The most outside-the-box creators working on Marvel comics that will be released in July--Ta-Nehesi Coates, Ed Piskor, Mariko Tamaki, Margaret Stohl--have all been working on Marvel long enough that it's not surprising to see any of their names here, on any of the projects they're involved with, really. Thus far, the C.B. Cebulski era at Marvel seems to be an extremely cautious, careful one, with no bold moves--the boldest being the undoing of past bold moves, like the cancellation of titles and the resumption of legacy roles by their originating characters--and a considered retreat towards the good graces of the oldest of the old school Marvel zombies.
The big event stories seem to be whatever's been going on with Thanos and the Infinity Gems for what seems like forever now, and the continuing build-up to Wolverine coming back from the "dead" by way of too many mini-series.
One genuinely exciting thing is that there is an incredible focus on the Fantastic Four--which, again, seems more backward-looking than forward-looking--with the months $1, "True Believers" line being completely devoted to FF-related reprints, and plenty of Fantastic Four collections showing up in the solicits.
Anyway, let's take a closer look, shall we...?
NICK SPENCER (W) • RYAN OTTLEY (A/C)
ISSUE #1 – VARIANT COVER BY JIM CHEUNG
ISSUE #1 – VARIANT COVER BY JEROME OPENA
ISSUE #1 – VARIANT COVER BY SHANE DAVIS
ISSUE #1 – VARIANT COVER BY JOHN ROMITA SR
ISSUE #1 – VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY RYAN OTTLEY
ISSUE #1 – REMASTERED VARIANT COVER BY TBA
ISSUE #1 – B&W REMASTERED VARIANT COVER BY TBA
ISSUE #1 – BLANK VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
ISSUE #2 – VARIANT COVER BY TBA
An alien invasion hits New York City and the only one who can stop it is…Spider-Man?! But that’s far from all you’ll find here – a revelation from the past puts Peter Parker’s job, relationships, and whole life in jeopardy! And if even that’s not enough, you’ll see a new roommate, new love interests – and a new villain! Spider-Man goes back to basics courtesy of Nick Spencer (SECRET EMPIRE, SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN) and the Marvel debut of RYAN OTTLEY (Invincible)!
ISSUE #1 – 356 PGS. /Rated T …$5.99
ISSUE #2 –
32 PGS. /Rated T …$3.99
Nick Spencer is a great comic book writer, and a very good choice for this book...albeit not one that I would have made, simply because it seems like too normal or safe a title for Spencer's sense of humor. Leaving nothing to chance, however, Marvel is shipping the first issue with eight variant covers. Eight! Jesus. (That's another thing that hasn't changed; a lot of the new #1s, even those that are just miniseries, have a half-dozen or more variants attached.)
Oh, and I am assuming that's a typo, and that issue #1 isn't actually 356 pages. If it isn't a typo, and that first issue really is 356 pages, well, suddenly $5.99 for a comic book seems like a real steal.
MATTHEW ROSENBERG (W) • GREG LAND (A/C)
...
A NEW ERA BEGINS NOW!
The Reavers are back, and they have a new weapon that only Havok knows about. It’s going to take a ragtag group of X-Men to save a world that hates and fears them! But after his villainous turn, can any of the X-Men really trust him? Can he blame them? Havok! Beast! Dazzler! Warpath! Colossus! It’s an all-new, all-different kind of X-Men story from the minds of Matthew Rosenberg (PUNISHER) and Greg Land (INCREDIBLE HULK)!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
A new era! Of a comic book that has only published twelve issues so far! Is it too new for a new era? Relax. How new can a new era of X-Men be when it's a handful of the same old characters, drawn by the same old artist and combating one of their same old threats...?
TA-NEHISI COATES (W) • LEINIL FRANCIS YU (A)
WRAPAROUND Cover by ALEX ROSS
...
IT IS WINTER IN AMERICA.
For over 70 years, he has stood in stalwart defense of our country and its people. But in the aftermath of Hydra’s takeover of the nation, Captain America is a figure of controversy, carrying a tarnished shield…and a new enemy is rising!
Who are the Power Elite? And how do they intend to co-opt and corrupt the symbol that is Captain America?
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99
Oh thank God. It's been months without the relaunch of a new Captain America title!
Actually, given the writer, this one has the potential to draw an awful lot of eyeballs (Remember Coates' Black Panther #1?), and be pretty interesting. I honestly haven't much cared for Coates' run on Black Panther so far--I've only read the first two collections worth of it--which seems to be full of good ideas, but executed in a less than compelling fashion that can make the reading a bit of a slog. That said, Captain America is a very different book than Black Panther, and while both are somewhat defined by a nation, Cap's nation is a real one rather than a fictional one, and he doesn't have to play the sort of role within it that T'Challa does in Wakanda. So we'll see.
DONNY CATES (W) • DYLAN BURNETT (A)
Cover by Geoff Shaw
Variant Cover by MIKE DEODATO JR.
