Welcome to the Mast, you faceless people. I am your host, you may call me The Mast.
Today, as the title says, I will be talking about darkness and light in the Marvel Universe. Not literally, of course. It's not some kind of mad post about turning the lights on and off in the Baxter Building, making deep bass noises and pretending you're in a rave.
Pt 1: Darkness.
"In the beginning, Marvel gave us The Way and Deadpool. The Way made sure Deadpool was without form and void; and Way was upon the face of the Merc, and the spirit of Gischler moved upon the face of the waters, before dragging thy great character down to thy depths of mediocrity never to surface again.".
-The Mast, 22:30 on a Tuesday night.
It's no secret I am a HUGE fan of Deadpool. It's him and Daredevil at the top of my all time list for one reason or another. I own all of his appearances and, despite Marvel turning him into their new cash cow, I still buy all his appearances. It's also no secret how I feel about this.
Now, I feel I may have to step away from collecting Deadpool comics. The death of my love of pursuing the character and his place in my collection has sadly come upon me I know, I know. Hear me out.
Marvel have taken this way too far, they really have. I tolerate three poor to mediocre, and sometimes very good, Deadpool on-goings. I was even prepared to grit my teeth and get through the onslaught of Deadpool material coming out in March and April (See The Deadpool Bugle's list of upcoming releases on the right). I think you'll agree that's pretty good of me, considering how much there is of the fucking stuff. Then add to the fact that it's highly likely none of it will be stellar enough to justify the purchase and I think you can agree I'm being a rather dedicated, and probably stupid, fan.
There was a mini-series planned entitled The Deadpool Corps. I sighed a sigh of tedium when I heard, but hey, it's only a mini-series, right? Then I saw the art:
A dog and a kid with lightsabres? In all honesty, Marvel, you're going to put a character out there called Dogpool? Are you legitimately serious?
Still, it's only a mini-series, right? That's what was stated, right? Yes. So presumably Marvel will keep to that, salvage some dignity for the character and let it go? No, of course not!
In an interview with conducted by Marvel (Source Here), Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth writer, Victor Gischler, has stated that The Deadpool Corps will be an on-going series.
I was pissed off enough that this shit was even a mini-series, but that's a FOURTH on-going Deadpool series to cap off his billions of upcoming guest appearances. It was accompanied, ironically, by this quote:
"Imagine you're dragging around a dead dog on a leash and talking to it and petting it and feeding it like it was a live dog.".
Now, I'm taking that out of context because he was referring to something else, and that's not the entire quote. I just think it's hilarious because that's exactly what Marvel have done, collectively. They've single handedly killed Deadpool, or at least my love for the character. I'm not going to keep blinding myself, I refuse to. I love Deadpool like I loved the idea of my ex-girlfriend when I was newly single, you know?
She was awesome and we had awesome times. Then she became a rather soulless and immeasurably selfish sociopath with a drug problem and a penchant for pathological lying. I didn't recognise this immediately because it was the same familiar shell.
The same can be said for Deadpool. He's the same red and black clad character I loved for many, many years and spent a lot of money on...but only on the outside. It's sad, it really is. Part of me just wants to keep getting them, because I've come this far, but I know he'll never get the writer or series he deserves while people are still paying for it.
Even Daniel Way has more or less explicitly stated that he doesn't want to care about the Deadpool continuity that has come before. Everyone's just taking a steamy shit on the character and it's truly saddening to me.
Pt 2: Light.
"...and Bendis, Diggle and Brubaker said: 'Let there be better quality comics.', and there were better quality comics. They saw the better quality comics and saw that they were good. They divided the better quality from the works of The Way. Henceforth there was a consistency and firmament of character, story and artistic quality, to divide the good from the shit.".
-The Mast, 22:38 on a Tuesday night.
As you will all know, if you read my blog and/or comics on a semi-regular basis, a LOT of things are happening in the Marvel Universe right now. We're just fresh out of Dark Reign and we're smack in the middle of Siege, Marvel's blockbuster event to cap it all of in the first quarter of this year. Two issues in and things show no sign of slowing down!
The hot topics in the comics community, however, have more to do with speculation regarding what the post-Siege Marvel Universe will reveal to us. It has been stated that The Heroic Age will begin; an era of heroism emerging from the darkness that has had a hold on everything for the past few years.
I rabidly avoid spoilers AND solicits wherever possible, I do. The only way I could TOTALLY avoid them is if I stopped visiting comic news websites or forums. I am a comics fan, I like to discuss comics. So, my choice is to either never interact with anyone about comics on the internet again, or risk getting some things spoiled. Now, if I view a solicit/headline or a piece of promotional art by accident, I can handle that so long as nobody is actively posting spoilers. With writers leaking shit on their Facebooks, Twitter pages and forums also, it's even harder.
With that said, A LOT has been revealed and simultaneously kept secret about what The Heroic Age will entail. We know now that ALL the current books involving any roster of The Avengers will be finishing in April, after Siege. That means Dark Avengers, The New Avengers and Avengers: The Initiative will all finish their runs in around three or less months. This makes me sad because I LOVE The New Avengers, it's been one of my favourite on-goings since it came out and I really like Dark Avengers, too.
