The current state of disarray at Marvel

[anarky]

The MCU does a better job right now than the MU has in a long time, or the UU ever did (excepting Ultimate Spider-Man).

[Tom Foolery]

So I noticed something that seems to only pertain to the Avengers books so far. They've added 2015 to the cover near the issue number.
Of the 17 new #1 issues that have come out (or the 17 I've bought) only New and Uncanny Avengers, and the Avengers 0 issue have taken this route.
I'm guessing it's supposed to be a helpful way to differentiate this run from the previous runs. I don't know why they don't just put the month/year on the UPC bar like DC does. Or the dual numbering system everyone seems to want. Or both.
But it could be an indicator they're gonna go to the "season" model they've been jibbering on about for awhile.
We'll see if the other non-Avenger books adopt it as well. There doesn't seem to be any consistency as far as a unified theme like the red band era had. Even with numbering. The Spidey books are still doing the 002, 003 etc. Capt America and Iron Man have #2 on their second issues.
So for back issue collectors, shit'll just be random. Like usual.

EDIT. Dr Strange 002 has the Red Band at the bottom...so...I have no clue. It's the Marvel age of do whatever the fuck they want.

[jjreason]

Coming out of Secret Wars here's what I've purchased (but not yet read). My hope is that I won't be behind on anything I wind up wanting to read (and secondly that I'll have no trouble dropping books I don't want to continue on with after reading the first 3 issues). For entertainment, I'm going to COMPLETELY guess at my likelihood of continuing to buy the books after reading what I've accrued:

Marvel Point One 1 & Avengers 2015 0 - one shots, I won't continue buying them.... because there won't be any more. Duh.
New Avengers 1 & 2 - chance of continuing = very low, this was a "mistake" purchase thinking it was the Waid book. Read more better, Dummy.
ASM 1-3 - chance of continuing = highly likely, it's Parker.
Contest of Champions 1 & 2 - chance of continuing = no idea.... is this a limited series or ongoing? 50/50 or less if it's ongoing.
Dr Strange 1 & 2 - chance of continuing = pretty high. Bachalo & besides it will only last like 11 issues max.
GotG 1 - chance of continuing = highly likely, still Bendis & Isanove's art is lovely.
Inhumans 1 - chance of continuing = highly likely, I've enjoyed Soule's Inhumans this entire time & the upgrade to McNiven art is significant.
Karnak 1 - chance of continuing = low to moderate, it has 2-3 issues to impress me (unless of course 12 issues come out before Secret Wars, which could happen)
Iron Man 1-3 - chance of continuing = moderate to high, Bendis' writing Tony seems like it should be good. Bendis goes, I almost certainly go.
Vison 1 - chance of continuing = 50/50 at best? Good review of #1 from EP, but it will have to be good for a few issues to keep me buying.
Extraordinary X-Men 1 - chance of continuing = moderate to high. I will buy the first 2-3 issues of each of the team X-Men books & pick 1 MAYBE 2 to keep up with.

Still going to purchase first issues of the following and will be very surprised if they don't "make the cut" as books to stick with:

Waid Avengers
New DD
New Surfer
Uncanny X-Men
Star-Lord (because splitting him off from the team was a guaranteed way to sell 2 books, right?)

Almost certainly going to purchase the first issues of the following but not expecting them to make the cut:

Old Man Logan
All-New X-Men
Spider-Man (Miles Morales)
Hawkeye

[Tom Foolery]

I'll give a synopsis after more new series come out. I think we're about at 12%. And you can never tell. Vision was one of the books on my list I was least interested in and now it's way up there.

What sucks is there are WAY too many new books getting released and I'm going to have to drop some that I actually like just because of the $$. I average 12-16 books a week. And I'm getting all the GIJoe, TF, and most of the Star Wars stuff. As well as Atomic Robo, Saga and other sporadic books.
So at the max, I can probably only keep up with 40-50 Marvel books a month. It seems like they're putting out twice that amount over the next couple months. Ugh.

[jjreason]

I broke down & started reading a few. Lemire X-Men has me confused - they're kinda contradicting themselves here. We'll have X-Men working jointly with the Avengers in one book, while Ororo leads a team that's never been more feared & hated in this one? Also, they referred to "what Scott did" a couple of times... I'm assuming they're meaning him calling for revolution... but the LAST thing Scott did was call all the mutants to Washington & act a bit more sane, at least in my mind. I'll stick with this for 2 more issues & make a decision, but #1 didn't do much to sell me on sticking with it.

