Marvel's June previews reviewed

The realms just keep on warring. I hope the comics market is lapping those books up, for Marvel's sake, because they sure are publishing a lot of them. By my count, Marvel has 83 original comic books (that is, not counting reprints) slated for release in June of this year, and of those, 23 are issues of War of The Realms, special War of The Realms miniseries or War of The Realms tie-in issues of their regular, ongoing series. So, you know, about a quarter of their total output. That seems like a lot. Is that a lot? I think that's a lot.

For a reader like me, it seems like way too many, as the bigger the event, the more limited series that tie into it, the harder it is for me to wrap my head around it and read it in a satisfying chunk. For example, I just read an Infinity Wars collection recently, which included the six-issue core miniseries and four supposedly relevant one-shot issues (Infinity Wars: Prime #1, Infinity Wars: Fallen Guardian #1, Infinity Wars: Infinity #1 and Thanos Legacy #1), and I found it quite wanting.

It wasn't exactly poorly made in general, although there were some remarkably rough patches for a book of its relative importance in the direct market, but it did seem extremely small and, occasionally, claustrophobic for a book I knew pretty much commandeered a significant chunk of Marvel's line for months and months. The parts that seemed most interesting--those starring the "Infinity Warps" characters--were extremely limited, although I know many of those characters had their own miniseries that were published alongside the main story.

Maybe there just isn't a good way to read these things in trade collection, and the only way to really experience them is to read them as they are being released, on a week by week basis. That's certainly the way I experienced all the big superhero crossover events I read in my youth, which remain the ones I like the best. I don't recall having such a problem with Marvel's earlier crossovers though; even as recently as Age of Ultron or Fear Itself they seemed limited to a main series, an optional secondary series and a handful of tie-ins in the regular line, and less...ridiculous in their page-counts and packaging. Like, skimming through the portion of the solicits devoted to these twenty-three books, it was difficult to get a sense of which were the most important ones, after War of The Realms proper.

But then, maybe that's the advantage of reading them as they are published, in their comic book format, rather than waiting for trades. That way you can maybe see house ads or checklists explaining things to you, or as your local comic book shopkeep to make suggestions or rank them in importance to follow the story or whatever.

I do like that Arthur Adams cover there, though. I particularly like how the Marvel heroes look like a bunch of action figures posed almost as if they were on a toy collector's shelf, which is, in a way, what is fun about these stories, wherein a particular writer and an artist or or two or six or 26 get to play with all Marvel's toys while you watch.

I feel particularly daunted by this particular crossover event series though because, as I mentioned before, I know writer Jason Aaron has been writing various Thor comics for, like, many years now, and I've read one, maybe two collections of that run, so I feel extremely ill-equipped to be able to make sense of this (Like, I still don't know what Nick Fury Sr. whispered to Thor to make him unworthy, or how Thor got a new arm, or why he has multiple hammers now, and what Jane Foster's deal is).

This month's variant cover theme seems to be inspired by the 25th anniversary of the publication of Marvels, and thus we get a whole lot of covers featuring random moments of particular significance from the throughout the first 55 years or so of Marvel history. This means a lot of Fantastic Four and Galactus, really, but based on what appears in the solicitations, these are mostly rather fun, with contributions from artists not as known for this sort of thing as, say, Alex Ross, the Marvels artist who has his own Marvels homage covers to contribute.

AVENGERS #20
JASON AARON (W) • ED MCGUINNESS (A/C)
...
WAR OF THE REALMS TIE-IN!
The final battle for Midgard! Captain Marvel leads the War Avengers! Hulk battles Ulik! Blade takes on the Black Berserkers of Roxxon! Plus: Daredevil the God Without Fear has a cryptic message that will decide the future of the team.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

I've been rather enjoying Jason Aaron's Avengers run in trade so far--I just read the second volume last week--and I hope this War of The Realms business doesn't completely derail it, or make whichever collection of the series contains the tie-in issues completely unintelligible. Since Aaron is writing both War of The Realms and Avengers, I have hope that the issues of the latter will fit into the mega-narrative the former necessitates nicely, and that they will make some semblance of sense even to readers who aren't up-to-date on the goings-on in Thor and the dozens of War of The Realms books.

