During New York Comic-Con, Marvel Comics revealed the second phase of Marvel Now. The initial Marvel Now books were for the most part hits and the House of Ideas is doing its best keep the train moving and grab even more of the market with these titles launching in the next year.
Some of the books announced are:
The big reveal of the second wave at NYCC was the launch of a new Silver Surfer series to be brought to us by the team of Dan Slott and Mike Allred. The Surfer will be joined with a new young female companion on these adventures as he travels across the universe and seems like it will have a vibe much akin to the Doctor Who formula, a franchise to which Slott considers himself a fan. While I have my many complaints with Slott on his handling of the Spider-Man series, this sounds like a perfect way to reintroduce the Silver Surfer and the excellent idea to let Allred loose on the art duties makes this a book to watch.
Another interesting addition is All-New Invaders, which will star the classic WWII line-up (Captain America, Bucky, Namor and the Human Torch (android version, not to be confused with the Fantastic Four’s Johnny Storm) in modern day trying to keep a Kree designed device from back in the war that could control Asgardians from falling back into the Kree’s (or anybody else’s) hands. The book will be coming to us from the minds of writer James Robinson and artist Steve Pugh. Robinson’s output over the last few years has been of varying quality, but he still manages to hit way more than he misses and with a cool set-up like this my money says this one will probably be a winner.
The new Iron Patriot will be helmed by Ales Kot and Garry Brown. Tony Stark’s buddy James “Rhodey” Rhodes (formerly known as War Machine) has adopted the identity left vacant after the removal of the madman Norman Osborn from power (comics are a weird thing). “ decides it’s time to defend the home front, and this is about the challenges of doing that” said Marvel editor Mark Paniccia. This one could go either way, this isn’t entirely new ground for the character so it will really be down to how fresh the creative team can make it feel.
Inhumanity, the follow-up miniseries to Infinity penned by Matt Fraction will deal with the aftermath of the Terrigen Mist that covered NYC courtesy of Black Bolt. The mini will be the lead in for a new book Inhuman, also by Fraction with Joe Madureira handling the art chores. I don’t know enough about these books to make any solid guess as to how they are going to go. Fraction is solid, but while I’m happy to see Joe Mad doing more comics, his track record for falling behind is well known so I don’t expect him to stay on the book for long. I hope for the best, but right now this doesn’t hold much interest for me.
The biggest disappointment is the new Ghost Rider by writer Felipe Smith and artist Tradd Moore. They plan to introduce a new Rider named Robbie Reyes and for fans of the ol’ Flamehead such as myself, this is depressing news. Ghost Rider just hasn’t been a character in recent years that could gain much traction. Good runs on the book by the likes of Daniel Way and Jason Aaron couldn’t attract readers outside the core fan base (both runs are in omnibus formats and I do recommend them) and that was followed with a relaunch with a new character that occurred just before the launch of Marvel Now that was was so bad it drove even those fans away. Smith and Moore could really impress and reinvent the book for a modern audience like Howard Mackie and Javier Saltares did in the 90’s with the Danny Ketch incarnation of Ghost Rider, but my hopes are not high.
So which of the new Marvel Now books have you excited? Let your opinions be known in the comments below!
Via the LA Times and Marvel.Com
