We’ve all had a chance to recover and step back a bit, and we can now look at what are the most important pure-comics stories out of San Diego Comic-Con. (No, not movies, or movies based on comics, or video games based on comics, those are all for other posts.) So what are the ComicMix Six Comic Stories from Comic-Con International?
Neil Gaiman is returning to his most famous comics creation, The Sandman, one more time, for a prequel miniseries to be released next year to be drawn by J.H. Williams (Promethea, Batwoman). “When I finished writing THE SANDMAN, there was one tale still untold. The story of what had happened to Morpheus to allow him to be so easily captured in THE SANDMAN #1, and why he was returned from far away, exhausted beyond imagining, and dressed for war. It was a story that we discussed telling for SANDMAN’s 20th anniversary… but the time got away from us. And now, with SANDMAN’s 25th anniversary year coming up, I’m delighted, and nervous, that that story is finally going to be told,” said Gaiman.
First, the good news. Scientists are prepared to say that, definitely, god exists.
Now the bad. (He) (she) (it)…oh dang, there are really no appropriate pronouns for a concept that transcends the very idea of gender. Let’s settle for “they” and start again: They – the god thingies – are called “Higgs bosuns,” nicknamed “god particles,” and they permeate the universe. And without them, nothing could exist, could ever have existed. (Unless, that is, there’s a kind of reality we can’t comprehend, and we’re not exactly willing to rule that out, but we’ll never know and anyhow, who cares?) Although physicists have been seeking the Higgs for a half-century because the accepted model of the universe indicated that the things had to be there, it wasn’t until July 4 that they were prepared to say, yep found it. I understand that there was some celebrating in the Land of Labs.
Me, I got my science fix when I went to see The Amazing Spider-Man at the local monsterplex and, later, caught a few minutes of Superman on the tube: the first big-budget Superman, released in 1978 and hyped with the line, “You’ll believe a man can fly.” (For the record, I didn’t.) That flick has flaws, but it’s pretty good, especially for something made when Hollywood was just beginning to learn how to make these kinds of entertainments. The only part I really dislike is the ending: the graphics, though they tell the story, are pretty crude compared to what’s preceded them. And the science…oh woe – the science. (If you want to consider this a spoiler alert, suit yourself.) Lois Lane dies in an earthquake and Superman flies counterclockwise around the Earth and thus – ready for this? – reverses time and goes back to before Lois died and happy endings all around.
Reverses time, does he? By flying counterclockwise. Uh huh.
Nothing in the Spidey flick is quite so nettlesome, but in this reinvention, the film folk chose to explain Spidey’s ability to shoot webs huge distances and make them, apparently, as strong as the occasion warrants the same way Stan Lee and Steve Ditko explained it in the first Spider-Man comic book story, way back in 1962: A teenage Spidey, who gets really good grades in science class, having acquiring amazing powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider, goes home and, you know, tinkers around and comes up with a gadget that a) does the web shooting stuff and b) is compact enough to be worn like an oversize wrist watch.
So: if he commanded such technology, why didn’t he use it for much greater good than he could achieve as a costumed vigilante and, incidentally, plunk his saintly Aunt May down in some swell digs?
For the same reason that Superman didn’t use his godlike time reversal stunt to undo every single bad thing on the whole planet? (I mean saving Lois was nice and all, but…war! Famine! Disease!)
Of course, this kind of story is basically fantasy and, I guess, we all have a private setting for our willing suspension of disbelief. I complain about plot devices that violate the story’s own “reality” and haul us out of the fiction while we try figure out how we’re supposed to accept what we’ve just seen.
Since, in superhero writing, there is a long tradition of writers using whatever’s in the zeitgeist at the moment, I expect we’ll be seeing some costumed dogooder involved with Higgs bosuns pretty soon. I hope I don’t have to mangle my willing suspension of disbelief to enjoy the story, god particle or no god particle.
When I heard Marvel’s Civil War was being adapted into a prose novel, I was delighted and intrigued. Civil War is one of my favorite comic book crossovers for several reasons. One is that this is a crossover in which every character has a legitimate reason to be involved. I don’t like it when companies do crossovers for the sake of crossovers – to drive up sales or reader interest or the like – but if the story would logically call for each character to get involved or take a stance, then a crossover can be amazingly interesting and engaging… and this one was.
Another is that along with epic fights and explosions, this conflict speaks to intellectual issues larger than the concerns of an individual protagonist – such as privacy and personal autonomy versus social responsibility and accountability – that are very relevant in the real world. Even though the plot includes a plethora of brawls and superhero disagreements, we also get to see the writer(s) interpreting how long-established characters would react to important social issues.
A third reason is that since the plot pits superheroes against superheroes (as opposed to solely super-villains), we get a story in which almost everyone, no matter which side of the conflict they’re on, is a sympathetic character. They’re mostly all admirable people and heroes, devoted to helping people for one reason or another. Thus the emotional impact of their conflicts with each other is much greater, particularly if you’re already a fan of, say, both Captain America and Iron Man, and were invested in both characters equally before the beginning of the story. The fact that the “villain” of the tale varies depending on which point of view you agree with, and sometimes depending on each particular action as both sides make mistakes, makes it a more substantive and thought-provoking read.
Civil War is about a world growing increasingly uncomfortable with super-powered vigilantes who are able to use their secret identities to dodge public accountability. In this atmosphere of distrust for the superhero community, a tragedy explodes when a group of young superheroes takes on more powerful villains on a reality show in hopes of filming a spectacular triumph and driving up ratings. Unfortunately, instead a villain’s explosive power annihilates 859 citizens in Stamford, Connecticut, including a school bus full of children. It’s a national tragedy that, despite other superheroes coming to help with the aftermath, pushes a bill Congress had already been considering, the Superhuman Registration Act, to the top of the government’s list of priorities. The Act requires metahumans to undergo registration and training with the government before being permitted to legally use their powers in public, and gives the government extremely broad (and often violent) powers of enforcement. After the Stamford tragedy, and with the support of Tony Stark, Iron Man, the Act is quickly pushed through and enacted into law.
