In an interview with delightful hero Brian Truitt of USA Today, Marvel have unveiled the branding for their next wave of comics. Called All-New Marvel Now, the two launch books will be All-New Invaders by James Robinson and Steve Pugh; as well as Matt Fraction and Joe Madiurera’s Inhumans.

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All-New Marvel Now will start in December, and certain current books will be renumbered to take that into account. As a result, Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers will feature an issue 24.NOW, for example. Which, yes, is ridiculous. Across the line, Marvel will be rebranding the design of their comics to match the covers you can see here, whilst Captain America seems set to be put in the spotlight (handy when there’s a new film coming out soon!)

All-New Invaders will see Cap reunited with Namor and the Original Human Torch – AS WELL AS The Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes. Written by James Robinson and drawn by Steve Pugh, this new ongoing series will send the team off to another war – one with the Kree, an alien race returning in force.

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Inhumans was already announced, and will also launch as part of All-New Marvel Now. Matt Fraction will write and Joe Mad will pencil the series, which looks to redevelop the concept of X-Men – a minority forced to band together in the face of overwhelming oppression – but for a franchise whose film rights aren’t owned by FOX.

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Avengers 24.NOW, by Hickman and Esad Ribic, will begin the new phase for Marvel on December 24th. Hey, that’s Christmas! Once Marvel send out larger versions of the covers, I’ll update the article accordinglu.

One of the most notable parts of the announcement, however, is that certain ANMN issues will come with a digital code which gives you access to the original run of comics. So readers can not only get these new comics – they can also get a look at the classic stories as well, to catch them up.

38 COMMENTS

  1. “Branding” is definitely a loose concept here. Wow. “Let’s put a red tilted box in the corner and a giant number! Branding design done!” Man, whatever happened to actually putting some design skills into comics. Even the logos are boring flat book cover fonts now.

  2. I wish I wasn’t so excited about an All-New Invaders, but damn do I love Namor and the Invaders (So much I’d call “Namor and The All-New Invaders”!!!!”) .

    But what’s this? The article states “and Original Human Torch Toro”…well which is it? The original Human Torch, or Toro (who wasn’t the original Human Torch, but the original Toro)…?

  3. Looking forward to seeing what the new titles are, but I dunno if it makes sense to do a modern-day Invaders. Everyone on the cover has been an Avenger, all quite recently, and setting it in the modern-day doesn’t give it much of a unique hook. WW2 or something would be a better selling point, methinks.

  4. Yeah, what the h e l l??? Why dont they just put Wolverine on every cover like they did in the 80’s… “Hey speculator market, we got a cover that says -first issue!-, aren’t we lame…!!!”
    Alonso, said that “Marvel Now!” was supposed to bring back NuMarvel, in ways that delivered cutting edge new art, like in how the covers were designed in “non-conventional” ways. How can you expect people to take the *sequential* medium seriously, when the only main access to *sequential* are these lame “comic books”. The super hero genre is great, but the “American” version of super hero’s is this twisted culmination of homo-erotic power fantasy fulfillment encased in christian/conservative-extremist regulations (Comics Code Authority), which have been further perverted with stories written to comply with the speculator’s bubble from mid-80’s to early 90’s, and then all chewed up and spat out during the 90’s hell that was the aftershock of the speculators bubble bursting (example: stories created under a bankrupt management like at Marvel Comics ; also please see on youtube.com Max Landis’ “the death and return of superman”). If Marvel stock was no under 10 dollars /share like it was, then there probably would not had been room for the window of time that was just before the stories written to comply with the Disney buy-out -NuMarel was when heads were rolling, people were being replaced, and new independent, more ‘fringe’ creators were hired to take over mass market character-based assets. Now, there is no slew of indi-talent hired to take on the mass market titles -NuMarvel was when Marvel was owned by Marvel. When they were just gaining momentum to create their own Marvel Studios movies, and the comics being printed were freaking awesome! Alias, Daredevil, “e is for Extinction” X-men story, Ultimate Spider-Man and especially the Ultimates stories, Peter Bagge even did a Spider-man one-shot -as well as James Sturm did *Unstable Molecules*!!! Marvel needs to start pushing the boundaries of *sequential* with some new talent, and in new mediums like the larger Magazine format, because print sequential will always be around, but “American comic books” (especially the cheese American version of the super hero if American sequential does not fix up their act), may not.

