An all-star lineup of creators will pay tribute to the Eleventh Doctor in an all-new Doctor Who Annual 2012 from IDW Publishing out this week. This oversize issues includes three stories.
While Matt Smith will say goodbye to Amy and Rory on the television series, writer Tony Lee is leaving the Doctor Who franchise with this Annual. The writer has helmed series, one-shots, miniseries and even the current crossover between the Time Lord and the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
“It’s an escape story,” Lee tells Comic Book Resources of his final story, “The Doctor willingly enters 1962 Alcatraz to rescue a friend after he learns of his death in a riot. It’s ‘Escape From Alcatraz‘ with timey-wimey fun and shimmer-suited aliens thrown in. And a familiar face or two. I wanted to do something ‘big’ in my 11 pages, rather than have people just sitting at a table talking to each other. I like the running, jumping, climbing trees school of Doctor Who.”
The all-star creative team includes legendary comics writer Len Wein, Dr. Who novelist Richard Dinnick, artists Matthew Dow Smith and Mitch Gerads.
Andy Diggle and Mark Buckingham will be the creative team on a new series spinning out of the annual which includes a prelude of their upcoming story.
Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso played along with this week’s Marvel NOW second round of teasers for upcoming series. In the latest Axel-In-Charge column on Comic Book Resources Alonso said of the upcoming titles and teams:
“The excitement for Marvel NOW! isn’t limited to the core monthlies, like “Avengers,” “X-Men,” “Captain America,” “Thor,” “Hulk” and “Iron Man.” We challenged creators to use the post-“Avengers Vs. X-Men” landscape to shake up and reinvigorate titles like “X-Men: Legacy,” “Deadpool,” “Avengers Academy” and “Thunderbolts.” The second round of teasers are for books that met the challenge head on, taking familiar series down bold new paths and providing characters who’ve been sitting on the bench a new place on playing field.”
When asked if some titles were almost brand new concepts with a familar name Alonso responded:
“Some of our latest teasers fit that bill to a “T.” Daniel [Way] and Steve [Dillon]’s series features an eye-popping array of characters — all linked by one special trait — that you’d never think could make a team. Dennis [Hopeless] and Kev Walker’s series will have anyone who’s been to the Cineplex — from here to Japan — buzzing the moment they see the cover to issue #1. And Sam [Humphries] and Salva[dor Larocca]’s series is going to prove that some books are best fueled by drastic change. And we’ve got plenty more planned.”
Here are the teasers from this week collected:
courtesy Marvel
Daniel Way. Steve Dillon. Lightning. December 2012. A new series in the crosshairs!
The second wave of Marvel NOW! is unleashed! Does this mean a brand new Thunderbolts?
Back in the day the original Thunderbolts series launched with the tagline “Justice, Like Lighting.”
The current T-bolts just became Dark Avengers under Jeff Parker.
In an earlier interview Way told Comics Newsarama he would be writing a team book.
courtesy Marvel
Marvel is really making fans scratch their heads this week with all the teasers for upcoming Marvel NOW series.
Sam Humphries. Ron Garney. KILLERS. January 2013.
I don’t expect a Brandon Flowers and Alison Blaire duet. I do expect great writing from the man currently behind Ultimates and Fanboys Vs. Zombies. Garney has killed it as artist on several titles including Captain America.
I suspect this might be a relaunched Uncanny X-Force? What about you?
courtesy Marvel
Hopeless. Larroca. WANTED. 2012.
This latest Marvel NOW teaser confirms Dennis Hopeless is on two new books (the other book had the teaser SURVIVE.) Hopeless will be paired with Invincible Iron Man artist Salvador Larroca. I love Larroca so much I’d buy a title about a reading a telephone book drawn by Larroca.
What or Who is WANTED? Given the cosmic ambitions of upcoming Marvel movies maybe this is a Star-Lord, Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova series? Maybe this is my outlaw mutant idea: Avenging X-Men?
Brian Michael Bendis is reflecting on his 8 years of writing The Avengers with Marvel.com before taking on the X-Men franchise. Bendis made me start buying and loving Earth’s Mightiest Heroes again. Fans say they have event fatigue (I’m guilty of saying that) but we sure kept devouring them over the past 8 years. Bendis was the mastermind (or key collaborator) of epic after epic from House of M to Secret Invasion to Siege. Bendis gives some insight into how these Marvel milestones went from brain to page.