EDITED: Oh, and neither did $4.99, and neither did Humberto Ramos' take on Storm's mohawk. Yeesh.

EDITEDED: Vision 1 - good as advertised. I didn't really "get it" until the last couple of pages, but I'm in for at least another issue or 2. Very interesting ending.

Karnak 1 - not too bad, again I'll got another issue or 2 before deciding.

Inhumans 1 - good as well, though I'm out to lunch on what transpired between the X-Men & Inhumans to cause a rift.... maybe that's yet to be revealed or I haven't read it (or read it badly and didn't retain anything, as I've done many times in the past).

EDITEDEDED: Guardians #1 - best of this lot so far. Great art & a well-paced story to start the new run. Bendis seems to have a lot of fun writing it & it shows.

[jjreason]

Thors 4 - Jane Thor appears literally out of nowhere & knows the Doomworld isn't real (convenient, right?), then rallies the rest of the Thors - Doom's police force - and turns them against him for the final assault.... in all of about 11 seconds. Made Palpatine's turning of Anakin seem painstakingly slow by comparison. The last issue sunk this series, which had been good up until this point.

Infinity Gauntlet 5 - very busy art. Not a fan of the issue overall (or the series, really) but the sentimental ending hit the right note. This was "ok".

I believe my "to purchase" list from the SW companion series is down to one issue - Future Imperfect 5. And if I never manage to find a copy... well I guess that will have to be ok.

[Tom Foolery]

I broke down & started reading a few. Lemire X-Men has me confused - they're kinda contradicting themselves here. We'll have X-Men working jointly with the Avengers in one book, while Ororo leads a team that's never been more feared & hated in this one? Also, they referred to "what Scott did" a couple of times... I'm assuming they're meaning him calling for revolution... but the LAST thing Scott did was call all the mutants to Washington & act a bit more sane, at least in my mind. I'll stick with this for 2 more issues & make a decision, but #1 didn't do much to sell me on sticking with it.

EDITED: Oh, and neither did $4.99, and neither did Humberto Ramos' take on Storm's mohawk. Yeesh.

Uncanny 600 takes place before Secret Wars 1. So whatever happened between Scott having his 1Million Mutant March and him showing up with the Phoenix powers still hasn't been explained.
Then Secret Wars happened and Scott got fridged by Doom.
Then Eight Months went by. Scott(obviously survived SW) did something in that Eight months which made mutants hated, feared, and living in hiding in Haven. Also, the Terrigen Mist cloud has spread around the world and had a negative effect on Mutants, sterilizing them and giving them the dreaded M-pox disease. Which naturally made things tedious between mutants and Inhumans. This is why Steve Rogers "Unity Squad" PR stunt over in Uncanny Avengers has humans, mutants, AND Inhumans on it showing the world they can all get along. Even though behind the scenes they aren't.
But it's still unclear what Scott did or where he is now. Dead? Prison? Hiding?

: Vision 1 - good as advertised. I didn't really "get it" until the last couple of pages, but I'm in for at least another issue or 2. Very interesting ending.

Karnak 1 - not too bad, again I'll got another issue or 2 before deciding.

Inhumans 1 - good as well, though I'm out to lunch on what transpired between the X-Men & Inhumans to cause a rift.... maybe that's yet to be revealed or I haven't read it (or read it badly and didn't retain anything, as I've done many times in the past).

It feels like Marvel is trolling readers by having a rift between the X-Men and Inhumans. But conflict is the heart of storytelling. So we'll see where it goes.

EDITEDEDED: Guardians #1 - best of this lot so far. Great art & a well-paced story to start the new run. Bendis seems to have a lot of fun writing it & it shows.

Bendis decompression is my only gripe with his writing. But his Iron Man has also been good.

[Tom Foolery]

Thors 4 - Jane Thor appears literally out of nowhere & knows the Doomworld isn't real (convenient, right?), then rallies the rest of the Thors - Doom's police force - and turns them against him for the final assault.... in all of about 11 seconds. Made Palpatine's turning of Anakin seem painstakingly slow by comparison. The last issue sunk this series, which had been good up until this point.

This is Jane Thor from the Liferaft survivors of 616. It was established they all figured out what was going down in the main series when Strange explained it to them. Then they all split to go "recruit" an army to take down Doom. A few of the other Lifeboaters showed up in other SW minis doing the same thing. My gripe was the murder mystery became an afterthought in the issue. It was like 'aw shit we gotta tie up this plot thread too' when it had been the hook of the entire mini.

