The current state of disarray at Marvel

[jjreason]

Iron Man 5 - Marvel is putting out some good series right now. This is up there. End of the first arc featuring Dr. Doom.

Waidvengers 3 - I was completely ready to say "I'm out", right up until the epilogue. Now I'm in. Dirty fuckers.

[jjreason]

The next issue of Miracleman will be another #1 - Neil Gaiman's "The Silver Age" story will finally see the light of day after nearly 25 years.

From this point forward, this is ALL NEW material - just in case you have to decide between a couple of issues & put that one back thinking you'll grab it later. Not sure if there will be MAJOR extra demand, but I'd suggest there will be more demand.

[Tom Foolery]

What did the second series get up to in numbering?

[jjreason]

1-16 (Moore)

Annual 1 (new material)

1-6 Gaiman Golden Age (old series 17-22)
===========================================

Next issue is #1 of Silver Age (which I think is set for 6 issues), then I"m not sure if they'll renumber for Dark Age, but I would think they will.

[Tom Foolery]

Is issue 16 the one where all the gory apocalyptic shit goes down? I have that one, but it's still in the polybag. I was tempted to break it open and read it the other day.

[jjreason]

I thought 15 was the crazy shit & 16 was the aftermath where they ascend to Olympus.

Apparently I over hyped Silver Age 1 - the old series went to #24 - I just don't have 23 or 24. It will be 2 more issues of Gaiman reprints before the new stuff. I have chastised myself accordingly.

[Tom Foolery]

So the question now is, once Gaiman finishes up his original conceived but cut short story (however long that may take) what does Marvel do with this character they purchased what seems like a decade ago but have done next to nothing with?

More original stories? Do they fold him into the regular Marvel U? Do they fast track a Miracleman movie before DC's Shazam movie hits? What's the plan here?

[jjreason]

No idea. It's a real curiosity, this whole series, right from the get go. My guess they'll eventually roll him into the Marvel U but it won't go over very well so he'll fade out & re-appear from time to time a la Squadron Supreme (the other DC analogs running around the Marvel U).

[jjreason]

So Miles Morales Spider-Man 1 was half decent. Almost as interesting as the book were the house ads though. There is going to be a second Iron Man book also written by Bendis with art from Alex Maleev (which is pretty sweet really), and the Waid/Samnee combo is going to be producing Black Widow. I'll be purchasing one of these, but not the other to start (I still don't think Black Widow can carry a book, but I was obviously wrong about the Hawkeye series so who knows).

I would think that by summer, Marvel will be spitting out 60 books per month, just Marvel U not including Star Wars.

[Tom Foolery]

I trust Waid to use the full pantheon of Marvel to make BW a fun book. His Agents of SHIELD book was fun, despite it being about the TV characters.
The second Iron Man book is purportedly going be about Tony finding out who his birth parents are, and supposedly it's gonna be a huge bomb in the Marvel U. Like its Ben and May huge.

[Diabolical]

It'll be Cap and Peggy Carter, since they are big in the MCU.

[Tom Foolery]

The other big guess is Richard and Mary Parker.

[jjreason]

I didn't know there was an unresolved issue there, I guess I took the movie universe of Tony's dad to be based on material from the comics. Is he supposed to be a rich orphan?

[Tom Foolery]

In Keiron Gillen's Iron Man series it was revealed Arno is Howard and Maria's true son and Tony was secretly adopted to throw off some prophecy or something. It was stupid retcon bullshit.
But now that Tony isn't biologically a Stark, the hunt for his true parents is a story.

[jjreason]

Avengers Standoff looks to be a way of selling me 12-13 comics I wouldn't normally purchase. Someone tell me I'm not doing this, and that buying the Alpha & Omega issues WILL suffice. And do the Qui Gon hand slide as you tell me.