Normally, it’s expected that repeating a press release is poor journalism, but in the case of the PR that Marvel just sent out for Legacy, it would be criminal not to reproduce it in total, because it’s just so…amazing.
It promises so many things – Shocks, twists, clues, and Easter eggs – and offers a totally content free vision of why you should just read Legacy because…IT’S MARVEL. BIGLY. And you can jump right on. With 53 new series that show how new they are by going back to legacy numbering from the 60s!
And Stan Lee likes it.
The creative teams, storylines and actual set up of Legacy has yet to be announced – except as very tiny type on a postcard.
I’m sure Reddit has transcribed it by now, so I’ll repost when you can read it. (I have very bad eyesight.) Not a very efficient way to get the message across, esp. on a getaway Friday in summer just before a major holiday.
Is Legacy a continuity buster or just new storylines? A revamp, a relaunch, a reboot or a re-vive?
WHich isn’t to say that Marvel doesn’t need a clean slate. But is the promise of Easter Eggs enough to bring you back?
What say you, true believers? Are you persuaded?
>>
You demanded it, we listened! Beginning this fall, prepare for an exciting new initiative that spans the entire Marvel Universe! Every hero! Every title! Every story! Honoring the past while proudly moving towards the future, MARVEL LEGACY will offer fans, both current and new, a renewed sense of hope, heroics, and dozens and dozens of returns of the heroes fans have been demanding!MARVEL LEGACY ushers in the next few years’ worth of stories from Marvel with everything fans could want and more. You asked for it, and now is the time to Make Mine Marvel!
“I love the concept of returning to the classic characters as they were originally portrayed, without losing the brilliance and excitement of Marvel’s newest generation of heroes,” said Chairman Emeritus Stan Lee. “Excelsior!”
Simply put MARVEL LEGACY will offer
- The most spectacular character returns
- Epic stories adding to the next chapter of the Marvel Universe by the industries’ top talent
- Heroes fighting villains
- Clean jumping on points for all readers clearly displayed using dynamic new trade dress
- The return to original numbering for many series
- Did we mention the most spectacular character returns that comic fans have demanded
And that’s just the beginning! It all starts with MARVEL LEGACY #1.
Journey to the dawn of time, as Marvel introduces you to the first Avengers from 1,000,000 BC – when iconic torch-bearers such as Odin, Iron Fist, Starbrand, Ghost Rider, Phoenix, Agamotto, and Black Panther come together for the startling origin of the Marvel Universe, in MARVEL LEGACY #1 on sale this September in comic shops everywhere!
“MARVEL LEGACY #1 isn’t simply a history lesson,” says SVP and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort. “Rather, it’s the starting gun to a bevy of mysteries, secrets, and revelations that will reverberate across the Marvel Universe in the weeks and months to come! No character, no franchise will be untouched by the game-changing events that play out across its pages. Jason and Esad pulled out all the stops to fat-pack this colossal issue with as much intrigue, action, surprise, mystery, shock, and adventure as possible!”
The acclaimed team of writer Jason Aaron (Mighty Thor) and artist Esad Ribic (Secret Wars) reunite for an all-new 50-page blockbuster one-shot that will take you through time to the current Marvel Universe, showing you how it’s “all connected.” A true homage to Marvel’s groundbreaking past and the vast expanse of current storytelling greats.
“MARVEL LEGACY #1 will present all fans – new readers and current readers – with an exciting and accessible entry point,” says Marvel Editor in Chief Axel Alonso. “Jason and Esad have crafted an epic story that’s chock full of reveals and twists and Easter eggs that are sure to ignite a fire across the industry. The next stage of Marvel’s evolution starts here.”
MARVEL LEGACY #1 will provide
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The single most important first step for any fan to jumping into MARVEL LEGACY
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Shocks, twists, clues, and Easter eggs
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A blockbuster story that sets the stage for the coming years of Marvel storytelling
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The introduction of the 1,000,000 BC AVENGERS
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The most talked about return in comics
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A brilliant tale by the legendary team of Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic
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The set-up for 53 Marvel Universe series
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Those character returns you’ve asked for, many of them get cued up here
“Excelsior,” added Lee.
Jesus Christ.
I thought Legacy sounded like a great idea when I first heard about it, but the more I hear, the more it sounds like another damn event, same as all the others.
I thought it was just going to be some team-up books: Steve and Sam, Peter and Miles, Odinson and Jane, etc. Something like DC’s legacy hero team-ups, post-Crisis / pre-Flashpoint. Back-to-basics stuff, righting the ship, etc.
The more I hear, the less it sounds like that, and that’s a shame.
53? So… one better than DC?
As a long-time Marvel fan, I want to like Legacy and I would love for it to succeed. But I have no clue what the hell Legacy really is and why I should want to read it. As this article points out, the publicity roll-out for this has been badly bungled.
The “elevator pitch” for things like Civil War, Secret Invasion, Siege, etc was easy to find and easy to understand… and those pitches all talked about (among other things) the stories involved. For Legacy? I hear “variant covers” and “issue renumbering” and so on. I feel like it is all “inside baseball” with nobody really communicating anything about the premise of the story.
If you asked me to tell you what Age of Ultron was about before it was published, I could tell you: Ultron has won, and Earth’s heroes need to figure out a way to undo that. Similarly, I could tell you the basic premise and/or set-up for Original Sin, Secret Wars, etc etc etc. I could do the same for DC Rebirth.
But I can’t do that for Legacy, and that is nobody’s fault except for Marvel. The messaging on Legacy has been very muddled.
And how the hell can retailers figure out how to place orders for something like this with no in-story info and no creator info?
There’s a Moon Knight series on the roster, so I’m happy.