All that government procedural stuff might sound a bit dry, but the result of the Act is a full-on war between two camps of superheroes (with the X-Men and a few others just hangin’ out like Switzerland) headed by the pro-Registration Iron Man, and the Anti-Registration (or pro-Privacy/Freedom, depending on your viewpoint) Captain America. At first glance, the sides chosen might seem counter-intuitive, given Iron Man’s love of keeping his affairs and intellectual property away from government control, and Cap’s history as a loyal soldier for Uncle Sam. But Iron Man is basing his actions on the various “optimal outcome” calculations of brainiac Mr. Fantastic and his own outlook as a “futurist,” with a goal of minimizing damage and upheaval; whereas Captain America starkly brings home his reasons for not rounding up a bunch of “different” people for regulation or imprisonment when he reminds everyone of, you know, that time he fought for the United States in a war against the Nazis because they did just that.
It’s a slightly extreme comparison (although at least Cap, unlike most people who bring up Nazis in an argument, was actually there), but even Spider-Man, while working with Tony on the Pro-Reg side, sees that parallel. Of course, once the lines are drawn, both sides struggle with their chosen stance, particularly as injuries and casualties begin piling up; and the fallout of the decisions made as the Act is being passed inform the rest of the story.
If you read the original crossover, you might be saying, “I know all this; why bother with the novel?” But the novel format generally allows for the most insight into characters’ thought processes, and in this book, Stuart Moore opens a door to a better understanding of many characters’ motivations than we might have gained from the graphic version. Thanks to the format he is also able to present characters’ private insights into the personalities of their fellows, such as when we hear Sue Richards’ internal perspective of her husband’s choices and actions, or Tony Stark’s private musings about Peter Parker.
I also noticed that I had a stronger distaste or admiration for certain characters after reading Moore’s prose interpretation than when I read the original crossover (man, did this story make me want to punch Stark in the face) because the prose format is immersive and excellent for drawing readers in emotionally. The flip side of this, of course, is that I did miss the visual impact of a couple of the most moving scenes in, for example, the Spider-Man graphic novel storyline, even though Moore does a good job with them; but I think it’s an even tradeoff (and a fine reason to read both versions, if you liked the original story).
Conversely, if you’ve never read Civil War or are looking for a good read that will introduce you to many of the key characters in the Marvel Universe, this book would be a great choice. Moore’s adaptation efficiently orients readers to the characters and situation. With a pretty massive ensemble cast, he manages to provide enough details about each successive character for us to know where they stand and why we should care while almost entirely avoiding awkward information dumps. He also quickly sets the scene via the book’s shifting character perspectives (namely Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-man, and the Invisible Woman). Although occasionally the sentences get a little stilted as Moore translates a fight scene that could be viewed in three graphic panels into several pages of text (and I would vote for not italicizing actions like punches in future adaptations), Moore does a solid job of conveying the action from those information-packed images into something the prose reader can follow – not a simple task. The story is cohesive and easy to get into, even with the changing perspectives. It definitely kept my attention and made me eager to read on, even though I already knew the general plot.
I did have a few complaints that come primarily from this being an adaptation of the graphic version – first among those being that I missed the characters who didn’t show up here. For instance, I didn’t really expect to see Deadpool (sadly), but didn’t Cable have a decent-sized part in the original story? And what happened to the Iron Fist/Daredevil subplot? I also would have liked to have seen more of the X-Men and other groups or characters. I know exactly why Moore and Marvel didn’t include them – because the ensemble is already pretty big, and they were presumably aiming for one cohesive, comprehensible, and reasonably-sized book to kick off their new prose novel line. That’s fine, and they succeeded. But I would have happily read, say, a three-part prose series of this storyline if it meant even more focused character perspectives (She-Hulk? Ms. Marvel? Cloak and Dagger could have made for some fun reading) and fringe characters making (justified) appearances. The more rich and in-depth a prose story is, the better. Just something to think about for next time, Marvel.
I also felt that the ending was a bit weak, particularly as it leaves out a key closing event in the graphic novel storyline (as well as any mention of Penance, although really I didn’t miss that too much). I suspect the choice to not end the story in death was made to avoid going out on a down note – but the impact of (SPOILER WARNING) this story thread and the character reaction in this scene on how one views the overall story that came before, and the characters in the aftermath, is huge; and to me, that, not where the government or superheroes end up going from there, is the close to this chapter in Marvel history.
However, don’t take my few small criticisms to mean I didn’t really enjoy the book. For a prose adaptation of a major Marvel storyline, it’s excellent. Moore did a stellar job with a complicated text, and through his own interpretation made this novel an excellent companion to the graphic crossover or a great stand-alone way to get into the Marvel universe. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and would certainly recommend it. And I look forward to seeing what prose novel they come out with next.
So go out there and give it a try. And until next time, Servo Lectio!
WEDNESDAY MORNING: Mike Gold, Creators’ Rights, and One Big Wrong
Maybe you’re not reading this. Maybe you’re one of the thousands of computer users who lost Internet access on the interface between Sunday and Monday – that’d be midnight – because some really evil cyberstinkers infected your machine with the “Doomsday” virus and in the process made themselves rich. They were caught – sometimes the Feds get it right – but apparently nothing could be done about their mischief they caused and so, barring the unforeseen, at midnight on the ninth, some 69,000 U.S. computers until things get sorted out. I hope that yours isn’t one of them.
Maybe I should switch tenses and say that, again, maybe – is there no end to the maybes? – you won’tbe reading this due to malfunctioning machinery. (I’m typing it at a little after five on Sunday. You think I know what will happen in seven hours? You think I know what will happen in two minutes? Please!)