  5. I was reading the new “Marvel Now”,
    But my LCS had no copies to show.
    The “old Now” was old news
    And the “new Now” issues
    Were too new a New Now for review.

    (Apologies to Ogden Nash.)

  6. Wouldn’t that make good *journalism*, instead of the flog of a site promotions going on, to include in this article a quote from someone at Marvel that can explain why Alonso said how “Marvel Now!” was supposed to bring back NuMarvel, and yet now Marvel is rejecting NuMarvel, -and how Marvel is N O T progressing the *sequential* medium, as they keep pushing their consumer-market driven “comic books”.

    @Marvel : hey, if you guys can crawl yourselves out of not only bankruptcy, but also in doing so you were able to have some killer NuMarvel stories, then why dont you run with that cutting edge shtikt that you had 2000 – 2004??? Why just cater to the Disney buy-out and then ‘rest on your laurels…’??? If corporations can have all of these hundreds of millions of consumers walk around actually thinking they are ‘Americans’, then why can you progress *sequential* in the USA, instead of milking off the consumer mentality of printing only “comic books”???? You can still have brainwashed cubicle gimps that OK with calling themselves “consumers”, and still have better more creative forms of super heroes in *sequential* -or can we??? What? Is that going to cause people to start thinking they are human beings/Americans/members of a community, and stop living as consumers when not at work, as they also ignore they are economic units that comprise a ‘person’ while at work??? Why do we only get these twisted icons that are culminations of christian/conservative-extremist crap (Comics Code Authority) and the speculator’s bubble, and bankrupt management, and compliance to multinational corporate buy-outs (Time/Warner and now Disney)???? Maybe create a different “universe” that is all about *sequential* super heroes, and not “comic book” super heroe -P L E A S E??? Maybe some of these “consumers” will get off their corporate slave a$$es and just do it themselves, instead of waiting for something that puts profit over quality (a multinational corporation) to progress *sequential*…

  7. Is it just me? I seem to be missing an “S.”

    Is this new series “Inhuman” or “Inhumans” because well, the team composition is making more sense if it’s the first one.

    Silly but True

  8. We need one Marvel universe that prints books as “comic books”, for consumers – these can have their typical “First Issue!” lame designs with books created as a “market share” to promote the mass consumption of plastic in the form of merchandise, as well as promoting data mining in tracking what one does after logging in with an online account to read comics. This brand of Marvel stories are the typical predictable crap written w/out any innovation or creative substance -instead of as *sequential*.

    Then create a second Marvel universe that can be books published as actual *sequential* stories containing super heroes created by actual artists and writers who prefer to progress and have fun with the *sequential* form of art -more like NuMarvel, instead of the consumer driven predictable unimaginative “comic books” that have people turn their heads away from super heroes as something lame. This *sequential* form of super hero stories can be in a printed magazine format or other sized formats that can be used to break the boundaries of what Americans consider should be “comics books” and create and awareness for *sequential* stories. Unfortunately Americans are such consumer slaves they will not be able to accept something unless they see some movies star or celebrity use it first, something on TV or the Internet to let them know that it is OK to use; to go drive to… -will never happen… who am I kidding… Big Red box “First Issue!!!” that is best Marvel can do after FIFTY ***50*** YEARS… “If it is not broken, then dont fix it”, right? But then how can you not call spending decades in traffic, fast food, strip malls, homes made to be flipped instead of lived in, more traffic, no rights in the workplace, rising price of gas while the purchasing power of the dollar diminishes ever year from now on, as products are made to break down fast and take our money (instead of made to work and last) and labor is out-sourced while no one that calls themselves an ‘American’ knows what all the amendments are, or how a bill gets passed, or what gerrymandering is, or which congressional district they belong to, or what the suffrage movement really was -how can you call all of that which makes up every moment of every American’s day “not broken”??? Designing sequential as the consumer “comic books” is a pretty stupid thing to do considering we now live in an environment where getting by in life is not enabled, getting by in life is not something everyone can do anymore -our disillusioned consumer lifestyle is a joke, so why still published “comic books” when consumers are a dying breed??? Why not write super hero stories not for consumers, but instead for *human beings*, for *Americans*, for *members of families* ????

