Marvel Day-And-Dates The Ultimate "Death of Spider-Man"

What does THAT mean? Just that Marvel Comics announced plans this morning for a further flirtation with simultaneous digital and paper release of a comic-book at the same paper cost ($3.99) and this time with all the issues in a short but high-profile crossover 'event': namely the "Death of Spider-Man" from their Ultimate Comics imprint.

Those easily alarmed take NOTE: The Peter Parker in "Ultimate Comics Spider-Man" isn't the same Peter Parker in "the Amazing Spider-Man". "Twice the Spider-Man!" said the marketing people in the year 2ooo and we've had two separate ongoing universes ever since.

And in the words of those marketing people: "Marvel is proud to announce that every issue of the hotly-anticipated DEATH OF SPIDER-MAN will be available day & date on the Marvel Comics app, available via iTunes for the iPad, iPhone & iPod touch."

CBR.com's article by Kiel Phegley reprinted that press release with a few comments from the main writer of the upcoming story, Brian Michael Bendis, and the interesting comment: "the issues mark the first event comics – a driving force in comics retail for the past decade – to be offered day-and-date online, though Marvel has been experimenting with high profile releases in this format including the recent 'Invincible Iron Man' Annual and the 'Ultimate Thor' mini series."

The first issues in the "Death of Spider-Man" story are to release in comics retail stores and on the iPad, in February of 2o11.

[via ComicBookResources.com]

And what of those comics retailers? Should they be worried? The crossover 'event' has meant big bucks for them for a long time. I've written on this very site about how much better suited the crossover is to digital simply because it the eliminates the: "Damn! I won't know how this story ends without reading a DIFFERENT comic-book? What the HELL!?" Press a button, problem solved much faster. Or could this prove one of the failings of digital comics? No ACTUAL HUMAN BEING to point to a comic-book and say: "Oh, I've already flipped through that, if you want the whole story you'll have to read THIS first."

However, whether or not "Death of Spider-Man" is a crossover 'event' at all is questionable to me because one of their defining characteristics is the multiplicity of inter-locking comic-book series. Not just one or two. I think one character (or set of characters) appearing in another's book is a guest appearance, two sets of characters appearing in the other's books for one story is a crossover, but a crossover 'event' requires a wider net. Those definitions are far from all-encompassing, I know, but are worth mulling over if for no other reason than nobody else seems to! Why has Phegley specified that "Death of Spider-Man" is an "event" not a "crossover event"? What does he mean when referring to other comics as "high profile" as opposed to "events"?

Is the entire family of terms: crossover, event, and crossover 'event', just marketing hype pure and simple? Perhaps this is all best left to the comics historians of the next generation to worry about, because by just about any definitions you can't call it a crossover 'event' until it's over and done. We will all have to wait and see.

~@JonGorga

P.S. ~ Josh and I have a little plan in the works to probe the nature of digital day-and-date releases in a series of reviews in the coming year!

Building a Better Universe: On Marvel's Architects Intitiative

Yesterday, Marvel released the following press release, detailing their new Architects initiative:

The very fabric of the Marvel Universe is changing and the Architects are the ones leading the charge! Marvel’s Architects initiative spotlights the writers and artists telling the most exciting and impactful stories that rock the Marvel Universe to its very core every month.

But just who are the writers in Marvel’s Architects?

·Brian Michael Bendis, writer of AVENGERS, NEW AVENGERS, Death of Spider-Man, the upcoming MOON KNIGHT and an upcoming top secret project

·Matt Fraction, writer of THOR, INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, and a top secret upcoming event

·Ed Brubaker, writer of CAPTAIN AMERICA, SECRET AVENGERS and top secret upcoming new series

·Jonathan Hickman, writer of FANTASTIC FOUR, S.H.I.E.L.D. and a top secret upcoming new series

·Jason Aaron, writer of WOLVERINE, ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE and a top secret upcoming new series

“These are five of the top writers in comics and they’re writing some of the best Marvel comics ever” said C.B. Cebulski, SVP Creator & Content Development. “Each of their projects lays the groundwork for the future of the Marvel Universe and in 2011, their plans—which are being seeded in their current work as we speak—will come to fruition. There’s never been a better time to be a Marvel fan.”

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more news on Marvel’s Architects, including interviews and the unveiling of the artists redefining the Marvel Universe!

Jason Wood, over at iFanboy, believes that press releases like this send the wrong message (he, by the way, makes a couple of very good points), I'm more interested in a couple of the other hints that they seem to be dropping:

The absence of Uncanny X-Men under the titles that Fraction writes is curious, since he's been the lead on that since the summer of 2008- almost as long as he's been writing Invincible Iron Man. Does this mean that recently announced co-writer Kieron Gillen (whom, you will remember, is one of the few writers I adore as much as I adore Fraction and who's series S.W.O.R.D was canceled far too soon earlier this year) will be the new director of the X-Verse? Fraction's run on the title has been hit and miss, but I suspect that has more to do with the artists he's paired with more than anything else. Is he jumping ship? Or at least stepping back to focus on whatever this top secret event is?

Speaking of top secret, each of these writers is writing a "top secret" something or other. So, that's news, I guess. My one big hope is that Brubaker's unannounced project is a Steve Rogers: Super Soldier ongoing- that was some of the best comics all year, and it let Ed do some straight up espionage comics, which was fun to see.

Most interestingly, though, is the inclusion of Jason Aaron on this list- every other writer is involved with a major aspect of the Marvel universe, but Aaron's big title right now is Wolverine, which I've heard is very good but usually seems to exist in its own space: finding out what his big upcoming project is going to be is extremely exciting, if for no other reason than it suggests that its going to be huge. The little work of Aaron's that I've read (Scalped and a few issues of PunisherMax before I just couldn't handle the violence of that comic any more) was fantastic, and I'm having trouble containing my curiosity.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

The Heroic Age is here.

How do we know? Well, the first issue of The Avengers (that's right, without a modifier) is here and on the third page Steve Rogers (you know, the most heroic of them all) says that what the world needs is heroes.