CAPTAIN MARVEL #6
KELLY THOMPSON (W) • ANNAPAOLA MARTELLO (A)
Cover by AMANDA CONNER
...
WAR OF THE REALMS TIE-IN!
The Dark Elf King Malekith and his allies have conquered Earth! At least, they THINK they have — and they’ve divided the spoils accordingly, with the Enchantress raising an army of the dead and staking her claim on South America. But if the Enchantress is expecting a royal welcome, she’s forgotten what she’s dealing with — Earth isn’t going down without a fight. And as Captain Marvel leads DOCTOR STRANGE and BLACK WIDOW into the land of the dead, nothing about this mission will be what our heroes expect.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

You know, I can't recall ever seeing an hourglass-filling-with-blood image on the cover of a comic book (or the cover of a prose novel, or a movie poster) before, and that strikes me as odd, given how relatively obvious an image it would seem to be on comics covers (or novel covers, or movie posters). So good job coming up with a striking image that seems super-obvious in retrospect, but doesn't ever seem to have been used, or else not used all that often, Amanda Conner!

That's Nick Bradshaw's cover for Conan The Barbarian #7. It's such an exciting cover that even the human skull disturbed by the barbarian's battle withe bat monster appears to be screaming. I like Bradshaw's work a lot; it looks a lot like Adams', and a bit like Ed McGuinness, and is pretty much perfect for comic book superheroes. Or, you know, barbarians.


DECADES: MARVEL IN THE '00S – HITTING THE HEADLINES TPB
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, BILL JEMAS, JOE QUESADA, PAUL JENKINS, MARK MILLAR ROBERT MORALES, JOSS WHEDON, ED BRUBAKER & ZEB WELLS
Penciled by MARK BAGLEY, ANDY KUBERT, BRYAN HITCH, KYLE BAKER, JOHN CASSADAY, STEVE MCNIVEN, STEVE EPTING & TODD NAUCK
Cover by RON GARNEY
Celebrate 80 years of Marvel Comics, decade by decade — with high-profile stories that sparked a media frenzy in the tumultuous 2000s! The House of Ideas garnered mainstream attention like never before, introducing a new Ultimate universe for the next generation of readers! Telling the story everyone said could never be told: the origin of Wolverine! And revealing hidden secrets of the program that produced Captain America! Red-hot creator Joss Whedon revamped the X-Men, while CIVIL WAR led to Spider-Man’s secret identity going public — and Captain America’s shocking death! Plus: Living legends meet when Spider-Man teams up with President Barack Obama! Collecting ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN (2000) #1; WOLVERINE: THE ORIGIN #2; THE ULTIMATES (2002) #1; TRUTH: RED, WHITE & BLACK #1; ASTONISHING X-MEN (2004) #1; CIVIL WAR (2006) #2; CAPTAIN AMERICA (2004) #25; and material from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) #583.
232 PGS./Rated T+ …$24.99
ISBN: 978-1-302-91791-3

This is the penultimate volume of Marvel's Decades series, and the first of them in which I believe I have actually read all of the contents. That makes sense, of course, as this is the decade in which I started reading Marvel comics, as well as the fact that the organizing principle of this particular volume is that it contains particular issues and stories that were big enough deals that they tended to be picked up on and covered by the non-comics, mainstream media as well.

I was quite curious about this volume (and the next one) because I was curious about the contents, and I wondered how Marvel would curate the book. Now that I know, an I know that I've read all of these in their original context--and so, I imagine, have the majority of you--I'm still interested in reading the book, if only to see how these particular comics all read when put together like this, divorced from the pages that would precede and follow them in their mostly readily available trade collections, and playing off of one another (If I am recalling them correctly, some of these don't read well at all by themselves, given the pacing of their stories; I'm thinking of Ultimate Spider-Man #1 and Wolverine: The Origin in particular, although I don't recall Whedon's X-Men being much of a read on an issue by issue basis, either).

