Marvel Legacy Cover by Joe Quesada

So The Beat has never been one to float Reddit rumours, but a post today runs down what seems to be known of the creative lineup for the Legacy relaunch in the fall and from what this says, it’s definitely a relaunch and not a wholesale “Reboot” in the “New 52” manner. Basically, according to this, Bendis, Soule, Spencer and Slott have all indicated they’ll be staying on their beats. Which could be…problematic for some fans who are demanding wholesale change.

I haven’t had a chance to look at all these links or listen to the podcasts ,s so I’m throwing this up with a grain of salt and to start some discussion.   Also, what people say on social media in the spring could very well be a diversion for what’s happening in the Fall.

At the very least, keeping the controversial and unrepentant Nick Spencer on Captain America is going to require the greatest rebranding of all times.

So…we suddenly know a lot about Marvel Legacy from Marvel writers “leaking” their own titles. And it’s a lot of good news if you’re happy with current Marvel, but a whole lot of bad if you’re not. Marvel Legacy seems to be more of the same of what we have now.

Iron Man – will still be written by Brian Michael Bendis. Bendis confirmed this on the current Word Balloon podcast, saying that the title will soon revert to the #600 legacy numbering.

Miles Morales/Spider-Man – will still be written by Brian Michael Bendis. He didn’t give a number, but he said they’re working on adding up all of his Spider-Man issues to see what milestone he’s close to.

Daredevil – will still be written by Charles Soule. When asked on Twitter about Legacy, Soule said he’s writing a Daredevil Legacy issue now. When asked if he’ll be on the title for at least the next 12 issues, Soule said “Definitely.”

Captain America – This one is less concrete, but Nick Spencer definitively said that he would still be writing Steve Rogers post-Secret Empire, which seems a good indication that he would remain the Cap writer in Legacy.

Amazing Spider-Man by Dan Slott (still). In another Word Balloon podcast recently, Slott talked a lot about his long term plans for the title and how Superior Octopus sets up future stories. Seems a pretty clear indication that Slott’s time on the book is not close to ending.

Speculation – Jason Aaron and Gerry Duggan have given no indication they plan to leave Thor and Deadpool anytime soon, and it would surprise me if they did.

X-Men and Guardians just recently relaunched, no way that’s changing up in October.

So. It suddenly looks like “Legacy” isn’t the answer to “Rebirth” at all, but rather a fresh coat of paint on the same thing. Thoughts?

22 COMMENTS

  1. Being very happy with all these titles and what Marvel have been doing since Secret Wars, this is great news.

  2. As a fan who is demanding wholesale change, this is indeed…problematic.

    The only writer I want to remain is Jason Aaron on Thor. Everyone else, IMHO, needs to be shown the door and replaced with new writers.

  3. I dunno…it’s really tough to get excited about the same thing that’s been going on, in many cases, for 2 – 5 years now.

  4. As long as the characters come back, I’m good. By the way, I’m reading Champions on Marvel Unlimited and it’s fantastic!!

  5. Nick Spence needs to move on from Cap. Leaving him on the title post-Secret Empire would be one of the biggest self-inflicted wounds yet from a company that has taken to shooting itself in the foot with Spencer regularly every few months.

  6. I wonder if Spencer saying that he is working on Cap post Secret Empire may just be a few issues tieing up his run. Aftermath issues, you could call them.

    I think it’s time for someone else on Amazing Spider-Man, Slott has had a long enough run, let someone else play with the toys. Although, I do wonder if Amazing Spider-Man will be renumbered later on in the cycle of Legacy, which gives him enough time to tell the Doc Oct story. Afterwards, Marvel then Legacy-fies the title with new creative team, number in 670s (800+ if you count Superior) and jumping on point.

    For Daredevil I don’t mind Soule being on the series still as he has only been on it for a year and there doesn’t seem to be the same need for change that are warranted for other books.

  7. I wouldn’t count out new books from switching to legacy numbering since Venom only went to six issues before jumping to 150.

  8. Aside from Iron Man, I’m fine with all of these. I read them all and they’re all good/great. (Though I’m not ready to render a verdict on the new Guardians of the Galaxy run after one issue.)