So if you won’t be reading my blather, what will you be doing? Heading toward the annual mind-croggling San Diego Comic Con? If so, well… brace yourself. It’s an intense experience, that con, and I guess it can be an expensive one. Hotel rooms on beachfront San Diego don’t come cheap. Food costs aren’t too bad, but it is a tourist area. And inside the convention itself are hundreds of merchants who, in my experience, are nice people, but they do want to sell you something. And isn’t one of the reasons for con-going to buy stuff you can’t get on your home turf?
But – here it is again – maybe you’ve been bitten by the economy and a trip to southern California is not a current possibility for you. Always next year, but meanwhile… Can you afford a movie ticket? It’s a bit early to see the new Batman flick, which doesn’t open until the twentieth in most places. But the new Spider-Man is all over the place and – here it comes again – maybe you live near a multiplex that reduces admission costs during drive time and, being as financially strapped as you are, you aren’t doing anything else late afternoons, are you? If you have to pay the full freight, skip lunch. And dinner. And don’t even think about popcorn.
Although I haven’t seen the movie myself yet – ahem, maybe Tuesday? – I believe I can calm those who are wondering, What the heck? It’s only been five years since the last Spidey, and only a decade since the first big-screen Spidey and that one did include an origin story, thank you, and now they’re reinventing the whole mythos, including another origin? I mean, what the heck!
Okay, take comfort in remembering that the history of the filmed entertainment’s first cousin, comic books, demonstrates that a little reinvention, from time to time, is not necessarily undesirable. On the contrary. As for the small number of years between origin and originrevisited… There were two filmed adaptations of Dashiell Hammett’s classic crime novel The Maltese Falcon in the ten years before John Huston gave us his version and the existence of the first two did nothing to harm the excellence of Huston’s work.
That’s a factoid you might miss if your computer’s on the fritz and you’re not reading this. Or – wait for it…maybe not.
When I first heard that Marvel was launching a new title each week for five months, I thought “What do you mean five months? They’ve been doing that for years!”
My second thought was… “define new.”
As I’ve stated before, Marvel doesn’t reboot as much as it evolves: they’ll launch the 74th Captain Marvel while still using the first. Sure, they ignore stuff. Nothing wrong with that. It’s a lot easier than explaining why, in a logical continuity, Aunt May didn’t die long before most of the readers were born. So any comparisons between Marvel Now and DC’sNew 52 are strained to say the least. Apples and oranges, as they say in the produce trade.
In looking over the lists of new Marvel Now launches, I see a bunch that seem interesting from a casting standpoint – both in terms of matching creative talent to characters and matching characters to teams. But Marvel’s been up to that for decades. What’s new about it now?
Marvel, and DC and everybody else, has been killing titles and relaunching them with new creative teams and big number ones on the cover ever since the direct sales racket started, so, again, what’s new about it now?
New costumes? This must be Wednesday! Spider-Man hasn’t had a new costume since every fourth page of any recent issue of The Avengers. The Red Skull is back? Damn! It is Wednesday! So, new? (That’s an awesome pun if you know Yiddish.)
No, really. I’m asking. What’s new about Marvel Now, now? What am I missing here? It’s just another huge marketing stunt, but – thankfully – one that doesn’t necessarily involve buying a million different tie-ins, crossovers and sidebar mini-series in order to get a complete road map. I’m sure Marvel’s likely to increase its sales lead over DC a bit. Big deal. Marvel is part of Disney, and increasing its lead over DC in the teensy tiny direct sales market wouldn’t provide sufficient motivation for Disney Chairman Bob Iger to lift his head out of his morning cereal bowl.
Look. I’m fine with all of this. It’s just nothing new. In fact, it’s a big part of why I’ve found the Marvel Universe fun ever since Fantastic Four #26.
No, what bothers me is Newtonian physics. Specifically, the bit about “with every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Except that in the 21st Century, I’d rewrite this to read “with every action there is a massive and opposite over-reaction.”
Yes, friends. Beware the New 104!
THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil Talks Up San Diego and Sequels
Saw my niece Isabel last week. She’s finished The Complete Bone Adventures, Volumes 1 and II and is now reading a collection of Calvin And Hobbes. She also told me that she’s in love with the Percy Jackson And The Olympians series by Rick Riordian; she had already read The Lightning Thief, and was deep into the second book, The Sea Of Monsters. Although by now she’s quite possibly onto the third title, which is The Titan’s Curse. She’s a fast reader. Based on her critiques, I have ordered The Lightning Thief from Amazon, and expect I’ll be ordering the rest of the series, too.
Last I heard Watchmen had not entered the public domain, so I will not be buying any of the Before Watchmen books. I think the whole idea stinks. I don’t understand how other creators who profess to respect creator’s rights could sign on to a rotten deal brokered on a broken promise by DC to Alan Moore. It’s a slap in the face to Alan, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins. Oh, wait. John Higgins participated in this mockery? Says a lot about your character, doesn’t it, John? If you need money that badly, there are other ways to prostitute yourself. And that goes for the rest of you, too.
John Ostrander’s latest column about “bad things he hates that he loves” caused me to go to my DVD cabinet and pull out a couple of movies that I should despise but actually love:
World Without End (1956), in which a rocket ship returning from Mars breaks through the time barrier and deposits four astronauts on an unidentified planet, which turns out to be Earth in the year 2508, 400 years after a nuclear war. The surviving humans live underground and are dying out because the men are scrawny, weak, and unable to perform their manly duties. In other words, they’re impotent. Which sure sucks for them, because all the women of the year 2508 are curvaceous, beautiful, and very, very horny. The reason the humans don’t live on the surface is because of the “surface beasts” – the descendants of those who did not flee underground during the atomic holocaust – roam the countryside. They look like mutated Neanderthals, and all they want to do – well, the men, anyway – is get their paws on the hot tomatoes living underground. Our brave, resourceful – and, of course, American; this was the 50’s, remember – astronauts reinvent the bazooka (“The good ol’ bazooka!” one of the astronauts says with a backslap to his pal) and defeat the mutated Neanderthals, and help restart human civilization on the surface for the Eloi. Oops. Sorry, wrong story. The horny women get the horny astronauts in the end, so everybody lives happily ever after. Except for the impotent guys, I guess.
