that this center bold text
is my calling card…
my trademark…
like Buffalo Bill
killing fat girls…
Welcome to:
A week of news! Thank God that happened.. the last few weeks have been kind of newsless due to the holidays, but now I have some Diamond estimated end of year sales. I have Spidey-Outfits. I have an update that is completely unrelated to Marvel. I have a slam on another Nexus writer? Who could it be?
Let’s get into it.. shall we?
TOY BIZ WHO?!
(Courtesy of Newsarama)
I figure we’ll get the non Comic news out of the way here, as it’s more of a ‘Figures’ piece of news, but now Marvel will be moving their toys over to Hasbro.. which means the Marvel Legends line is going away, and the only quote that seems to mean anything to me is this:
The deal, and transition make sense for Marvel as, for years, Toy Biz has shown substantial volatility in terms of Marvel’s divisions, i.e., when a property is hot, the toys (and Toy Biz) do well, but when there is no hot property to base toys upon, the division does poorly, lowering the entire company’s quarterly earnings.
So the basic idea is that because ToyBiz isn’t doing anything with it’s other time, more or less basing their entire company on Marvel, Marvel is ditching them?
It does seem a bit counterintuitive to go with a company like Hasbro, who might have more backing, but when your figures from Toy Biz are so wonderfully manufactured.
I will admit to not get all the businessy aspects of the toy industry, so if you have something to say about it.. drop me an email, I’m your soapbox kids.
SPIRON MAN!!!!
(Courtesy of Everyone)
As it has been touted EVERYWHERE, the Spider-Outfit has been leaked to the press… and I guess that means me. I really don’t know if I qualify as press… I’m so down on myself.
Anyway – what do you think?
Me.. I’m ok with the look of the outfit, even though that yellow and superheroes NEVER go well together. Yellow does just NOT strike fear into anyone. So what will this do for Spider-Man… we’ll see. The outfit isn’t so bad, but now that the Other is coming to a close, I’m starting to feel reservations about how everything went off.
I’ve heard another spoiler about it, but I don’t want to get into that. I promise that rant will be a week or so.
So there’s your Spidey-Outfit. I shrug in indifference.
SPIDER-GIRL FINALLY GETS HER ENDING
(Courtesy of Newsarama)
Does anyone remember the M2? It was a failed Marvel Line that was arguably ahead of it’s time, as it showed that the marketplace could withstand something like the Ultimate-Verse.
Almost 10 years old, one book has survived past A-NEXT, the FANTASTIC FIVE, THE BUZZ, WILD THING, and DARKDEVIL – and her name was SPIDER-GIRL.
For those who don’t know about this insane story, this book about the daughter of Peter Parker has been saved from cancellation more times than any other book I’ve heard of. (Even more than the original run of Deadpool which I personally wrote in on a few times.)
Now, as it reaches issue #100 it will be coming to a close. It leaves behind it the ability to be put into an entire line of Manga-ish TPBs for all of those wonderful bookstores to covet, and should be remembered as a book that surpassed much longer than it ever was expected to.
As expected, the fans of this series, some of the loudest in the industry, are already clamoring to save it. Good for them.
APPARENTLY I READ JOE FRIDAY NOW
(Courtesy of Newsarama)
I tried NOT to read the Joe Friday columns for a long time, as they generally hold quite a few spoilers, and the rest of it is just ‘keep reading’ drivel from Joey Q about the upcoming Marvel products.
It’s fairly obvious though that Joey likes to let Newsarama know EVERYTHING, so it’s only right for me to go and do at least a bullet point review of what has been said.
** Mark Millar just whispered two words into my ear and I have no idea what he means by it. He said, “Ultimate Asgard.”
Seems reasonable given Loki’s big push in the Ultimates. I do wonder how the Ultimate universe is going to take on a full mythology. Are they going to be more creative than it’s standard 616, or possibly even more realistically closer to the actual Norse.
** We had about four different endings for Civil War….
…Literally as if out of a movie script, Joss Whedon appeared. Within 30 seconds Joss identified the elephant in the room and we had our ending. We managed to put together a bunch of the best solutions and it’s something truly sensational.
