In an interview with delightful hero Brian Truitt of USA Today, Marvel have unveiled the branding for their next wave of comics. Called All-New Marvel Now, the two launch books will be All-New Invaders by James Robinson and Steve Pugh; as well as Matt Fraction and Joe Madiurera’s Inhumans.
All-New Marvel Now will start in December, and certain current books will be renumbered to take that into account. As a result, Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers will feature an issue 24.NOW, for example. Which, yes, is ridiculous. Across the line, Marvel will be rebranding the design of their comics to match the covers you can see here, whilst Captain America seems set to be put in the spotlight (handy when there’s a new film coming out soon!)
All-New Invaders will see Cap reunited with Namor and the Original Human Torch – AS WELL AS The Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes. Written by James Robinson and drawn by Steve Pugh, this new ongoing series will send the team off to another war – one with the Kree, an alien race returning in force.
Inhumans was already announced, and will also launch as part of All-New Marvel Now. Matt Fraction will write and Joe Mad will pencil the series, which looks to redevelop the concept of X-Men – a minority forced to band together in the face of overwhelming oppression – but for a franchise whose film rights aren’t owned by FOX.
Avengers 24.NOW, by Hickman and Esad Ribic, will begin the new phase for Marvel on December 24th. Hey, that’s Christmas! Once Marvel send out larger versions of the covers, I’ll update the article accordinglu.
One of the most notable parts of the announcement, however, is that certain ANMN issues will come with a digital code which gives you access to the original run of comics. So readers can not only get these new comics – they can also get a look at the classic stories as well, to catch them up.
The end of the ROT WORLD crossover arc raises the question that Umberto Eco posed in his famous essay on Superman in 1972: can there really be change in a superhero universe? Doesn’t that imply aging, and movement toward an end, death, in fact? Whereas the constant return to a status quo at the end of each trial or adventure puts readers back in a position of looping time, and any seeming change in the lives of superheroes is seen to be a kind of necessary illusion. Eco even pointed out that “What If” stories are the only recourse to exploring meaningful life developments for superheroes like having long-term relationships or kids, milestones that can be neatly tucked away as “out of continuity”. We’re still struggling in superhero comics with the same realities of narrative constraint introduced by the Man of Steel, but that doesn’t mean that some writers and artists are satisfied to make all monumental events, the reason we read superhero comics in the first place, transient. Some are determined not to hand the property on to the next writer or artist in the same condition in which they received it, and that does suggest a lot of gumption on their part. Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire have suggested in interviews before the ROTWORLD finale that they fought to incorporate lasting change into the universes of SWAMP THING and ANIMAL MAN respectively, and the question is, are those changes really meaningful to the reader? What did the ROT WORLD arc add to the mythology of the DCU and will its impact continue to be felt, or will there still be a gradual return to the status quo to follow?
[Spoilers for ROTWORLD arc, ANIMAL MAN #17, 18, and SWAMP THING #17, 18 below!]
All evidence points to New 52 marketing wanting readers to believe that ROT WORLD was culminating in something monumental, something unheard of that might never be seen again. SWAMP THING #18’s cover, depicting Abby and Swampy embracing reads, “’Til Death Do Them Part!”, and ANIMAL MAN #18’s even more emotionally gripping cover, with Buddy Baker screaming in the dark, reads in rather gigantic letters: “This is the Most Tragic Day in the Life of Buddy Baker!”. As far as hype goes, it’s pretty extreme, and even though fans might not want these characters to suffer, anything less might seem like a rip off after this kind of advertizing. Maybe they want readers to feel conflicted because that means they are personally engaging with the titular characters.
Let’s start with the ROT mythology, and the way in which it affects a reader’s view of the DCU, then discuss the kind of “change” ST #18 and AM #18 introduce. As mythology, the introduction of The Rot is a significant accomplishment. It shines a light on the dark corners of the underlying principles of the DC Universe and helps fill out the cosmic principles that hold it together for readers. The Rot functions as a third element to stand in balance to The Red, the element of animals (and humans), and The Green, the element of the plant world. It makes sense there should be more than just The Green and the The Red struggling, often against each other. Adding a third principle, first as a mutual foe, that represents “decay” is pretty ingenious. It speaks to the reality of death and entropy in the DCU and gives readers a greater sense of just how things function in the DCU. So from an overarching standpoint, thumbs up. But honestly, it gets even better. In issue #17 of SWAMP THING when Swamp Thing and Animal Man start questioning their own view of what The Rot is, things get more “real” in the sense that the opposition between The Red and The Green versus The Rot becomes instead a triad of opposing forces.
