Posts Tagged ‘ Spider-Man ’

I mean, really boring.

I know that Avengers is still shooting, and Amazing Spider-Man will still be in post, but come on – you can do better than a boring old logo or symbol tease, right?

…web…see what I did there?

Not entirely sold on this in spite of liking everyone in the cast a lot (except Sally Field; I can’t stand Sally Field). I seem to remember reading a review where the origin was showed only in flashbacks, but this looks to be incorporating it wholesale into the plot of the film. I do, however, like the inclusion of Richard and Mary Parker. Now if only Sony hadn’t made this, and we could have them going off to meet Samuel L Jackson…

And for a movie trailer, the POV stuff makes it look like a pretty good video game.

Not entirely sure if that’s a compliment or not…

Spoilers for Ultimate Spider-Man #160 in case you’re the person who didn’t hear already.

If I were a regular reader of Ultimate Spider-Man (instead of bailing round about volume 6 of the trades), I would have been mightily peeved by yesterday’s AP release which spoiled the end of Ultimate Spider-Man #160, the fifth part of the Death of Spider-Man arc.

Granted, given the title and the previous announcement that there’s going to be a new Spider-Man, I might have been able to put two and two together to assume that Peter Parker was going to die, but to have it outright spoiled by Marvel would have annoyed the crap out of me.

But I’m not a regular reader, so I figured that I’d pick up the final issue – complete in polybag, of course – and read it.

Luckily, I didn’t have to; Midtown Comics, in their infinite wisdom, stocked the sketch variant cover of the issue right next to the three stacks of polybagged copies. You know, the white blank cover version you can get people to draw on at conventions? (Or you can draw on yourself, I guess).

The sketch version doesn’t have a polybag, of course, so I took a quick look, realized it wasn’t for me and put it back. I saw Tom Brevoort in store heading down to the Marvel section as I left, so I hope he noticed and chewed them out – but I doubt he did.

So bravo to Marvel; spoiling a story for fans but interesting non-fans, and then to Midtown for making sure that this non-fan of the book didn’t pick it up after all!

IDW’s new Godzilla comic launches today – but it’s by no means the first foray the King of Monsters has had into the US comic market. Yes, he had some Dark Horse series in the 80s and 90s, but – more memorably he also had a 24 issue run from 1977 to 1979 as a fully integrated part of the Marvel Universe.

And that Godzilla series will forever beat all challengers for these simple reasons…

1. Eating the Seattle Space Needle!

Well, I’m assuming he’s eating it, as opposed to going in for some lovin’. It’s been a while since I read the series.

2. Fighting the Champions! (of Los Angeles!)

That’s right, Godzilla threw down with the short-lived 70′s hero team that inexplicably hung out together for no real reason. Hercules! Black Widow! Angel! Ice Man! I guess it was Ghost Rider’s day off. And this was back when Hercules was really incredible. Like, towing-the-island-of-Manhattan-incredible.

3. Hunted by S.H.I.E.L.D.!

Godzilla’s not much of a conversationalist so the primary human content of the comic came from S.H.I.E.L.D.’s mainly inept attempts to capture him. Lead by Dum Dum Dugan, Gabe Jones and Jimmy Woo – yes, that Jimmy Woo – the organization kept trying and, largely, failing to capture (or even keep track of) the green behemoth. Will the same be said of IDW’s Godzilla? Clearly not.

4. Red Ronin!

Red Ronin, people. Red Ronin is certainly not a Shogun Warrior, just in case you were wondering. Designed by S.H.I.E.L.D-advising Japanese scientists Tamara Hashioka and Yuriko Takiguchi in conjunction with Stark International to battle Godzilla, Red Ronin was usually piloted by cheeky 12 year old Rob Takiguchi because, let’s face it, the person you want controlling a 100ft tall robot warrior is definitely a 12 year old boy with raging hormones.

5. Being kidnapped by aliens to fight other monsters as Earth’s champion!

Is it just me or did that seem to happen a lot to Marvel characters in the 60s and 70s?

6. Cattle rustling!

Will IDW’s Godzilla be falsely accused of cattle rustling and chased by a bunch of angry cowboy types? I don’t think so.

