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By Jason Bourgeois
Ahh, 2013. 2012 was certainly an interesting year for comics. DC was still working out the kinks of their New 52, with a bunch of cancellations and new titles, slowly finding the new voice of their new universe. The Avengers and Dark Knight movies came out and were more or less awesome. And Marvel had their two biggest franchises going head to head over the Phoenix. Which is now causing its own fallout, but fortunately it's not gone all Flashpoint and caused a whole universal reboot.
Instead, Marvel is just doing a whole lot of title reboots, but keeping continuity. Which, quite frankly, is a good thing. In my opinion, DC's New 52 has been a bit of a flop, with a few rare highlights. We, as a fan collective, have come to be attached to these continuities, and I think many of us would rather soldier onwards with these worlds and characters we know and love for so many decades, than try and regrow our love for all-new versions that are just not quite right.
With the conclusion of Avengers vs. X-Men, many creators have wrapped up long-running tenures on titles. Brian Bendis finished almost a decade of Avengers books, Jonathan Hickman finished up a lengthy, fan favourite run on Fantastic Four and FF, Matt Fraction on Iron Man, and many other smaller runs on other titles.
Some of this was by design, I am sure, and some of it just kinda happened that way, but it is giving Marvel a chance to shake things up while simultaneously drawing attention to these books with new number ones. Even if they did just reboot to #1 less than a year ago. Yes, I am looking at YOU, Uncanny X-Men...
Which brings me to a minor rant about just not getting what Marvel is using to pick their new #1s. Some of them are obvious. Bendis had a long run, did his thing, and the Avengers are now going in an all-new direction under Hickman. Same with the two FF books. The Uncanny rereboot is annoying, though, and seems slightly less necessary. Although, the wake of AvX has at least left that in a little bit of transition, so that's fine.
But then there's a few books like Gambit and Hawkeye that literally started just two months or so before the beginning of the Marvel Now! initiative, and I just wonder why. They would have been better served to fall under the Now! banner and advertising push, yes? But fine, whatever. No matter when it started, you would always have a few books that missed the boat by being early.
Then there's Wolverine & the X-Men which IS part of Marvel Now! but is keeping it's old numbering?! Despite having run just as long as Uncanny X-Men. And they are even pushing things now as 'year two' and a 'second season'. That would seem perfect for a new #1 and Now! push. However, they seem quite happy with the sales, I guess, so let it truck along with what it's doing.
I've ranted a lot about renumbering, and I am sure I will rant plenty about it more in the future. For the most part, though, I don't have a problem with much of the Marvel Now! renumberings. Sure, they come down to marketing stunts in the end, but with such major creative changes and direction changes, most of them do indeed make sense. Going from Bendis to Hickman on the Avengers, to cite that example again, probably DOES deserve new #1s. Bendis made those books his, and now he's gone. And things will certainly be different.
The same can be said for the already controversial Amazing Spider-Man #700. I won't spoil that just yet, but that book truly is the end of an era, and I have zero troubles with that being the final issue, and starting over again as Superior Spider-Man. If you know the story, it makes absolute sense to do it in this case.
That is the biggest difference with New 52, I think. DC just tossed out all their legacy, all their achievements with long numbers, for a quick boost in sales, with no real reasoning behind it, other than, "Whelp! Time to reboot!" Marvel is still holding onto their legacies, building upon them, and at least trying to give their titles proper wrap ups and send offs. New 52 just broke everything dead in its tracks, and jumped into a whole new universe. It was jarring, and to me, off putting.
The whole Marvel Now! thing isn't a single initiative in any given month, and will be spread out for...who knows how long. They first started several months ago, and I know they'll still be going several months into 2013. I can't really say if Now! is a success or a failure on that basis. It really is just the Marvel Universe doing the Marvel Universe stuff it always did. They just used a whole bunch of creative team shakeups happening all at once to draw attention to themselves, and keep the ball rolling.
Which is fair enough, it's a good marketing gimmick. If everyone is playing musical chairs, might as well shine the spotlight. I'll be looking at various titles over the next year, surely, giving my thoughts on them, but for the most part I have greatly enjoyed the Marvel Now! books I have gotten. Which is a lot more than I can say for DC these days. It may just be that I have always been more of a Marvel Zombie, but the books just seem so much more enjoyable, and they have managed to make things fresh and new, where unexpected things can happen, without erasing 25 years of comics.
They tried that a few years ago with Spider-Man, and we all saw how that went over.
So I hope everyone had safe and happy holidays, read some good comics from whatever company they like, and keep watching this space for more thoughts on Marvel Now!, the New 52, and whatever else. 2013, here we come.
Jason M. Bourgeois
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