So, What comics did you buy this week?

[jjreason]

Ok thanks, I'm out of town tomorrow & will try to hit a store there to grab ASM & Vision 1.

ASIDE: How much have you been able to surmise regarding Secret Wars 7 & 8 from reading all the #1's? Even the fucking house in ads in the Star Wars books blew one poorly guarded secret - they don't even give a rat's ass about spoiling their own shit apparently.

NEW THEORY: I think Secret Wars was reverse engineered. I think they sat around with the teams 2 years ago & said "What would be your dream starting fresh point?" Then they took this collection & figured out the best way to get everywhere they wanted to go in one fell swoop, regardless of how divergent the ideas might have been. Parker & MJ married again with the kid alive & we don't have to explain it in a difficult way? We can get there from here! Amadeus Cho as Hulk? You guessed it, we can get there from here! Surprised they didn't use this vehicle to bring Charles back - yet, I supposed there's still time really.....

[Tom Foolery]

Peter isn't married to MJ though. He's a rich international industrialist and she's gonna be a supporting character in Bendis' Iron Man(though thankfully not Stark's love interest). The daughter isn't anywhere.

The only "hints" I've gotten are that The FF are disbanded with Reed and Sue so far unaccounted for, Grimm is out in space with the Guardians, Human Torch is banging Medusa, the X-Men have had a negative reaction to Terrigen Mists and are all in hiding, and Dr. Doom fixed his face.

Whatever happened post Secret Wars hasn't been specifically addressed, but all these new #1 issues take place Eight Months after. And characters previously dead are still around. I don't know if that's bad Editorial oversight, or specific retconning of "mistakes". There's too many new series that need to start up and get a few issues into their runs before blanks start getting filled in.

[DeckardSmith]

16 books this week. 8 First Issues. No SW this week.

Amazing Spidey 3. Parker Industries opens it's NYC branch in the Baxter Building. Which ticks off Johnny Storm who shows up to fight Spidey. Also the Zodiac continues to cause shenanigans.

Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire 3. Robo is getting his body rebuilt as giant monsters attack Earth. Atomic Robo is now Pacific Rim the comic.

Contest of Champions 2. Collector recruits Ares from Valhalla onto his team. Ares is not happy about it.

Deadpool 1. First Issue. Deadpool is super rich and famous now and his merchandising funds the Avengers. He's also hired Solo, Terror Inc, Madcap, Stingray, and Foolkiller as his new Heroes for Hire, except they all dress like DP.

Dr. Strange 2. A women with demons in her head gets a tour of the Sanctum Sanctorum from Wong while Strange tries to figure out what's wrong with her.

Drax 1. First Issue. When he's not Guarding the Galaxy, Drax still has a mad on for Thanos and goes looking to kill him. Nothin special.

Hercules 1. First Issue. Tired of being cast as a drunken reprobate, Herc tries to get back to serious business of being a hero. Gilgamesh is crashing on his couch.

Howard the Duck 1. First Issue. Howard is tired of being here and wants to head back to his own world.

Iron Man 3. IM goes to Dr. Strange for help with Madame Masque.

Max Ride Ultimate Flight 1. First Issue. Bought it for the kid.

Nova 1. First Issue. Sam Alexander and his dad are both Novas now protecting Earth. But his dad isn't what he seems.

Star Wars 11. Han and Leia head to help rescue Luke. Chewie and Threepio fight Dengar. Luke fights a monster.

Transformers MTME 46. Maximus vs the Scavengers over Grimlock.

Vision 1. First Issue. Vision builds himself a family and moves to the suburbs of DC as the new Avengers liaison to the White House. Surreal excellent set up. Not what I was expecting. Highly recommend.

Uncanny X-Men 600. Final Issue. Delayed several months, Bendis finally finishes his epic run. Bobby Drake comes out. Hank gets put on trial or being a fuck. Scott Summers unites ALL the mutants on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to show humanity they aren't dangerous.