But not just any heroes... the world needs the Avengers. This is a moment that I've been waiting for, a moment that I've been dying for, a moment where our heroes get to be heroes again. By no means do I intend to criticize superhero deconstruction; it has its place and for good reason. In many ways, it got people to start taking comics seriously, because it proved that comics, just like any other medium, could blur the lines and convince readers to cheer for flawed people, just like they cheered for perfect ones. This is all well and, as I said, extremely important to the history of comics, but it lost the track when it forgot that we like to pretend that we can be our heroes, because we aren't perfect and we aren't brave and we aren't strong. But we would like to be.

It feels damn good to remember that.

Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr. hit every note here. I've ragged on Bendis in the past for being too wordy and at the same time saying too little. I've derided his comics as often actionless dialogue-fests where nothing happens and all the bright and colorful superheroes are, well, boring. It is important, therefore, for me to just come out and say that this comic is not those comics. Every word has its place, there are great character moments (like Wonderman's refusal to join the Avengers or Thor not knowing who Bucky Cap is), there's a ton of action and, unlike Siege, the book feels fulfilling- this is great comics writing. Not ground-breaking. Not necessarily literary. But damn good. Bendis' script only hits one sour note, and that's at the end- I won't spoil it for you, but I'll suffice it to say that if you read any of Mark Millar's Fantastic Four, you've seen this reveal before. It feels so tired that it must have been used before, too.

Despite that, Bendis spins a great story and JRJR is nothing but a help. His panel design is brilliant and easy to understand, he fluctuates between drawing action and static scenes with incredible ease and damn does this man draw the Avengers well. Not a single costumed character is off-model and my biggest complaint is that Steve's hair is probably too long.

If that's my only quibble, this man should win an Eisner.

If you were on the fence about this issue? Pick it up. Don't bother with the backmatter (prose really needs to stay out of comic books), but even without it it's worth the extra dollar. This is a damn good comic book and, hopefully, it'll remain this easy to remember why my heroes are my heroes.

Well, That's Done.

Siege has, finally, come to a close.

What do I think of issue #4? Well, for the most part, it's a case of the third verse being the same as the first two: Bendis' script has fewer words than usual, Olivier Coipel's art is really the major attraction here, the comic is a big, bombastic, crowd-pleaser and, for better or for worse, it's still the comic book equivalent of candy: you like it, you want more, even if there isn't a whole lot of substance.

The ending of the book is exactly what it should have been- the death of the Sentry (who, for all intents and purposes, is a Marvelman stand in*) and the reformation of the Avengers is really the only way the story could end. In many ways, this feels like a reinvention of the Marvel universe and I suspect that's the case because Bendis' story cycle really has run its course. I complained a while ago about how I hate it when writers put away their toys, but this ending doesn't feel like Bendis has undone everything that he's made; instead, it feels as if there are new stories to tell and, although the history won't be forgotten, it can be put in the past. I suspect this represents a pretty important shift; maybe this is the moment where our heroes get to be heroes again, at least for a little while.

If that's the case, then I certainly look forward to this "Heroic Age", this "Brightest Day"; there are new stories to tell, and perhaps they're a little less dark (although hopefully no less nuanced) than what has come before.

*I'll probably write about this some more when I'm done with finals.

Bendis' Favorite Character Suits Up With The Avengers in June?

Jessica Jones has been announced among others here on Marvel.com as one of the superheroes in Brian Michael Bendis' new, new, New Avengers team in a more official way than she has been so far.

Here she is in the costume of Jewel, her old superhero identity, looking badass:
Jessica Jones has never really been seen as a superhero character because she never was a superhero character...

Let me try that again.

In 2oo1, Bendis created Jessica Jones in her own title "Alias".

[The following is a dramatization and in no way reflects the thoughts, opinions, values, financial status, parent company, or sex lives of Marvel Entertainment, INC.]

So the story goes: The first script opened with the word "fuck" and Marvel's editorial department was all prepared to do the usual "Bendis, I know you want this character to be a foul-mouthed lady and that's cool, but the same company that publishes Spider-Man CANNOT publish comics with the word 'fuck' in them," but then someone said "Why can't we publish this? Why can't we put it in the comic-book stores with a MATURE label on it like the music industry does?"

And so the Marvel MAX imprint was born. A place where Marvel's creators and Marvel's characters could be naughty together. It's still around today in case you didn't know.

Jessica Jones was a private investigator who specialized in cases involving superheroes or super-powered people. She was the only person who could do this because-- drum roll..... she USED to be a superhero! She attended Midtown High, the same high school as Peter Parker and had a big crush on him (Bendis still got Spidey in there!) and in the classic Marvel 1960s million-in-one-accident explanation she got superpowers. A teenager with superpowers she of course ran out and became a superhero. Called herself Jewel and dressed, essentially, like she looks at the top of this post.

But things did not go rosey and super-heroric for Jessica Jones. She went through hell and quit. But all that is flashback to the main story in which Jessica is a private investigator and is dating Luke Cage. So, ya see, she was never a superhero character. She was a retired-superhero detective character from day UNO.

The series was cancelled with issue #28, but the character and her setting was carried over to one of Bendis' next pet projects: "The Pulse". In fact, Jessica and Luke had already been popping-up in the pages of Bendis' major series "New Avengers". They got hitched in that series' first annual.

These two series not being a part of the MAX Imprint, they were constrained in their subject matter, but not in their use of the wider Marvel U. So Jessica became a bit less of a foul-mouthed lady (which was explained as an effort of her willpower for her soon-to-be-born daughter), but Spider-Man, Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich, and the Green Gobin play a big role in the first story-arc of "The Pulse" and we got the fun of Jessica interacting with Iron Man and Captain America in the pages of "New Avengers".

The fact that she and her hubby Mr. Luke Cage are now both going to be super-duper heroic members of Bendis' New Avengers team should be pretty cool. Although Jessica is now a mother and can't spout the F-bomb anymore, she is still tough as nails. And Luke Cage... Luke Cage was ALWAYS tough as nails. It's another step away from what originally made Jessica Jones great but I don't believe that characters should be so constrained as to be forced into one mold. She was a retired-superhero detective. She married a superhero. Now it looks like she's going to be a superhero again. Makes sense to me.

