Posts Tagged ‘ Crossovers ’

This…I would have heard about this if it was real, right?

Right?

Via

In the run-up to SDCC, Bleeding Cool has run a quick list of some items from Marvel’s unreleased October solicits –

October will also see the launch of Tron Betrayal, DeadpoolMAX, Tomb Of Terror, Spider-Man v.s. Vampires, Avengers Vs Pet Avengers, Chaos War, Iron Man Titanium, Klaws of the Panther, Prometheus, Millar and Yu’s Superior, Captain America Lives Omnibus, Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato’s Thor World Engine in hardcover and an Atlantis Attacks Omnibus.

Look at that last one again – one I laughingly predicted would happen a while ago on Twitter because, you know, no way would Marvel be stupid enough to release an omnibus of one of their annual crossovers.

It’s not that I don’t love these old crossovers, I do – and, yes, I have every issue of Atlantis Attacks and it’s pre-cursor, The Evolutionary War – but these will not look good collected. The art and writing in many (not all) of the annuals is sub-par, many of the stories are only vaguely interrelated, and the X-Factor and Avengers West Coast annuals still don’t fit into those series’ continuity.

I know, that last thing only bothers me, but still….really? An Atlantis Attacks Omnibus?

Good grief

…is basically Extreme Sacrifice but will all of the Image characters instead of just the Extreme ones, right?

I mean, Image United has original Spawn (and who even knew there was more than one?) Al Simmons looking like King of Hell out to destroy the world…

…and Extreme Sacrifice had Chapel (who incidentally killed Al Simmons originally) looking like King of Hell out to destroy the world.

Man, at least Extreme Sacrifice came polybagged with awesome trading cards, and starred character that were, like, extreme.

Is Image United going to do that? Is it, is it?

I don’t think so.

For example, Daredevil is going to be in the middle of some unexpected happenings and the center of his own eventful storyline that will encompass a number of books that are within his family. Fans have been clamoring for some event relief and for stories that are a bit more centric to individual titles and families, so we’ve hard them and we’re going to change gears for a while and see if we can create something cool and new with respect to how we handle stories that tie together.

From Cup o’Joe

So…kind of like…this?

Wait…Daredevil has a family of books?

It’s no secret that despite its inherent naffness, I like Secret Wars II.

Amongst the glut of crossovers, there are a few gems – and in some of them, the Beyonder does more than just wander past a hero and ask about using the bathroom.

Take Fantastic Four #285.

It’s a standalone issue featuring a young fan of the Human Torch who, well…

…does something really stupid.

The story is essentially the Beyonder showing Johnny Storm how the kid’s hero worship was the one bright spot of his life – well, before he went up in flames – and how he isn’t to blame himself.

Sure, it’s basically an old-fashioned morality tale with the Beyonder playing the role of an angel but it’s a damn good one.

The only thing that really detracts from the story for me is that John Byrne’s normally (at this point) crisp artwork is slightly jarring thanks to his tendency to draw all the children in the issue in pretty much the same proportions as he drew Puck.

Other than that, this is still a favorite after twenty-plus years.

Thanks to Chronological Snobbery (which has a far more in depth look at the issue) for the scans.

On the way home from work, I walk past the Clearview Cinema on Broadway; for the last week or two, the posters in the lobby have been calling to me through the window and, on Friday, I finally popped in to take a photo.

I mean it’s not just me, is it?

I can’t be the only one thinking that an employee in there was thinking of this:

Just sayin’.
Nod of the hat to Dr G.

Dear Marvel,

I see that you will be celebrating 70 years of Marvel in 2009, complete with variant covers and little ’70 Years’ corner boxes.

Maybe I’m not quite as good at maths as I thought I was because when I started picking up US Marvel comics in 1986, I was fairly certain that all the corner boxes then trumpeted that that was Marvel’s 25th Anniversary.

In fact, I’m relatively sure that all your November 1986 issues carried special anniversary covers too. Of those books, only eleven are still around in some form or other (I’m counting X-Factor and New Mutants to be generous), but only three are still on the same numbering run – and of those, only Uncanny X-Men has been numbered straight through.

Sadly, Ewoks, Care Bears and Heathcliff are no longer published by you, and you’ve lost both the Transformers and GI Joe licenses since then.

But I digress.