I can't quibble with any of the inclusions really, aside from maybe the first issue of Whedon's Astonishing X-Men. Certainly getting Whedon to write the X-Men was a pretty big deal, and John Cassaday's artwork and subtle redesigns of some of those characters was somewhat influential, but certainly Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's New X-Men #1 was a far, far bigger and more influential deal, wasn't it...? Not only was a longer and more important run--wasn't Whedon's essentially just a 12-issue, two-arc maxi-series?--but Morrison and Quitely's run pretty obviously inspired Whedon's. After all, Emma Frost is on his line-up, which was basically just that of New X-Men...

Anyway, reading that list of comics reminded me of all the various Internet flare-ups and outrages that accompanied some of those comics, and made me wonder if there were other comics that could have met the "hitting the headlines" criteria that Marvel itself might not have picked? Comics that garnered widespread, non-comics media attention for reasons Marvel didn't expect? I'm sort of drawing a blank now, but I suspect there were many different comics that could fill this book up.

Certainly one could imagine a DECADES: MARVEL IN THE ’00S – COURTING CONTROVERSY collection...


GIANT-MAN #3 (OF 3)
LEAH WILLIAMS (W) • MARCO CASTIELLO (A)
Cover by WOO CHEOL
WAR OF THE REALMS TIE-IN! THE BIGGER THEY ARE…
Moonstone’s army of primordial Frost Giants is gaining in number with every passing moment. Only Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath and Atlas can stop them! But an unseen enemy is about to get in their way… CAN YOU GUESS THE IDENTITY OF THE MOLE?
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

Hmm, is it Moleman...? That would always be my first guess as to the identity of any mole in the Marvel Universe.

While I'd much prefer seeing him drawing monsters interacting with ladies, Arthur Adams draws the fuck out of Marvel superheroes, doesn't he? This seems like a pretty elegant way to fit all three of these characters into a single, compelling image while also all being "themselves", rather than it just being a generic three-characters-posing cover. This is for Marvel Comics Presents #6, by the way, and it is apparently an issue devoted to Marvell characters who were big in the '90s.

I don't really associate Deadpool with that time period, although I guess that is where he came from. It just seems to me I didn't see him radiating out of Marvel comics and appearing elsewhere in the way that Wolverine, The Punisher, Ghost Rider and even Cable were at the time. Also, he seemed to reach peak popularity this decade, but then, I can't really see Frank Castle posing on Ghost Rider's bike like that, or sitting behind Wolverine. Maybe in a sidecar, provided the sidecar had a machine gun mounted on it...

I've only read a handful of Ghost Rider comics featuring Danny Ketch, so I don't know if his bike always had a human rib cage behind the front wheel or not, but it looks kinda cool...

MARVEL TEAM-UP #3
EVE L. EWING (W) • JOEY VAZQUEZ (A)
Cover by STEFANO CASELLI
...
Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel both wanted a change of pace...or so they thought. Will things ever get back to normal? Will they defeat the Jackal? And where is Pete’s old friend Dr. Rosario, anyway?!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

I find stretchy powers to be among the most visually interesting of all super-powers (please consult any and all Golden Age Plastic Man archives you can find at your local library for a strong argument that they may be the most visually interesting of all super-powers), but goodness gracious does Spider-Man ever look weird and band and wrong with stretchy limbs. Yikes.

I suppose that's the point though, huh? Props to any and every artist who has to draw a stretchy Spidey. That costume is a pain-in-the-ass to draw under the best circumstances; I imagine it's only more trying when the amount of red webbing design on it is increased by the character stretching.

