Marvel's April previews reviewed

Well I guess it's safe to assume that The Inhumans do not end up winning their little war with the X-Men, based on the fact that April 2017 is apparently "Ressurexion" month at Marvel, with the X-Men line of books being relaunched, and The Inhumans reduced to a single book which, notably, is entitled Royals rather than Inhumans. Perhaps Marvel finally realized that The Inhumans were, like "fetch," never going to happen...?

What will happen in April? Click here to find out; or, for a highly-curated look at what Marvel plans to publish in April (i.e. the handful of books I have something to say about), just read on...

ALL-NEW WOLVERINE #19
TOM TAYLOR (W) • LEONARD KIRK (A)
Cover by ADAM KUBERT
...
ALL-NEW STORY STARTS HERE! “IMMUNE”!
• FROM THE STARS COMES DEATH! An alien ship! A dying passenger!
• Two words uttered that will forever change WOLVERINE’s life — starting a non-stop race against a deadly transformative disease, a battle in a quarantined city and a mysterious villain with a target on her head.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

Oh man, I hope the dying passenger in that alien ship is Abin Sur, and he's got a ring for Laura!

BEN REILLY: THE SCARLET SPIDER #1
PETER DAVID (W) • MARK BAGLEY (A/C)
...
ACTION FIGURE VARIANT COVER BY JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
One of the most controversial characters in comics has returned — and the controversy has only BEGUN! In the aftermath of THE CLONE CONSPIRACY, Ben has a new take on life…and he’s not the same Scarlet Spider he was before. Come witness what will be the most talked about comic of the year!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

I always liked the name Scarlet Spider name, and found his costume somewhat...intriguing, is maybe the best word. Like, the midriff-baring, sleeveless hoddie worn over the all-red Spider-Man suit didn't work, but I did think the suit itself was pretty okay. This...this I don't really like that much. Is a hood really that important? His head is already entirely encased in a mask, after all.

I find the title of this particular book pretty interesting too; is "Ben Reilly" really a bigger draw than "Scarlet Spider"....? Are there people who might conceivably be interested in a Ben Reilly-as-the-Scarlet Spider book who wouldn't automatically assume a book entitled "Scarlet Spider" would be starring Ben Reilly? Did Marvel dilute the brand too much by having the names used in other places before?

That's a pretty strong Spider-Man-related creative team, although I can't imagine reading this book, now that there have been multiple clone sagas...

Black Panther: The Crew #1
TA-NEHISI COATES & YONA HARVEY (W) • BUTCH GUICE (A)
Cover by JOHN CASSADAY
...
VARIANT COVER BY DAMION SCOTT
...
Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, Misty Knight and Manifold band together to take on a dangerous wave of street-level threats in this new ongoing series by co-writers Ta-Nehisi Coates (New York Times best-selling author of Between the World and Me and Marvel’s Black Panther) and Yona Harvey (Black Panther: World of Wakanda) and legendary artist Butch Guice!
The death of a Harlem activist kicks off a mystery that will reveal surprising new secrets about the Marvel Universe’s past and set the stage for a big story in the Marvel Universe’s near future.
Fear, hate and violence loom, but don’t worry, The Crew’s got this: “We are the streets.”
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

And here I thought publishing a second Black Panther title was pushing it! Sure, why not a third one?

I liked Marvel's 2003, Christopher Priest-written The Crew series, although now I can't remember if it was quickly canceled or if it was always meant to be a miniseries, but this particular line-up doesn't seem too incredibly cohesive to me. Certainly not as cohesive and appealing as the one that starred in that previous Crew series, or that sort of implied "Black Avengers" that Reginald Hudlin more-or-less assembled during his Black Panther run, back when it was easier to imagine BP and Storm hanging out, seeing as they were married and all.

That's the Damion Scott variant cover above (obviously); while Guice is a fine artist, I do wish Scott were handling interiors in addition to that one cover. In fact, if Scott were drawing it, I probably would consider reading it.

DOCTOR STRANGE AND THE SORCERERS SUPREME #7
ROBBIE THOMPSON (W) • JAVIER RODRIGUEZ (A/C)
Sir Isaac Newton betrayed the rest of the Sorcerers Supreme, and has come to the present-day…where he takes on the Avengers!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

I do hope that guy on the far left isn't supposed to be Sir Isaac Newton. If he's not going to be wearing his big old wig, what's the point of even putting Sir Isaac Newton in your superhero comic? Jeez.

ELEKTRA #3
MATT OWENS (W) • JUAN CABAL (A)
Cover by ELIZABETH TORQUE
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BEATING LAS VEGAS! While ELEKTRA has tried to lie low, she’s managed to capture the attention of the up-and-coming kingpin, ARCADE…and now he’s captured her! However, ELEKTRA hasn’t forgotten her past as an assassin, or any of the skills she’s learned. Will it be enough to defeat ARCADE and escape his clutches? Or will she play right into his hand?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

I don't like all of the comics he appears in, but I kind of love the idea of Arcade. He's basically just an assassin, right? Who kills his victims--or, these being superhero comics, tries and fails to kill his victims more often than not--in the most ridiculously expensive ways possible. Like, why use a gun or poison when you could invent and build a half-dozen robots, and maybe retrofit a two and a half acre industrial park for the scene of the crime?

Anyway, I saw the phrase "up-and-coming kingpin" there, I got kind of excited, thinking about Arcade as being one of Marvel's big kingpins of crime...

