According to Internet, it is a common acronym for "Win The Day," "Want The Dick?," "What The Deuce?" or "What The Duck?". As there is no question mark in the logo, "Win The Day" seems most likely, rather than one of the questions. Otherwise, "Want The Dick?" seems to be a pretty Marvel-ous thing to have on the cover of their comic books. That said, "What The Duck?" comes from the common mistake of typing a "D" when you want an "F" to text "WTF," so since this seems to be Marvel taking the piss out of DC, who announced and then went back on their plans for a "What The Fuck Certified" month, and a prominent Marvel character who is getting his own book is a "duck," then I guess that's quite possible.
But you'll notice a lot of the solicits for the books they plan to publish in April have credits for a "WTD Variant Cover," the best of these by artists who have yet to be determined, so they'll say "WTD Variant Cover by TBD." Have fun ordering your stock, comic shop owners!
You can read the full solicits here; I highly recommend imaging the characters on each solicited cover asking "Want The Dick?" on all of them, in order to better prepare yourself for seeing the books on the shelves in April.
CHRIS YOST (W)
JORGE FORNES (a/C)
• Has the Juggernaut returned?
• Is this the last stand of Colossus?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
•Yes.
•No.
KIERON GILLEN & MARGUERITE BENNETT (W)
PHIL JIMENEZ & STEPHANIE HANS (a)
Cover by STEPHANIE HANS
• Superheroic to-do lists are quite the thing. Today, Angela’s read “INVADE MY HOMELAND, WHILST PURSUED BY ASGARDIANS, CARRYING A DEMONIC CHILD WITH ONLY MY SARCASTIC SPACE FRIENDS FOR COMPANY.”
• What will Starlord do when he discovers that Belinda Carlisle has totally lied to him? BECAUSE HEVEN IS A PLACE FULL OF ANGELS OUT TO KILL HIM.
• Angela makes a difficult decision. Also some easier ones, primarily involving stabbing.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Well, I certainly didn't expect to see Belinda Carlisle's name get dropped anywhere during these solicitations.
But see Starlord, she was singing about heaven, not heven; big difference. Well, not so much in the spelling, which is only one letter different, but in the everything-else...
NICK SPENCER (W) • RAMON ROSANAS (a)
Cover by MARK BROOKS
WTD VARIANT COVER BY TBA
• Ant-Man has to pull off an impossible break-in, but he can’t do it alone. Which means... he’s gonna need a new gang!
• Er, of criminals. New gang of criminals. Probably should mention that part.
• This is all because of that stupid mysterious bad guy we can’t tell you about. Man, that is annoying.
• Out with it already, right? Comics.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Well, Ant-Man is being written by Nick Spencer, writer of the excellent Superior Foes of Spider-Man (among other books), so I suppose it's quite possible it could be quite good. But I'm fairly certain it won't possibly be as good as the cover above suggests. How could it be...? I just hope that, whatever happens, The Grizzly is in the comic. And he's wearing that version of his costume, the one that looks kinda like something a furry might where, and kinda like something a sports mascot might wear, only dumber and cheaper.
WILL CORONA PILGRIM (W) • ANDREA DIVITO (a)
Cover by MICHAEL RYAN
CLASSIC VARIANT BY JACK KIRBY
• Before next summer’s blockbuster film, join the Avengers – Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and the Hulk-- as they set off on an all-new adventure against a secret Hydra splinter cell!
• Black Widow’s discovered a startling development, but what exactly is Hydra up to?
• It’ll take teamwork to topple Hydra’s latest plot…but only one Avenger has the skill needed to save the day!
• PLUS: Reprinting Avengers #16, presenting the story that brought Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch onto the team for the first time!
• PLUS PLUS: This cover will be featured as an AVENGERS COLORING POSTER.
