Marvel Comics General

I also didn't like how it fell into the typical Elseworlds trap of constantly killing off characters which already an issue with Taylor's DC AU comics.

I remember that Venom/Carnage fusion got a good bit of hype only to wind up just a mindless monster who doesn't do much before being easily evaporated by Storm.

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 1st 2022 at 6:48:23 AM

And then Miles quickly exposits that he and Venom became good partners after the empocalypse but it all got ruined when Carnage for some reason joined the party

Which is a story and a half on its own but only gets to be a one page after the fact exposition

Edited by Bocaj on Oct 1st 2022 at 9:55:59 AM

im not sure if it was rushed due to taylor leaving for dc, it was always solicited as 6 issues wasnt it?

Ii recall its rushed in that sense it ended in a way that tied up any possible continuations.

I've seen plenty of people compared it to stories like D Ceased where it's a new setting primed for sequels and spin-offs.

But with Taylor gone he may have put the cap on it.

More Marvel UK digital releases this week - Dan Abnett and Bryan Hitch's 1990s Mys-Tech Wars is available for purchase (although not yet on Marvel Unlimited).

The first and only big Marvel UK crossover, with lots of big-name guest stars. Most of whom die horribly before Abnett hits the reset button. Special mention to Havok and X-Factor turning up as the cavalry only to be slaughtered - Havok gets Killed Mid-Sentence during his opening speech. And to Psylocke who spends the last part of the story missing one side of her face. Oh, and Spider-Man gets his heart torn out before he even meets the other heroes.

Lots of spectacle, lots of big guns, and Hitch's art is always good - but (like last week's Dark Guard) you can tell that it's still early days for Abnett.

Edited by Mrph1 on Oct 4th 2022 at 2:22:23 PM

Miracleman #0 is out, and it's... a mix.

The framing piece is Gaiman and Buckingham but, as some news sites have pointed out, it's lifted from the Eclipse ‘’Apocrypha'' series. Buckingham's completely redrawn it, but Gaiman's captions are basically lifted and dropped. But with all references to sex removed and the references to stories-within-stories updated to reflect the new tales in this anthology rather than the original ones.

Mike Carey and Paul Davidson do a 2000AD-style Warpsmith noir detective story. It's even got a credit box with art-droid listed etc. - very much a 2000AD thing.

Ryan Stegman does an alternate Miracleman punch-up. With an updated Big Ben.

Jason Aaron and Leinil Francis Yu do the story that feels like a pitch for Marvel's new MM approach - Miraclemen crossing alternate worlds to fight each other, and the creation of the comics somehow creating their heroes in other worlds. It's a bit Morrison and very much what I'd expect from Aaron.

Still no definite answer as to what Marvel want to do with Miracleman after Gaiman's run, but this does explain how they can do some of it without contradicting or undoing Gaiman's run.

Edited by Mrph1 on Oct 5th 2022 at 5:24:15 PM

Sucks to hear about Pacheco. I liked his style. Avengers Forever is a gorgeous piece of work.

So, a while back, Tony Stark was angsting about being a backup of his own consciousness in a new body after Captain Marvel straight-up killed him. Has he talked to the mutants about that? Because they're practically all clones with psychic save files now, and they seem reasonably chill about it.

no because he thought he was an ai and mutants hate robots

That seems a little weird. Is there really that much difference between a mind encoded as data and a mind saved to Xavier's psychic hard drive? I mean, I get that why the mutants don't like robots - Orchis, Sentinels, and whatnot.

I presume its due to the conception of artificial intelligence as artificial consciousness (this is a "=/=" thing. Dall-E and chatbots are far from what people think of when they ponder AI in fiction), and both are easier to put in a robot shell then they are a fleshy one.

Plus there is prolly some metaphysical distinctions here as well.

On a more meta level, Tony's whole "I'm an A.I. and not the real Tony Stark" lasted like five and a half issues.

There are plenty of mutants who have grappled with what the resurrection protocols mean vis-a-vis the concept of an eternal soul, and there isn't one unified answer that all Krakoa accepts. Likewise, Krakoa isn't united in their hatred of A.I.s or robots as a concept, that was really just a belief that Moira hammered into Charles and Magneto.

In the conclusion to Ewing and Reily's Ant-Man the future Ant-Man is Zayn Asghar, who comes from the Ultron Forever future timeline that is recovering from All-Father Ultron's rule. He's gone back in time to scan ants because he needs to train his future ants in order to secure the future food supply. All-Father Ultron returns because he was dispersed through the time stream, while Zayn's time traveling gave him an opening. Ultron is eventually defeated with the Time Master's aging ray from issue 3. The Ant-Men then enjoy a moment of respite before returning to their time periods.

Uh, no? It was a huge part of that Iron Man run, right up until the Iron Man 2020 bit. His being AI was only dropped in the latest run.

He saw Stark branding on his own blood cells and got sad

Edited by Bocaj on Oct 7th 2022 at 10:22:54 AM

He struggled with it, but he didn't out and out say "I'm an AI." till the end of Tony Stark Iron Man. That was the distinction I was making.

Then Iron Man 2020 had him call himself "Mark One" and believe himself to be an AI, till the end of that mini-series.

Kind of funny that he went by "Mark One" because of the suit, but was angsty about not being the "original" Tony Stark, which would make him Tony 2.0 or 1.0.1 or something.

Its interesting given the next run by Cantwell, where Tony equates becoming Iron Man with the Mark 1 armor as like a reverse Jekyll/Hyde deal.

'Bloodline: Daughter of Blade' Returns in New Series by Danny Lore & Karen S. Darboe

I think this is the first Blade series in like a decade

Bloodline is such a cool supername.

I find the apprehension surrounding this interesting.

Blade's first series not part of any event and its not really about him. And considering Marvel's general misuse of the character for decades, it sorta highlights they really don't know what to do with him.

Fascinating how he's a beloved character who has very little in the way of great comic books for him.

His relevance largely begins and ends with the Snipes films, is the problem. Marvel never really found a way to channel that back to the comics in long-term form.

Which is rather sad when you consider the Blade movies are the first successful Marvel movies.

He’s vampire hunting guy

He can do other supernatural stuff and he can do general superhero biz but he always feels annoyed that he has to step outside of just killing vampires

And you can’t do a long term book on just killing vampires so he’s always a little out of his comfort zone and always annoyed

I think you can do a long form storylines with Blade's premise fairly easily, you just need to think outside the box more with it. The short-lived and largely forgotten Blade anime had a neat premise that was basically Blade going around asia facing local vampire myths. Most memorably, the filipino Manananggal. There's a lot of local variations on vampires.

The fact Blade is black and the fact vampires are usually deathly pale leeches on society has also pretty much never been explored. Imagine Blade vs the vampire KKK.

Honestly, Blade's always been one of those characters I'd want to write to angle at a Vertigo-esque "let's redefine this more obscure character and try to give him a really meaty, iconic run" if I ever worked at Marvel (allá Moore with Swamp Thing, Morrison with Animal Man, Milligan with Shade the Changing Man, etc.).