The Joker’s comeback campaign against the Batman family rips through Batman, Batgirl and Batman and Robin books this week! DC Comics is teasing the final issues of the Death of the Family storyline coming in February 2013.
Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo deliver the final showdown between the Joker and Bruce in Batman #17. Who lives, dies and laughs last?
The Joker will have his own cult? In Detective Comics #17 Batman will track down the League of Smiles and encounter new villains with ties to Arkham Asylum.
Batgirl #17 courtesy DC Comics
Gail Simone has Barbara Gordon dealing with the aftermath of the Joker’s reign of terror in Batgirl #17 and looks to pull the trigger on a storyline she’s been building up to: the attack of Barbara’s own brother. DC promises this issue will change Batgirl’s status quo in The New 52.
Death of the Family will have a devastating effect on the men who were Robin. In Nightwing #17 how will Damian Wayne reach out to a defeated Dick Grayson. In the aftermath of the storyline Bruce will confront Jason Todd in Red Hood and the Outlaws #17 by Scott Lobdell.
A serial killer…of GODS? The writer who gave fans vicious stories in Scalped, Wolverine and Ghost Rider is letting loose a cosmic level killer in this week’s THOR: God of Thunder #1.
Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic have been deemed worthy to wield the power of THOR! The Thunder God will track a trail of blood in the past, present and future after a new villain called The GOD BUTCHER.
What else can you expect in this new series starring the Avenger’s heaviest hitter? The creative team shared their plans with Comics Newsarama.
Aaron is describing his story as a simultaneous “Year One,” present-day adventure and Dark Knight Returns-esque tale — re-teaming with his Dark Reign: The List — Wolverine collaborator Ribic and his love for Mangog. Aaron created a new villain ominously called the God Butcher.
Aaron is taking over after Matt Fraction’s long run on The Mighty Thor and cites a Fraction story as part of his inspiration.
“I remember when [Matt] Fraction did his first Thor stories a few years back in the Ages of Thunder standalones. I remember reading those and thinking for the first time as a writer, “Oh, Thor’s really cool. I could see me writing Thor.” But I never really thought much more about it, other than enjoying the book as it was coming out. But suddenly, once Thor was on the table, that’s the one I instantly gravitated towards. Before I even had a story, I just kind of made my play and tried to plant my flag. “Stay away! I want Thor!”
Aaron’s story will be set in 3 eras similar to Ages of Thunder.
“In part. I do flash back and show a young Thor in action, but he’s actually just one of three Thors that I want to focus on. This first story is an epic tale that plays out over the course of thousands of years. So we spend time with young Thor in the Viking age — the young, hotheaded god of the Vikings, who loves to come down to Midgard and get into trouble.
In the present, we see Thor the Avenger on a journey that takes him to the far corners of space, interacting with all sorts of new space gods and wondrous new locations.
And then we also see old King Thor, who’s the last king of Asgard, thousands of years in the future, where something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Linking all these eras and Thors together is one villain, an all-new character, who is basically, at least initially, a serial killer of gods. He’s a guy with a serious axe to grind against all immortal beings in the cosmos, and he’s going around doing his best to kill them all off, one at a time, as brutally as possible. That villain’s story unfolds over the course of all these different eras. He starts as a serial killer of gods, but by the end, he has become something even more frightening.”
Aaron calls Gorr, the God Butcher a “serial killer” of Immortals but he has a classic villain on the horizon.
“This first villain is all-new, but man, I can’t wait to do a Mangog story. I’ve had a Mangog statue sitting on my desk for months now, and he begs me every day to write him in somewhere. Soon, Mangog, soon.”
Will a blast from the past reshape the future of Marvel’s mutants? In All-New X-Men #1 Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen bring the original five teen mutants from the past in the Marvel Now. Bendis and X-Men Editor Nick Lowe talk about the time twist and how it will affect the mutants on Marvel.com.
In many ways All-New X-Men is a twist on Chris Claremont’s Day of Future Past. Scott, Jean, Hank, Bobby and Warren of the past have arrived in what to them is a horrific future. Their mentor is dead. Cyclops is in prison for the murder. Anti-mutant hate is raging. The X-Men are without a leader. How will the meeting of past and present X-Men affect the mutant and Marvel universe?
“I am fascinated by the power and responsibility of abusing time travel for your own selfish purposes. I do believe it will create a butterfly effect,” Bendis said, “something that happens in All New X-Men will create a cosmic stir.”