Extraordinary X-Men 1. First Issue. The X-Men disbanded. The inhuman Terrigen cloud has sterilized all mutants and given them a deadly disease called M-pox. The remaining mutants live in an X-Haven hidden from humanity. Cyclops did something bad and they keep talking about him in the past tense. Storm tries to recruit a new team including Colossus, Nightcrawler, Teen Jean, and Old Man Logan among others.

[jjreason]

EDITED: SO they retconned the Parker kid back into existence just to have here there for 5 issues & let her go again? I'm so fucking confused - I thought that was the premise of the new ongoing coming out of Secret Wars. Of course I have all 3 issues, but haven't cracked #1 yet - forgive my ignorance.

I liked Uncanny 600, and in retrospect almost all of what I've read of Bendis' run. I have a backlog of the first year's worth of his books to get through, but I can't imagine they'll change my opinion to anything negative. My eyes wanted to roll at older Bobby coming out, but it was carried off just well enough to keep them in place.

STORE B:

We Stand on Guard 4,5 - and added it to my pull list.... which will be all of 1 issue. It ends with #6.
Vision 1
ASM 3
Future Imperfect 4, which hopefully finishes that offshoot series

[Tom Foolery]

I was hoping UXM 600 would bridge the gap to Secret Wars 1 better. Especially now that we have TWO story gaps since a bunch of shit went down for eight months after SW and we haven't even got the end of that.

The point of monthly comics is a continuing ongoing narrative. Continuity IS a wee tad important to those of us that buy floppies.

[jjreason]

It did nothing to tee up Secret Wars - not even remotely. Weird that didn't even cross my mind as I read & finished the book.

The only thing they seemed to be setting up was "Dark Beast" as a villain (again) moving forward from the end of this run - which shouldn't really surprise anyone. The next creator can come on board & reverse that in about 3 panels though if they wanted to.

[anarky]

So Iceman is gay? Meaning real, adult Iceman, not alt-reality kid Iceman?

I suppose decades of being a poon hound were just overcompensating?

[Tom Foolery]

Dark Beast was killed off during Bendis' run. He was that guy with full chrome face mask. I don't remember the issues of that arc, but it had Bachalo art.
EDIT. It was Uncanny 22.

[Tom Foolery]

So Iceman is gay? Meaning real, adult Iceman, not alt-reality kid Iceman?

I suppose decades of being a poon hound were just overcompensating?

That has been the internet's reasoning for many years. None of his relationships last.

[jjreason]

Sorry I meant Dark Beast as a new Dark beast aka "current McCoy that brought the kids back gone bad after being raked over the coals by Ororo & crybaby-leaving the mansion under the cover of darkness".

[Tom Foolery]

Oh yeah gotcha. I wish. I mean, Hank's been exhibiting Everest levels of dickbaggery for the last several years. But he's off being a supporting player in Inhumans trying to discover a cure for m-pox.

[jjreason]

Ah yes - the ever diminishing mutants & growing number of Inhumans - dovetails nicely with the dismemberment of the FF, the "Cumberbatching" (rofl) of Dr Strange, the addition of Fitz & Simmons to the comics.... they're bending the books to match the movies/tv as quickly as possible.

[Tom Foolery]

Don't forget the "Benicio-izing" of the Collector in the cosmic books like Guardians and Contest of Champions.

[jjreason]

100 percent yes, cannot forget that.

[anarky]

The last volume of Fables. Really, Amazon? I've bought every other fucking volume, but you thought it more useful to alert me to $200 Bruce Springsteen reissues than tell me this came out two months after the previous one and not the standard 8-12 months, so I find out about it months later? Sigh. Haven't read it yet; not entirely looking forward to the end of such a great series.

Lumberjanes Vol. 1. Haven't read it yet, either. Heard great things, and thought Anarky Jr might like it as well.

Jem & the Holograms Vol. 1. Couldn't stand this show as a kid. I know, I'm apparently the only one. But several people I trust have recommended this very highly and, well, IDW has done amazing things with Transformers and mixed but generally good things with G.I. Joe. I figured it was worth a shot, and it was. It's not the sort of comic I generally read, but very well done, and worth at least one more volume (but, honestly, probably however many the current team do, at least).