Expect big changes in Guardians of the Galaxy #1 this week.
It really is an All-New, All-Different Marvel Now in deep space. Set 8 months after Secret Wars, Peter Quill is no longer Star-Lord but Lord of the Spartax Empire. The cosmic map has been re-written but the galaxy still needs Guardians.
A milestone issue for Marvel’s First Family this week but it’s a bittersweet moment.
Fantastic Four #645 is the final issue of the cancelled title as the publisher returns to its original numbering. This is the conclusion of The End of 4Ever.
In two months the Fantastic Four star in a new film adventure with a new cast but the iconic comic book ends with this final issue by James Robinson and Leonard Kirk.
Is this ending about sales, studio rivalry or maybe it’s just time for a creative break as the entire Marvel Universe ends before the start of Secret Wars event? Continue reading After THE END of FANTASTIC FOUR
The All-New Marvel Now Fantastic Four opened with the team torn apart then flashed back to a battle with Fin Fang Foom but even bigger threat was unleashed.
Marvel shared a look inside Fantastic Four #2. Writer James Robinson and artist Leonard Kirk are new team on Marvel’s First Family. Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny are sporting red instead of their signature blue as the new series blasts off.
Robinson has said he’s plotting the Fall of the Fantastic Four and this second issue shows the Richards family may have paid the price for saving New York City from alien invaders.
Matt Fraction revealed he’s taking the Fantastic Four on a family vacation into space with artist Mark Bagley. While Marvel’s First Family is away the Earth will be protected by the FF with artist Mike Allred. Fraction’s backup team includes Ant-Man and Medusa of the Inhumans. 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.”
I have to agree with Allred’s excitement for Medusa – I love her too. Here’s the link to Matt Fraction revealing his take on the Fantastic relaunch.
After writing X-Men, Invincible Iron Man and The Mighty Thor, Matt Fraction is taking on Marvel’s First Family and their extended family. This November get ready for Fraction and Mark Bagley’s Fantastic Four #1 and Fraction and Mike Allred’s 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 the Richards bunch.
“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.”
FF #1 courtesy Marvel
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.
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. It would be great fun to see Reed put the arrogant genius in his place!
The tragedy of Colossus: Let’s start with Joss Whedon bringing him back from the dead. He gets Kitty Pryde back. He finally has sex with Kitt then loses Kitty when she’s trapped in a speeding bullet through space. He loses Nightcrawler. Deals with the never-ending limbo/dead/limbo/back/no soul drama of his sister Magik. He becomes the Juggernaut and Kitty dumps him.
I love Colossus because the mighty mutant of steel is the emo whipping boy of several Marvel writers but he can take it. The poor guy is coping with the emotional abuse of losing Kitty, having a psycho demonic sister and fighting a demon of his own.
In Avengers vs X-Men writers have poured on the physical abuse. Colossus took a beating from the Red Hulk in AvX and AvX Versus plus that fight with Spidey.
In this week’s AvX Vs #3 Peter goes fists to fists with the Rulk then the Thing on the moon! Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness clobber us with a brutal steel vs rock showdown. The art is powerhouse and Peter’s inner dialogue is powerful. The former innocent Russian farm boy is long gone. A cold steel warrior with a devil inside is fighting an inner battle that he’s losing with every physical victory.
SPOILER
IF YOU HAVEN’T READ AVX #5 STOP READING NOW
SERIOUSLY
OK HERE IT COMES
In Avengers vs X-Men #5 the Phoenix Five (Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Colossus and Magik) were born as the entity seized them as hosts. If there’s one thing I hope from this is the Phoenix burns the Cyttorak out of Peter and Limbo out of Illyana. Since the entity represents death and rebirth, I hope Colossus and Magik can be cleansed and reborn.