Variant Cover by STEPHANIE HANS
Variant Cover BY MARK BROOKS
VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY MARK BROOKS
EXPLODING FROM THE PAGES OF THANOS!
Frank Castle was the Punisher. A deal with the devil made him Ghost Rider. A deal with Galactus made him cosmic. A deal with Thanos made him…DEAD?!? Not to worry, he’s coming back, and he’s got a plan to make the universe a better place that’s going to lead him into an even CRAZIER adventure than he’s ever been in! Join hot new comic (and cosmic?) writer Donny Cates (THANOS, DOCTOR STRANGE) as he pushes his wildest creation past the breaking point!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
There's actually something somewhat appealing about the sheer craziness of this What If...The Punisher Was Ghost Rider, But Also The Silver Surfer, At The Same Time? Huh? What If THAT?!
MARGARET STOHL (W) • CARLOS PACHECO (A)
Cover by JULIAN TOTINO TEDESCO
...
Variant Cover by FIONA STAPLES
...
THE DEFINITIVE ORIGIN OF CAPTAIN MARVEL!
Carol Danvers was just a girl from the Boston suburbs who loved science and the Red Sox until a chance encounter with a Kree hero gave her incredible super-powers. Now, she’s a leader in the Avengers and the commander of Alpha Flight. But what if there were more to the story? When crippling anxiety attacks put her on the sidelines in the middle of a fight, Carol finds herself reliving memories of a life she thought was far behind her. You can’t outrun where you’re from — and sometimes, you HAVE to go home again. But there are skeletons in Captain Marvel’s closet — and what she disCOVERS will change her entire world.
Written by best-selling author Margaret Stohl and drawn by fan-favorite comics veteran Carlos Pacheco, this is the true origin of Captain Marvel.
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99
Huh. Carol Danvers is back in a new Captain Marvel book, but this one is just a miniseries, rather than an ongoing. The covers all look pretty nice, even if there are a lot more than necessary. That one is the Fiona Staples one.
...
...Man, Carol has to be sitting in so much bird excrement, huh?
Devin Grayson, Ryan North and G. Willow Wilson (W)
Irene Strychalski and Ramon Bachs (A)
Cover by Gurihiru
...
DOUBLE THE ADVENTURE. DOUBLE THE DANGER. DOUBLE THE FUN!
UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL author Ryan North and MS. MARVEL writer G. Willow Wilson join MARVEL RISING mastermind Devin Grayson in an all-star escapade! Gamer girl Ember Quade has a secret — a power that lets her bring video games to life! But when her creations attract the attention of super heroes SQUIRREL GIRL and MS. MARVEL, the stakes hit a whole new level. Just what is Ember after? And can Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel prevent her pixelated projects from wreaking epic destruction? The next generation of heroes take the universe by storm in the third installment of MARVEL RISING!
56 PGS./ONE-SHOT/Rated T+ …$5.99
Squirrel Girl, Devin Grayson, Ryan North, G. Willow Wilson, Gurihiru...hey, I like all of those names! And the work with which they are associated!
CHIP ZDARSKY (W) • PACO MEDINA (A)
Cover by JAY ANACLETO
NEXT OF KIN CONTINUES!
A new life in a new town on a strange world. Everything has changed for the broken people once known as BEN GRIMM and JOHNNY STORM. But can they repair things before one of their oldest villains puts the nail in the coffin of THE FANTASTIC FOUR?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
That's a pretty good cover. With Fantastic Four coming back, I wonder what that will mean for this title...? Like, if there will still be a point in publishing it or not.
BRANDON MONTCLARE (W)
NATACHA BUSTOS (A/C)
“SAVE OUR SCHOOL” PART TWO!
Lunella Lafayette is the smartest person in the Marvel Universe! So why can’t she unravel the genetic mystery that keeps swapping her brain with a 40-foot-tall terrible lizard?
She’s going to need to pull off her biggest science experiment yet to undo the curse! All without getting caught by her parents and teachers, of course!
Plus: The tragic past of Princess Fisk!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99
I like this cover a lot too.
RAINBOW ROWELL (W)
KRIS ANKA (A/C)
Having purple hair used to be an act of rebellion, but now Gert is just one of many. Which doesn’t sit well with Ms. Yorkes.
And she’s not the only one wrestling with who they are and what they want as Nico, Chase, Karolina and Victor all wrestle with their own identity crises…
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99
Weird. I just started recent Cloak and Dagger collection, Cloak and Dagger: Runaways and Reversals, and the original Runaways team of Bryan K. Vaughn and Adrian Alphona have a brief, few-panel sequence in which a somewhat similar point is made. The Las Angeles-born and raised teens are in New York City, helping track down the person who assaulted Dagger and put her in a coma, and there's a moment where Gert sees a few other girls that look almost exactly like her behind her, and someone comments on how maybe the reason she doesn't like NYC is that she feels less special there then she does on the West Coast.
