Or – “Believe It Or Not, Relaunches Are Nothing New…”
With the beginnings of the New 52 in stores, internet wags have already sounded the death knell for DC and for comics in general, and there are some who cite restarts/relaunches/reboots and such as the work of Mephisto. The truth, Faithful Spoilerites, is that relaunches have always been the way of the comic book world, dating back to the earliest days of cheap newsprint. Case in point: Captain America – Commie Smasher!
Or – “Marvel Vs. DC, 25 Years Or So Early…”
There was a time in comics when the creator pool was a much smaller, and much tighter knit group, and when editorial control was pretty much limited to “Hey, Marv wants to use your guy next month.” Creators might travel back and forth between the various publishers (though there was a Big Two, even then) and carry concepts and characters with them, as Steve Englehart did with Mantis and her various counterparts throughout his work. Eventually, this would lead to unofficial crossover stories (one of which birthed the concept known as the Squadron Supreme.) And then, there was the case of writer Steve Skeates, who single-handedly created what may be the first inter-company crossover with issues that came out nearly two YEARS apart! You KNOW you wanna read ‘dis…
I mentioned there were a lot of Marvel Sneak Peek’s coming your way today. Next on the list - Sub-Mariner: The Depths #1. It’s the third sneak peek today featuring a $3.99 cover price.
Another weekend, another collection of sneak peeks from Marvel for titles arriving next week. In Part 2, you can treat your eyes to pages from MARVEL ILLUSTRATED: LAST OF THE MOHICANS 5, PUNISHER MAX ANNUAL 1, SUB-MARINER 4, THE ORDER 3, ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR 46, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN 114, X-MEN 203, and X-MEN: FIRST CLASS 4
Wizard World Chicago is coming to an end, and most of the big announcements have been made. There’s nothing you can do about it now, but perhaps this selection of sneak peeks from Marvel Comics will help you ease into the new week.
In this installment RED PROPHET: THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER 10, SPIDER-MAN FAMILY 4, SUB-MARINER 3, SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP/MODOK’S 11 2, TERROR, INC. 1, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN 112, WOLVERINE: ORIGINS 16
It’s the battle of the century! Okay, well maybe it is just the battle of the moment as Marvel Comics slips Major Spoilers the knock down drag out fight between Namor and Wolverine. With 900 Americans dead, it seems easy to blame the Sub-Mariner. In order to clear his name and find the real killer, Namor must go through Wolverine.
Take the jump for the sneak peek.
Or – “Namor’s Credo: If Excessive Force Fails, You Didn’t Use Enough.”
That’s one of the sonar images you never want to see, along with a close-up of a torpedo, or a sexually excited blue whale. In each case, even if you survive, you’ll never quite be the same again. Issue #1 of the Sub-Mariner mini got a pass when I thumbed through the Previews catalog, but I picked it up on a slow Sunday, just to kill time, and found myself engrossed by a political allegory with a uncompromising, principled, though unbending main character. Namor the first, scion of Atlantis, is a hard character to get “right” (Brian Bendis’ version especially rings false to me) but the first issue hit all the right notes AND got him out of his scaley green speedo. Will part two continue the streak?
Or – “Why Sometimes Impulse Buys Are A Good Thing…”
There are a lot of things you can say about Namor the Sub-Mariner, but one of the most obvious is that he is the original anti-hero. Whereas Wolverine, The Punisher, and others started a mini-revolution in the past 25 years, Namor was known to be “the best there is at what he does” nearly 70 years ago! With a whole new political climate, an angry foreign potentate is likely to ruffle some feathers, and when the king in question can heft a battleship in his bare hands, I suspect it means this series won’t be without conflict… I wasn’t going to read this book until the first issue appeared in our preview package two weeks ago, and what I found inside what NOT what I expected.
Or – “What Happens When The Smartest Heroes Are Neither Smart Nor Heroic…”
The first two issues of The Illuminati miniseries can be boiled down pretty succinctly by saying this: Overconfidence and arrogance nearly costs them all their lives. In the first issue, it’s a miscalculation as to the competence of the Skrull Empire, in the second, they overestimate their own ability to resist the phenomenal cosmic power of the Infinity Gems. Every time we see this grouping, they have done something incredibly stupid because they presume to be smarter than everyone else on the planet, and that hubris will, apparently, continue forever…
Who has attacked the mid-west? Could Namor and Atlantis be behind this post Civil War attack? Marvel has sent us a sneak peek at Sub-Mariner #1 written by Matt Cherniss and Peter Johnson with art by Phil Briones.
Take the jump for the preview, with cover by everyone’s favorite Michael Turner!