As Constantine had warned earlier, The Red and The Green are not “black and white”. They are not alone, and don’t simply have a mutual foe. They have a mutually equal principle to deal with taken over by Anton Arcane. They begin to realize that the avatars of each principle can determine whether the element works in more helpful or harmful ways and that The Rot, a principle of decay, is, in fact neutral, though corrupted by Arcane. Though readers might have seen this coming, it forms a sudden clear paradigm for principles acting in the DCU, and suggests a satisfying emphasis on “harmony” between principles as a universal goal. It syncs well with all the struggles of heroes in the DCU, and could speak to Superman’s endeavors just as well as Batman’s. The ROT WORLD arc has added this paradigm to the DC Universe, and contributed to its mythology.
So much for a view from a distance. It’s wonderful, and maybe even essential to have a solid and well thought out mythology behind a superhero universe, but without elements of humanity in its characters, there are no real stories to be told. The entire ROT WORLD crossover is deeply psychological. One could argue that perception and uncertain perception of reality are some of its key themes, particularly focused upon Swamp Thing and Animal Man. Are the worlds they fall through and move through even real at all? Can anything be fixed and certain when time-travel and world-travel are involved? That could move the reader away from a sense of seriousness in the events they are witnessing, not being sure that anything happened “for real”. Snyder and Lemire actually break through the “fourth wall” in a way by writing this uncertainty into the storyline openly. When Swampy and Animal Man storm Arcane’s stronghold in Rotworld in ST #17 and AM #17, they encounter monstrous, twisted versions of their loved ones, Abby (Abigail Arcane, Swamp Thing’s girlfriend) and Maxine (Animal Man’s daughter) respectively. The loved ones seem lost, bent beyond recognition into Arcane’s principle of Rot, and though they speak in familiar voices, Swampy and Animal Man still question whether it’s “really them”. It’s a version of them, Arcane confirms, since he’s grown them from infancy for this role, but there’s a lingering possibility that somewhere, if only in a version of the past, Abby and Maxine are still untainted. It’s emotionally engaging to see Swamp Thing and Animal Man interact with these twisted versions, but if it’s not “really” them, the impact is limited.
That’s where issues #18 of both comics come in. They hold the key to determining if these are just essentially rather gruesome “What If” stories that have plenty to say about the DCU and especially a great deal to say about the psychology of central characters, but then, like a dream, will cycle back to normality having won the battle against Arcane and restored balance to the newly defined three principles of the universe. Lesson learned, life could more or less return to a version of the DCU that readers recognize. This is where, it seems, Snyder and Lemire’s determination to insist on change in the DCU after ROT WORLD comes in. They each take divergent paths to accomplish this, but the principle seems the same: restoring balance takes personal cost. If the universe is capable of righting itself after an imbalance, it does so with little concern over the impact on human lives, but works toward a bigger goal. Let’s also remember that Swamp Thing has agreed to be the avatar of The Green and give up his Alec Holland matrix of identity (as introduced originally by Alan Moore) and that Animal Man faces the same strict principles though his daughter Maxine is actually the avatar of The Red. This means that nothing is safe, and nothing is more sacred than that role.
Snyder brings humanity to the post-Rot roles of Swamp Thing and Abby through the unlikely final farewell to their humanity and a backward-looking but meaningful sentiment about their connection to each other, visually depicted by Yanick Paquette in stunning terms as their two human bodies lying together, presumably deceased, gradually covered by the flowers of The Green. It’s a farewell for fans, one that deserves some rites of its own, but its implications bring actual change to the DCU also. Abby has knowingly taken on the role of avatar for The Rot in its new, neutral form as a safeguard for keeping it that way. She’s not only resisting the kind of horror arcane unleashed upon the entire DCU in the form of his own version of The Rot, she’s doing something about, and sacrificing her humanity to do so.
