Hello, I’m apparently T.J. Hooker and I’m here with this week’s comic news. June Solicitations are here and man, oh, man are they big ones. So big in fact, this week, we’re going to talk about the news, and nothing but the news, so help us God. Honestly, there wasn’t much that stood out this week comic wise, so I’m going to forgo reviewing them this week and talk a lot about the news. So, let’s begin! Welcome to Spandex and Capes!
Review List
March 22th, 2015
“Goddamn, can you people slow the hell down?” - W. West
PREVIOUSLY…
Secret Wars Update – First up, Neil Gaiman’s Angela will find herself hunting witches during Neil Gaiman’s 1602 in 1602: Witch Hunter Angela. Marvel will then kick Spider-Man fans in the balls again as they show you what could have been with MJ, Peter, and their daughter in Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows. Marvel continues to beat dead timelines (and ignore everything that’s happened after the original version) as the Age of Apocalypse lands in Secret Wars. And finally (at least for this week), the war within the war continues as stupidity reigns in Civil War.
Costumes – In attempt to make it look like their now leaning toward the comic instead of away from it, Miles Teller says that the classic Fantastic Four costumes will appear in the movie. Probably at the end – after everyone has let because they figured out it is A TERRIBLE FUCKING MOVIE.
Archie Horror – So along with their superheroes, Archie Comics will now be printing horror comics based in the Archie Universe. So, Archie Horror. You would have thought I’d be excited for that? I love these books and hopefully this means they will come out with so consistency.
Batgirl Variant – Honestly, I didn’t care one way or another on this one, but it was big enough news that I wanted to mention it.
Lucifer – Well, that was fast. Welcome, Lesley-Ann Brandt! Hope you stay a bit longer than the other one.
Deadpool – Morena Baccarin will be playing Copycat in the Deadpool movie, which will begin soon. Though it worries that Rob Liefeld will be on set. Does this mean we’ll go a whole movie without seeing anyone’s feet?
SOLICITATIONS ROUND-UP
June 2015
Dark Horse – We’ll start with Dark Horse. Not a lot here that honestly interests me. Captain Midnight will be wrapping up after 24 issues. Buffy the Vampire Slayer continues to roll on as do its various tie-ins. Jeff Lemire starts Black Hammer this month, which by the look of it will be another venture into superhero horror. On one hand that’s cool – he does an excellent job at it; on the other, I’m kind of getting tired of superhero horror.
Dark Circle – The other Archie imprint continues and introduces The Shield. It looks interesting, but it was delayed, so I’m not sure what that says. The Black Hood continues, though I probably won’t be around to read it. The first issue wasn’t my cup of tea and I don’t see it improving. While The Fox #1 hasn’t come out yet, I’ll normally look forward to anything Mark Waid writes.
BOOM! Studios – The first issue of Mark Waid and J.G. Jones’s Strange Fruit is solicited this month, though it doesn’t come out till July. Broken World and The Fiction both start this month and both sound pretty interesting. I will probably pick up at least the first issue. The Woods takes a leap into the future and closer to the “why do I still care” realm. While this book started strong, it’s starting to wear out its welcome. Other than that, not much going on at BOOM! that I’m really into.
Image Comics – Airboy starts out this month and I could not care at all – the premise sounds really stupid. Speaking of stupid, Starve comes out as well pitting chef against chef in an arena sport. Yeah, I read that three times before I realize it wasn’t a mistake. Other than that, we’ve got Birthright, The Dead and the Dying, Invisible Republic, Jupiter’s Circle, Nameless, and Secret Identities as books that I’m definitely picking up. Walking Dead also continues, though I’m not a big fan of that. There are some other books that I may pick up depending on how the first issues look as well.
IDW Publishing – G.I. Joe, Transformers, and My Little Pony lead the way as they put out more issues of these groups than Marvel ever did of the X-Men. What I’m really looking forward to though is Ghostbusters: Get Real as the Ghostbusters meet their animated counterparts. This looks hysterical. On the other side of the coin, Disney tricks IDW into publishing more comics for it, somehow making them forgot they own Marvel.
DC Comics – So the first out of the gate with big news is DC Comics. While news had trickled out about the new serieses, now we have a better idea of what’s coming. So many of these titles look good and I will be checking out the 8 page preview for all of them. I have a lot of hope for a good number of these concepts. I like the idea of counting certain stories and having a core group of books that adhere to those stories is a good one. This allows writers and artists to tell the stories that want to tell in certain books while still maintaining a certain amount of continuum. I’m also looking forward to a lot of the costume changes – Wonder Woman’s, for example, is long over due. There are others that I look at and go, I hope that it’s only temporary (like Superman’s). Some of these concepts are very much right wheelhouse – like Dr. Fate and Batman Beyond. Others I think (or hope) are going to be short lived – liked Doomed or Black Canary. Overall, I am very much looking forward to DC Comics in June.
Marvel Comics – So now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Marvel Comics. This week Marvel announced the end of 33 ongoing titles including the much touted female Thor and the much hyped Falcon as Captain America. Both come to a screeching halt after only ten or less issues as do the infant titles of Cyclops, Angela, Storm, Spider-Man & the X-Men, and others. You can read the full list above. Outside of the Star Wars titles, which aren’t connected to the regular universe anyway, only 8 titles survive the Secret War purge: Groot (which is just starting), Howard the Duck, Guardians Team-Up, All-New Hawkeye, Silk, Spider-Woman, Spider-Gwen, and Moon Knight. I’ve noticed that these are all titles, I do not give one shit about. So what do we get in their place? All of the serieses Marvel has been announcing over the few months. A plethora of what-ifs and endings. Of stories that in the long will mostly probably not matter. I, for one, will probably just pick the main Secret Wars title. All the rest seems like noise that isn’t needed. And that saddens me somewhat. Everyone is predicting an end to both the Ultimate Universe and the regular 616 – my prediction is slightly different. I think they will “reboot” the Ultimate Universe, either bringing back those that died and making the line more diverse or maybe shunting over some of the new characters in old mantles (like the female Thor or Sam as Captain America) over the Ultimate Universe, so that they can have their cake and eat it too. As for 616? I think we’ll have a restoration of mantles, a hero-ifiying of certain heroes with villainness tendencies (like Cyclops and Iron Man) and streamlining of their timeline – but no reboot. Sadly, in the end, like most of Marvel’s events, I think this is all noise with very little substance.
Well, as I said, I’m just doing the news this week as nothing really stood to me as more than a sidekick this week. Next week, I will return with reviews and a whole lot of In Memoriams.