Marvel Comics blabbery

Ross was involved in Earth X (et al), which is one of my all-time favorite Marvel things, so that's not an instant disqualifier.

I actually kind of like the fact that this won't be a typical mega-huge cataclysm to tie all the books together. I'd give it a chance, but no way in hell will I read like 30 books

I like the idea of mixing old and new, and mashing up the continuity (if that's what they're doing). I don't care about the issue numbering thing, though I understand why others do.

On the one hand, it might give Marvel pause the next time they want to restart a series at #1. On the other hand, it won't.

their two ideas: renumbering everything at #1 and renumbering everything at the old number. surely there's other possibilities out there

just... stop... renumbering

Every issue is someone's first issue, so every issue should be #1.

every issue is assigned a random number between 1 and 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

numbers to be replaced with emoji, starting with spider-man #⛺️ (coverdate nov 2017)

starting to think DJP works at Marvel

Using month/year cover dates (like magazines do), instead of issue numbers, seems like a not-entirely-terrible idea. I imagine they would never do it, though, because (among other reasons) it would highlight the disparity btw. real time and comic-book time, and make older issues sound "dated."

But it would solve this treadmill problem... "High-numbered issues are off-putting to new readers, let's start at #1" -> "This constant renumbering is silly, and the legacy numbering is meaningful to fans" -> repeat ad nasueum

I don't think it hit me until now how incredibly repetitive Marvel's gotten when it comes to certain solo character books. I've enjoyed them, but the pattern is kind of ridiculous.

- Jessica Jones has a day job as an investigator, an office she constantly has problems with making rent on
- Hawkeye (Kate, not Clint) goes to the west coast and becomes an investigator
- She-Hulk miniseries where she quits her job at a big law firm, has problems making rent at her new office, and has an investigator (Hellcat) and an assistant with secret super powers
- Spider-Woman has a day job, an assistant with a super criminal past (he has a suit that seems to give him some powers), and Ben Urich helping with investigations

At least Jessica Drew can claim to have been investigatin' since the '70s. Of course, her series also didn't stick to any particular concept, and then was cancelled :/

I liked it, in a comfort food serial television way

Also, Jessica Jones was initially intended to be Jessica Drew but got turned into a new character because Marvel didn't want Spider-Woman cursing and having anal sex, I guess.

back when they were wary of this Bendis guy messing up their property instead of handing him property to make boring

*tries to hit 'Like' button; realizes where I am*

Side complaint: did Marvel change their cover designers? Everything (layouts, font, art) looks so amateurish lately. They look like 1990s role-playing-game manuals.

really? i disagree, having casually looked at the rack recently. actually appreciating that the covers tend to reflect the content inside rather than just being generic pin-ups which felt like a problem last decade

This sort of thing. And this. Just a weird 90s-chunky sort of ugliness.

oh ok. i see what you mean

Yeah. But I do miss Marvel being good! Seemed like they were on a roll just 4-5 years ago.

ugh yeah that secret empire cover is terrible. it's not actually illegible but it might as well be.

chuck: i see it too. I think it's retro nostalgia to the target audience which i presume to be men in their thirties?

That Ironheart/Iron Man cover finally answers the pressing question "What if Rob Liefeld understood proportions and could draw feet?"

That Generations cover is a variant. The real ones are better - https://comicstore.marvel.com/Generations-2017/comics-series/97936

haha

https://twitter.com/SenatorWatcher

funny and upsetting!

Reading Jason Aaron's Wolverine run from 10 years ago (!), its good trashy fun.

I figure that those who care probably know, but hadn't seen it mentioned: The Cosmic Trippiness that Al Ewing is writing in The Ultimates 2 is totally amazing - if you like that sort of thing, then it's probably a career highlight (and I've liked-to-loved pretty much everything he's done apart from That One Book)

couldn't get into that; very metal hurlant which isn't my thing i guess

I can't really get into it. I miss Mighty Avengers tbh

The intergalactic mercenaries in Al Ewing's Rocket seemed very familiar to me, so a quick check on Wikipedia confirms that I do remember them, not as Technet, but as the Special Executive, from near the end of Alan Moore's run on Excalibur. I don't think I remember reading it at the time, but it's definitely been at least 20 years, and it's a classic Moore "all of these characters are interesting and also they as a team have a specific agenda and there's a great fight scene, and the whole thing is maybe 10 pages" - I'd consider it as part of a spanning set of "Why comics are great"

Also of course reading a wiki entry about any Marvel characters who have been around for that long is a bit like listening to a young child make up an incoherent story - shout out to the paragraph that opens "The Technet were allowed to stay in Brighton, England, where they would use their alien technology to provide the city with sunny weather."

They were later used by Claremont and Davis in their US run of the same characters; that's where I remember them from. Really loved that book as a kid!

yeah, I remember them from the Claremont/Davis years

there's something essential british about them imo, but I can't put my finger on what it is

IIRC, a couple of them had fairly OTT British speech patterns.

Do not overlook the brief period during the Alan Davis solo run on Excalibur (one of the best Marvel runs ever, btw) when the Technet lived in the lighthouse and became the N-Men under Nightcrawler's tutelage.

Looks like the Silver Sable / Felicia Hardy movie ("Silver and Black") is really happening: http://deadline.com/2017/08/silver-and-black-marvel-sony-movie-sicario-2-holmes-and-watson-bad-boys-3-release-dates-1202147448/

I've read a few of the "Generations" issues so far (Jean Grey / Phoenix and Wolverine / All-New Wolverine).

Alex Alonso apparently said, "These stories do happen, they really count. They really matter. This isn't some alternate reality story or some time-travel story." – OK, but these seem like the definition of the one-shot "time-travel story" (and not much more)

The Wolverine ish is pretty good, and genuinely touching at the end (through Tom Taylor still can't write well in Logan's voice, IMO).

Also, they seem to be violating their own "compressed timeline" rules (re: "only 13 yrs. have passed since FF #1," or whatever); but I'm not complaining about that...

Just skimmed the Secret Empire plotline (for background on the time-travel). Nutty stuff. Is the Marvel Universe "remade" every few years now? (Oh, and Black
Widow is dead? Puh-leeze...)

Welp, thats one less spoiler i have to mind now thanks

Whoops sorry :/

ah, no biggie. just hadn't read the last week or two of continuity; i think i'll be able to handle the shock

I can also now report there is a spicy/intriguing reveal at the end of the Thor (Jane F.) / Unworthy Thor (young Odinson) issue of "Generations" (...no spoilers!)

http://www.indiewire.com/2017/09/marvels-inhumans-review-imax-abc-worst-1201873382/

The Hawkeye "Generations" is the best one yet -- and actually one of the best single issues of anything I've read in a while. Kelly Thompson does a great job of nailing the Kate / Clint verbal interplay; and in her portrayal of young Clint, accurately hearkens back to Clint as recognizable in the old days (e.g., the Mark Gruenwald series).

So this is what Legacy is all about (big spoilers): http://www.cbr.com/how-marvel-legacy-changes-everything/

Not to judge a book by its online summary, but I don't see anything here that psyches me up about the current state of the Marvel U. Of course, it comes down to the quality of individual series, anyway; and unfortunately, I'm not sure what the "quality" ones are anymore.

they’ve got to pull a Poochie with Old Man Logan now

I think we are due for a "wipe everything out and start over, this shot is too complicated" reboot in two years which, given marvel's cultural capital, is a level of mismanagement only matched by the us government