April 2010 solicits

Press releases and upcoming events that might affect the Marvel Universe and its chronologies. Use Spoiler warnings!

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April 2010 solicits

Post by Somebody »

JD hasn't done one of these roundups for a few months, so on the basis that someone probably should...

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=24463

SIEGE

The big news is that, with the end of Dark Reign/Siege, New Avengers #64, Mighty Avengers #36, Dark Avengers #16 and Avengers: The Initiative #35 end ALL the ongoings with "Avengers" in their titles, with a New Avengers: Finale one-shot to cap it all off. Obviously heading for a relaunch, apparently with "Heroic Age" branding, and probably with an adjectiveless "Avengers" title at the core.

Other books tying into Siege are Thunderbolts #143, which would seem to set that book up for its' third soft relaunch in the past few years; and Thor #609, ending the Gillen run as they get round to Thor vs. Clor years after everyone forgot about "Ragnarok."

Finally, there's a series of epilogue one-shots, all "CLASSIFIED" (including the creative teams) and marked "NOT FINAL TITLE" along the lines of Fallen Son; the first listed as "FALLEN" for now, and the others focusing on Loki, Spider-Man, Captain America, the Young Avengers and the Secret Warriors.

*phew*

DEADPOOLED OUT, YET?

Deadpool hits two crossovers in one month, being Hulkified in the "World War Hulks" one-shot and the "HoH" two-shot (another "NOT FINAL TITLE" and CLASSIFIED), along with Spider-Man and several others judging from the cover of the latter; and flashing back to the start of Messiah Complex in Second Coming-tie-in Deadpool and Cable #25. Unfortunately on the last, it's just a Hail Mary Pass on the last issue of Swierczynski's Tom-and-Jerry Cable series, not Fabian Nicieza getting to revisit Cable & Deadpool. BTW, if that and three ongoings aren't Deadpool enough, there's also the Rob Liefeld-drawn Deadpool Corps #1, Vengeance of the Moon Knight #7 and Captain America: Who WON'T Wield The Shield (creative team classified. I suspect they haven't decided yet).

BUSY WRITER OF THE MONTH

Jeff Parker writes the aforementioned Thunderbolts, "HoH"×2 & a story in World War Hulks, along with Fall of the Hulks: Red Hulk #4, FotH: Savage She-Hulks #2 and Avengers/Atlas #4. Apparently due to those six-and-a-bit issues of Other Stuff, Paul Tobin and Jason Aaron end up writing the Agents of Atlas backups in Hercules: Fall of An Avenger #2 (spotlighting Venus) and A/ATLAS 4 (Gorilla-Man), respectively.

IRON MAN MOVIE CASH-INS

Invincible Iron Man #25 sees a soft relaunch - still Fraction/Larroca, but with a new armour and apparently new setting and a "Foilogram" gimmick variant to go with it. Iron Man Legacy #1 (van Lente/Steve Kurth) is set in an unknown point in the past, and is (presumably mistakenly) solicited with half of IIM #25's cover(s?) for some reason. Iron Man 1.5 #2 and 3 are set in the movieverse. Black Widow #1 (Marjorie Liu/Daniel Acuna) is an ongoing starring "the deadly spy from Iron Man 2". "Iron Manual Mark 3" has the movie Iron Man and War Machine on the cover, despite ostensibly describing the MU versions of the characters.

*takes a breath*

And to finish off, there's an Iron Man Noir series (go figure), a poster book, and the Iron Man Magazine is presumably all-reprint, with an incredibly ugly Extremis-era IM on the cover.