7. The Incredible Shrinking Godzilla!

Obviously having a 100ft tall lizardKing of Monsters traipsing around the US pretty much unhindered (not to mention cattle rustling) would be a bit of an embarrassment for S.H.I.E.L.D., so Godzilla was miniaturized using the ever-popular Pym Particles (Hank Pym, is there anything you can’t do?!?) which led to a whole other set of adventures as he slowly started to grow back to normal…

- he got molested by Dum Dum Dugan! (Oh, come on, you were never really going to trust a man with a hat and mustache like that, were you?)

- he fought rats!

- he wrestled on the docks!

Bet IDW’s Godzilla doesn’t throw down with rats under 8th Avenue.

8. The Fantastic Four!

Eventually, if you’re in the Marvel Universe and you’re a big-ass monster chances are good that you’re going to throw down with the Fantastic Four, if only so the Thing can lament about how he’s just a monster too. And let’s face it, he did that a lot back in the 70s.

9. Devil Dinosaur! (And Moon Boy too, but nobody likes him)

There’s certain super-hero tropes that you can’t get away from, like fighting another hero over some silly misunderstanding then teaming up against a greater threat. Thing is, when you’re Godzilla, fighting another hero should really only last as long as it takes for you to stand on them – unless you’re Devil Dinosaur. Moon Boy, though? He should probably have just been trod on.

10. A real ending!

It takes low sales (or the lapsing of the license, whichever came first) to finally put Marvel’s Godzilla book to rest, but Big Green went out fighting the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and S.H.I.E.L.D. before finally heading off out into the Atlantic to hibernate.

What that means is that – licensing aside – Godzilla is still out there. Sleeping. Waiting. Dream on that, Merry Marvelites!

What’s that you say?

That’s only 10 reasons why Marvel’s Godzilla rules, but the title said 11?

11. J. Jonah Jameson vs Godzilla.

Nuff said.

Trying something new today. Last night I actually read all the comics I picked up yesterday – something that never happens – and figured I’d do a review post. And then I thought why not do some review tweets as well?

So each review appears on twitter (I had to cheat with the comic titles in a few cases to get it under 140 characters), with a tiny bit more detail here. So off we go…

Action Comics #898 Incomprehensible Maguffin makes this a mess; @Paul_Cornell‘s story is a big disappointment. At least its over soon. #OTR

A bit more – I really like most of Paul Cornell’s work, but his Action leaves me cold. I just don’t buy Lex acting the way he does. He’s back running LexCorp, yet still flies around in that godawful armor and kills people in public with no come back – and that’s not even getting into the Lois robot again. Additionally, this whole black orb power quest thing makes little sense the more you read it; too much of the dialogue about them is close to nonsensical. I’m sorry, but I really think this has been a failure.

Teen Titans #92 A Robin switcheroo makes the last few issues pointless. Jeanty’s art doesn’t suit unless you like Buffy as Wonder Girl. #OTR

A bit more – Speaking of failures, I understand that Tim might want to hang out with his friends a bit more now he’s not all moody loner guy, but losing Damian after only a few issues feels like a mistake; now we’re back to Ravager being the only internal source of tension on the team. Again. And can we give the Calculator a rest, please? I’m almost as sick of him as I am of Raven.

Am.Spider-Man #655 Touching and beautiful; @DanSlott and M.Martin knock this out of the park marred only by 2 unnecessary final pages. #OTR

A bit more – I always get a little bit of a smile when Dan Slott shows off his knowledge of Spidey continuity, but the two page spread of people who have died was fantastic. Sally Avril? Ben Reilly? The Spider-Mobile? Awesome – and Slott’s the only writer I can remember bringing up the fact that Spider-Man killed someone in the Spider-Man vs Wolverine one-shot back in, what, 1987? And Marcos Martin – his layouts and work here are simply amazing. Restrained and simple in the silent funeral scene, but taking on almost Steve Ditko-esque levels of trippiness in the dream sequence. Like I said, though, I didn’t really need the 2 page lead in to next issue. As a stand alone, this would have been perfect.