  9. I do not know what is happening in these comments o______O

    Anyway. As someone who used Marvel Now to try out a bunch of new comics that I’m now in love with, I’ll definitely be giving these a try! I’ve been a bit wary of trying Avengers as there are just so many titles to choose from (similar with X-Men but I’ve found a couple I like) so these looks ace.

  10. Ok. (I’m slow…) I just put it all together that Avengers is being given a great big new #1, but just in case you are tired of those it’s also being given a little tiny #24.NOW. So in Marvel Now land (which is a year old and apparently NOW boring) it’s still issue #24, but in All New Marvel Now land (which is shiny and awesome!) it’s being given a new #1! Wow, my head is spinning…

  11. @Eric K – What’s up with you?? Nice job being the typical ‘American’ and going strait for the negative attack -you gotta cut people down, not like you know of any other way to be… ‘Way to go, consumer. What a bummer.

  12. Okay…
    Short reply:
    anyone who buys a comicbook is a consumer in the economic sense.

    You can create “mainstream” comics which appeal to a wide audience, but “bestseller” rarely equals “masterpiece”. (Take a look at bestseller lists from 20 years ago. How many are classics? How many are entertaining fluff? How many are still in print?)

    http://www.hawes.com/pastlist.htm

    Long answer:
    If you have two different lines of comic books
    (“consumer” and “sequential”)
    then you have brand dilution.

    That happens a bit now… a kid watches a comic book cartoon, and wants to read the comics. But the comics are aged “Teen Plus” and are not suitable for the child to read. While a “consumer” comic would solve the initial sales problem (and Marvel/Disney does that now with magazine filled with comics, games, and extras), it causes a problem almost immediately.

    Because all it takes is one “Superman Kills Joker By Ripping Out His Heart” headline (as seen in the extremely popular “Injustice” video game tie-in) to cause a spit-storm of pundits frothing at the mouth over how something childlike and pure and good has been sullied for profit.

    Then there’s the bigger problem:
    Why should creators be creative when their participation is that of an assembly line worker? They might get some royalties, but if the story is adapted into a movie, or the character they created is used, they won’t get much money.

    Heck, the list is long of creators no longer working in corporate comics.

    The other problem with sequential superhero comics:
    Things can’t change.
    Because if change happens, and it’s bad, then it has to be changed again. Look at Spider-Man. Some will argue “Spider-Man can’t get married!” Others will argue “Spider-Man has always been married!” If you anger your “sequential” fans, the ones who have been following the soap opera for decades, then you lose your base audience. If you keep it sequential, then you make it difficult for new readers to penetrate the arcana surrounding the character. (Although, let’s face facts. Few writers refer to past stories or history. Event books are long forgotten a year afterwards, even though the issues are easily accessible online and in collections.)

    So really, the only solution? Constantly reboot series and characters. An Issue One is the starting point. If the writers write well, then it continues for a long time, and the publisher prints collections, and the readership grows through word of mouth, reviews, awards, and PR.

    Indestructible Hulk does this. The character has a new aspect (Banner works for SHIELD so he has laboratory resources, while the Hulk is a field agent, sent to deal with various missions), which generates new stories not seen before, new character dynamics, and hopefully better sales.

    If it doesn’t work, then Marvel packages it into a nice simple graphic novel series, the creators create something else, and maybe ten years later, it’s reissued due to nostalgic fondness. And they sell wegglers instead of float-valves. Or try something else.

    And so it goes goes goes goes goes ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa.

  13. Going by the squarish shape of the covers I’m presuming the final design will still retain the current red strap across the foot of the page? I don’t mind it personally, as it differentiates Marvel from its competitors in the same way their boxed in covers did in 1972. That Invaders logo doesn’t do a lot for me though.

