By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/28/2016
Last month’s Captain America :Steve Rogers #1 caused an uproar when it purported to reveal that Cap is actually a Hydra agent and has been since his mom was recruited into the racist organization back in the WWII day. While the transience of comic book storylines and shocking character changes is so common is to […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 1/20/2015
It’s been the super secret plan of the Marvel staff for more than five years. It’s been a glimmer in Jonathan Hickman’s eye for even longer. But now, Marvel is joining the “big battle changes fictional universe forever*” trend with Secret Wars, which launches in May leaving carnage in its wake.
As announced at a press conference with Executive Editor Tom Brevoort and E-i-C Axel Alonso at Midtown Comics downtown location, as part of the eight issue Secret Wars event Secret Wars #1 and Secret Wars #2 by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic, the Ultimate universe is folding into the 616 Marvel universe and “There will be only Battleworld,” promised Tom Brevoort. Issue #2 will be a huge extra sized reference staking out the new world, which ties in to the teasers marvel released last fall. Various universes form popular mini series of the past from Civil War to Marvel Zombies will return.
“We’ve never done anything like this ever, said Brevoort during the presser, which was live streamed until it crashed in the second half. What we will do to top it I don’t know. Hopefully that will be someone’ else problem. But I’ll still be employed and working.”
According to Alonso, it’s the most coordinated event they’ve ever done, with all Marvel comics division on board as well as partners Hasbro, Diamond Select, Mighty Fine, Mad Engine, Funko and Hot Wheels with Marvel Interactive working on all kinds of new elements. Secret elements.
The story kicks off in Secret Wars #0, a FCBD offering that kicks off the end of everything we know, or at least everything we suspect, as two world go in and one or no worlds come out of the “Incursion” event.
During the event the Marvel U. will be turned into the Battleworld which will also be turned into an interactive map where you can purchase products based on the worlds, which go back to the teasers released prior to NY Comic-Con back in the fall. The first to go will bt eh Ultimate Universe, which is being blended with the 616 universe. “It’s like two pizzas being stacked on top of one another,” said Alonso, showing a keen ear for phrases which bloggers will quote.
As the event unfolds, Marvel’s regular line will launch several new books and new mini series that tie in with this new combo world. “All the bits and pieces all the little sections of earths within incursions zones, all pieces that have remained, will be fused into a gigantic organism which will be Battleworld,” said Brevoort. “And this will set up all the building blocks of the New Marvel Universe. Every world we’re going to introduce you to, every piece is a building block for the MU moving forward. None of these are elseworlds or what ifs, they are not set in the past or future, and not in alternate reality. This is the reality of the Marvel Universe.”
“If we resurrect Gwen Stacy this would be the place to do it,” Brevoort went on to tease, also showing a keen ear for pull quotes. “Or it could be four Gwen Stacys!”
“This puts an endcap to decades of stories and starts a new era. When you see the scope of the event and what we’re willing to do [you’ll be amazed][.
According to Alonso this isn’t necessarily part of anything to do with the MCU, which is developing its own continuity. “It all starts on the page. We tell our own stories, this is exactly what we’re doing here. You’ll be shocked for this.”
In questioning after the live stream ended, the two explained that creative teams had known for a while that they needed to wrap things up. “Get your business done because we’re going into Secret Wars,” said Brevoort. “Everything is going to change and shift as we go.”
The size of the Marvel line will remain stable with perhaps a slight contraction, said Alonso. “You’ll see new books coming out, but we expect a lot of them to do well.”
Asked directly is this was a straight ahead reboot, Alonso was cagey. “Read and find out. Our history isn’t broken and it isn’t something we need to fix. If anything it’s something we’re building on and seeing how it comes together.”
Or as Marvel’s PR man Chris D’Lando put it, “The Marvel Universe and the ultimate Universe may be ending, but we are just getting started.”
So whew! Is it a full on reboot or not? We don’t know, but perhaps Beat ex-pat Steve Morris had the clearest take:
Basically they're moving Miles Morales into the Marvel Universe after eight issues of alt-reality filler
— Steve Morris (@stevewmorris) January 20, 2015
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/22/2014
I said I was going to be happy and puppies today, but I feel I should note that Marvel’s executive editor Tom Brevoort responded to the whole Milo Manara thing on his formspring:
Q: Mr. Brevoort, what is your opinion on the debate over M. Manara’s variant cover of Spider Woman? A similar quarrel happened few months back for one cover on DC’s Teen Titans #1. Personally, I agree that women in comics are often “over-sexualized”. However, I am wondering whether this criticism is going too far. It is sort of becoming more like a form of conservatism. It almost seems like some people want to completely remove sexual thematics from comics.