Sorry, Jon...

... but it looks like you're going to have to buy even one more book, come June:

Is the Webhead really going to serve on two teams of Avengers at once? I suppose it's possible that there is a little bit of a bait and switch going on with the cover to the new Avengers title (isn't that confusing?) and that Spidey'll only be in the first issue or so, but that seems like it might be a little much.

Sweet Christmas!

A couple of weeks ago, Marvel announced that there were going to be two Avengers titles OTHER than the ones teased at the beginning of February, and now it looks like we've gotten our first hint of them- and, I'm pleased as punch to say that I was right on two counts when I handicapped the new Avengers status quo awhile back. I knew Bendis wasn't going to let go of Luke Cage, and I also thought there might be a street level Avengers team (led by none other than Power Man himself), and, given the presence of Cage and his chain, I think I was probably right on both counts. This book is going to continue to be made by the current New Avengers team of Brian Bendis and Stuart Immonen (but it'll get a new #1), so if you've dug the recent issues I suspect you'll dig this stuff too.

Any guesses as to who else is on this team? Iron Fist, maybe? Daredevil? Batman? Moon Knight?
I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

A History of "Marvelous Color"

"Marvelous Color" is the name of a wonderful small exhibit on display now at the Gallery of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (or CCCADI) near Columbus Circle, here in New York City. Perfect for Black History Month.

The basics about this exhibit with some wonderful photos (better than mine!) can be found at: MarvelousColor.com

The focus of the exhibit is the history and art of Marvel Comics' most popular African/African-American characters and it presents us that history and artistry with simple but bold curatorial strokes. The journey starts downstairs at the curatorial statement to be found on the wall at the bottom of the stairwell that leads to the gallery. After entering the gallery itself on the second floor, you start on the far wall to the left at the two huge faux-comic-cover posters created for the exhibit. One is a presentation of these six characters as they were in an earlier period of their history and the second, their modern incarnation. Both are wonderfully drawn by Eric Battle. The exhibit is organized clock-wise so that if you start at the double posters and walk to the right through the single room of the exhibit you'll have met each character in the rough chronological order they were first created and published.

Muralist David Medina composed a larger-than-life image of each of the colorful (pun intended!) characters directly upon the walls:

(1) The Black Panther, T'Challa, regal African prince of the fictional country of Wakanda. Both the character and his country were introduced in the same Fantastic Four story in 1966. It was while looking at the Black Panther art (some which is by the immensely popular John Romita Jr. and the one pictured below was, I think, by Billy Graham) that my friend Dev Crasta (from whom I had the luck of learnin' me about the existence of the exhibit) pointed out that a story in which the BLACK Panther is depicted fighting Captain AMERICA has a certain weight that you wouldn't find in another 'superhero misunderstanding fight' and this got me thinking that the absurdity of that weight falling so squarely on a single character's shoulders is emblematic of the problem minority figures, both fictional and political, face every day.

Doubly-so for T'Challa. He is both. Nelson Mandela with superpowers. [Click on the image, scroll to the upper left, while trying to ignore the murky reflection of me in the glass entirely through no fault of my own... You'll see a much clearer reflection of what we were talking about.]

(2) Storm, Ororo Munroe, goddess of weather itself and member of the second "All-New All-Different" X-Men team of 1975, and T'Challa's queen since 2oo6. Another character who's a leader, this time in several positions: X-Men team leader, goddess of a small tribe, Queen of the nation of Wakanda. Although her parentage is much more complicated: born of an American man and an African woman, raised in Harlem but soon orphaned while on vacation back in the continent of her mother's origin. She lived on her own, first in Egypt then in the countries of the Serengeti. (Thank you Wikipedia!) She too is a very strong presence and a popular character, which is of course what made she and T'Challa naturally attracted to each other (and a naturally attractive pair to marry for Marvel's editors). A Michelle Obama kind of woman, if you will. Commanding the cultural storms of a country with style. [It is difficult to see from my separate photos, but the Black Panther mural and the Storm mural were positioned side-by-side and their arms are gently reaching out for one another! You can just see Ororo's intricately designed cape (for which we get to see the original design drawing) in the upper left corner of T'Challa's mural. Just try putting them together in your mind.]

(3) Luke Cage, streetwise Hero for Hire and former convict who escaped his prison sentence in a violent Southern jail for a bogus drug-dealing charge in his first appearance in 1972. A Harlem boy, born and raised. (The famous New York City neighborhood isn't too far away from Columbus Circle!) Luke is in so many ways the complete opposite of T'Challa, inspired by Shaft and 'blaxploitation film' instead of being a political Sidney Poitier-type, yet he too has grown into a major leadership role over the past several years, under the loving care of writer Brian Michael Bendis, as the defacto leader of the Avengers team (comprised of Spider-Man and Wolverine, possibly Marvel's two most popular characters) that has been underground since the "Civil War" ended in 2oo7. And who got a fantastic origin-retelling 1920s-transplanted solo mini-series written by Mike Benson and Adam Glass with art by Shawn Martinbrough recently, as well. The collected edition of "Luke Cage Noir" is out this week. It is as smooth and cool as can be. This is a man who has come from the lowest of points and legal indignities to become 'the Greatest', a steel-skinned Muhammad Ali.

I believe a lot of this material about Cage ended up coming from the research that was done by Martinbrough [whose wonderful art was on display as you can see, at left] for an exhibit at the Studio Museum Harlem that never came to be, as I mentioned in this post reviewing the last issue of "Luke Cage Noir".

