Matt Fraction and Mark Bagley show us why Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben are Marvel’s First Family of fun and faith in Fantastic Four #1. The creative team is sending the family (with kids in tow) across time and space on the ultimate vacation. This road trip through unexplored universes masks a darker purpose that will grip the heart of every FF fan.
Something is very wrong with Reed Richards. Like a good father he accepts the burden on his own and puts on a brave face for his family. Fraction does a great job setting up each member of the team. There are perfect scenes showing us the essence of each character and setting up Reed’s decision to take the family away and search for a new “Four” to stand in for them on Earth.
Like every family there are flaws. Franklin has a terrifying nightmare (or vision of the road trip’s wrong turn) and what happens next really made me feel for the kid. Mark Bagley creates a moment when Susan is pleading for Reed to share what’s really behind this trip. The endearing and tender scenes are as gripping as the moment in the far future “where everything went wrong” and leads to Reed’s disheartening diagnosis.
The story will continue in FF#1 in which Fraction reveals the new FOUR and maybe Johnny’s girl and her transformation into Miss Thing. This is great time to rejoin or start following the Fantastic Four as they embark on a fun journey and face a looming crisis that threatens their future. Welcome to the family.
All-New X-Men #1 finally arrives with a time twist to the mutant universe. Professor X’s five original students are thrust into their future – our Marvel Now – and are in for a future shock. Professor X is dead. Cyclops killed their mentor. And Hank McCoy is a blue furry beast.
Brian Michael Bendis talks with Marvel.com about the young man would become an Avenger, beloved monster, and the X-Men’s resident genius and often moral compass.
“We’re meeting the X-Men at a crossroads for the Beast. He is the most frustrated with his mutant powers, and with his relationship to the humans. He doesn’t like, or find it funny or a challenge that humans are, to quote Ali G “racializing” on him. So we actually meet the younger Beast at a time when he’s out of there, he’s leaving, he’s had it,” Bendis says of the teen Beast, “And I think that represents a lot of the team as well. It wasn’t like the Avengers where everybody goes “yay”; with the X-Men, they’d do something and everyone would go “boo.” How much of that can you take?”
Even the young McCoy was somewhat deformed looking but what will his reaction be to seeing his future (blue furry) self?
“I think you’ll see in the very first issue, literally just the fact that his blue, furry self shows up. Younger Beast is saying, “I have to see what this is, I have to follow it.” As a scientist, how do you not follow this? He goes, “all right please show me.”
How did the original five get to the present and how do the Henrys affect the teams?
“Beast has a lot to do with why this story happens, so it’s going to be a very important storyline for Beast, and all of the Beasts that there are in ALL-NEW X-MEN. On a smaller level, here is the Beast who realizes that he has done this to himself, this alteration to this mutation, and has made some bold choices, some of which have been successful, and some that just haven’t. He’s going to be faced with that.”
For the entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
What a great time for Green Arrow fans! ARROW on The CW is throwing some of DC’s most dangerous criminals at the vigilante. China White and Deadshot have come to Starling City. Count Vertigo is on the way. Seth Gabel (Fringe, Nip/Tuck, Dirty Sexy Money) will play the villain according the TV Line. The character uses the drug Vertigo to disorient his victims.
Sci Fi Vets Ben Browder (Farscape) and Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse) and John Barrowman (Doctor Who, Torchwood) will be guest starring in upcoming episodes.
The Huntress will soon be appearing in a multi-episode arc as a love interest of Oliver Queen.
Green Arrow #17 courtesy DC Comics
Back to comics – acclaimed writer Jeff Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino will be the creative team on the Justice League’s archer with Green Arrow #17 this February. In that issue Oliver will deal with the loss of his family fortune and the evil archer called Komodo.
From teenage dream to nightmare! Avengers Arena is coming to the Marvel Now in 2013. Members of Avengers Academy, Runaways and other young heroes are thrown into a Battle Royale fight to the death on an island run by X-Men villain Arcade. Writer Dennis Hopeless revealed his plans for the kids and the mastermind behind The Hunger Games style game on Marvel.com.
“Basically 15 of your favorite Marvel teen heroes–and Darkhawk, who is not a teenager–wake up on an island and are told by Arcade only one of them will come out alive. This time people will actually die in Murderworld. They can leave, but they have to kill everybody else. Issue #1 will show the kids and the readers he’s serious this time,” explains Hopeless.
