All New, All Different-ish- What promo images tell us about the future of Marvel Comics
I think I am slowly becoming rather famous for reading way too much into teaser footage, images and summaries. I thought for once I would put my vice to good use and present an in depth analysis of the recent Marvel promo art for All New Marvel and see if we can figure out what Marvel has in store for its favourite characters.
Sorry I'm struggling to get the images to upload. Most can be viewed here:
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An iron figurehead
On both group shots Marvel has placed Ironman front and centre; this tells that the House of Ideas plans to continue taking advantage of the character’s popularity in the MCU. Prior to the birth of Marvel Studios Spider-man was the symbol of the company, on the cover of every ‘event’ and displayed proudly in as many advertisements as possible. However since the MCU came along and Robert Downey Jnr’s portrayal of the character rocketed Ironman from relatively unknown to one of the most popular superheroes around, Ironman is the new golden boy. Expect to see the character on a lot of Avengers squads and as a key player in many events; he may even make a few odd cameos, joining teams that need a sales boost like he did with Guardians of the Galaxy at the start of their newest run- If Marvel decides to push the ‘Defenders’ ahead of a live action version Ironman could even be seen in that.
The Ironman himself is very definitely not wearing his ‘Superior’ Symbiote hybrid armour, so we know that he likely not to be inverted after Secret Wars. The armour actually very much resembles Tony’s Ultimate Ironman suit (prior to his horrendous ‘Ultimate FF’ stint). It would make sense for Ultimate Tony to replace the original (is he tony from the past brought to the present mysteriously aged by Franklin Richards?) Tony Stark as his ultimate version is far more in keeping with the famous cinematic version- the character is usually light hearted, witty, at least partially drunk and likely to hit on any redhead in the room. This may in fact hint at the outcome of the Avengers V Ultimates battle during Secret Wars.
Wolverines
Old Man Logan is one of the high profile characters to be introduced into the Secret Wars event. Having not been seen since the original Mark Millar story, we left Logan was retired and embittered in a world where most other superheroes had been killed off in a supervillain plot (I’m avoiding spoilers). In the promo art it appears that this Logan will continue on in the 616 Marvel Universe but will probably not take on the mantle of Wolverine. That seems to have been passed to young Laura ‘X23’ Kinney- note that the female Wolverine pictured only has two claws on each hand like Laura. In the past Marvel has tried a lot of mentor/ apprenticeships type comic runs. Some have been very good, look at the ‘Hawkeye’ run in which Clint Barton mentors the younger Katie Bishop, and some have been very poor (Female Ghost Rider mentored by Johnny Blaze... eek). This in mind, I wouldn’t be surprised if Marvel released a series with Logan and Laura working together towards some common goal.
Spider-men
During ‘Superior Spider-man’ or ‘the dark days’ as they have become known, Bandis famously told everyone that he had more plans for Miles and Peter crossovers, but that we wouldn’t see them come to fruition whilst spider-Ock was about. We have to wonder then now that Miles is in the mainstream only universe, will that allow Bendis to explore these ideas? Or will it table them indefinitely? Miles’ presence also raises other questions: Will characters like Bombshell and the All New Ultimates tag along? Will Ganke’s lego survive the apocalypse? And most importantly, will Ultimate Gwen and/or Mary Jane appear to complicate Peter’s life?
One thing is for sure- Spider-Gwen is here to stay (Yay!), which ultimately means that the love of Peter’s life is back from the dead equipped with Spider Powers! That has to be a dream come true, right?
Or maybe not, if Peter is married after whatever Slott dreams up in ‘Renew Your Vows’ during Secret Wars. We could well see Peter married to MJ as he was before One More Day, they could also have little Mayday with them long term. How will Mrs Parker react to seeing Pete’s ideal wife swimming around the city next to Spidey?