In their place - this being a piece of info I wish I DIDN'T find out - we will have FOUR new titles surrounding The Avengers. "Sir Mast! What titles will they be?!", I hear you cry. I shall answer!
One of these has been said to be The Avengers, a new series centred around the new main team of The Avengers. It has been revealed - again, not something I wished to find out - that Captain America (Bucky, in the promo art), Thor and Iron Man will be on this team. The Trinity (Not technically, as Cap isn't Steve) back together after seven years! I'm not thrilled about the idea of Thor forgiving Iron Man for what he did during Civil War, but Siege isn't over and maybe they give him a good reason.
Regardless, it should be a good book. Bendis is writing it and John Romita Jr. is doing the art. I'm not a big fan of Romita Jr. simply because his art looks a bit too...I don't know, but I'll post up the promotional art pieces next so you can see. I like all of them, to directly contradict myself, except Captain America and one other.
In addition to The Trinity, we have two more members confirmed, and Bendis has said the roster isn't fully announced. Here're the teasers:
There's The Trinity. I have to say that despite drawing a shitty Bucky in that picture, Romita Jr. draws a MEAN Thor. That's honestly one of the very best images of Thor I've seen in a long ass time. I love the gloves, a nice touch. His Iron Man looks...kinda blocky from the image there, but we'll see. It still looks good.
Here are the teasers for the two additionally confirmed members:
Spider-Woman and Hawkeye, ladies and gents. The REAL Hawkeye, not Bullseye as Hawkeye, but Clint Barton (Currently known as Ronin). I know for a fact this has pleased a shitload of fans, including myself. I think he looks absolutely terrible in that picture, though. As for Spider-Woman...ehh. If there has to be a chick, it should be Ms. Marvel, not Spider-Woman. I understand that Bendis is working with her on her on-going, though, so maybe it'll work out.
All in all, this book can't be worse than decent. Bendis has proven his worth at writing The New Avengers and Dark Avengers, let's hope he can take the big one.
So, what are the other three titles? Nobody knows for sure what the fourth is, and with the third rumoured to be Avengers Academy, that leaves the second title. This one IS confirmed, and it's called Secret Avengers. As expected, it will probably be a sort of street-level team that deals with smaller things than The Avengers are necessary for.
Who is on this roster? NOBODY KNOWS! All we have to go by are these two images:
The first one has been the cause of much speculation, with most of us leaning toward saying it's Beast. This is problematic as Beast tends to have three fingers, unless they've changed it. Also, a big man covered in blue fur doesn't scream "Secret!". Regardless, he remains a front runner. Black Panther remains another highly speculated candidate. Other speculated, yet less likely candidates, include: Anti-Venom, Toxin, Spider-Man (Too bulky, proportions are off) and Daredevil (Likewise).
The second? Most of the comics community seem to be putting their money on Moon Knight and/or, at a close second, Dr. Voodoo. Nobody is entirely sure how the quote would fit Dr. Voodoo, but Moon Knight is currently going through this phase of trying to be a hero rather than a vicious vigilante. I'm just hoping it's not Sentry, man. You ripped Ares in half, you don't get to be an Avenger.
However, the concept of another street-level team is EXCITING TO ME! I love that kind of stuff. Awesome, right? THERE'S MORE! When you buy this Shamwow...I'm kidding, but there is more. CAN YA GUESS WHO IS WRITING THIS? CAN YOU?!
I'll give you a delicious piece of text from Marvel's website, you bastards:
"Don't miss the brand new Secret Avengers #1, from the superstar creative team of Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato, this May!".
ED...FUCKING...BRUBAKER and MIKE...erm...BLOODY...DEODATO on the same comic? One of the world's best writers and best artists on the same book? If the roster turns out to be sick, then this is going to be 2010's best new series. I'm calling it. Even if the roster doesn't immediately jump out as amazing, I'm sure these guys will make it so.
As you can see, so much is happening that's good in the Marvel Universe, or about to. It truly does feel like the dawning of a new era. I wait anxiously to find out what the other titles will be. Avengers Academy seems like it'd be a nice mix of Avengers: The Initiative and Young Avengers, which I'd be into if the writer is good.
It's recently been revealed that the new leader of the Thunderbolts (If you don't know, this is Marvel's villains-turned-good guys team) will be Luke Cage. This even has some reshuffled members including the likes of Juggernaut and, surprisingly, Crossbones. The man helped assassinate Steve Rogers, but oh well. Apparently people are way more forgiving in Marvel now. I've never been a reader of Thunderbolts, but I'm sure it'll be solid.
I guess...the biggest question I have is regarding my boy. Will Daredevil finally become an Avenger in some format? If anything, Secret Avengers would be perfect. I kinda like that he's been the one that got away for the whole of his life, no team affiliation, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be happy for him to finally make the cut!
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This has been a mighty long blog post, but I hoped you enjoyed it and even some of the new formatting. It helps break the monotony of text, I suppose.
I'll be back on Thursday with Thursday's Comics, and hopefully you guys and girls will join me. PLEASE! I'm joking, but seriously...join me or I'll kill your entire family.
Until then, peace!
-The Mast