  14. @Torsten: OK Torsten -Short reply:
    Axel Alonso said that “Marvel Now!” is supposed to be a ‘bring back’ of NuMarvel, which he then specified how things like non-conventional designs for their comic book covers would be initiated. Thus this article about Marvel’s lame covers which totally contradict this point. There is no big picture thinking in most of America that would lead people to recognize this fact that these stories are predictable and have nothing to do with *sequential* -the content and quality is limited and it’s these type of covers that limit the perception of *sequential* as “comic books” -i.e.: of course “…anyone who buys a comicbook is a consumer in the economic sense. …”, because no one here has any other ‘sense’ to interpret their time with, beside be in the “economic sense”. There is no other sense in the USA, -democrat and republican are two different ways of being a ‘consumer’, not a human, not an ‘American’, not a member of a *livable* community, as worrying about gossip from the news (instead of real journalism), and budget cuts/constraints, taxes, and spending has nothing to do with a group of people who only have 10 – 15% of America’s wealth ->>>worry about political party spending w/out being involved in how your local and federal democracy works (especially w/out regard to the WTO and how it dictates this country’s trade and as a direct result it’s economic policies) is a pathetic cultural phenomenon known as “consumerism” -which has everything to do with enabling and perpetuating gossip, and pretentious brand identity and B I G O T R Y, and finger pointing, and people saying things like “our economy” when it should be “their economy” (Americans do not even collectively have %10 of the country’s wealth -and even if they did they all spend most of their time hating on each other), and we should say instead ->>>”OUR democracy”. This is not only not so, but like typical ‘consumers’ -as in mindless ‘impulsive’, non-critical thinking $penders, these things that call themselves ‘Americans’ do not keep track of their own democracy and have the nerve to say they are ‘American’, and further enable bigotry in the workplace and in entertainment and in politics (brand loyalty, obessions on whether people are ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ -instead of seeking solutions or involvement in democracy, in their community -these mindless ‘consumers’ still drop over $4.00 + on comic books, and work knee-jerk impulses to cut others down, while out-sourced labor enters American and actually are able to do what is sacrilege in the USA: cooperate, tolerate, train/learn from each other. I may not express myself how you want or how you expect, but I know that Marvel and DC are not *sequential* so much as they are just “comic books” and just because they have mad sales does not mean anything, -look at how the S&P500 and many other “legitimate” agencies and banks took advantage of how the Glass-Stiegall act was repealed and ran the US economy in the trash -and like mindless consumers ‘Americans’ sit in their offices and let more jobs be out-sourced and obsess on being subversive and abusive to others different from themselves while having no idea how to be involved in their democracy in order to make long term solutions to these multi-national corporate problems.

    Marvel and DC can do whatever the hell they want with sequential super hero comics -things CAN change. Its the VOLATILITY that comes with change that Marvel and DC cannot deal with -because the people in charge of Marvel and DC only know about their severance, golden parachute, myopic sales margins to keep their job / promotions, keeping cubicle slaves beneath them busy and at each others’ bureaucratic throats -look at Detroit, MI auto industry flops, and yet foreign car companies are still better. There are excuses for why things are the crappy profit over quality way they are, and then there is smart work, and cooperation and quality work -I can prove this, as in look what marvel was doing while in bankruptcy with their stock under $5/share: NuMarvel! What brought back thousands of readers that not “helped” but ALLOWED for Marvel to recover from bankruptcy: NuMarvel. What did Marvel drop in order to put profit / consumerism over quality INNOVATIVE advancement of *sequential* so that they could prep for their Disney buy-out: NuMarvel…

  15. So from this and other articles on this, I gather they are launching AVENGERS again with a # 1 issue? Hickman still writing it, but will be a new #1 Avenger issue. Just like the X-men, the Avengers will be constantly started over every year or two. LAME

  16. @Adam, RD, Johnny ‘bigot’ Memeonic: You sound like traffic, fast food, television -yeah, you’d spend $4.00 on a “comic book”…

    50 years of Marvel, and the best they can to >>>FIFTY YEARS LATER<<< is "1st Issue!!!" in big red bands across their generic scenes and poses filled with advertisements, and stories that are written to enable merchandizing. It is great that they are reinvesting in the same character-based assets (that allows for longevity as far as a reader's investment in time and interest), but… damn, if it is anything close to NuMarvel, or anything cutting edge as far as *sequential* goes. At least this form of processed crap does not give you cancer or diabetes like most of 'American culture'…

  17. I will agree to a point. Look, 2002-2004 is really a fun time for Marvel. But it was ALL outside of their flagships: Runaways. Exiles. Supreme Power. X-Statix. NYX. Simone and Udon were nailing it out of the park with Deadpool/AgentX. Priest was doing his last bit of heavy lifting for Marvel with Black Panther: “The best book in comics, no one was reading.” Alias. Soldier X.

