Summer Brings Some New Possibilities

June appears to mark the true beginning of Marvel's "fresh start", although it feels more like their typical rearranging of the deck chairs. A lot of familiar names on the main books. Dan Slott's still wrapping up his run on Amazing Spider-Man - although they're replacing him with Secret Empire writer Nick Spencer, so no thanks - and taking over Iron Man. Which has a variant cover that makes Tony Stark look more smug than I've ever seen him. On a positive note, the cover is possibly the first time Adi Granov has drawn a character with an expression described as something other than "stoic" or "bored". Progress!

Al Ewing's writing a Hulk book, Skottie Young and Nick Klein are taking over Deadpool. Even if I hadn't been lukewarm at best on Young's writing on Rocket Raccoon, I need a break from Deadpool. There's also a Deadpool mini-series drawn by Mark Bagley, but written by Cullen Bunn, whose writing has never done anything for me when I've encountered it.

Mark Waid is apparently writing almost everything else. OK, really just the new Doctor Strange book (in SPACE!) and an Ant-Man and the Wasp mini-series (not to be confused with the Ant-Man and the Wasp Living Legends one-shot also coming out in June). You could certainly do a lot worse, but perhaps a writer new to Marvel would better fit a "fresh start"? They're also giving the Sentry another series, for some reason. Sentry fans will be happy though, assuming they enjoy Jeff Lemire's writing (always found it plodding, myself). And all the Infinity Countdown and Search for Wolverine mini-series continue (he said dismissively, ignoring that he might be buying the Darkhawk one).

So this isn't all negativity, I am interested in the Multiple Man mini-series, and maybe that Squirrel Girl/Ms. Marvel team-up one-shot. It's five bucks, though. It also looks like the Shadowcat/Colossus wedding might be happening. I'm sure it will go off without a hitch, with nary a giant robot or time traveler bringing portents of doom to be seen. It's not something I'm particularly interested in, but I appreciate them getting on with it if they're going to do it.

Unlike DC, which is still dragging this Batman/Catwoman thing out. I don't think Batman needs this much prep time to fight Darkseid. Yep, still doing Batman "prep time" jokes in 2018. You're welcome. This month, there's a bunch of one-shots where Batman's kids fend off various villains looking to ruin things, including Hush. I thought we agreed to leave Hush buried in the same hole we dumped the Sentry in. Who dug them up? Come on, admit it!

DC's also bringing around some more of those crossovers between DC characters and cartoon characters. They're having Brett Booth draw the Flash/Speed Buggy one, which seems like a horrible choice for a book that's going to feature a talking, crime-solving cartoon vehicle. Although I can't think of a character I would describe Booth as being a good choice of artist for. Aquaman's going to be subjected to Jabberjaw, the shark that thinks he's Curly from the Three Stooges. Fingers crossed he's declared an enemy of Atlantis and executed. There's also a Plastic Man mini-series, by Gail Simone and Adriana Melo. I'm not sure about the book based on the description in the solicit, and I only remember Melo's art from a stretch on Brian Reed's Ms. Marvel book. What I remember doesn't encourage me, but it's been almost 10 years since then, styles evolve.

Outside, those, it's mostly business as usual for me. Copperhead and Giant Days continue on, dealing with a town invasion and a job fair. Which one contends with which I'll leave to you to decipher. Or go read the solicits yourself. Bubba Ho-Tep and the Cosmic Blood Suckers is approaching the big final battle, while Coda is still ramping up. I still can't decide if Bubba Ho-Tep is all going to be some fever dream for Elvis or something actually happening. Or maybe it's a fever dream of mine. Turns out Mata Hari is a 5-issue series, not 4, so it actually ends in June.

The one new thing I'm thinking about buying is Joseph Keatinge and Bret Blevins' Stellar. The pitch of a weapon designed to bring about peace, stuck living in the ruins of a civilization she didn't really save sounds intriguing. Worst case scenario, there'll be some cool and weird stuff in the book. Finally, this isn't something I'm considering buying, but I noticed Descender will be on its penultimate issue in June. Remember when that book started and people went ga-ga over the first issue? I bought it for about a year, before deciding it was taking Lemire and Nguyen too long to get anywhere I cared about. But most of the time, I completely forget I ever bought it. It sank beneath the waves of my memory the instant I dropped it.