48 PGS./One-Shot /Rated T+ …$3.99
Avengers Assemble, the book Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley launched in 2012 to feature the in-Marvel Universe version of the movie Avengers, didn't last very long. They stayed on long enough to reintroduce Thanos and a slightly tweaked version of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning' Guardians of The Galaxy before that movie came out, and then split. Replaced by Kelly Sue Deconnick and Stefano Caselli, the title started out pretty okay and got bad quickly, muddying the original concept by adding in characters who weren't in the movie, and attaching completely unrelated stories to the book in at least one not-very-good annual. It lasted just 25 issues; I think they had more variant covers for the first issue then that.
Seeing this one-shot here—and a few other Avengers books featuring the movie line-up below—reminded me how strange it is that an Avengers title actually got cancelled, and that the one meant to capitalize on the movie's success didn't even last until previews for the sequel started showing up.
This issue is at Marvel's now standard $3.99 price-point—Ms. Marvel mysteriously remains the only comic not based on a cartoon that Marvel is still charging just $2.99 for—but it looks like you actually get a little more content for your money, with what I'm assuming is in the neighborhood of 30+ pages of comics (even if a portion of that is a reprint) and a coloring poster. I don't color, but I'd be less irritated to be charged that extra buck if I knew I was getting a coloring poster for my money.
AVENGERS: ULTRON FOREVER #1
AL EWING (W) • ALAN DAVIS (A/C)
AU MOVIE CONNECTING VARIANT B
AU MOVIE CONNECTING VARIANT C
YOUNG VARIANT BY SKOTTIE YOUNG
AVENGERS VARIANT COVER BY TBA
PART 1 OF 3 – THE START OF A THREE-PART AVENGERS EVENT!
• 500 years into the future, Ultron has won. Humanity is all but extinct - dead or enslaved by the Ultron Singularity.
• Now, seven Avengers are brought through time by Doctor Doom to battle the machine god for the fate of the cosmos... or die trying!
• It begins here - an epic adventure spanning the past and future of the Avengers!
40 PGS./One-Shot /Rated T+ …$4.99
NEW AVENGERS: ULTRON FOREVER #1
AL EWING (W) • ALAN DAVIS (A/C)
AU MOVIE CONNECTING VARIANT E
AU MOVIE CONNECTING VARIANT F
PART 2 OF 3 – The epic Avengers adventure continues!
• When Thors clash! Vision versus Vision - to the death! The strangest Hulk-out of all! The Loki of the 25th Century!
• Ultron makes his move - but does Doctor Doom have something even worse up his metal sleeve?
40 PGS./One-Shot /Rated T+ …$4.99
Wouldn't "Age of Ultron" be a better title for this book, apparently set during the time in which Ultron ruled? Or wait, no, Marvel already used that title, on a book set almost entirely in the present, a dystopian near future and the 1960s, with, like, a scene or two during the actual Age of Ultron.
NATHAN EDMONDSON (W)
PHIL NOTO (A/C)
THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD!
• Natasha has been invited to see the beast from within: will she accept?
• Past and present collide as both young and current Natasha decide who controls the future.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Natasha, no! Not before Memorial Day!
Man, I miss that book...
TIM SEELEY (W)
JACOPO CAMAGNI & IBAN COELLO (a)
Cover by TIM SEELEY
• It’s not every day Peter Quill ends up in jai…wait…never mind this happens a lot.
• But he DOESN’T always get Rocket stuck there with him. And he DEFINITELY doesn’t always regale the guards with the BEST STORY EVER!
• Let’s just hope he keeps their attention long enough for the other Guardians to bust him out…
32 PGS./One-Shot/Rated T…$3.99
There are nine—NINE!—Guardians of The Galaxy comics in April's solicitations (Guardians of The Galaxy, Guardians of The Galaxy and The X-Men: Black Vortex Omega #1, Guardians Team-Up, Guardians 3000, Legendary Star-Lord, Marvel Universe Guardians of The Galaxy, Rocket Raccoon and this one-shot , but, of all of 'em, this one has the best title. I'm not crazy about writer/cover artist Tim Seeley's Rocket, who looks more canine than raccoon, but then I suppose Rocket would say that's fine, as he's not a raccoon.
...
