All New, All Different Marvel

[The NZA]

[Iambaytor]

DEATH'S HEAD?!? my body is ready

[The NZA]

yeah, wasn't sure if that was him or not - trying to ID the rest of the pics. they're really reaching out there to bring back some fan favorites, there's a few on that lineup i posted that got me kinda hyped too...howling commandoes one could be fun

[Iambaytor]

Not just any Death's Head, but the real one. Not that lame-ass 90's-cool Death's Head 2 that wasn't cool or funny (or symmetrical) or the better-but-diluted Death's Head 3, I'm crossing my fingers they can get Simon Furman onboard but I'll take what I can get at this point. I'm very interested to see how he handles Battleworld. (Though a member of the Guardians or Avengers A.I. would be nice, too.)

 

I'm happy to see Hercules (Hopefully not MRA Hercules from the 2099 book), Black Panther, and Citizen V (always liked the design and occasionally the character. I barely even know who Redwolf is so I can't say at this time and I'm not sure what Mary Jane(?), The Ringer (probably not), Ender (definitely not), and cloakey-swordy guy are about. The one on the bottom right kinda looks like Black Widow, but I can't be sure.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Iambaytor

[The NZA]

Herc's back too - Comic Book Resources

 

 

 

Being one of the Marvel Universe's ageless beings often means confronting several lifetimes' worth of regret, but it also means it's never too late to atone and turn your life around, a lesson the Olympian demigod Hercules knows all too well. Over his centuries of life, he's done some good, but he's also misbehaved quite often.

 

In November, writer Dan Abnett and artist Luke Ross launch a new ongoing "Hercules" series. In it, Herc attempts to turn over a new leaf and become the hero he once was and knows he can be again. It's a quest that will have the Avenger confronting the challenges that arise when modern day Manhattan and the myths of various ancient cultures collide.

 

In an exclusive first interview, Abnett spoke with CBR News about his plans for the Olympian demigod, the way in which he and Ross will examine the character's past while honoring previous continuity, and the mythical and Marvel characters Herc will encounter on his quest to be a better hero and god.

 

...

 

I understand you're doing something a little different in "Hercules" that allows for all of the title's character's past established Marvel continuity, but also adds to his history.

 

Absolutely. I immediately went away and thought about Hercules the mythological character and immediately realized that his legend goes back to a time before he was even called Hercules. It's an incredibly ancient myth that probably even predates written language that's appeared in many cultures. Heracles is his most famous incarnation, but he's kind of this archetype and I was suddenly struck with this idea that it's almost like he's the first super hero. He's an extraordinary hero who's enormously capable, beloved by the gods, and will do anything to protect and look after you if he's on your side. He's also capable though of enormous foolishness, violent rage, and terrible decision making.

 

That intrigued me. I realized that the slightly buffoonish quality of Hercules in the Marvel Universe -- that may not be the right word, but we'll go with it right now for the purpose of this conversation -- reflects that slightly more negative side of him. He's a great guy to have around and can pull through in a crunch, but quite a bit of the time he was a slight liability. I thought that was a really interesting thing. He's on par with Thor. He's this extraordinary hero. So why would that be?

 

If you think of a great athlete or sportsman, they have periods in their life where they're at the top of their game. They're beloved and very, very successful. Then for whatever reason, be it injury or they take some time off, they have a sort of lax period where they're not at fighting form and they enjoy the luxuries of life that their success has bread for them. Then after while they go, "It's very nice being a rich person with my own helicopter, but I want to get back into the game because I love it so much and I've sort of lost my edge a little."

 

I thought, if Hercules has been around for thousands of years, we might look at his career in the Marvel Universe so far, say through the last 20 years or so of comic publishing, as slightly representative of that. He's been a hero for longer than most people and he's coasted. He's had a few weeks off. Except in his terms that's probably the best part of a century. That's perfectly normal, but he's become aware of the fact that people don't look at him with the same awe that they do Captain America, or Iron Man, or Thor. They go, "Oh Hercules! He's the funny one!" In this Internet age, he'd be the one where you'd see the fail photographs of him at an event or doing something daft or whatever.

 

The Labors of Hercules were essentially punishment. He made a mess of things, and the gods basically said, "Right, you're going to do twelve really difficult things as kind of penance." That was him sort of getting his act together, and I thought that's a really nice reoccurring motif. So in this book, he's absolutely the Hercules who has existed so far and he's still absolutely capable of all those things. He's still very genial and quite funny, but he's also decided it's time he got back in shape and got his career back together again. In doing so I hope he's showing that not only is he the world's first super hero, but he's this extraordinary capable warrior and hunter.

