I was honored to be the special guest on my friendly neighborhood comic shop’s special edition videoblog dedicated to the new Marvel Now titles! The Zanadu Comics crew dubbed me Professor Marvel! Take a look and I’d love to know your favorite Marvel Now titles so far:
Thanks to Perry, Howard and Casey were having me as your special guest for and always great experience every new comic book Wednesday! Thanks to the Sam the man behind the cam! Disclosure: I will always love X-Men – it was my first book but I do read titles of the competition and I always welcome your indie picks!
Matt Fraction is taking the Fantastic Four on a family vacation through time and space with artist Mark Bagley. While Marvel’s First Family is away the Earth will be protected by the new FF by Fraction with artist Mike Allred. FF #1 is out this week. The Madman creator tells Marvel.com why he joined the FF.
“When I was approached with a project starring one of my all-time favorite, and vastly under-rated, characters, Ant-Man, I leapt out of my shoes. Literally. Those shoes are ruined now. Ant-Man has been there from the beginning. One of the very first Marvel heroes, folks; I think the first or second behind the Fantastic Four. Most people don’t know that.
Then add claiming the Baxter Building with my fave Marvel lady, Medusa, big and sexy She-Hulk, and one of the cleverest creations in recent memory, Miss Thing—now I’m almost out of my skin. Fortunately that’s just a figure of speech. I’m still tucked nicely away into my skin.
Seriously, I’m going nuts with excitement. I’m living the dream I dreamt when I was a kid, laying on the living room floor making comics with my big brother Lee.”
FF #1 courtesy Marvel
Reed and Scott are bonded by their roles as fathers, scientists and connection to Doctor Doom. If you read Fantastic Four #1 you know the real reason for the trip and Reed’s big secret. Maybe Scott can help Reed solve the mystery that could mean the end of Marvel’s First Family?
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
FF #1 courtesy Marvel
This Ant-Man was destroyed by the Scarlet Witch in Avengers Disassembled then brought back to life to see his daughter killed in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade. Fraction previously teased how Lang will carry out a plan of revenge against Doctor Doom for Cassie’s demise.
FF #1 courtesy Marvel
Medusa shares a bond with Susan Storm Richards. Both women are devoted wives to husbands with tremendous responsibilities and are mothers (technically Medusa isn’t a mom but as Queen of the Inhumans she must offer tough love and compassion to her extended family.) After Jean Grey I think Medusa is my favorite Marvel redhead (sorry MJ.)
She-Hulk and She-Thing are the final two of the new FF!
Thanks to Marvel.com for these new images by the Astonishing Allred! Here’s the link to Matt Fraction revealing his take on the new Fantastic (Four & Four.
All-New X-Men #2 New mutants are popping up across the world. Cyclops has gone full-blown revolutionary. An X-Man travels back to a key point in the team’s history in hopes of saving the mutant race. How will the original five students of Xavier (including Jean Grey!) react upon seeing their future?
Arrow #1 Brand new adventures of DC’s crusader from the creators of the hit CW series and legendary Green Arrow comic creator Mike Grell.
Batman Incorporated #5 Bruce Wayne’s son is now the Batman? Bruce is in Arkham Asylum? Grant Morrison takes you back to the dark future he created in the modern classic Batman #666.
FF #1 Meet the new Fantastic Four? Medusa, Ant-Man, She-Hulk, and She-Thing take the place of Marvel’s First Family in a brand new adventure by Matt Fraction and Mike Allred.
Uncanny Avengers #2 The Red Skull committed one of the most shocking and heinous acts I’ve seen in comics – and now he’s more powerful than ever with a freakish new army and bizarre new weapon. Can Captain America, Thor, Havok, Wolverine, Scarlet Witch and Rogue stop more mutant acts of terror?
Matt Fraction and Mark Bagley launched Fantastic Four #1with heart, humor and thrills. Reed is taking Marvel’s First Family on a new adventure through time and space but he’s hiding the real reason behind the sudden trip – and it’s a heartbreaker.
Before Reed, Sue, Johnny, Ben and the kids blast off they must recruit a new FF to take their place. Marvel shared preview art for Fantastic Four #2. We Medusa, She-Hulk, Ant-Man and She-Thing will take over for them in a brand new FF title by Fraction and Mike Allred. This next issue shows us how Reed recruited his “replacements.”
Fantastic Four #2 courtesy Marvel
I’ve always been in love with Medusa. She may be my favorite redhead in comics (maybe after Jean Grey?) The Queen of the Inhumans will be a perfect mother figure for the kids of the Future Foundation.
Fantastic Four #2 courtesy Marvel
I’m loving She-Hulk and Ben Grimm pumping iron! Jennifer served as Ben’s replacement back in the John Byrne era.
Fantastic Four #2 courtesy Marvel
Ant-Man (Scott Lang) may be the one friend Reed can share his secret with? The two men share a bond of science and being fathers. Scott could find the key to cure Reed somewhere in the microverse?
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 The original five X-Men are yanked from the past into the Marvel Now – and they don’t like what they see! How will the young Scott, Jean, Bobby, Hank and Warren react to seeing how their lives and Professor X’s dream went so horribly wrong?
Batman #14The Joker is back with the vengeance! Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo managed to make the ultimate villain even creepier and horrifying! What has the Joker done to Batman’s oldest ally?
Fantastic Four #1 Marvel’s First Family relaunches into the Marvel Now. Matt Fraction and Mark Bagley send Reed, Susan, Johnny, Ben and the kids on the ultimate vacation through time and space.
Saga #7 The beautiful and disturbing sci-fi hit begins a new storyline. Two lovers from warring alien races fell in love, had a baby and became targets of a the most sinister hunters in the galaxy. What will the family find in the darkest corners of uncharted space?
Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation 2 #7 Which is the greater evil: Borg or Cybermen? Doctor Who and Captain Picard’s new friendship is tested as they try to stop the threat to the Federation. In this chapter the Time Lord travels back to Starfleet’s greatest defeat in order to save the future!
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!