(4) Blade, the Daywalker, a half-vampire hunter of vampires created in 1973 who was so surprisingly popular upon being brought to the big screen back in 1998. We've moved now from an African country (fictional or not) or Harlem with a quick detour to the American South, to south London where Blade was born to a prostitute who was bitten by the vampire Deacon Frost while in labor. (Another thank you to Wikipedia, the blogger's friend!) Blade is second only to Cage in having been altered from a bit of a 70s joke to a popular bad-ass superhero. Imagine Michael Jordan if he had been called to a nomadic life hunting the undead, instead of slam dunks followed by a baseball stint, followed by more basketball, followed by a brilliant corporate career. (Okay, that's a really loose one. But they are both smart, resourceful, athletic masters of their domain who maintained their position for a long time.)

(5) The Falcon, Sam Wilson, former sidekick to Captain America himself seems on the surface to be a degrading African-American figure, a subordinate to the white Captain AMERICA. But although Sam has never had his own ongoing series the "Captain America" series was re-titled "Captain America and The Falcon" for a number of years and Sam has shown himself to be his own man, most notably when he quit the Avengers (the premiere superhero team of the Marvel Universe) citing his stated degrading 'token' status. Back to Harlem we must go for Sam's origins: raised by a minister father, he was actually the first African-AMERICAN superhero from Marvel as he debuted in "Captain America" in 1969, four years after the Black Panther and T'Challa was after all African, but not American. Like the character we will meet next, Sam took over his white friend's superhero identity when he was unable to. Which means that Captain America was black... twice. He didn't actually have wings of any kind before he was gifted with a technological flying harness by T'Challa. Making him in some ways a pretty remarkable character of mixed linage: born in America, pro-America (to the point of temporarily embodying it), yet a beneficiary of his forbears in Africa; willing to stand as a subordinate, yet refusing to stay in a position where he is taken for granted. A high-flying risk-taker. The first African-American superhero. I do believe we have our Barack Obama.

(6) War Machine, James Rhodes, a former marine who has recently been seen on the big screen in the highly successful "Iron Man" and is to be seen again in this year's "Iron Man 2", this time gearing up in his own suit of armor as War Machine! A Philadelphia boy, 'Rhodey', as he's affectionately called, became Tony Stark's personal pilot after assisting him in the escape from captivity that figured so heavily in his origin story (as seen in flashback in a 1979 story). Suddenly forced to don the Iron Man in an emergency (partially caused by Tony Stark's inebriation) Rhodes became Iron Man for various periods of time on three separate occasions and eventually received his own suit of armor and identity from Stark. Rhodey stepped up to the part of Iron Man in place of Tony when he fell and he eventually became a hero in his own right. A career military man, Rhodes is intelligent, (generally) cool-headed, and a man of integrity. Colin Powell in a suit of armor.

(This writer hopes you will take his African and African-American character/real-world figure comparisons for what they are: loose comparisons with the intention of illuminating the importance of these fictional characters in our culture and tying the exhibit, and this post, more fully into the context of Black History Month. No specific political comment or endorsement is intended beyond equality for all people of all races. Minor discrepancies or outright contradictions can be found by anyone with a more thorough understanding of these characters or these figures, I am sure.)

The CCCADI is at 408 West 58th Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues in Manhattan, New York. That's just about a block west of Columbus Circle, one of the major transit hubs on the island. Suggested donation is a mere $5. The same as the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art downtown. The exhibit will run through February 26, 2010 and when I met-up with the exhibit's curator Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez I was informed that awesome events to spotlight the different characters and their creators were still yet to come! The gallery is holding a 'Meet the Artists' event on Wednesday the 24th at 6:30 PM at the CCCADI Gallery at which you could hear the great Gene Colan and the young Dennis Calero and Shawn Martinbrough.

I highly recommend going to this if you are in New York City and even going to the website and signing up for the mailing list to learn about any other events lined up for the end of the month!

Uno Maas!

Following on Josh's posts of the characters presumably being presented for the post-"Siege" new Avengers line-up (not to be confused with the "New Avengers" line-up) here's another announcement:

The purple and blue is back!

That makes three definites:
Captain America
Spider-Woman
Hawkeye

Of course, who is under the masks could still yield a surprise or two...


Oh and read Josh's review of "Siege" #2 below this post!! What are ya a lazy bum? Just lookin' at the pictchas...

This is What Is Going To Pass For My Siege #2 Review...

Seriously, though, this is good stuff. It is a little like candy- you like it because it's packed full of sweetness and despite the fact that there isn't a whole lot of substance- but in the end this is good stuff. Olivier Coipel is at his absolute best here. His figure work strikes a perfect balance between cartoon-y and serious, and his sense of scope is really quite impressive. I think I said this last month, but Coipel (and his colorist, Laura Martin), are really the stars here.

Bendis, too, is on the top of his game and I think it's because he lets his artists do the storytelling- Siege #2 may have the least number of words of any comic that Brian Bendis has ever written, and it just works. In fact, even when there are a lot of words, there's a certain economy to them; arguments that would have gone on for pages elsewhere end simply and easily here.

I know that many comics readers have grown tired of events like these, and believe me when I say I understand why, but think about it this way- Siege started in January and it will be over in April. We've reached the midpoint, and so far it's been pretty much non-stop action. Yes, this isn't GREAT COMICS, but it is great comics. Sometimes we forget that superheroes aren't necessarily all about doom and gloom. Sometimes it's important for us to remember that over the horizon there is a Heroic Age or (I can't believe I'm about to type this) even a Brightest Day. It makes me wonder if we actually have reached the last hurrah for superhero deconstruction- is now the time that our heroes get to be heroes again?

I certainly hope so.

Bendis You Lying Scum!

I just bought a copy of "Siege" #2 a few hours ago and I see no bacon on my plate! No bacon!

WATCH THIS NOW. Or actually you could Google "bendis bacon". First hit. You can skip to the end.

False advertising... False advertising...

One More

Now we know that Spider-Woman (who I may have forgotten to handicap a couple of weeks ago. Woops.) is going to be on Brian Bendis and John Romita Jr.'s team too (and JRJR has really hit these two previews out of the park, hasn't he?), as well as Cap and probably Spidey. I also should have mentioned that yesterday that we also know Iron Man and Thor are going to be on this team too.

For more info, go here.

Two Members Confirmed (ish).