FF #588 Less an ending and more a tease for FF#1. Hickman’s best written issue. Especially touching: the Thing/Thor/Hulk and ‘Uncles’. #OTR

A bit more -I’ve been pretty vocal about not loving Jonathan Hickman’s run on the book, but this was really good, even without dialog for the main story. Even so, there were some bits I didn’t need as they clearly just set things up for FF #1; Kristoff taking over Latveria (When was the last time we saw him? Where did that awful armor come from? Does Stature still have a crush on him? Why is Doom stepping down?), Reed deciding to reassemble the council, and the return of Nathaniel Richards (again) especially left me cold. That said, Ben’s venting in the desert with Thor and the Hulk – presumably at Johnny’s request was perfect, as was his almost hateful look at Namor during the wake. I also enjoyed the fact that Doom showed for Johnny’s funeral, even if only for a panel, and that Reed was apparently ready to fly solo in the Negative Zone with the Ultimate Nullifier to try to get Johnny back -only to receive his shredded costume from l’il Annihilus (so still no body…). Nick Dragotta gave a suitable Kirbyesque feel to the art, especially where the mourning Sue was concerned, and all in all did a fine job. And as I said, the ‘Uncles’ back-up with Franklin and Spider-Man was nice and sweet. I may just stick around for FF after all.

D&D #4 Continues to be a pleasure; one of the better recent launches. Captures the fun D&D spirit but great for non-players too. #OTR

A bit more -Phew, not the end of the series after all! I still can’t recommend this enough to fantasy fans. Simply a very well crafted and fun comic, and John Rogers is writing the hell out of it. Highly recommended.

SkullKickers #6 Some hits and misses in this anthology issue but maintains the fun of the series. Forgettable and skippable though. #OTR

A bit more – The first two tales are pretty good fun, the second two less so. This isn’t the best introduction to the comic by any means, but it’s a decent enough placeholder for regular readers. It seems as if the second arc won’t kick-off until May, but it should be worth the wait.

Turf #4 Labyrinth plot draws tighter together and parties come together; continues to be incredibly impressive comics debut for @wossy. #OTR

A bit more – Jonathon Ross and Tommy Lee Edwards are really knocking this out of the park, despite the lateness. Gangsters vs Vampires vs Aliens may sound like a recipe for disaster, but it’s really not; there are so many great characters at play here that even the quiet scenes like the face-off between the Dragonmir brothers, or the looting of a diamond store really hold your attention. That’s the other thing; I haven’t read a comic that takes this long to read in a long time. The art is beautiful and the dialog is so dense that you really need to go back and read the whole comic again when you’ve finished. As a penultimate issue this obviously isn’t a jumping on point, but when the trade comes out I recommend you pick it up.

And that’s your lot!

Warning – random theorizing lies ahead, with no basis in fact other than my own mind adding together 2 and 2, and most probably making 7. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

This week’s Amazing Spider-Man #654.1 – according to BleedingCool – contains one of those teasers for the upcoming year. These aren’t always accurate (at least it seems to me) because occasionally plans change – but there’s a scene in it that caught my eye:

That certainly looks like Mary Jane doing a bit of wall-crawling to me, and it appears it’s as a result of something Peter’s done. For some reason I instantly thought of the I (heart) Marvel Spider-Man issue from five (yikes) years ago, by Tom Beland and Cory Walker.

It’s a great little story which as far as I know has never been reprinted, and it centers around Peter and Mary Jane (back when they were married) on Valentine’s Day. Now I know they were no longer ever married, but everything else – like the events that happened – stay in continuity, right, only they just weren’t married. So this story still happened (not that anyone ever referenced it even before One More Day).

Anyway, Peter gives Mary Jane her Valentine’s Day gift –

- and, well, she’s pretty damn happy about it.

Like I said, this story was never referenced again, sadly, but Dan Slott knows his stuff – which means you can bet he knows that Mary Jane has a set of web-shooters tucked away in her closet next to her Jimmy Choos.

And now she can wall-crawl too.

