Marvel Comics has just released the ALL-NEW ALL-DIFFERENT FREE PREVIEW book featuring the first 45 revealed titles for the post SECRET WARS relaunch in October. Yeah: 45 titles! Rumor has it, the number could swell all the way up to 60! That’s a lot of reading and a lot of money involved. Think about it: 60 titles at $3.99 a month…that is just under $250 a month. And if you also read DC, Image, Valiant or any number of other books, you could be looking to get a second job just to feed your comic fix!
So, what are we looking at? Well, here we go, title by title, with creative teams and my opinion, for what that may be worth.
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN by Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez. The design work looks great and Bendis sure knows how to write a cool story. The fact that this is the FIRST title shown in the preview shows me this is a book they are totally going to push at people.
A-FORCE by G. Willow Wilson and Victor Ibanez. I read the first issue of the SECRET WARS series and immediately turned my nose to it after completing it. An all female Avengers team should be a hormone filled event and I’m seeing lots of that floating about in this title. But the meandering list of characters just scares me. And, after reading that SW issue…yeah: I’m good without this. And the tagline of A-Force to be reckoned with just makes me want to hurl!
ALL-NEW ALL-DIFFERENT AVENGERS by Mark Waid, Adam Kubert, Mahmud Asrar, with covers by Alex Ross. Did you read the FCBD issue? If you did, then you know this has the makings of being a long-winded, meandering pile! Your Avengers are Thor(the female one-who looks to also be in A-Force too), Captain America(the black one), Iron Man(the drunken one), The Vision(the mechanical one), Spider Man(the Ultimate one), Ms. Marvel (the Muslim one) and Nova(the young one). Too many characters I really don’t care about here to make me want to read this.
UNCANNY AVENGERS by Gerry Duggan and Ryan Stegman. Here’s a team for you: Steve Rogers(still old), The Human Torch(which one?), Rogue, the Amazing Spider Man, Quicksilver (in the UGLIEST outfit ever), Brother Voodoo(I think), some woman with a rising sun on her uniform…and Deadpool. Could this be the first time in my life that I DON’T READ an AVENGERS title? Could be!
NEW AVENGERS by Al Ewing and Gerardo Sandoval. With a line-up including Songbird, Hawkeye, Wiccan, Hulkling, Squirrel Girl and Sunspot and a tag line promoting Avengers Idea Mechanics, I find myself not being the LEAST bit interested in this title.
ULTIMATES by Al Ewing and Kenneth Rocafort. So, I’m confused as I thought the Ultimates were dead. And I’m also wondering if Rocafort has left DC for Marvel or is doing double duty. Anyway, the team appears to be Black Panther, Spectrum, Blue Marvel, Miss America, Captain Marvel…and Galactus(?). just for that last reveal alone, my interest is piqued. Galactus…REALLY?
DOCTOR STRANGE by Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo. Doctor Strange wielding spells and an axe? Yes please: count me in! I love Bachalo’s art and although Aaron can be hit or miss, I’m excited about this series!
CAPTAIN MARVEL by Tara Butters, Michele Fazekas and Kris Anka. I cannot say just how much I REALLY DISLIKED the previous series, mostly because I felt the writing was just awful. While I still long for all of the changes to the Marvel Universe to effectively give us the CLASSIC Captain Marvel back(hey-we now have a Gwen Stacey in the NEW Marvel Universe), I can almost deal with this title. With the show runners for AGENT CARTER writing it, this could be a fun, character driven title!
SAM WILSON, CAPTAIN AMERICA by Nick Spencer and Daniel Acuna. Sorry-I don’t LIKE Sam Wilson as Captain America and never have. Personally, I’m all about the Bucky Barnes as the replacement Captain America. Based on the illustration we were served up, it looks like Cap and Steve come to a crossroads and a split. Personally, I don’t care.
THE TOTALLY AWESOME HULK by Greg Pak and Frank Cho. I am SO STOKED for this title! The question is WHO is the Hulk? Based on the shadowy image we get, I think it MIGHT BE Amadeus Cho, especially because he is “totally awesome”. But really: Pak and Cho together? So, the stories will be epic and the babes will be booming!
THE MIGHTY THOR by Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman. Jane Foster, still dealing with cancer, continues her fight as Thor. Now, I dropped the series after the first issue, but picked it up for the revealing last issue. As I have said elsewhere, Aaron is hit or miss, so I may give him a chance. She’s not Don Blake but she’s also not Beta Ray Bill!
