INTRODUCTION:
Greetings all, I am Iain Burnside. You may remember me from several comic book reviews or from the Thursday Anti-News Report over in 411 Wrestling. Now I am also going to be doing these weekly Marvel News & Views reports. I’m following in the footsteps of the supremely talented Paul Sebert, who bowed out with grace last week. Paul, I’ll try my best to carry the torch with the aplomb you’ve shown over the past year. I’ve also got to pay homage to Daron and Ben for having enough faith in me to let me get my grubby mitts over this column in the first place. So go check out 144Anima. You’ll like it, there is a monkey involved. Anyway guys, I’ll try not to let you down.
Well, except for this week’s effort, which is sadly lacking due to time constraints, severe tiredness and working overtime. Stupid job. Who ever conjured up the notion of ‘employment’ anyway? Fools.
Right, on with the show (which really will be a lot better next week, I promise!)
MARVEL SOLICITATIONS – OCTOBER 2004:
Marvel’s October solicitations have been leaked early yet again, and can be found over at Millarworld.
Some highlights…
– You’ve just got to admire Marvel for releasing a solicitation for Wolverine #20 & #21 that talks about events happening â€in this issue aloneâ€. Well done, Mr. Proof Reader, sir! Anyway, the issues in question sound like your bog-standard Logan-fights-other-heroes-for-no-logical-reason scenario, but it does have artwork by John Romita Jr. and appearances by Elektra and Kitty Pryde…
– A Sabretooth mini-series?? Who reads this crap, anyway??
– Ah yes, this is “Wolverine Month†in tribute to his 30th Anniversary. This means we’ll be getting the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Wolverine 2004, two Logan stories in X-Men Unlimited #5, the conclusion on Wolverine: The End, a Wolverine: Weapon X hardback novel by New York Times Best-Selling author Marc Cerasini, the third collection of the current series, and the Best of Wolverine vol. 1 HC, which includes his first appearance in Incredible Hulk #181, the ground-breaking Claremont/Millar mini-series from the ‘80s and more. I guess that October is going to be a good month for Wolvie fans and Hugh Jackman’s agent…
– The solicitation for Astonishing X-Men #6 mentions that the previous issue featured the â€shocking return of a classic characterâ€. Now, is this the same kind of shocking return handed to the classic-but-non-essential Lockheed in issue #2 or is it someone more fundamental to the X-Men? The most obvious pick would of course be Jean Grey, which would tie quite nicely into the Emma Frost/Scott Summers relationship. Personally, however, I’m quietly rooting for Colossus…
– Mystique #20 promises to reveal the identity of the Quiet Man at long last! I’m still going to stick to my guess of it being one of the Mystique clones featured in the current arc, which somehow wasn’t destroyed as an embryo by DermaFree but instead grew up with some physical/mental defects and plotted revenge on the original Raven. Then again, I’m probably way off base. That’s the great thing about this series; you never can tell what’s lying in wait when you turn the page. Do yourselves a favour and pick up the trades!
– In celebration of Marvel’s 65th Anniversary, Roy Thomas & Dick Giordano are getting the chance to finish their Stoker’s Dracula 4-issue black-and-white series that was originally published in old Marvel horror magazines. Meanwhile, Marvel Knights 5th Anniversary will see the line get another new title in the form of the resurrected Tomb of Dracula series, to be written by Robert Rodi (with an assist from the departed Bruce Jones), art by Jamie Tolagson and covers by the superb Bill Sienkiewicz. Issue #1 even sees the return of Blade as the release of the Triple H powered Blade: Trinity draws closer. We’re also going to get the third volume of Essential Tomb of Dracula, plus Essential Monster of Frankenstein vol. 1 and a Man-Thing TPB collecting his first appearances. It’s good news for fans of old school horror comics, I guess!
– Marvel are marking out for Amazing Spider-Man #513 almost as much as I marked out for Spider-Man 2. Check out this blurb – â€IF YOU EVER THOUGHT YOU WERE A SPIDER-MAN FAN, YOU CAN’T MISS THIS ISSUE!†Well, with sales tactics like that how can you possibly say no? I just hope they don’t mess up the Gwen Stacy story any more than the dreaded Clone Saga did. Still, if anyone can make this work it has to be Straczynski…
– The Marvel Age imprint will be releasing its latest wave of digests in October. We can look forward to the second, and probably last, volume of Sentinel, the fourth volume of Spider-Man, including the first appearances of the Green Goblin, Kraven the Hunter and Daredevil, the first volume of Mary Jane, collecting the first four issues of this charming new series from Sean McKeever, and the surprise addition of Thor: Son of Asgard to the line, as the first six issues are collected. Sure, the target audience for Marvel Age titles is kids but you should really check them out if you are after some no-nonsense, good old-fashioned superheroics with a splashing of charm and a pinch of innocence added to the mixture. What’s more – they are dirt cheap and easier to carry around with you!
