shhhhhh secret wars is the big marvel summer event of 2015

continuity is great if it's a tool and not a fence

Millar Ultimates is p dope iirc

I'm up to Hickman-era Ultimates (alongside his FF run) and, while I'm digging his ultra large-scale storytelling and his willingness to radically change the landscape (entire portions of continents have been wiped out!), it suffers somewhat from the same taint as the Ultimate line in general. Namely, the need for unnecessary callbacks to 616 continuity. Like, great, you've created this radical new society of superpowered beings, but was it really necessary to call them Eternals and Deviants and have them ruled by the Xorn brothers?

At any rate, I really appreciate the bucketloads of ideas he's willing to pour into a single issue of comics. I'm trying very hard to keep track of all the moving pieces but I'm sure stuff is zipping past me.

Is this the best sentence ever written?

Like, great, you've created this radical new society of superpowered beings, but was it really necessary to call them Eternals and Deviants and have them ruled by the Xorn brothers?

Yes!

I think all the good names have been taken so you end up with completely different concepts using the same names in other Marvel universes

I guess, but then also Mike Carey came up with this character in his Ultimate Fantastic Four run who was fairly unique and a character unto herself who I then realized some time later was meant to be the Ultimate version of the Mad Thinker. I wish there had been a lot more of that kind of thing, but I don't know how much pressure there was on the writers to shoehorn pre-existing trademarks into their stories.

i loved that whole Eternals/Deviants thing

I think the complaint isn't the plot around them, but the fact that the Deviants/Eternals are something very different in the Marvel U

SW #3 is great. Kinda nervous that #4 is already getting bumped back and pushing all the other series too, I can't believe that they don't have the entire series done before they release the first one with the 'biggest Marvel event ever!!!!'

In a way SW#3 is typical event comic #3, in that nearly nothing happens. But the world building is so interesting, that I don't mind spending an issue hearing about the sun, or getting an update on Baron Sinister, or all that stuff.

Yeah. Shame about the delays but I'm enjoying everything about this so far.

I did notice, though, for that third issue, once you get rid of all the meta title pages, it's only 18 pages long!

Battleworld #1 has the Punisher possessed by Doctor Strange fighting a demonic Hulk, Ghost Rider, Wolverine and someone else. I think the editorial meetings for some of these series consisted of "sure, why not?"

Skottie Young's Avengers vs X-Men is as awful as you might expect. Kiddie avengers vs kiddie X-Men battle it out selling food from street carts, pretty much just an excuse to show you all the major characters drawn in Young's style.

A-Force - mostly C-list female superheroes protecting an idyllic island nation, Doom's absolutism pisses off the A-Force, Captain Universe is baaaaaaack
kind of meh, but I guess it's a lot to expect these setup issues to be great as story.

Spider-Verse - Gwen Stacy has memories of her death, kinda, then we find other Spideys then the Green Goblin is the leader of Battleworld Manhattan... then there's Spider-Pig.

that's Spider-HAM thanks

I don't think any of the related series have been worth the time. Loving Secret Wars, but these other stories are wanky fan service.

Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars - Deadpool gets dropped onto a Battleworld that is the original Secret Wars (or this is just entirely a separate thing) and makes a bunch of awful jokes.

I'm exhausted without even hitting the halfway point of my pile.

I want to give Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows a shot, but after that awful Deadpool comic I'm done for the day.

It just occurred to me that Marvel really missed a trick by not calling the last miniseries in the line Ultimate Nullifier.

The Ultimate line, I mean, obvs.

lol, yes

haha yup. and they could have brought in the jabroni from the VENGEANCE mini

For completely selfish reasons, I'm okay with all of the announced delays. I'm only just inching towards 2013 in my catch-up.

Hickman's Fantastic Four stuff has been ridiculous. He spent a full year across two titles basically documenting a single day when the bottom dropped out of the Marvel U. I hope he didn't out-epic himself too early. But I'm definitely primed to dig into to his Avengers work now, and even more excited for Secret Wars

A police procedural with a bunch of Thors as hardboiled cops is my favorite thing out of this so far.

the forensics team is top notch

yeah csi: asgard is fucking hilarious

btw I guess Secret Wars (specifically Ultimate End #3) is where "god damn" finally made it into a regular ol' Marvel comic, unless there's an earlier example I don't know about. I'm not a Christian but it still feels a little weird -- that was worse cussing than "fuck" when/where I grew up.