The biggest question on my mind after seeing these images is “Who is Spider-man?” It has been suggested that the All New Spider-man may be all new, with someone else slinging webs post Secret Wars. I can’t see how this would be approved so soon after the dark days and now that Marvel have just acquired film rights (kinda) for Pete but you never know. What we can see is a new costume with pointed boots, reshaped gloves and most intriguingly light effects. This all implies a bit of a higher budget on Spidey’s suit and may reflect some of the ideas Marvel has for his film costume (the gloves and boots anyway). We can’t tell who is under the mask but I am going to make the wild guess that it’s Miguel O’Hara, who had been starring in a popular solo series prior to Secret Wars as 2099 but doesn’t appear on any promos, who will work alongside Peter and Parker Indeustries to tackle Alchemax. As I say it’s a guess but the high tech/ glowy suit does imply some science bro-ing.
Fantastic Phase Out
The promo art has drawn a lot of attention for featuring the Thing in Guardians of the Galaxy garb. First off this implies that we will get a new Guardians line-up. Groot has been granted his own miniseries and I believe Gamora has her own ongoing title on-the-way. Star Lord is also featured but he isn’t sporting the new uniform, an ongoing Star Lord title taking Quill away from the Guardians, possibly teamed up with his (should-be-mine) girlfriend Kitty for some cosmic mutant action. The Guardians could be three members down then so the Thing could be one of many recruits, which suggests that Marvel isn’t trying to destroy the characters but simply cancelled the comic book because no-one was reading it. The Human Torch is also pictured and we have to assume this is Johnny Storm. Personally I think it makes way more sense for Marvel to find away to re-introduce the original Torch so they can use him in film, but Johnny somehow survives... again. Perhaps he will join Ben in space? Or join the ranks of the Inhumans? Marvel may well spread the characters across the universe (will make it seem like a big deal when the team comes back).
Supreme Power-down
Supreme Power by J. Michael Straczynski is one of my favourite comic series of all time (and the fact it ended on a cliffhanger kills me inside). Recently Hyperion was plucked from the Squadron Supreme and a watered-down version of the character, more similar to the original character from decades ago, appeared. Marvel’s badass answer to Superman (now sporting black for some reason) will no longer be alone as Squadron member Doctor Spectrum, Marvel’s badass answer to Green Lantern, will also make the jump. He will however be a she... She probably belongs a racial minority and is gay too, you know how Marvel likes to be. Yes her costume is lame but the characterinvolves being controlled by a meteor shard embedded in his/her fist that provides powers for the sole purpose of protecting Hyperion. Could be awesome... Could be a loser in a 60s style onesie.
Yay! Diverse Comics -.-
Falcon, the least qualified super hero replacement of all time, will continue to play Captain America just as Jane Foster will continue to dress up as Thor. Marvel have also thrown in a random Indian with a bow and arrow... Why not.
On the upside the bravest and coolest of Marvel’s diversity based publicity stunts has been to ACTUALLY create the new character Kamala Khan who has become Miss Marvel. This rarity- an actual new character people!- looks to take on a bigger role in the new universe alongside another recent and well written addition to the universe Sam ‘Nova’ Alexander. I urge any fans who haven’t given these new heroes a chance based on love for their predecessors to give them a shot, if not in their ongoings, at least in their new Avengers series.
Shadowland
Unsurprisingly Daredevil features on the new promo art as Marvel (quite rightly) look to cash-in on his Netflix success. The suit he is wearing (mainly black with some red) was famously worn by the character during the shadowland arc; this critically acclaimed storyline saw Murdoch lead the Hand clan of ninja assassins in an attempt to clean up Hell’s Kitchen but slowly be corrupted by the evil at the organisation’s heart. It will be very interesting to see if this version of the character emerges from Secret Wars- or will something else have Matt back in black?
I Like to Movie Movie.
Marvel also looks set to push its new slate of movies as Scott Lang, Black Panther, the Inhumans, Vision and Doctor Strange all feature prominently. Expect a return to the roots of these characters as Marvel looks to attract new readers before and after their movie debuts.