Comic News Explosion!

On June 23, 2011June 24, 2011 By UncannyDerekIn Comic Blogging, DiscussionLeave a comment

There’s been so many little interesting things happening in the comic world that it boggles the mind how one can keep up with it. So here’s some stuff I found to be the most exciting in the past little while:

Uncanny X-Men Returns!

If you haven’t heard me complain about Marvel canceling Uncanny X-Men yet, don’t fret. I was right. They WILL be back – even sooner than expected. But starting at #1.

Am I psychic? No. I just am aware how comics work.

Both Comic Book Resources and ICv2 report (Oh, and Marvel too, I guess), much like the Looney Toons, the X-Men are back in action. And as I said before with too many X-titles on the market – sure enough, another one will hit the stands too. Wolverine & The X-Men. *Sigh*

It just doesn’t stop. And I doubt this has anything to do with the cartoon series.

Leonard Kirk Joins X-Factor!

This is the most exciting part to my news, in my humble opinion. Firstly, my first (or second, I’m still undecided) X-book is getting my local hometown artist on board! Leonard Kirk joins writer Peter David and artist Emanuela Lupacchino for a killer new arc in X-Factor. This is so freaking exciting! You can see some of Kirk’s sketches here on Marvel’s website. His versions of Wolfsbane and Layla are gorgeous.

Black Widow Archie?

Speaking of stuff not stopping, remember when Betty and Veronica from Archie were both Black Widows? I suppose Veronica is Natasha while Betty is Yelena? Does Archie comics even know there is a second Black Widow? Regardless, here are the covers:

Avengers 1959

If you haven’t been reading The New Avengers, you missed out on some ridiculous retconning as of late. Turns out in 1959, Nick Fury created a band of Avengers before the Avengers ever came to be. What’s even more over-the-top is that the team consists of villains like Sabretooth, Kraven the Hunter and Namora (well she’s turned around now). This five-issue mini series will chronicle the missions the team worked with Fury on.

So not only was the Avengers 1959 story tacked-on to the New Avengers story poorly, but now it’s getting its own mini series. Mind boggling. Writer/artist Howard Chaykin will be taking the helm with the story. You can check it out this October.

“Namor: The First Mutant” Canceled

And to go off of Namora, Namor: The First Mutant has officially been canceled with issue #11. No – it will not be seeing a reboot any time soon, but it shows me that Namor is better off in the X-Men. His stories weren’t bad at all – it was just that Namor has never had a home. When he did with X-Men, he was great. His own spinoff was unfortunately not worth it. However, I’ll never forget how great Namor: The First Mutant #5 was. It definitely places Namor in a completely different light.

You can still read about Marvel’s best anti-hero currently in many X-books, as well as in the Fear Itself: The Deep mini series.

Alpha Flight’s Villain

Announced and only teased to readers today, Alpha Strike will be the main villains in the Alpha Flight maxi series. Is that Wendigo? And who is the mysterious lady in the shadows?

Total anarchy!

As a complete side note, I’ve been listening to Devin Townsend’s “Deconstruction” album consistently for two days straight. (It was released Tuesday).

Update: 06/24
Rest in Peace Gene Colan

Legendary comic book artist Gene Colan passed away yesterday at the age of 84 due to complications with hip and liver disease.

Colan is known for co-creating such characters as Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, Blade, Super-Adaptoid and Dracula. He’s also known for exceptional runs on Daredevil, Captain America and Doctor Strange. He was recently given an Eisner Award for Best Single Issue with his work in 2009’s Captain American #601.

He shall be missed.

My Local Comic Vendor with Flood Damage

On June 17, 2011 By UncannyDerekIn Comic BloggingLeave a comment

This is an upsetting story for both the comic world and my hometown.

From my local paper, The Standard:

Last Monday, a watermain on St. Paul St. next to Mostly Comics burst, flooding the street and damaging nearby businesses.

[Owner Kim Stevens] down in the store room, surrounded by dehumidifiers and powerful fans, clearing away more than 200,000 water-damaged comics.