SCARLET WITCH by James Robinson, with covers by Kevin Wada. I am kind of scared about this one. Wanda has the ugliest costume this side of her brother’s costume and we have no listing of an artist, so who knows what this thing is going to look like. The saving grace IS James Robinson who is killing it with AIRBOY. We can only hope…
MS. MARVEL by G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazawa and Adrian Alphona. I read the first issue and found it so overtly Ethnic that I was offended by it. I am all in favor of diversity, but I was just feeling like the idea that she was Muslim was being shoved down my throat. Now, we have a new title and we have thrown Lockjaw and Medusa into the mix. And, if that weren’t enough, it LOOKS like BATGIRL! Enough! Let’s bring in young, female readers with good stories and cool artwork…not this stuff that looks like BAD MANGA!
ILLUMINATI by Josh Williamson and Shawn Crystal with cover art by Riley Rosmo. With the tagline, “Forever Evil”, there is hope that this thing is going to be killer! I’m not totally familiar with Williamson’s work on NAILBITER or GHOSTED and have yet to read his just released RED SKULL SECRET WARS book and I Know Crystal did a DEADPOOL mini series and FANTOMEX MAX, so I’m good with that. Looks like the team is made up of The Hood, Absorbing Man, Black Ant and some others. My guess: this is the new Thunderbolts crossed with the Frightful Four.
HAWKEYE by Jeff Lemire and Ramon Perez. I have to admit I am probably the biggest Jeff Lemire fan I know, so this is a given for me. But, based on the promo illustration, it looks like our hero is much older and the tag line says Hawkeye vs. Hawkeye, this is going to be much different from what we’ve been used to prior to SECRET WARS. Either way, count me in.
ANT-MAN by Nick Spencer and Ramon Rosanas with covers by Mark Brooks. I have to admit that I haven’t been reading this series, but I may give it a shot. From what I have been told, Scott Lang is Ant-Man and he has a supporting cast featuring Grizzly, Whirlwind, Porcupine, and Beetle. So, it’s The Avengers meets Thunderbolts meets the Masters of Evil?
VISION by Tom King and Gabriel H. Walta with covers by Marcos Martin. This has potential, as the rumor is that Vision creates an entire family for himself. With Tom King writing it, anything could be possible! Curious to see what Walta gives us in the art department.
CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS by Al Ewing and Paco Medina. Is Al Medina suddenly the new golden boy of the Marvel Universe as it suddenly seems like he is writing a ton of titles! Unfortunately, his recent Marvel work, CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE MIGHTY AVENGERS, and LOKI have done nothing for me. The promo shot with what seems to be the Maestro in the role of the Grandmaster, concerns me. It’s a revamped rehash.
AMAZING SPIDER MAN by Dan Slott and Giuseppe Camuncoli with covers by Alex Ross. Peter Parker is back, we think. Well, there is someone in the Spider suit, riding in a Spider Mobile(really?) in the cover art. And we do have Peter Parker in a tux with two babes on his arm. Is he in the suit or just acting as a mentor to Miles Morales. Since Miles is wearing his trademark suit on his Avengers team, we have to assume this is Peter. With Dan Slott at the helm, it should be great!
CARNAGE by Gerry Conway and Mike Perkins with covers by Mike Del Mundo. I am not a fan of all these carnage books that Marvel has shoved at us over the years, but with Gerry Conway at the helm it could either be great or awful, such as the recent AMAZING SPIDER-MAN .1 books. Perkins has been around the comics’ block for a while, with his early U.S. works being in NEGATIVE BURN back in the days of the Indys and he had great turns on RUSE and KISS KISS BANG BANG for CrossGen. It’s supposed to be a horror comic book. Let’s see how this plays. Personally, I’m looking forward to this.
SPIDER-WOMAN by Dennis Hopeless and Javier Rodriguez. I hate to make fun of a person’s name and tie it to a book, but I must. Who thought that taking Jessica Drew and making her PREGNANT was a good idea. I saw the cover, and the redesigned costume, and wanted to barf! Oh wait: this is the same ugly costume she has been wearing since issue #5. But knocked up? Lemme guess: we can have a contest to see who the baby daddy is! Oh brother!
SPIDER-MAN by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. So here we have the Miles Morales Spider-Man. You can tell the difference because of his suit, his name (NOT AMAZING), and the fact that Bendis is writing him. If you liked him in the Ultimate Universe, you will probably be a fan of him here!
SPIDER-GWEN by Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez. This character is the new darling of the Marvel Universe, as is seen by the astronomical prices for her first appearance in EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE # 2 (upwards of $300 CGC Graded and slabbed). I have to say I’m not a fan of the character but, for fans, this will fit right in to your pull list. I may snag the first few issues just to see how this Gwen and Peter Parker relate to each other.