After Schism – Logan rebuilt the a school for mutants. I’m a huge fan of Wolverine and the X-Men by Jason Aaron. The staff and students of the Jean School will be front and center in the new book.
“The time traveling X-Men will be trained in the Wolverine school is different and unique ways,” Bendis said, “Hate is very interesting to write but someone appreciating you for your differences will be explored.”
All-New X-Men #2 courtesy Marvel
Bendis revealed that the core of the new book is not just old X-Men.
“There’s a lot more going on in the book than just the five coming here,” he said. “A lot of it has to do with modern day Cyclops and who his alliances are with. That will take shape very quickly in the first issue — a very new X-Men idea. What he’s going to do is a completely different shape akin to when the Avengers moved from Avengers Mansion to Avengers Tower.” “There’s new X-Men. We’re not calling it ‘All-New X-Men’ for nothing. There are all new X-Men debuting in our first issue. Brand new characters, you’re welcome Fox. They’re going to be representing a new look at mutants … a very modern take. All this is going on in every issue going forward.”
During his Avengers run Bendis’s stories (“No More Mutants” in House of M, The Dark X-Men and formation of Utopia in Dark Reign) had a huge impact on the mutants. Expect Bendis’s X-Men stories to affect the entire Universe. The
“I want to make the X-Men a part of the Marvel Universe proper,”he said. “you’ll see the X-Men interacting with The Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy.”
This is exciting news. The mutants have a stellar (pardon the pun) tradition of conflicts with alien races (The Shi’ar, The Brood, The Skrulls) and there’s a rich history of family connections (The Starjammers, Vulcan, Phoenix – Jean and Rachel, Deathbird) with those alien empires. Bendis is writing a brand new Guardians of the Galaxy series. Maybe we’ll revisit the infamous M’Krann Crystal?
Bendis said to watch out for a certain shapeshifter!
“A very big, positioned antagonist is going to be Mystique,” Bendis said. “She’s going to be very interested in the past X-Men coming here.”
Hugh Jackman as The Wolverine courtesy Marvel and 20th Century Fox
The success of Iron Man paved the way for other Avengers solo films (Thor, Captain America) and the shared universe that became the box-office smash Marvel’s The Avengers for Marvel/Disney.
Fox controls the cinematic rights to Marvel’s X-Men and Fantastic Four. Fox Creative Consultant calls Hugh Jackman’s next Wolverine the beginning of a shared universe among the Fox franchises.
“I felt like Iron Man was really the beginning of something for the Marvel Studios movies, and ‘The Wolverine’ will be a similar starting point to build a lot off of for the Fox movies,” Millar told Comic Book Resources.
That idea will roll into X-Men: Days of Future Past when it starts production in April. There was a recent change in roles behind the scenes for the upcoming film. Original X-Men director Bryan Singer will now direct and X-Men: First Class director/Millar friend Matthew Vaughn will produce.
“Bryan’s worked as a producer even on the X-Men movies that he didn’t direct — he was a producer on ‘First Class.’ So when Matthew decided he wasn’t going to do the sequel, they just switched places with Matthew producing and Bryan coming on to direct. That’s got nothing to do with me, but I’m delighted that Bryan and I will get to work together over the next few years. I’ve been working with Josh Trank on ‘Fantastic Four,’ and I have a lot of ideas of other places we can go with the characters Fox has the rights to.”
A big question for me: Will Hugh Jackman appear in Days of Future Past? The story is partly set in a dark future in which an older Logan leads the surviving X-Men (Storm, Kate Pryde, Colossus, Magneto, the daughter of Scott and Jean, the son of Fantastic Four’s Reed and Sue against the Sentinels.)
Marvel’s First Family blasts off in a brand new Fantastic Four #1 this week. After writing X-Men, Invincible Iron Man and The Mighty Thor, Matt Fraction takes on Marvel’s First Family and their extended family. Fraction and Mark Bagley relaunch Fantastic Four #1 and later this month Fraction and Mike Allred give us FF #1.
The Marvel NOW! relaunch sees Reed, Susan, Ben and Johnny taking the kids on a cosmic vacation in Fantastic Four while a select team of heroes stands in for them back on Earth in FF. Fraction tells Marvel.com why he’s chosen to write the Fantastic family.
“The family unit of it all; adventure dad, adventure mom, that whole thing, when you’re a kid, is great. And The Thing. Greatest comics character of all time, or super greatest? Now I’m struck that in 102 issues, Stan and Jack pretty much built a universe. That’s a tall order, creatively, an impossibly high bar.
I want to tackle that kind of challenge, to take on a book whose mandate, whose creative soul, means to invent wildly and with reckless abandon.”