As counterbalanced principles now, she and Swamp Thing cannot truly be together (witness the ashes arising between them when they touch). He is growth and she is decay, interactive elements with their distant parts to play. Satisfyingly in some ways, Abby is now Swamp Thing’s equal. Surprisingly, that makes sense, as if her potential and future role had something to do with bringing them together in the first place. How can it be satisfying, though, that they can never be together again? It’s satisfying only in the sense that it rings true because it is honest to goodness change in the DC Universe, one Snyder went to bat for. How can these stories continue to be deeply meaningful to us if there is never any deep change visible? Bravo, Mr. Snyder, no matter how miserable you have made Swampy and Abby. To be fair, they seem to accept this fate the way elementals do, with rather profound wisdom.
Jeff Lemire has, in some ways, a more difficult task at hand in ANIMAL MAN #18. Thrown back into his world to learn if things have changed, if at all, he has his entire family to worry about, not just his daughter Maxine. To introduce change into a family configuration is complicated. Do you change the nature of the relationships? Does Maxine, assuming she’s alive, stop being the avatar of The Red? What about losing his mother? That seems somehow like a reasonably nod toward change. But the scale of ROT WORLD has been so extreme that, simply stated, losing a parent might not quite satisfy readers. If Swamp Thing and Abby were tragic and nostalgic (and isn’t The Green usually anyway?), Animal Man needs something raw and violent to contend with, something primal perhaps. Steve Pugh does an excellent job rendering scenes between Buddy and his family human, and physical, once he returns to his world (particularly necessary with a title like ANIMAL MAN). I wouldn’t say that having his already ill son Cliff Baker, finally die, was predictable. It was a roulette spin on who might die, though death did seem likely, especially given the book’s cover art. Cliff doesn’t need to be the avatar of The Red like Maxine, and his death can be an emotional touchstone for readers to connect to Buddy Baker. Superhero stories have contained quite a few lost sons over the years, but that doesn’t mean the trope doesn’t pack a punch.
After everything Animal Man has been through to save the universe from the Rot, doesn’t he deserve better than this? And yet, that’s the point. In this way, he’s not special. He’s vulnerable and human, and could experience the loss of a child. This is change for Buddy, but it’s more a psychological change than a major plot shift for future issues of ANIMAL MAN. This isn’t to say that losing a character doesn’t change the DCU, it does, but Cliff’s death doesn’t change it on the same scale that Abby’s transformation will. Is the change that Lemire introduces less of a success because of this? Nope. He introduces change to the fabric of Animal Man’s life, and an emotional impact that will last forever in psychological terms. Exactly how Cliff’s death will impact the ANIMAL MAN comic, in fact, remains to be seen, but it would be very hard to brush it aside. This certainly isn’t a “What If” story.
So, the bottom line about the end of an era with Snyder’s final issue of SWAMP THING and the end of the ROT WORLD arc is that it does remarkable things to alter the way in which readers perceive and understand the DC Universe as a whole, and is a pretty impressive feat of universe building from the inside out. It creates growth and greater appreciation of a universe perpetually under construction, and for that reason, rarely explained in broad terms. But Snyder and Lemire also do something that shows a lot of fortitude and personal vision for what readers need to see in superhero stories to really grasp their significance: the potential for change. If these characters cannot be affected by their life experiences, where does that leave us, the readers, trying to connect and apply their experiences to our own?
SWAMP THING #18 and ANIMAL MAN #18 complete what you might term “Eco’s loop” in terms of creating continuity again in the DCU (by restoring balance in The Rot), but they also break through that loop and give us a glimpse, hopefully an enduring one, of heroes in a “real” situation of loss, maybe even a form of sacrifice to restore that balance. There’s nothing more human than the realization that things don’t always work out the way you want them to. Thankfully, for Snyder and Lemire, they did this time.