  9. The focus is still on the writers indicating to me that Marvel still doesn’t think artists “move the needle”.

  10. Marvel has nothing to do with this post or the information in it. It is just leaked information. Marvel isn’t putting a focus on anything here.

  11. The focus of a list by a random person on the internet who’s looked at what a few writers have said?

    If this is the whole story, it’s a bit disappointing. But then, with the X-Men, the Guardians and the Inhumans already having relaunched, I guess drastic shake-ups were unlikely anyway.

    Regardless of the individual qualities of the writers in question, it just feels like new blood would do Marvel good right now–and not on some well-liked but low-selling fringe book, but in the heart of the Marvel U. Or there was the rumor that Marvel was trying to court some Image writers back. I was reading Remender the other week and thinking how much I’d like him back on an X-book.

  12. It’s also my understanding that these team-ups between the new versions and the old have already occurred in many cases? All of the specialness about this isn’t really all that momentous after all?

  13. Duggan hinted on his Comedy Bang Bang appearance that he might be nearing the end.

    I never want Slott to leave. That might be my exit from spider-man.

    Isn’t Legacy more about the characters than the creators, anyway.

  14. A couple of these team-ups have happened before, but it’s still fun. Superman has raced Flash more than one time, but it is still a fun story.

  15. Isn’t Legacy more about the characters than the creators, anyway.

    That is certainly how Marvel has been advertising it.

    What I think is going on is that a lot of Marvel fans (on the Internet) and comics journalists are thinking that this is Marvel’s answer to DC’s Rebirth. And they’re looking to see what lessons Marvel is going to take out of Rebirth and use in Legacy. Mostly because they have opinions on why Rebirth “worked” and they want Marvel to do those things.

    Now some of them think that Rebirth “worked” only because it reset characters back to where they were when those fans liked those characters (i.e. pre-New 52 versions in most cases). Others think its not just that but also the shake-up of the creative teams on the various books. Others think it “worked” mostly because DC came out and admitted that they were completely wrong in their understanding of what comics readers and retailers wanted and they were going to work harder to try to figure out how to give people what they wanted.

    Depending on how you feel about this, then, you’re going to react differently to this story. If you think it’s just about getting the characters “back” to some ideal version of those characters then this might be a load of nothing – it doesn’t matter who writes Captain America as long as they’re writing Steve Rogers as the long accepted version of Captain America that you have in your head (and not as a fascist dictator, or as an old man, or as an agent of SHIELD, or whatever). But it could also be a bad sign to you because you don’t believe that those creators can do those characters “correctly” – some folks are convinced that Dan Slott can’t write Spider-man “correctly’, for example, or that Spenser can’t write Captain America “correctly”. so even if they’re in the camp that it’s about getting the characters “back” to what they want, they don’t think those creators can deliver it and want to see shake-ups.

    But folks in the camp that Rebirth was about “bigger picture” direction ideas will see this as a sign that Marvel “isn’t getting it”. That Marvel is still just doing what they’ve been doing for the past decade – ending an event with a big “relaunch” that doesn’t change much of anything. A lot of lip service to changing things to string fans and retailers along without actually changing the direction on individual books, or the publishing direction of the company, or admitting that they’ve been doing things wrong for years and that that’s what has led to their current sales woes and that they’re going to try to do better.

    Who’s right? I dunno. I guess we’ll see. Since Marvel obviously isn’t doing everything that DC did with Rebirth the same way DC did I guess we’ll get to see whether they learned the “right” lessons out of Rebirth or not.

  16. If true… UGH! Sorry, but I think Dan Slott has way overstayed his welcome on ASM. It’s definitely time for some “fresh” blood on that title.

  17. ” it just feels like new blood would do Marvel good right now–” Where’s that new blood going to come from? Besides, Marvel tried that already. They hired their fair share of minorities, and that did not exactly translate to higher sales.

  18. Marvel hired a handful of young artists fresh out of school in attempt to get the pulse on what’s hot, such as Hannah Blumenreich, but artists like her did not attract the huge influx of new readers they claimed they could.

  19. “Others think it “worked” mostly because DC came out and admitted that they were completely wrong in their understanding of what comics readers and retailers wanted…”

    I never saw where they said anything about being “completely” wrong. Only that there were a few elements missed.

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