House of M #1 courtesy Marvel
Avengers became the center of the Marvel Universe and House of M was a huge game-changer in the Marvel Universe that turned an Avenger into a pariah and depowered millions of mutants.
“When the book becomes the center of everything, there’s a lot of ways for that to go wrong. That wasn’t my goal to turn the AVENGERS into the center; my goal was to just make this the most awesome thing ever, filled with stuff I hadn’t seen in an Avengers book before. I knew that would be slightly controversial, but maybe not as controversial as I intended. The way the market responded to things, the book became a centerpiece for the Marvel Universe and the series of event [stories] that came about. If you remember, events were nothing. Disassembled was one of the first events. And then House of M came right after that. They literally came to me and said, “Listen, Joss [Whedon] isn’t writing ASTONISHING X-MEN this summer, he’s got to go do something else. If you want to do an Avengers/X-Men fun thing, that’d be great.
People can look at the first cover and see New Avengers/Astonishing X-Men and that’s what the book initially was. I had a thing left over that I was talking with [Jeph] Loeb about from Disassembled: if Wanda goes nuts, what does Magneto do about that? That seemed like a great Avengers/X-Men summer thing, because what’s the biggest problem for the Avengers and the X-Men? It’s Wanda. House of M burst out of that, and all of a sudden the Avengers are the centerpiece of all these big events, because by nature, the roster is pulling characters from different parts of the Marvel Universe. Back when the Avengers were just Avengers, and you could only see these characters in the Avengers, they were the Avengers. But the way I set it up, with Spider-Man, and Wolverine from the X-Men, and [Thor’s] an Asgardian—now you’ve got an arm out from every corner of the Marvel Universe pulled into this one book. And that makes it, by its own nature, the centerpiece and with that comes a lot of scary stuff,” says Bendis.
New Avengers #31 courtesy Marvel
The revelation that Skrulls had infiltrated every team and organization (for years) was huge and made me go back looking for the clues that had been there. Bendis recalls that “OH —-” moment in New Avengers when the knife went in Elektra and she turned green!
“The reveal of the Skrull stuff was a big one because I’d been planning that since the first issue. And when Elektra became a Skrull, if everyone went, “Who cares?” I’d be screwed. It was all I had. I was relieved that Leinil Yu had killed it, he did an amazing job, and we were able to go about with our Skrull storyline with such excitement from our readers for so long to the point that it became its own event, which wasn’t even the plan.”
The Bendis era is filled with action and dramatic moments. The author reveals the other pivotal scenes that mean a lot to him.
“My favorite moments are usually the quieter ones, like CIVIL WAR: THE CONFESSION and some of the tie-ins during Civil War. Discovering the funny repartee between Spider-Man and Luke Cage, that wasn’t in my initial plan. That just kind of happened, the characters kinda took over.Things like that, which may not be exciting to some people, but as a writer, it always makes me happy to do something I haven’t seen before. When I can put something in the Avengers pot that wasn’t there before. And at the end of the day, the whole time I was on AVENGERS, people were yelling at me because Spider-Man wasn’t an Avenger. Well he’s been an Avenger for eight years, so guess what? Wolverine too. Also, discovering new things about the characters because of their placement in AVENGERS,” Bendis said.
“Overall, my top favorite thing is that I can’t think of a day where I haven’t been thrilled with my collaborations. Every single issue on all of the Avengers books has been quite outstanding, as far as high-water marks in super hero comic book art in the last eight years. Even the first two years of NEW AVENGERS with David Finch and Steve McNiven; I still think that was Steve’s best stuff. Me and Jimmy Cheung did an amazing amount of issues together and people don’t even realize. I would steal him in between issues of YOUNG AVENGERS and I ended up getting a lot of comic books out of him. Mike Deodato has done more issues of Avengers with me than anybody over the course of all the books. I got to work with almost all of my heroes. I got to work with Alan Davis, Howard Chaykin, Neal Adams, Walt Simonson, and John Romita, Jr., all on the same book. There is no way I’m not going to look back on this and go “What?!”