RYAN NORTH (W)
DEREK CHARM (A)
Cover by ERICA HENDERSON
Squirrel Girl and Kraven have had a nice day out as civilians, instead of their usual costumed identities! It was really straightforward and uneventful…
…is what we’d be saying if this was a way more boring comic, WHICH IT ISN’T! Instead we can say that Squirrel Girl and Kraven battled Mojo’s evil clone and saved the city from his deadly machinations. Then they all got arrested!
When Doreen Green and Sergei Kravenoff end up BEHIND BARS, can they be saved? Will they even make it to trial? And who will be their lawyer?
We can answer that last one: It’s obviously going to be none other than JENNIFER WALTERS, the incredible SHE-HULK!
Doreen behind bars! Kraven on the stand! And a conclusion to the trial that nobody will see coming! It’s all this and more in this particular Marvel comic!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99
This is Marvel's best comic book ever, so I'm kind wrecked that it's changing in any way at all. That said, I understand that drawing a comic book takes way longer than writing a comic book, and it's certainly understandable that Erica Henderson might want to do some things that aren't Squirrel Girl at this point in her career, too.
And, honestly, if there was one artist they could choose to put on the book to make me not miss Henderson, it would be her fellow Jughead artist, Derek Charm. Having only read his Archie work and some Star Wars Adventures stuff he's drawn, I'm quite curious how he will take to the Marvel Universe in general, and Squirrel Girl in particular. Henderson redesigned the character's build in such a way to make her...different than she she had been drawn before (i.e. a buck-toothed Barbie doll), so in a post-Henderson Marvel Universe, I can't help but wonder if we'll see the character gradually gravitate back toward Barbie Doreen Green or not.
X CLASSIFIED #1
CLASSIFIED (W) • CLASSIFIED (A)
Cover by CLASSIFIED
VARIANT A COVER BY J SCOTT CAMPBELL
VIRGIN VARIANT A COVER BY J SCOTT CAMPBELL
VARIANT B COVER BY J SCOTT CAMPBELL
VIRGIN VARIANT B COVER BY J SCOTT CAMPBELL
Variant Cover BY SKOTTIE YOUNG
CLASSIFIED!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Wow, this sounds great.
MARIKO TAMAKI (W) • JUANN CABAL (A)
...
Cloned from a warrior, raised as a killer, Laura Kinney has gone through hell and come out the other side a hero. After a stint as the All-New Wolverine, she returns to her roots as X-23 to make sure no one ever has to go through the horrors she did. With her sister Gabby and their pet Jonathan in tow, X-23 forges her own destiny in this new series by Mariko Tamaki (HULK, HUNT FOR WOLVERINE: CLAWS OF A KILLER) and Juann Cabal (ALL-NEW WOLVERINE, ELEKTRA).
Issue 1- 40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99;
Issue 2 –
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Ugh. Nothing says "forges her own destiny" like adopting the letter and number designation you were assigned by the people who cloned you and mentally programmed you as your superhero name...!
So this just strikes me as baffling. Losing Tom Taylor is itself pretty terrible; he was a great writer who really transformed Laura Kinney/X-23 into an interesting and enjoyable character, something I don't think anyone has been able to do before, and, at the same time, introduced Gabby, which gave All-New Wolverine a supporting character and a cast without having to rely too heavily on X-people, as could be a problem with past books starring the other Wolverine. Also, Gabby is fun and funny.
Having to do a relaunch of All-New Wolverine also seems unfortunate, but then, it looks like they are screwing around with the character enough--new writer, new costume, new application of old codename, new title--that it seems more justified than a lot of Marvel relaunches of the recent past.
But man, I just don't know how on earth you justify her taking on the name X-23. Sure, OG Wolverine is coming back to life, but, um, so what? Laura can't keep calling herself Wolverine, and wearing a Wolverine-derived costume? Can't she be Wolverine and Wolverine go by "Logan," in the way that "Old Man Logan" went by "Logan" and his book was called Old Man Logan...? Can't there be two Wolverines, the way there are two Hawkeyes and were two Captain Americas, two Hulks, two Thors, etc...?
From the perspective of the publisher, one can kind of see how they might want to have a book called Wolverine starring the character the general, non-comics reading public thinks of when they hear the word "Wolverine"--although Laura was in the last Wolverine movie--but for the life of me, I can't imagine the in-story justification that would be used. That is, I can't imagine Laura wanting to go by X-23, nor can I imagine Logan wanting her to stop calling herself "Wolverine" so he can call himself that again.
There seem to be a lot of ways to address the issue of two Wolverines--including leaving Logan "dead" a bit longer; between Laura, Old Man Logan and Jimmy Hudson, I haven't had a chance to miss him yet--and that Marvel is choosing the absolute worst one. I don't have a lot of hope that Mariko Tamaki is the writer who is going to make this transition work, but I suppose we'll see.
The book does have Juann Cabal attached, and that is a definite bonus for any book.
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