Is All-Different All That Good?

On 7/1/15, on top of the comics in the preview, I also got a free preview magazine for the new Marvel post-Secret Wars. There’s very brief (mostly 1 page pictures) about the new books. Here are my thoughts on each of the introduced titles.

Iron Man. The first displayed, this title got more than a lot of the books with a 2 page splash and 2 pages of concept art and page previews. Tony’s armor is a new design with the same basic concept. There’s a newspaper that says “Tony Stark: Yesterday’s Future?” on it so it looks like things are getting interesting for him. We’ll have to see why. Maybe it has to do with what happened in Superior Iron Man and maybe it’s something unexpected after the reboot. We’ll have to see.

A-Force. The title is sticking around after the Secret Wars series. The character I’m assuming is Dazzler now has short black hair that is shaved on the sides and is wearing a dress. WTF!? I’m not sure what to think of this. Are they trying to draw in female readers. Making an all female team is not going to get me to read a book any more than an all male team would. I just want good characters and I’m guessing all female storylines will lose some of the opposite gender dynamics you usually see. Honestly, I don’t plan to pick it up other than maybe #1 just because it’s the first issue and that will even be questionable.

All-New All-Different Avengers. The female Thor, The Falcon America, Nova Jr, the new Ms. Marvel, Ultimate Spider-Man, the Vision with a new look, and Iron Man. I can’t say I’m impressed with the line-up. I’m not a fan of Sam as Nova. Leave him in the cartoon. I’m not a fan of Sam as Cap while also wearing the wings. Just de-age Steve again and get the real Captain America back. (At least Bucky stayed a little truer to the regular character.) Still not sure what to think of female Thor and was never impressed with Ms. Marvel. I’m waiting to see how Miles adapts to the new universe. Iron Man and Vision are the only solid team members and I’m still not sure what the changes to the Vision will bring.

Uncanny Avengers. Steve Rogers, Spiderman, Rogue, Deadpool, Quicksilver, either the Human Torch or Toro, and a couple other characters I don’t recognize. Interesting.Rogue is back in a hooded outfit and Quicksilver’s new costume has a fast forward triple arrow symbol on the chest. Can I please shoot whomever designed his new outfit? Didn’t read the original series and don’t plan to check this one out. Guess it’s time for the team to jump on the Deadpool bandwagon.

New Avengers. Hawkete and Songbird make an interesting draw to the book. Wiccan and Hulkling amp that up majorly. Then there’s 2 characters I don’t know. One may be Sunspot holding an A.I.M. (Avengers Idea Mechanics) ID card. There’s also some redheaded dirl I don’t recognize. Given the 4 I do know, I might check it out since I like them all. Wizzan and Hulkling are enough reason alone.

Ultimates. “Ultimate problems need ultimate solutions.” A small team of Black Panther, Spectrum, Blue Marvel, Miss America, and Captain Marvel. Honestly, after seeing A-Force, it looks like they decided to try a black Avengers team too but they tossed in Captain Marvel as the token white so it didn’t look like they were trying too hard. Black Panther is an odd addition to the team given the rest are some pretty heavy hitters.

Doctor Strange. I love Doctor Strange so I was glad to see he has a title again. Then I saw the axe. I had to look into this and I guess he’s getting nervous at the cost of all his magic so is going to start using weapons. WTF!? #2 It’s doctor Strange so I’ll check it out.

Sam Wilson, Captain America. They need to put his name in the title so you know it’s not Steve Rogers? The picture they show is a ripped picture of Cap and Falcon as friends with the two of them walking away from each other in front of it. Not a good start or draw to the book for me.

The Totally Awesome Hulk #1. First, the title sucks. Second, there is the whole “Who is the Hulk?” question to the page. His face is blacked out. I have no clue what is going on here.

Scarlet Witch. She’s getting her own title, huh? This should be interesting. The headdress in the pic is a lot more gypsy than usual. I’m interesting in seeing what they will do with her.

Illuminati. “Forever evil” is the tag at the bottom of this page. It shows Red Hood and a bunch of stuff in silhouette. It doesn’t seem to have to do with the heroes who called themselves that previously. Guess we’ll have to see what’s going on here.