Queen Of Outer Space (1958) in which ZsaZsa Gabor plays a Venusian scientist on a planet on which once again all the women are curvaceous, beautiful, and very horny. Except for the Queen, who is curvaceous and very horny, but mysteriously wears a mask. But even though Venus is the planet of love, there’s not a man to be found. The story begins when our brave, resourceful, and yes, once again, American astronauts, on board their rocket ship – which looks exactly like the one in World Without End – and on their way to a space station in orbit above Earth, are hijacked to Venus by a strange red ray, which turns out to be the Beta Disintegrator. The ship crashed into snow-covered mountains that look exactly like the snow-covered mountains into which the ship from World Without End end-crashes. Turns out the Queen hates all men, and she imprisons the astronauts. But she’s got a hard-on for the Captain. “A Queen can be lonely, too,” she tells the Captain. The Captain decides to take her up on her, uh, offer to “get information.” This makes ZsaZsa very jealous: “30 million miles away from the Earth,” says one of the astronauts, “and the little dolls are just the same.” Because she has a hard-on for our Captain, too. (No, his name is not James Tiberius Kirk.) Anyway, just as the Queen goes in for the face-suck, the Captain rips off her mask, and – OMG! Her face is burned and scarred and horribly mutated! “Men did this to me,” the Queen says with hatred in her voice. “Men and their wars.” Then she seductively turns to the Captain. “You said I needed the love of a man,” she whispers as she puts her arms around him. “If you will be that man, I will let you all go.” But the Captain is trying not to vomit. Dumb ass. Put a bag over her head and do it for the flag. So the Queen sends him back and aims the Beta-Disintegrator at Earth. Talk about a woman scorned! You really have to see this movie!
It really sucks when your parents are sick.
Here’s the truth. The only thing I really hate about women’s costumes in the comics is that I’m not buff enough to wear any of them.
Political diatribe for the day: Vote for Romney, and we really will be living in the world of American Flagg! (We’re almost there now.)
I can wait for the Garfield/Stone Amazing Spider-Man to hit DVD. I loved the Maguire/Duns Spider-Mans. Perhaps if TPTB had moved the story forward, merely replacing Maguire/Duns with Garfield/Stone, I would have more interest.
Just finished The Lost Wife, a heartbreaking, “based-on-a-true-story,” and beautifully written story about a husband and wife, both Jewish, separated by World War II. He gets out of Europe, she is first is sent to Theresienstadt and then Auschwitz. Highly recommended!
In the middle of The Hunger Games. Loving it. Have to recommend it to Isabel.
Audiences are rewarding “The Amazing Spider-Man” for being a very, very good film.
The fourth film in the Sony franchise faced high skepticism as the producers resorted to rebooting Spider-Man for the second time in a decade — and as “The Avengers” and “The Dark Knight Rises” have loomed large as the summer’s superhero tentpoles.
Turns out, Peter Parker’s origin story, in the right hands, is as resilient as a wrist-packed monofilament — even as the Marvel webslinger turns 50 this year.
“Amazing Spider-Man” continued to soar above studio projections by grossing $65-million domestically to win the weekend — doubling the take of last week’s champ, “Ted” — and lifting its six-day start to $140-million, according to studio estimates released Sunday. Final numbers are due Monday.
Buoyed significantly by the winning performances of Andrew Garfield (who has inherited the super-suit from Tobey Maguire for his own newly announced trilogy) and Emma Stone (as Gwen Stacy), “Amazing Spider-Man” has now grossed a strong $341.6-million worldwide.
As Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee told Comic Riffs: Whoever decided to cast the talented Garfield as the new teen “Everyguy” should get a medal.
“Amazing Spider-Man” performed well right out of the gate, grossing $7.5-million Tuesday from midnight screenings; and through the Fourth of July, “Amazing Spider-Man” had grossed $58.3-million domestically and $108-million overall, according to the site BoxOfficeMojo.
“What a spectacular relaunch,” Sony worldwide distribution President Rory Bruer told the Hollywood Reporter, citing “the chemistry between Andrew and Emma” and “the out-of-the-box direction of Marc Webb,” who until now was best known for directiong “(500) Days of Summer.”
“Amazing Spider-Man” also benefited from its popularity with “family” demographics (25-percent of the film’s audience); its generally positive critical reviews and filmgoer scores; and its haul at IMAX theaters ($14.3-million).
”Spider-Man’s” performance dwarfed the domestic debuts of “Savages” (fourth at $16.2-million) and “Katy Perry: Part of Me” (eighth; $7.15-million).
Seth MacFarlane’s CGI/live-action “Ted” strengthened its claim as the R-rated comedy hit of the summer, grossing $32.6-million to raise its domestic total to $120.2-million. And Pixar’s animated “Brave” also remained strong, grossing $20.1-million to boost its domestic take to $174-million.
FUN WITH NUMBERS
Sony’s four Spider-Man films have now grossed $1.25-billion domestically and $2.83-billion worldwide.
“Amazing Spider-Man” had the fourth-best Independence Day weekend ever (not adjusted for inflation) — behind only two “Transformers” film (“Dark of the Moon” tops the list with $97.8-million) and “Spider-Man 2” ($88-million).
“Amazing Spider-Man” had the 12th-best weekend opening ever for Marvel character film — barely trailing last year’s “Thor” ($65.7-million) and “Captain America: The First Avenger”($68.05-million), though those two films didn’t open on a Tuesday.
And “Amazing Spider-Man” just beat the average opening for a Marvel character film: $65.57-million.
Beginning in October 2012, Marvel starts a bold new chapter in its history, with Marvel NOW!, a publishing initiative extending into 2013 that will touch every major Marvel character from the Avengers to the X-Men to Spider-Man to the Fantastic Four and beyond.
Marvel.com spoke with Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada, Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso and Senior VP – Executive Editor Tom Brevoort to get all the details on what to expect from Marvel NOW!