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: DREAM ON #1
MARC SUMERAK (W) • ANDREA DI VITO (A)
COVER BY MICHAEL RYAN
THE GUARDIANS ARE DONE GUARDING THE GALAXY, YES?
• When one of the galaxy’s greatest bounty hunters targets the Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s lights out for STAR-LORD, GAMORA, DRAX, ROCKET and GROOT!
• But if DEATH’S HEAD can make their dreams come true, will the Guardians fight back, or go along with his crazy plan?
• They might…especially if it leads to the destruction of THANOS once and for all!
• Also included – a special presentation of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (1990) #1, featuring the first appearance of Taserface!
48 PGS./ONE SHOT/T …$3.99

Don't ask me why, but some small part of me always gets excited when I hear the name Death's Head.

Also, while I have no idea who Taserface is, I do find the phrase "Featuring the first appearance of Taserface!" oddly appealing. I think it's the exclamation point that does it; like, seeing the first appearance of someone named Taserface is a terribly exciting thing.

MONSTERS UNLEASHED #1
CULLEN BUNN (W) • DAVID BALDEON (A)
Cover by ARTHUR ADAMS
...
THE FIRST FANTASTIC ISSUE OF MARVEL’S NEWEST HEROES!
From acclaimed writer CULLEN BUNN, known for his work on DEADPOOL, UNCANNY X-MEN and more, comes a high-action sci-fi series centered on a team of monstrous and monstrously massive do-gooders including KID KAIJU, AEGIS, SLIZZIK, SCRAGG, HI-VO AND MEKARA.. Now teaming up with vampire-hunter ELSA BLOODSTONE, the series unfolds as the team takes on gargantuan creatures and protects the planet from ruin and disaster. However, can they be accepted by the rest of the Marvel Universe and allowed to help, or will they be deemed dangerous as well?
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

So I guess Marvel's not going to wait and see how well their Monsters Unleashed crossover event series does before green-lighting an ongoing series based on it, huh? Well, their last monster-centric ongoing didn't go over too terribly well with their audience (Howling Commandos), so best of luck with this, I guess. If nothing else, it should provide a great use of Arthur Adams' monster-drawing skills if they keep him on covers for the whole run.

I like this Punisher cover by Declan Shalvey.

ROYALS #1
AL EWING (W) • JONBOY MEYERS (A/C)
...
THE “RESURRXION” OF THE INHUMANS BEGINS!
A myth from the future. A quest to the far stars. A legend written across galaxies. Guided by the other-dimensional Kree warrior known as Marvel Boy, the Inhuman Royal Family departs on an odyssey across all creation on search for lost secrets — and the last hope — of their people.
Penned by fan-favorite Al Ewing (The Ultimates, New Avengers, Loki: Agent of Asgard) and drawn by the white-hot Jonboy Meyers (Teen Titans, Spawn), ROYALS is a Marvel-style space epic that takes the Inhuman Royal Family and plunges them into the unknown! The knowledge they seek could change the course of Inhuman destiny, but it cannot be attained without cost…for at the end of days, the Last Inhuman tells the tale of how seven left Earth for the stars…but only six returned.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

I was going to ask which Marvel Boy the were talking about, but it looks like it is a ratehr massivbvely bulked-up version of the Grant Morrison/J.G. Jones Marvel Boy, who had a pretty rough time of things between their millennial miniseries introducing him and his appearance in the last iteration of Young Avengers

TRUE BELIEVERS: NEW MUTANTS #1
Reprinting New Mutants (1983) #1
32 PGS./Rated T …$1.00

Okay, help me out here--Who's the dog?

THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #19
RYAN NORTH (W) • ERICA HENDERSON (A/C)
• Worst-mentor-ever Melissa Morbeck has trapped Squirrel Girl in her house, surrounded by zoo animals under her control, and laid out her demands: She wants to have…A CHAT.
• Does that not sound exciting enough? What if we were to tell you that this chat ALSO involves punching, shocking revelations, a little bit of cool computer stuff and MACHINE-GUN-WIELDING BEARS, who are as extremely cute as they are extremely deadly??
• Squirrels AND machine-gun bears, all in the same comic?! That’s right. Only SQUIRREL GIRL gives you what you want, assuming you have those two very particular interests!!
• Hopefully you do; we’ve got a lot riding on this.
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

Squirrels may be an acquired taste, but I don't know anyone who likes super-comics who doesn't like the thought of "MACHINE-GUN-WIELDING BEARS."

Hopefully there is 1-37 jokes about the right to bear arms/arm bears.

X-MEN GOLD #1
MARC GUGGENHEIM (W) • ARDIAN SYAF (A/C)
...
FROM THE ASHES OF INHUMANS VS X-MEN, AN ALL-NEW TEAM OF X-MEN RISES! Xavier’s dream comes full circle as KITTY PRYDE takes the reins and assembles a squad of the most iconic X-Men to fight at her side. STORM. COLOSSUS. NIGHTCRAWLER. OLD MAN LOGAN. PRESTIGE. They are X-MEN GOLD! And they’re on a mission to be Earth’s finest heroes, even when that means defending those who hate and fear them. Brought to you by an all-star creative team of Marc Guggenheim (X-MEN, S.H.I.E.L.D., television’s Arrow) and Ardian Syaf (BATGIRL, SUPERMAN/BATMAN, BRIGHTEST DAY), a new beginning for the strangest heroes of all starts here!
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99

"Prestige"...? Ugh.