Hopefully that's just a flashback, to the point where he was considering ditching the red unitard for the black one. That's how superheroes decide on what to wear; they clutch various garments in their fists, and stare intently at them, brooding about the choice. It takes Matt forever to get ready for work in the morning.
DOCTOR STRANGE #21
DENNIS HOPELESS (W) • NIKO HENRICHON (A)
Cover by CHRIS BACHALO
...
SECRET EMPIRE TIE-IN!
• New York City is under attack by dark forces, and only Doctor Strange has a shot at saving it. But it’s quite a longshot!
• And welcome new ongoing writer DENNIS HOPELESS (ALL-NEW X-MEN, SPIDER-WOMAN, JEAN GREY) and artist NIKO HENRICHON (Pride of Baghdad, NEW MUTANTS).
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo are gone already? That seems like a particularly short run on the title, especially for Aaron, who stuck with Wolverine and Thor for many years through many different titles. That said, Niko Henrichon! That seems like a real get; Pride of Baghdad was pretty fantastic (particularly on the visual side of things), and I'd be interested to see what he can do with the weirdo visuals that Doctor Strange comics can lend themselves to.
CHRISTINA STRAIN (W) • AMILCAR PINNA (A)
Cover by TERRY DODSON
...
The Xavier Institute for Mutant Education and Outreach has opened its doors and is ready to foster the next generation of heroes and diplomats! But this time around, the X-Men recognize an unfortunate truth: not all mutants are created equal. Some mutants are not made to fight Sentinels or serve as ambassadors on behalf of their kind. Some mutants will just be lucky to survive another day in a world that hates and fears them. And who better to mentor mutantkind’s lovable losers than perpetual sidekick Jubilee? But will Jubilee and GENERATION X survive the experience??
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
While I like Jubilee's current status as a co-worker and all-around bro of Patsy Walker in Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat, and will miss artist Brittney Williams' super-cute portrayal of one of Wolverine's top teenage sidekicks, this strikes me as an interesting use of the character. And hey, the Institute has a new name again! I wonder why they stripped it of the Jean Grey designation? Is it because there's a teenage version of her from the past living in the present, and now it just seems a little weird?
Also weird? "Generation X" no longer sounds quite right for a title about young X-Men types, now that actual members of Generation X are in their 40s, but then, I guess as long as a phrase has an "X" in it, it will work for a short-lived X-Men spin-off comic (and these days, all Marvel comics are short-lived, but design). And besides, X-Post-Millennials doesn't quite roll off the tongue...
NICK SPENCER (W) • STEVE MCNIVEN (A)
Cover by MARK BROOKS
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PARTY VARIANT COVER BY TODD NAUCK
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It’s been building for months, across a bevy of titles! But now, the moment has arrived for Steve Rogers to step into the light and declare his allegiance to Hydra! How can the heroes of the Marvel Universe cope with this shattering betrayal by the most trusted figure among them? And what will this mean for the world? The map of the Marvel Universe changes in ways nobody will expect — TRUST THE SECRET EMPIRE!
48 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99
This is Marvel's next big event thing, so I suppose it's worth noting for that reason alone. As far as I understand it, the premise is that Captain America is, and has always been, a secret off-brand Nazi. Given that he was recently de-aged by a reality-warping entity (in Standoff, I'm not sure I understand why this has bothered a lot of fans. Maybe I just don't understand how the Cosmic Cube works, but couldn't it have just remade the past so that Cap was always a sleeper agent for the Fake Nazis? And if that is the case, is it anything to even be slightly annoyed by, as it's so easily fixable...at the climax of a big crossover series, of course.
There will be a million covers for this, of course, but I pulled out the two I found most interesting. The first one, the regular cover by Mark Brooks, I find interesting if only because if you saw those characters on the cover of the first issue of a Marvel line-wide crossover, even as recently as, I don't know, maybe five or six or seven years ago, your brain might explode. Spider-Man and Cap look pretty similar to themselves, and there's the Human Torch, (an) Iron Man (or Person, as I suppose that's actually Ironheart, right?) and Storm is in a dumb costume, but she's pretty clearly still Storm.
But what's Doctor Strange wearing, if that's even him? Why is Wolverine so old-looking, and not wearing anything even approaching a superhero costume? Why is there a female Thor? What the hell are Medusa and Rocket Raccoon doing on the cover of a major Marvel crossover series like this? And who are those other two ladies?
It just provides a sharper-than-usual snapshot of the current state of the Marvel Universe, and how different it is than it was in even the fairly recent past.
The other one, which I assume is the Todd Nauck cover, although I can't be sure without seeing the figures closer (they look kinda Nauck-y from this distance though, don't they?), I just wanted to pull out because it looks so awesome. I love character-crowded images like that, where a reader can spend minutes and minutes taking in the characters and making up little fight scenes for them in their heads.