Marvel.com: In your words, what is Marvel NOW!?
Axel Alonso: Marvel NOW! is the next chapter in the ongoing saga of the Marvel Universe. From October through February, we’ll provide at least one great reason for readers—old, lapsed or new—to go into a comic store each week: a new issue #1, featuring an exciting new creative team and driving concept, that’s an easy entry-point into the Marvel Universe. Each and every one of these launches is built to last.
Tom Brevoort: Marvel NOW! is a coordinated creative refresh across our entire publishing line, a unique moment in which the creative reins on virtually all of our quintessential series are being passed from one person to another. As a result, there’ll be both the excitement and uncertainty of seeing a new creative partnership handle characters and series that have been in other hands consistently for many years. And at the same time, this is the perfect instance for readers both new and lapsed to dip their toes back into the Marvel pool, in that all of these creators are going to be beginning their story-cycles during this time, so it’s about a clean a point of entry as there’s ever likely to be.
Joe Quesada: Marvel NOW! is the next step in Marvel story evolution and character evolution. It’s not a reboot. It is a universe-shifting catch-all, which really just tells fans that if you enjoyed Avengers vs. X-Men, get ready for what the outcome is because there’s some major, major changes coming to the Marvel Universe. A lot of changes to the character status quos, alter egos, costumes, creator shifts, design shifts, the way that we do our covers, digital shifts and the way we start delivering our books. We’re continuing with our evolution push as we start to embrace more and more of the digital world and its technology; the sky’s the limit with Infinite Comics, AR, and all sorts of things. As the technology changes we’re going to change with it and our fans are going to eventually tell us what it is that they really love out of all those things that we’re playing with. But it’s a big shift because it’s not just story and character. There’s also the way we tell our stories and the way we deliver our stories that are starting to change as well.
Marvel.com: What is the scope of this initiative?
Axel Alonso: It’s a sweeping initiative. Most of our core titles will be a part of it.
Joe Quesada: The scope is pretty huge. It’s pretty huge, but we’re also taking a very conservative tactic in the sense that we’re not just going to say “Hey, we’re just going to dump it all on you in one particular shot.” This is going to be a significant release that’s going to take place over several months so that we can do it properly, do it in a way that our readers can appreciate, and tell our stories in the right way. Because we do have a lot of moving parts here and I think it’s the fairest and best way to do this.
Marvel.com: What makes Marvel NOW! a good launch point for new readers or people who haven’t tried certain properties?
Axel Alonso: Marvel NOW! hearkens back to 11 years ago, when Marvel found great success employing a simple formula: great artist plus great writer plus great character plus great story. All of these creators are inspired and motivated to do their best stuff. At last week’s editorial summit, each writer shared his plans for their titles, and there isn’t a weak link in the chain. The only difference is that we are mindful that these stories are linked by the common backdrop.
Joe Quesada: A lot of characters and a lot of their stories are starting story arcs and different status quos right around this time. I know there are a lot of people out there who are lapsed readers, or future readers who don’t necessarily know exactly how to jump into comics because the idea of decades and decades of continuity is daunting to them. Now mind you, they should never have that fear regardless, but for us we’re putting a flag in the sand and saying “Listen, if you’ve had that problem before, just take a flier on us. Try Marvel NOW!, because we are not wiping the slate clean—we’re just trying to tell these stories from a clean point of view and allowing a good jumping-off point for new readers.”
Marvel.com: Is this a reboot of the existing Marvel Universe?
Axel Alonso: It is not a reboot. We don’t travel back in time, into the future, or to an alternate universe. Marvel NOW! respects the investment—emotional and financial—that long-term fans have made in the Marvel Universe, and this story takes place in a Marvel Universe they can recognize, one that grows out of Avengers Vs. X-Men. That said, these stories will be accessible to lapsed readers—the guy who likes, say, Captain America, but doesn’t know where to start—and anyone who saw a Marvel movie or heard the buzz about Marvel NOW!
Marvel.com: What role is digital technology going to play in Marvel NOW!?
Joe Quesada: There [are] really two answers to this, and I think both of them are right. It’s going to play a tremendously huge role, and I don’t know. And the reason I don’t know is because technology is changing every single—oh wait, it just changed again. It changes every second. There’s so much new stuff coming out that I can’t tell you what’s going to be the rage 12 months from now with technology. What I can tell you is that if it’s something that is applicable to things that we do for a living, we’re going to try it. And we’re going to see if it works for us. So it is the great unknown, it is really exciting, but it’s also something that we’re not going to be left behind wondering why we didn’t get involved in the world of digital much earlier. You know, we‘ve been involved in the digital world for a long, long time—longer than most publishers—so we are already ahead of the curve and we’re already getting a sense of what the readership is really thinking, what they’re not thinking, because ultimately it’s about the readers. It’s about making their experience a better one, a more convenient one, and really much more entertaining.
Marvel.com: What can you say anything else about the way the exterior appearance and the packaging of the books are going to change?