MARVEL UNIVERSE BY ROB LIEFELD OMNIBUS HC
Written by ROB LIEFELD, LOUISE SIMONSON, CHRIS CLAREMONT, JIM VALENTINO, JEPH LOEB ERIC STEPHENSON, FABIAN NICIEZA, SCOTT LOBDELL & MORE
Penciled by ROB LIEFELD, JIM VALENTINO, CHAP YAEP, IAN CHURCHILL & MORE
Cover by ROB LIEFELD
...
You know him as the 1990s superstar who transformed the New Mutants into X-Force and co-created Cable and Deadpool — but Rob Liefeld also left his mark on the wider Marvel Universe! Now these adventures featuring Liefeld’s all-action plots and artwork are collected in a single, high-octane Omnibus! Relive his revolutionary reimaginings of Captain America and the Avengers in the world of Heroes Reborn — and its blockbuster sequel ONSLAUGHT REBORN! Early Liefeld artwork featuring the X-Men, X-Factor, Spider-Man and the Black Widow! A savage Wolverine vs. Deadpool showdown! And more! Collecting X-FACTOR (1986) #40, UNCANNY X-MEN (1981) #245, WHAT IF? (1989) #7, CAPTAIN AMERICA (1996) #1-6, AVENGERS (1996) #1-7, WOLVERINE (1988) #154-157 and ONSLAUGHT REBORN #1-5 — plus material from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #23; MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS (1988) #51-53, #85-86 and #99; and HEROES REBORN #1/2.
856 PGS./Rated T+ ...$100.00

My initial reaction to this image was surprise that Liefeld's infamous drawing of Captain America, perhaps the single most-mocked image he has ever created, appeared right there on the cover of this $100 omnibus. But then I looked closer, and googled the original, and I see that this is a newer, more tame version of the totally insane one the Internet has had so much fun making fun of over the  years.


NAMOR THE SUB-MARINER BY JOHN BYRNE & JAE LEE OMNIBUS HC
Written by JOHN BYRNE, JOEY CAVALIERI, BOB HARRAS, SCOTT LOBDELL, RON MARZ, PETER DAVID ROY THOMAS & MORE
Penciled by JOHN BYRNE, JAE LEE, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, SCOTT KOLINS, JAMES FRY, KEVIN MAGUIRE TOM MORGAN, MC WYMAN & MORE
COVERS BY JOHN BYRNE, JAE LEE
A radical reinvention of Namor the Sub-Mariner by two comics legends! First, John Byrne writes and draws the iconic hero as Namor enters the cutthroat world of corporate intrigue! The Sub-Mariner faces the subtle threat of the diabolical Marrs twins, stands trial for his attacks on New York…and gets beheaded?! Namor reforges alliances with old friends the Invaders, battles long-forgotten foes from World War II and unravels the mystery behind the resurrection of Iron Fist! Then — as Jae Lee takes the artistic reins, crafting dark and moody visuals — Namor confronts Doctor Doom and Master Khan, struggles to regain his memory and returns to Atlantis to face a foe unlike any other! Collecting NAMOR THE SUB-MARINER #1-40 and ANNUAL #1-2, plus material from INCREDIBLE HULK ANNUAL #18, SILVER SURFER ANNUAL #5 and DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME ANNUAL #2.
1192 PGS./Rated T …$125.00
ISBN: 978-1-302-91966-5
Trim size: oversized

I was about to ask if this was something that I, as a casual fan of the character, should invest in or not, but then I saw the page count and price tag, which answered my question for me.

PETER PORKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-HAM: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION VOL. 1 TPB
Written by TOM DEFALCO, STEVE MELLOR, STEVE SKEATES, MICHAEL CARLIN & MIKE MELLOR
Penciled by MARK ARMSTRONG, STEVE MELLOR, JOSE ALBELO, FRED HEMBECK, TONY SALMONS ART NICHOLS & MORE
Cover by JOSE ALBELO
Go whole hog with the Spectacular Spider-Ham’s animal antics! What started as a porcine parody one-shot soon became a hilarious ongoing series full of anthropomorphized adventurers! Peter Porker is a photographer for J. Jonah Jackal’s Daily Beagle — but when danger strikes, he fights crime alongside hirsute heroes such as Hulk Bunny, Captain Americat and the Fantastic Fur! Can Spider-Ham triumph over fearsome foes like Ducktor Doom, Bull-Frog, the King-Pig and the Bee-yonder — while keeping the young Beagle Brigadiers out of trouble and still managing to bring home the bacon? Plus: Thrr, Dog of Thunder stars in “Tails of Arfgard”! Here comes Deerdevil, Mammal Without Fear! Nick Furry, Agent of S.H.E.E.P.! Goose Rider! The invincible Iron Mouse! Croak and Badger! The astonishing Ant-Ant! And more zoological puns! Collecting MARVEL TAILS #1 and PETER PORKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-HAM #1-17.
424 PGS./All Ages …$39.99
ISBN: 978-1-302-91843-9

