The current state of disarray at Marvel

[jjreason]

Cover date June 1963. Janet Van Dyne & Stephen Strange join the mighty pantheon of Marvel's finest in the biggest month to date for the fledgling Marvel U: a whopping 10 books, including 2 Annuals (FF1 & Strange Tales 2). Not bad for $1.46 ($10.71 in today's dollars, according to the first inflation calculator I could find).

Frustratingly, Sgt. Fury started and is up to issue 2 - I don't have a book in place to read this as of yet. I have a plan to get the Epic Collection volume 1 the next time it goes on sale, so I'll need to play a little catch up.

[jjreason]

Some fairly significant Marvel U history I had never learned until today - Hank Pym was originally married to a lady he rescued from behind the communist Iron Curtain. She was murdered when they returned there on holiday to see her childhood home, as was her father who was back in the US working for Hank. Janet van Dyne shows up & looks just like his deceased wife, but much younger. A bit creepy in retrospect, although he does guard his feelings & avoids jumping on her right away.

[Tom Foolery]

Fun fact: She was NOT murdered. They retconned it so they could introduce the current Wasp, Nadia Pym daughter of Hank and Maria and have her emigrate from whatever Eastern Bloc country she’s from. She’s had two short lived ongoings since she debuted. Neither made it more than ten issues.

[jjreason]

Ahhh, very interesting. I do remember reading about the young Wasp & might even have her first appearance tucked away someplace.

[jjreason]

Finishing up the last pre-X-pre-Avengers month with a Doctor Doom 2 parter in FF featuring the Ant-Man - by date I'm between 15 & 20 percent done. If we called this "Phase One" of the MCU, I guess I'd sum it up as a bit tedious to be honest - reading a single month worth of books can lead you to finding recycled bits from Stan.

Even if someone had never heard of the Marvel Method, I think they would clearly see that Stan was winging the dialogue & story to fit whatever was drawn on the page. In fact I can see him having to go to the artists repeatedly (Kirby for the most part - Don Heck & Steve Ditko seem much more capable of sticking to whatever script actually existed than the King did) to try and figure out what the hell had happened from one panel to the next & then how to shoehorn a few exclamation points into whatever spaces were left.

In case that sounded negative - I didn't mean it to be. I'm enjoying seeing the building blocks being put together & looking forward to things really taking off as the decade progresses.

[Tom Foolery]

Ugh. They’re letting Tom Scioli put his shitty shit covered mitts on the Fantastic Four.

After Ed Piskor had success with his X-Men Grand Design trilogy, they’re doing an FF Grand Design series by Scioli.

Barf.

[anarky]

I want to punch everyone who defends his shit by saying it's like Kirby.

I can say my armpit farts sound like Beethoven. Just because you know jack shit about Beethoven doesn't make that true.

[Tom Foolery]

Danny Ketch is getting his own Ghost Rider series again.
Huzzah!

[Tom Foolery]

The SDCC news is gonna be coming in hot and heavy over the next few days. Already they’ve announced new Doctor Doom and MaryJane Watson ‘ongoings’, as well as teaser images for new 2099 and Annihilation events.

[Tom Foolery]

Spider-Man/Deadpool is ending with issue 50 in May.

This leaves the books that haven’t been relaunched and therefore still getting put into my older boxes as Batman and Detective(which I will move over when ‘Tec hits 1000 and Batman is on whatever issue it’s on that month), Deathstroke, Game of Thrones, GIJoe:ARAH, Harley Quinn, Moon-Girl, Squirrel Girl, and the 2 ongoing Star Wars titles.

GoT is finite and will eventually end(It’s adapting Clash of Kings right now)
If they make it that far, DS, Moon Girl, and Squirrel Girl will all get switched after issue 50. They are all around issue 40 right now.
I don’t read HQ, and mostly get it for the Frank Cho variant covers, but I feel like it’ll get some kind of reboot after Heroes in Crisis and/or when her movie comes out next year.
Dr Aphra will probably end sooner than later.

GIJoe and Star Wars I’ll just let go until there is no more physical room in the older boxes.

So ‘Tec got switched over after issue 1000 as promised, and Batman moved with the new City of Bane arc.
Deathstroke is ending with issue 50. It’s on 47 right now.
Game of Thrones hasn't come out since issue 16 back in March. It’s either cancelled or on a really long hiatus.
Moon Girl ended today with issue 47.
Squirrel Girl ends in a couple issues with 50.
Star Wars is ending at 75 and I’m assuming Aphra is also ending around then because of the solicit for a giant SW oneshot wrapping up all the current storylines in the SW comics the following month.

That leaves Harley Quinn and GIJoe:ARAH as the only two books still going into the “old” 2015-2018 boxes.

[anarky]

Star Wars is ending at 75 and I’m assuming Aphra is also ending around then because of the solicit for a giant SW oneshot wrapping up all the current storylines in the SW comics the following month.

It's funny watching people on social media saying this is because no one is reading them because they suck.

Or maybe it's because they are almost to ESB. Plus now that the ST will be ending, they'll finally have free reign in that period, too.

[Tom Foolery]

After ESB(would they adapt that? Or make it an “Event”? They didn’t do a proper ANH adaptation when they got the license back, but I digress) they should do a proper Shadow of the Empire story line and bring that shit into the new canon.

[Diabolical]

I am 100% for saving as much of Shadows as possible

[anarky]

There are a few minor issues, but a lot of it could be kept. Leia now got the Boushh armor directly from Boushh (who wasn't dead) with the help of Maz Kanata.

Dash is canon, the Outrider is canon, the swoop gang is canon, Bothans are canon, and Black Sun is both canon and run by the Falleen.

[Tom Foolery]

Marvel’s big summer Event has a FUCKTON of tie-in minis for just about everybody. There are 11 tie-in titles, in addition to most of the main ongoing books having story arcs for the event as well.

Simmer down, Marvel.