Pull List - April 1st, 2015

Amazing Spider-Man #17
(W) Dan Slott (A/CA) Humberto Ramos
• The Ghost has invaded Parker Industries!
• With this super-powered saboteur, no secret is safe-- no PEOPLE are safe, either, for that matter.

Avengers #43

(W) Jonathan Hickman (A) Mike Mayhew (CA) Adam Kubert
IN TWO MONTHS...TIME RUNS OUT!

Cyclops #12

(W) John Layman (A) Javi Garron (CA) Alexander Lozano
• If power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, whaddaya think near-infinite cosmic power granted by the Black Vortex does?
• Jean Grey is about to find out, which spells very bad news for both Jean Grey-- and the universe!
• But there's one man who might be able to stop her, who might be able to save her... except in this case it's not exactly a man, it's a 16-year-old space-pirate-in-training and (maybe) the love of Jean Grey's life... Scott Summers.
• Can Cyclops save the day? Maybe. But we can't guarantee he'll survive the experience.

Uncanny Avengers #3

(W) Rick Remender, Gerry Duggan (A/CA) Daniel Acuña
• It was a perfect day on Counter Earth, then Sabretooth showed up.
• The Avengers are divided; the hunt for their missing friends unearths a terrible secret.
• What evil lurks on the moon of Counter Earth?

Uncanny Inhumans #0

(W) Charles Soule (A/CA) Steve McNiven
• The industry's best-selling artist comes to the Inhumans!
• The prelude to one of Marvel's biggest launches of 2015 is here!
• Think you know Black Bolt? Think again, as the men who killed Wolverine show you a side of the Inhuman King you've never seen before!

Wolverines #13

(W) Ray Fawkes, Charles Soule (A) Jason Masters (CA) Guillem March
THIS IS IT! THE MOMENT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!
• Make sure to pick up this issue for the DEBUT of a very special guest.
• Also, special appearances by some of your favorite Marvel Universe heroes (and even some villains).
• But what will the Paradise and Wolverines team think of the return?

Secret Wars Pre-Event Analysis

So Secret Wars is happening over at Marvel. It is an 8-issue event series, affecting just about every other book that Marvel publishes in its 616 universe of titles. Rumors swirled that this was a reboot of sorts for the continuity. I still don't know whether that will be the case or not. Let's go over what we do know.

• The Marvel Universe (and all multiverses and timelines) are being destroyed and mapped into a single planet known as Battleworld. Each continuity exists as its own country on this planet.
• Most of the existing series taking place in the Marvel Universe are being ended and starting in May will be replaced by series which seem to homage previous events. For example, Infinity Gauntlet and Planet Hulk.
• After having seen all the current replacement series, I can safely say that not a single 616-er is the focus or among any of these series. These are series about non-616 versions of 616 characters or in some cases characters that Marvel hasn't used for decades (Weirdworld).
• These series are advertised as series and not mini-series, which means they have the potential to keep going after Secret Wars has ended.

We have seen something similar to this in the past with the Age of Apocalypse storyline in X-Men during the 1990's. Each of the major X-Men titles were replaced by mini-series which told new and interesting stories from that timeline. The existing continuity ceased to exist and then after the event was over, the previous continuity continued. There is a major here and that difference is intriguing.

• A lot of these are advertised as ongoing series, rather than minis-series. How can these series work on their own if after the event, things go back to some semblance of normalcy? Will Battleworld exist separately from the Marvel 616 Universe? Will these warzones as they are described be transported back to their own place in the timeline and multiverse after the event is over? I think that seems more likely.

Don't forget that X-Man become a series after Age of Apocalypse ended when the titular character was transported to main-line continuity, but that was more of a surprise than expectation.

Other interesting tidbits include:

• Marvel is saying that these series will have legs and affect what kind of outcome Secret Wars has. Is Marvel really going to do a Survivor-esque game to determine what the future Marvel looks like based on the sales of these new ongoing series? If 1872 sells the most of all the other titles, will the new Marvel Universe become a Western-themed one? That's a strange thought. How would they be able to accommodate a Western-setting with alternate versions of Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and Bruce Banner in the new 616 that may appear out of the end of Secret wars?
• There isn't a single X-Men series announced so far which includes an exclusive creator as the writing lead. I don't mean writers who only write for Marvel, but those who have signed an exclusive contract and therefore are put on the most high-profile books and take part in the Writer summits that occur several times a year. Sure we have Old Man Logan by Brian Michael Bendis, but that storyline was known as a Wolverine book with very few X-Men in it. We still have House of M, I believe, as the last outstanding series that would be X-Men-related and could be considered a major X-Men replacement.
• There is no Daredevil. Sure there was mention of a Daredevil in one of the series, but there is no book with Daredevil as the lead. A privilege the character has enjoyed for decades. Rumor has it that Daredevil is not affected by Secret Wars, however Daredevil is conspicuously absent from the latest June solicitations.

