Reported by Mashable: Marvel Comics is planning a massive, publishing line-wide reboot this fall that will see all of its comic books revert back to No. 1s, introduce all-new superheroes and significantly alter others, including a new Spider-Man, a new Hulk and new team-ups.
Some of the highlights mentioned by Mashable:
We’ve been planning it for years,” Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso told Mashable. “We realized that [‘Secret Wars’] would be a game-changing moment that would allow us to create a big white canvas. It’s an unprecedented chance for us to tell new stories across all titles with new No. 1s.”
The new books — about 55 to 60 in all, slightly less than Marvel publishes right now — will each introduce new storylines. In some cases, a new character will be wearing familiar costumes, or will have moved, or will have significant shifts in their relationships to other characters. Many of those changes will be shockingly big.
“We chose all of our creators to come in with a hook — a big thing has happened that changes the status quo of the character,” Alonso said. Those kinds of changes will be very much along the lines of the female Thor (who turned out to be Jane Foster) and black Captain America (Sam Wilson, the erstwhile Falcon).Though he wouldn’t say for sure, Alonso hinted that those two characters would remain in their current form. “These changes were not short-term,” he said. “We’re deeply invested in those characters.”
If you notice in the teaser image, Peter Parker, Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen are promptly featured and with the talk of “new creative teams chosen” you do have to wonder if Slott, Bendis or Latour will remain with the characters after the relaunch.
Check out the entire article at Mashable.
Thoughts?
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Pandora
Amazon Music
iHeartRadio
Podbean
Amazon Alexa
Player.fm
Listen Notes
Stitcher
We know Dan Slott is focused on Silver Surfer who’s series will tie into the end of Secret Wars. We also know Uncanny Inhumans will be Soule’s continuing of his Inhumans series and Waid is writing Avengers. Wilson confirmed she is staying on Ms. Marvel.
I’ve got a theory about X-23 and Old Man Logan…
Marvel’s gonna keep the “real” Wolverine dead, make Laura the new Wolverine, and have their cake and eat it too by having Old Man Logan hang out in the main universe now, possibly as her mentor.
Another middle finger to Fox, who probably won’t rush into an X-23 movie.
Apparently, going by Bleeding Cool, Dan Slott is still listed as being one of the creative parties for the “All New Marvel” series of books.
Whether this means he’s still going to be on Spider-Man, or just working on another title, remains to be seen.
I do think a THIRD #1 Spider-Man with Dan Slott at the helm would be a BIT much for the series at this point.
That second teaser, I’m all for Citizen V but really have to wonder what is going on with Dr. Strange, especially with the movie out in 2017.
I can’t honestly see Bendis giving up Miles. But I can see Slott departing after Renew Your Vows.
Planned all along to leave after Renew Your Vows and Secret Wars anyway and that’s probably what I’m going to do. If PAD is going to continue 2099 I’ll pick up that book.
Otherwise I will stick my head in the sand and finish reading all of Spider-Girl. More and more that is becoming the Spider mythology I want to follow.
If you are a fan of video games the Mega Man comics are incredible and that’s the book that I will never drop. Each issue brings a smile to my face. Used to be a time when Marvel and DC did the same on a monthly basis with several books. It’s sad really.
Peter Parker as Spider-Man was in the Rage of Ultron graphic novel, confirmed to take place in canon after Secret Wars. And it felt like pure 616 Peter,
I’m betting the “new” Spider-Man is a reference to Miles, as Mashable does not cater to comic fans and its general readership would have no idea there’s been another Spider-man running around.
Also, Alonso confirmed over on IGN that Spider-Gwen is going back to her universe, but might “pop back and forth” in NuMU. But then, Alonso also tries to tease whether that’s Miles in the black costume – forgetting that Miles was in the FCBD giveaway so, yeah, no real mystery there.
… so they finally admitted that it is a reboot?
@38 – Because Dr. Strange needs a two-handed axe that he wields with one hand. Oh FFS.
#37 – It’s almost the opposite complaint people had about Jenkins’ Spidey run. He did a LOT of one-and-done issues which were great, but eventually I (and a lot of people) were saying “Hey, how about a 2 or 3 parter? A story that lasts more than 22 pages?”
I hope just Bendis and Latour remain.
Holy CRAP, Citizen V?? I will buy that book for sure, whatever it may be.
