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KC Carlson by Keith Wilson
a KC COLUMN by KC Carlson
It will be interesting to see how everybody’s going to react to the new marvel legacy initiative which was announced all over the place last weekend. In case you haven’t heard, legacy starts up full throttle in lots of marvel books shipping in October (but being solicited for you to buy THIS MONTH!).
The Mighty Thor #700
According to marvel (and I quote), “Legacy will usher in the dramatic return of dozens of its a lot of beloved heroes, villains, teams, and artifacts in bold stories that will begin the next chapter of the marvel Universe.” one of the big-deal aspects of legacy for long-time readers/fans is Marvel’s announcement that they are returning to original “legacy” series numbering. That indicates giving comics the cumulative issue number that each series must have had there not been so lots of man-made reboots to get those “awesome” first issue sales.
In their press releases, marvel has said, “For an thorough look at our return to original numbering, fans can seek advice from Marvel’s renumbering chart — a helpful and easy way to jump on board with our legacy content!” I don’t know where that chart will be hosted or printed, and that seems like an exceptionally new-reader-unfriendly approach, but this initiative is firmly aimed at getting back long-term fans.
(Rumor has it that fans got smart and just walked away when all the various marvel re-starts got confusing to them, and the last couple of rounds of reboots ended up in disappointing decreases in sales rather than the increases that they were hoping for. I love it when fans get smart enough to not just blindly take what’s thrown at them.)
Captain America #695
And here’s a good start. It’s not in the current solicitations, but it was recently announced that there will be a new (or a lot more properly, continuing) Captain America series starring Steve Rogers by writer mark Waid and artist Chris Samnee. Their run will start with Captain America #695. We’ve seen that creative team twice already: on Daredevil in 2012 and on Black Widow in 2015. They work well together. and this will be Waid’s third time on Cap as writer, both previous runs cut short not because of him. (I bet he’ll get rid of mind-controlled Cap!) What art we’ve seen is amazing and even the book’s logo is retro!
FINE tuning THE REBOOT
On the marketing end, marvel is reportedly going out of their way to (re-)launch their new publishing initiative with a “dynamic new trade dress that signals a clean jumping-on point for new readers.” (And hopefully returning readers as well.) Plus, lots of books will have three bonus offer “Marvel primer Pages” created to catch up new and returning readers. (Hope we aren’t losing three story pages for this… It’s certainly something that marvel of the past would pull…)
SO WHAT’S IN THE BOOKS?
We haven’t seen much of any of this yet (just the marvel Previews that hits stores today), so we’re going to have to take their word on a lot of it ideal now…
Invincible Iron man #593
Probably the most interesting (and least promoted) aspect of marvel legacy is the fact that NOT all of the regular ongoing marvel titles and characters will be involved with it (at least initially). I’m not sure how I feel about that (especially if it turns marvel into a two-tiered superhero company). On the other hand, it’s worked out pretty well for DC regeneration — allowing for stories and characters outside of regeneration to have miniseries and other publications devoted to them.
Here’s how the first month of marvel legacy books play out (non-involved marvel titles not listed):
Spirits of Vengeance #1
WEEK ONE: on sale October 4
Avengers #672
Iceman #6
Iron Fist #72
Jessica Jones #13
Royals #9
Spirits of Vengeance #1
Venom #155
X-Men: Gold #13
Amazing Spider-Man #789
WEEK TWO: on sale October 11
All-New Wolverine #25
Amazing Spider-Man #789
Defenders #6
Despicable Deadpool #287
Falcon #1
Gwenpool, the astonishing #21
Uncanny Avengers #28
X-Men: Blue #13
Champions #13
WEEK THREE: on sale October 18
Cable #150
Champions #13
Incredible Hulk #709
Invincible Iron man #593
Luke Cage #166
Mighty Thor #700
Monsters Unleashed #7
Spider-Gwen #25
X-Men: Gold #14
X-Men Blue #14
WEEK FOUR: on sale October 25
All-New Wolverine #26
Amazing Spider-Man #790
America #8
Black Panther #165
Despicable Deadpool #288
Jean Grey #8
Captain marvel #125
U.S. Avengers #11
X-Men: Blue #14
Check out some of those substantial issue numbers!
Defenders #6
We’re assuming that a lot more titles will be added in subsequent months. Also, it seems that they’re playing a little fast and loose about what a “Legacy” title is, as Defenders has had a lot of different series over the decades and (IMHO) must have an issue number higher than #6. (Unless they’re picking nits over Defenders vs. THE Defenders. Gosh, that would be silly.) I guess Falcon’s previous miniseries and one-shot don’t count either.
More titles and characters are likely to be added to marvel legacy in the future as new titles and characters are created or revived. We already know about the above-mentioned Captain America title. It will be interesting if any of the other current marvel titles or characters will be added to legacy after their current series unavoidably run their course. must a future Hawkeye series to be added to Legacy, I bet it will fun to try to figure that one out, issue-number-wise.
It seems odd that I’m thinking harder about this new initiative than maybe marvel is…
I hope it’s well-planned-out and well-executed — because marvel really could use some good news and excitement around now. I’m sorry to say that there’s a lot of current marvel series that are just sitting there on the racks of Westfield stores — unsold, unread, and unloved.
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KC CARLSON wonders what the many comic book stores nationwide called legacy Comics think about Marvel’s new publishing initiative. A Google search finds a whole bunch of them. maybe they’ll get some “free” advertising in marvel Comics’ most current publishing imprint.
WESTFIELD COMICS is not responsible for the silly things that KC says. especially that thing that really irritated you. . . . I deliberately did not talk about the lots of missing or dead “duplicate” marvel characters from the last several years. like Bruce Banner/Hulk for instance. Gotta leave something to talk about down the road a bit…