Attendant. Sounds like a waste of paper and everyone's hard earned moola to me.
- 1602: Witch Hunter Angela: OH MY GOD YES! And that cover!
- A couple in sequence here since I have the exact opinion of all them which is not pulled, not largely interested but not really turned off either so maybe I'll look at #1 if I have the spending cash and time (phew...did I just anime dub myself?): Armour Wars, Civil War, Hail Hydra, Mighty Defenders, House Of M, Hank Johnson.
- Age of Apocalypse: Pulled. Like the other X-books this is nostalgia for me. Not only did the X-Books get me into comics full swing but it began with AOA, so any AOA book is always purchased. X-Men '92 right along with it then.
- Renew Your Vows: We're going to get screwed I'm telling you this now. Marvel went out of their way to call this " The Spider-man book YOU want! ". Thing is if they actually cared about what you want Peter and MJ would still be married anyways. Marvel is a company first and foremost. It is their job to dictate the market to ensure their own future and that of their shareholders. In other words to force feed you and I what they either want to or can produce, not what our hearts desire. That's the root of consumerism. So what am I guessing this book is going to show us? It's going to show us that the worst thing that could ever ever ever ever have happened to Amazing Spider-man would be if MJ and Peter stayed married. I'll literally put money on that prediction. Added here I really love Slotts writing except when it comes to one single area and that is love and romance. The man tome has no clue even what a relationship is and it seems his only POV on it is based on college hijinks and escapades where the woman is only around to serve the mans physical needs should they arise. I'm not sure he actually even knows what passion is to be honest. In other words this is a no for me. Marvel burned me on MJ one too many times, I'm not reaching in the oven for those cookies again.
- 1872: I'm not interested in cowboy stories. The old west just isn't my thing. I'm sure the writing will be up to snub anyways. Funny bit here, I briefly got called out by Duggan on this. I said with no snark whatsoever exactly what I typed here. I also added that I loved Duggan's writing and as it was I was buying everything else by him so I'm sure he'd be okay with it. Apparently the dude was lurking because he literally contacted me and scolded me for not wanting his cowboy book, lol. I just shook my head and decided that he must have been drunk or something. I mean saying you like 99.9% of a persons art isn't really an insult.

[JeyNyce]

I meant that the issue itself was short.

On a side note, I've became friends with Marguerite Bennett (one of the writers).  She signed my book and we talked about some of her upcoming projects.  She is really proud of A Force. She told me that Marvel is really pushing this book.

[HarryTrotter]

@Alice I was going the other way around,reading the tie-ins and ignoring the main event.Which like I said I missed the set up for.
-Planet Hulk seemed just sort of fun,I mean Cap and Devil Dinosaur fighting a bunch of Hulks?Sign me up!
-Spider-verse was mediocre.Gwen stops Jackal from robbing graves,you get it?Whats with that?
-Battleworld I talked about.
-Punisher 19 and 20 I would be geting anyway.
-AoA,X-tinction agenda and '92 seem like a certain throw in