The current state of disarray at Marvel

[Tom Foolery]

Blood Hunt #1 dropped today. The gimmick is they did a regular issue, and also a “bagged” copy that promises more graphic violence and extra pages. I doubt I’ll buy two of every issue, but I got the first ones just to open them and compare.

The story opens up with Blackout, Darkstar, Shroud, Cloak etc and other dark dimension conduits spewing dark force energy that blocks out the sun. Followed by a coordinated attack around the globe by vampires. Most of the art is the same. In a few early panels showing the vampire hordes attacking, there’ll be a dead body in the clean version, and the same body will be half eaten with entrails spilling out. Or a clear decapitation in the bloody version.
The bloody version had a couple extra pages, one was to show Black Panther getting punched thru the chest as the Avengers get their asses kicked by a new super vampire team. The other was a montage page of devastation around the globe.

The finale splash page had two different versions. One had Dr Strange getting shivved thru his chest from behind by the main antagonist. The bloody version had that hero getting graphically ripped apart by that same antagonist, plot twist; it’s Blade!

And I was wrong about Tigra. She makes it. The other main hero who doesn’t is Thor.

The main series is five issues, and there’s like 20 mini series tie-ins, and pretty much every current ongoing book will have at least one or two tie-in issues. So this is what’s going on all summer at Marvel.

[Tom Foolery]

I’ve been keeping current with the Blood Hunt event and all the tie-ins as they’ve been coming out for the past couple months. I’m not bothering to recap them because it’s mostly just whatever hero headlining the mini fighting vampires. Wolverine:Blood Hunt? Wolvie fighting vampires. Union Jack the Ripper? It’s Union Jack in London…fighting vampires. Midnight Sons:Blood Hunt? It’s the Ghost Riders and friends getting the gang back together to fight vampires. You get the idea.
But Blood Hunt 4 came out, and the big drop is Blade isn’t the bad guy. He’s been possessed by Varnae, the original vampire. But also, Tigra and Hunter’s Moon break into Asgard with the help of The Wrecker to free Konshu, so he can bring back all the former Moon Knights, including the newly resurrected Marc Spector. And Dr Strange and the other sorcerers go to Dr Doom for help, and he says he can, but it requires him to be the Sorcerer Supreme to do so. Pretty dope penultimate issue from Jed MacKay. And since he’s also writing the Moon Knight and Dr Strange, it’s cool how he’s meshing the plots for all three stories together.

[Tom Foolery]

I got both the regular and RedBand polybagged issue of Blood Hunt 5. The only difference is 1. they added a two page spread of the vampire army shredding recently resurrected Moon Knights, and 2. they added an extra page to the climactic fight where Brielle and Miles stab Blade/Varnae. Not worth the extra buck or all the rigamarole of slicing open the polybag.
Strange gives the Sorcerer Supreme mantle to Doom with the express word that he returns it when the world is safe. In the aftermath, since Varnae is defeated, his blood curse is lifted…which means all vampires can now walk in daylight!
And Doom doesn’t return the SS mantle because according to him ‘the world isn’t yet safe. He’s just getting started.’ Fucking great final page.

Setting up November’s One World Under Doom! event.

[Tom Foolery]

They did an Elektra 100 issue, and their math to get to 100 issues is a tad sketchy.

Elektra:Assassin 1-8. Her original midi-series from the 80s.
Elektra Lives Again. Frank Miller’s OGN. See? Already adding dubious ‘issues’.
Elektra:Root of Evil 1-4. The mid 90s mini. 13 so far.
Elektra 1-19. Her first legit ongoing from 1996. Up to 32.
The Flashback -1 issue. Ugh, it can’t be a -1 issue and also an issue. 33.
Elektra 1-35 The Marvel Knights run from 2001. 68.
Elektra:Glimpse and Echo 1-4. A mini from 2002. 72.
Elektra:The Hand 1-5. This was a mini set in feudal japan about the origins of the ninja clan. Elektra wasn’t even in it. Her name was on it to sell books. 77.
Elektra:Dark Reign 1-5. Tie-in mini. 82.
Elektra:Shadow War oneshot. From when DD turned evil or whatever. 83.
Elektra 1-11. Her short lived 2014 ongoing. 94.
Elektra 1-5. Her most recent 2017 mini. 99.
And the oneshot. So the 100th issue is actually the 93rd issue and they didn’t want to wait and put out a seven issue series.

[jjreason]

Typical Marvel tracking. Elektra Lives Again was pretty fucking awesome though & likely needs to count "story wise".

[Tom Foolery]

Marvel puts out these free issues called ‘Marvel Must Haves’ that collect three older issues. The intent is to drive the TPB sales. This week’s issue had a Red Hulk issue presumably to get people interested in the Cap movie, and the first issue of the new Spider-Gwen comic. The third issue was Daredevil 227, which is the first issue of Born Again. I flipped thru it real quick, Karen sells Matt’s identity for drugs, and Kingpin uses it to make Matt’s life hell and get him disbarred, before he blows up his townhouse.

That last page, no matter how many times I read it, still gives me goosebumps. “It was a nice piece of work, Kingpin. You shouldn’t have signed it.”

Chef’s kiss.