You know, it’s a damn shame that the Spider-Woman name is taken at the moment. And I’m not saying it’s likely to happen, I’m not saying it’s going to happen – but I sure as hell would like it to happen…

It’s official – the rebooted Spider-Man movie franchise is kicking off with the aptly-titled The Amazing Spider-Man; the official site is live with the first official picture of the new Spider-Man costume in action:

A couple of quick thoughts – first off, it seems like this costume bears more than a bit of resemblance to the one that Ben Reilly ran around in back when he was Spider-Man and Peter was a clone (don’t know what I’m talking about? There’s a whole bunch of trades that can fill you in!):

The second thought is that the film’s title opens up a whole host of possibilities for sequel titles: Spectacular Spider-Man, Sensational Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man…time to start registering some domains!

It occurs to me that there are plenty of things I should have written about here that I haven’t over the past few weeks. In no particular order…

The Death of the Human Torch

Liked it, didn’t love it. Some nice character work (which is where Hickman seems to do his best), but shoddy plotting and characters conveniently forgetting how their powers work in order to get to the point he wants. Just as Sue forgot she could throw up a forcefield quicker than Namor can throw a trident a few issues ago, so Johnny seemed to forget he could (a) fly, and (b) go supernova and at least take some of the bugs with him. Also, the art makes his death seem a little uncertain. What’s to stop the horde stop and take him prisoner as soon as the door closes and Ben can’t see him anymore?

On the plus side, Namor’s reaction to being decked by Sue was priceless (as was her subsequent reaction to him) –

- and Johnny and Ben got their very own Spock and Kirk moment before the Torch checked out.

Other than that, though, the issue – like all of Hickman’s run – was largely disappointing.

Spider-Man joins the Fantastic FourFuture Foundation

I really have three thoughts on this: (1) it won’t last, (2) itisn’t the first time, and (3) that’s one butt-ugly costume.

Moon Knight’s new book

I’d probably actually have an opinion if I gave a monkey’s about the character – but I don’t think throwing more multiple personalities into him is a good idea, to be honest.

The Hobbit to start filming in March

About fricking time! I’ll probably listen to the press conference at some point.

Batgirl #18

Continues to be the most fun book around, and more people should read it – I mean, if you can make me enjoy an issue with Klarion in it, you’re doing something right. Don’t ever leave, Bryan Q Miller!

The death in this week’s Amazing Spider-Man

I know a lot of people will say this is yet another case for Women in Refrigerators, and the victim could just as easily have been Jonah’s son instead of his wife Marla – and they’re right, really – but the bottom line is that I don’t really care about that. It’s always bugged me that back in the 60s Jonah was responsible for the creation of the Scorpion, and financed the Spider Slayers, but that he never really got any comeback for it.

Dramatically speaking, it’ll be interesting to see where Jonah goes from here especially as he accepts his culpability. I suspect he may resign as mayor, but we’ll see. I only wish that there had been some acknowledgment that Mattie Franklin (the former Spider-Woman) had been killed recently, since she lived with Jonah and Marla for some time.

Oh, and the reason that Marla died instead of John? He’s the fricking Man-Wolf, that’s why.

The other major thing that happened in Spidey this week was the loss of the hero’s spider-sense, but that’ll probably be back soon. You know, just like the Human Torch.

Okay, that was a longer round-up than I thought. Anything else I should have commented on recently that I didn’t?

Presented without comment…

…except that Spidey’s looking lanky these days.

Oh, and is he wearing something around his wrists under the costume?

Yes he is! Mechanical web-shooters are back.

Not that that makes me geekily excited or anything…

Via

I’m fairly sure that you’ve seen this teaser that Marvel put out this morning:

That’s the current Fantastic Four creative team launching FF #1 in March 2011.

There’s two possibilities here – first, that the Fantastic Four is being relaunched as FF following the (permanent and for real this time, for honest) death of one of their own. The second is that the creative team is moving over to FF featuring Reed’s fairly-recently-established young braintrust, the Future Foundation, which includes his kids, Alex Power, a bunch of Moloids and Dragon Man.

Personally I’m all for the second scenario if it means somebody else is writing the Fantastic Four proper. If it’s the first – and more likely – scenario, well at least I finally have a good jumping off point for the book I’ve collected for about 25 years.

In the first scenario, the fact that the book will seem to be called FF regardless of the number of living members (or the three-sided logo) does put me in mind of a SDCC teaser that we saw…

Thoughts?