On the same topic, here’s another “All-New, All-Different Marvel” Teaser showing us more characters we can expect to see in the Marvel Universe landscape post-Secret Wars: http://www.comicbookresources.com/prev_img.php?pid=45221&disp=ilib&oty=1&oid=62778
@36 honacek
Oh I loved Hickman’s FF run but yeah, he started the “everything dies” way back then too. If you look over it, the early stages with the multiverse and the Mad Celestials was the beginning of the end of things and Doom trying to create a universe and then destroying it. All hope and all death lies with Doom.
I liked Hickman’s FF run, it was epic in scope. But I didn’t realize that all of his stories were going to be epics. You need some one-short or mini-arcs interspersed throughout. How many years of issues has Hickman been laying the groundwork for Secret Wars?
Yeah, even costumes such as Jane Foster Thor, Spider-Man, Sam Wilson, Ant-man and Steve Rogers suits have gotten minor tweaks. The Vision is more along the lines with the movie design but we can see things are continuing. Steve is still old, Gwen and Miles are now part of the Nu MU and Kamala is still her awesome self. I’m interesting to see where this is going to go. I care about “good” comics and “great” comics. I can live with a Sam Wilson Captain America, I can live with a new person in the Iron Man armor. I just want good stories, not the crap we have been reading in Amazing Spider-Man where Peter isn’t even the star of his own book or dragged on stories like with New Avengers and Avengers that were more continuation of Hickman’s Fantastic Four run.
After reviewing Hickman’s A/NA and reading Secret Wars,
I’m really looking forward to seeing where things will go.
I’m hoping another writer and artist will jump on PP:S-M, as well.
It would be interesting to see him step back into a mentor role.
Maybe turn PP:S-M to a side/weekend thing while focusing
on his job and (possible?) family.
It’s funny, when I was a kid I bought comics for years before I ever noticed that they had numbers on the cover. I saw stuff on the covers that looked interesting, that’s how I started reading comics.
Finally a good jumping off point! Thank you Marvel,it was fun……mostly. lol
J-R!
“… going back to 2012 with the introduction of the highly popular ‘Avengers vs. X-Men’ series.” Wait a minute … Avengers vs. X-Men was popular? For me it was like reading 12 issues of Marvel telling me “The Avengers are AWESOME and the X-Men are A-HOLES!”
Wait, the female Thor turned out to be Jane Foster? Seriously? Did Marvel just look through their list of female supporting characters in Thor and say “The hell with it, just make her Natalie Portman!”
Wow, another ASM #1 with a new Spider-Man, and Peter has to decide if there’s enough room for both of them. Doesn’t this sound familiar? (paging Senator Ward …)
“Wolverine will return to the Marvel Universe …” I am shocked. SHOCKED!
“As far as the name ‘All-New, All Different,’ that’s just a moniker for the initiative …” So Alonso is saying that none of this is new or different. Thanks.
“But before we get there, there is ‘Secret Wars’ to get through.”. “Get through” is right. Plug your nose and take your medicine folks; if you want your not-all-new, not-all-different books you’ll have to endure a summer of Secret Wars.
@13 – You stole that idea from Sergio Aragones.
@19 – First movies, now TV shows. In five years they’ll try to make the comics be like podcasts.
I’d drop Spider-Man from my pull list if A. Peter Parker isn’t in the custome and B. If he’s been reduced to being a mentor and father.
That would just leave Simpsons Comics to pick up monthly. My wallet would thank me at least.
@#20 – Wow Cronotose. You picked a string of numbers for your Fantastic Four issue that does not appear anywhere in Pi.
Just my opinion, but those don’t seem like significant costume changes.
After 35 years this may be a good time to quit. At some points I was getting as many as 20 books a month, currently I am getting 2….soon may be 0.
But then again I am not the market…
That is, informative — Sorry for typo.
@#23 Stillanerd — Yes, I just noticed that. And, actually, I felt a little stupid posting that observation before having read all of the comments, especially because yours — write above mine, no less — addressed the changes in the costume.
On another note, I am interested in seeing what changes will be made to the status quo, but learning about the “politics” (for lack of a better word) behind marketing and sales and such associated with Marvel comics has prevented me from getting excited enough to spend my money. This site has been very information — thanks you all of the frequent visitors and posters — in keeping me informed about so much more than just Spider-man, and I’m grateful for that.