So, at the very least we know that Captain America is going to be in the new Avengers series, which will be written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by John Romita Jr. Also of interest is this post by Romita Jr. saying that Spidey was involved in the new monthly he was starting up, so I think it's safe to say that we now know at least two members of the new Avengers status quo.

Cool.

Gorga's Looking Forward to Wednesday 1/20/2o1o!

Hellooooooo.

And thus follows the perfunctory pull-list post of what I'm thinking of getting this Wednesday in my weekly comic-book store visit:

"the Amazing Spider-Man" #618
"Amazing" has been consistently good for about four months now. And that means a lot more than usual because it comes out three times a month. That's really more like a year's worth of stories from any other title. I ain't complaining.

"Web of Spider-Man" #4
It's the Spider-Man title that doesn't really feel like a Spider-Man title. Yeah his name's on it and yeah he shows up sometimes, but basically it's the villain of the month book now. I'll probably pass on this again.

"Avengers vs. Agents of Atlas" #1 of 4
I think this looks delightful. I haven't read much of Agents of Atlas, but Josh speaks well of it and I'm really getting even more into the Avengers as "Siege" ramps up.

"Incredible Hercules" #140
Continuation of "Assault on New Olympus", Marvel's other-other-other crossover 'event'.

"Spider-Woman" #5
So the new Avengers might be in here... or they might be more skrulls or whatever. We'll see.

"Dark Avengers" #13
Like Josh, I feel the siren song of the crossover 'event'. I want to know what Bendis will feel the need to hide in "Dark Avengers" that he doesn't put in "Siege".

"The Brave and the Bold" #31
The idea of the Atom and the Joker quote-unquote teaming-up makes little to no sense, but since JMS is writing it that actually means it's probably going to be remarkable.

"Cowboy Ninja Viking" #3
or
"Cowboy Ninja Viking" #4?
Or nothing. Both issues have been solicited for this week. Between the erratic release schedule and erratic tone of this title I'm falling further and further out of love with it.

"RASL" #6
"RASL" #6 might be coming out. This is another series that arrives when it feels like although it's far more worth the wait than "Cowboy Ninja Viking".

"Joe the Barbarian" #1 of 8
I can't help thinking "neato!" Because I'm sure twelve-year-old Jon Gorga would be absolutely enthralled by this title. We shall see what twenty-three-year-old Jon Gorga thinks of it.

Mind you I have no idea what I will really be able to afford... Check back here to find out!


UPDATE: 1/22/2o1o
So... this past Wednesday was a job searching day. I went to some of the comic-book shops in NYC I hadn't been to yet and as I wanted to make it clear that I read comics and love comics I bought a few at every store I visited while I dropped off resumes.

Long story short I'd spent more than I usually do on a Wednesday before I even got around to buying my new books. Mind you, I got some good deals. But money being tight I scaled back my purchases for the week to:

"the Amazing Spider-Man" #618

It was really the only essential buy for me this week anyway. Next week perhaps will be more exciting.

Avengers Endsemble?

Well, this news over at IGN is certainly interesting.

Certainly, this isn't the end of The Avengers- I suspect that what will happen is that they'll relaunch with one main title (presumably entitled The Avengers) and a couple of periphery ones (if I were to have my druthers, one of these series would be called Avengers Assemble! and a second one would be another try with the Young Avengers). Alternatively there could be two main titles (and I would still be pulling for the second one to be called Avengers Assemble!) with two main teams- one to handle street level threats, another for the more pressing and world altering kinds of things the Avengers used to be used for.

The big question, then, is who will be doing the Avenging? It isn't, of course, a question a lowly reader like me has any sort of real answer too- but I'm going to fulfill a time honored geek tradition and attempt to handicap it.

To start, here are the lineups from the Avengers teams from the last several years (I'm leaving out the Dark Avengers, for what I think are pretty obvious reasons)

New Avengers:
Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Iron Man, Captain America (Steve), Luke Cage, The Sentry, Wolverine.

After the events of Civil War and then again after Secret Invasion the following heroes also became members of the New Avengers:
Iron Fist, Dr. Strange, Ronin, Mockingbird, Ms. Marvel, Captain America (Bucky).

Mighty Avengers:
After Iron Man left the New Avengers because of the events of Civil War, he started his official, registered Avengers team, also including: Ms. Marvel, Wonder Man, Ares, The Sentry, The Wasp and Black Widow.

After the events of Secret Invasion, Henry Pym (as The Wasp), manipulated by Loki, starts up a new team of Avengers featuring: Hercules and Amadeus Cho, Quicksilver, Jocasta, Stature, Vision and US AGENT.

So, given all of that, who stays and who goes? I'm going to categorize my guesses in three ways- those who I know will be on the team, those who I guess will be on the team, and those who are longshots, but could stick around anyway:

Incidentally, there are some minor spoilers below- don't read if you aren't caught up.

Avengers Assembled:

Given the way that both Siege and the upcoming Heroic Age have been branded, I would put money on Captain America, Iron Man and Thor being on whatever team Marvel assembles. As the Big Three, this is basically a no-brainer. The only real question here is which Captain America will be throwing his shield into the melee and my guess is Bucky Barnes- I expect Steve will stick around in some capacity, but given what goes on in the Who Will Wield the Shield one-shot I think Buck is going to be the one wearing the Flag on a regular basis.

With that said, I'll hazard to say that Avengers mainstays Hank Pym (in who knows what costume) and Clint Barton (and, lets be honest, same deal costume wise) will also be on the team in one form or another. If, for whatever reason, Janet Van Dyne comes back to life, she's here too.

Ms. Marvel will be on the team too, if only because her solo book just ended and, given that Osborn saw fit to replace her on his team, she's clearly an important part of the Avengers mythos.

Finally, I think that Brian Michael Bendis likes Luke Cage (and, also, Jessica Jones) too much to let him fall by the wayside. I read somewhere (or maybe Jon and I talked about this, I can't really remember. Perhaps it's both.) that Bendis turned Cage into a top tier character by sheer force of will, and I think that's exactly right. The only scenarios in which I imagine Luke not staying on involve some sort of attempt at a solo book or, perhaps, some sort of Iron Fist/Power Man team-up series (if it were to be written by Brubaker or Fraction, well, I think I would die of happiness.) Even if one of those come to pass, though, I still have trouble imagining Bendis letting go of one of his favorite characters.