– The Avengers Disassembled non-crossover crossover finally ends! Huzzah! I’m willing to bet that not a damn thing of significance will have changed besides the team line-up… And even that isn’t significant.
– Holy crap, Silver Surfer is still being made!
– Supreme Power resumes normal service with #13 (in addition to the six-issue Dr. Spectrum mini-series) and sees the first appearance of the actual Squadron! We’ve already seen Nighthawk and Blur team-up this month, but apparently Hyperion will be joining them too. As this is the best ongoing series Marvel have at the moment, let’s just hope that the status-quo shake-up will not lead to a dip in quality.
– Finally, there are two more damn tempting HCs in the form of Neil Gaiman’s Marvel 1602 and Marvel Visionaries: Jack Kirby vol. 1. The former had some quite stunning artwork that can only benefit from the over-sized glossy format, while the winding story is far more cohesive when read in one sitting. As for the latter… for crying out loud, do you even need a reason to get it? If so then the inclusion of What If? #11, which featured the story “What if the Original Marvel Bullpen was the Fantastic Four?†should be enough for you! C’mon, anyone even vaguely interested in Marvel should set aside some money for this one…
DIAMOND SALES CHART – JUNE 2004:
You can find the chart in it’s entirety over at CBR, but let’s just take a peek at the top end of the chart for now…
Top 20 Comics:
01/ Identity Crisis #1 (DC)
02/ Superman #206 (DC)
03/ Astonishing X-Men #2 (MARVEL)
04/ Ultimate Spider-Man #60 (MARVEL)
05/ Ultimate Spider-Man #61 (MARVEL)
06/ Ultimate Fantastic Four #6 (MARVEL)
07/ Ultimate Fantastic Four #7 (MARVEL)
08/ Uncanny X-Men #445 (MARVEL)
09/ X-Men #158 (MARVEL)
10/ Ultimate Fantastic Four #8 (MARVEL)
11/ Ultimate X-Men #47 (MARVEL)
12/ Ultimate X-Men #48 (MARVEL)
13/ Amazing Spider-Man #509 (MARVEL)
14/ Wolverine: The End #4 (MARVEL)
15/ Spider-Man #3 (MARVEL)
16/ Amazing Spider-Man #508 (MARVEL)
17/ JLA #100 (DC)
18/ Batman #629 (DC)
19/ Wolverine #16 (MARVEL)
20/ Teen Titans #12 (DC)
Well, I’m sure that certain individuals are going to take great glee in the fact that Joss Whedon has been unable to topple Jim Lee or Brad Meltzer from the top of the sales chart. However, since Marvel has a whopping 75% of the Top 20 comics under its belt, I doubt that Buckley & Quesada are going to push the big red button anytime soon. The rather peculiar sight of three issues of Ultimate Fantastic Four being on the chart, not to mention two issues apiece of Ultimate & Amazing Spider-Man, plus Ultimate X-Men doesn’t help either.
Top 10 Graphic Novels/TPBs:
01/ Ultimate Spider-Man vol. 9 – Ultimate Six (MARVEL)
02/ Essential Spider-Man vol. 6 (MARVEL)
03/ Walt Disney’s Vacation Parade (GEMSTONE)
04/ Book of Witchcraft HC (DARK HORSE)
05/ Hellsing vol. 3 (DARK HORSE)
06/ Batman: Illustrated by Neal Adams vol. 2 HC (DC)
07/ Spider-Man 2 – The Movie Adaptation (MARVEL)
08/ Catwoman: Nine Lives of a Feline Fatale (DC)
09/ Rurouni Kenshin vol. 5 (VIZ)
10/ Donald Duck Adventures vol. 6 (GEMSTONE)
Yeah, baby! Donald MF’N Duck! Anyway, there are no real surprises here. You can expect sales of various Spider-Man books to remain as high as always, powered by the movie and the fact that there are just so damn many of them nowadays.
Market Share:
Marvel Comics – 37.25% dollar share, 40.56% unit share
DC Comics – 28.02% dollar share, 26.21% unit share
Here is the real evidence for how hollow Lee’s Superman sales really are in the overall picture…
Chart Notes:
Amazing Fantasy #1 debuted at #21, while poor old Spider-Girl #75 languishes at #102. Of course, this is just the first issue and so we’re going to have to wait and see exactly where the sales level off at in the course of time. Still, this is a respectable debut for the book.
