The Bum’s Rush #69

WARNING! None of the news or rumors you see here in The Bum’s Rush should be considered FACT until it actually happens. It might never happen. How do you know I’m not just making all this crap up? I could, you know. You’ve been warned!

This week - a few left over stories from the Wizard World Chicago convention including the possible Avengers line-up after Civil War, Marvel’s version of The Dark Knight Returns and just who is the regular artist on Detective Comics anyway? But before all that, let’s take a look at…

How To Make A Weekly Comic, The Marvel Way

That’s right, it looks like Marvel Comics is going to publish a weekly comic, albeit in a slightly different fashion than DC Comics own yearlong weekly series, 52. You see this particularly weekly series will not contain new material but reprints of Amazing Spider-Man beginning with Amazing Fantasy #15.

According to a few trusted sources, Marvel announced the news with an ad in yesterday’s newspapers. I haven’t seen the ad myself but from what I was told the ad revealed that the reprints would only be available as supplements in Sunday newspapers across the country. Strangely though I haven’t been able to find much information about this story anywhere, not even on Marvel’s own website. The only thing I could find, anywhere on the net, was this short bit of information that seems like it came from a press release:

“News America Marketing, in collaboration with Marvel Entertainment, will begin to distribute re-issues of the Amazing Spider-Man comic book in Sunday newspapers beginning in summer, 2006, Editor & Publisher reports. Circulation for the Spider-Man series will be 10 million across metro markets, and will begin with the original first comic book published in 1963. Each original comic book will be split into two and published on consecutive weeks.”

So at the moment I have no idea when these supplements will begin appearing in newspapers or for how long the weekly reprints will run. The same sources that informed me about the newspaper ad mentioned that the reprints would, similar to DC’s weekly book, run for a year or 52 issues. Which means, if the comics are going to be split into two parts, the reprints will cover Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing Spider-Man #1 through Amazing Spider-Man #20. Of course this is all conjecture on my part. As I previously mentioned I haven’t actually seen Marvel’s ad announcing the book.

At first glance, despite the obvious differences, it might appear to some that Marvel is merely trying to replicate the success DC has enjoyed with 52. There’s very little doubt in my mind that Marvel wasn’t at least somewhat inspired by DC’s bold move. Could that be why there is so very little information about this story available, especially when one would have expected to read about it on at least one or two of the major comic industry news outlets? Is Marvel purposefully playing down the story in the comic community? Are they concentrating solely on the non-comic readers to avoid a negative reaction and harsh comparisons between their weekly book and that of the competition?

I don’t know. That all sounds rather conspiratorial doesn’t it? How about this then - rather than replicating DC’s success, Marvel has, inspired by their competition, found an effective way to build-up the non-comic reader’s awareness of Spider-Man leading up to next year’s release of Spider-Man 3. I’d say that’s a much more likely, and interesting, possibility. How’s that grab you? And just when you thought I was going to try and stir things up.

I did contact Marvel for more information but have yet to receive a response.

Band On The Run

When artist Leinil Yu takes over New Avengers in December the book will be heading in an entirely new direction. Thanks to Civil War the ranks of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will be split in two – pro-registration heroes will make up the roster for Mighty Avengers, a brand new title by Brian Michael Bendis and Frank Cho, while New Avengers, by Bendis and Yu, will feature the anti-registration heroes who have escaped the country and are effectively the “resistance Avengers”. Confirmed as being on the New Avengers roster are Captain America, Wolverine and Spider-Man.

Yes! Captain American, man without a country… again! How many times have they done this story now? And I’m not too sure how the heck Wolverine is supposed to be “on the run” when he’s starring in three other books besides New Avengers. But hey, it’s comics. Plus, it’s comics drawn by Leinil Yu… never a bad thing.

More Reasons To Hate Professor X

Much like the stories about Captain America as an expatriate, the “Professor X is really a mean bastard” stories have been done almost to death. But that’s not going to stop Marvel (or any major publisher, movie studio or TV network for that matter) from doing the same thing again and again! At least this time, like the good Captain, Professor X is going to have some company.

In November, spinning out of Civil War and the New Avengers: Illuminati one-shot, Marvel will launch a new five-issue Illuminati series. The Illuminati is a secret group made up of six of the most powerful and influential heroes in the Marvel Universe - Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Professor Xavier, Namor, Dr. Strange and Black Bolt – who worked behind the scenes to manipulate and control certain events throughout Marvel history for the greater good.

Brian Michael Bendis (jeez, that guy again!) and Brian Reed will write the series, with art by superstar Jimmy Cheung. Originally planned by Bendis as a major storyline for New Avengers before the onset of Civil War, the Illuminati limited-series will address the history of the super-powered super-group and the role they played in some of the biggest events in Marvel continuity. Each issue will concentrate on a different event, from Atlantis Attacks to Infinity Gauntlet, and the roles played by the Illuminati. The book will be brought into the present day where the members of the mysterious group are essentially outed to their respective superhero families, creating an even greater level of mistrust post-Civil War.

Events in this five-issue series will result in an even larger storyline planned that will take place in the Marvel Universe next summer, though Bendis was quick to dismiss the notion that it was leading into another “event” book.