Heroes versus villains? Does marvel even know how to write that sort of story anymore? At any rate with the 4.99 price tag I’ll pass.
The Marvel editors’ comments sound like the same promotional BS we hear every year, whenever the Big Two have a “big event” to hype. Maybe if I were a lot younger, I would fall for it. Then again, I passed on “Secret Wars” in the ’80s (when I was a lot younger).
Let’s see if Marvel can limit itself to “only” 53 ongoing titles. That’s still too many, but the temptation to flood the market (their usual tactic) will be hard to resist.
Except for “Monsters Unleashed,” this appears to be an all-superhero lineup. Looks like they’re aiming it strictly at the fanboys in the comic shops.
Outside Star Wars it looks like ill be down to just five titles under Marvel, Maybe four if Royals doesn’t shape up. There is just NOTHING that gets me excited about this at all. Just over priced PR hype to pay for the people in the marketing department.
Some fans have demanded a return to form for Marvel, absolutely. Is this it? No. 1,000,000 BC Avengers? Silly
Just like every other relaunch/reboot/rebirth, I’ll pick up a few titles that sound interesting (for some reason, I’m excited about Marvel Two-In-One, guess I just love those old team-up titles from Marvel and DC). This puts me at about 20 titles from DC and Marvel combined. With all Marvel’s cancellations in 2017, I suddenly have room to sample some Indy titles, Any suggestions?
Missing in action:
Rocket
Groot
Infamous Iron Man
Totally Hulk
Dr Strange and the SS
Nick Fury
Captain America
Ultimates
Wasp
Occupy Avengers
Nova
Silver Surfer
Star Lord
Steve, Occupy Avengers, Nova, Silver Surfer, Star-Lord, The Ultimates, and Wasp are cancelled as per the usual low sales excuse. Rocket, Groot, and Dr Strange and the SS are stealth minis, while it’s likely that Infamous Iron Man is being concluded by its writer. “Totally Hulk” will become Incredible Hulk, while still no news on the fate of Nick Fury. Finally, Captain America will surely return later this year, but the best bet for the announcement is SDCC.
You know as much as people like to put down Marvel comic management things like this make me wonder how much control they actually have. Back when I actually went to cons I got to know some of the people still running Marvel a bit and talked and heard them talk a lot about comics and the comics business. They were not stupid people then and I heard Quesada talk many times about the problems with the 90’s gimmicks.
So if we can see the problems at Marvel I know they have to be able to as well. Yet they never seem to do anything to really fix them. I wonder if they are in a situation where all they can do is bail out the boat since they are not allowed to pull it out of the water and fix the hull.
One gimmick after another. I remember when DC’s new 52 was the new great thing, but it didn’t turn out that way so now Marvel and DC keep rebooting, changing and starting again. Not interested. Haven’t been interested in the Big 2 in a few years now.
“With all Marvel’s cancellations in 2017, I suddenly have room to sample some Indy titles, Any suggestions?”
Paper Girls and Walking Dead are both flawed but more interesting than anything from the Big Two.
Also go on the Comic Book Plus site and read thousands of free public domain comics: Plastic Man, the Spirit, Blackhawk, Daredevil (not the Marvel hero), Crime Does Not Pay, Captain Marvel (also not the Marvel version), Spy Smasher, Blue Beetle, etc.
>Any suggestions?
Usagi Yojimbo
Seven to Eternity
Kill or be Killed
Charles, I think the problem is Quesada is too high up now and has little to do with the comics and I fear that marketing may have more to do with numbering and relaunches than creators or even editorial. I’m sure lots of people at Marvel prefer the numbers were never screwed with in the first place. This all goes back to Heroes Reborn and Heroes Return. The original plan was the treat Heroes Reborn like the Age of Apocalypse and have all the books come back and pick up the numbering they lifetime of at. For example avengers ended at 402, so The Busiek/Perez run would have started with 403. However it was marketing that said it would be great to get huge number 1 numbers again like Heroes Reborn had th year before. After that it became the solution to every book that didn’t sell like they once did. The x-books were the last to hold out as Uncanny didn’t relaunch until schism around 2008.
Marvel’s press release says LEGACY will offer “clean jumping on points” and “new trade dress”. I’ve long thought Marvel should have kept their numbering and promoted new stories by putting “Part 1 of 5”, “Part 2 of 5”, etc on their covers. I noticed today that DC is now doing this, but only numbering the first part. ACTION COMICS is running a new “Revenge” storyline, but only part 1 is numbered on the cover. The other parts just say, “Revenge.”
This all seems like a very straightforward marketing plan to me. I’m not saying that it will work, but the theory is pretty simple. Take away all of the “classic beloved” heroes, replace them with cheap alternatives, make people miss them, and make a big to do about bringing them back.. For those of you old enough to remember, it is the “New Coke” marketing plan. It was very obvious what was going to happen when the only major marvel superhero remaining in his own title was spider-man and even he had a diversity doppleganger. So all of this hullabaloo is just the return of the “normal” heroes and keeping the new ones who were a “hit” with current fans. Simple enough, question is will it work
Nothing about any of this stands out to me except the names Aaron and Ribic. I’m not a huge fan that needs to be convinced to like the whole thing anyway, so whatever. I forgot where I read it but I saw something about Waid/Samnee doing Captain America. I would be soo into that.
Simple request: Steve Rogers, as an America-supporting hero, in his traditional costume, fighting supervillains and making the world a better place (somewhere at Marvel an editor’s head just exploded). If you can’t do that simple thing, why should I bother? Answer: I won’t!
A Steve Rogers opposed to everything that Team Trump stands for would be a real hero.
Looks like a lot of characters I like…I hope the creative teams are there, too. I hope there’s a good mix of new and veteran creators.
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