@#22 Evan — Besides the shape of the boots and web patterns, the spider-emblem on his chest is has longer legs, and his gloves are shaped in a similar way as the boots, with the lower part of them ending at the wrists.
Is Spider-man’s costume different? It looks like the shape of the upper edge of his boots has changed, as well as the webbing design on them.
@#9 Cheesedique —
While it doesn’t actually say Peter Parker won’t be Spider-Man anymore, the Mashable article stated the following:
Perhaps it’s the way it’s written, but it reads as though Marvel is saying there will someone else as Spider-Man who is not Peter or Miles. Also, though you can really see in this image (you’ll have to click on it) the red-and-blue costume appears to have some significant tweaks. That could also be either an indication this is a new Spider-Man, or just an “update” of Peter’s costume.
@15
“At the end of the day, renumbering is such a small part of the comic book when it’s the story and characters inside the book that matters the most”
There are three problems with this.
The first is that they usually wildly alter the state of the comic to create a new #1. They don’t tend to just randomly start a new numbering, they kill characters, add characters, change personalities, and a variety of other story related issues. When people complain about a new number 1, they aren’t just complaining about a number on the cover. They’re complaining about everything that comes with it which directly effect the “story and characters that matter most”.
The second issue is that the renumbering usually doesn’t carry any meaning. If they actually numbered the issues like tv seasons with a new volume for each major arc, I wouldn’t say a word against it. Given the nature of scheduling comics though, that just never happens. Major arcs end, and then the current number prattles on for another several issues (with filler story) so that the renumbering can coincide with a major crossover event. Other characters get canceled, relaunched, moved from one team to another, and altered so frequently putting together their stories with coherent numbering is a full time job. If the volume and issue numberings have no meaning, the reader isn’t going to care if you call it Fantasy Four #1 or Fantastic Four #7423874623. It becomes nonsense.
Finally, and most importantly, the tactic of putting out new number 1’s has been used over and over and over again. Has it ever helped a comic for more than two months? Have sales numbers with kids ever risen for more than a short term spike since the crash of the 90’s? The problem is Marvel is under the illusion that what they need to do is attract new readers. That isn’t the case. They get new readers, kids, all the time. The problem is retaining them. They come into the comics world, pick up a few issues for a few months, and then stop buying. What they need is to improve the overall quality of their storytelling. They need to create an environment where you can walk into a shop and pick up a comic and have a great than 5% chance that it is at least decent and entertaining. What they really need honestly are more one-shots and 2-parters. Really, how many kids are going to stick with a 6-month long arc for $24-$30 when there’s a solid chance the story won’t have a proper payoff in the end?
I think the dirty secret though is that Marvel just doesn’t really care that much about long term comic readers. There really isn’t that much money to be made in it. They’d much rather run their new number 1’s and events for short term sales spikes, while using hose events to create intellectual properties they can license. Then make the real money with other forms of merchandise.
Also, the bit about comics becoming “TV seasons.” Christ Almighty. Comics have spent the last decade under Quesada trying to be movies; now they want to be TV shows. Here’s a thought, Champ: just be comics.
One, two, three… four! Count ’em, four Spider-related heroes! No, the brand’s not diluted at all! 😎
Well marvel it’s been a good 50+ years but uhhh yeah I’m out.
@15 “now, I wouldn’t jump onto a series without an accessible start, like a new creative team or first issue.”
Except you’re thinking like an adult, not a child who wouldn’t care about a creative team and probably less likely concerned about a good starting point.
Alonso has commented on how comic books are moving into a TV season style approach which makes sense. With Netflix, Amazon Prime and so many other online streaming services, the option to start from the first episode of a series is there and easier than ever. A #1 is a lot more attractive than Issue #172 or whatever. I get that so many comic book fans started from a random issue way back when (hell, I started on Issue 109 of the UK reprints) but age needs to be considered now. I did that when I was 9, now, I wouldn’t jump onto a series without an accessible start, like a new creative team or first issue.
At the end of the day, renumbering is such a small part of the comic book when it’s the story and characters inside the book that matters the most, and I’m liking a lot of what Marvel are hinting towards and showing us.
“These changes were not short-term,” he said. “We’re deeply invested in those characters.”