Well, it's about goddam time. Into the Spider-Verse was released in December, the DVD just came out, and Marvel's not planning on having any real Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham content available until June? Yeesh. They didn't think there might be a pretty good chance that the funny cartoon pig who is also Spider-Man might be a character that kids might want to read more about after seeing a movie featuring him? In addition to this 400-page, $40 collection--which doesn't exactly seem like the most kid-friendly format--Marvel also has a $1, "True Believers" reprint featuring PPTSSH slated for June release, and the porcine arachnid will also be featured in that month's Amazing Spider-Man annual. Better late than never, I guess...?

THE PUNISHER #12
MATTHEW ROSENBERG (W) • Szymon Kudranski (A)
Cover by GREG SMALLWOOD
THE EVIL THAT MEN DO…
• Baron Zemo’s plans are revealed to be even more sinister than believed.
• As Frank and Zemo’s war extends beyond Bagalia, the stakes get higher and the clock is ticking.
• What lines will Frank cross to stop Zemo?
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99

Is it just me, or does that Punisher look a lot like Dolph Lundgren's Punisher...? But, like, if the Dolph Lundgren of today were playing The Punisher, rather than the Dolph Lundren of the late 1980s...?


SAVAGE AVENGERS #2
GERRY DUGGAN (W) • MIKE DEODATO JR. (A)
Cover by DAVID FINCH
...
• The Hand has teamed up with the evil wizards of the Hyborian Age to summon a death god from a celestial hell.
• The only thing standing between Earth and destruction is the Savage Avengers: Conan, Wolverine, Punisher and Voodoo.
• Plus: Logan donates blood, changing one Avenger forever. And Conan discovers a dark secret squirming in a genie bottle.
• Your new favorite ongoing series is knives out in its second chapter.
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99

Wait, when they say that Logan donates blood, changing one Avenger forever, I certainly hope they just mean something along the lines of his selfless act saves the life of The Punisher, who is forever filled with gratitude and promises to stop shooting Wolverine when they fight each other, or that Wolverine feel so fulfilled after donating blood that he devotes himself to donating blood regularly and organizing blood drives, and not just spilling the blood of his enemies with his claws. Something like that and not, say, The Punisher or Voodoo suddenly get a healing factor from Wolvie's blood because, um, that's not how that works. I mean, yes, it worked for Jen Walters, but I am guessing that had something to do with gamma radiation, and not just because the attributes of a person are present in their blood, and thus receiving their blood grants you the same attributes.

SILVER SURFER: BLACK #1 (OF 5)
DONNY CATES (W) • TRADD MOORE (A/C)
...
Spinning out of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1, almost the entire galaxy’s defenders have been blown through a black hole, including the Silver Surfer! But the story doesn’t end there… In order to fight back the oblivion, Surfer will have to fight to save his own soul and not lose himself to the void. Follow the Sentinel of the Spaceways on a journey that will change him forever!
From superstars Donny Cates (VENOM, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY) and Tradd Moore (ALL-NEW GHOST RIDER, VENOM)!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

I'm not much of a fan of this particular character--at least, not when he's not fighting alongside or bickering with the rest of the Defenders--but Tradd Moore is a really great artist, and seems like he will make a fine fit for this particular character and concept, which lends itself to artists with highly distinct styles and a penchant for drawing weird stuff. This will be a series to keep an eye on, I'm sure.