NEW SERIES AND ONE-SHOTS

As part of the "Women of Marvel year", there's that Black Widow ongoing to tie into IM2; a Firestar one-shot by Sean McKeever and Emma Rios and Girl Comics (you couldn't have thought of a better title, Marvel?) #2. There's also:
  • The aforementioned Deadpool Corps, Cap: Who WON'T Wield the Shield and Iron Man Legacy
  • A "Spider-Man: Fever" mini that seems like a stealth Dr Strange mini in the tradition of "X-Statix Presents Dead Girl"
  • "Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers[/i], set in the 1940s and also involving Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos, a painful-sounding mini in which Reginald Hudlin gets to take a Mexican agarve cactus to both continuity and the desire to read Black Panther comics one more time
  • The vaguely-bizarre "Savage Axe of Ares" B&W magazine
  • "New Avengers: Luke Cage" (John Arcudi/Eric Canete. Naturally starts the month New Avengers dies)
  • Marvel Zombies proves impossible to kill - MZ5 (van Lente/Kano) involves the MU Machine Man travelling through dimensions
  • SHIELD #1 (Hickman/Dustin Weaver) appears to be trying to retcon the organisation back to the Dawn of Time
  • And "Avengers: The Origin" (didn't A:EMH exorcise Joe Casey's need to retread that period? He's doing this with Phil Noto) will interest people here.
On the "Ultimate Comics" side, for some bizarre reason they're ALREADY renumbering Ultimate Avengers back to #1; and on the all-ages side, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man and MAdv Super-Heroes are relaunched as-they-were without Marvel Adventures in the title, and the all-ages Power Pack get their first mini in a while in "Thor and the Warriors Four".

Oh, and there's also "Her-Oes" #1. Starring unrecognisable teenage versions of Wasp, She-Hulk, Namora, Carol Danvers and Valkyrie. Since I agree wholeheartedly with what he said, I'll just quote Omar Karindu, "The writer seems to have some very good, well-thought-out ideas for this book... [but] we have two repeatedly-cancelled female knockoffs of male characters and another female character killed off in the main comics; are these really good trademarks to use for...well, anything, let alone this? [...] Surely the better idea would be to create original characters and to release the material through non-direct market channels and non-single-comic formats."

IN OTHER CROSSOVERS

Realm of Kings: Son of Hulk is the only title left with the branding, but Nova #36 finally picks up on Evil Quasar from the end of the RoK one-shot. Meanwhile, Guardians of the Galaxy #25 brings back Thanos at least three years too early.

Second Coming runs through Uncanny X-Men #523, New Mutants #12, X-Men Legacy #235 and X-Force #26; while X-Factor #204 and the aforementioned Deadpool/Cable #25 tie-in.

Fall of the Hulks tails off in FotH: Red Hulk #4 and FotH: Savage She-Hulks #2 (of 3), while Hulk and Incredible Hulk go missing for the month as the World War Hulks one-shot and "HoH" start the new crossover.

ANYTHING ELSE?

Hercules: Fall of an Avenger #2 (of 2) doesn't end Incredible Herc as a whole, but doesn't promise to bring him back just yet. Possibly the next arc or mini.

Captain America #605 proves that if you're going to do an arc called "Two Americas" involving two Caps in a Captain America book, you need to time it for just before a major Avengers relaunch.

To make two cosmic returns from Annihilation in one month, Annihilus is back to normal in Fantastic Four.

And finally, Louise Simonson's X-Factor Forever #2 focuses on Apocalypse (shame about the cover), while the various X-Men Forever issues try to break the Solicit Hype Barrier and hype things to the point that they are actively unhyped.
Last edited by JephYork on Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: April 2010 solicits

Post by JephYork »

Thanks for the rundown, but Jesus Christ that's a lot of negative editorializing.

Remember when people were excited about upcoming solicits? If you believe this post, everything in April is stupid. What a downer to read! Clearly, Somebody, you hate Marvel.

I know it's "cool" to be cynical on the internet about abso-f*cking-lutely everything -- but do you like ANYTHING coming in April, Somebody? Anything at all?

-Jeph!
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Re: April 2010 solicits

Post by Col_Fury »

Somebody wrote:Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers
This makes me happy. Yay more Sgt. Fury!
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Re: April 2010 solicits

Post by Russ Chappell »

jephyork wrote:If you believe this post, everything in April is stupid.
Hyperbole, much? If you believe this post, about 20% is stupid.
do you like ANYTHING coming in April, Somebody?
Not Somebody, but I like what April forebodes, based on the little I've heard of this Heroic Age. I've grown weary of having to wash my hands after reading some of Marvel's output recently. A lot of Marvel's stories the last few years have been excellent--EXCELLENT, I tell you--but very few have been fun. I'd like to see a better balance from Marvel. I want to have fun.

I'm looking forward to AVENGERS: FINALE.

I enjoy a good spy story, and want to see what this Black Widow is all about. Somebody implies that this is the movie version, but here's what the solicit says:
Marvel wrote:The deadly super-spy from IRON MAN 2, INVINCIBLE IRON MAN and CAPTAIN AMERICA
and also mentions "some of her closest super hero friends." Sounds like 616 to me.