Reserves:

While the Iron Fist has said that he doesn't really fit it on the Avengers, it's hard to imagine a team that Luke Cage is on without Danny Rand far behind. This would be particularly true if Luke has some sort of leadership role/his own time.

I'm not sure what Mockingbird's story is- they seem to be teasing her death in some of the solicits, but they also just brought her back, so I imagine she'll stick around in some capacity, particularly if Clint is on the team too.

Stephen Strange is usually around too- although now that he isn't the Sorcerer Supreme, I don't really know what his deal is. Still, his presence on the team wouldn't be a surprise. At the same time, it is a distinct possibility that Jericho Drumm becomes an Avenger. I suspect it will be one or the other- there really isn't another good place for them.

Hercules and Amadeas Cho come as a package- either they're both on the team or neither of them are and it all sort of depends on the outcome of Assault on New Olympus and whatever the new status they're teasing for Herc is. If Dan Slott is writing it, the likeliness that these two are in goes up.

Who knows whats up with Wolverine? He's in the mix for no other reason than he's been around and also that he sells well.

Quicksilver, too, is sort of an unknown quantity. I'm going to hedge and put him in the middle.

Finally, what about Spider-Man? Does he stay on the Avengers? I think he might, but it's hard to know. I think it's more likely if there are two main teams, but he's been a consistent member since New Avengers started up six years ago. It's a bad idea to count him out, and I suspect it's worthwhile to count him in.

Some Dissassembly Required:

Conceivably, there are some characters who have served in the past, say Wonder Man or She-Hulk, who might be in the mix. Of the two, I imagine Simon is the more likely choice, if only because he repented for serving with the pro-registration heroes on Iron Man's team, and he still lingers in the Avenger's mythos.

Another such long shot is Beast, who has recently taken a leave of absence from the X-Men. He's taken on a starring role in SWORD, so I suspect that's where he'll stay for awhile. Still, I would welcome the big blue guy back to Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

I have no idea what the Sentry's deal is. Depends on what happens in Siege, but my guess is he goes away for awhile.

With two Caps, I think that US Agent is probably superfluous.

Finally, Stature and Vision are in this category only because I think they're going to move to a soon to be announced Young Avengers book. Remember that one of the Siege one-shots is going to be a Young Avengers one- I suspect that they're going to be part of the new status quo.

Well, that's what I've got. How about you, noble readers? Got any ideas of your own?

"What Madness is This?"

It's good to see Oliver Coipel drawing Thor again.

That's a weird way to start my review of Siege #1, I know, but in a lot of ways the most satisfying thing about this issue is seeing Oliver Coipel's gorgeous artwork. From the first image, a beautiful one pager of Volstagg riding away from Asgard, to the last, another one pager, but this time of a surprised Steve Rogers, this book just looks fantastic. Occasionally the page design leaves something to be desired- some of them take a little bit of figuring out- but in between his distinctive pencils (which strike a good balance between cartoon and realism) and Laura Martin's incredible colors, the art here is really what's worthwhile.


NOTE: IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT YET, HERE THERE BE SPOILERS.

That's not to say that the writing isn't- in fact, the story is basically as big and bombastic as has been advertised- but instead, at this point, there just isn't a whole lot to it- Loki has manipulated Norman Osborn into manipulating Volstagg into accidentally blowing up Soldier Field during a Bears game (and incidentally, my reaction went from, "Hey, they got the Bears colors right" to "WTF?!" One wonders if Bendis would have had the guts to blow up The Meadowlands), invaded Asgard, pissed off the president and brought down Thor. There's not much here below the surface, just a lot of fighting and blowing things up. Not that there's anything wrong with that- Siege is, surprisingly, a lot of fun. It's not, as of yet, dark or depressing and we know, because of its short length, that the next issue is going to move the plot forward rather than running in place. The villains have the upper hand- but for how long? And how do our heroes bring them down?

Most importantly, how long until the Avengers Assemble?

Gorga's Looking Forward to Wednesday 12/9/2oo9

My thoughts on the comics that interest moi this week!

BIG week:

"the Amazing Spider-Man" #614 (definitely)
Still only beginning to catch up with this book...

"Spider-Man and the Secret Wars" #1 of 4 (probably)

The "Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars" was one of my favorite comics to dig through boxes for in comic shops (sometimes all around the world) when I was a kid, so the idea of dropping in at the BEST moment of the series (the opening of issue #4) and depicting it from my favorite character's POV? I don't even care if this turns out to be out-of-continuity I think I will buy all four!

"Web of Spider-Man" #3 (maybe)

So far I didn't buy #1 and then I bought #2, but mainly only because it was a sale weekend at St. Mark's Comics... Spider-Man never seems to actually show up in these, but I get the feeling they really need to be read to follow the story-line "The Gauntlet" currently going through "Amazing".

"New Avengers Annual" #3 (maybe)
I loved the first annual from a few years ago, felt kind of lukewarm about the second one. Depends on whether the Web-Head shows up. We shall see.

"the Invincible Iron Man" #21 (probably)

Well, the first part of "Stark: Disassembled" in last issue was great (as can be seen in Josh's review here), so we'll see how things move along here. Considering the connections this story should have to the upcoming 'events' from Marvel I should read all of it just to best appreciate "Siege" and whatever the hell "The Heroic Age" will be.

"Daytripper" #1 (probably)
A completely original work from the remarkable team of twins Fabio Moon and Gabriel Bá? Why wouldn't I pick this up?

"Ghostbusters: Past Present Future" (maybe)
The Ghostbusters take on the mythical ghosts of Charles Dickens' classic story "A Christmas Carol"! Deeeeee-lightful!

"God Complex" #1 (maybe)

This looks pretty good to me. Fun, cool, smart.