NICK SPENCER (W) • ANDREA SORRENTINO (A)
Cover by MARK BROOKS
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Enshrouded in darkness, plagued by the minions of Baron Mordo and cut off from all assistance, The Defenders and Doctor Strange struggle to save the lives of the innocent people consigned to this hell on Earth. Will Dagger prove to be the key to stopping this nightmare? Meanwhile, will the appearance of a new hero provide Iron Man with the key to Captain America’s startling change? THE SECRET EMPIRE WILL DEFEND YOU!
48 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99
Oh cool, The Defenders! I...Oh. Wait. It's those Defenders. Hmph.
I guess it's cool Team Netflix is teaming up with original Defender Doctor Strange. Personally, I'd kind of love a Defenders comic that teamed the original Big Four of Strange, The Hulk, Namor and The Silver Surfer with the new, Netflix-inspired team, who could take the place of the lamer of the original Defenders (like, wouldn't you rather read about Daredevil than Nighthawk?).
MATTHEW ROSENBERG (W) • Javier Garrón (A)
COVER BY TRADD MOORE
VARIANT COVER BY DAVID NAKAYAMA
VARIANT COVER BY ROBBI RODRIGUEZ
Hip-Hop Variant Cover by MARCO D’ALFONSO
A SECRET EMPIRE TIE-IN!
Captain America has been revealed to be an agent of Hydra – and he’s coming after Inhumans!
S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Daisy Johnson, a.k.a. QUAKE, wants no part of Hydra, so she goes underground, teaming up with MS. MARVEL, MOON GIRL & DEVIL DINOSAUR, KARNAK and INFERNO to set things right – for the Inhumans, but also for the entire country!
Penned by rising star Matthew Rosenberg (Kingpin, Rocket Raccoon, 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank) and drawn by the immensely talented Javier Garrón (Death of X, Inhumans vs X-Men), SECRET WARRIORS is one part coming-of-age story, one part spy-thriller, all action and all heart. Don’t miss the next (and final?) generation of Inhumans as they take the Marvel Universe by storm!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
The (All-New, All-Different) Avengers, The Champions and now The Secret Warriors? Jeez, Kamala just can't seem to stop joining new superhero teams!
RYAN NORTH (W) • ERICA HENDERSON (A/C)
• This is it! The epic showdown between Melissa and Squirrel Girl, as the fate of New York City — and everyone in it — hangs in the balance!
• Will Melissa’s secret intentions be uncovered? Will Doreen and her friends be able to stop her? Can squirrels TRULY hope to match an army made up of EVERY OTHER ANIMAL EVER?
• Great news: We have studied each of these questions extremely carefully, and we are pleased to reveal our answers in this upcoming issue of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99
Having outlasted not only Howard The Duck, but also Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is now unquestionably Marvel's all-around best title. This is, of course, bad news, as it means that Marvel is now publishing two fewer greater titles (three, if you count Mockingbird, which, while excellent, I don't think was as excellent as those other three, but that may just be because I like squirrels, cats and ducks more than secret agents).
You know what else sucks about Patsy ending? I don't see Brittney Williams' name anywhere in this months Marvel solicitations, so it doesn't look like they've moved one of their best artists on to another title yet!
That is all.
YUSAKU KOMIYAMA (W) * Adapted by JIM ZUB
YUSAKU KOMIYAMA (A/C)
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The original manga is adapted into English for the first time!
Time and again, the Avengers have assembled to save the Earth from destruction. But they’ve never had to face a threat as gruesome and UNDEAD as this one! Now, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes must fight to contain an outbreak of horrifying zombies, and stop them from spreading across the Earth! But not all of the Avengers will escape uninfected…
Issue #1: 48 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99
Issue #2: 40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99
Everyone's pretty sick of the Marvel Zombies at this point, right? I mean, they must be, as Marvel finally quit publishing Marvel Zombies-related comics. But this looks a little different. After all, it's created outside of Marvel's U.S. offices, and, for another, this appears to be the Marvel heroes fighting zombies, rather than being zombies, and while that is a very, very obvious story, it's actually kind of a fresh new twist on Marvel's past zombie comics.
I'll read it.
"Maybe I just don't understand how the Cosmic Cube works, but couldn't it have just remade the past so that Cap was always a sleeper agent for the Fake Nazis?"
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what happened, and it was spelled out clearly in Captain America, Steve Rogers. The Red Skull convinced the sentient cosmic cube (Kobrick) to re-write Steve Rogers' past, so she did. He wasn't always a sleeper agent until she made him one.
Obviously his past is going to be changed back at some point.
Unless Mark Waid or Ann Nocenti are writing Daredevil, no, I would not rather see him in the Defenders than Nighthawk.
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