Fraction follows an epic run by Jonathan Hickman. What is the tone of the new title?
“The Incredibles.” That “The Incredibles” was kind of the perfect modern Fantastic Four story and wasn’t a Fantastic Four story is, like, a provocation of creative war, y’know? Again, talk about impossibly high bars, but there you go. Can there be a Fantastic Four that’s wildly new, wildly inventive, and that appeals to everybody that might encounter it, regardless of their age or how many comics they’ve read? Let’s find out.”
For more of Fraction’s interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
Artist Mark Bagley joins Fraction on this Fantastic voyage! Here are some images from inside their premiere issue courtesy of Marvel.com.
Fantastic Four #1 courtesy Marvel
The first image looks like a new interpretation of the iconic moment when the four were first bombarded with cosmic rays. Ben Grimm is in human form but the kids are in the picture so…
Fantastic Four #1 courtesy Marvel
This must be a dream as we see Franklin wake up from a nightmare. A sign of things to come?
Fantastic Four #1 courtesy Marvel
The final shots show the family in what looks like prehistoric times complete with a dinosaur….always welcome in an adventure in time and space!
Fantastic Four #1 courtesy Marvel
My Geek Wish: Reed Richards vs. Dr. Nemesis in a mental clash of the scientific titans! I loved how Fraction wrote the X-Club on his Uncanny X-Men run. Nemesis will be in Cable and X-Force but it would be great fun to see Reed put the arrogant genius in his place!
A new creative team launches an amazing race between the biggest brains in the Marvel Universe in this week’s Avengers Assemble #9!
Writer Kelly Sue DeConnick (Captain Marvel) and Artist Stefano Caselli welcome Spider-Woman and the new Captain Marvel are joining up too. Bruce Banner and Tony Stark will form two teams in a race to find a missing scientist.
DeConnick and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort talked with Marvel.com about new members and tone of the movie-friendly title.
“These are the AC/DC Avengers. When I saw the movie, I managed to keep in together until Iron Man came onscreen and Back in Black blared. I bounced up and down in my chair. That’s the moment I’m writing for,” Kelly Sue DeConnick said.
“These will be tight ‘get in, get out’ adventures, focused mostly on the classic, ‘public’ Avengers from the movie, drawing in other characters as it demands. Big impact.” – Tom Brevoort added.
The inclusion of Spider-Woman on the teaser image sparked excitement for a bigger role…movie role…for Jessica in the Avengers sequel.
“I really really like Jessica Drew. I like how crazy and broken she is. She’s a character I really wanted to write,” DeConnick revealed.
“I don’t ever want to be in direct competition with Brian Michael Bendis. I might be able to beat him up, that’s possible. We’re different writers with different takes. We do have a similar sense of humor and love for banter-y dialogue. I have been a fan of Brian’s for many years long before I knew him. But I’m writing my Avengers book,” DeConnick said of following Bendis.
“The first arc is kind of an Amazing Race thing where the Avengers are teaming up and competing with each other. Spider-Woman is with Hulk and Thor with Iron Man,” DeConnick said of her initial story.
DeConnick just relaunched Ms. Marvel as the new Captain Marvel and now becomes the first female writer on an Avengers title.
“I’m very interested in making sure women knowing that wanting to work in this industry is not peculiar. There is not anything in heroism or sci-fi that is exclusively masculine. The hero ideal is as important to my daughter as it is to my son. But I don’t want to represent all women in comics…particularly because I blow things sometimes!” DeConnick said.
“If Cap or Thor or Hulk are there, you can have Quasar or Machine Man or Triathlon standing next to them in context. They may not be in the movies now, but wait until Avengers 9!” – Tom Brevoort said of upcoming guest stars.
For the entire livelog here’s the Marvel.com link.
Op/Ed:
Could this be a sign that Spider-Woman may join the lineup in the Avengers 2 sequel or series being developed by Joss Whedon?
The Joker’s terrifying comeback continues in three Batman family books this week! Last month the Clown Prince of Crime invaded Gotham Central and left a wake of death. In the final panel of Batman #13 we finally saw the Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s horrific new take on the classic villain as he attacked Alfred at Wayne Manor. The cover of this week’s Batman #14 shows a chilling image of the Joker in his own makeshift Batcave-like control center watching his targets.
Batman and Robin #14 courtesy DC Comics
One of those targets will be Damian. The renegade Robin sets out on his own mission. What sinister plan could the Joker have for Bruce Wayne’s son? This week’s Batman and Robin #14 could be a critical tie-in to the Death of the Family event.