 

Also, he's lived down the ages in a sort of "Highlander" type way and every age that he's lived in he's encountered the warriors and fighters of that era and learned from them. That means in the present day he may be an ancient warrior, but he doesn't have to carry a club and wear sandals all the time. He will use the best tool, instrument or weapon for any job that's at hand because he does work with the times. He does understand that new eras bring new ideas and new ways of thinking about stuff. I found that made him a very exciting figure.

 

I also wanted to set up the idea that maybe as a demigod and part of the ancient mythological world he's aware of sort of tremors in the last sort of vestiges of a mythological age that the modern world has almost obliterated to an extent. He's sensitive to that and has become the go to guy for those slightly sort of off beat things. For instance Tony Stark might go, "Wow! Centaurs. I don't know what to do about those?" Whereas Hercules would go, "I know all about those." So he has an area of expertise that fills a really interesting niche in the same way that if it was magic you would go to Doctor Strange or if it's technology Tony Stark is your man. So it's almost like an area of expertise that Hercules has decided to remind the world he know all about.

 

Writing Hercules comes with fans hoping for appearances by other characters from Herc's past, like Amadeus Cho, or his family in the Olympian pantheon. Do you have immediate plans for some of these characters?

 

You will see some of them. I don't want to just bring everybody in in Issue #1. There's a sort of build to what I want to do and, as I said, I'm not dispensing with any prior continuity. There's a possibility for anything that's ever appeared in Hercules to be in this. I'd like to kind of introduce them in interesting and unexpected ways. Like I said, Hercules has walked the Earth for thousands of years and therefore knows everybody, so almost around every corner, there's an old friend to reunite with.

 

Who are some of the people that will already be in Herc's life when you pick things up in Issue #1?

 

I'm trying to build a small, but interesting supporting cast of genuine human characters around him. He lives in an apartment in a building where his landlady is sort of his greatest friend and confidant. She knows she's got a god living in her building, and she knows that comes with problems. She's sort of his conscience, but also realizes that for all the downsides of having a super-powerful god living in your building there are many plus sides as well.

 

We'll meet other mythical heroes or heroines who turn to him as an example of someone who is adjusting to modernity in ways that they haven't, and it's a choice between learning from him or kind of disappearing forever into the shadows and their myths dying out.

 

I have this vision of him having Gilgamesh as a flatmate crashing on his sofa. Gilgamesh doesn't understand why Hercules does what he does. He's sort of lost his way, and Hercules is trying to teach his friend, who is very much his equal --mythologically speaking, they could be versions of the same people. He's slowly trying to set some examples for Gil about what to do, and where Gilgamesh goes from that I think will be interesting. There will be a buddy-buddy thing going on, but also Gilgamesh is a fantastic hero in his own right and might surprise us by being heroic in his own way, and in a way that's different from Hercules.

 

Luke Ross' new look

 

[The NZA]

in the not-so-different dept

 

MARVEL Gets EXTREME For December '92' Variant Cover Theme

 

Marvel is getting extreme for its themed variant covers in the month of December. Marvel '92 is the name of the publisher's December variants theme, harkening back to a pivotal moment in comic books and the world at large.

 

“The X-Men aren’t the only ones getting in on the ‘92 action,” says Marvel SVP Sales & Marketing David Gabriel. “Witnessing that memorable era of comics brought to life again got us thinking about all the fun incarnations of Marvel’s most popular characters. Before we knew it we had a huge list of 1990s characters ready to make their 2015 debut!”

 

Newsarama has the first look at All-New Wolverine #3 by Tom Raney, Carnage #3 by Mike Deodato, Drax #2 by Ron Lim, Spider-Man 2099 #4 by Pasqual Ferry, Mighty Thor #2 by Ron Frenz, and Totally Awesome Hulk #1 by Dale Keown.

 

 

 

 

more at the link. also the AOA battleworld one was great:

 

 

and while we're at it? i'm ready to forgive all sins to see some of jim lee's 90's costumes return...not all, but particularly Cyclops; his outfits have been a downward spiral ever since, and his current penis/diver one is a record low.

[Iambaytor]

I played bass for Penis Diver.

[The NZA]

...so while it's kinda crazy that Secret Wars hasn't wrapped up, we're knee-deep in the new books - who's read what so far?

 

i initially went in just for the hip hop variant covers, but there's been some enjoyable stuff so far:

 

Iron Man - 2 issues in, and im digging it so far but we'll see if this team can keep it going for more than an arc, that's a frequent problem ive had with the title

 

Amazing Spider-Man - boy, they really did make him the true value Tony Stark, but i like the direction/growth, as well as the use of Prowler. also? i know there's a lot of changing of the guard going on here, but this really opens the door for Miles' book to be more classic spidey adventures, which i dig (especially since the last arc of his book was enjoyable too).