Joe Quesada: We [are] taking a hard look at the way we design our covers. I’ll tell you the history behind this. Tom Brevoort runs these workshops for the junior editorial staff. Several months ago, he asked me to come in and do a talk on covers, cover design, what I feel makes strong covers, yadda yadda. So in preparation for that meeting, what I decided to do was, I wasn’t going to come in with a slide presentation or a keynote presentation of comic book covers that were successful. I wanted to look outside of comics and to the industry that I think is the most successful when it comes to poster work or cover work, which would be the movie industry throughout the ages. So I started going through all my huge library of movie poster reference, everything from the earliest days of filmmaking to today, the modern era, and I started pulling images from different eras of things that I think, images that I think work. Certain designs that I thought worked, whether they were abstract or literal, and presented this to the group. And as I was going through each one of the images, it really sort of dawned on me as I looked at the movie posters that we have a standard rule in the world of comic books which is the comic book logo should appear on the top third of the cover. Now, we’ll deviate from that every once in a while, but the norm you have got to say that 90 percent to 95 percent of comic books have the logo at the top third of the cover. And that is something that has historically been done in comics because historically comics were sold in a newsstand, and the way that books and magazines are racked on the newsstand, the only thing that you really get to see for the most part is the logo of the magazine or the book. And that’s what people look for, and they pull it out, and if the image grabs them they buy it or they don’t. So, looking at the world that we live in today where we really don’t have much of a newsstand presence anymore and looking at how our readership, even when they buy stuff at their local comic shop, very few comic shops actually rack their comics the way that a newsstand did. You can actually see the entire comic cover standing alone next to other comic covers, but the top third isn’t really all that important. Then I think about the readership that orders their books from their local comic shop in advance. What they do is they go through the Marvel catalogue and they see the covers, sometimes they’ll see a thumbnail of a cover, and that’s really what they’re basing it on—and obviously the synopsis of the story or whether this comic is their favorite book or no, And then, thinking about all the fans that are going to start picking up their books digitally, and the imagery that they will see in say their tablet, for example, it became very, very evident to me that there was absolutely no reason anymore to continue having our logos on the top third of the cover.
That’s not to say that we won’t, but I thought about maybe we should give our cover artists the opportunity to design their covers in a way—because now they can do a whole image like a movie poster—so that your reader’s eye is captivated by and they want to buy that book while at the same time letting us know what that book is so that the logo doesn’t have to appear there. So now we’re going to start looking at our covers as design work as a whole, and placing the images in places that are most attractive and that catch the eye in the best way. So if that means that if it’s an Iron Man cover and Iron Man’s head is on the top left side of that cover and the logo is on the bottom right, if that’s the thing that’s going to grab the readership, then that’s what we’re going to do. So it’s a challenge to our cover artists to think more in terms of design. We’re leaving the canvas open to them to work with as much as we possibly can. Because our covers carry a lot of information. They have ratings, they have UPS, they have all these things. So we’re designing our covers so that all these things aren’t locked in a specific area of the cover so that for the most part the canvas is empty for the artist to do their thing. So we’re just going to look at different methodologies by which to attract readers to our books, because more than anything that top third thing—that’s thinking from the 1930’s. So it’s time for us to move on.
Marvel.com: What does the preview piece you worked on tell us as far as what kind of characters are going to be coming to the forefront of Marvel NOW! and what changes are in store for them?
Joe Quesada: Well I think you can certainly glom several things from that piece. Number one, costume changes. Number two, you’ll see characters there that you wouldn’t necessarily think would be in a piece like that. I think readers can assume that we’re going to make a big push with certain books and create certain books that involve a lot of these new characters. And also just changes to certain status quos based upon costume design and what happened. Even Cyclops. He’s very prominent in that piece, He looks very different, but definitely prominent. And who knows if that’s even Scott in that costume? But the goal was to sort of give a quick, encapsulating view of a piece that says “Well, it’s going to be different.”
Marvel.com: Who are some of the creators prominently involved with Marvel NOW! that you can reveal at this time?
Tom Brevoort: Rick Remender and John Cassaday on UNCANNY AVENGERS, Brian Bendis and Stuart Immonen on ALL-NEW X-MEN, and Jonathan Hickman and Jerome Opena on AVENGERS, with Adam Kubert, Dustin Weaver and Mike Deodato also contributing to that twice-a-month series, plus Jonathan and Steve Epting on NEW AVENGERS. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Joe Quesada: We’ve got a lot of great changes coming up with our creators. I think two creators that have me very excited right now are, first, Jonathan Hickman and what he’s going to be bringing to the Avengers; if you really want a very clear road map of where the Marvel Universe is going to be taking you in the next four to five years, then you cannot not read AVENGERS. You have to.
And then the other creator that has me really excited is old time favorite Brian Bendis. Brian is working on two very significant projects for us. One of them is ALL-NEW X-MEN. I have not seen Brian this excited about writing comics in quite a long time. Between ALL-NEW X-MEN and his other secret project that he’s working on, which I think many people are going to find surprising, he is operating on all cylinders. I mean he is just a shot out of a cannon. This is like Brian Bendis circa 2002, where he’s salivating to get all the stuff that he’s doing.
The first series to fall under the Marvel NOW! banner will be UNCANNY AVENGERS, a new ongoing title launching in October, written by Rick Remender with art by John Cassaday and featuring members of the Avengers and the X-Men on one team for the first time facing a returned Red Skull out to exterminate the mutant race.
Marvel.com: Why was UNCANNY AVENGERS chosen as the first title for the Marvel NOW! initiative?
Axel Alonso: UNCANNY AVENGERS is the first book that delivers a snapshot of the Marvel Universe in the aftermath of AvX. This is a team composed of Avengers and X-Men that’s put together to deal with a specific threat, but that eventually becomes something much more than that.
Marvel.com: How does UNCANNY AVENGERS represent the post-Avengers Vs. X-Men Marvel Universe?
Tom Brevoort: Back in AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #1, Captain America and Cyclops had a pointed conversation before fists started flying about how, whenever a threat to mutants has arisen, the Avengers have seemed pretty remote; Cap articulated his position, but in the fallout from AvX, Cap and the Avengers, having gone through a bunch of stuff and having walked a mile in the X-Men’s shoes, are feeling like there’s some truth in what Cyclops had to say. So the Uncanny Avengers squad is being put together as a direct response to that, as a proactive attempt to provide support of the civil rights of the world’s mutant citizens, and to provide physical and superhuman aid in those circumstances where either mutants are threatened by non-mutants, regular humans are threatened by mutants, and every other iteration in-between. In essence, as we attempt to bridge the divide between the Avengers and the X-Men as entities within our publishing world, UNCANNY X-MEN will be the primary bridging book, a place where the team is as likely to battle Apocalypse as The Red Skull, and where long-established X-characters will stand side-by-side with long-established Avengers characters, in a very public manner.