I think I’ve cracked the basis of Marvel’s next big crossover/event/bannering of titles/whatever we’re calling it this week.

I mean I probably haven’t, but there’s nothing wrong with a bit of speculation, right?

There have been two teasers released so far (I expect more this week) – one with Spider-Man and the other Cyclops – both asking ‘What do you fear?’.

Spider-Man, being the worry-wart he is, apparently fears the failing economy, recession and a lack of street-cleaning:

Cyclops, meanwhile, with the weight of the world on his shoulders and obviously feeling the burden of leading mutantkind fears becoming exactly like a man he’s hated most of his adult life – Magneto.

The common thread here is obviously fear. I’d imagine we’re going to get some more – how much do you want to bet that one of them features Iron Man and a bottle of bourbon?

In any case, judging from the ads, the event kicks off in April – the same month, if my calculations are correct, that Secret Warriors will hit issue #27 – the series’ final issue. You know what happened a couple of issues back in Secret Warriors? Ares’s son Phobos was killed by Gorgon.

This all seems unrelated until you consider that Phobos is the God of Fear, and back in Secret Warriors #10 Ares told him he would have to die one day to ascend to true godhood (or something like that).

So – you have a God of Fear who may be reincarnated at full power from a comic series written by one of Marvel’s ‘Architects‘, which happens to end the same month as an event starts highlighting fear as a major factor.

Supposition? Speculation? Hell yes. But you heard it here first!

…and Gotham…and New York…

These amazing prints by Justin Van Genderen are available to buy on imagekind.

Emma Stone’s gone back to blond for the upcoming Spider-Man reboot and her role as Gwen Stacy.

I’ll admit I’m still uncertain on almost all the casting that’s been announced for the new movie, but Stone isn’t a bad choice, as long as the writers are taking their cue from the Ultimate Marvel Gwen, who I seem to understand was a little more ‘bad girl’ than regular Gwen. I mean, the most interesting thing regular Gwen ever did was die. Yes, I know, Sins Past – but that story doesn’t exist in this dojo.

Still, even though Spider-Man 3 is best described as aggressively mediocre, I do think that Bryce Dallas Howard looked a little more like the comic Gwen to me.

According to THR, Campbell Scott has been cast as Peter Parker’s father Richard, while Julianne Nicholson is in the final stages of negotiations to play Mary Parker, Peter’s mother.

Meanwhile, Irrfan Khan and Annie Parisse are in talks for a villain named Van Atter and his wife.

No word on Richard and Mary appear only in flashback, if Van Atter is the bad guy who does away with Peter’s parents, or if Richard and Mary are actually agents of SHIELD (or some other acronym-bearing organization, rights issues allowed).

This is getting shakier sounding by the minute…

I mean, Booster Gold‘s chalkboards?

Pfft.

Like Marvel would lift something like that wholesale and plunk it into their books…

…oh.

According to CBR the above page is from Avengers #5, so it looks like I’m wrong…

Anyway, let’s have a little breakdown shall we?

Going from left to right along the timeline…

• Siege

– Well, we know what that is, I guess. It seems to be quite a way before the next events, at least one of which takes place prior to it. Probably an aspect of time being broken in the arc the panel appears in. Or an editorial slip.

• Captain America Reborn – Again, aside from placement no surprise here. There’s a little side note asking ‘What did Cap see???’ referring to his vision at the end of the series, which bore some resemblance to the War of the Worlds-esque (or Tripods-esque, depending on your frame of reference) alien invasion from Killraven‘s alternate future.

• Nine Worlds in Disarray -this presumably links into Matt Fraction’s upcoming Thor run, which will apparently deal with the nine worlds of Norse mythology, of which Asgard is only one. Again, the timeline appears slightly skew-wiff as this presumably takes place before the next notation…EDIT: Apparently Avengers Prime concerns the Nine Worlds being in disarray – thanks, Kunstgriff!

• The Heroic Age Begins! – I guess there’s not much mystery there.

• Three! – a reference to the upcoming Fantastic Four arc which apparently promises the death of one of the core characters (because that’s never happened before).

• Hope Returns!? – presumably referring to the recent Second Coming in the X-Men books featuring the return of Hope from the future.

