OMIGOD WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN THIS?
In a lengthy news story at Disney owned ABC, the beans get spilled on Generations, Marvel’s big summer event, which will serve as a comeback gateway for the “original” Marvel heroes and the new legacy kids such as Riri Williams and Amadeus Cho.
While the old and new heroes will team up for the event, who’s to say that they may not first fight a few times befroe realizing they are on the same side? It could happen!
The event will consist of 10 issues that team the old heroes with the new, running from June to September. No artists were listed, but the writers are set for the 10-issue event:
- -Iron Man (Tony Stark and Riri Williams) – written by Brian Michael Bendis
- -Spider-Man (Peter Parker and Miles Morales) – Brian Michael Bendis
- -Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers and Kamala Khan) – G. Willow Wilson
- -Thor (Odinson and Jane Foster) – Jason Aaron
- -Hawkeye (Clint Barton and Kate Bishop) – Kelly Thompson
- -Hulk (Bruce Banner and Amadeus Cho) – Greg Pak
- -Jean Grey (young and older) – Dennis Hopeless
- -Wolverine (Logan and X23) – Tom Taylor
- -Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers) – Margie Stohl
- -Captain America (Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson) – Nick Spencer
Marvel e-i-c Axel Alonso does the heavy lifting on revealing what’s in store for the Marvel U, and stressed that this is not an imaginary story but “These stories do happen, they really count. They really matter. This isn’t some alternate reality story or some time-travel story.”
Shock!
Alonso also notes that a return for the old characters, several of whom are “dead” in current continuity – including Logan and Bruce Banner – was always inevitable. “There’s that old cliche, ‘absences makes the heart grow fonder. You don’t take these characters off the board with the intention to keep them off the board forever. One of the tropes of our medium is characters get a second wind. They die and come back. That’s part of the beauty of what we do.”
“[But] the answer might be different for each character,” he continued. “There’s potential for friction, there’s potential for team-ups. Minimally, it’s something that’s going to require food for thought and introspection on the part of every character. That’s part of the goal when we were sculpting it.”
Retailers have been begging Marvel to bring back the old heroes, so hopefully this will boost sales back to the level everyone has come to expect.
Also – that Logan/x23 comic…could be major following the movie success. Here’s where Marvel’s new ad campaign will be put to the test. This link contains a 30 minutes “ABC News” video where Alonso and writer Ed Brisson chat for 30 minutes about the new IRon Fist comic, so the synergy game is strong in this one.
Well, Bendis being attached to three of the stories ensures that I won’t buy that drivel.
Marvel is bringing Mar-Vell back from the dead and it’s not a time-travel story? Not sure how I feel about this. Maybe it’ll be a younger version before he met Nitro, similar to the young X-Men coming from the past? He has one of the best super-hero costumes ever but he also has one of the best super-hero deaths ever so I wouldn’t want Marvel to under-cut this.
Overall, mostly skippable for me – I’d buy Thor anyway. Might by the Captain Marvel, Jean Gray, and Wolverine issues though.
I trust Alonso about as much as I trust Trump though – I have no idea if these stories matter. I do wonder about the contrivances that will be used to resurrect some of these heroes though. Maybe it’s Marvel’s version of Brightest Day?
Marvel’s problem isn’t “classic characters” per se — its the general cynicism of the line and the wild over-production and the treating customers like ATM machines. Maybe what comes AFTER this will address that, but on the face of these comics, this sure looks like more of the same, and I imagine that, unless they have Alex Ross drawing these ten issues, that this is going to be a pretty hard pass from all of the same folks who have been giving Marvel a hard pass since the end of SECRET WARS.
The way to attract people back is NOT with a ten part event!
Subs +3.
-B
I thought the next big event was the Nazi Cap thing?
I’m so confused. The worst thing is I have a general interest in what Marvel and DC are up to due to being a life-long comic reader. I have good will. I can’t imagine how confusing this is to the person who goes to the movies and just wants to buy some Captain America or Iron Man trades afterwards.
At least Willow Wilson is writing a Kamala Khan/Carol Danvers story…that sounds fun. I like her writing.
“Retailers have been begging Marvel to bring back the old heroes, so hopefully this will boost sales back to the level everyone has come to expect.”
Sounds like a cheap stunt which won’t last beyond this 10-issue series. Retailers (and fans) want the original versions back in their main ongoing titles. These paper thin replacements versions need to go away.
Will I get my Steve Rogers/Captain America back? Will he get his shield back? I’ll leaf through the issue at the retailer and see what’s up. I have no reason to buy the other nine.
Why do they announce with writers but not artists? This is comics, the art matters more.
I wish that was true. It’s pretty obvious most readers don’t care at all about the art anymore.
Brian Hibbs writes “Marvel’s problem isn’t “classic characters” per se — its the general cynicism of the line ”
Hibbs , I think it’s more like throwing things up at the wall and seeing what sticks than cynicism.
This project doesn’t look like it’s going to stick to the wall because it is trying to go after two different audiences.
Generations can’t possibly appeal to aging fanboys who have been put off by many of the new versions of Marvel superhero characters. Generations can’t possibly appeal to new fans who weren’t reading Marvel Comics because it was progressive enough for them. They may have little to no affection for the white, CIS male versions of their characters. The clincher could be putting a has-been like Alex Ross, who’s good artist but a bad painter IMO, who has a tendency to make all his characters look like septuagenarians on art duties. This would seal this project’s its fate for failure.
Ben writes” This is comics, the art matters more.”
Dewey says “I wish that was true. It’s pretty obvious most readers don’t care at all about the art anymore.”
The new readers that Marvel is trying to court are overwhelmingly Progressives and hipsters…people who hold have been seeking to deconstruct art as a concept in recent years. Many of them hold Anti-Art views and see political and social implications in all drawing. Unsurprisingly, many of the new artists Marvel has hired look like they are more suited for humor comics for small children( Erica Henderson) than superheroes or they rely heavily on photo-reference like Will Sliney. The new readers cannot be blamed for the decline in interest in art entirely… this has been a trend before Marvel started courting them.
The recent emphasis on politics AND synergy with tv/movies suggests that Marvel and DC cannot retain talent long enough to let their talent sell the product.
The editor’s decisions, I suspect, is what Marvel and DC think drive sales, these days.
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