Hey, has Seeley drawn any Batman comics yet? Seeing as how he's co-writing a 52-part weekly series that has had about 40 different artists draw issues of it, I'm kind of surprised Seeley hasn't drawn any Batman Eternal yet...
JAMES PATTERSON MAX RIDE: FIRST FLIGHT #1 & 2
MARGUERITE BENNETT (W)
ALEX SANCHEZ (a)
Cover by STEPHANIE HANS
VARIANT COVER BY DUSTIN NGUYEN
James Patterson’s Worldwide Bestselling Series gets a Marvel makeover. Follow the soaring adventures of Max and her extraordinary “flock”--Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman and Angel--as they try to escape their creators and defend themselves from the diabolical Erasers. Along the way Max discovers her purpose – saving the world – but can she? Find out this Spring!
32 PGS. (EACH)/Rated T …$3.99 (EACH)
Is it worth noting that Marvel's doing a James Patterson comic? I know IDW has published Patterson-based comics in the past, so I was surprised to see this here.
GREG WEISMAN (w) • PEPE LARRAZ (a)
Cover by MARK BROOKS
YOUNG VARIANT BY SKOTTIE YOUNG
STAR WARS: REBELS TELEVISION SHOW VARIANT COVER
BLANK VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
VARIANT COVER BY TBA
• Kanan Jarrus--in STAR WARS REBELS, he’s a cocky, sarcastic renegade fighting against the Galactic Empire alongside the rag-tag crew of the Ghost...but years before, at the height of the Clone Wars, he was known as Caleb Dume, Jedi Padawan under the instruction of Jedi Master Depa Billaba. Neither master nor apprentice ever suspected that the Clone Troopers they commanded would turn on them upon the issuing of Order 66—the order to execute all Jedi. How did Caleb Dume survive? How did he learn to survive on his own? And how did he become the man we know as Kanan Jarrus? Writer Greg Weisman (writer/executive producer on STAR WARS REBELS, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN) and artist Pepe Larraz (DEADPOOL VS. X-FORCE, THOR, INHUMAN) bring us a tale bridging the years between the Clone Wars and Rebels!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99
Star Wars © Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved. Used under authorization. Text and illustrations for Star Wars are © 2015 Lucasfilm Ltd.
Wow, they named a Star Wars character after me! That's super-nice of them, and really unexpected. I mean, I assume he's named after me, as I don't know of any other Caleb's that exist. Certainly none that I can think of whose surnames begin with, say, the letter G.
So this Caleb/Kanan is from the TV show Rebels...? I'm pretty shaky on what's in Star Wars continuity now and what's not. In terms of the New Expanded Universe, I guess this means that the first six movies and the TV show Rebels are all in-(new)continuity...?
CULLEN BUNN (W)
RON ACKINS (a)
Cover by DECLAN SHALVEY
• A new chapter that brings the horror and insanity of MOON KNIGHT to new heights!
• Mysterious wolves are threatening the nights in New York City and it’s up to Mr. Night to figure it all out.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
And where did these mysterious wolves get all that money? Are they the wolves of Wall Street...?
Oh.
Well, that's a pretty awesome cover. I love the little Daredevilfish and other fish dressed as Marvel heroes...
I kinda like the logo on that costume.
Charles Soule & Ray Fawkes (W)
Ario Anindito (a)
COVER BY Guillem March
• Mr. Sinister was robbed of his prize – the adamantium-covered body of Wolverine – when the X-Men stole it from his Finlandian fortress. But they left something behind...another piece of the puzzle, something else that was taken from our team...
• The REVENGE of Mr. Sinister starts here – and who better to initiate it than...the Paradise team?!
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99
Really? It's a Finlandian fortress? It's not a Finnish fortress? Huh. Is it in Finland, or is it in Finlandia? Is their a Finlandia in the Marvel Universe? I don't know; it's a big place.
I think the only Star Wars canon is now the movies and the new Rebels series.
ReplyDeleteGrizzly was, IIRC, in one of those odd fill-in issues of Foes. Kind of attired thusly.
Also, nice on the Widow comment.