Marvel NOW! is a company wide "relaunch" in order to gain new readers to an easily accesible format and to introduce them to the comic based form of popular characters such as Captain America, Iron Man and the Wolverine. Of course, you guys already know that and I'm going to tell you why its initially a bad idea that is being poorly executed. Let me start at the beginning.
Avengers vs. X-Men is the event leading into Marvel NOW!. Just for recap, its essentially the Avengers and the X-Men vs Cyclops and his cronies for the command of the Phoenix Force and decide how to use it. In the end the Avengers "win", but ultimately Cyclops is proven right. Avengers vs. X-Men was not bad, but was all action and relatively no substance. To me, it just showcases Cyclops's new attitude and make people remember that Hope Summers was a character. But, in order to a lot of Marvel NOW! to make sense, you will have to have picken up the whole AvX run. So, the new reader aspect is not going to work very well. The whole thing about Marvel NOW! is the new status quo that results from AvX. Now, Marvel NOW! is not a reboot of the whole universe, but just mainly a relaunch of many titles.
Because of this, the new readers Marvel wants to gain may be confused about pre-existing conditions. For example, why is Cyclops working with Magneto? Aren't they arch-enemies or something? Where is Professor X? He is the main character of X-Men: First Class! Is that Iron Man in space? Wolverine and Captain America together?? I thought Havok was a moody teenager that has weird red hula hoops for a power? WHAT IS ALL THIS? Now, I know this sounds like an obnoxious rant, but these are all things that Marvel should've considered before this. New readers, and many old readers, don't want to have to do a lot of research before getting a book. Just buy it, read it, and have fun.
My last problem with Marvel NOW! is that it isn't happening all at once. In fact, it's kind of taking a while. One of Marvel's flagship titles (Guardians of the Galaxy and possible Uncanny X-Men) are being released in February. DC's the New 52 got it. Do it all at once people! By the time GoTG comes out, Uncanny X-Men will already be close to issue 10 (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not sure if its bi-weekly or not). What if you want to pick up both? Well, looks like you're gonna have to spend all that money on getting previous issues. If I was doing it, I'd do what DC's the New 52 did. For one week, I'd release the main flagship title, which is Uncanny Avengers, and possible the last AvX book. I know that's kind off what they did, but then for the following weeks in the month, release all other titles, don't hold off on so many titles. I would also cancel all the pre-existing books before this special 2-book week.
So, if you think this is annoying or really like the Marvel NOW! initiative, that's fine. I'm just saying what on my mind. Weigh in if you want! Thanks for reading.
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