Title: ANIMAL MAN #18/ Publisher: DC Comics/Creative Team: Jeff Lemire, Writer, Steve Pugh, Artist, Lovern Kindzierski, Colorist, Jared K. Fletcher, Letterer
Title: SWAMP THING #18/ Publisher: DC Comics/Creative Team: Scott Snyder, Writer, Yanick Paquette, Artist, Nathan Fairbairn, Colors, Travis Lanham, Letters
Hannah Means-Shannon writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress.
“Branding” is definitely a loose concept here. Wow. “Let’s put a red tilted box in the corner and a giant number! Branding design done!” Man, whatever happened to actually putting some design skills into comics. Even the logos are boring flat book cover fonts now.
I wish I wasn’t so excited about an All-New Invaders, but damn do I love Namor and the Invaders (So much I’d call “Namor and The All-New Invaders”!!!!”) .
But what’s this? The article states “and Original Human Torch Toro”…well which is it? The original Human Torch, or Toro (who wasn’t the original Human Torch, but the original Toro)…?
Looking forward to seeing what the new titles are, but I dunno if it makes sense to do a modern-day Invaders. Everyone on the cover has been an Avenger, all quite recently, and setting it in the modern-day doesn’t give it much of a unique hook. WW2 or something would be a better selling point, methinks.
Yeah, what the h e l l??? Why dont they just put Wolverine on every cover like they did in the 80′s… “Hey speculator market, we got a cover that says -first issue!-, aren’t we lame…!!!”
Alonso, said that “Marvel Now!” was supposed to bring back NuMarvel, in ways that delivered cutting edge new art, like in how the covers were designed in “non-conventional” ways. How can you expect people to take the *sequential* medium seriously, when the only main access to *sequential* are these lame “comic books”. The super hero genre is great, but the “American” version of super hero’s is this twisted culmination of homo-erotic power fantasy fulfillment encased in christian/conservative-extremist regulations (Comics Code Authority), which have been further perverted with stories written to comply with the speculator’s bubble from mid-80′s to early 90′s, and then all chewed up and spat out during the 90′s hell that was the aftershock of the speculators bubble bursting (example: stories created under a bankrupt management like at Marvel Comics ; also please see on youtube.com Max Landis’ “the death and return of superman”). If Marvel stock was no under 10 dollars /share like it was, then there probably would not had been room for the window of time that was just before the stories written to comply with the Disney buy-out -NuMarel was when heads were rolling, people were being replaced, and new independent, more ‘fringe’ creators were hired to take over mass market character-based assets. Now, there is no slew of indi-talent hired to take on the mass market titles -NuMarvel was when Marvel was owned by Marvel. When they were just gaining momentum to create their own Marvel Studios movies, and the comics being printed were freaking awesome! Alias, Daredevil, “e is for Extinction” X-men story, Ultimate Spider-Man and especially the Ultimates stories, Peter Bagge even did a Spider-man one-shot -as well as James Sturm did *Unstable Molecules*!!! Marvel needs to start pushing the boundaries of *sequential* with some new talent, and in new mediums like the larger Magazine format, because print sequential will always be around, but “American comic books” (especially the cheese American version of the super hero if American sequential does not fix up their act), may not.
I was reading the new “Marvel Now”,
But my LCS had no copies to show.
The “old Now” was old news
And the “new Now” issues
Were too new a New Now for review.
(Apologies to Ogden Nash.)
Wouldn’t that make good *journalism*, instead of the flog of a site promotions going on, to include in this article a quote from someone at Marvel that can explain why Alonso said how “Marvel Now!” was supposed to bring back NuMarvel, and yet now Marvel is rejecting NuMarvel, -and how Marvel is N O T progressing the *sequential* medium, as they keep pushing their consumer-market driven “comic books”.
