shhhhhh secret wars is the big marvel summer event of 2015

LOTS OF REVELATIONS THIS WEEK

Lynn Varley didn't colour Miller's original Daredevil run (I think it was mostly Tatjana Wood) - Varley's first colouring work was on Ronin.

Marvel's generally had the right attitude to its age: There's too much story for any even moderately old character, so you use what works, and ignore what doesn't, and if someone reminds you that Nick Fury fought in the second world war then CheesyGrin.gif.

^^^
frustrates me so much that the big two don't commit to this approach. continuity is so fucking stupid.

a little continuity is cool - i like it when characters refer to other characters and other stories i've read. it's just that it doesn't need to be 100% consistent.

yeah, it's fine to use continuity when it serves a narrative purpose - writer wants to refer to x event for y reason, to help frame the story or provide context, sure - but it shouldn't be restrictive or a built-in requirement

also having been blissfully unaware of Ultimates (I haven't read a Marvel comic since 1991 or so) that article was a helpful summary of what sounds like a bunch of horrible bullshit that I'm glad I avoided

OTM in general on just ignoring bothersome continuity. But Nick Fury having fought in WWII is awesome in my book. It might need a better explanation than 'infinity formula' but I like the idea of this immortal soldier who has been fighting against remnants of nazis for seventy years. Hickman's Secret Warriors was an awesome book with that idea. Someone probably needs to write a series about how SHIELD fits in with FBI and CIA and COINTELPRO and all that stuff, though. Secret Warriors vol 2! Hickman has time after Secret Wars.

I actually like the insanity of attempting to maintain continuity over a decades-long project. But at the same time, writers should be able gloss over the stupid stuff without having to do pointless retcons.

some of the coolest stories as of late have been continuity heavy - like RIP which wasn't just drawing from old stories but specifically from old stories that had never really been integrated into modern DC batman.

SHIELD was behind all that stuff except the bad stuff which was HYDRA behind SHIELD behind all that stuff.

Ultimate wasn't all bad - obviously Bendis writes a pretty good Spiderman (and a great JJJ) - but it was clear from early on (more so with Millar's X-Men I guess) that most of what was going to happen was that every piece of shit backstory was some writer's favourite, which they'd feel they needed to bring back (sometimes with a radikal remake) to make everything right.

I'd also rep for Ultimate Galactus trilogy, but I might be alone there.

continuity is great if it's a tool and not a fence

Millar Ultimates is p dope iirc

I'm up to Hickman-era Ultimates (alongside his FF run) and, while I'm digging his ultra large-scale storytelling and his willingness to radically change the landscape (entire portions of continents have been wiped out!), it suffers somewhat from the same taint as the Ultimate line in general. Namely, the need for unnecessary callbacks to 616 continuity. Like, great, you've created this radical new society of superpowered beings, but was it really necessary to call them Eternals and Deviants and have them ruled by the Xorn brothers?

At any rate, I really appreciate the bucketloads of ideas he's willing to pour into a single issue of comics. I'm trying very hard to keep track of all the moving pieces but I'm sure stuff is zipping past me.

Is this the best sentence ever written?

Like, great, you've created this radical new society of superpowered beings, but was it really necessary to call them Eternals and Deviants and have them ruled by the Xorn brothers?

Yes!

I think all the good names have been taken so you end up with completely different concepts using the same names in other Marvel universes

I guess, but then also Mike Carey came up with this character in his Ultimate Fantastic Four run who was fairly unique and a character unto herself who I then realized some time later was meant to be the Ultimate version of the Mad Thinker. I wish there had been a lot more of that kind of thing, but I don't know how much pressure there was on the writers to shoehorn pre-existing trademarks into their stories.

i loved that whole Eternals/Deviants thing

I think the complaint isn't the plot around them, but the fact that the Deviants/Eternals are something very different in the Marvel U

SW #3 is great. Kinda nervous that #4 is already getting bumped back and pushing all the other series too, I can't believe that they don't have the entire series done before they release the first one with the 'biggest Marvel event ever!!!!'