Astonishing X-Men #1 Director’s Cut reached #33, with re-orders for the original first issue reaching #186. That’s a pretty damn decent number for the Director’s Cut, which is essentially nothing more than a reprint with some superfluous bonus sketches at the back. Hell, it’s sitting on a par with the likes of Punisher and Fantastic Four, proving that the Whedon & Cassaday team are a major sales force to be reckoned with. Of course, the best Director’s Cut so far was the one for Fantastic Four #500… And why Amazing Spider-Man #500 didn’t get the same treatment, I’ll never know…
Mary Jane #1 debuted at #77, which sounds rather low until you remember that it is appealing to a very niche market and still managed to outsell the first issues of Ex Machina and Witches. Besides, as with all the Marvel Age titles, this one needn’t worry too much about sales of the single issues. The real crux of the matter comes when those digest sales come in…
NEWS & VIEWS:
Marvel Sues Disney:
According to this report over at Newsarama, Marvel has filed a lawsuit against Disney and the ABC Family channel for at least $16 million. This stems from Marvel licensing the Spider-Man, X-Men and Incredible Hulk cartoons to the Fox Family channel in 1996 via a deal with the Saban studios that produced the shows. Disney then acquired the Fox channel in 2001 for a deal worth $5.2 billion that also included distribution rights for the shows. Since then, Marvel alleges that Disney has failed to live up to the agreement they made at the time to properly develop the Marvel properties, instead favouring their own programming on the newly named ABC Family. Disney, in return, claims that the shows are a financial liability. However, they have not provided any proper accounting evidence to back up this claim despite prompting from Marvel, and their Buena Vista group has been selling DVDs of the Spider-Man series with Marvel artwork without permission.
All in all, things are not looking too good for Disney at the moment. Pixar have left the building, Miramax may very well be following them out the door soon enough, Dreamworks’ animation studio has the potential to surpass theirs very soon, and now Marvel have filed a suit that seems to be slanted heavily against them. Still, at a time when DC are bending over on command from Warner Brothers, it’s good to see that Marvel are still able to stand up and be counted against the major studios.
Lion’s Gate Animated Projects:
According to ComiX-Fan, Marvel has eased their suffering with Disney by leaping straight into the open arms of Lion’s Gate. Already the two are in talks for live-action movies about Iron Fist and Black Widow, plus The Punisher 2, as well as signing up for Lion’s Gate’s animation production partner, CineGroupe, to make a series of 66 minute animated specials for straight-to-DVD release. Apparently, the first one we can look forward to seeing is the Avengers, which makes sense as it allows for an unlimited stream of spin-offs, sequels and such. Now, while it’s extremely unlikely that these features are going to reach the giddy heights of Dini & Timm at their creative peak on the various DC animated series, it’s good to see that Marvel are trying to breathe some life into their animated division. Let’s face it, X-Men Evolution and the movie-based MTV Spider-Man show didn’t exactly set the world alight.
Fantastic Four Movie:
Well, the casting for Tim Story’s long-awaited Fantastic Four movie has finally been set. King Arthur star Ioan Gruffudd will be playing Reed Richards, Dark Angel lead Jessica Alba will be playing Susan Storm, Perfect Score victim Chris Evans takes on the mantle of Johnny Storm, while The Shield star Michael Chiklis gets set to play the ever lovin’ Benjamin Grimm. While this would not be anybody’s idea of dream casting, let’s not pass judgement on these people just yet. After all, Michael Keaton took quite a roasting when he landed the role of Batman but he proved everyone wrong. These four are relatively unknown and so may just surprise us all yet.
A lot of rumours are still flying about regarding the role of Dr. Doom, which might just be what makes or breaks the movie. After all, it can’t be coincidence that all the great superhero movies have had great villains played by the likes of Hackman, Nicholson, Dafoe, McKellen and Molina. According to AICN, Ray Liotta is the current front-runner for the role. If you’ve ever seen Goodfellas and Narc (and let’s face it, you damn well should have), then you’ll know that he would be perfectly suited to tackling Victor von Doom with one part madness and one part tragedy.
