Marvel Comics General

Nextwave was very much a case of giving Warren Ellis the characters that nobody else seemed to want. Monica and Boom Boom aren't transformed that much, but Elsa and Aaron's subsequent appearances are very much shaped by it.

Aaron’s personality from Nextwave has stuck so hard that his tie in to Iron Man 2020 was mostly about justifying it in the face of a more user friendly replacement

I’d even argue that the Nextwave characterization has somewhat stuck for Monica too, although it’s a zig zag. She’s not quite as much as she was in that book and she’s explicitly rejected how she was then, but she has taken on a harder edge since

How the Hell does the Microverse work? Smaller is not a place. Is it on an atom? Does every atom have it's own universe? How can Ant-Man ever even find it?

"A Microverse is a dimension that can be reached from the Earth dimension by shrinking with Pym Particles and thus compressing the person's matter to a certain point, thereby forcing it through an artificially created nexus into the other universe. The Microverses were once erroneously believed to exist within atoms. They are all described as parallel dimensions, rather than universes within universes."

So it used to be based on the massively disproven thought that whole worlds could exist on an atom and now is a thing where shrinking small enough just shunts you to another universe.

That just raises further questions!

The answer to probably 90% of those questions is going to be "comic books!" and a shrug.

Which is totally fine, provided the Microverse is an interesting setting for a good or at least entertaining story.

According to The Ultimates (2016) there’s also a Macroverse. The Infinaut comes from there and he used his own shrinking technology to shrink down and interact with Earth 616 the way Ant-Man shrinks down to interact with the Microverse.

Edited by CheapMarzipan on Oct 24th 2022 at 4:49:03 AM

Well, they got 80 issues of Micronauts out of it, which was much beloved by fans at the time. The problem being that once they lost the licence, a fair bit of it was lost again.

Marvel goes hard on licensed comics

Licensed comics were one of the things that kept Marvel from dying a horrible death during their economic downturns in the 80's and 90's, in fact.

If they got Micronauts and/or Rom back again permanently, with Disney's backing, I would be very happy indeed.

I haven't read the IDW stuff, but they were a fun part of the Marvel Universe.

To be fair, large chunks of what was in the Rom and Micronauts comics are actually still available. With Rom, in particular, the only thing from the comics they can't still use is Rom himself. They can still use other Spaceknights, and the Dire Wraiths. Even Rom himself has shown up, in his human form.

Similar situation with the Micronauts, I think there might be a couple characters they can't use solely because of their designs, but most of them - Arcturus Rann, Marionette, Bug - totally fine. Even the ones whose designs can't be used, they can be used in other forms.

I suspect the main reason the Micronauts don't show up more often is a simple lack of interest. They can't sell on their own, so the only way to use them is as part of someone else's story, and there probably just haven't been any particularly compelling pitches for them that way. Looks like the last time they were used was in the Minimum Carnage crossover a decade ago.

So, yeah, rights issues aren't why Rom or the Micronauts don't get used.

Edit: As far as licensed comics go, I would say it depends very much on the creators involved. Bill Mantlo obviously put a lot of effort into Rom and Micronauts. And Larry Hama went hard for G.I. Joe. But, like . . . NFL Super Pro. Team America was a licensed comic, and it was terrible. U.S. 1 was also a licensed comic, and it was frigging nonsense.

Not all licensed comics are created equal.

Edited by Tiamatty on Oct 24th 2022 at 6:30:10 AM

> Licensed comics were one of the things that kept Marvel from dying a horrible death during their economic downturns in the 80's and 90's, in fact.

In particular transformers and..Buffy of all things

And Star Wars before that.

Does Shang Shi, Master of Kung Fu count as a licensed comic?

I believe so. Fu Manchu and a bunch of supporting characters were licensed. Although the indicia on things like Deadly Hands of Kung Fu doesn't mention it.

Almost the opposite of Rom, where the main character was licensed and the rest was created / owned by Marvel.

And A.X.E.: Judgment Day comes to an end.

The world is saved, but by persuading the Progenitor to stop rather than killing it. It largely burns itself out reversing its judgment and restoring the world. And the world remembers. Those who were not killed by its judgment remain dead, so it's not a full reset, either. Krakoa starts taking the first steps to routinely resurrect humans, not just mutants. Orchis has worryingly good publicity from helping to save the world. As for the Eternals, Sersi is dead - really dead - struck down by humanity's judgment once she broadcasts the truth about the cost of Eternal resurrection. And the Progenitor doesn't reverse that one. And Ajak has ascended to some level of godhood in the Progenitor's place, and is still watching the world... and waiting to judge.

Yeah. Liked that.

Edited by Mrph1 on Oct 26th 2022 at 9:09:46 AM

But unlike Nextwave Monica, pre and post Nextwave gets along great with her mother and it's even stated she hates that the Beyond corporation made her believe she hated her.

Machine Man has gone back to his pre nextwave characterization a few times. One such occasion was in Jeff Parker's Red She-Hulk book were it was also implied that it's alcohol that makes him act like Nextwave Aaron.

Edited by Cortez on Oct 26th 2022 at 10:33:14 AM

New Moon Knight annual and Werewolf by Night is back for another fight against Marc

Man differences in the adaptation will always be funny

In the Werewolf by Night special: Jack is a fairly well-adjusted sociable charming man who's willing to risk his life to rescue his friend

Comic Werewolf by Night: Jack has lost his mind and is willing to kidnap and hold a little girl hostage in a plot to murder her father as apart of a prophecy to kill a God

Interesting bit about the recent Moon Knight annual is that Mac Kay does reference the Bemis run by bringing back the daughter Diatrice, but doesn't mention anything else from that run.

Tellingly when Marlene shows up its Jake Lockley who says hi to her and Marlene says hi too but she needs to talk to Marc.

Keep in mind in the Bemis book Jake was the personality who fathered their daughter but here thats ignored and Marc is treated as the general father of the kid. Also means that the controversial change in Jake's personality in the Bemis run is summarily ignored.

Awww dang the MCU Guardians are back

Preview for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind which has the team going back to the Movie-5.

Ehhhh. Well, it doesn't look BAD exactly. Are they ignoring the previous series, tho?

I have no idea, this is literally the first I've heard of this series

An MCU and Mainline Marvel verse crossover sounds weird TBH.