Stevens said the water poured into his shop before ending up in the basement.

“It was like Niagara Falls down here when I got in on Monday,” he said. “I have lots of stuff on shelves, but because the water came in from the ceiling it didn’t help,” he said.”

Although they have gone through their insurance, the payout will in no-way equal the losses. It’s just a sad situation. I spoke with them on Wednesday and it’ll just be awhile until everything gets sorted out. The amount of work they have to do for the insurance to pay out is astronomical. I really feel terrible for them.

I go to Mostly Comics every week and to see them in this situation is just gut-wrenching. I couldn’t imagine that sort of damage. A fire would demolish everything and a lump sum could’ve been paid. But because it was a flood, everything is still there and requires inventory check.

Uncanny X-Men Cancelled

On June 12, 2011June 12, 2011 By UncannyDerekIn Comic Blogging, Discussion2 Comments

In case you haven’t heard the drastic news: Uncannny X-Men is canceled as of issue #544.

That’s right. Uncanny X-Men – my favourite comic series – is concluding. All I can hear is Padme Amidala saying, “Anakin! You’re breaking my heart.” Or maybe that’s me saying, “Marvel! You’re ruining my fun!” The newest storyline entitled “Schism” is bringing the to a close.

Uncanny X-Men is the only Marvel title out of the 1960’s which has not had an interruption in numbering. What I mean, and if you read one of my more recent blogs about DC’s reboot, you’d know that most of Marvel’s comics have been revamped multiple times. Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, Journey Into Mystery, etc., have all had many reboots. Heck, The Avengers is on Volume 4 already! The Fantastic Four just ended with issue #588 and The Incredible Hulk is ending with issue #635.

So what is the big deal about Uncanny X-Men? Let me tell you with my biased opinions.

FIVE Reasons Why Cancelling Uncanny X-Men is a Bad Thing:

Uncanny X-Men Finale

1. The Numbering and the Collection
As an avid comic collector, the numbering change sucks. I both love to read and collect Uncanny X-Men. When I make a collection, nothing is more satisfying than saying that I own a full-run or having a large chunk of numbers in a row. Breaking that streak is not only a let-down for collectors, but also creates disinterest. Since I’m a fanboy, I’ll of course continue reading X-Men. However, this end of numbers may be the excuse many need to jump off the series. However, the sales and interest of Uncanny X-Men will peak with the reasoning behind its cancellation (this “Schism” storyline). This is also a big deal because Uncanny X-Men is doing very well with sales. This brings me to:

2. Too Many X-Titles
Uncanny X-Force, X-Men Legacy, X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, Generation Hope, X-Factor, New Mutants, Alpha Flight, Wolverine, X-23, Daken, Deadpool, mini’s (ie. Divided We Stand) – they’re all on the market right now. Some may argue that the series is being cancelled to help “sales.” That has to be completely absurd.
Case-in-point: The sales for comics in April 2011
Uncanny X-Men #535 – 56,795 – $3.99
Uncanny X-Force #7 – 54,292 – $3.99
Uncanny X-Men #536 – 53,502 – $3.99
Uncanny X-Men #534.1 – 53,473 – $2.99
X-Men Legacy #247 – 51,970 – $2.99
Uncanny X-Force #8 – 50,908 – $3.99
X-Men #10 – 50,553 – $3.99
New Mutants #24 – 38,701 – $2.99
X-Factor #218 – 24,826 – $2.99

April was quite the over-saturated month for Uncanny X-Men. With THREE titles coming out and selling over 50k at roughly $3.99 each, there’s no way to say sales are a problem. In the entire month, Uncanny X-Men – the flagship title – remains on top. The newest “X-Men” series which only recently released issue #1 is getting pummeled in sales when against its parent titles. Why cancel what is doing the best for all of the X-Titles? A reboot may not even work if you assume the sloping trend in sales “X-Men” is having.