• There’s a dotted line leading down to the next comment that I can’t quite make out “Spider on the …” Horizon? Horror? Whatever it is, it seems to begin with HO and end with ON. Horton? I’m guessing this is Spider-Man related…

• Man Without Fear – no real secret here, either, as Black Panther is becoming the new Man without Fear and taking over Daredevil’s book.

• Throwbacks! - Okay. I have no idea what this refers to. Any ideas?

• Chaos! – The upcoming Chaos War event, of course.

Next slide, please…

• EDIT: There’s a bunch of equations including the words ‘Similar Form‘ and ending in ‘Paired‘. Not sure what this could refer to but open to suggestions!

• Five Lights – A not-so subtle reference to the current Five Lights arc in Uncanny X-Men leading to Generation Hope.

• Who is Worthy? – 9,9,9, – these linked comments outside of the timeline presumably refer again to Thor‘s nine worlds and perhaps an indication that someone else is going to try hefting mjolonir for a while – or that Thor himself may not be worthy? We’ll see.

• EDIT: Crossed out below this is something else I can’t make out: What Wouldn’t Do ?????? Any suggestions?
  Back on the timeline…
  • What is Where Asgard Should Be? – Thor again. A valid question; if Asgard’s in Oklahoma, what’s occupying it’s old position at the end of the rainbow bridge?
  • Master of Kung Fu – Shang-Chi’s making a comeback in Shadowland, and there’s a new Heroes for Hire series on the horizon – so maybe he’ll have a part in that? Or will there be a new Master of Kung-Fu? Replacement heroes are all the rage, you know.
  • Nova Antiquus – perhaps an earlier bearer of the Novaforce will be making an appearance wherever Nova himself ends up?
  • Academy Traitor! – I’m guessing there’s a traitor in Avengers Academy?
  • Return of the King – There’s a few people this could refer to; Magneto has been referred to as a king a few times in the past; the Black Panther’s in exile of some sort from his own country; the Kingpin perhaps? Or it could (hopefully) be the return of Black Bolt who died at the end of War of Kings. In any case there appears to be a King. And he appears to be returning.

  Off to the side of the timeline -

  • EDIT: The one I couldn’t quite make out earlier is The Drumm of Revenge – presumably pointing towards a Dr Voodoo (Jericho Drumm) story – or perhaps his dead brother? Either war I’d put money on this happening in New Avengers.

