Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Make March Marvel?

Marvel solicited several mini-series for March that I'm at least interested in. Which is good, because I'm just not seeing a lot anywhere else that's catching my eye. Feels like the proportion (if not the raw total) of publishers aimed strictly at young readers is up. Which is a good idea - get kids to enjoy reading - but not helpful to me.

So, what's new that's coming out? Let's start with the stuff that's not Marvel. Mad Cave has the first issue of Morning Star, by Tim Daniel, David Andry and Marco Finnegan. A mother and her kids travel to the forest where her firefighter husband perished the year before and are menaced by something. The solicit is pretty vague on that count. Scout Comics has Michela Cacciatore, Lesa and Trent Miller's one-shot Commercial Space, a couple trying to keep an office park they inherited from being foreclosed.

MIT Press has Robin Cousin's The Phantom Scientist, about a secretive research facility where there's some stuff going on that has some catastrophe every seven years.

OK, Marvel stuff. Stephanie Phillips and Paolo Villanelli are working on Black Widow and Hawkeye, a 4-issue mini-series where Hawkeye's accused of assassinating someone. There's also Jackpot and Black Cat, another 4-issue mini-series, and holy crap, MJ's superhero costume is not great. (Also, what's going on with the ladies' faces in that Adam Hughes cover?) Still, I don't know Celeste Bronfman or Emilio Laiso, but it might be worth a look. There's another Ms. Marvel, I don't know if it's a mini-series of what, with the writers of the most recent mini-series, but also Copperhead artist Scott Godlewski. I'd rather just have the last few issues of Copperhead, but don't expect I'm ever getting it.

Jed MacKay's bringing back the old Secret Defenders bit in Doctor Strange, using the characters he's written a lot recently: Black Cat, Hunter's Moon and Taskmaster. I didn't love his Taskmaster mini, but if this is a one-off, I might grab it.

Marvel also solicited issue 1 of a new Deadpool book, by Cody Ziglar and Roge Antonia, but it doesn't actually come out until April. They did the same thing with the 4th issue of Vengeance of the Moon Knight, and I would like them to knock it off. Just list the books in the solicitations of the month they're actually coming out.

Anything wrapping up? Deer Editor should be shipping its third and final issue, but that's it.

What's that leave? A Haunting on Mars is at issue 4, but only half the crew are dead. That's a low mortality rate. Vengeance of the Moon Knight is up to issue 3, and Fantastic Four #18 is focused on Franklin Richards.

Power Pack: Into the Storm was finally revealed to be a 5-issue mini-series. Likewise, Night Thrasher is apparently a 4-issue mini-series. Not sure why it took 3 months to reveal that about Power Pack. Were they going to extend it is pre-orders were really high? What am I saying, of course they would. Run it into the ground, that's the Marvel way.

Volume 6 of The Boxer has Yu trying to rise up the weight classes, while volume 5 of No Longer Allowed in Another World has Sensei dealing with one of the outworlders fixing to take over everything.

And that was about it. Just not a lot going on at the moment.

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