In a way SW#3 is typical event comic #3, in that nearly nothing happens. But the world building is so interesting, that I don't mind spending an issue hearing about the sun, or getting an update on Baron Sinister, or all that stuff.

Yeah. Shame about the delays but I'm enjoying everything about this so far.

I did notice, though, for that third issue, once you get rid of all the meta title pages, it's only 18 pages long!

Battleworld #1 has the Punisher possessed by Doctor Strange fighting a demonic Hulk, Ghost Rider, Wolverine and someone else. I think the editorial meetings for some of these series consisted of "sure, why not?"

Skottie Young's Avengers vs X-Men is as awful as you might expect. Kiddie avengers vs kiddie X-Men battle it out selling food from street carts, pretty much just an excuse to show you all the major characters drawn in Young's style.

A-Force - mostly C-list female superheroes protecting an idyllic island nation, Doom's absolutism pisses off the A-Force, Captain Universe is baaaaaaack
kind of meh, but I guess it's a lot to expect these setup issues to be great as story.

Spider-Verse - Gwen Stacy has memories of her death, kinda, then we find other Spideys then the Green Goblin is the leader of Battleworld Manhattan... then there's Spider-Pig.

that's Spider-HAM thanks

I don't think any of the related series have been worth the time. Loving Secret Wars, but these other stories are wanky fan service.

Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars - Deadpool gets dropped onto a Battleworld that is the original Secret Wars (or this is just entirely a separate thing) and makes a bunch of awful jokes.

I'm exhausted without even hitting the halfway point of my pile.

I want to give Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows a shot, but after that awful Deadpool comic I'm done for the day.

It just occurred to me that Marvel really missed a trick by not calling the last miniseries in the line Ultimate Nullifier.

The Ultimate line, I mean, obvs.

lol, yes

haha yup. and they could have brought in the jabroni from the VENGEANCE mini

For completely selfish reasons, I'm okay with all of the announced delays. I'm only just inching towards 2013 in my catch-up.

Hickman's Fantastic Four stuff has been ridiculous. He spent a full year across two titles basically documenting a single day when the bottom dropped out of the Marvel U. I hope he didn't out-epic himself too early. But I'm definitely primed to dig into to his Avengers work now, and even more excited for Secret Wars

A police procedural with a bunch of Thors as hardboiled cops is my favorite thing out of this so far.

the forensics team is top notch

yeah csi: asgard is fucking hilarious

btw I guess Secret Wars (specifically Ultimate End #3) is where "god damn" finally made it into a regular ol' Marvel comic, unless there's an earlier example I don't know about. I'm not a Christian but it still feels a little weird -- that was worse cussing than "fuck" when/where I grew up.

Btw #4 was pretty great, right? It's as if Hickman knows his story doesn't 'matter' so he has to infuse it with feels to make it work. Which obviously is what every art needs.

feelings, Frederik. they're called.... feelings

The Ultimate line has previously been pretty liberal with the g-d's, IIRC.

lol @ the culture slice where "fuck" isn't so bad compared to taking the lord's name in vain

that's probably the way it should be tbf

to be fucked

I mean, respect other people and their religious beliefs in vocalized language but tbh the people who are angry about "God damn" generally think their God damns a lot of things!

i was more thinking that fucking happens a lot and in the scheme of things shouldn't really be a powerful curse word. at least theoretically if you believe in God there's some weight to it

fucking happens a lot

#humblebrag

lol not to me but in the world, goddamnit!

So, gossip fans, now that the All-New All-Different titles are rolling out and it's still a couple of months before The Secrecy Wars are over, are the delays all on Esad Ribic's head, or is there enough blame to spread to everyone involved?

Two issues got added to All-Secret All-War after the solicits for #1 had come out (which based on the amount of padding it hasn't felt like it needed tbh) and nothing else got slipped despite all that time to do it, so it just smacks of inept publishing/editing to me.

I think it's weird that Marvel are now on their third soft reboot of the MU since DC created the Jhnsiverse. And solicits like "Enjoyed Old Man Logan #5? Then follow the adventures in Old Man Logan #1!" are just completely confusing.