The current state of disarray at Marvel

[Tom Foolery]

Since I haven't been avoiding the post-CW2 issues, I was even less surprised than you were. I'll be even less surprised at the conclusion of next issue, since several new ongoing books are premised on the outcome of the finale. Iron Doom and Iron RiRi being the most obvious.

Can we stop having our heroes fight each other? Civil War, AvsX, Axis, Secret Wars(or at least the events leading up to), CW2, and now Inhumans vs X-Men...remember when the bad guys were the bad guys? Now Dr Doom is Iron Man and Magneto is leader of the X-Men.

[jjreason]

We can't have our good guys stop fighting each other if all the good bad guys are switched over to being bad good guys.

[anarky]

I honestly liked your idea of Doctor Doom: Sorcerer Supreme. That made a hell of a lot more sense than making him Iron Man.

[jjreason]

As Mabs recently said "his strong suit is literally his strong suit". I liked that. Just getting ready to read the new Iron Man issues I've got saved up & will report back.

DD14 - very intense issue which wraps up a bit of a long year for Hornhead. I wasn't a big fan of either of the first 2 arcs, but this had my pulse racing. RB, if you still have any connection to this series you should at least read the issue in your comic store or something.

[jjreason]

Well Bendis has done something that isn't typical - he's taken one pretty good comic & turned it into 2 pretty good comics. I'm talking about the Iron Man books - both Iron Doom & Iron RiRi have been excellent through 3 issues each. I hadn't planned on sticking with both, but I will for now.

[jjreason]

X-Men vs Inhumans is a god awful mess of horrible art & implausible events. Do not start paying money for this.

The first issue of Monsters Unleashed was ok. I have #2 sitting here but haven't read it yet.

[Tom Foolery]

I bought the first IvX but didn't read it. I haven't bought any subsequent issues, and I dropped all the X-books tie ins. I figured they'll be easier to find in the quarter bins sometime next year.

Since I haven't been reading stuff, I've been kinda dropping books and I know many of my ongoing now have holes everywhere. I also bought the first issues of a lot of stuff, but didn't bother with the subsequent issues.

[jjreason]

The shift is on to TPBs here. I am going to start bundling up runs of books I've read from the past 2-3 years for sale, and will keep track of the stories I want to replace with TPBs. Sadly I don't think it's going to be a long list. Silver Surfer & Vision for sure, but the rest has been varying degrees of shitty to ok. The first university bill came for a $600 deposit, and that scared the shit out of me.

[jjreason]

I had picked up Mosaid 1-3, just on a flyer. This is a new Inhuman character that can basically inhabit other people at will & assume their memories, in part. I'm pretty sure there was a better idea at Marvel somewhere. The "street" dialogue is lost in translation.

[jjreason]

I know you're taking a break, EP, but dig out your Infamous Iron Doom & read what you've missed up to & including 5. Great ending.

[jjreason]

Well Secret Empire has kicked off with what I'd call a bit of a whimper. Spoilers below, in case there's anyone left who's actually going to read this shit.

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Preamble - Captain America's history was re-written by a Cosmic-Cube-come-to-life. He is a deep cover Hydra agent, who is somehow both the leader of SHIELD (after Maria Hill got fired) as well as the leader of Hydra.

What's happened so far: The Cosmic Cube in question got blown up & the pieces have been recovered. Cap supported Captain Marvel's work in building a massive forcefield around the earth to stave off a forthcoming Chitauri invasion - in a somewhat interesting double cross, Cap quietly disabled the shield and then reactivated once many of earth's big bombers (Quasar, Capt Marvel, etc) had gone into space to battle the Chitauri. Cap flat out assaulted one Shield helicarrier using another, and has essentially come as being the head of Hydra now that the earth is secure & safely tucked away from those he feels would most likely be capable of stopping him.

Left on the inside to fight Cap are Ironheart (a teenaged girl who has taken over for Tony Stark) & Stark's AI as well as Luke Cage & the Defenders (Dr Strange, Iron First, Jess Jones, etc).

Only about 19months until we get see how it plays out.

[Tom Foolery]

I'm still catching up. I'm in the middle of about a half dozen Deadpool ongoings and miniseries. Some people know how to write 'Pool. And some people definitely do not.

[Tom Foolery]

I'm reading the Monsters Unleashed miniseries and the tie in oneshots. They introduce a young new "hero" who's ability is to call Marvels 50s era monsters to do his bidding...by drawing them in his notebook. Which is a very random, sorta meta power.
And how did he get this power? ....


....Terrigenesis. Is this just gonna be how all New heroes are introduced(Well, not anymore, because the Terrigen cloud was destroyed, but that's beside the point. stick with me on this rant I'm on)? Instead of being mutants, now new heroes are all gonna be Inhumans.
"Explain how he got this weird, very specific, random new power. Was he exposed to radiation, or cosmic rays, or aliens or whatever?"
"Nope. INHUMAN!!"
"Well, what about this guy--"
"INHUMAN!!!"
"Oh. Okay. And these guys over he--"
"INHUMANS INHUMAN THEYRE ALL INHUMANS NOW!! BWAHAHAHAHA-*snort*"

Marvel is balancing on this fence of trying to make fetch Inhumans happen, and just being fucking lazy with origin stories. And it's tipping over onto the lazy side of the fence.
Not counting the several NuHumans that were introduced in the new ongoing Inhuman books, like Inferno and Iso and them, it seems like most of the new characters being introduced lately are Inhumans. The new Ms. Marvel. Mosaic. Synapse from the Uncanny Avengers. Moon Girl. And now Kid Kaiju. There's probably more I'm forgetting.

Maybe just dial it back, eh Marvel?

[jjreason]

I agree, I'm more than Inhumaned out. No matter what Marvel does these days, it seems to bother more people than it makes happy. Hopefully they get out of this funk somehow -and soon.

[Tom Foolery]

I think it's time for Axel Alonso to step aside as EiC. But I can't think of who would replace him. Unless Wacker came back from the TV/Animation side.
Honestly, I probably cant name anybody on the Editors staff at Marvel apart from Alonso and Brevoort. Is Paniccia still there? Nick Lowe? Yeah, there's a lack of personality in the Bullpen these days.