No Prize For You

At the Wizard World Chicago Convention, Marvel Comics announced the return of the legendary No-Prize. Originating in the early 60’s, the brainchild of Stan Lee, a No-Prize was an award customarily given to a reader who got a letter printed in a Marvel comic by pointing out a mistake in a previous issue and then cleverly explaining the mistake away. The reader would be told he had received a No-Prize for his letter, a No-Prize being exactly what it sounds like… nothing at all. After a while Marvel began sending out empty envelopes that indicated the winner’s No-Prize was contained within.

No two editors had the same criteria for awarding No-Prize’s. Some editors stood by the traditional method of a reader pointing out a mistake and explaining why it wasn’t a mistake. Some editors sent No-Prize’s to anyone who asked for one. And still some editors didn’t award them at all.

After a while the only way a reader could receive a No-Prize was if they had a letter appear in Stan Lee’s column, Stan’s Soapbox, which appeared in several of Marvel’s books. This continued up into the late 90’s but eventually the No-Prize faded into obscurity.

Now Marvel is bringing the No-Prize back, this time using the Internet. Instead of an empty envelope in their mailbox, winners of the illustrious No-Prize will receive an email containing a scan of a No-Prize envelope. The winners will also get special attention on Executive Editor Tom Brevoort’s Blah Blah Blog. Brevoort is in charge of awarding the No-Prizes and has stated that while there is no one, simple way to win a No-Prize he will be giving them for “whatever strikes my fancy”. He also explained that he is looking to award fans for “meritorious service to Marveldom”.

As such, Brevoort awarded the very first all-new No-Prize on August 12 to a trio of friends who donated a large number of Marvel comics from their own personal collection to U.S. service members stationed in Iraq. Like Tom says in his post, these three have set the bar pretty high for anyone else wishing to attain the coveted, yet non-existent, prize.

The Arach-Knight Returns

Originally announced in January, more details have finally been released regarding Kaare Andrews’ Marvel Knights comic, The Spider. At Chicago, Marvel revealed that the book, now referred to as Spider-Man: Reign, will be a four-issue limited series and each issue will be 36-pages long.

The story itself will explore Spider-Man’s life 35 years from now and things aren’t looking too good for ol’ Peter Parker. The world is a darker place, an almost totalitarian environment where Peter has become a bitter old man who has been beaten down and has lost his sense of responsibility. There aren’t many details beyond that except Andrews’ has stated that the story will be very punishing for the character, as Spider-Man will face pain, humiliation and great loss without much hope of getting anything back.

I like Kaare Andrews work a lot and I’m sure I will pick this book up. Still, it does sound pretty damn depressing. And kinda familiar too. I’m sure I’ll not be the only one who sees the similarities, not only in story but also in art style, between this book and another somewhat bleak future vision of a comic book icon, The Dark Knight Returns.

Eh, maybe I’m wrong but it certainly looks like what he’s going for. Here are some preview pages from Spider-Man: Reign:

Click on an image to view full size in a separate window

               

I’m just sayin’.

Mystery Solved?

Speakin’ of Batman, hey look - it’s a DC story! Phew… I was startin’ to think this was gonna be some kinda All-Marvel edition of The Bum’s Rush. Can’t let that happen. Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah… DC!

The biggest mystery coming out of writer Paul Dini’s brand-new run on Detective Comics has to be “Who the heck is the regular artist for this series?” Originally, super-hot artist Rags Morales was supposed to join Dini when the writer took over the series. Then, suddenly, he was off the book, replaced by another hot artist, J.H. Williams. Okay, that’s not so bad. I was lookin’ forward to Rags drawing Batman but I’ll take a J.H. Williams drawn Batman just as readily.

But as soon as it was announced, Williams explained that he would only be drawing a few issues of the book before leaving to finish the long-delayed Seven Soldiers #1, but said that he’d likely be back. However Williams ended up doing just one issue of Detective and DC revealed that the book would have rotating artists for the foreseeable future.

Then a bright ray of hope shone from the floor of Wizard World Chicago when current Detective fill-in artist, Don Kramer revealed that he would be doing the book for a few more issues and then Rags Morales would indeed take on the book’s art chores. Kramer noted that Morales had suffered some personal problems that precluded him from drawing the book as originally announced.

I then found a thread on Rags’ own forum in which a distraught fan asked why the artist was no longer doing Detective Comics. Rags replied:

“Don't sweat it. JH is helping me out while I take care of some personal business.
I'll follow his run.”

So there you go. Rags Morales is back on Detective Comics and all is right with the world. Let’s all blame the mess on Superboy Prime, that jackass.

The Only Comics That Matter

Last Week –
Beyond #2 by Dwayne McDuffie and Scott Kolins

This Week –
The Boys #1 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson

Casanova #2 by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba

Fell #6 by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #7 by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen

Next Week –
Batman And The Mad Monk #1 by Matt Wagner

Astonishing X-Men #16 by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday





If you know of any interesting news, rumors, lies, etc. about comics and think I should know about it too just email me at thesuperleezard@yahoo.com.

Read more dumb crap written by me at www.livejournal.com/users/superleezard.

My semi-daily webcomic, Der Wundervolle Bean, will be coming to an end soon. But you can still check it out here www.livejournal.com/users/der_magic_bean.



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