Then there are ongoing favorites of mine: Captain America, New Mutants, and Amazing Spider-Man by Stern.


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Re: April 2010 solicits

Post by Somebody »

Russ Chappell wrote:
jephyork wrote:If you believe this post, everything in April is stupid.
Hyperbole, much? If you believe this post, about 20% is stupid.
What Russ said. I expected better of you Jeph than to go "clearly, you hate Marvel" (!).

There were a few things that hit a nerve (like "Deadpool & Cable" - which is why I went on the extended DP bit - Hudlin BP and that WTH of a SHIELD premise), and I'm not that interested in most of the launches but wanted to list them all. Note that those two sections include considerably higher proportions of snarky ("negative") editorialising than the rest. Hell, a fair chunk of it is purely factual or nearly so - e.g. Jeff Parker's confirmed since I posted that precisely ONE of the current Tbolts will stay on the roster post-Siege (and implies in the bargain that some original members will rejoin). In what way isn't that the book's third relaunch since Civil War? (I used "soft" to distinguish between a relaunch-with-numbering-intact and a new #1).
Russ Chappell wrote:Somebody implies that this is the movie version
Didn't mean to - I was just justifying putting it in that section. It's MU as far as I know.
jephyork wrote:do you like ANYTHING coming in April, Somebody? Anything at all?
Tbolts, Avengers/Atlas, Savage She-Hulks, Nova, Spider-Man Fever (I *like* Dr Strange! If it was purely a Spider-Man mini, I wouldn't bother), Captain America (even if the coincidences with Priest's Cap/Falcon were too much not to mention) and X-Factor Forever (although that Apocalypse head does give me pause, it IS a hard design to get right, and Louise Simonson's X-Factor is one of my favourite runs ever until Portacio showed up) for starters.
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Re: April 2010 solicits

Post by JephYork »

I'd just love to see some positive editorializing for once. I always see you being very snarky and judgmental, and frankly I'd always thought this board was more for analysis and creative problem-solving, rather than tearing down things we don't happen to like. It's one of the more unique things about this place, and one of the reasons I like it here. We don't sit around hating on Marvel ... we just note various continuity problems, gripe a bit and then solve them.

It's annoying to read a rundown of upcoming stuff and having it peppered with some guy's cynical opinionated commentary, judging everything before even reading it. I don't want my opinions formed by your opinions -- just because *you*, for example, don't like the SHIELD premise doesn't mean it's objectively bad. JD's stuff was never this "attack-dog", and if you're priming yourself as his successor, I'd like to see a more neutral tone than what I saw here.

When stuff "hits a nerve" with you -- consider posting it on one of the bajillion *other* message boards out there where snark, cynicism and judging books by their cover reigns supreme.

-Jeph!
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Re: April 2010 solicits

Post by Ross »

Just my two cents - I enjoyed Somebody's writeup. I would describe it more as "snarky" than "cynical", and frankly, in an era where Marvel frequently pulls stunts that could be interpreted as a middle finger to longtime readers / continuity mavens, I feel like they've earned some. If you want a vanilla assessment of the solicitations, then why don't you just read the actual solicitations?
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Re: April 2010 solicits

Post by Ross »

Oh, and WRT the actual solicits - what the heck is with a Thunderbolts relaunch yet again?? I got back into buying new Marvel stuff right at the beginning of the Warren Ellis Thunderbolts run, and despite rotating writers, it's remained one of my favorite titles throughout. I bought into the old Thunderbolts needing to go become the Dark Avengers, but what's the rationale this time?? I feel like the current team has a lot of mileage left, and it'd pain me to see them go in the toilet without exploring it.
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Re: April 2010 solicits

Post by JD »

Oh, nice to see someone picking the slack. I've had tons of stuff going on lately (and the holidays didn't help), and this column of sorts took a low priority.