Btw #4 was pretty great, right? It's as if Hickman knows his story doesn't 'matter' so he has to infuse it with feels to make it work. Which obviously is what every art needs.

feelings, Frederik. they're called.... feelings

The Ultimate line has previously been pretty liberal with the g-d's, IIRC.

lol @ the culture slice where "fuck" isn't so bad compared to taking the lord's name in vain

that's probably the way it should be tbf

to be fucked

I mean, respect other people and their religious beliefs in vocalized language but tbh the people who are angry about "God damn" generally think their God damns a lot of things!

i was more thinking that fucking happens a lot and in the scheme of things shouldn't really be a powerful curse word. at least theoretically if you believe in God there's some weight to it

fucking happens a lot

#humblebrag

lol not to me but in the world, goddamnit!

So, gossip fans, now that the All-New All-Different titles are rolling out and it's still a couple of months before The Secrecy Wars are over, are the delays all on Esad Ribic's head, or is there enough blame to spread to everyone involved?

Two issues got added to All-Secret All-War after the solicits for #1 had come out (which based on the amount of padding it hasn't felt like it needed tbh) and nothing else got slipped despite all that time to do it, so it just smacks of inept publishing/editing to me.

I think it's weird that Marvel are now on their third soft reboot of the MU since DC created the Jhnsiverse. And solicits like "Enjoyed Old Man Logan #5? Then follow the adventures in Old Man Logan #1!" are just completely confusing.

This always happens with these big events, no artist hyped enough to be on one of these books is actually able to finish 8 books in 8 months, and Esad Ribic was never going to be able to do it. I'm guessing they decided they wanted what he brought to the book anyway, and that the story was divorced enough from what follows that it wouldn't be catastrophic if/when delays came in. I prefer them doing it this way, rather than getting some back-up artist in to do some parts, or rushing it so that the art suffers. It's worth the wait.

The delays have sapped the story momentum, but still, respect that they're just letting the story go where it wants, with a single artist.

appreciating the slow reveal of where Doom's "family" came from, especially Sue, Johnny, and Ben having come from a universe without a Reed Richards

so the Val and Franklin aren't actually from the same reality as his Sue

I don't understand how they don't have this completed in advance. Hickman and Marvel have known about Secret Wars for 2+ years, they should have it finished and in the can before publishing isssue 1 IMO. The number of people with details before actually going to print should be small enough (and well known enough) to minimize leaks.

^^^ This is my take on it too. As someone who's worked in the print periodical biz for 20+ years, I'm always baffled and vaguely upset by blown deadlines. I think I was traumatized by one too many Dreaded Deadline Dooms in Marvel's pre-Shooter era.

comics is the only publishing field i can think of that regularly sells completely unfinished work and either doesn't create it or revamps the work entirely based on creative availability of the moment

Blown deadlines suck, but it's unrealistic to expect regular monthly comics (at least from certain artists) without implicitly condoning the comics biz's poor workplace practices: insane working hours; unachievable deadlines; constant threat of dismissal for being unable to meet said deadlines.

I used to work in print periodicals too - not exactly an industry well-known for its healthy working practices, or respect for the wellbeing of its drones.

That said, always a bit strange when a big event like this, what should be a well-oiled machine, coming unstuck.

i don't think it's condoning poor workplace ethics to expect a publisher to print the books they solicit
set your deadlines more realistically, hire a larger group of creatives, ship bi-monthly but stick to the dates, do something different
random fill-ins in the midst of serialized stories certainly contributed to my being phased out of the monthly market; it's impossible to take your GRAND COMPLEX SAGA even a little seriously when a multi-month hiatus, drastic change in creative team or flashback ish is necessary

agreed. even reading them in trade format with the art changes is disturbing and weird

The major issue is lack of respect for staff's wellbeing resulting in insane, unachievable deadlines

But fanboy (and non fanboy) expectations are part of the problem too - blaming the artist or writer when they should be blaming the editors/publishers who sat these ridiculous solicitation dates (not saying anyone here does this!)

But yeah, bimonthly or the Saga/Southern Basatards system (monthly for 4-6 issues, then a break) seems like the way forward