Axel Alonso: Several years ago, we wondered why the roster of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” didn’t include Spider-Man and Wolverine, and the Avengers became our flagship franchise. A team composed of X-Men and Avengers is an equally seismic event—a must-read title for Avengers fans and X-Men fans, and they aren’t always the same audience.
Marvel.com: How was the creative team of Rick Remender and John Cassaday selected?
Tom Brevoort: Rick pitched the book right before one of our recent Marvel editorial retreats, as something that could naturally grow out of AvX. And we’re always looking for interesting projects to entice John into doing more work for Marvel.
Marvel.com: What characters can you tell us will be part of Uncanny Avengers?
Tom Brevoort: Among the characters that will make up the team are Captain America, Wolverine, Thor, The Scarlet Witch, Rogue and Havok, with a few other surprises waiting in the wings. There’ll also be a funeral in the first issue.
Marvel.com: What type of threat does the returned Red Skull pose to this team and to the Marvel Universe?
Tom Brevoort: The reborn Red Skull will have a strong anti-mutant agenda that will put him in direct opposition to the Uncanny Avengers and their mandate of attempting to inspire greater human-mutant cooperation. The new Skull will also possess a new set of powers obtained in a very creepy way, as well as his own team of foot soldiers, people whose lives were shattered by mutants who’ve been rebuilt at a genetic level to turn them into what we’ve jokingly been calling the Skull’s “S-Men.”
In November, writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Stuart Immonen will premiere ALL-NEW X-MEN, with the modern day Children of the Atom facing the original team—Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast and Jean Grey—brought forward in time to a Marvel Universe unfamiliar and shocking to them.
Marvel.com: Almost a decade ago, Brian Michael Bendis reinvented the Avengers franchise; how do his plans for the X-Men compare?
Axel Alonso Brian is bringing the original X-Men—the [Stan] Lee and [Jack] Kirby X-Men—into the present, and they’re here for the long haul. They’re going to see what the world has become, the hard road that got them here and, indeed, who made it this far. That’s going to make for years of fascinating stories.
Marvel.com: What characters can we expect to be featured in ALL-NEW X-MEN?
Axel Alonso: The current X-Men cast—or those who made it out of AvX alive—the Lee and Kirby X-Men, and a few surprises.
Marvel.com: What makes having the original X-Men in the present day Marvel Universe an intriguing proposition?
Axel Alonso: These characters grew up aspiring to live the dream of Charles Xavier. They’re going to come into a world that’s very different from that dream. And they’re going to come face to face with what they’ve become—future versions of their very selves—or, weirder still, come to terms with the fact that they didn’t make it this far. Imagine you’re young Jean Grey and you just crash landed in 2012. Get my point?
Marvel.com: How was Stuart Immonen selected as the artist for All-New X-Men?
Axel Alonso: The stars were just aligned to make it so. He’s the perfect fit for this title.
Writer Jonathan Hickman and artists Jerome Opena and Steve Epting will reinvent Earth’s Mightiest Heroes this December in the bi-weekly AVENGERS as well as a revamped NEW AVENGERS, featuring an expanded roster, ambitious mission statement, and broad imperative that pushes forward into the 21st century.
Marvel.com: How is Jonathan Hickman changing the mandate of the Avengers franchise?
Tom Brevoort: First off, it’s important for you to know that, while we’re not ready to tell you any more about it, Jonathan will also be writing NEW AVENGERS as well as AVENGERS.
I mention that because the second thing you need to know is that, like AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, AVENGERS is going to be shipping twice a month. So there’ll be three Hickman-written Avengers comics coming out every 30 days—two issues of AVENGERS and one issue of NEW AVENGERS.
I can tell you that NEW AVENGERS will be an absolutely essential sister title to AVENGERS, intrinsically linked to what’s going on in that book. Together, the two will function as Black and White, Day and Night, Life and Death.
The main imperative for the Avengers coming out of AvX is a need to think bigger. Had the Avengers been better prepared, better manned, better equipped, the events of AvX might have been able to have been dealt with in a much shorter order. So we’ll be fielding a very large core team comprised of 18 or so characters—spanning the key players in the “Marvel’s The Avengers” film, mainstays of the current team such as Captain Marvel—Carol Danvers—and Spider-Woman, classic Avengers of the past such as The Falcon, some established Marvel characters of note that have never been Avengers before, and a number of completely new, though familiar, characters as well. And we’ll be keeping things in motion—not every hero will be featured in every issue and there’ll be smaller groups tasked to deal with rising situations as they crop up.
In typical fashion, Jonathan has laid out plans for literally years of stories—at our recent Editorial Retreat, I worked out that he’d broadly plotted through issue #63 at this point. And like his work on FANTASTIC FOUR and SECRET WARRIORS, the scale just gets bigger and bigger and bigger as you go, with payoff leading to payoff leading to payoff.
AVENGERS is the crown jewel of the Marvel publishing line, especially after the juggernaut success of the movie, so we’re going to be treating it as such, with the best characters, drawn by the best artists, coming out on a frequency that will help to propel story velocity and that will reward readers month after month after month in a big way.
For all the latest on Marvel NOW!, stay tuned to Marvel.com!
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Official Press Release
The most popular characters. The most acclaimed creators. The most ambitious stories. This is Marvel NOW!.
This Fall, the Marvel Universe heads in an exciting all-new direction, as the industry’s top creators join the top super heroes, including Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine and more, to deliver all-new ongoing series, each beginning with issue #1! Marvel NOW! is the culmination of Marvel ReEvolution, the groundbreaking new initiative to evolve the comic book experience through innovation.
It kicks off in October’s UNCANNY AVENGERS #1, from the team of Rick Remender and John Cassaday and continues with jaw-dropping new Marvel NOW! series nearly every week through February.
“There’s never been a better time to check out comics than Marvel NOW!” said Axel Alonso, Editor in Chief, Marvel Entertainment. “This isn’t a reboot or a reimagining—Marvel NOW! is all about looking forward, building on our rich history of great stories and delivering new ideas.”