The X-Men have survived Arcade’s Murderworld in the past stories. Hopeless says this time Arcade will finally live up to this reputation as an assassin.
“In a lot of ways, Arcade is a silly character. He comes from a different era where it was ok for a villain to set up elaborate traps that fail. It was important to keep that showman, likes to watch aspect, but change things up so people will respect Arcade,” he says, “”It was an interesting challenge. I love Arcade. When we first talked about the series, I thought of him, then dismissed him. Axel Alonso called me later and asked med to use him. I’m proud of how we kept his core but made him a little more scary, similar and respectable.”
The book will star a who’s who of Marvel’s youngest generation.
“I got to cherry pick, so all the characters I’m using, I like. I loved Avengers Academy and wanted to use them all, but had to cap it. Hazmat is the point of view character of issue #1 and I love writing her.”
Avengers Arena #5 courtesy Marvel
Hopeless revealed he’s created new teen characters aka victims for this series including a young female Deathlok and kids from an Academy run by Captain Britain.
The fact that Avengers Arena would be an ongoing series was a surprise.
“I’ve gotten a lot of questions about why this isn’t a limited series. It’s because we need space to explain why these kids would do this. These are heroes. We need to show what they’re going to and get them to a place where they fear or distrust each other enough,” Hopeless explains, “Once we get to a place where the game changes and we get away from the core concept, we’ll go somewhere else, but this is a long story.”
The writer takes on the fact that some fan favorites will be killed off as the story proceeds.
“I see all the reaction to this book already because I’m a crazy person and I look for it. I’m a comics fan too. I know it’s hard to think your favorite character might be pulled off the shelf. At the same time, I think death is a serious part of life, and it should not be a cheap storytelling device. It’s one of the most powerful things a person or character can go through. I’m really proud of the book. We’re telling a really good story here. Nobody who’s responding to the marketing has read it yet.”
“These are super heroes, so that’s what makes it different from Battle Royale, which is human kids adapting. Hunger Games, we’re in the head of one girl raised in a post-apocalyptic world; these are teens who all grew up in the Marvel Universe. We’re doing a point of view shift where you see the situation from the perspectives of each character. You see what each is getting from this and where they’re coming from. I think that makes it unique. It’s like if Hunger Games switched the perspective between every character, which would make it very different. It’s obviously influences by those and by stuff like The Running Man, but these characters change it and make it its own thing.”
Avengers Arena #4 courtesy Marvel
We’ll have to read the book to see why some heroes decide to turn on each other (besides obvious survival) but Hopeless explains how the matchups will work.
“Darkhawk has cosmic level powers and X-23 is very difficult to kill. We deal with the fact that power sets are varied and how some would normally wipe the floor with all the others.”
Will your favorite young hero survive Murder Island? Avengers Arena #1 lets the deathgames begin in January.
For the complete transcript here’s the Marvel.com link.
THOR: God of Thunder #1 is the next new Marvel Now series starring the powerhouse Avenger. Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic bring the hammer down with a brand new series set in the past, present and future. Here’s a look at Ribic’s pages from inside the first issue courtesy Marvel.com Aaron will unleash the God Butcher on the Nine Realms. Can the Odison can stop the serial killer of Immortals?
Thor: God of Thunder #1 courtesy Marvel
Thor: God of Thunder #1 is out tomorrow. In the Marvel Now Thor will also appear in Uncanny Avengers and Avengers.
Superman will soar again on the big screen next year as part of the hero’s 75th Anniversary. Zach Snyder is in post-production on Man of Steel now and talks with the L.A. Times Hero Complex about the tone of the film.
“It’s a more serious version of Superman. It’s not like a heart attack. We took the mythology seriously. We take him as a character seriously. I believe the movie would appeal to anyone. I think that you’re going to see a Superman you’ve never seen before. We approached it as though no other films had been made. He’s the king-daddy. Honestly that’s why I wanted to do it. I’m interested in Superman because he’s the father of all superheroes. He’s this amazing ambassador for all superheroes. What was it about him that cracked the code that made pop culture embrace this other mythology? What we‘ve made as a film not only examines that but is also an amazing adventure story. It’s been an honor to work on. As a comic book fan, Superman is like the Rosetta Stone of all superheroes. I wanted to be sure the movie treated it respectfully.”