New Avengers Annual #1 courtesy Marvel
For this geek – I love the return of Luke Cage, his relationship with Jessica Jones and his rise to leadership. The New Avengers Annual – the wedding of Luke and Jessica was beautiful. I love the moment when Luke brought to Avengers to his New York City neighborhood. Luke was lifted up to major hero status but stayed grounded and he kept Earth’s Mightiest Heroes grounded and relatable.
Lorna Dane is one of the great tragic heroines of the Marvel Universe. Peter David reveals the truth about the biggest mystery of her life in Day 3 of Breaking Points in this week’s X-Factor #243.
Polaris is the daughter of Magneto. Her mother’s death has haunted Lorna until now. The search for the truth unleashes Lorna’s magnetic fury against her own teammates. Peter David is on fire writing this soap opera packed with drama and great characterization. This issue is tense as Polaris is pushed and pushes back in her obsession to learn the truth about her parents.
Polaris has a history of shock and loss: the airplane crash that killed her mother and the man she thought was her dad, the revelation that the evil Magneto was her real father, being possessed by the mutant Malice, the loss of her mutant powers twice and being dumped by Alex Summers at the altar.
Uncanny X-Men #50 courtesy Marvel
In a series of mind games and magnetic manipulation – M and Longshot finally reveal the truth. It’s worse than Lorna thought!
I LOVE this cover. Polaris was co-created by Jim Steranko. This David Yardin cover beautifully captures the Steranko vibe and how Lorna has been torn and twisted between Havok and Magneto.
The ending of Breaking Points Day Three leaves Lorna and Alex at a major turning point. Havok is joining Uncanny Avengers. I’d like to see Polaris survive and thrive in the Marvel NOW. Back in the early days Lorna chose Alex over Bobby Drake. With the original Iceman coming into the present in All-New X-Men maybe Polaris will have a second chance? I’d love to see Lorna heal the pain, start fresh and become a strong heroine and mutant champion.
Legendary Neal Adams and Christos Gage are telling a tale of The First X-Men. Logan and his ally (yes, ally!) Victor Creed are hunting for fellow mutants thinking there is strength in numbers. Logan and Creed attempted to recruit Charles Xavier in the premiere issue.
In this week’s The First X-Men #2 Logan, Creed and their new recruits track down a Master of Magnetism. The older mutant is on his own mission of vengeance in Argentina hunting Nazi war criminals. This Magneto is not exactly Michael Fassbender but he will remind you of how the character was portrayed in X-Men: First Class. Logan’s invitation does not go as planned.
Adams was an artist in the early days of X-Men. He dives into the conspiracies and key government figures of that era to shape the big threat of this mini-series and is still affecting mutantkind today.
In this lost X-Men tale Adams and Gage have introduces us to new/old mutants Holly Bright aka Holo, Bombast Aghast and a Yeti. The team shows early on how Logan can be a tough drill instructor and encouraging teacher.
This tale of lost mutants reminded me of some other great stories of “new” mutants created in stories of the X-Men’s past. There have been some great characters created for these stories…but they’re doomed.
X-Men: Deadly Genesis Ed Brubaker created four fascinating lost mutants in this tale of Professor Xavier’s darkest secret. The Professor sent his All-New, All-Different X-Men (Storm, Nightcrawler, Thunderbird, Wolverine, Banshee, Colossus) to save his original students from the living island Krakoa. But there was another team. The Professor’s biggest secret comes back to haunt him, leaves an X-Man dead and severs the teacher’s relationship with Cyclops. Kid Vulcan, Sway, Petra and Darwin were four fascinating mutants with great backstories and cool powers. Xavier sent these young kids into action unprepared and they paid the ultimate price. Vulcan and Darwin were revived and all hell broke loose.
X-Men: The Hidden Years #1 courtesy Marvel
X-Men: The Hidden YearsThe Children of the Atom almost vanished from comic book history! In the 1970’s the series went into reprints only. John Byrne created some amazing new tales set in those lost years. The original X-Men even encountered Storm when she was just Ororo.
The First X-Men will join the pantheon of “lost” tales of the past and leave us with “new” characters from the past that might survive and thrive in the here and now.