Another Bat-family target is Barbara Gordon. Her mom has been abducted by the Joker’s gang. As discussed at GeekGirlCon, Gail Simone has made Batgirl a story of overcoming trauma. Barbara has come so far and in this week’s Batgirl #14 she must face the psycho that left her paralyzed in their last encounter and threatens her real family now.
Batgirl #14 courtesy DC Comics
As a huge Barbara Gordon fan the Joker’s plan for her could be the most compelling for me. I have been thinking about what Death of the Family could really mean. Could a member of the Batman family be pushed so far that they kill the Joker? I hope Barbara doesn’t kill but I would love to see her unleash some severe punishment I.E. beat the hell out of the Joker!
Death of the Family will continue in upcoming issues of Catwoman, Teen Titans, Red Hood and the Outlaws and Nightwing.
If you thought Uncanny X-Men and Cyclops’s Extinction Team were extinct…think again! Brian Michael Bendis and Chris Bachalo relaunch Uncanny X-Men for the Marvel Now in February 2013. It was confirmed today on Marvel.com.
It appears Cyclops may not trying to make up for his actions in Avengers vs. X-Men. The new mutant population boom has the fallen leader inspired to save his race – by any means necessary. Magneto, Emma Frost and Magik join Scott on his missions to recruit young mutants and protect them from a world that fears and hates them.
“You will discover in the very first issue of ALL-NEW X-MEN exactly where Scott Summers’ head is at. Of all the X-Men that feel it is their job to further the legacy of Charles Xavier, no one feels it more strongly than Scott Summers.
Scott Summers himself is not only trying to save these kids but he is trying to train them and get them ready for what he feels is coming mutant revolution These new students represent his only hope for true redemption. And his only hope to make the world the way he really thinks it should be.”
All-New X-Men #1 courtesy Marvel
The new Uncanny X-Men follows after All-New X-Men, both written by Bendis. The writer reveals which is the flagship and how the books connect to Wolverine and the X-Men by Jason Aaron.
“I feel the audience decides what is or is not a flagship title, but I will say that UNCANNY X-MEN will be the one-stop shop for these very important characters in the mutant [corner of the] Marvel Universe and the Marvel Universe proper. I’m very lucky that I get to write ALL NEW X-MEN and UNCANNY X-MEN at the same time. I can examine this fascinating part of the Marvel Universe from vastly different angles.
I can’t think of a time where the mutant part of the Marvel Universe has been more exciting. Every character is so complex and there are so many characters interacting. Literally anything could happen,
It is not unlike the job I had writing NEW AVENGERS and DARK AVENGERS at the same time, even though this is not DARK X-MEN.”
Bendis revealed that the new Uncanny X-Men came out of story planning for AvX.
I love this response from Bendis comparing the friends and family aspect in Earth’s Mightiest Heroes versus the Children of the Atom.
“Absolutely. If the Avengers are a family, then UNCANNY X-MEN is a very, very, very dysfunctional family. But these characters really do need each other. And some of them love each other. And some of them don’t.”
Avengers vs X-Men #11 courtesy Marvel
Even though I love Jean I’ve said before that Emma Frost is the best thing to happen to Scott Summers. Bendis confirms that Cyke and Emma are over.
“The romance is done. They are not together anymore romantically. It’s pretty hard to come back from what they went through in Avengers Vs. X-Men.Things were said, powers were stolen, and as we will discover in the very first issues of UNCANNY X-MEN, some things happen between them that cannot be taken back.
And because they are Scott and Emma, this breakup is going to take a while. And it’s not going to be pretty, but fun to write.”
Magneto has been the ultimate X-Men enemy, headmaster of Xavier’s and in recent years an ally loyal to Scott. I love Bendis’s teasing answer to the question: Is Magneto reformed?
“What you are going to see with Magneto is a very specific new chapter in his life. At the last Marvel [creative summit] we were talking about the fact that we often break our heroes but never do much to our villains. We would put the Fantastic Four through the ringer but Doctor Doom is always Doctor Doom. I gave that conversation a lot of thought.
What happens in the pages of UNCANNY X-MEN will establish a very bold, new chapter for Magneto.”
Bendis said he’s creating brand new mutant characters for that will be front and center with the main cast. I’m always excited for the debut of new mutants. I won’t name names but some work, some don’t.
The big question for me: Cyclops’s new headgear?
For the entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
All-New X-Men #1 debuts next week! Uncanny X-Men #1 hits in February!
