Keeping my distance to all speculations about what's going to happen with the death of Batman and Pa Kent.....which I will believe when I see it......and tired of telling you how bad BRAND OLD DAY is there is not much left. So I can finish it all in this post. But before that....
SOMEBODY STOP ED MCGUINESS !
I really mean it. I'm as big a fan as anybody but this is just too much. Nothing against the occasional Ed McGuiness variant cover. I am all for it - I mean the variant for Captain America was just awesome. But let's not get carried away. If someone can do 5 ( in words : five !!! ) covers in one month this person has a lot of free time besides his monthly comic duties.
Or he's using the additional time he has because Frank Cho and Artur Adams are working on Hulk for some work on the side. That's not what fill - in artists are for. The idea is to help the regular artist to regain some leeway. No matter what the case is here - somebody like maybe an editor - should channel that energy into interior pages. Because as nice as the covers are they are nothing compared to comic pages by Ed McGuiness. It doesn't even have to be a full story. A five page story in an anthology would be enough. The book would sell only because of the Ed McGuiness pages.
And what's up with Ed McGuiness' ULTIMATES storyarc ? Don't think we've forgotten all about that, Marvel. You promised us that you would publish the one who finished first : Joe Madureiras or Ed McGuiness. Well, the story from Joe Madureiras is finished ( I can only guess since I haven't read the last two issues yet ) and since you put Ed McGuiness on the new Hulk book that must mean he has finished too. So when is that coming out ?
Or do you want to leave your readers hanging like with the ULTIMATE HULK / WOLVERINE mini that is reprinted this month ? I don't want to be sarcastic but am I the only one who thinks that it's unnecessary to reprint issue 1 of this ? I bet there are still hundreds of copies at the comnic dealers because people were waiting for issue 2.
Back to Ed McGuiness : get that man some interior stuff to work on. Whatever he wants. I don't care what. As long as it's not connected to BLAND NEW DAY.
Now what's up with the rest of the solicitations ?
BLACK PANTHER 1
Marvel tries to vitalize the franchise with a new number 1. Again. I haven't read the last ten issues or so but to me it seems like they just did the last restart a few months ago. And the problem with the book was more that after the departure of John Romita Jr. they didn't manage to get a suitable replacement. They had Scott Eaton for two storyarcs but they just didn't hang onto him. And the Campbell cover is nice but if they don't bring their a - game to it they can just as well scratch the whole relaunch. No matter how good it's written if you only put second - and third - stringers on the art it's never going to be in the top spots.
NOVA 22
You are probably already reading Nova. So I don't have to tell you how great the book is, how it manages to throw you a curveball when you least expect it or how it ties into SECRET INVASION. You already know that and I don't have to lose another word about one of Marvel's best series. I just wanted to post the cover because for me this is the cover of the month.
If there was such a thing. And if I got to vote on it.
Anyway, I just like the simple yet effective design. And it tells you something about the story. How neat is that ?
SHE HULK 38
Final issue ! Well, I have to say that doesn't surprise me much. I'm more astonished it lasted this long. I already wrote something about this in my post THE SLOW DEATH OF SHE HULK were I foretold that the days of the title were numbered. I mean you just have to look at the track record : after the awful start with Bobillo they finally managed to get an a - grade artist like Paul Pelletier. They got good reviews from comic critics and a solid fanbase. And then Marvel restarts it without Pelletier and the whole crazy storylines by Dan Slott that made no sense like the Starfox as a rapist or She Hulk humping whoevers available ( and Wolverine doesn't ) or the whole " if you are special you need help " fiasko.....it didn't take a fortuneteller to see where this was headed.
What's funny is that if you are special like She Hulk and use the powers gamma radiation gave you people like Dan Slott say you are sick and need help. Because it's unnatural. If somebody like Brad Pitt uses the advantage he has over other people ( fame, money, good looks ) that's totally okay. For me that's a double standard.
Back to the train wreck that is She Hulk. Marvel still hasn't managed to get top artists on the book of their favorite character - and with that I don't mean the editors. She Hulk is the number one character among fans and artists alike so you can't tell me that it's difficult to get good people for the series. We have heard the argument again and again that there are also females reading the book but it seems that their number is not so great that it's enough to keep the title alive.
The average reader is still male so the main character should look accordingly. And I have to say : the current costume is not a good one. If you don't want to do a decent costume you should go all the way : just give her something to wear like this.
That's not much better but at least this way you get more readers.
THE SPIRIT 26
Not much to say about the book after last month. The reason why I chose this one is the cover artist. Brian Bolland is one of the big comic masters and one of the few who's able to tell a story in one single picture. With today's covers that mostly have nothing to do with the interior story and mostly just consist of a nice pin up that's a rare gift.
And that's all. Nothing mor to say about the new solicitations so next time we will return to our usual comic ramblings and hijinks. Who knows ? I might even get to do the post about Jose Luis Garcia Lopez.
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