A-Force #1

Boy, I really wanted to love this comic. I truly did. But I’m more than a little lost.

I see that a lot of the heroes featured in this comic are sporting their classic costumes. Does that mean these are versions of the characters plucked from different points in time? I have a lot of questions. A lot.

Did this disco Dazzler join SHIELD? Why is Loki a woman? How exactly did Loki raise Miss America and Nico? Is this a brand new continuity for the She-Hulk-led Arcadia? Why is Dr. Doom in charge of everything? How did Sam Wilson become a mix of Captain America and Thor? Has She-Hulk met this Sheriff Dr. Strange before? Do they have their Avengers history? Why do none of the X-Men besides Dazzler have speaking parts? How does Dazzler fly? If the name of their country is Arcadia, where did Miss America get her name?

That is a LOT of confusion for a first issue.

After reading G. Willow Wilson’s eloquent and powerful blog post about this book, I wanted to love it. But instead of being able to buy in, I must confess to some confusion myself. I’m a long-time comic reader. I’m well versed in comics continuity. Heck, I’m caught up on my Marvel books.

I will admit to avoiding Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers and Secret War books, though. And it sure looks to me like that willful dodging of Marvel’s summer tent pole means I’m not the targeted audience for this book. I assume that’s the case. It is pretty frustrating that the comics I’ve tried the hardest to avoid for the past few years are now dictating the direction of the entire Marvel Universe.

Wilson and her co-writer Marguerite Bennett do a wonderful job giving characterization and voice to many Marvel heroines. Jorge Molina’s art is delightful too. The megalodon antagonist is sufficiently horrific and I love the classic uniforms I mentioned above. The female leads are attractive and heroic while not being exploited. Most of all, I’m delighted to see She-Hulk leading a team of competent, powerful super-heroes. That’s what I was looking for when I picked up this book!

But instead, I’ve got a whole bunch of odd stuff about barons, Dr. Doom as a god, and the Nightwatch protecting the world from the white walkers. Oh! I mean the Shield protecting the world from zombies. I know Marvel wanted to get in on the Game of Thrones action, but this is ridiculous!

With all the press, the fantastic cover, and the concept of an all-lady Avengers team, I had really hoped that this would be a book I’d read with my daughters (who are also well-established Marvel fans.) I actually wonder if their lack of continuity knowledge might help them enjoy this book? Maybe I’ll get my 10-year-old to write a review too.

I truly hope this book and this creative team get more of a chance to show their stuff after Secret Wars ends. There is a ton of potential here, in both creative energy and in the concepts. But my absolute confusion about the very premise of the Arcadia world means this book is AVERAGE. 

Marvel’s Secret Wars to Combine Ultimate and Main Marvel Universes

So basically the comics-based internet blew up with this news yesterday. Marvel’s folks are being intentionally vague on whether or not this is a real reboot or just an excuse to pull the best concepts from the Ultimate universe into mainstream Marvel.

My first thought is to laugh at how similar this is to DC’s Convergence event in April. What are the odds that both major publishers would put out events dealing with the minutiae of their continuity and alternate timelines? It truly boggles the mind. When you need a degree in comic book history to comprehend a new comic, which is usually a problem.

My second thought is that I won’t be buying Secret Wars. I might skip all the crossovers, depending on the creators involved. My main problem is that Secret Wars is spinning out of Jonathan Hickman’s excruciating run on Avengers and New Avengers. I’ve seen a lot of posts on message boards along the lines of “Hickman has done a good job so far, so I trust him to do this right.” Well, my experience has been the opposite. I’ve dropped all the core Avengers books over the last few years, so hearing that the entire Marvel U will come from the same architect? That’s a good reason to drop titles for me.

And what comes after the Secret Wars wraps up? Battleworld might be an amalgamation of all these different Marvel events, but the company is clearly using this as a chance to clean up their continuity. I’m thinking more Zero Hour than Crisis, but it will be interesting to see.

I think we can guarantee that Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man will make his way into the mainstream Marvel Universe. I expect more characters to follow in the footsteps of Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Toro and suddenly become Inhumans. Marvel is going to use this chance to re-categorize a lot of mutants and X-characters into Inhumans. (For those that don’t know, Fox owns the movie rights to X-Men and mutant characters, while Marvel owns the rights to the Inhumans.)

Will Marvel bring over other Ultimate characters? I'd think so. But having two Kitty Prydes or yet another Hulk doesn't seem like the best idea. 

For the post-Battleworld “All-New Marvel Now,” I think we’ll see a ton of new #1s in the fall when Marvel tries to replicate the launch of the New 52. For that relaunch, I’m taking much more of a “wait and see” approach. It’s going to come down to creators and which continuity sticks and what doesn’t. I don’t have much interest in seeing Marvel’s continuity discarded or drastically altered. I know what I did when DC did that for the New 52.

TLDR version: I’m skipping Secret Wars and the associated books. I’m waiting to see what the relaunch of Marvel looks like after that. But I dropped all my DC books; I’m mentally preparing to do the same with Marvel if this is a real reboot.