The current state of disarray at Marvel

[jjreason]

I was away last week for training & had some time to catch up. Between then & today I've read about 20 issues of Hickman FF - right up through the conclusion of the first arc spread through the 2 books which started after Johnny died (so I guess 1-12 then 600, now the first 4 issues of FF and Fan Four 601-604). Jesus Christ, I was pretty giddy when the whole thing culminated ("To me, my Galactus." - are you fucking kidding??? ). This guy is just magic when it comes to stretching out numerous long plot threads & weaving them into a very satisfying resolution. 10/10.

[Tom Foolery]

The soliloquy at the end of 604 damn near had me in tears it was so good. Hickman has pretty much fucked anyone who writes FF after him because it'll be a step down. (E.G. See Fraction and Robinson currently). It's gonna be the same way with Avengers when he's done.
Then I don't know what he'll do. Bendis will still be on X-Men so he won't be able to do a mega-transformative arc for the Mutants for awhile. Maybe they'll give him the Cosmic books for awhile. Or maybe he could relaunch a Defenders title.

The rest of Hickman's run was decent, but he just drifted into the dock for the last 8(16 counting FF) issues. His masterpiece ended with 604. Up through his last issue(s) was just tying up little loose plot threads and milking the run.

[anarky]

And now it's Official. September is "Death of Wolverine" Month.
What is funny is the resounding yawn of 'meh' from fandom over this. Even more so than Johnny Storm's and Peter Parker's deaths, you know Logan's coming back at some point. Nobody cares.

Y'know, thinking on this, it's not like even Marvel to be this blatant, this far in advance.

I have a feeling that everyone's going to have expectations of what the event will end in based entirely on the title, and it will end up a total red herring, not a literal death. In other words, what IDW did just over two years ago with the seemingly predictable, in truth surprising, "Death of Optimus Prime."

I predict one of three things will happen:

1) A total knockoff of "Death of Optimus Prime," where Logan decides to be his own man, no longer beholden to the X-Men or Avengers, and gives up the codename Wolverine. (Y'know, like the early issues of his first ongoing. Or probably a dozen other similar storylines.)

2) Wolverine fakes his death, or narrowly escapes circumstances that appear to be fatal, and decides to take advantage of the situation and lay low (similar to #1).

3) Wolverine dies, but this is what kicks his lost healing factor back into gear, reviving him almost instantly and returning him to the previous status quo.

[jjreason]

Top 25 Graphic Novels/Collected Editions from Marvel:

Just throwing out ideas of course.

1. Uncanny X-Men from somewhere in the neighborhood of 133-142 - the death of Jean Grey through the original Days of Future Past.

2. Amazing Spider-Man including 39 & 40 (the first 2 Romita issues in which we find out GG is Norman Osborn). I just don't know where to start & where to end - do you back up to 32-34, the 3 part Ock Saga with Spidey trapped in the water on the cover of 33, or continue forward with Romita as we meet the Rhino.... I think Ditko has to be in there.

3. Fantastic Four including 48-50 - the introduction of the Silver Surfer culminating with the confrontation with Galactus. Again extremely tough to figure out where to start & end this collection.

4. Secret Wars.

5. Marvels (because I said it had to be on here in the other thread).

6. Frank Miller's Wolverine Limited series, but you have to throw in the corresponding issue of Uncanny (174) that resolves it.

7. Miller DD leading up to the death of Elektra.

8. Gi Joe 21-30? How the hell do you pick? This would be Silent Interlude through the Snake Eyes origin & culminating with the Dreadnoks tearing up the Pit, right? Not sure what else is in that 10 issue run, but those 4 issues are all stellar.

It's kinda like you have to cover off characters AND creators, to try & make sure everyone gets their due.

Ennis Punisher, Simonson Thor, Bendis DD, JMS (Spidey or FF? Either one rate highly enough?), Peter David Hulk or Bruce Jones Hulk? Both? Be interested to hear what you guys would "for sure" put on the list & see how much of a consensus we have.

[anarky]

Joe isn't published by Marvel anymore. But if you're counting it, no way do the last few Transformers Classics not make the list.

Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon
Infinity Gauntlet
Was "The Child Within" from Spectacular Spider-Man ever collected?

[Diabolical]

Definitely some Ennis Punisher. Probably "Welcome Back, Frank" and maybe something from the Max series.

Magento: Testament - Very powerful book. I contend that you can take the whole Magneto/X-Men stuff off the book and use it in the classroom.

Iron Man: Demon In A Bottle - Haven't read it (yet) but it gets a lot of love.

Astonishing X-Men by Whedon - duh.

Current Hawkeye stuff.

[jjreason]

Astonishing X-Men by Whedon - seconded strongly - I just have no idea how you excise one chunk. Makes me think of Morrison's New X-Men, simply because they're together on my shelf.

I read Demon in a Bottle not too long ago. I appreciate the message, but it didn't really blow my hair back the way I assumed it was going to. Comics can suffer from feeling very dated at times - this one did to me.

EDITED: Guessing Marvel wouldn't include properties they don't own like GI Joe or TF, even if some of the issues are among their greatest. We can obviously still include them on our list.

[Tom Foolery]

If I was gonna have an Iron Man story on the list, it wouldn't be Demon in a Bottle, it'd be Armor Wars.

Gillen's recent Kid Loki in Journey into Mystery would be a definite.

Fraction/Brubaker/Aja's Iron Fist.

Amazing Spidey 121-122. The final page gets me every time.

Starlin's Silver Surfer leading up to Infinity Gauntlet. And throw Thanos Quest in there.

We mentioned his Thor run, but Simonson's FF run.

Byrne's FF run, but that was eight years. You'd have to narrow it down.

Gruenwald's Cap No More mega arc from Cap 332-350.

[jjreason]

Needs a spreadsheet, creators listed on the left, eras listed across the top timewise so that we can fill in as many boxes as possible - would likely lead to a lot of arguing over the last few spots - kinda like artists getting bent out of shape over which song will or won't make the album.

[jjreason]

I see Original Sins #1 debuts this week. I love when Marvel milks their events by including a 2nd limited series that almost sounds like the first - Fear Itself: The Fearless being the first example I can think of. Why not just include them in a longer series or produce bigger comics? I do not understand.

[Diabolical]

I see Original Sins #1 debuts this week. I love when Marvel milks their events by including a 2nd limited series that almost sounds like the first - Fear Itself: The Fearless being the first example I can think of. Why not just include them in a longer series or produce bigger comics? I do not understand.

$

[Tom Foolery]

Every eight issue Event has roughly 100 tie-in issues. So if you want the "whole story" prepare to drop half a grand buying everything.

There's probably a website that catalogues all the tie-in comics for every event and has a total count for each one. And if there isn't, inaneprattle should jump on that.

[Tom Foolery]

The original REAL Guardians of the Galaxy are getting an ongoing in October. Wahoo!!

Vance Astro, Starhawk, Martinex, Charlie-27, and Yondu back in action! And also presumably Nikki and Aleta and them, but there were no girls in the promo art.

[anarky]

I notice Vance Astro is in the full bodysuit, but has Captain America's shield. Wasn't he freed from his suit around the same time he found the shield?

[Tom Foolery]

Yeah, but towards the very end of the 90s series he had to get put back in the suit.