Storm has joined the teaching staff of the Jean Grey School but new villains appear to be delivering a lesson in cruelty and death in this week’s Wolverine and the X-Men #20. Frankenstein’s Murder Circus is coming to Salem Center. From the issue cover it appears Logan, Ororo and Bobby have been forced to join the freaky carnival.
I love that Storm is on the faculty and this image by Nick Bradshaw takes me way back to the Chris Claremont/John Byrne Uncanny X-Men era when Mesmero hypnotized the X-Men into thinking they were part of his traveling circus. Continue reading Storm Joins Wolverine’s X-Men
She’s the girl we all love. Jean Grey is the beautiful and tragic one that got away…until now.
Jean and the other original X-Men are brought into the Marvel Now in this week’s All-New X-Men #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen. Imagine Jean’s reaction when she learns now her life and death and life and death has turned out.
Jean’s return has been teased for years but the idea of the original pre-Phoenix Jean was a surprise (to this geek anyway.)
Bendis talked with Marvel.com about how he sees this Jean Grey of the past.
“I think she’s the quintessential X-Man. I think that’s why everyone gravitates to her so much. Her powers are unique; her powers are something she has to work on, something she has to control. Every time her powers build, it sets a new set of problems for her, and at the same time, a new set of goals and challenges that make her a better hero, And we know, as fans, that she has met with tragedy a couple of times, because of the rocky road of the mutants and the X-Men. In this story that I’m telling, we’re going to meet a Jean that is fully aware of everything that has happened to her, more than any of the other X-Men, and now we get to see how that information will inform her choices as a human, and as a mutant, and as a person, and as a girl going forward.
It’s a very interesting challenge as a writer. I literally cannot stop writing her. It is absolutely fascinating. We know that Jean is a sweetheart, and we also know that Jean has an incredible edge to her. How will that edge manifest itself, knowing everything that she knows about the destiny of her life?”
All-New X-Men #5 courtesy Marvel
This is perhaps the biggest reveal – this Jean is not just pre-Phoenix but this is Jean before her mutant power manifested.
“I don’t want to spoil too much, but when we meet Jean in this story, she is specifically brought here when she’s not telepathic, so it would make it more palpable for her to understand what’s happening. But the event of bringing her here unlocks her telepathy earlier than it had prior. She gets a shock to the system discovering that Scott Summers killed Professor Charles Xavier, and that she had died. She is witness to everything at once, so it’s not just elements of her life that is shocking her, it’s the accumulation of all of it.
It’s literally like reading a Wikipedia page as fast as you can. It’s not just the facts of her life, but it is experiencing all of the emotions at once. Love from someone like Wolverine that she cannot reciprocate, to discover the rise and fall and rise and fall of Scott Summers, all of this happens to her in a flash. That I think is going to be the most shocking thing. It’s literally just her seeing Scott Summers standing next to Magneto. Remember, when they were 16, Magneto was Hitler. That’s what we’re gunning for.”
All-New X-Men #1 courtesy Marvel
I loved this next question and response because I remember the relationship between Jean and Ororo during the Chris Claremont era. How will young Jean react to the modern-day X-women like Storm who was adult Jean’s closest friend.
“And that’s not a best friendship that teenage Jean can reciprocate right now. But what you do get is her gravitating very strongly to Kitty Pryde because they are very much of the same cloth. And that’s what I’m saying: Jean Grey is now Jewish because I’m writing her [Laughs]. No, I’m joking. But it’s not just the other females. It’s a smorgasbord of species and mutations. Remember the original five X-Men, they’re all still pretty human looking, but walk into the Wolverine and the X-Men book, and half those kids are alien looking, if not full on alien. So it certainly is an eye opener.”
Bendis talks about how knowing Jean’s future history is part of the challenge of writing this young Jean in the Marvel Now.
“She is the one that everyone wants back the most, and what’s great about this situation. She is the most interesting of the group. They’re all interesting, but because she will have the knowledge. Even if she tells them, “here’s what happens to us,” they’re not going to feel it like she feels it. She is just so interesting to write, Most of us that have read a Jean Grey story know that her dark side is a real thing, and seeing her pushed to limits like this will be interesting for people to see. Will she hold it together? Does she want to hold it together?”
All-New X-Men #1 arrives this week! For more of his interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
