My favorite comics title of all-time, the group that got me interested in comics. Getting to play with a new #1 is exciting. I love the creator-team for this one: Matt Fraction and Mark Bagley. Bagley's art is so precise and beautiful and Fraction is known for giving Iron Man a personality at the critical time of the movies taking off. I can't wait to see what these two do with my favorite team. New Fantastic Four. YEA!
There isn't too much buzz about this story relative to the other titles, but I'm in love with it for three reasons.
1) Jason Aaron writes with grit (things like Scalped, Wolverine and Punisher.) And now he is going to write Thor. I'm looking forward to this take on him.
2) The story will span three eras: young viking, present avenger, future god-king. Therefore, we are assured a complex story, but probably not confusing.
3) Here is an interview excerpt about the villian in this story:
Linking all these eras and Thors together is one villain, an all-new character, who is basically, at least initially, a serial killer of gods. He's a guy with a serious axe to grind against all immortal beings in the cosmos, and he's going around doing his best to kill them all off, one at a time, as brutally as possible. That villain's story unfolds over the course of all these different eras. He starts as a serial killer of gods, but by the end, he has become something even more frightening.3) Avengers
Nrama: That's "the God Butcher," correct?
Aaron: Yes. Gorr the God Butcher."
4) New Avengers
Because of the movie franchise, Avengers are pretty darn exciting right now, so I anticipate a lot of focus on this title. I am grouping the two together because they are written by the same person and they are supposedly going to be pretty hand-in-hand with each other. However, there isn't much info about the storyline yet. So why so high? Well, the writer. Jonathan Hickman. Hickman rocked the Fantastic Four storyline recently. He is great at tackling large complex stories, which is the best part of the Avengers. While the movies show a compact team, comic fans of the Avengers have enjoyed the ever-shifting team and dynamics of the Avengers. It looks like the comic is going to be a pretty huge team, as seen from the first three covers together.
Even less is known about New Avengers, except that "Avengers is about life, and New Avengers is about death." Well that sounds rad. Ironically, despite the darkness, the only teaser we have is a silly, fun variant cover. But it hints at a team that I would love to see together: Black Bolt, Black Panther, Iron Man and Reed Richards.This team could be quite dark.
5) All-New X-Men
Marvel can do some cutting-edge, smart stuff with mutants. I've appreciated how they investigate issues of minorities, race and just being different through the lens of mutantkind. One of the better storylines for the X-Men was Days of Future Past, which investigates a dark future for society. (The next X-Men movie features DoFP in the title, but who knows what this means.) The Marvel NOW! story for this launch involves the original X-Men (Beast, Angel, Jeany Grey, Cyclops and Iceman) traveling to the present, as their future. I've been seeing a bunch of people saying, "I hate time travel stories - they don't make sense."
OK, let's stop there. The Marvel Universe is based on Non-Sense. That is what I love about Superhero comics - they allow us to have some context to the absurd and difficult, much like comedy. A really smart person will be able to make some interesting commentary on the past 50 years of society with a title like this, since there will be this lovely buffer of the absurdity of time-traveling mutants. Ever read Gulliver's Travels or Animal Farm? Oh, and they did find someone smart to handle this: Brian Michael Bendis. Yes. This title looks pretty tough.
6) Indestructible Hulk
Two words: HULK SMASH. Seriously, for as long as I can remember I've built things and destroyed them - this is why beaches are so incredible - the combined creative + destructive forces. So, ok, we all love Hulk. There now is some separation between Hulk and Bruce Banner, who has slowly been elevated to the intellectual ranks of Tony Stark and Reed Richards. The writer Mark Waid has the hot hand in reinventing Daredevil without wrecking anything. He says the title will read as a "release the Kraken" as Hulk becomes a S.H.I.E.L.D. weapon. Oh and Leinil Yu the artist? He's rockstar:
7) A+X (Avengers + X-Men)
I'm a sucker for team-ups. 2 team-ups/issue. So far they've indicated Hulk+Wolverine, Captain America+Cable, Spider-man+Beast, Iron Man+Kitty Pryde and Lockheed. Just sounds like a bunch o' fun.
8) Captain America
“Kirby Sci-Fi Indiana Jones” is how series writer Rick Remender is describing this title. Cap will be playing a big role in lots of Marvel Universe going-ons as always, so I'm happy to hear there will be a pulpy title for playful stories of him.
9) Avengers Arena
The Marvel Universe meets Battle Royale/Hunger Games. A bunch of teenage characters I know very little about will be thrown into Murder World with the classic "Kill or be Killed" idea. This is another title I see a bunch of negativity towards. I'm quite looking forward to it. Since it is a running series rather than a mini-run, there will be much more character development and dealing with the "end-of-life while coming-to-life" theme. Again, comics exploring the extreme. I'm looking forward to quite an emotional story - having a writer named Hopeless is just the cherry on top.
10) Uncanny Avengers
Argh. We are on the 10th book and I'm still really excited about the title!? I'm going to go broke. I would be more excited about this title, but I think it will rely heavily on the Avengers vs. X-Men story at first, and I didn't follow that one - so I may be out of the loop. But Captain America and Wolverine on the same team? Yes, I'll be there.
11) Cable and X-Force
I mentioned before, I love the look of this book: the orange and metal gray. And then there is this line from Dennis Hopeless, the series writer: "Mad Max meets Steve McQueen as played by the T2 Terminator: That's my take on Cable." Obviously, I'm going to give this title a peek.
12) Iron Man
Iron Man is always difficult to predict. He (Tony Stark) was pretty lacking in personality until Matt Fraction, Robert Downey Jr., and Marvel Movies breathed some awesomeness into him. Despite being at #12, I am still at the "wholly anticipate to love this book level." The jaw-dropping, new toys are enough to keep me hooked for the first several issues.
13) Thunderbolts
Unlucky 13, perhaps? I have subscribed to this title. I like the look of it. But I have to admit, I'm on board with many of the doubters. A team of people who do best solo? Punisher, Red Hulk, Elektra, Deadpool, and Venom. We'll see. Steve Dillon's art will be enough to keep me excited - because this is a visually-striking team. I'm in love with the variant covers graphic. As I become aware of how expensive it is to subscribe to this many books, this point is where I see a short leash.
14) X-Men Legacy
I think this is going to be a Marvel experiment. If it works out like Lemire's recent Animal Man, boy, I'm all-in. But it could just be too much for me as an on-boarding comics fan.
15) FF
As a bigtime fan of the Fantastic Four, these peripheral titles always worry me. I am encouraged that it is written by the Fantastic Four writer, Matt Fraction. However, I'm not sold yet. "Miss Thing" sounds like a horrible idea based on my favorite character. But I'm ignorant, so we'll see.
Not even subscribing, just don't have the bandwidth and cash - oh and I just don't get the whole Deadpool thing:
Uncanny X-Force
Red She-Hulk
Deadpool
No comments:
Post a Comment