  And back on the timeline again –

  • Night Falls – Well that’s not ominous at all. A sign that something bad is coming? Perhaps it’s horror-related somehow? Who knows.
  • Iron Lad Returns – Looks like everyone’s favorite young Kang/Young Avenger is on his way back through the timestream somehow, presumably in the the Children’s Crusade mini.
  • All Hope Lies in Doom! – Well, when doesn’t it? Sounds like Doctor Doom is going to be getting some pagetime, maybe in the Fantastic Four, maybe in an Avengers book – but somewhere.
  • Schizm! – Sounds like there’s going to be a split somewhere along the line. Could be in a team, could be in reality, hell, could be anywhere. Or it could be some new character causing trouble – but my money’s on the first option. I think there’s going to be a falling out between characters somewhere again.
  • Stark Resilient – I’m guessing that’s a reference to the current Invincible Iron Man arc of the same name, in which case that book is ahead of the curve.
  • Where is Wanda? – Probably the end of the current Avengers: The Children’s Crusade mini series starring the Young Avengers that’s running right now.
  • Galactus Seed – That just sounds…wrong. More likely to be another arc in Hickman’s Fantastic Four than about Galacta, which is a shame.
  • ST….365NRATS – I have no clue. As long as it’s not Marvel’s answer to Lab Rats.
  • Fear without Man – I suspect that this will be an arc either following Daredevil Reborn (or perhaps that series itself) or simply an arc in the Black Panther’s run.
  • What’s in the Rings?!?! – Despite the earlier Return of the King reference, I guess this isn’t about bringing Gandalf and co to the MU. Instead, I think we’ll see the Mandarin’s rings being explored somewhat – mainly because I can’t think of any other rings of note in the MU.
  • Steve’s Vision! – Sounds like that vision we were talking about earlier is going to come to pass relatively soon.
  • Ultron War – Is Hank Pym’s greatest mistake coming back? Again? Honestly in light of the Ultron Imperative and Annihilation Conquest, any more Ultron stories seem redundant.
  • Yesterday’s X-Men – Possibly referring to that teaser of dead X-Men that popped up recently? Or something else? It’s off to the side of the main timeline so it may not take place around this time.
  • Born To Burn – Given that I think Johnny Storm will be the missing FF member at the end of ‘Three’, I would guess that this would be his return to the fold.
  • We Are Here – The point at which Avengers #5 takes place.
  • Kang’s Forces – I think this refers to a big ol’ timewar that’s going on in the Avengers book, which I’m getting in trades, and probably not the big Kang War we had at the end of Kurt Busiek’s run. Or, sadly, The Crossing (which I’m expecting to get the big Omnibus treatment any day now…).
  • Scorched Earth? – Sometimes the only way to win is to destroy what you’re fighting for. Whether a reference to the Kang thing, the Killraven thing, or something else I don’t know. EDIT: Apparently Jeff Parker’s first storyline in (Red) Hulk, starting with this week’s #25 is called – wait for it – ‘Scorched Earth’, named for the Intelligencia’s plan. Safe bet that this refers to that.
  • 3PION - Well, not a ‘P’ but a Punisher skull symbol. Probably not the return of Lynn Varley and the other Punisher stand-ins, sadly. EDIT: I’ve read that this could be deciphered as 3SkullION or Triskelion – which would be the Ultimate Avenger’s HQ over in the Ultimate Marvel U. Is there a crossover in the offing?
  • INFINITE FUTURES!! Again, I suspect this has to do with the future being hazy after the Kang thing wraps up. Or that Marvel hasn’t had it’s 2012 editorial retreats yet.

  Lots to clear up here, and lots of hints.

  But Booster Gold still did it first!

  Continue Reading »

Bleeding Cool has been running a rumor for a while now that Spider-Man’s Brand New Day will end with Amazing Spider-Man #647, which will be a giant size issue with contributions from all over the show.

I dismissed this initially as balderdash – especially as Johnston threw this little comment into the mix:

It can’t be denied that sales on the title have slipped rather radically of late, by a third over the last two years. Something needs to be done. And it seems that something is being done.

Well…that’s kind of true. Sales on Amazing Spider-Man have slipped over three years ago – if you look at the sales of the May 2007 issue (#540, Back in Black – 119,662) against the first May 2010 issue (#630, 57,969) then it looks pretty damning.

The only thing is, when you look at the Spider-Man books in aggregate, taking the three core Spider-books before Brand New Day hit (Amazing, Sensational and Friendly Neighborhood) it’s slightly different:

As this shows, while per issue sales on Amazing may have fallen, the total units shifted per month has actually increased slightly.

When you take it as total sales alone, it’s a little clearer.

While this isn’t a resounding success, it’s hard to think that these numbers are exactly disappointing. They don’t include the next month’s reorders of titles, or spin-off or ancillary titles (so no Web of Spider-Man, Spider-Man Family, Anti-Venom, Brand New Day Extra! or that kind of thing).

When you look at the Spider-Man sales against the backdrop of total sales for the top 300 comics, they’re also pretty steady:

The other thing to consider is that the Spider-Man books were in permanent event mode for over a year before Brand New Day – The Other went straight into Road to Civil War, then to Civil War itself, before heading into Back in Black and then to One More Day. There were no issues of the core book (and precious few of the other two books) which were without some kind of banner or variant.

Even so, if the powers that be have decided to ‘end’ Brand New Day (although didn’t that end when the banner dropped off after #564?) I can’t imagine that it will end with Peter and Mary Jane suddenly, miraculously married again and everything hunky-dory.

And even though I was vehemently against One More Day, and I still am, I think the new status quo does indeed offer a wider variety of story possibilities. I also don’t think the supporting cast that’s been built up is just going to vanish – or at least I hope they won’t.

However, I do see a way out here – one that will please some of the One More Day haters and infuriate others.