UPDATE: 12/10/2oo9

So Spidey appears in the "New Avengers Annual". Also? It looks like Bendis is finally going to make sense of the muck he has made out of the character of Hawkeye in this issue. Exciting!

"Web of Spider-Man" by comparison looked okay, but had no Spidey... His name is in the title, right?

"Invincible Iron Man" is really about as excellent as superhero comics get.

"Daytripper" is equally excellent. I can't wait for this series to be complete! It could be truly brilliant.

"God Complex" and the Ghostbusters one-shot? Well, they just seemed a bit too rote, you know? Standard choices being made.

I also took a long and hard look at "Wolverine: Under the Boardwalk" and seriously considered it. Looked very good, but I have TOO MANY COMICS. I passed on it.

"Spider-Man and the Secret Wars" #1? I bought it. I make no apologies.

Siege Attacks!

Marvel is up to some crazy tricks.

"Siege: The Cabal" came out this week. It was pretty sweet. This is where and when the crossover 'event' is scheduled to be played out from here on to APRIL:

The main crossover 'event' miniseries itself: "Siege" numbers 1 through 4, in January through April.

The connected mini: "Siege: Embedded" numbers 1 through 4 in the same months.

An issue of "Avengers: The Initiative" for December and then each month the mini comes out.

An issue of "Dark Avengers" for each month (a no-brainer really).

An issue of "New Avengers" for each month.

Three issues of "Dark Wolverine" for the first three months of the event.

Three issues of "Thor" for the last three months of the event (although if you ask me, the new arc that just started with #604 HAS to be connected at least as prologue).

Three issues of "Thunderbolts" for the last three months.

Two issues of "Mighty Avengers" for the last months in March and April.

One issue of "New Mutants" (#11) in March.

And, of course, a handful of just FOUR one-shots: the one that just came out, "Siege: The Cabal", the cryptically titled "Origins of Siege", "Siege - Storming Asgard: Heroes and Villains", which are probably either collections of short stories or a collection of written pieces (a la "The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe") about the players, and what is probably an epilogue one-shot tentatively titled "Fallen".

(Also, the story just started in "the Invincible Iron Man" #20, is probably going to be prologue material too.)

The main mini is going to be written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Olivier Coipel and if you remember how much I like "House of M", you'll understand why hearing those names again makes me excited.

You want to know the really weird thing? "Fall of the Hulks" started this week too, with the "Fall of the Hulks: Alpha" one-shot...

That just seems stupid to me. They're probably not going to connect much at all and it's asking the average reader to cut-back on what they would spend otherwise.

I won't be reading "Fall of the Hulks". Primarily because I'm not a big fan of the Hulk family of characters, and partially because the one issue I read of Jeph Loeb's Hulk was pretty bad, but I would have considered it more seriously if not for the clear fact that I would probably find myself deciding between the two events at some point over the next few months. I expected that they were going to spread these things out over the next calendar year. Giving us breathing room. By not doing that, they are risking exactly what I warned against in my last editorial: widespread 'event burnout'.

In a complete sidenote related to crossover 'events', I bought issues #1 through #5 of "Identity Crisis" which I'm quite excited to read, on Black Friday. And just last night, while walking through Times Square, I bought "Zero Hour: Crisis in Time" #4 through #1 (they are numbered backwards, get it?) from a street vendor. I really do love that part of living in New York, unequivocally. Now, neither of those were a full miniseries. So after I do some reading I will have more buying to do...

"Siege"? I'm feeling 'event burnout' dude. Wait? Spider-Man! Wait! A new way to do events?

So this "Siege" thing looks cool! Spider-Man is involved, I guess. Now I can care...

I'm terrible. Time to be a bit more academic about this, Jon.

Joe Quesada has written about "Siege" and Marvel's 2010 crossover 'events' at his Cup O'Joe blog. Apparently, they are attempting a new model this year:

"Joe Quesada: It will be a different feel from what has been going on these last few years, let's just leave it at that."

Since 2oo8's "Secret Invasion" was the end-point of Brian Michael Bendis' crazy-huge Marvel Universe-wide meta-story 'event' series that he had been building since 2oo4's "Avengers: Dissasembled" they are going to follow it with several smaller scale "family" events. Whether this is set in stone, I couldn't tell ya, but:

"Siege"
Considered the Avengers event for 2010, (which essentially makes it the next Earth-wide Marvel U event) will tell the story of Norman Osborn's attempt at taking out the last item on "The List": the removal of Asgard from its spot floating above American soil. Yeah, good luck with that Normie...

"DoomWar"
The Fantastic Four event, will tell the story of an attempt on the parts of the FF, the Black Panther, and the X-Men to finally depose Dr. Doom from his perch as ruler of the small Eastern European country of Latveria.

"Fall of the Hulks" and/or "World War Hulks"
The Hulk event, will be... all those damn Hulk clones and sons and whatever wailing on each other for a long time... or something.

"Second Coming"
The X-Men event. There's always an X-Men event. Ever since, like, 1986 there's almost always an annual X-Men event. This one will tell of the return from the future of the young girl named Hope, so named because she was the first mutant born since the "House of M" event storyline in the present.

I think this new model is pretty exciting because, if nothing else, we're finally going to get a change from the status quo.

Superhero comic-book publishing history lesson: Big publishing companies produce big-scale stories they call 'events' that affect wide swaths of their characters simultaneously. And they've been doing this since the Eighties.

But before 2oo3 things were way more organic, although things started out strictly annual...

First, DC published many stories that specifically dealt with their Golden Age 1930s characters in the Justice SOCIETY of America interacting with their Silver Age 1960s characters in the Justice LEAGUE of America. The first was told in two parts: "Crisis on Earth-One!" and "Crisis on Earth-Two!" in Justice League of America v1 #21-22. This went on annually from 1963 till 1971 then a bit less regularly from 1973 until 1984.

In 1985 DC shook things up in a big way with "Crisis on Infinite Earths", the third story to be referred to as an 'event'. The sequel "Zero Hour: Crisis in Time", which came out in 1994, put a lot of the chaos of the original "Crisis" back in its place. Then there was "The Final Night"in 1996, "Day of Judgment" in 1999 and "Our Worlds at War" in 2oo1.
(All Universe-wide stories.)