3. Schism/Inevitable Comeback
“Schism” is the event which is to shake down what the X-Men are. It is supposed to make a Twilight fanbase out of Uncanny X-Men fans – deciding whether or not “Team Wolverine” or “Team Cyclops” will win the heart of Bella – I mean, the hearts of the readers. What bothers me most (and can be tied in with the first problem) is that a reboot will inevitably bring back the numbering. It has happened with Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, Journey Into Mystery, The Avengers, etc. Yes. It happened to all of the comics I mentioned above. Heck, it happened in 2006 with X-Factor. It started a Volume 2 with issue #1-49, then switched back to Volume 1 with #200.

While I can see that the current “X-Men” series may eventually get phased into becoming “Uncanny X-Men,” these reboots are unnecessary for readers who are already familiar with the characters. Who needs to get a issue to “jump on” with when they’ve already been familiar with how Wolverine dislikes Cyclops, or why Jean Grey is dead (currently)? Hey, wasn’t Uncanny X-Men #534.1 meant for that? Wasn’t the new “X-Men” series meant for that too? Either way you look at it, it’s a very gusty move for Marvel because people may just use this as an excuse to stop reading the X-Men all together. However, I believe it is safe to say that Uncanny X-Men will come back. It’s just “when” I’m unsure of.

4. New Writer
Matt Fraction’s run on Uncanny X-Men was a lot of fun. For years with our mutants, he brought them through hell and back with incredible stories starting in issue #500 while introducing a new trademark of identifying each character with some silly one-line descriptions. But Fraction left the series with it feeling stale. Kieron Gillen takes over and suddenly – BAM! – New life is breathed into the series and it’s exciting again. Then Gillen does not even get a full year’s run on the series?! What in the world? Is this a cruel joke? Just when there’s light at the end of the tunnel, it ends up being hit by a train.

5. Greg Land
Nothing says farewell to the longest-unbroken Marvel series like that of Greg Land. I am so looking forward to seeing his great action scenes acted out by models and celebrities. Fml.

What do you folks think? Is this cancellation a good idea? Will it breath fresh air into the series which may have already been boring to you long ago? Will you continue following the outcome of Schism after this?

Keep on Space Truckin’.

Good Idea/Bad Idea: DC Hits the Reboot Button

On June 1, 2011 By UncannyDerekIn Comic Blogging, Discussion2 Comments

And by “reboot,” I do not mean they’re in the Net.

No, DC Comics did something drastically yesterday. They announced that all of their superheroes comics will be rebooted to #1. This is massive news as writers will be shifted around as these new adventures unfold. In fact, it seems as if DC will be looking for new writers to jump on board for their characters.

But what about Batman and Superman? They’ve all shared their fair-share of different origin stories with Superman: Earth One is a recent example. But how far will these reboots go?

I also do not mean to be a worry-body, but isn’t a few months till launch seem like too short of a time to find new writers for some of these comics? I’m definitely no Comic Book Engineer, but I do know comics take months in advanced to produce a story. How will the quality appear? What about crossovers? Retcons?

One thing I should also mention is – although this is a drastic overhaul for DC Comics – this is not “new” by any means. Remember in the early 90’s when Marvel did this to a majority of their comics? It bombed big-time. In fact, it upset people so much that they rebooted Fantastic Four TWICE just so that the numbers could sync up. Here’s the cover of Fantastic Four, Volume 3 #71. Or is it Volume 1 #500? Look at the number on the top left of the cover and decide for yourself.

Amazing Spider-Man was rebooted into a second volume in 1999. It ran for 58 issues before turning into #499. So for the record, Amazing Spider-Man Vol 2 #1-58, was actually Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #442-499.

If it didn’t work for Marvel – the bigger of the two companies – why would DC jump on to the same failboat as before?

The Joe Shuster Awards blog has an excellent discussion of some pros and cons with the change in DC. I highly recommend you check it out.

What are your thoughts on what DC is doing? Did Marvel just not do it at the right time? Will DC succeed? Will you drop books when they get renumbered?

Will you keep on Space Truckin’?