    Quite literally in this time, the novel, ground-breaking gems were mostly to be found in the stuff that no one was buying.

    But you look at the big ones — their iconic bread and butter now, it was largely forgettable. Avengers? Run-of-the-mill. Or worse, hated. X-Men? They were trying to foisting on us that Xorn/Magneto’s brother in disguise bullshit!?! Nightcrawler as Azazel’s kid?

    I mean there was some good stuff in 2002-2004. There was some real crap they were putting out too. But, I can say the same for just about any period, even now.

    Silly But True

  18. @ Silly – wasn’t JMS doing his early good stuff on Amazing? Morrison doing his awesome New X-Men run? Waid on FF? Certaionly all core books and all really good.

  19. Yeah, I think you’re right. I was putting Morrison a bit too early; it wasn’t really until early 2004 that his tenure ended and those crazy retcon stories started coming. But, how quickly it turned to ignore everything that had just been done.

    And of course JMS!

    I guess I would redraw Aaron Browne’s line at 2002-2003.

  20. Holy crap… I feel like just throwing up my hands, pulling out all of my hair and just walking away…

    Thanks Marvel!

    Sigh…

  21. Are we sure this isn’t more than it seems? Re-numbering has been done so many times that it’s losing its meaning (not literally, obviously), so I wonder whether #24.NOW is just a newer version of what might have once been #24.1 and what appears to be a brand new Avengers #1 is merely Avengers, #24.NOW, ‘Rogue Planet’ #1. As if story arcs are now meriting their own numbering system, upgraded from ‘part 1’, etc? Even thinking about it is giving me a migraine, but if the second issue of that story arc is Avengers #25, ‘Rogue Planet’ #2, then it could be significant.

    Why?

    Well, it could be Marvel testing the water for a potentially massive change in their publishing method. Maybe monthly titles will eventually drop the first/primary issue number and only go by story arc number. This might mean that monthly titles effectively become mini-series (you could argue that this is pretty much the case for a lot of titles anyway, not necessarily by design) with the title being literally just the name of the franchise rather than the book itself. That’s almost European. But not quite.

    Ah, this is just wishful thinking anyway. I’m always hoping for the day when Marvel and DC try to genuinely make their comics accessible by publishing larger volumes as and when the story is strong enough to warrant it, rather than the relentless grind of having to fill the pages just because they’re there.

  22. @Jamie Roberts: You commented, “…Ah, this is just wishful thinking anyway. I’m always hoping for the day when Marvel and DC try to genuinely make their comics accessible by publishing larger volumes as and when the story is strong enough to warrant it, rather than the relentless grind of having to fill the pages just because they’re there.” -EXACTLY : as long as “people” (humans are really no longer “people” any more, as only corporations/people have the right to prosper/have access to products / services that enable *livability*) keep acting like consumer while believing they are actually ‘Americans’ or members of a ‘community’ then they will keep on ENABLING / $$$spending$$$ their money on the relentless grind of having to pay for “comic books” just because they are there -typical consumer anti-culture that has been developed and consequently perverted USA -inadvertently or not, this is a fact. Like I said, Marvel and DC should print on line of comics that is their regular predictable crap, “comic books”, and then another line to replace the Ultimate Comics which can be super heroes as well, but as *sequential*. Management and executive only know about profit over health / family / livability / community, so there is no way anyone has the experience to manage the volatility involved in actually developing new markets that publish *sequential*. How can you expect a “people” who ignore how their own democracy works while living as consumers to know anything about producing long-term cutting edge entertaining quality-driven *sequential*????

  23. @Kal-Ego: What super-enlightened culture would you like to spring fourth to? -Or do you prefer to live in an anti-culture where most “people” prefer to obsess on whether their co-workers are ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’, and then obsess on being subversive and abusive toward others different while living in traffic, fast food, air-water-earth tainted by productions that cause cancer and heart disease, economies of scale that will always be setup against the majority which enable “the news”, instead of journalism??? We have to act, and since well over the majority of us are lazy consumers, then start simply by stop $$$spending$$$ your money on this crap.

