By Todd Allen

Rumors are getting confirmed at Wondercon’s Talk to the Hat panel. Captain Marvel and Xtreme X-Men are both back.

First off, Carol Danvers is pulling rank.  That is to say, she’s going to be Captain Marvel, not Ms. Marvel.  I have a feeling people are going to miss the old costume (see below), but this does give Marvel a female-lead in a title, a common complaint of late.  Kelly Sue DeConnick will be the writer.  Dexter Soy will be the artist.  Captain Marvel launches in July.

Then there’s Xtreme X-Men, a title associated with Chris Claremont.  This time around Greg Pak & Stephen Segovia are moving over from Astonishing X-Men and assembling a team of Howlett, Kid Nightcrawler and Dazzler.  Yes, there’s going to be some dimension-hopping with this one.  Also a July launch.

You want to see some art?  Of course you do.

1 COMMENT

  1. Those images are so dreadful, it looks like three different artiststs wotked on it and Rob Liefield drew page two. The Xtreme X-Men image looks like Wizard magazine fan art. Does Marvel still look at portfolios at conventions because that stuff is just garbage.

  2. Yeah, I gotta agree, these are pretty bad. I think the Ms. Marvel/Warbird costume was better, OR they could have gone with something closer to the classic CM look.

    Uh, that’s Dazzler? I thought it was Emma Frost. And how ‘come Nightcrawler has been de-aged?

  3. How could they tease everybody with names associated with Starlin, PAD, Claremont and the rest and deliver THIS?!? Moore’s right: LAAAAAME!

  4. That IS Emma Frost, or rather Emmaline Frost, along with James Howlett and Kid Nightcrawler. Looks pretty cool to me, the white jacket on Frost looks great.

  5. I think the fist image from the character is appropiate. Its obviously the writer saying fuck you to the fans. Btw nice Green Lantern rip off story wise.

  6. @ Xtreme Xmen. Will Try. Dimensionhopping when well written can be awesome.

    @Captain Marvel.

    First thing I thought was “Oh look, it’s Power Girl in a new costume made from mixing her new one and Wonder Womans”.

    Sigh, whatever happened to the House of Ideas.

    Short hair looks un-Danvers’ly.

    What’s even worse is that from what I read from the upcoming writer it sounds like she’ll be talking the slow “character-building” route.

    At least she’s out of the damn swimsuit. Will be worth checking out the first issue at least just to see if they’ve manage to tone down the T&A and actually focus on something else. Not looking too promising though. First pic, rack on display.

  7. New 52 Carol Danvers!

    And so glad X-Treme X-Crement Men is an alt universe thing. They’re not done adding X-junk. Wait until October.

  8. Wow, what a grumpy bunch you all are tonight. So ready to dismiss the entire work just from a couple of textless pages.

    The fact that Kelly Sue DeConnick is involved should be all the evidence you need to Captain Marvel will probably be pretty great.

  9. @ Scott – X-treme X-men under Claremont was just terrible. Are you sure you’re not thinking of Exiles?

  10. This is a really shallow comment, but while I love Carol Danvers and was definitely looking forward to this, this art is really not working for me. And frankly, I’m not a particularly picky fan.

    It’s not the fact she’s wearing pants (nothing wrong with pants), no. It’s the fact that I know what Carol Danvers looks like and that’s not Carol Danvers. (The inexplicable Civil War reenactor cuffs and collar, alien-esque cowl and Tintin hair don’t help, though.)

    Hopefully the interior art is a bit more on-model than the big cover images. I’m always a little disturbed as a reader when a character suddenly looks like a completely different person – not the same person drawn in a different style or wearing different clothes.

    Which, yes, yes, as I said, is a shallow reaction. On the other hand, character art that doesn’t look like the character often goes along with writing that doesn’t read like the character. (Fellow Iron Man fans are probably thinking of the same comics I am.)

  11. If nobody is going to say it, I will: Giving Carol Danvers a MIRACLEMAN costume and calling her CAPTAIN MARVEL is not going to get you their fans, MARVILLE!

  12. Wow, that new Captain Marvel costume is pretty lame (not ashamed to say I loved the classic “swimsuit” costume Carol wore previously!). And Carol’s short hair looks so… yeah, “Tintin”-ish! Ugh! Was really looking forward to this title… not any longer.

  13. Mandarin collar on Carol Danvers… did Jim Lee design this??

    Better than DC’s own CAPTAIN MAR— er, nuSHAZAM— though!

  14. I think it’s the colours that are the problem with the Captain Marvel art – it’s all sort of… murky??? is that the word I’m looking for?

    More generally, marvel does have some great artists at the top but at the middle ranks have a lot of very mediocre or poor people working for them. Some of the recent issues of FF and Captain America and Bucky have been pretty awful.

  15. I have always liked Carol Danvers and I was hoping that she was the new Captain Marvel but after seeing the new design I wish they had picked someone else.

    I mean really who in their right minds thinks this is an improvement or will help the series last more then 7 issues.Horrible design, horrible art,all on a solo female title.It seems like they are setting it up to fail.

