What do you do when Neil Gaiman starts co-writing GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY with Brian Michael Bendis and his now Marvel-owned Angela character stars?
Get Milo Manara to take us back to the innocent days of bad girl art with a variant cover, of course.
She’s one of the biggest new characters to debut in the Marvel Universe and today Marvel is proud to unveil your first look at Milo Manara’s jaw dropping variant cover to Guardians of The Galaxy #5, featuring ANGELA! Starting this July, Neil Gaiman teams with blockbuster writer Brian Michael Bendis and fan favorite artist Sara Pichelli to take the angelic bounty hunter to the outer limits of the Marvel Universe in an all new arc starting in Guardians Of The Galaxy #5! Alongside Star-Lord, Iron Man, Rocket Raccoon, Drax, Gamora & Groot – Angela must help the Guardians take down threats putting the galaxy at risk, showing why she’s one of the most feared women in the Marvel Universe!
The arrival of Angela to the Marvel Universe marks one of the most important moments in comics history! With a major player like the fearless warrior making her presence known – no fan can miss how her debut impacts the Marvel Universe and beyond! So what are you waiting for, reserve your copy of the Guardians Of the Galaxy #5 Angela Variant today!
Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.
That’s a pretty good Red Sonja cover.
I love Milo’s art. This one is a bit sillier than usual (it looks like she is standing on lava, so there could be some indication of heat, or red glow on her skin and clothes) but as captivating as ever.
wow.
the most exciting event in comic book history since…. I dunno… DC’s 1992 Darkness Within event. You know. The one with Eclipso. That rocked.
I already miss the DnA run of Guardians.
Can we trade Iron Man for Bug and Cosmo?
From THE HOUSE OF IDEAS comes a half-nekkid nearly-forgotten throwaway character from THE HEYDAY OF IMAGE transplanted into THE SERIES FEATURING SECOND-RATE CHARACTERS WE ULTRA-HYPED TO DEATH in order to bring you THE MOST IMPORTANT GOD DAMN EVENT IN COMICAL BOOK HISTORY at least until the next one comes along in about three weeks or so.
Dan Didio, eat your jealous heart out. We gots Neil Gai-man, we gots Neil Gai-man la la la la la la la…
Whatya mean by “Sandman: Overture”…?
Those are two sad sentences. Could a Marvel old-timer write those without cringing, or would he think, “To hell with it. I’ve got a job to do.”
SRS
“Could a Marvel old-timer write those without cringing…”
You have heard of Stan Lee, haven’t you?
Milo Manara recognised this for what it was – a paycheck – and put in exactly that much effort.
In five years or less this Angela stuff is going to be something the people at Marvel make fun of themselves over in interviews and podcasts. Thing is everyone can see that now and they’re still going all-in for some reason.
Yes, I read the Bullpen Bulletins pages in the ’70s, but Lee had a sense of humor, and his writers took their jobs seriously. This GotG PR isn’t funny at all, and if it’s not funny, why write it? Angela is a bikini-clad bounty hunter.
Imagine the reaction if USA Network promoted a series with a similar character and anything like Marvel’s hyperbole. People would think the network’s spokesman was high on something.
This is 2013. Anybody who goes online can look at real women far prettier than Angela, or watch videos with women prettier than her, with a few clicks. Does Marvel think that the people who read the Angela PR are retarded?
SRS
I disagree. There will always be a market for bikini-clad bounty hunters.
The problem with all of this is that I trust that there might — might — have been a much better plan that involved Gaiman, Miracle Man, and perhaps Angela.
But, clearly, untangling that mess was more than billion-dollar companies could even handle.
So, now, they’re left “making do.”
Silly But True
I’m hoping that Gaiman can bring some life to the book. After a strong opening, Bendis already feels like he’s phoning it in (I’m no Bendis-basher; I feel like his current X-Men work is his best stuff in years). As others have pointed out, it’s a pale imitation of the DnA “GOTG”, which was stellar, especially the first arc with Paul Pelletier on art.
This is Bendis riffing on someone else’s work the same way he riffed on Warren Ellis’s “Thunderbolts” with his substandard “Dark Avengers”. I want a good “GOTG” book because I love the characters and the world they inhabit. But I don’t think that Bendis is the one to write their adventures.
The banter is not good (Rocket’s “Blam! Murdered you!” was funny on one page, then became tiresome once it kept going on and on), which is odd, because Bendis can be quite funny when he tries (again, see his current X-Men books).
I’m enjoying “Nova” more than this and expect to like it even more once Zeb Wells starts writing it. Now THERE’S a guy who knows how to write funny.
Oh, and Angela. Um, don’t care about her and the hype surrounding her return is just laughable. But I can still see her maybe being a fun addition to the book.
This is probably the most realistic version of the character ever drawn (lava notwithstanding).
If Marvel is going to waste money producing a crap series no wants to read, the great Manara may as well get a share of the money. It must be nice for him, to take a break from real comics.
ya know, maybe a reversed tactic might have worked here. instead of all this bloated and useless hype, maybe marvel should have kept their collective mouths shut about the reappearance of angela, thus creating excitment and controversy with her sudden surprise appearance in GOTG. suddenly the book is in high demand (cos’ you know how we comic book fans can get when we get surprised with stuff like this), being gobbled up in every comic book shop coast to coast, selling out, and going full steam ahead into a second printing. or maybe a surprise appearance would be met with a giant yawn, but i doubt that would happen. i find it hard to underestimate the hype we fans sometimes create all by ourselves, but alas, we’ll never know.