Well that seems fairly smart. Have Joss Whedon there for all things. Right as I was starting this column up this week, Bill was commenting (yes, he is at my house all the time) that Marvel seems to be doing their best to put a concrete continuity together. He also made comment that Bendis should be in charge of maintaining it. Now whereas I agree that there should possibly some kind of figurehead that all look to to make continuity a perfect thing.. I don’t think Bendis is that guy.
Who should it be? I don’t know, probably Mark Waid.
My point is that Whedon is obviously one of the greatest storytellers in the fantasy/sci-fi/comic book genre today, whether or not I liked the return of Colossus. The man knows how storytelling works, and where one could argue that someone like Frank Miller or Grant Morrison do it better (one I’d agree with, the other I would an issue of Seaguy), Whedon is easier on the eyes.
No, not like that…
Whedon understands how fans think. He understands how to put his protagonists into vicious stories, and pull them out of them when the time is right. So let Waid be your continuity god and Whedon be your monkeywrench boy.
*** (On X-Books)There has also been rumors of creator changes to the titles…
Gooooooood…. Let Claremont keep his happy Excalibur. Put Milligan back on some out there X-Statix title, keep Morrison and Austin away, and let David Hine and Brian Vaughan have shots a book. Thusly happiness will be achieved throughout the universe. More on who gets these books next week supposedly.
This quote is just too expansive to shorten down, so here.. you read it.
*** “Between the physical changes to Peter that follow the aftermath of The Other, he gets a second power upgrade courtesy of the ‘Iron Spider’ suit from Stark. What he will discover is that with great power comes not just responsibility but one heck of a price tag. Peter will have to decide if he can pay that price in loyalty to Tony, when the loyalty may cost him things he holds dearest. He will find himself caught in the middle of the Civil War, seeing all sides of the argument, but will be eventually forced to make a decision that will change both his life and the whole Marvel Universes.”
So Spidey has to decide whether to remain on Stark’s side during Civil War as more or less a hired goon based on his new spidey suit.. Intriguing.. as it makes Tony seem almost to be a bad guy.
AND NOW LET’S DISCUSS TIM STEVENS…
(Courtesy of Tim Stevens)
As a note, if you have no urge to see the mindless prattle about other writers here at the Nexus”¦ please skip to the next section. Thanks.
For those who didn’t see the front page from this past week, it had this wonderful gem:
It’s morning in America (or whatever) and its time to take your coffee. Jamie brings it to you like a double shot of espresso with not one, but two editions of Marvel News & Views. And you know that since its Jamie, it’s got to be Starbucks in that cup cuz that’s the only way he rolls.
The people out there that know me, know that there are a few things that I despise in this world. Things like 8-Track tapes, and people’s whose names begin with ‘Q’. (I’m looking at you Tarantino)… the biggest of them all is ‘Starbucks’. I loooatthe them. This is a long hate that has strained back to my days in Seattle when I was a train track construction foreman. They used to call me ‘Ol Red Pants’ due to the color of my jeans after a weeks worth of rust had built on them.
One day, I was working on my final track before I was to head east, and I was told that all my work was going to be pulled because of a new chain of coffeehouses that was going to be moved in. It’s name. Starbucks. Now aside from its colorful imagery towards Battlestar Galactica, Starbucks has followed me east like a plague of damnation.
As someone whom I’ve met… Tim Stevens knew this… and chose this past week to be hateful towards me for some unknown reason. Now, where normally I would just cry to myself alone, this past week was just too much. So, Stevens, where I’ve tried to keep your secrets hidden… I can’t any longer.
Tim Stevens is in fact not truly the twenty-something suave debonair man he has proclaimed to be in posts. We cracksmart that he looks like TV’S Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor) …. here though is the man that we all truly know as Tim Stevens. Don’t believe me.. type his name in Google Image Search…
So now what are you going to do Tim? How do you”¦ in fact… roll?
Is that how I roll? Do you mean to ask me if I roll like the man featured in the photo above? The man who my parents named me for, who, despite the ridiculousness of his outfit, still sacrificed his life to save a bank full of hostages? Because, if you are asking that, let me just say that we should all be so luck to roll like that.
Nah, I roll more like this, flashing my “wings” while rocking a tux (the “wing” represents Wu-ington, my home town). Or, I roll like this, wearing a tux with the lovely and incomparable Janelle Sagness on my arm.
