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Marvel NOW to relaunch Marvel Universe
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For months, Marvel Comics executives have been promising a major shake-up for their stories in the wake of the current "Avengers Vs. X-Men" event...Today, the scope of Marvel's plans came into light with the announcement of October's "Marvel NOW" initiative via Entertainment Weekly's Comic-Con themed issue.
Marvel NOW is being promised as an easy entry point into the classic Marvel U. Throughout October, Marvel will launch a number of brand new series -- often more than one a week -- with additional new series and relaunches for some classic books rolling out through February of next year.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=39525
Sounds interesting...
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Hopefully Marvel will produce one of those most helpful "release schedule of our new titles" cards - like wot DC did -> makes selecting which ones to try that much more easier.
They've already relaunched X-titles post-Schism and, from what I've read of AvX, I can;t see any way possible for Cyclops to redeem himself after this Phoenix fiasco so, what do they do, they bring the original X-Men into the present via time travel!!
For that reason, I think I'm out.
Trying to get into Avengers or X-Men or even Spider-Man, as a new fan coming from the movie franchises must be absolutely baffling. There are what? Half a dozen each Avengers and X-Men titles? More?
I hopped on to reading DC with the New 52 so that worked for me.
Though having said that, I'd have just about zero interest in reading comics based on either the Avengers or the X-Men movie franchises at this point.
I agree with you along the lines of new readers coming in but it's a right mess. A new series called Avengers Assemble kicked off to tie in with the movie, from what I was told by a LCS manager, but it's easily missed. Add to that Avengers, New Avengers and Secret Avengers (which I think is being canned to make way for Uncanny Avengers)... And then I'm guessing Avengers will be starting again from issue #1? I finally started reading Avengers regularly when they relaunched a couple of years ago but they've been tripping over themselves quite a bit.
X-titles are worse. Uncanny X-Men recently relaunched, X-Men, X-Men Legacy, New Mutants, X-Treme X-Men, Astonishing X-Men (which is supposedly a stand-alone title), Wolverine and the X-Men and now "All New X-Men"... Not including the solo series'... I only get 3 of those and that's confusing enough as a long time reader!
Add to that the Wolverine plot devices being constantly re-used (mind control or possession, I can't count how many times this has happened in the past 5 years alone)...
I think I'm about to hit "the wall"... it was Grant Morrison's run on X-Men and JMS' on Spiderman that got me back into comics in 2001 after I'd had a break of a few years. I think I need another one.
ETA: However, I'm intrigued by Rocket Raccoon making an appearance...
cant wait
I think you're looking at the wrong thing. There's talk of integrating the cosmic characters more with the likes of X-Men and Avengers* but Nova/Rocket Raccoon would most likely pop up in the rumoured Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova comics.
Todays "Avengers" image features Thor, Havok, Scarlet Witch, Rogue, Capt.America and Wolverine: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/07/05/marvel-now-scarlet-witch-fights-alongside-rogue-in-uncanny-avengers-1/
The image that features Rocket Raccoon is just the overall publicity shot.
*""Much like the change in outlook we're trying to bring about in uniting the disparate worlds of the X-Men and the Avengers, we're not looking at the 'cosmic' books as being separate from the rest of the line. We're approaching these titles and characters as Marvel titles and characters," Brevoort stated. "While by the nature of what they do and who they are guys like Nova and Rocket Raccoon will journey all over the universe, the same can be said of the X-Men or the Avengers, both of whom have spent plenty of time among the sea of stars in the past. So we're looking to unify that aspect of the Marvel pantheon as well, to integrate them more fully into the primary focus of the world and the publishing line, and not treat them like a separate entity so much. So yes, you'll be seeing more of Nova and Rocket and guys like that in the days to come.""
Also why do Marvel now release so many versions and multiple issues of those versions a month e.g. multiple Spider-Man titles and multiple issues a month? It seems like over-saturation and very difficult for fans to follow. I used to collect in the 90s with 1 issue a month each of 3 titles in Amazing, Spectacular and Spider-Man being enough...
Not sure exactly what you mean. Go back a few years and there was Amazing, Spectacular, Friendly Neighborhood and Sensational Spiderman titles. All but Amazing were axed and Amazing Spiderman was made into a 3-times-a-month comic with a rotating creative team. This kicked off with the "Brand New Day" arc.
Now, I think Amazing is only twice a month and there's a new Avenging Spiderman comic. So, currently, there's only 2 Spidey titles with one of those being twice-monthly.*
There have been multiple Spidey titles since the late 60s, though...