Sure you are. You’re definitely not going to throw them out the instant their novelty wears out and bring back their dramatically more marketable counterparts. Marvel’s never lied to us before right? Not that this truth bothers me. I look forward to having the correct characters back.
I have an idea. Every issue should be a #1. Because marketing shows that people like #1’s!
I’m just glad this isn’t a continuity reboot
@10 I agree with you. I was about 13-years-old when I started collecting. I had just started working summers and had some money to burn. I’m not really sure why I decided to collect comics. I remember being overwhelmed by the choices. As I’m looking at the board at the comic shop I just grabbed the latest issue of any superhero I had heard of and thought might pique my interest.
@8 I’m not sure how I feel about a version of Gwen being in the same universe, but your thoughts do sound intriguing.
The first Spider-Man comics I pulled of the racks was Amazing Spider-Man 333 (I started at little late. I was 10 instead of 7 or 8) and I did not see the fact that there were 332 issues before it as a overwhelming thing…I saw it as a goal. Now I have to get everything before this and keep up with everything after this. A goal I’ve now been working on for 25 years.
So I really think they are wrong when they say these new #1’s help new readers come in…I think it just drives away old ones that have already invested so much in them.
ASM Vol. 4, here we come..
@2 — I did actually hear of DC coming out with radio spots for the Nu52. I am surprised they wouldn’t throw together a promo to run in the theater before something like Ant Man.
@6 — where did they say Peter wouldn’t be Spider-man anymore? Did I miss something?
#6 – My first thought was: Hmm, a good jumping off point then. Seems like I’m not the only one.
Does seem interesting that Gwen is featured along with Miles and Peter (if it is either of them of course). Does having her “in-continuity” break #122 or render it all irrelevant? If they investigated the guilt felt by the two (Peter for GS’s death, Gwen for PP’s) and the coming to terms with a different version of both existing it could lead to some really great stories but I don’t trust Marvel to pull that off any more. Of course in the new improved super-duper nu-Marvel post Secret Wars maybe she never died at all so it’s moot.
Then, as I’m typing that I get the sudden realisation that to be honest I just don’t care any more, which is sad after 35 years or more of collecting Spider-Man. 🙁
Yay for Peter Parker, Spider-Gwen, Black Panther and Iron Man surviving…. but I don’t care about the rest of the characters in the teaser. They’re nothing but bland replacements of some well-known Marvel characters.
So Peter Parker isn’t going to be Spider-man anymore? We just got him back after that crap Superior Spider-man stuff. Now they are taking him out of the webs only a year later.
Well, sounds like a good jumping off point.
Thanks Marvel, I’ve been needing a good excuse to stop reading. You finally gave me one.
People bash the New 52 stuff. But give me that over the crap Marvel keeps smearing on the pages these days.
It’s just another relaunch like Marvel NOW! and All-New Marvel NOW! before this. They’ve just figured out to take “NOW!” out of the name of these banners.
So this is the Jive 55?
@ 1 Actually Marvel is just continuing what they pretty much been doing with their characters. At least Marvel isn’t trying so gosh dang hard to be ‘”hip” like the DCYOU.
I just don’t understand the need to create a starting point for new readers. There was no starting off point when I picked up my first issue of Spider-Man (Spider-Man #13). I didn’t think I had missed anything in order to jump into the story, but I was eager to pick-up the next issue when it was the first in a two-issue arc. Over the years I’ve filled my collection from the earliest days of the web slinger and continue to do so when money is available.
The way I see it, either you’re interested in reading comic books or you’re not. I don’t think any special event is going to draw new readers, especially if it’s not advertised outside the comic book world. It’s not like there are TV commercials or radio spots announcing a new launching point for readers.
I also don’t understand why a new launching point is necessary to create new stories. Once Spider-Man finishes against one villain, there’s another waiting in the shadows, thus a new story. If the writers want to bring back the marriage (or example), just write it into the current line of comics. Create a situation where MJ starts to remember her deal with Mephisto and the journey to break the deal. Obviously Peter’s business is in shambles, so it’s already a good launch point for a new direction in his life. Maybe he realizes being a business owner isn’t for him and goes back to being a photographer, maybe a teacher, or something else. Writer’s should use creativity to get where they want to be, not cop out with a new number one (how many has that been since the original Amazing title ended?).
This sounds like DC did. Terrible idea.