 

Karnak - it's Ellis, so i'm in. dude's a savage so far, interested in seeing where this post-Inumans direction goes. feels like the last time i saw him do something like this with a marvel character was X-Man, and that was good too.

 

looking forward to Spidey 2099 (dropped last week i think) and whenever Daredevil & Moon Knight show up

 

still need to read: Contest of Champions, Angela, Ant-Man, Avengers, Cap (Sam), New Avengers and uh, Squirrel Girl cause im giving most of this stuff a chance so far

[The NZA]

NZA's ANADM impressions so far

 

okay, so we're one month away from Secret Wars finally tying up (haha), and they've staggered titles out so several haven't even started yet (Old Man Logan, Moon Knight, Heroes for Hire, Miles' spidey book etc) but others like Iron Man & Amazing Spidey are 5 issues deep so far...any of you tried out the new titles? there's a lotta new talent on them, i've read marvel kept some of the bigger names on the Star Wars books but here's what i've enjoyed/followed, from what i can recall offhand:

 

Daredevil - 2 issues in, Matt's a prosecutor now & it's totally working, even has a protege from chinatown (the current focus for this arc), big mystery is how the cat was effectively put back in the bag after we tied up Waid's great west coast arc.

 

Amazing Spider-Man - Slott's taken Peter & really pushed the story along, using his smarts & Horizon labs experience to start Parker tech and made him rich enough to be Stark-lite, as the book itself jokes. he's hired the Prowler to stand in as his spidey "bodyguard" (really seeing the stark stuff now, right?), and he plays a much bigger role with S.H.I.E.L.D. then before...the whole spider-family has made him that much larger as well. its fun seeing this side to Peter, using his tech to improve his costume, weaponry, vehicles and such.

 

Contest of Champions - Man, this is the Mortal Kombat-esque battelworld continuation where all the stragglers ended up! we've got Brock-Venom (from another itmeline), Elektra/Bullseye, Stick and others facing off with one team led by Maestro, another by

Punisher 2099! who expected him to survive the culling?

 

 

Hercules - the premise of "dark stuff is coming" is all over a lotta these (and other) books, but Herc as the first superhero who's been such a joke that he has to work to be taken seriously is a fun angle, and seeing him live with slacker Giglamesh has been fun too.

 

Extraordinary X-Men - Okay, so bendis bringing the teenage OG x-men back was still dumb, but at least it finally works here. seeing Laura/X-23 as Wolvy and bad-mouthing young Scott made things feel full-circle for me.

 

Deadpool - I don't know how he got rich exactly, but he's leading a merc team of deadpools (Solo, Madcap, Slapstick and more, fun bunch) and is helping fund the Avengers, so yeah, this book's been solid. Better yet? we're sticking with the Wade from the last volume, so he's coherent & enjoyable too.

 

Captain America - Sam Wilson has the shield, and Misty Knight is training him. they've been continuing the Brubaker-esque line of basically having FOX crowd extremists giving him shit (on and offline), and politicizing him has been an interesting way to separate him from both Steve & Buck. SPOILERS: we got Cap-Wolf this month!

 

Hawkeye - okay i missed issue 1, but it looks like we're still doing the Hawkguy thing a bit, which is of course great.

 

Doctor Strange - This feels like a good jump-on point for the movie, and they've really made him more likeable here, while balancing the "SOMETHING'S COMING" bit previously mentioned. they're fleshing out what exactly he does/sees everywhere in a way i'd wanted to see prior, so i've been diggin this one.

 

Venom: Space Knight - so yeah, SPOILERS but in the last volume of Guardians, Flash went back to the real planet of the symbiotes & pacified his suit, which was crazy cause of separation anxiety or something...anyway, it's playing ball now, and his calling is an agent of the cosmos. Baytor & some of ya'll know this, but while he's a cool character, it's hard being a Venom fan in the majority of his stories, and this one has an interesting direction so far.

 

Uncanny Inhumans - tangent here, but big stuff went down in the marvel U and im not totally sure when?

 

1) Cyclops did some bad shit, which really vilified mutants. he's dead now, and no one's talking about it

2) Black Bolt released Terrigen Mists all over the earth and now there's a ton more Inhumans, but the mutants are sterilized, effectively making Inhuamns the new Mutants.