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*Not including the Ultimate line or comics that Spidey appears in, like Avengers/FF stuff...
There's only one Ultimate Spiderman comic but I think the current mini-series "Spidermen" has something to do with the Ultimate version, too...
Bugger! Still can't wait though!!!:)
I'm just getting into comics and was planning on buying Invincible volume 1: The Five Nightmares TPB, however that series is coming to an end and relaunching I'll probably start with the first volume of that.
It's not a "reboot" but a "relaunch", as already discussed, and The Heroic Age was only 2 years ago which is why a lot of the folk I talk to at the local comic shops that I go to are just a wee bit fed up of things.
Basically, someone somewhere has decided that things are already too mixed up after the last relaunch, from 2 years ago, so they're kicking things off again... ugh!
(Heroes Reborn/Return ran '96-'97 with the Return being in 1997. The relaunch/renumbering of Spidey was in 1999 which kinda ran alongside John Byrne's "Chapter One" which launched in Dec 1998...)
Essentially it all boils down to Brian Michael Bendis leaving Avengers/New Avengers. Bendis has been at the helm of the Marvel Universe since he took over Avengers back in 2005. Lately though, he's clearly been winding things down and the plots in Avengers/New Avengers have felt a bit tame since the end of Siege (the current AVX tie-in issue are nothing but filler). So it's a timely move for him.
Meanwhile Jonathan Hickman has been doing great things on Fantastic Four since he took on that title in 2009. Hence why Hickman is being promoted into Bendis' old job.
So for those interested, here's a list of titles that will be cancelled followed by the new title replacing it:
Avengers (Bendis/Deodato) > Avengers (Hickman/Opena)
Captain America (Brubaker/Epting) > Captain America (Remender/Romita Jr.)
Deadpool (Way/Garza) > Deadpool (Posehn/Duggan)
Fantastic Four (Hickman/Stegman) > Fantastic Four (Fraction/Bagley)
FF (Hickman/Dragotta) > FF (Fraction/Allred)
Incredible Hulk (Aaron/Palo) > Indestructible Hulk (Waid/Yu)
Invincible Iron Man (Fraction/Larroca) > Iron Man (Gillen/Land)
New Avengers(Bendis/Deodato) > New Avengers (Hickman/Epting)
The Mighty Thor (Fraction/Kitson) > Thor: God of Thunder (Aaron/Ribic)
Uncanny X-Men (Gillen/Pacheco) > Uncanny Avengers (Remender/Cassaday)
X-Men Legacy (Gage/Baldeon) > X-Men Legacy (Spurrier/Huat)
Brand new title: All-New X-Men (Bendis/Immonen)
I would say that the titles to look our for will be:
Avengers/New Avengers by Hickman
If he lives up to his rep from Fantastic four, then this could be as fresh and exciting as Bendis' initial run seemed back in '05.
Captain America/Uncanny Avengers by Rick Remender
Remender is one of the best young writers Marvel has at the moment, his run on Uncanny X-Force is already considered a modern classic and his re-invention of Venom and work on Secret Avengers have both been stellar.
Indestructible Hulk by Mark Waid
If Mark Waid can do to Hulk what he's recently done on Daredevil this could actually be the best new title of them all. Wait and see though. Hulk's always been a tough character to do new things with. No one's really done amazing things on Hulk since Peter David's classic run back in the 90's.
All-New X-Men by Bendis
This is a bit of a wild card. He will have Stuart Immonen providing art, which is a massive plus, but really it's all a bit of an unknown. I don't think Bendis has ever written X-Men before so it's all fresh for him.
The Heroic Age wasn't a relaunch though. It was simply a tagline on top of the covers for a few months to showcase to any readers put off by a number of darker crossovers one after anothe that they could come back as it was going to be a brighter more classic looking Marvel universe for a while.
The current relaunch is simply for readers who have never given a particular character or team a chance and give them a good jumping on point. I think Marvel has been very honest about their intentions with this. Despite the fact that a lot of creators do try and make things new reader friendly a lot of adult readers still feel daunted diving into a book with a lot of history. Selling a number of their bigger franchises with shiny new #1s and taglines that it's a "new direction" and making a point of how easy will be to pick up does entice people that are in two minds of checking a book out. Not only that but they ae hoping to entice people who have never picked up comics before but are digging the new cinematic universe.