  16. Scott – totally agree. My first thought when seeing the new costume was that she looked liked Miraclewoman,

  17. Like the new Cap Marvel design. The swimsuit and thigh boots were a bit played out.

    The interior art does lean a bit toward Salvador Larroca style which leaves something to be desired.

    Might give the series a try. Hope the 1st issue isn’t 3.99 but it most likely will be.

  18. Carol Danver’s Captain Marvel costume screams heavily derived from Alan Moore’s Marvelwomen coupled with a healthy dose of puritanism, fascism, and fully realized feminine sadomasochism.

    I predict she’ll have a sexually charged girl-on-girl encounter by the second issue, if not an outright lesbian tryst.

  19. Don’t care for Carol’s new look. The military-style uniform and the sash just don’t work together, and that hair style doesn’t flatter Carol, either. I agree with Straight_shooter, it does look like someone used Moore’s Marvelman as a point of reference.

    Kind of moot, though, if that’s the actual artwork on the book itself, that’s just plain terrible.

  20. People seem to be looking for similar costumes in order to claim it was swiped, but they’re looking farther afield than they need to.

    The blue-black material and the waist sash are from her previous costume, the V-shaped shoulder yoke and star are from Captain Marvel’s costume, as is adding red and yellow to the mix), and the military collar is due to them wanting to emphasize her military background.

    Looks to me like McKelvie was merely working with the most obvious antecedents — Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel and the series direction.

    kdb

  21. And the reason the interior page looks like Miraclewoman is that the interior artist hasn’t put in spot-blacks with blue highlights, but medium blue with light-blue highlights.

  22. Why do you people even READ comics? Seriously such a joyless group of people here. Greg Pak’s work on Astonishing X-Men led into this new X-Treme X-men title so it’s not out of left field as some of you dour folk let on. As a self professed filthy mutie lover I’ll check it out but I didn’t love the stroyline it came from so I don’t have high hopes, but I’ve been wrong before making it worth a shot. I don’t like the new Captain Marvel look initially but who knows? Maybe Frank Quietly can come around and make it look fantastic. Who knows? But seriously folks thank you. I actually had a strong reaction to it myself, but reading how vicious you guys are made me stop and re-evaluate my reaction. Hell, thanks to you guys I think I’ll pick it up and see if it’s any good.

  23. Kurt,I agree with you about where the elements of the new look came from. However I think that is were a good editor should have stepped in even if they did not share my opinion on the awfulness of the design and sent it back because it looks more like a revamped Miraclewoman then any kind of Captain Marvel.

  24. “Why do you people even READ comics? Seriously such a joyless group of people here.”

    Come now… you cannot expect people to like everything served up to them. I really dislike this new look but that doesn’t mean I’m against everything in comics these days.

  25. A big problem for anyone wanting to write Carol Danvers, aka _____, well is her set of powers. Absorbing energy might make her easy to write for certain types of writers, but for someone who emphasizes details, absorbing energy makes her a monstrosity. As they say, all energy is either kinetic or potential. Trying to set technical limits on her absorption ability and to have all writers honor them would be hopeless, but in the absence of strict limits, her powers are so much comic book junk.

    SRS

  26. So, the 6th! X-Men book is an alt dimension one with an alt dimension Wolverine?? … House of “Ideas” really lost the plot haven’t they

  27. That costume looks fine enough to me. I don’t mind the haircut either. Not every female character needs to have long flowing locks. I like that Carol Danvers finally gets the promotion to Captain after 35 (!) years.

    What I don’t understand is why those pages were selected for the big promotional sneak preview. WATCH AS … Carol Danvers hangs out in a bar with some random dudes. THRILL AS … Captain Marvel starts to fly, then apparently starts to fall out of the sky.

    Whatever you may think about the quality of the art, the scenes depicted are just dull. I don’t get why comics publishers keep doing this. You saw it with the Batman: Earth 2 preview also; a couple of pages of Alfred and young Bruce Wayne sitting at the kitchen table. Every other type of trailer, preview, and advertising attempts to make the product seem MORE exciting than it actually is.

  28. The one thing that had me interested – DAZZLER – turns out to be Emma Frost…. again! Not to mention Wolverine! ugghh.

    PASS on both!

  29. X-Treme X-Men – eh… it’s an alternate universe, so I’ll give it a quick look before I pass judgments.

    As for the new “Captain Marvel” – resounding NO! I’m a huge Carol Danvers fan, and this is just a slap to the face of both her fans AND Mar-Vell’s fans. As Ms. Marvel she had her own unique identity and costume, and it WORKED. (50-issue run is nothing to scoff at.) Now they’re trying to turn her into a Captain Marvel wannabe? Why not bring back Mar-Vell? Or Genis? Or Phyla? Or use Noh-Varr? Sorry, I don’t care how good a writer they pair with this book. It’s a horrible idea, and the sooner this book fails and Carol goes back to Ms. Marvel, the sooner I’ll be buying her books again.