In UNCANNY AVENGERS #1, the Avengers and X-Men must join forces to overcome the greatest challenge either team has ever faced, one so devastating that neither can afford to do it alone! Can Captain America’s newly assembled team find a way to peacefully co-exist while also dealing with the game-changing repercussions of Avengers Vs. X-Men?
Then in November, Marvel NOW! expands to all corners of the universe with launches including ALL-NEW X-MEN #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen, AVENGERS #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Jerome Opena, on-sale in December, and NEW AVENGERS #1, by Hickman and Steve Epting =, on-sale in January 2013.
“We brought fans the biggest comic book event imaginable in Avengers Vs. X-Men and now we’re taking the Marvel Universe to an exciting new place, beginning with Uncanny Avengers #1,” said Tom Brevoort, SVP, Executive Editor, Marvel Entertainment. “If you’re a long-time fan, all the stories you’ve read will give you even more enjoyment of what’s happening now—we’re not abandoning our past. But if you’re a new reader, this is where you’re going to learn just why Marvel comics are unlike anything else you’ve ever read. And no character is left unaffected by Marvel NOW!.”
Every comic book bearing the Marvel NOW! branding includes a code for a free digital copy of that same comic on the Marvel Comics app for iOS and Android devices. Additionally, each issue #1 of Marvel NOW! series features special augmented reality content available exclusive through the Marvel AR app, including cover recaps, behind the scenes features and more that add value to your reading experience at no additional cost.
“This is the natural next step of the Marvel ReEvolution, as we evolve every facet of Marvel publishing,” explained Joe Quesada, Chief Creative Officer, Marvel Entertainment. “You’ve seen us craft new digital storytelling formats like Marvel Infinite Comics and bring added value to our comics with Marvel AR. Now our print comics leap into the future with a cinematic new look for our covers, exciting new designs for our biggest characters and stories that will send you on the kind of journey you can only get at Marvel.”
This October, Join The ReEvolution as Marvel NOW! kicks off with UNCANNY AVENGERS #1, ushering in a new era for comics and the perfect jumping on point for new readers. The biggest creators bring you the biggest characters in the biggest stories…and it’s happening NOW!
To commemorate the historic release of UNCANNY AVENGERS #1 on Wednesday, October 10, participating retailers can host special advance release parties the night before! That’s right, you can experience the biggest new series launch of the year on Tuesday, October 9 at select retailers, who’ll also have limited edition giveaways exclusive to these events.
Before you head out to see “The Amazing Spider-Man,” now in theaters and IMAX 3D, watch Spidey’s creator Stan “The Man” Lee as he shares more about his cameo in the film in a special vignette below!
Check out the full clip right here on Marvel.com, and for more Webslinging-action, see Spidey outrun New York’s finest or school Flash Thompson in some basketball. Better yet, get a glimpse of the villainous Lizard as he terrorizes Gwen Stacy!
I’m not the world’s biggest Jason Bourne fan. Not by a long shot. I’ve seen and enjoyed the movies but I haven’t read any of the books. But two days ago, as I was sitting in the theater awaiting The Amazing Spider-Man (for the ComicMix Mixed Review), I saw a trailer for the latest chapter, The BourneLegacy. It’s a continuation of the series… but without Jason. As I was watching the trailer, I was thinking in the terms of my trade.
“Reboot! Reboot!”
We can argue if this is a genuine reboot or not, but let’s ride with the concept for a bit. My next thought was “why do the teevee and movie people do successful reboots of major properties, while in comics we butcher it every chance we get?” Which, by the way, is way too frequently.
Recent media reboots have included James Bond, Doctor Who, and Sherlock Holmes – the latter, twice. Other reboots have included Superman, Batman and the aforementioned Spider-Man. Only the former lacked enduring success. The Batboot was stellar, and we’ll have to wait and see about Spidey. So, of the five major characters, only one was a bust.
Allow me some jealous feelings here. To paraphrase Paul Simon (the singer, not the dead politician), after reboot upon reboot, the comics biz is more or less the same. Yes, there’s usually a solid sales bump and maybe it lasts long enough to make a difference, but that’s almost always short-lived. Is the Spider-Man marriage thing resolved? Is Jean Gray forever dead? What about Uncle Ben? Are you sure? Go ask Captain America and Bucky.
Over at DC, they’ve pressed the reboot button more often in the past 37 years than a lab monkey on an crystal meth test. How long should a reboot last before it’s deemed successful? I don’t know; we’ve never had one that lasted more than a couple years. Is the New 52 successful? Well, yes, in the sense that Dan DiDio still has his job. But they’ve only got sales figures in for the first year, and over a third of the titles have either been cancelled or have endured new creative teams. That doesn’t make it a failure, but if simply cancelling some titles and changing the crew on others is all it takes to make a character work for a contemporary audience, then we don’t need reboots.
In fact, this is the error message we get over each reboot. There’s no system upgrade here. We could have provided stability and growth by simply cancelling some titles and incubating those characters within their universes, and by changing creative teams on others – creators who will not restart history, but simply put it on an exciting path out of the woods. This may be the real “success” of the New 52. We’ll see in maybe five years or so.
The fact is, the media people haven’t pissed all over the trust of their audience. Despite public perception, most all of the pre-reboot movies and television shows featuring James Bond, Doctor Who, Superman, and Batman made money (I really can’t say about Sherlock Holmes; he seems to have made PBS a lot of money in the form of enhanced underwriting and public support). Maybe not enough to support the highest-ups’ eight figure salaries, maybe not as great a return on investment to make the stockholders happy, but in an industry where they put tens of millions of dollars on the line with each project – more than enough in each case to support a front-of-the-catalog comic book publisher – a five million dollar profit might not be a desired return on investment, but it’s still five million dollars.
Comics executives and, more important, their corporate masters need to give the four-color medium the same degree of patience and, quite frankly, they need to give their consumers the same amount of respect.
We need a comic book industry with an attention span.