  24. I noted to Jamie Roberts: “…Like I said, Marvel and DC should print on line of comics…” I meant to indicate “Like I said, Marvel and DC should print ONE line of comics” -for their “comic books”, and another for *sequential* stories. On-line comics can be great, but the use of data mining and predictive analytics is too dangerous today as no one realizes how easily social engineering builds consensus and influences the decisions of consumers. When someone logs in to read an on-line comic the tracking of which sites you go to, what you say in social network sites (not necessarily politically, but just in general key words culturally), what forms you fill out and your purchases are all amalgamated, cross referenced and can be utilized in “pavlovian” ways which can indirectly influence our values and our cultural decisions as a consequence of what we think we need to spend on and what we think we need to cut from our spending. The lack of privacy has nothing to do with politics so much as politics has everything to do with gaining information; example: gerrymandering. You want to login and read a comic -thats great, but it also lets executives and publishes and management know how close they can get w/out having to pay for WORK or SPEND money on quality products, while still being able to take your money… thats it. You use a login account that can be traced and it is all about that web site that you just logged into changing its website based on data mining and predictive analytics to engineer your clicks and impulses to take your money, if not use your habits and trends in ways you cannot image, but will all be about engineering you, instead of promoting and enabling *livability*, community, tolerance, cooperation, health, family… -you know, those things that if you had them, then you would spend less time and money on the mass consumption of oil and plastic merchandise.

  25. Yo -Silly but True: your comment is Silly as your Puns regarding your statement “I guess I would redraw Aaron Browne’s line at 2002-2003.”

    There is no “Aaron Browne’s line” to be “redrawn” -unless you have a time machine :
    NuMarvel examples below (Sequential and True):

    “e is for Extinction” started in 2001

    Fantastic Four: 1234 2001 – 2002

    Fury from MAX was 2001

    X-Force 116 *when Marvel dropped the Comics Code Authority* was in 2001

    Marvel Knights Double Shot was in 2002

    Cage from MAX was 2002

    Muties 2002

    Cassaday on Captain America in 2002

    Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather (2003)

    Spider-Man’s Tangled Web 2001 – 2003

    Supreme Power was in 2003

    Truth: Red, White & Black was in 2003

    The Ultimates 1 and 2 which ran 2002 and well through 2004

    Alias was from 2001 – 2004

    Bendis and Maleev on Daredevil 2001 – well through 2004

    Secret War 2004

    Think about it -Marvel dropped the christian/conservative-extremist Red Scare tactics’ COMICS CODE AUTHORITY -and instead of using it as a marketing tool, or some leverage to gain new readers by creating new content and stories that can utilize this historic move, they now 50 YEARS of publishing, still only rely on a big red banner that says “First Issue!” -Wow… The sequential is being designed for “consumers”, not thinking, living, breathing human beings. Sure -you got kids and adolescents, and if you want to lose those people’s money then don’t progress the sequential story-telling medium in the USA, and let everyone’s impression of sequential be these “comic books” that you get sick of and grow out of… sure: Nice Job! then with with the red banner and “first issue!” -What better way to spend your time (and $4.00 an issue!) when not sitting in traffic, eating fast food, getting in debt, sitting on the phone with customer service from India (because multi-national corporations need to un-employ more ‘Americans’ instead of hiring native English speakers for customer service work), and staring at advertisements disguised as entertainment frequently interrupted with commercials (television/cable TV)?

  26. Hi. Late to the comment game on this, again.

    Aaron Browne – I agree with you, that Marvel are just about churning stuff out, in the name of “illusion of change and daringness” when they’re not daring at all.

    But the only reason NuMarvel was, well, NuMarvel was because of its publisher at the time – Bill Jemas. It was Bill Jemas who came in and said “let’s stop all this pandering to continuity, and let’s just do new stuff.” Quesada was new to the company to (via his Marvel Knights line), so both of them brought a kind of “start from scratch” mentality to Marvel.

    It was when Jemas left around 2004, that’s when the books changed to a more conversative, stuck-mindset. The publisher since then, Dan Buckley, doesn’t strike me as really interested in new readers, reaching new audiences, doing fresh things with the characters or books. He doesn’t seem interested in comic books or the industry, period.

    Maybe Alonso wishes for those NuMarvel days. But he doesn’t have the power of a publisher to do much else other than work within the parameters of that publisher.

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