SILK by Robbie Thompson and Stacey Lee with covers by Helen Chen. Sorry to say, I’m not reading this title either. I read her appearances during the whole SPIDER-VERSE thing in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and wasn’t impressed with her character. Thompson is currently writing the SILK series and Lee is drawing it, so I don’t expect any change except that the promo tag line refers to her as The Sinister Silk.
SPIDER-MAN 2099 by Peter David and Will Sliney with covers by Francesco Mattina. Peter David is a legend in the business and Miguel O’Hara is the legendary Spider-Man from Earth-928, which no longer exists. So, my guess is that we’re in present day New York here. I figure I’ll check it out, as he was probably my favorite of the 2099 characters back in the day.
WEB WARRIORS by Mike Costa and David Baldeon with covers by Julian Totino Tedcesco. And we need a Spider-Verse title like I need another ulcer! This book will feature the adventures of Spider-Man India, Spider-Ham, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man Noir, Anya Corazon and Spider-UK. Because hey: obviously readers can’t get enough Spider-Gwen!
DAREDEVIL by Charles Soule and Ron Garney. Daredevil has a new costume design and appears to be hanging with Gambit. I’m excited about this because it is Charles Soule, who did such amazing work for DC and has been doing nice work at Marvel, and legendary penciler Ron Garney. Who knows what havoc these two could wreak on this title!
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY by Brian Michael Bendis and Valerio Schiti. I’m not a fan of this group, even if the movie was the biggest thing to come out of last summer. I’m old school: give me Vance Astro and the boys! Well, Bendis and Schiti is giving us a new team of Guardians that features Venom, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, a new female Star-Lord, The Thing, and Groot. A FEMALE Star-Lord? Well, considering one of the SECRET WARS series was STAR LORD AND KITTY PRYDE…I wonder. And The Thing is here and the Human Torch is elsewhere. Boy…Marvel is serious when they want to distance themselves from the FANTASTIC FOUR movie!
DRAX by CM Punk, Cullen Bunn and Ed McGuiness. Oooh…here’s a concept. Draz is participating in an Intergalactic Fight Club, the tagline says Best in the Galaxy and CM Punk is writing it with Cullen Bunn. Yeah…that’s a stretch! But Ed McGuiness is drawing it. Ooh…I want this to be a well-written guilty pleasure book but I’m afraid!
HOWARD THE DUCK by Chip Zdarsky and Joe Quinones. Yawn! Sorry: this title irked me from the first pages of issue #1. Same creative team, so I expect more of the same.
NOVA by Sean Ryan and Cory Smith with covers by Humberto Ramos. The father and son team are back. I haven’t read this title since the first issue, so I must admit to being out of the loop. Ramos doing the covers is great, although I would love to see his interior work. This is probably not a title I will pick up outside of the first issue, but it remains to be seen. The first issue could blow me away and that could be that.
STAR-LORD by Sam Humphries with covers by Dave Johnson. Here is another title without an art team names and that alone scares me! Sam Humphries worked on THE ULTIMATES with Hickman and also AVENGERS A.I. and X-FORCE. And the promo art shows Star-Lord in an astronaut’s suit. Confused? Yeah…me too!
VENOM: SPACEKNIGHT by Robbie Thompson and Ariel Olivetti. Just the title alone makes me curious! I like Ariel Olivetti’s art and Thompson is working on SILK. And I have to assume that Venom is Flash Thompson. At least he was the last time I read the title. Yeah…I want to get a look at the first issue and really hope it doesn’t suck.
HOWLING COMMANDOS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. by Frank Barbiere and Brent Schnoover. What we have here is a team made up of Hit-Monkey, Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night, an undead Jasper Sitwell, Manphibian and Dum Dum Dugan and a bunch more monstrous heroes. This is either going to be the most surprising, amazing series in years or suck worse than almost anything you have read in years. Hopefully, the former but I truly have my doubts.
AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. by Marc Guggenheim and Mike Norton. Marvel continues it’s TV tie-in with the continuing adventures of Coulson and company. I stopped reading the most recent series after the first few issues and haven’t looked back. I want Nick Fury back and not the Son of Fury we had shoved at us as part of the Samuel L. Jackson retcon!
UNCANNY INHUMANS by Charles Soule and Steve McNiven. Soule and McNiven. This makes me VERY HAPPY! It looks as though our line-up is Black Bolt, Medusa, Gorgon, Beast, the Human Torch and possibly The Inhuman. This has the possibility to be huge!