A few additional notes :
- IRON MAN: LEGACY seems to be a new ongoing series, which might be a bit optimistic, but eh, it worked for Deadpool.
- Despite issue #1 being solicited as a one-shot, PETER PARKER is apparently a monthly series now... which makes sense, since it republishes an ongoing web-series.
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Re: April 2010 solicits

Post by Somebody »

Ross wrote:Oh, and WRT the actual solicits - what the heck is with a Thunderbolts relaunch yet again?? I got back into buying new Marvel stuff right at the beginning of the Warren Ellis Thunderbolts run, and despite rotating writers, it's remained one of my favorite titles throughout. I bought into the old Thunderbolts needing to go become the Dark Avengers, but what's the rationale this time?? I feel like the current team has a lot of mileage left, and it'd pain me to see them go in the toilet without exploring it.
I believe that it comes down to this team only being held together by their monthly cheque from Osborn - with the end of Dark Reign/Siege and the "Heroic Age" looming, it's unlikely that they could plausibly be kept on by the incoming regime. The two options then are to have them go on the run together, or disband/kill them at the end of the Dark Reign. And what's to keep them together if they're on the lam?

There also seems to be a desire on Parker's part to, as he puts it, "re-instill some elements from the early days of the book" - and Songbird, MACH-V and Fixer were notably left together at the end of Diggle's run as something of a dangler. Plus, with Dark Avengers ending, some of the Ellis-era members could end up returning.
JD wrote:Oh, nice to see someone picking the slack. I've had tons of stuff going on lately (and the holidays didn't help), and this column of sorts took a low priority.
Hey, it's yours if you want it back :). I won't have time to do this every month anyway.
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Re: April 2010 solicits

Post by JephYork »

in an era where Marvel frequently pulls stunts that could be interpreted as a middle finger to longtime readers / continuity mavens, I feel like they've earned some.
Ross, anyone who *really* thinks that Marvel is sitting around coming up with ways to deliberately "give the middle finger" to a segment of their own fanbase is delusional. Marvel's a business. Show of hands, who's worked for a business before? Can you please all of your customers all of the time? No you cannot. Do you deliberately set out to piss off ANY of your customers? No you do not.

Individual fans out there can *choose* to interpret any of Marvel's actions as a "middle finger" to them -- but I would consider them insanely self-involved. They need to realize that they are not Marvel's sole customer.

Marvel tries to publish books that maximize their revenue and appeal to the majority of the consumer base -- and for this they "have earned" scorn and ridicule? Ross -- take a step back and look at what you just said. For their efforts to please the majority of their customers, they've "earned" scorn from anyone who's so self-involved that they choose to take personally the business decisions they happen to dislike?!

No.

Again -- in my mind, the MCP is not a place for the constant snark that pervades every other comics fansite. The MCP is about analyzing Marvel's output and arranging it in a logical/pleasing order. In a way, it's a scholarly effort, and the people that come here do so because they enjoy doing the work. Complaining about how you think certain things are dumb is -- to me -- a huge waste of time and bandwidth, a distraction -- and most importantly, it's tainting the "mood" of the entire group. It's a lot harder for me to analyze recent Marvels and pull out clues when I have to listen to how dumb they are and how nearly every one of them is a bad decision in some way or another.

Go to one of the million other sites out there if you want to be snarky. Come here if you want to put comics in order.

That's my take, anyway.

-Jeph!
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Re: April 2010 solicits

Post by Ross »

Wow, thanks Jeph. You've really opened my eyes to how self-involved I am.

If you aspire to be the MCP Thought Police and decide what the appropriate tone is around here, that's your perogative. But understanding why Marvel does what they do (which, despite your preachy condescension, I think we all do) and condoning it are two entirely different things. If you're comfortable in the role of "true believer", then more power to you - I'm not. And at the end of the day, while many of Marvel's marketing stunts irk me (renumberings, relaunchings, arbitrary price increases, padding books with filler, neverending "events"), as anyone can clearly see from my weekly buy lists, it's not stopping me from buying much.
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Re: April 2010 solicits

Post by JephYork »

You've really opened my eyes to how self-involved I am.
Good. Because you said that Marvel deserves to be scorned by those whom they try to please, but don't happen to please successfully.
seemingly arbitrary price increases
Fixed that for you. For a second it looked like you were assuming that the price increases were, in fact, actually arbitrary. And that's just crazy talk! *doh*

-Jeph!
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Re: April 2010 solicits

Post by TheDeuce »

i really really enjoyed this write up in the OP. i can understand why some may not, but i didn't get a negative vibe from it at all. i was really surprised to see your posts jeph, 'cause write after i finished reading it, i said to myself how i hoped the next one read as well as this one. :) just wanted to throw that out there.
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