Brian Michael Bendis made me love the Avengers again. I never really stopped loving Cap, Tony, Wanda, Clint but I had stopped buying the book because the title had become tired to me.
The idea of losing something makes you realize how much you it. Avengers Disassembled rocked my world and shook the foundations of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. New Avengers made the franchise exciting again with new faces and new threats.
Eight years later and End Times are in sight as Bendis leaves the Avengers family for the Children of the Atom. I wanted to share some highlights of this Marvel.com interview about the final months of the Bendisvengers! (And new preview art!)
The fan favorite writer will leave Avengers and New Avengers with an all-star list of artists on board.
“I’m going out on a very pleasant note personally. I just finished an AVENGERS run with Walt Simonson. I’m working on NEW AVENGERS with Michael Gaydos, Michael Avon Oeming, Carlos Pacheco and Mike Deodato. The very last issue we’re doing this big jam sequence. I like to do these jam sequences every once in a while which are very difficult on editorial. I find them to be a lot of fun if you can find the right reason to do them. We found one, and me and Tom [Brevoort] are gathering together a group of very unique, very out-there artists, people who I feel have been exciting to me that are outside of the Marvel mainstream. We’re pulling them in to let them show off a little bit to the larger audiences, people whose books I’ve been buying that are very exciting. We’ll be debuting those names very soon. I feel like we’re leaving on a high note. On [the last issues of] AVENGERS, we’ve got Brandon Peterson, Terry Dodson [and] Mike Mayhew, and it’s gorgeous. It’s absolutely stunning.”
Avengers #31 courtesy Marvel
Bendis is famous or infamous for starting his Avengers run by blowing up the Avengers mansion and the team. (Jack of Hearts ran out of luck the hard way!)
“Disassembled” was this disaster movie starring the Avengers, which I thought was awesome. Other people thought it was awesome too, and other people were very, very angry at me. They’re still angry at me as if it happened yesterday.”
I think Bendis fearlessly challenged the fans and the industry to rethink status quo. Cap and Tony were joined my Spider-Man and Wolverine. My favorite part of the Bendis era was adding Luke Cage and Spider-Woman to the team. He then proceeded to put them both through hell and back. Luke became a father, husband and team leader. Luke and Jessica Jones became one of my favorite Marvel couples. Jessica Drew’s comeback (including the fake Skrull Jessica) is the stuff of comics legend all on its own. The path of Robert Reynolds/The Sentry is pure Shakespearean tragedy with a cosmic twist. Bendis is ready to shake the status quo again.
Avengers #31 courtesy Marvel
“Well, many years have gone by. This status quo has been around for eight years. It’s quite a lengthy amount of time for any status quo in any comic of any company. So it’s certainly a good time for me to wrap up certain story-lines, to make my final statement on some of these characters. Some characters will be moving on to a new chapter in their life, and other characters will be deciding what it means to be an Avenger. Not all the characters will survive this last story.
I’m losing some babies. I’m losing some characters that mean the world to me. So when you add up all the elements that I just described, that is the status quo change. A lot is going to happen in the next four issues. Some great celebratory things, some tragic things, all setting the stage for my friend Jonathan Hickman, who has his own status quo to try to achieve. I’m going to do the best I can to make that happen.”
Avengers #31 courtesy Marvel
For his entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
What is your favorite character, storyline or moment of the Bendisvengers era?
Jonathan Hickman and Jerome Opena relaunch a brand new Avengers series in the Marvel NOW! Marvel revealed this first look at the three covers in one by Dustin Weaver.
Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Spider-Woman, Spider-Man, Wolverine and the new Captain Marvel are on the team. Cap sidekick Falcon is joining up. Cannonball of New Mutants is seen blasting into action. One cover #2 there’s a man on fire – is this Jim Hammond – the original Human Torch? On cover #3 is a man with a shadow power and infinity sign on this chest? Could this be Cannonball’s New Mutants teammate Roberto da Costa aka Sunspot or maybe an Eternal?
I’m loving Cannonball on the team. I think Sam Guthrie is the Dick Grayson of the Marvel Universe. Cannonball could easily take over for Cyclops but will never be allowed to like Dick could take over for Bruce as Batman. I’m thrilled to see Sam soar in the greater Marvel Now.
