The current state of disarray at Marvel

[jjreason]

Is that EMPYRE? I just had a look at the free Previews pages - they're claiming the Kree & Skrull forces will team up & take on the Avengers & FF. Sounds exciting, but they won't get my money.

[jjreason]

First DC, now it's Marvel (dropping Diamond).

https://www.ign.com/articles/marvel-com ... or-diamond

[Tom Foolery]

In case any of you were wondering who the new Phoenix is...it’s Maya Lopez Aka Echo. I just flipped thru the newest issue of Avengers to see who it was.
I’m 44+ issues behind on Avengers, so I have no context and can’t answer as to how or why.

[jjreason]

As I get further & further away from buying current Marvel floppies, my collection of the classics in Epic Collection trade paperbacks continues to blossom. In fact, by receiving Thor book 4 today, I believe I am caught up on everything they've released in this format that was originally published between November 1961 & November 1970.

What they have not yet published in Epic Collection or Complete Collection format is as follows:

Tales to Astonish (Sub-Mariner) 88-101, Sub-Mariner 1-31 (this will likely take three volumes)

Strange Tales (Dr. Strange) 142-168 (one volume)

Tales of Suspense (Tales of the Watcher) 49-58 (not sure how or if they'll reprint these)

Captain Marvel 1-21 (likely one big volume including Marvel Super Heroes 12 & 13)

Silver Surfer 1-18 (one volume)

Marvel Super Heroes (original stories) 12-20, 23 (some reprinted, some not, they won't likely collect these in their own book)

Sgt. Fury 20-81 (likely 3 more volumes)

Captain Savage 1-19 (one volume if they even bother)

So I'm looking at about 10 more books I need them to create to have everything together on my shelves. It will be a glorious day, if I survive long enough to see it.

[Tom Foolery]

I’m surprised Silver Surfer hasn’t been done yet.

What are the pros/cons of Epic Collection vs Masterworks?
I know Epic has more issues per collection, but how does the coloring etc stack up?

[jjreason]

For silver age Epics they use the masterworks templates (highest quality reproduction to date), and you get 2 MW volumes per Epic for less than the cost of one hardcover MW. The quality of the paper used within the books can vary a bit depending on which company was tasked with creating the book, some of them have really thick pages & some notsomuch. I am in love with the fact that I can just grab & read them, put bookmarks in for reference purposes, etc without having any concern at all over keeping them in perfect shape. They are basically my silver age Marvel history textbooks.

Surfer 2 not being done is a bit weird considering they've released at least 6 volumes of his Epics. They focused on getting the Infinity Gauntlet & Thanos stuff out when the MCU was wrapping up & I can understand that. I wonder if part of the problem might be that it's going to be a big book - they've released volumes 1 & 3 already, meaning they have to squeeze all 18 silver age comics into one volume - not a big deal at all until you remember that Surfer was 25 cent double sized issues for the first chunk of the run.

[Tom Foolery]

It seems like Marvel is transitioning to $4.99 for their regular titles. It’s hard to tell because they’re always making an excuse for “extra sized” issues, and all of their licensed books like Star Wars are already $5.
But last week I noticed Amazing Spidey was a regular ol’ issue for $5. And this week books like Hulk, Daredevil, etc were also $5. It’s not across the board; Avengers Inc and Ghost Rider were still $3.99

I’d have to go back and do a more thorough comparison from the past few weeks…
But it looks like the shift is happening.

[Tom Foolery]

The big summer event from Marvel this year is called ‘Blood Hunt’. It’s a vampire-centric crossover with Blade and the Avengers at the center of it. But looking at the ‘main’ characters; you got Blade, Capt Marvel, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Miles, Iron Man, Vision, Thor, Dr Strange, the new Moon Knight and….Tigra.

Ok, tell me she’s not the shocking sacrifice character for this event. A bunch of A-Listers and/or the hot new character and then the chick who’s claim to fame from the last 15 years is that she had a half skrull baby with the imposter Hank Pym skrull from Secret Invasion and retired from super heroing to raise her little green toddler. This is almost as blantant as when they dug up Bill Foster for Civil War just so the clone Thor-bot could kill him off. He was front and center for the first three issues, then BAM. I forsee Tigra getting the same treatment.

[vynsane]

maybe she's the plucky comic relief?

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[jjreason]

I liked it when she was licking herself in front of Hawkeye & he was mortified. That was funny.

[Tom Foolery]

I suspect publishers need to cycle thru older properties and give them a new miniseries every several years to keep the IP “current” and not lapse into some situation where the name can get swiped by a different company.
Case in point, Night Thrasher started a new miniseries this week. It was a fairly mundane opening issue, until they revealed the villain for the story. It’s Rage, the angry young child in an angry black man’s body that Marvel just keeps shitting on the character. And using Rage also does a disservice to Duane. Instead of letting him maybe flesh out and become a more fully developed character, they gotta stick him with all these supporting characters from his New Warrior days. A missed opportunity.

[Tom Foolery]

They’re doing an Avengers vs Aliens series. Y’know…cause Disney bought Fox and now owns both properties.

I know, I know. I ALSO did a hard eyeroll when I read it. But then I saw who was writing/drawing it.

Hickman and Esad Ribić. Whaaaaaat??! Oh snap. Count me in, bitches.

[Tom Foolery]

Ugh. Jason Aaron is doing an 8-issue Namor midi-series. They’re letting him shit all over the Sub-Mariner the way he did Frank.

[anarky]

Ugh. Jason Aaron is doing an 8-issue Namor midi-series. They’re letting him shit all over the Sub-Mariner the way he did Frank.

Damn. Some of his stuff is incredible, and some? It'd be insulting to dog shit to call it dog shit. He might be the most inconsistent writer in the biz.

[Diabolical]

They’re doing an Avengers vs Aliens series. Y’know…cause Disney bought Fox and now owns both properties.

I know, I know. I ALSO did a hard eyeroll when I read it. But then I saw who was writing/drawing it.

Hickman and Esad Ribić. Whaaaaaat??! Oh snap. Count me in, bitches.

I'm shocked they haven't done Avengers/Star Wars yet.