KARNAK by Warren Ellis and Gerardo Zaffino with covers by David Aja. Holy Cow! We’re letting Warren Ellis take over the most volatile of all the Inhumans? YES PLEASE!!! This book is guaranteed to be THE most exciting of those titles announced so far. Anything Ellis touches is wonderfully weird and I expect this to be no exception!
ANGELA: ASGARD’S ASSASSIN by Marguerite Bennett, Kim Jacinto and Stephanie Hans with covers by Julian Totino Tedsesco. When Angela was this cool character over at Image, I was find with that. When she came over here, I wasn’t so fine with it. Now that we’re going to let Marguerite Bennett team her up with Hel to do battle with whatever, I have to throw up my hands and say “no thanks!” Todesco’s art look amazing but it’s only a cover. I have no idea what Jacinto and Hans is going to give us. To me, it doesn’t matter: it’s Marguerite Bennett messing with a character who should have stayed over at Image.
SQUADRON SUPREME by James Robinson and Leonard Kirk with covers by Alex Ross. Right off the bat, we have James Robinson, Leonard Kirk and Alex Ross. Okay: SIGN ME UP! Their Earth is dead and gone and so is the legendary Mark Gruenwald who wrote the DEFINITIVE Squadron Supreme story. If ANYONE could do that book justice, it’s Robinson!
EXTRAORDINARY X-MEN by Jeff Lemire and Humberto Ramos. Marvel has said that THIS is now the A Team when it comes to the mutant world. And it’s a heavy hitting creative team that will give us the closest thing to a classic version of the classic team. Iceman, Storm, Colossus, Magik, Old Man Logan, teen Jean Grey and Nightcrawler make up this team and I’m thrilled about it! .
UNCANNY X-MEN by Cullen Bunn and Greg Land. So, the A Team is now the second tier as Magneto runs a team made up of Psylocke, Mystique, Fantomex and Sabretooth. So, this is X-Force now? This is the team that is going to be the ones not afraid to do the dirty jobs? Bunn is uneven but Greg Land is amazing, so this book could either be spot-on amazing or downright awful. It’s a mutant Punisher styled army!.
ALL-NEW X-MEN by Dennis Hopeless and Mark Bagley. It’s a road trip book! We’ve put the teenage versions of Beast, Cyclops, Angel and Iceman and new Wolverine X-23 into a VW micro-bus and sent them off on the road. Well, this ain’t Kerouac and I’m already reading a road book in the form of BIZARRO over at DC. This one will REALLY need to hit it out of the park to make me jump on and stay on.
OLD MAN LOGAN by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino. Yes, you read right: the hit team from GREEN ARROW have been reunited on this title. That alone should make you want to read this book. If you saw Sorrentino’s work on the OLD MAN LOGAN SECRET WARS title, you know it’s going to look amazing. With Lemire writing it-pure heaven!
ALL-NEW WOLVERINE by Tom Taylor and David Lopez. At long last, X-23 gets to wear the costume and take over. Dressed in her own version of the classic Wolverine costume(yes-the yellow and blue!), she looks amazing and scary at the same time thanks to Lopez’ art! And Taylor has been just doing great work on SUPERIOR IRON MAN. I tire of the million X-titles, but this may be worth picking up.
DEADPOOL by Gerry Duggan and Mike Hawthorne with covers by Tony Moore. Because we really needed a DEADPOOL title following SECRET WARS. Hey, let’s be honest: next to Spider-Gwen, he is probably Marvel’s most popular character. But let’s be honest: Deadpool jumped the shark many years ago when he had something like 3 titles running at once. Didn’t Marvel learn from the Punisher that has three titles running at once back in the day? I won’t be jumping on this title at all.
So that’s the first run. Now, you may have noticed some things that I, along with some other media outlets, see as being M.I.A. in the All-New, All-Different Marvel Universe. Most glaringly is NO FANTASTIC FOUR. Not just No book, but NO team! If you’ve been reading SECRET WARS, you can see where some of our team is. The Thing joins the new guardians team while Johnny Storm is in the Inhumans. Also missing from the new universe are such Marvel mainstays as Ghost Rider, The Winter Soldier, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Shang-Chi, Black Widow and The Punisher. There are even characters featured on the two two-page spreads at the beginning of the book who apparently have no home yet. Where is Red Wolf and Citizen V? Where is Arkon and company from WEIRDWORLD? Marvel has stated that this title will continue post SECRET WARS.
Again, word has it that there may be as many as 60 titles by the time everything relaunches, so maybe these characters are forthcoming. Personally, I will do exactly what I did when DC launched its’ NEW 52: I will sample each title and go from there. Unfortunately, I fear that many of these books won’t make it past issue #1 with me.
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