The point I would like to make is that if you’ve got a big year planned, maybe I can give you some pointers on ways to make it a good year…

1) No deals with the Devil (or demons, imps, devil substitutes or hedge fund managers). It may actually result in a substantial uptick in quality of the title, but it’s not worth the year of pissing and moaning from people who somehow believe that this will cause mythical young readers to fall into satanism (or become accountants).

2) Stop with the status quo-shaking crossovers. Look, if you change the status quo every twelve to eighteen months or so, the new status quo doesn’t have time to become status quo, okay? I understand that BOLD NEW DIRECTIONS! result in temporary sales boosts, but eventually you’re going to lose readers because of them. I know you’ve got War of Kings and probably some mutant-superhuman war thing lined up, but try to keep line-wide ramifications to a minimum, eh?

3) If you must have a status quo-shaking crossover, try to limit the number of new titles that spring out of it. For every Avengers: The Initiative that actually succeeds, you get a The Order which will fail and a New Warriors that will flounder, or an Omega Flight which will just plain tank. Just concentrate on putting out fewer new books and making sure that they’re good ones. Like Guardians of the Galaxy, which is awesome.

4) Stop launching new titles with old title names that bear little relation to those old titles unless you actually have a plan to tie it to the team’s legacy in some way. A good way of doing this is as Abnett and Lanning have done in Guardians of the Galaxy, which is awesome. A bad way is shoehorning Rage and Justice into the New Warriors book, which only reminds us how much better the original book was.

5) I get that #1′s sell, but if you want to relaunch a character who already has a book, just do it in that book. Otherwise the existing title suddenly becomes secondary and it’s blindingly obvious that it’s being phased out. It just pisses readers of that book off. And yes, I know that Invincible Iron Man is pretty good, that’s not the point. The point is that for the past six months, Director of SHIELD has been the red-headed step child.

6) Reinventing characters is great. I for one would love a new spin on, say, Nomad. Or Rocket Racer. But leave alone existing marquee characters unless they actually need a revamp. For example, if you have a character that has had more development in the past year than in the past ten years put together, don’t revert to the most annoying take on that character and introduce a big mean new-colored version of him who, although he may make a good visual, kind of stinks up the place. Am I being too vague, or would you like to look at the cover above?

7) Quit with the Zombie and Ape variants. I know I don’t have to buy them, and I don’t. But they annoy the crap out of me*. We get it! You’re marketing geniuses! You can change any cover into a variant by changing a little bit…it’s irritating in the extreme. Next things you’ll be sticking Skrull chins onto…oh.

There are some great underused characters out there who could do with a limited series or ongoing to spotlight them. The upcoming Cloak and Dagger is a good start, but how about the main MU Power Pack? Alpha Flight? Werewolf by Night? The Shroud? And, of course, Dazzler? I realize that you must get burned on these things but honestly, don’t they sound better to you than Hellcat or The Last Defenders?

9) Not just Wolverine needs inventory stories when he’s running late. Would it kill you to line up some Fantastic Four one-shots so that by the end of 2009, when we still haven’t finished Millar and Hitch’s run, we at least have a couple of issues starring the team out there? Yes, I’m being facetious and delays have lessened over the past couple of years, but I wouldn’t say no to the odd one-shot starring Marvel’s First Family.

10) You’ve got some great books out there at the moment. Captain America, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, Incredible Hercules, Captain Britain and MI:13 are all solid gold and I continue to hear very good things about Immortal Iron Fist. Don’t screw ‘em up, ‘kay?

Oh, you know he does.

I wasn’t going to pick up Marvel 1985 but after looking at the preview on CBR I may do grumblegrumble – it looks better than I thought it would (although there’s something there that’s alread annoying the fanboy crap out of my unfortunately continuity obsessed head – care to guess what it is?).

Anyway, the reason I started this post is Jim Cheung’s variant covers to the book:

(Click to embiggen)

…next time you’re moaning about a crossover, it could be worse…

Spin-off!

Are there two greater words in the English language?

Well…maybe.

Because if your spin-off is someone – or a team of someones – who really can’t – or shouldn’t – support their own series, then why would you inflict it on the general public?

Oh, yes, the Spin-Off!

Be it from the pages of a more popular title or the result of a crossover, is there anything more terrifying than the spin-off that fails?? For every L.E.G.I.O.N. or Hitman there are a thousand – nay, a hundred thousand! – that die a fiery death…(and, okay, some of them I liked but that’s beside the point…). We can only thank the heavens above that some are granted only a one-shot or mini-series to prove their terribleness!