And hey, if none of that tickles your fancy then you can at least console yourself by thinking, “Hey, at least it’s not Jack Black.â€
A Message From Mark Millar:
“Ultimates vol. 1 HC (JUL042043) has increased in size to 376 pages so we could bring you more pulse-pounding extras from creators Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. Extras include original character designs, commentary by the creators, and an introduction by Buffy creator and Astonishing X-Men scribe Joss Whedon.â€
Yay! I’ve been waiting for what feels like several ice ages to be able to read this series as I have been patiently sticking to the oversized and cost-effective HC collections of the Ultimate Universe titles, bathing in all their glorious might. With perhaps the worst track record for such a high-profile series, the very least they could do was to jam pack the HC with extras. And they have! All is right with the world, doobedoodoo…
A Message From Kirsten Dunst:
“The next one will be it. I’m only contracted to 3 and don’t see myself signing for a 4th or a 5th,” says Dunst, emphatically. Asked if she would love to see her Mary Jane character killed off in Spider-Man 3, Dunst laughs. “It would actually be really interesting if SPIDER-MAN died. Why doesn’t the superhero ever die? I think if Mary Jane was alone, pregnant and he died, she could give birth to a spider baby and carry on the series with another young boy or something like that. I doubt Tobey Maguire would come back for a 4th or a 5th either.”
The good news is that Dunst, along with Maguire and Raimi, has enough sense to back away from the movies after the trilogy is complete. After all, with a large arc set in place for Peter, Mary Jane and the Osborns, why bother ruining it by adding in superfluous movies that will lack the heart and soul of these efforts? You need look no further than the Batman movies to see what happens when a franchise loses its way. As for the third film… well, it’s pretty damn obvious that neither Peter nor MJ are going to bite the dust and will instead live happily ever after. The only real question is what new villain can be added to the mix? Personally, I’d have to go with the Black Cat. Even before the second movie had been released, rumours were flying about Eliza Dushku being touted for the role by Sam Raimi and Avi Arad. She’d be tailor-made for the role, while the character would provide a nice counterpoint to the Peter/MJ relationship following the developments made in the second film.
Or perhaps we could cast Jack Black as the Black Cat…
PREVIEWS:
Feel free to take a quick gander at the latest online previews available, particularly if you’re in the mood for something X.
Geez, even the previews are being swamped with X-Titles… Dammit, Piers!
Ultimate Nightmare #1:
You can check out the first 14 pages of the latest major crossover to hit the Ultimate Universe courtesy of Newsarama. Whereas Ultimate War was plodding and only worth your while if you were following Ultimate X-Men, and Ultimate Six was a major letdown, this one seems like it has real potential. For starters, when it comes to intergalactic science fiction Ellis is perhaps the best in the business. He’s been a perfect fit for Ultimate Fantastic Four, and while the lack of FF in this series to combat the supposed alien threat is rather surprising, it doesn’t mean that he can’t have a blast with the Ultimates and the X-Men. Secondly, the artwork by Trevor Hairsine is simply stunning. The explosions in Tunguska look like screencaps from some Jerry Bruckheimer DVD, while the strange little visitors look eerie as hell – like E.T. on crack.
But really Ellis – a Posh Spice reference? Dude, pay attention…
X-Men: The End #1:
Meanwhile, over at Mile High you can check out the opening issue of Chris Claremont’s X-opus in its entirety. If you like that sort of thing, that is. Personally, I find Claremont’s work tedious in the extreme nowadays. Sure, I’ve got to give the man credit for taking the time to write three six-issue minis that follow on from one another to give a complete trilogy, particularly when it spans the entire X-universe. However, seeing people like Whedon do “old school†in a contemporary manner just makes me wish Claremont had bowed out with grace a long time ago. Besides, aren’t these The End stories just a fancy way of saying Elseworlds?
X-Force #1:
If you’re feeling exceptionally brave then you can also check out Mile High’s full issue preview of Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza’s return to “glory.†Personally, I couldn’t even make it past the third page out of sheer boredom. Bleurgh…
Ultimate X-Men #50:
Mile High strikes again, with UXM’s first milestone issue… courtesy of the almighty VAUGHAN! Yes, as anyone who knows me will testify, I mark-out for Vaughan. And why not? The man’s on course to living legend status thanks to the astounding body of work he has built up in such a short period of time. Plus, we get little gems such as Colossus being hell-bent on winning “a stuffed… something†at a rigged carnival test of strength game, the ongoing misadventures of Rogue and Kitty and some quite literal swashbuckling from Nightcrawler. Then, of course, there is the return of Gambit to the Ultimate Universe. Since his 616 counterpart has been effectively neutered for the past few years, it’s refreshing to see just how well-utilised he is under Vaughan’s command here. For the first time in a long, long time, you’ll see just why he became so popular in the first place. Looking good!