Hawkeye. “Hawkeye vs. Hawkeye” I wonder what’s up now. In the pic, Clint has a goatee and looks a lot older. Not sure what’s going on there, especially since he looks normal on the New Avengers page. If the art isn’t as atrocious as in the previous series, maybe I’ll check it out.

Ant-Man. Given the recent movie (review to come soon), it’s not surprising the title is back. the tag line on this one is “Once a criminal…?” The picture shows him crossing his fingers (like a fake promise) with Hurricane, Porcupine, Beetle, and Grizzly. Not sure if he’s going to fake going criminal or what. I guess we’ll see.

Vision. And other character getting his own title. I guess this is one way to expand on the changes they are making.

Contest of Champions. What looks like an older version of the hulk in armor standing in front of a bunch of heroes in red crystals. Is this a flash back to the original Contest of Champions concept? That was an interesting mini-series. I just hope they aren’t going to turn this into another Avengers Arena type thing with them trying to kill each other.

Spider-Woman. She’s pregnant? Hate the costume! That’s all I have to say.

Spider-Man 2099. Back into the future with a new brighter red, white, and blue costume. I wonder if we’ll see some of the other 2099 characters from way back.

Web Warriors. I’m losing track of all the Spider-Man titles (some just listed at the end) that are being launched. And given that the Spiderverse still exists, why are so many characters being folded into the main universe?

Guardians of the Galaxy. Rocket and Drax are back along with a Groot sporting plant dreadlocks. There’s a female Star-Lord, Venom, and the Thing on the team now. The tag line: “The raccoon’s in charge.” That’s the scary part.

Howard the Duck. No!

Nova. Both of them this time it seems. I’d rather it was just Richard Ryder.

Star-Lord. His own title again. I wonder what they will do different. I just wish they would get rid of that ugly mask.

Venom:Spaceknight. The first thing I thought of was the old ROM: Spaceknight. I liked that. I hope this title doesn’t touch on that and ruin everything.

Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D. Dum Dum Dugan. Man-Thing, and the Creature Commandos with a few more creatures. This could be good or really bad. I guess we’ll find out soon enough. I’ll check out the first issue at least.

Uncanny Inhumans. We see the Inhumans (Black Bolt, Medusa, Triton, Toro, and one other guys they introduces in Inhuman) along with the Beast. Really? We need anothr “uncanny” title just so we can toss an X-Man in? UGH!

Karnak. Looks like he didn’t stay dead long.

Squadron Supreme. I was always a big fan of the original team. This team is a mix across the universes. Hyperion, Thundra, what looks like Nighthawk from the other series they had years ago, a female Doctor Spectrum, and Blur from the New Universe D.P.7 among others. Will see if it’s a good concept or not. the tag mentions “sole survivors of their own worlds” so I guess that means that no one else from the New Universe (which had actually gotten pushed into the 616 universe) is going to be around. They could have picked someone better than him tho there are other versions of Nightmask and Star Brand that were introduced in the Avengers. We’ll see what’s up and how good this is.

Extraordinary X-Men. Storm, Iceman, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Magik, Old Man Logan, and Jean Grey. What a team. Too much of a mess for me. I just wonder if they will deal with the “younger Bobby is gay” thing in here.

Uncanny X-Men. Magneto, Mystique, Sabretooth, Fantomex, and what looks like Psyloche. Looks like a version of what X-Force was for a while.

All-New X-Men. We get Scott back and lose Jean this time. Everyone gets new costumes including Laura who is now Wolverine. Wonder if they are ever going back.

All-New Wolverine. X-23 takes over the name now that Logan is old.

Some titles that were announced that I have no comments on are Captain Marvel, Mighty Thor, Ms. Marvel, Amazing Spider-Man, Carnage, Spider-Man (Miles, not Peter in this one), Spider-Gwen, Silk, Daredevil, Drax, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Angela: Asgard’s Assassin, Old Man Logan, and Deadpool.

It’s amazing how little has seemed to have changed other than team line-ups. It’s interesting that with everything that happened, the young X-Men are still in the present. I’m sure we’ll see why in the next few months and might see more differences once the new titles are actually there to read. It’s still looking like just a reason for Marvel to publish a bunch of new #1 issues. I see about 10 titles that I’m going to pick up the first issue of to see what it’s like.