If Peter remembers what happened with Mephisto – Mary Jane’s deal and all – and somehow recovers his memories, that doesn’t mean that everyone will. If nobody else realizes that the couple were married – perhaps not even Mary Jane, then that changes things somewhat.

Not only that, but if Mary Jane’s final words with Mephisto (above) become known, then there’s the possibility that Peter may be unable to forgive Mary Jane for pressuring him into making a deal with the devil so that he doesn’t want to remarry her anyway.

The upshot of all this would be that they remain unmarried – but with Peter at least remembering the ‘real’ past, even if nobody else remembers it quite the same way. Peter was pressured into his deal with Mephisto too, which means that he didn’t make it of his own free will, and takes steps to appeasing another section of the fans too.

The only thing is, of course, that Mary Jane gets the short end of the stick in all this. The whispered words to Mephisto, unreadable in the original comic, were revealed in this week’s issue, the first part of One Moment in Time – the story which reveals what happened on Peter and MJ’s wedding day. And yes, MJ basically guilted Peter into the deal.

Personally I would have preferred the deal to be that she remembered everything in return for him knowing nothing – but I guess that wasn’t to be, because then once the memories came back there’d be nothing stopping them getting back together.

Incidentally, this week’s Spider-Man would have read a whole lot smoother if Paul Ryan had pencilled the ‘new’ flashbacks so they blended with the original excerpts from the wedding annual. As it is, there was just a little too much jumping around in styles.

So will Brand New Day end? Possibly, after a fashion.

But does that mean we’ll have a happily married Peter and Mary Jane? Don’t bet on it.

…I’m really enjoying Amazing Spider-Man these days, and I think it’s been pretty solid since Brand New Day first started. So when I mock a possible direction for the comic, I do it with affection. I’m sure no matter what happens, I’ll enjoy it as the creative team on the books is pretty damn strong.

Also, I realized that I was wrong about things ending badly the last time someone else took over the Spider-Man identity from Peter, because I posted an image of poor, dead Ben Reilly – but that wasn’t the last time someone took over the Spider-Man costume.

No, the last person to take over as Spider-Man when Peter retired temporarily was Mattie Franklin, who gained her spider-like powers during the Gathering storyline. Shortly after, she became the new Spider-Woman –

- and suffered through a number of increasingly bad costumes before her book was canceled.

She later showed up as a strung-out drug addict in Alias who was being used to manufacture a superhuman drug, and then showed up in The Loners.

And just a few weeks ago, she was sacrificed by the Kravens to bring Aloysha Kraven back to life as some kind of wolfy-lion type thing.

So…maybe it didn’t end so well, now that I think about it.

Digital Spy picked up and ran with a quote from Spidey editor Steve Wacker in his badly-punctuated CBR interview –

For the couple of months coming out of “One Moment in Time,” we’re going to be bringing a lot of threads of Peter’s life that we’ve been developing since we started working on the book into one big story, ‘Origin of the Species.’ It sort of gives Pete a moment to assess all the stuff that’s happened to him for the last 100 or so issues. Beyond that, we’ve already started talking about the fact that it might be time for a new, or at least better, Spider-Man. I feel like we’ve done as much as we can do in terms of Peter Parker’s time as Spider-Man.

I mean, just look at the quotation marks around the storyline titles – don’t CBR even have an editor?

Anyway.

I feel like we’ve done as much as we can do in terms of Peter Parker’s time as Spider-Man.

Yeah, right – because that worked out so well last time.

Or maybe he’s quitting being Spider-Man to take on another identity?

Because that worked out so well last time.

So, yes, I call hyperbole. I’ll believe it when I see it.

And even then, not for long.

It’s official – Andrew Garfield, an American-born, British-raised actor is the next Peter Parker, Spider-Man.

You may remember Garfield as the plucky young Frank from Tennessee in the two-part Daleks in Manhattan episode of the third season of new Doctor Who, where he showed a disturbing ability to mangle an American accent and look perpetually surprised.

Still, I’m sure it will all work out.

And I’m still rooting for Molly Quinn for Mary Jane.

John Tyler Christopher has been doing some great stuff recently, and I thought that it was worth pointing out.

His deviant art page and his website are both worth checking out!