Marvel Comics blabbery

Old Man Logan's still in the regular comics and has his own title set in a contemporary period. I can see where the covers and promotion would make it confusing. The character has both had a mystical trip back to his own reality, where hulks are villains, and has encountered more hulks that were dimension- and time-displaced that he had to wipe out, and he picked Hawkeye to help him.

So because Clint killed Banner he’s now an expert Hulk-killer?

it was mentioned, but it was more an homage to the Clint/Old Logan plot of the original storyline

Yeah I noticed they’re doing an “Old Man Hawkeye” series now.

Just a mini, I believe, set in the original OML timeline.

It seemed super familiar to me, and then I realized I was thinking of Old Green Arrow from “The Dark Knight Returns.”

I seem to remember Hickman destroyed Millar's future Marvel timeline *ages* ago during his Fantastic Four run, but I guess Secret Wars punched the universe or something

All imaginary stories iirc.

Infinite earths and all that. I think there's always the easy out of positing the existence of yet another reality which is nearly identical to one that we've already seen.

They kinda did this during Secret Wars itself in the Ultimate End mini where the Ultimate characters interacted with their 616 counterparts...except they were actually like 616 counterparts from a different earth than the actual 616 characters who've been around for decades (because by that point 616 had already been destroyed save a handful of survivors). It was kinda confusing as all hell.

They were the Grand Rapids 616

This is why I don’t get why DC or Marvel still pretends to “destroy” a universe or timeline. They always come back or are revived in a near exact facsimile. Same as “killing off” a major character.

every story is a story that can be revisited in fiction

you just say “here’s a magic box that lets these two things interact” and boom, there you go

If you remember how exciting “Crisis on Infinite Earths” was, the first time around — it felt like DC was doing radical things that would change their universe forever. Can only go to that well once!

then again https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/0/09/Superman_vs_The_Amazing_Spider-Man_001.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20071025040848

Oh jesus christ, come the fuck on already: https://www.polygon.com/comics/2018/2/20/17031924/marvel-fresh-start-relaunch-announcement

Everything is relaunching! Again!

Marvel, I'm the biggest apologist Zombie in the world, and this is me telling you that I'm frankly sick of this shit.

Not paying any attention to current Marvel product, didn't know this before, which seems absolutely insane to me:

Marvel will be abandoning the confusing renumbering of September’s Marvel Legacy, which renumbered every Marvel title as if it had never been relaunched or renumbered. As an example, Black Panther #18 in September 2017 was followed immediately by Black Panther #166 in October.

That is not in and of itself a bad idea, and has happened on a title-by-title basis once or twice - not being able to hold to it for more than six months is just laughable, though.

they should take an arbitrary large number that's more than any particular series has run and start the numbering there

everyone's at issue #900 next year

The Legacy renumbering was, I'm sure, an adjustment for some people but it made some sense if, as Andrew says, they'd stuck with it. Now it just makes them look insane.

The Yoshida Cebulski era is not off to a very auspicious start.

The received wisdom in the comics biz was always that huge issue numbers put 'new readers' off, because they didn't like the thought of trying to collect and read eg 899 prior comics.

I'm curious to know how new readers feel about four different Amazing Spider-Man #1-s in less than five years.

I'm curious to know if there are any 'new readers' any more.

(Sorry, I may have exaggerated the number of issues by one. But only because the first was technically Superior Spider-Man #1.)

xpost Seriously. I can't believe that initiatives like this attract new readers in significant numbers, but I'm sure they turn off new-ish readers who wonder why the fuck things are constantly restarting and they definitely turn off long-time readers who want them to just keep telling their goddamn stories already without all the gimmicky bullshit.

This old reader feels odd about Dan Slott suddenly having written Spider-Man for a decade, I'll tell you that for nothing.

I guess he's done as of the relaunch? Marvel's been cagey with their May solicits so I can't be sure. I think Nick Spencer is taking the reins.

Jason Aaron taking over Avengers is a welcome change, I will say.

For sure, shame it's Ed Mcguiness though

Also these new lines will invariably have their trade paperbacks labeled as Vol 1 - it's insane trying to figure out the order of Marvel's trades, every comic has like 10 Vol 1s!

It's like having a page-a-day calendar that starts over at January 1st every couple of months.

Fair play, they did keep the same TPB numbering for Ms. Marvel when it was restarted back in (oof) 2016.

Agreed re: Jason Aaron – that’s the only detail here that keeps my eyes from rolling any back further in my head. But otherwise, yeah – this is totes redunk. The “Legacy” thing just happened! It’s still ramping up!

(If there are good series with good creative teams, idgaf about the numbering. But the ever-faster clip of these new “initiatives” smell so phony and desperate.)

a propos of nada i'v been going back through hickman's run starting with secret warriors... it's pretty amazing tbh. like all the seeds of Secret Wars are there in secret warriors and early FF run

xps uugh Ed McGuinness. Him and Humberto Ramos need to be flagged for "dead '90s style" and have their numbers retired

xp yeah, Squirrel Girl had to do the same thing with their trades. i mean they even ended up rebooting twice in one year at some point

https://10deb7fbfece20ff53da-95da5b03499e7e5b086c55c243f676a1.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/3ef847520fcec477b2309a4a6057c2e3_xl.jpg

https://10deb7fbfece20ff53da-95da5b03499e7e5b086c55c243f676a1.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/3ef847520fcec477b2309a4a6057c2e3_xl.jpg

lol

I'm kind of dying at the fact that any time someone references an infinity stone/gem in one of the movies, someone at Marvel decides they need another comic arc about them for maximum synergy. And every plot has to be titled "Infinity <Something>", or just "Infinity" if you count the arc that wasn't really about them during Hickman's giant Avengers crossover thing.

Now that I think about it, why the heck was that called Infinity, anyway

It's amazing they haven't had a Secret <Something> film yet.

don't give them any ideas

wait people don't like ed mcguinness??!

Yeah, I don't know what that's about. I mean, I guess I get it if the exaggerated cartoony-ness isn't your thing, but unfavorably comparing him to Humberto Ramos is just nuts.

i really like mcguinness' clean, chunky style - it's really distinctive

mind you as i've attested elsewhere i like humberto ramos' work too so what do i know

can we get Nick Spencer booted from everything and whoever is writing that X-Men book with Kitty Pryde leading a team of fascists booted from that book

mcguinness is fine, the biggest weakness he has is too many loeb collaborations

ed mcguinness, you stand accused of collaborating repeatedly with jeph loeb - how do you plead

Yeah, I like McGuinness' stuff too - at his best he's like a cross between Ron Wilson and Richard Corben. His style doesn't seem especially 90s.

Ramos otoh...

I'll give Ramos props for never drawing a character the same way twice. Who's that guy? Oh, I guess it must be the same guy from the previous panel. You're keeping me on my toes, Ramos!

All right, maybe I jumped the outrage gun a bit. Only a couple of titles reverting to #1 in May, with most other titles retaining their Legacy numbering. But I reserve my right to blow a gasket over something completely lacking in consequence once this matter once again rears it's ugly head.

Hey, Hickman is finishing his SHIELD mini at looooooooooooooooong last, so that's something. And a weekly Deadpool miniseries/RPG(?!?) by Al Ewing? Color me intrigued!