[snip] A:
I think that the people who are upset about that cover have a point, at least in how the image relates to them.
By that same token, Milo Manara has been working as a cartoonist since 1969, and what he does hasn’t materially changed in all that time. So when we say “Manara cover”, his body of work indicates what sort of thing he’s going to do.
It’s also, for a Manara piece, one of the less sexualized ones, at least to my eye. Maybe others feel differently. But given that the character is covered head-to-toe, and is crouched in a spider-like pose, it seems far less exploitative to me than other Manara pieces we’ve run in previous months and years.
But all that said, it’s the right of every reader not to like something.
And fortunately, it’s a variant cover, so people will likely need to seek it out if they want it, rather than it being the display piece for the book.
I think a conversation about how women are depicted in comics is relevant at this point, and definitely seems to be bubbling up from the zeitgeist. That too is fine. Nothing gets better unless ideas are communicated.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/11/2012
If you choose to believe the words of everybody’s favourite paper-munching Marvel editor, then it looks as though Kieron Gillen’s Journey Into Mystery isn’t going to be cancelled as a consequence of Marvel NOW!!
Tom Brevoort’s Formspring account is something worth keeping an eye on, not least because it suggests that Jean Grey and Black Panther are the two most popular characters to ever exist in the medium. But also because he also mixes repeating the company line on certain stories with the occasional step into secret announcements. And in this case, a plucky fan appears to have asked the simple question “will JiM be cancelled?” and receive the simple answer “nope”. In essence, this fan seems to have basically won a confirmation that the series will not be cancelled once writer Kieron Gillen leaves.
Gillen’s series has been one of the rare titles which gets by on the literary style of the writer, rather then the central character or ‘importance’ of the storyline. There are few other books on the market, as far as the Big Two are concerned, where the voice of the writer is one of the core appeals of the book. Which, that means it’s going to be very hard for whoever comes on to the series next. The book has rather low sales, but the teaser images released a few weeks ago seemed to suggest that Kid Loki, protagonist of the title and inspirer of Tumblrs worldwide, may be joining a team of some kind.
Whether this would be the new direction for Journey Into Mystery – which would, really, not benefit from the next writer attempting to imitate Gillen – or a suggestion of a new book designed to boost Loki’s profile… who knows.
It’s true. I still hate Marvel.
Is there some way to see the white text on a mobile version of the site? There’s no ‘mousing over’ for that.
It says this…”Captain America: Steve Rogers #2, from the creative team of writer Nick Spencer and artist Jesus Saiz, reveals that Steve’s memories of indoctrination were implanted by Kobik, the sentient Cosmic Cube who became a girl. Not only that, but Kobik has been under the influence of Steve Rogers’ most fearsome archenemies, the Red Skull, for months.”
Marvel has just gone from “The House of Ideas” to “The Casa of Crap”…
Copy the text and then paste it elsewhere – in a note, or draft of a comment…
Thanks!
Well, I expected as much which is why I never got the reaction to it. I hate being all “these people didn’t read the comic/don’t read comics” but it’s such an obvious issue #1 and Marvel cliffhanger play that of course it’d be revealed if not in issue 2 at least 4 what’s really going on. All of that makes me think it’s now even more in poor tase mainly because Spencer and Co. did such a bad job convincingly lying about it.
Maybe the problem is not the creators or the editors but the legion of “fans” and “journalists” that overanalyze and ruin everything on the internet. You know what’s kinda fun? Just reading comics. With no one else’s commentary. The internet appears to be full of those three annoying guys at the comic shop that I hated so much as a kid. They had opinions on everything, ruined everything, and never fucking left.
I hope that was worth all the trivializing of Jewish people for.
If this is the best story they could come up with, it’s no wonder comic sales are awful.
Oop, you got a sentence ending in a preposition there.
I hope that trivializing of Jewish people was for all the worth.
There we go. Err, wait- … Worth all of which- No… Cause it’s the Jewish’s worth…
Well, the content of the spoiler was exactly the theory that some fans had already posited. It doesn’t come as a surprise, really.