So what exactly is an 'event' story-line, you may be wondering? What makes the difference between a normal everyday story and a crossover 'event'? WELL... that's hard to answer. Wikipedia.org is as helpful as ever. The page for "Crisis on Infinite Earths" defines a "summer crossover" as a:

"series designed to tie many of their [any given publisher's] comic book titles together under a single storyline (and thus sell more comic books)"

In 1982, Marvel picked up on the idea of a story with all the major characters interacting and produced the first 'event' limited series: "Marvel Super-Hero Contest of Champions" in 1982. Then a toy line tie-in prompted the creation of "Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars" in 1984, followed by "Secret Wars II" in 1986, "The Evolutionary War" in 1988, "Acts of Vengeance" and "Atlantis Attacks" in 1989, "Infinity Gauntlet" in 1991, followed by "Infinity War" in 1992, and "Infinity Crusade" in 1993, "Onslaught" in 1996, the sequel to which was "Heroes Reborn" in 1997, "Maximum Security" in 2ooo, and finally "Infinity Abyss" in 2oo2.
(That's just Earth-wide stuff. Not the bajillion X-Men events that came out in the meantime...)

Then Marvel Comics hired Brian Michael Bendis and things changed. The pattern of about one Earth-wide story occurring like clockwork every calendar year has been happening for about six years now (usually in the Summer):

"Avengers: Disassembled" - 2oo4
"Secret War" - 2oo4
"House of M" - 2oo5
"Civil War" - 2oo6
"World War Hulk" - 2oo7
"Secret Invasion" - 2oo8

Most of these stories were either written or orchestrated by the quite brilliant Mr. Bendis.

To counter this DC produced more regularly as well, eventually creating a 'Summer blockbuster'-type competition between the two companies:

"Identity Crisis" - 2oo4
"Infinite Crisis" - 2oo5
"52" - 2oo6
"Countdown" - 2oo7
"Final Crisis" - 2oo8
and currently
"Blackest Night" - 2oo9

Marvel's stories invariably end up named "______ War" and DC's stories are always "______ Crisis". Other than the names the stories can vary widely as they more or less are always written by different people, drawn by different people, and produced under different corporate administrations. Generally, in the past six years Marvel has been working on making their events more interconnected and character-driven, while DC has been making strides in adapting the format of the event itself.

See: "52".

"52" was a weekly comic-book published, #1 to #52 from May 2oo6 to May 2oo7, but it encompassed so much of the DC Universe that it worked on the scope of an 'event' and was indeed a limited series. Limited to 52 issues, but still limited. It was immediately followed by "Countdown" another year-long weekly series this time published starting from #52 down to #1. All major threads of the DC Universe were involved. It was definitely a crossover event.

How this new wrinkle of mini-family-events will affect the crossover event format in the future is difficult to see. I'm guessing this new format will be more profitable for Marvel as they will have by the end of the year put even more comics featuring multiple characters on the racks without alienating as many readers who feel 'forced' to buy the 'event' books to continue following their favorite character. However, if readers still buy all the series anyway (which they might, comic-book readers do tend to be strange. duh.) then they may complain even more of suffering from quote-unquote 'event burnout'. At any rate, Marvel's gunna make more money this way for sure. If successful, why wouldn't they do it this way for a few years?

I think this will end up feeling a bit more organic from a storytelling point of view. And that is only good. My only question is: Where's the Spider-Man event!?

Siege

I've kept my mouth shut about Siege for a little while and, while its been hard, I kind of wanted to see what the solicits looked like before I said anything and...

Well, I don't know.

I mean, it could be very good. It could be. It could be the culmination to the Bendis macro-story we've been dealing with since what feels like forever and it could end it and could be done and we could move on.

It could be all of those things. It probably won't be, but it could be. And for the moment, I'm going to continue to have hope.

I'm less interested in Siege, though, than I am in the repercussions Reborn is going to have for the event. I've made no secret of the fact that I think that Steve should have stayed dead. There was a lot to go on with Bucky, a lot of new territory to cover and a lot of new things to do- in many ways, Steve's death was the most authentic and original thing to happen in mainstream comics in a very long time. There was a lot of interesting things going on in the book and I'll be sad to see that period of experimentation end.

Still, it is Brubaker we're talking about here. Reborn (so far) might have been something of a misstep (the story isn't perfect, but it's really the art that makes it painful) but I still have faith; the man had to be due for an imperfect story at some point, right? I'm think he's too smart to undo everything that he's done, and it's unclear to me that Steve is going to be the same Steve- he'll be the same figure, sure, but will he be the same sort of hero? More interestingly, what's going to happen with Buck? The solicits make it clear that he isn't going away and, again, Brubaker is too smart to turn him into Steve's sidekick- will they both be "wielding the shield"? It's not as if he can put on the Nomad uniform, and making him the second "Captain" would be, well, dumb.

Furthermore, what role is he going to play in Siege? Where does Bucky fit in the downfall of Norman Osborn?

I'm going to buy Siege- I don't always dig Bendis, but I generally dig Copiel- mostly because I want to see how Marvel is going to put the band back together, so to speak. I've become interested in Thor as well as Cap, and I'm going to buy a couple of issues of Iron Man starting next month, just to see if my dislike for the character might be misguided (looking back on the way that Brubaker wrote him in Captain America, I think I've been a little mean-spirited in the past; I suspect he's just a tough character to write, so, unlike, say, the X-Men who are often compelling on their own merits, the writer needs to be top notch to make it work. I think Fraction just might be that guy), and this appears to be the culmination of the stories about all three- so I'm interested to see where this leads.

Say what you will about the editorial choices at Marvel in the last few years, but let's put it in perspective- last week, in my Planetary review, I talked about Warren Ellis warning against stale comics and Marvel has done everything they can to move themselves forward, really since Disassembled. It's made for some really good comics, and I'm curious to see what happens. I've got faith.

I guess thats what makes me keep coming back.