[Tom Foolery]

Having just caught up on the current FF run, I looked at a list of all the current ongoings, and tried to figure out which ones I’m enjoying the most.

Since I’m reading them in reverse alphabetical order, the ones at the front of the alphabet I haven’t read yet. In fact, for Amazing and Avengers, I’m seriously behind. Like, approaching 100 issues of both series behind. But here’s the rest with a grade for each one.

Amazing Spidey, Avengers, West Coast Avengers, Champions, Daredevil, Deadpool, and DP/Wolverine. All of those have two or more series I’m behind on. Haven’t read them. There’s also Capt America, Capt Marvel, Black Panther that had recent ongoings conclude.

Fantastic Four. Might be slightly biased since I just read it, but A/A+. The previous run from Slott would not have received an A. It was good, but this run is….well, it’s fantastic.

Hellverine. C. Just started, so it hasn’t found it’s groove yet. But I’m not a fan of Daken, nor of cashgrab pastiche ideas. It’s fun to do that in a story arc, but keeping it up for an entire ongoing is a different matter.

Hulk. A-/B. This is definitely top three right now. I keep getting Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Daniel Warren Johnson confused. PKJ wrote a decent Superman run, and this excellent Hulk run. The other guy, DWJ, is making Transformers suck in new ways I thought weren’t possible.

Iron Man. C+/B. It just started, so it’s hard to tell. It’s hard to balance Tony as protagonist you want to root for and as an arrogant douche. And corporate warfare with lawyers and stock buyouts and boardmembers shit is NOT as exciting as the writer wants you to think it is.

Magik. C-/D. It just started, one issue in, but I’m not excited. I do like the character and her potential to headline a series though.

Moon Knight. A/A- Jed Mackay has been rocking with this run for the past three ongoings. It read better as a binge read, rather than waiting a month for each issue, but I’m still enjoying more than most of the other Marvel books.

NYX. C- This book doesn’t know what it wants to be. One of several X-books where they have a surplus of characters that need to be doled out to various team books.

Phoenix. C+/B- I think this is the only cosmic Marvel book right now. But it’s trying to be both Jean’s emotional baggage story, and also a cosmic book. And they are literally throwing every cosmic guest star and villain into it to make it work. Seems forced.

Psylocke. B. It’s okay I guess. Kwannon seems like she could be way more badass in a different writer’s hands.

Spider-Boy. B+. I’m enjoying this. It’s staying in its own corner and not taking itself to seriously.

Spider-Gwen. C+/B- It’s like a dozen issues in and I’m wating for it to ‘start’ if that makes sense. Like, why does this ongoing need to exist? How do you make Gwen a unique ‘voice’ with so many other Spiders running around? It’s just not there yet. And maybe never will be.

Miles Morales B- This one also feels like its treading water, but they’ve been on this vampire arc forever.

Spectacular Spider-Men. B+/A- This one has been fun. Fun banter between Peter and Miles. Fun storylines. Nothing too serious.

Scarlet Witch B-/C. This one is ending next month with issue 10. Low sales, or yet another relaunch? It’s been okay, but not amazing or anything.

Storm. B-/B+. This one is too new, but Orora is such a rich, regal character and she has so much potential. I’ve enjoyed the first few issues, but not impatiently waiting for the next issue to drop.

Thor. B+. This has been a solid run so far. I would say top five of the current ongoings.

All New Venom. A-/B+. This one just restarted with a new tone from the previous run. But the previous run was pretty great and the humorous ‘mystery’ of this one is fun so far.

Wolverine. C-/D. Fuck, Logan is a tired, boring character and every writer just repeats the same tired tropes with him.

Laura Kinney:Wolverine. C/C- I like Laura way more than Logan, but the premise of this series(she’s helping lost/exploited mutants that no one else will help!) is just boring. Granted it’s only on issue 3.

X-Force/X-Factor. C-/D. Marvel just floods the market with excessive X-Books out of habit.

Exceptional X-Men/Uncanny X-Men/X-Men. B+/C- The X-books all kind of dilute each other. I would say Rogue’s team in Uncanny is the one I’m enjoying the best. But overall, the Krakoa era is just lingering in every single series. And it will be for a long time and having THAT as the entire premise of an entire franchise of books is just….not a grand idea. Although, kudos to Marvel. Every single solo mutant book besides Logan is a female character right now.

[Tom Foolery]

The Marvel Preview solicits for May have another wave of the Alex Ross ‘Timeless’ variants coming.
In no particular order I saw

Valkyrie
Iron Fist
Nick Fury
Power Man
Tigra
Ms Marvel
Quicksilver
Capt Marvel(Mar-Vell)
Yellowjacket
Goliath
Ant-Man(I’m guessing it’s Scott Lang)
Capt Marvel(Monica Rambeau)
Moon Knight
and Nighthawk.
That month’s Iron Man also has a variant cover, but it didn’t show who. (Edit. Internet research says Gargoyle)

Cool!

[Tom Foolery]

Here’s my full spread of the latest wave of Alex Ross Timeless covers. I still can’t believe Zabu got a cover before so many other characters. I get that he, Ka-Zar, and Shanna are a trio. But at the same time; Hercules, Black Knight, Blade, Nova, Deathlok, Wonder Man, the OG Guardians…so many still waiting. But not Zabu.