 

 

So you can see where it feels like MCU/movie politics feel a bit like they're bleeding over, maybe? regardless, that's the new direction of this book - Medusa & co want to be able to locate & help new Inhumans, but they gotta place nice & aren't supposed to just hop around the earth unchecked to do this

 

Vision - Oh man i don't even know what's going on in this one

 

Howard the Duck - NO WAY TO CONTAIN HIM

really, this book feels the least affected by the change, so far? didn't read a lot before, but yeah, it's Howard

 

All New X-Men - So there's a solid team here, and you've got young Jean recruiting Old Man Logan, the pieces are coming together but why god did Lilyana convince them to move the HQ to fucking Limbo of all places, and then, you now, their defenses were tied to her till she got knocked out but now Forge has something up i guess but jesus who thought that was a good plan was it the same dude who said they should put Cerebra into a Sentinel because come on guys

 

which is to say there's enjoyable bits but the writing is questionable so far

 

Astonishing Ant Man - if you liked the movie, you're gonna enjoy this. speaking of:

 

TL;DR the biggest things this universe has done so far:

 

1) soft reset the world itself, but not the continuity (take notes, DC)

2) passed the mantle on a lotta characters, which sounds rough until you realize it's a new generation & the ones you grew up with are now these badass mythic OG's too

3) streamlined the cinematic/etc U a bit more, which is to say you can now see sam jackson Fury give orders to both Coulson & May at times

 

honestly, there's so many books here that just as you'd imagine, it's hit or miss, but there's a lotta good here and some great jump-on points.

 

but yeah, i can't downplay the sheer # of new titles, and a few i read one issue & gave up on already...i'm gonna try one more of Spider-Woman and Ms Marvel (Kamala), but it's easy to ditch some when there's so may ive not even tried yet - Hellcat, Red Wolf, Scarlet Witch, Silk, Star-Lord, Ultimates, Squadron Supreme, and a bunch i'm forgetting.

[Iambaytor]

You're all fools, I couldn't be more pumped for Science Hero Spider-Man

 

I hope you all are enjoying your crow. This new series is already great three issues in, I'm pumped for more.

 

On that note I also love the de-aged X-men, particularly Scott. I love how there's a version of Cyclops who hates what an asshole that Cyclops became. If you didn't read his solo series from last year then you need to do yourself a favor and check it out.

 

And yeah, Vision is a weird-ass book. It's basically a horror book taking place in a superhero universe, but I'm digging it.

Edited January 27, 2016 by Iambaytor

[The NZA]

right? i should get back to it - you should be reading Red Wolf as well, if you're not. and Slott's spidey has only gotten better, it's just such a fun book.

 

which cyk solo was that last year?

[Iambaytor]

It was just called Cyclops. It was him and Corsair hanging around in space.

[Keth]

 

Cool? Apparently she is still going to go by Iron Man, but I read someone comment they made a big misstep in failing to name her Iron Maiden. Could be fun though, and I like the direction.

 

This shit's as hard as ever to keep up with though.

[The NZA]

 

so, i've enjoyed the new direction we've taken post Secret Wars...but there's something that'd been bothering me for a bit.

 

i'm enjoying Coates' black panther, Soule's daredevil has been enjoyable (though again, really big shoes to fill there post brubaker + rucka/waid), Lemire's moon knight, Spencer's sam wison cap (even if, again, i don't know how well he's gonna carry both cap books through an event) and Ewing's ultimates 2.0, as a fun look at the cosmic changes...but it's clear marvel hemorrhaged some of their top-tier talent right before the reboot.

 

King's vision was a really enjoyable take, but he went off to DC & does superman now. but what of some of the heavy hitters from the older books? asked around & found out that many just went to image to either start or continue their creator-owned books.

 

Remender: Deadly Class, Low, Black Science

Fraction: Sex Criminals, ODY-C

Hickman: East of West

Brubaker: Kill or be Killed

Gillen: The Wicked + The Divine

 

Don't forget Seven to Eternity from Remender, Black Friday Murders by Hickman, and Casanova from Fraction. Of course there's Phonogram from Gillen but that is done.

 

BKV is doing Saga, Paper Girls and We Stand on Guard. Kelly Sue Deconnick has Bitch Planet and Pretty Deadly. Nick Spencer has The Fix. Greg Rucka has Lazarus, The Old Guard, and Black Magick. Charles Soule has Curse Words. Jeff Lemire has AD, Descender, and Royal City. Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda have Monstress.

 

Marvel has just bled talent to Image.

 

ive had Deadly Class in queue for a minute, enjoyed the short run of Black Science i've read. never heard of East of West or Kill or be Killed but i'm hitting those up soon! Brubaker's forever in my backlog.

 

so yeah, looks like Image is killing it right now, gonna have to start pulling more of their books. wonder what marvels' gonna do to try to win back talent again?