Ultimately, I think Marvel is using this event to try to throw some new ideas and concepts at the wall without having to rely on their core 616 characters (who I assume will all be stuck in the Secret Wars mini-proper). There are some exceptions to that idea, namely Ultimate End, Thors and Inhumans: Attilan Rising, all of which include 616 references of one kind or another. We can easily explain Ultimate End as taking place during the incursion between 616 and Ultimate Marvel. However, Thors and Inhumans: Attilan Rising both use references to the existing female Thor. Maybe it is only the Warzone titles which won't include 616 characters, while the Battleworld titles won't have such a restriction. 

At this stage, who can say? This is all horribly confusing and I wish Marvel would provide more clarity in their intentions. I don't want spoilers or the ending of the Secret Wars event ruined for me. What I want is assurances on which books are the most important to the publisher. As a Marvel fan who is mostly concerned with continuity, I would find that most comforting. Right now, the only thing I have to go by are which titles have exclusive creators on them. Those include:

Ultimate End	Bendis
Old Man Logan	Bendis
Guardians of Knowhere	Bendis
Inhumans: Attilan Rising	Charles Soule
Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows	Dan Slott
A-Force	G. Willow Wilson
1872	Gerry Duggan
Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos	Gerry Duggan
Infinity Gauntlet	Gerry Duggan
Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies	James Robinson
Armor Wars	James Robinson
Thors	Jason Aaron
Weirdworld	Jason Aaron
1602: Witch Hunter Angela	Kieron Gillen
Future Imperfect	Peter David, Greg Land
Star-Lord & Kitty Pryde	Sam Humphries
Planet Hulk	Sam Humphries

Future Imperfect is iffy, if only because Peter David has a history of not working on high-profile titles within the publisher or being a major fixture at the Marvel summits. Greg Land, however, is known to work the more high-profile titles within Marvel. That combination is why I included Future Imperfect. 

Rick Remender is conspicuously absent from any of these Secret Wars shenanigans. Maybe he sees it as a good time to take a break and get some creator-owned work completed. I also expected Tom Taylor to be present, since he is writing Superior Iron Man, but he is also missing. I don't know for sure if he is an exclusive creator at this point in time, but working on Iron Man does make him a high-profile creator for Marvel. Also missing is Mark Waid, though I have no idea what his future plans with Marvel are after his exit from Daredevil takes place. Maybe just Star Wars comics.

Green Lantern #40 Review

I will be the first to admit when I am wrong. I was wrong about Robert Venditti.

After Geoff Johns left Green Lantern, I was pessimistic that Venditti could fill his shoes. Johns had a legendary run. The first few issues and arcs felt a bit rocky, one event after another, but I see the big picture now. I see the groundwork that was being laid to led us to this moment. The moment when Hal Jordan leaves the Green Lantern Corps determined to go from it's greatest member to its greatest enemy.

Of course this sounds familiar. We have been here before in Emerald Twilight under different circumstances. The main difference here is that Hal Jordan is not evil, merely executing a plan to being the Green Lantern Corps back to greatness.

Because of the myriad of events, trials, and tribulations over the existing Venditti run, the universe no longer desires to have the Green Lantern Corps around. Hal's plan and that of the Guardians is to have Hal steal Krona's Gauntlet, leave the Corps and divert the hate from the Corps itself to Hal. Because Hal was the leader of the Corps when the people lost faith in it, he can become an antagonist for the Corps to triumph against and rebuild their reputation with him.

There was a very touching moment in the issue where Hal had to fight Kilowog, the only person he could confess his plan to, in order to make the betrayal appear more genuine. Kilowog made Hal beat him up real good. Kilowog would have it no other way.

How this will affect his return to the Justice League, I have no idea. Maybe in an effort to diversify the Green Lantern from the Power Ring, they can have Hal running around with the Gauntlet in Justice League as well. I am interested to see how the other DC titles are going to change for their pre-Convergence issues.