[Diabolical]

What happened in the last 8 months?
Another reason to hate this dumbass Secret Wars bullshit.

[Tom Foolery]

We are only finding out in tiny bits and pieces.
But between the end of SW and this new "All New All Different" relaunch, 8 months have gone by.
A few characters are believed to be dead.
Some Ultimate characters like Miles are now in the 616.
Jessica Drew is pregnant.
Scott Lang is back in prison.
Deadpool is the most popular person in the entire world.
Etc etc.

I think the reasoning is it gives writers a space to set up a new status quo without ditching continuity like New52 did.

[jjreason]

I didn't remember Jane being on the raft, that makes sense she'd know about the previous way of existence. I likely should have paid more attention to the recap/cast page at the start of SW7 - it felt like it had been too long since #6 came out & I was unclear as to where the story left off when this issue started.

DB, they'll slowly pull away the veil & reveal it all over the next few months, I have to assume - they used that same plot device during the run to SW (skip ahead a few months then fill in the blanks - I'm sick of it already).

Tonight's reading - Waid Avengers 1 wasn't a hit for me. It has up until the end of issue 2 to interest me or buh bye. I still have the other Avengers 1 & 2, Dr Strange 1 & 2 as well as Iron Man 1-3 & New ASM 1-3. I'll read them all while I'm gone on training this week and bitch about them here when I get back on Friday night.

[jjreason]

Iron Man 1-3 - perfectly acceptable. Impossible not to want to continue reading as they've included both Dr Doom and Dr Strange already. Good art, passable attempts at Snarky Stark humor.

[Diabolical]

DB, they'll slowly pull away the veil & reveal it all over the next few months, I have to assume - they used that same plot device during the run to SW (skip ahead a few months then fill in the blanks - I'm sick of it already).

And that shit is irritating.
"BTW, here's a small part of the story we didn't show you."

[jjreason]

ASM 1-3 - not good. I didn't follow spider-man through the majority of Slott's Superior run and I'm taking another break here. I don't care about the supporting cast & the new setup of Parker's life is too much for me. See you some time down the road, Parker.

[jjreason]

Spidey #1 - yet another re-imagining (Cumberbatchterdization, perhaps?) of Parker's origin & beginning. This time with tweeting & selfies. I don't see anything different from Ultimate Spider-Man #1, except we're yet another 15 years ahead in the timeline of humanity - oh, and the fact that I have no idea if this is supposed to be what "really" happened to the "real" Parker or something different. I'm worried they're going to somehow shoehorn this teen Parker in the Marvel U, just in time for the movie, which would be even more upsetting than having "real" Parker starring in a comic I don't enjoy for the better part of 5 years. The art was ok & read ok - but I'm out after 1 issue.

Star Lord #1 - heavily Manga influenced. Provides some insight as to what happened to Quill after his mom passed & before we met up with him as part of the Guardians. I'm not sure if any of this has been filled in anywhere else or not, but it was all new to me and it moved along ok. My purchase of #2 or not will depend entirely on how big a week of books it turns out to be that week.

Iron Man #4 - another pretty good issue in which we get to see a little bit of what MJ Watson has been up to since the Secret Wars ended. The banter between Tony & Friday (his AI) is pure Robert Downey Jr, in fact I can really hear his voice saying the dialogue and that's a good thing.

Dr. Strange #3 - so far this is my "last year's Silver Surfer" of the relaunch. Bachalo's art is interesting enough that I'm actually exploring the panels and Jason Aaron isn't doing anything weird yet - in fact I'm enjoying the story quite a bit. I will certainly continue buying this book, and it won't be long before it's at the very top of my reading pile at this rate.

Cho Hulk 1 - bit of a surprise. This was actually not too bad (or maybe it was, but nowhere near as bad as I was expecting? Not sure....). I'll stick around for at least one more issue to see if they continue to provide a little bit more about what happened to Banner since the end of Secret Wars (included in this issue was a flashback to 4 months prior, in which we saw Stark, T'Challa and Banner dealing with an incident).

Soule/Garney DD 1 - So we're back to gritty Matt in NYC, and something he has done has caused everyone to forget who he is, except one fat friend of course. Of interest, he is now lawyering for the DA's office. Also, there's an apprentice named "Blindspot" that appears to have a naughty secret. This was fine, but after Waid's run it feels like a bit of a regression to go back to the dark & gloomy feel this book had a few years ago, even though I would say that's where it "should" be. Will continue buying.