@Marvel : hey, if you guys can crawl yourselves out of not only bankruptcy, but also in doing so you were able to have some killer NuMarvel stories, then why dont you run with that cutting edge shtikt that you had 2000 – 2004??? Why just cater to the Disney buy-out and then ‘rest on your laurels…’??? If corporations can have all of these hundreds of millions of consumers walk around actually thinking they are ‘Americans’, then why can you progress *sequential* in the USA, instead of milking off the consumer mentality of printing only “comic books”???? You can still have brainwashed cubicle gimps that OK with calling themselves “consumers”, and still have better more creative forms of super heroes in *sequential* -or can we??? What? Is that going to cause people to start thinking they are human beings/Americans/members of a community, and stop living as consumers when not at work, as they also ignore they are economic units that comprise a ‘person’ while at work??? Why do we only get these twisted icons that are culminations of christian/conservative-extremist crap (Comics Code Authority) and the speculator’s bubble, and bankrupt management, and compliance to multinational corporate buy-outs (Time/Warner and now Disney)???? Maybe create a different “universe” that is all about *sequential* super heroes, and not “comic book” super heroe -P L E A S E??? Maybe some of these “consumers” will get off their corporate slave a$$es and just do it themselves, instead of waiting for something that puts profit over quality (a multinational corporation) to progress *sequential*…
Is it just me? I seem to be missing an “S.”
Is this new series “Inhuman” or “Inhumans” because well, the team composition is making more sense if it’s the first one.
Silly but True
We need one Marvel universe that prints books as “comic books”, for consumers – these can have their typical “First Issue!” lame designs with books created as a “market share” to promote the mass consumption of plastic in the form of merchandise, as well as promoting data mining in tracking what one does after logging in with an online account to read comics. This brand of Marvel stories are the typical predictable crap written w/out any innovation or creative substance -instead of as *sequential*.
Then create a second Marvel universe that can be books published as actual *sequential* stories containing super heroes created by actual artists and writers who prefer to progress and have fun with the *sequential* form of art -more like NuMarvel, instead of the consumer driven predictable unimaginative “comic books” that have people turn their heads away from super heroes as something lame. This *sequential* form of super hero stories can be in a printed magazine format or other sized formats that can be used to break the boundaries of what Americans consider should be “comics books” and create and awareness for *sequential* stories. Unfortunately Americans are such consumer slaves they will not be able to accept something unless they see some movies star or celebrity use it first, something on TV or the Internet to let them know that it is OK to use; to go drive to… -will never happen… who am I kidding… Big Red box “First Issue!!!” that is best Marvel can do after FIFTY ***50*** YEARS… “If it is not broken, then dont fix it”, right? But then how can you not call spending decades in traffic, fast food, strip malls, homes made to be flipped instead of lived in, more traffic, no rights in the workplace, rising price of gas while the purchasing power of the dollar diminishes ever year from now on, as products are made to break down fast and take our money (instead of made to work and last) and labor is out-sourced while no one that calls themselves an ‘American’ knows what all the amendments are, or how a bill gets passed, or what gerrymandering is, or which congressional district they belong to, or what the suffrage movement really was -how can you call all of that which makes up every moment of every American’s day “not broken”??? Designing sequential as the consumer “comic books” is a pretty stupid thing to do considering we now live in an environment where getting by in life is not enabled, getting by in life is not something everyone can do anymore -our disillusioned consumer lifestyle is a joke, so why still published “comic books” when consumers are a dying breed??? Why not write super hero stories not for consumers, but instead for *human beings*, for *Americans*, for *members of families* ????
Can I borrow someone’s Cliff Notes for the comments section?
Aaron Browne – are you all right?
Matthew Jeske – are you all right?
I do not know what is happening in these comments o______O
Anyway. As someone who used Marvel Now to try out a bunch of new comics that I’m now in love with, I’ll definitely be giving these a try! I’ve been a bit wary of trying Avengers as there are just so many titles to choose from (similar with X-Men but I’ve found a couple I like) so these looks ace.
Ok. (I’m slow…) I just put it all together that Avengers is being given a great big new #1, but just in case you are tired of those it’s also being given a little tiny #24.NOW. So in Marvel Now land (which is a year old and apparently NOW boring) it’s still issue #24, but in All New Marvel Now land (which is shiny and awesome!) it’s being given a new #1! Wow, my head is spinning…
I’m with Mathew. What’s up with Aaron Brown??
@Eric K – What’s up with you?? Nice job being the typical ‘American’ and going strait for the negative attack -you gotta cut people down, not like you know of any other way to be… ‘Way to go, consumer. What a bummer.