And if you hate Starbucks so much Jamie, why do you always buy coffee from them? And why are they still just as profitable as ever? I have been boycotting Krispy Kreme since they arrived in the Wu three years ago and now? Their Wu-ington location is closed and they are on the ropes financially. I guess you could say that that too is how I roll: by getting things done.
Well, you got me there Tim. By the way, have I told you about Starbucks new Peppermint mocha, available in tall, grande, and massive?
*****Edito’s Note: Bits of this may have been dramatized or made up whole cloth. Maybe even everything except the fate of Krispy Kreme and the photos of Tim Stevens. Oh, and Jamie’s love of Starbucks.*****
THE NUMBERS BEGIN TO POUR IN
(Courtesy of Newsarama)
Top 300 List
Okay, I started to write up a full list of the Marvel top 100.. but seriously, if you aren’t going to click the link.. you sure as hell wouldn’t have looked at what I wrote. Let’s just do the top 10 and talk about the top 100.
3 New Avengers 14 124,300
6 Ult. Wlv Vs Hlk 1 100,900
7 Ultimates 2 9 94,500
9 Uncanny X-Men 467 81,300
10 Amazing SpdrMn 527 79,300
So half of the books on the top 10 are Marvel, but it should be noted that they hold well over 50% of the top 100. They held all spots above DC in terms of increase in sales and product. This list doesn’t even consider trade sales or subscriptions (do people REALLY subscribe?)
Either way, comics are on the rise again it seems.. so let’s everybody buckle up for the insuing glut of alternate covers, shiny prismatics, trading cards in your book (Remember Cable is the better version of X-Force #1), and marketting sluttiness.
BEFORE WE GET TO THE REVIEWS – DANIELLE CORSETTO
(Courtesy of Newsarama)
For those who don’t know Danielle Corsetto, she is a personal friend and if you’ve never read Girls With Slingshots, it really is the second greatest webcomic out there. I’m sure you know what the #1 is, but either way I just wanted you all to see that it is possible for people in this industry to make it in places other than in Marvel or DC.
Congrats to her and I wish her the best of luck.
Lucky bitch.
..i hate her..
Now onto Reviews.
BOOK OF LOST SOULS #3 – Finally starting on a two-parter and introducing a new character. I keep holding onto the idea that this might be JMS’ opus. I continue to hold hope.
CABLE/DEADPOOL #24 – Deadpool versus Spider-Man! You want some fun, have the two loudest comic characters in the Marvel verse sitting there and bantering with each other. I’m not 100% on how Fabian writes the Spidey, but the underlying plot of Cable using Deadpool to further his own means (much like Xavier with Mystique) is quite good..
DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON #1 – This book was fun, starred bounty hunters and badass chicks. Good times. Fun book.
EXILES #75 – Welcome to 2099… and where it isn’t starting as strong as the New Universe storyline, and i don’t feel immediately endeared to the 2099 characters as I did with Starbrand and those other folk – but now Proteus has got a very very very very mean and green host…. eep.
NEW X-MEN #22 – The new writing team on this book is only helping, and where this issue was a step down from last issue, it is definately coming back as a book that I feel that I have to read as much as a book I want to.
SHE-HULK #2 – What happened to Shulkie after she went bezerk during Disassembled? Find out there. Dani approved, and she’s better at this than I am.
SON OF M #2 – Taking to a place that I wasn’t expecting, Quicksilver is now hanging on the moon with his Inhuman friends, his wife, and his daughter. In an interesting point he wants to use the Terrigen mists (the gas that makes the Inhuman all mutanty) and he’s denied… that doesn’t stop him though. Continued good storytelling from David Hine.
ULTIMATE EXTINCTION #1 – In a book that feels more like it was supposed to come out a few years ago, but then making me realize that Warren Ellis is still around, it’s slow. It tells you exactly what will happen when Guh Lak Tosis shows up, and is pretty as anything… but ultimately going to be better in trade. HA! ULTIMATELY! …
X-MEN: The 198 – Hine is going to have his former District X Clientelle finally make it to the standard X-Verse continuity. How is Mr. M going to fit in? We’ll find out in the book that I’ve been looking forward to in awhile.
Okay, well that’s that for this week. If you folks have anything to say, lemme know.
Oh and as a note on the updated list of mutants – I’ll be getting back to that next week… trying to work on personal projects has kept me away, but I will make some dedicated time for you people and the 198 Project, promise.
Til then,
Make Yours Me.
