Hey everybody – sorry I’m late with this week’s edition of…

…between the continuing wave of busy at the day job and Tuesday night’s show, things kind of piled up on me. I do wanna say to my New York City-based comic book heads, you are guaranteed a fun night if you check out COMEDY PARTY USA every Tuesday night, 9pm at the Pinch on 237 Sullivan Street, just off West 3rd in the Village. No cover, no drink minimum – I haven’t scheduled anything new right now, I’m just giving a shout-out to the best underground comedy scene I’ve ever gotten to be a part of. Even if I did tank my last minute on some untested Hilary Clinton jokes…;-)

Okay, on to some comic book news – For the past week and change, Newsarama.com as been following the news first teased in Joe Quesada’s blog that Andy Diggle will be taking over on DAREDEVIL from Ed Brubaker.

I have to say I wasn’t ready for Brubaker to leave this comic…almost feels like he’d just gotten started, you know? I mean, I’m still waiting for Mister Fear to get his comeuppance! But in the meantime, do we have any readers out there who are down with the Diggle? I’m not familiar with anything he’s worked on thus far myself, but if these quotes are of any indication, he sure seems like a solid choice for a successor:

NEWSARAMA: You could probably write a book on this, but in the semi-condensed form – who is Daredevil for you, and why does he do the things he does?

ANDY DIGGLE: Short version? Catholic guilt. Seriously, perhaps more than most Marvel characters, Matt is defined by his upbringing, and his dad really instilled him with that sense of doing the right thing, the hard thing, against all odds. Matt’s always got the weight of the world on his shoulders. He takes everything on to himself. He can’t just let it go, just let it be someone else’s problem. That’s his burden. And I love the fact that Matt Murdock isn’t really Daredevil’s “secret identity”; they’re basically the same person, driven by the same needs to achieve the same goals, just through different means.

I wonder if Brubaker has a hand in picking whomever follows him on a comic he’s working on, or what because this really looks promising. He started in the realm of the X-Men, and after leaving that lil corner of the Marvel Universe things are still looking pretty good…he and Matt Fraction gave us an amazing premise for Iron Fist that Duane Swierczynski is carrying on, right down to the tales from the Book of the Iron Fist…I don’t know anything about Andy Diggle, and based on this precedent I’m actually looking forward to his plans for Daredevil!

As I mentioned before, Newsarama had been building on this story all week – as was the case here - but I point you to that particular link because I was more interested in some of the other included quotes from Quesada’s blog:

 

“Not only will Venom be playing the role of Dark Spider-Man in Dark Avengers, but he’ll also be headlining his own “Dark Reign” limited series: The Sinister Spider-Man.”

I actually kinda like the idea of a spotlight on the Mac Gargan version of Venom as “Dark Spider-Man” – at least in as much that THE SINISTER SPIDER-MAN has such an irresistible ring to it that it’d be hard not to use it…but a whole separate comic? I’d be intrigued by this if it were a storyline, no problem - but I wouldn’t plunk down money for it as a limited series…

Quesada also had more to say about X-MEN FOREVER, the rather interesting project wherein Chris Claremont and Tom Grummett will be picking up X-Men continuity from around issue #4 in 1991 as if Claremont had kept writing the book.

“XMF’s continuity is a unique beast. Marvel’s never done anything like this before, where we’re literally picking up from a storyline from 15 years ago and letting the creator go the path not traveled.”

Well…that’s not quite accurate. Marvel had been doing something similar…

Had been for a while. Kinda still are, too. Just sayin’, is all.

A random thought that occurred to me last week: Back in 1993, DC Comics gave us the following…

Then, in 2009, they’ve hit us with this…

And being that they’re on this whole trinity kick lately, it kinda makes me wonder – in about another 16 years…

…will it be someone else’s turn? Hmmm…

Back to the Marvel Universe – I wanna discuss UNCANNY X-MEN #507, because there were a few things about that particular issue that I really enjoyed, as did Greg Burgas over at COMICS SHOULD BE GOOD!

Quoting Greg Burgas: Once again, there’s plenty here to like, mainly in the part of the story where the X-Club (as I suppose we must call Beast’s little group) takes on the big Japanese lizard. Warren reveals that he’s back to being Archangel, which surprises the hell out of Hank, and it’s neat to see, especially once they get back to San Francisco and have an aborted discussion about it.

There are two things about this that I really, really dug. First, Warren Worthington’s ability to turn from Angel to Archangel and back is a lot of fun. First off, it gives him an added edge from just the cool visual of a Guy With Wings, and adding a more offensive functional quality by upgrading him to a Guy Who Can Seriously Jack You Up With His Wings:

And I’m noticing that the constant changes of the larger X-climate is putting the Beast in a position that I’m watching with great interest.

I’m getting the sense that aside from taking the mission of trying to restore the mutant population as he did to cure the Legacy Virus before, Henry McCoy will become the conscience of the X-Men during this trying time, and for the first time in a while, three of Xavier’s original class have some really interesting things going on with them. All that’s left is for Iceman to get him some of this action in a main X-comic and not just in a limited series like MANIFEST DESTINY, and we’d be all kinds of set!

Burgas continued: The violence is over relatively quickly, and then Fraction does a decent job with the aftermath, from the Emma’s confrontation with Sebastian Shaw to Cyclops’ discussion with the mayor. The ending has no impact on me, because I’ve lost track of what the status of the character is. So it doesn’t mean anything, especially because I’m sick of the character anyway. If [writer Matt] Fraction is going there, I might still drop the book.

I kinda have to disagree with that point, because yes, while we are about to see, once again, the return of this guy…

This time, things are a little different, and it’s in a very subtle manner that I think has a lot of potential. This is a lot like something Brian Cronin pointed out back on the 20th, when he highlighted X-MEN #62 in his A YEAR OF COOL COMIC BOOK MOMENTS entry for that day. In that X-Men vs. Magneto scenario, Roy Thomas and Neal Adams crafted a brilliant story centered around the observation that, at that time, the X-Men had never actually seen Magneto’s face. In this case, while we seem to be building towards the X-Men vs. Magneto once more, we’re getting it in an entirely unique way; their previous battles, as I’ve read them, have always been framed in the larger sense as Professor X’s ideology vs. Magneto’s ideology – or, Professor X vs. Magneto, with the X-Men representing Professor X, and the Brotherhood of Mutants or the Acolytes with Magneto at their head.

But here’s the thing – Cyclops is the one running the show, now…and this isn’t Cyclops-as-First-Officer-to-Charles-Xavier we’re talking about here, either. Because in 2009, Professor X is completely OUT of the picture. He has no association with the X-Men right now, in any sense of the word. And more to the point, Scott Summers is well out Charles Xavier’s shadow. He’s not doing things the way he thinks Xavier would. He’s doing what he thinks is right for his people, and he’s doing it his way.

This time, it’s Cyclops’ X-Men vs. Magneto…and if Matt Fraction plays it right, that could make all the difference.

AND NOW, JUST CUZ I FEEL LIKE IT…

Now this is just plain wrong…and yet, here we are. Enjoy!

Til next week, everybody – I’m Greg Manuel, and I’m just sayin’ is all…

Tags: Andy Diggle takes over Daredevil, Batman, Batman: Battle for the Cowl, Comics Should Be Good, Daredevil, DC Comics, Greg Burgas, Greg Manuel, I'm Just Sayin'..., matt fraction, Reign of the Supermen, spider-girl, Superman, Uncanny X-Men #507, Wonder Woman, X-Men, X-Men: Manifest Destiny