Broken Frontier

Hello, everybody! I’m William Gatevackes, here to give you a peek at what presents comic companies are giving us in celebration of George Washington’s birthday tomorrow, February 22nd.

New from Marvel tomorrow is Astonishing X-men #13, which returns from hiatus with its creative team of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday intact.

It’s been approximately eight months since Astonishing X-Men #12, and Marvel is doing something unusual. It would be customary after such a layoff to restart the series fresh with new numbering. DC is in the process of doing this very thing, canceling a bunch of their titles, only to restart them at number one at a later date. First issues supposedly bring more attention to the titles and, hopefully, more readers.

Then why is Marvel starting Astonishing back up at 13 instead of one? Aren’t they afraid that the eight months might have erased the title from the fans collective consciousness? Don’t they think the title could use a boost? Apparently, the answer is no. And if I were to guess the reason why Marvel is so confident that Astonishing X-men will continue to be successful, I would reckon it would have to do with Joss Whedon and John Cassaday.

The team of Whedon and Cassaday generated true excitement for the title when they were first named as its creators. The comic became popular with the fans, and became a financial success for Marvel. I guess the logic is that if Whedon and Cassaday were able to do it once, they will be able to do it again.

I think Marvel should be commended for not doing the obvious and not going for an easy buck with a renumbering. It shows faith in the drawing powers of the book’s creators, and proves that you don’t need a new number one to make an event out of something.

Black Panther #13 and Storm #1 come out tomorrow. Black Panther wraps up its current storyline and starts the Panther on his search for a new bride. Storm begins a mini-series that will examine Ororo’s origin and will detail her first meeting with the man who will become the Black Panther, T’Challa.

Why am I listing these two titles here together? Well, if you don’t know, then the rest of the section will act as a major SPOILER WARNING, and you should just jump down to the next comic book.

Is everyone still here that wants to be? Good. Starting with these two issues, both of these storylines will run their course, eventually culminating with another big Marvel event of the summer, the marriage of Storm and the Black Panther.

When I first heard of the impending nuptials, I thought it had the makings of a “paper” event. Take one of Marvel’s oldest male characters of African heritage and marry him off to one of its oldest female characters of African heritage, with little more than their shared cultural background in common.

Marriages in comics become landmarks in the history of the titles they appear in and the histories of the characters involved. Fans still look back on the weddings of Reed and Sue Richards and Peter and Mary Jane Parker as important events.

But each of those characters' marriages was the result of a long relationship that played out over time in their books. They weren’t just thrown together on the spot. To create a wedding out of thin air, just to make an event, would be insulting to the characters and their fans.

Marvel realizes this, and the story arcs in Black Panther and Storm serve to set some background. One of the main plotlines in Storm builds out of a back-up story in Marvel Team-Up #100, where it was revealed that Storm and Black Panther spent some time together in their youth. The mini-series fleshes out this period, revealing that they were each other’s first romance. The arc in Black Panther deals with his search to find a new queen, a search that leads him to his true love, Ororo.

I’m glad that Marvel is going this route, and treating the occasion and the characters with the respect they deserve. In the process, by using a passing conversation that is canon in the shared continuity of Ororo and T’Challa, they are showing comic fans in general and fans of the characters a great deal of respect, too.

This summer is shaping up to be an exciting wedding season for Marvel, with the marriage of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones occurring in April’s New Avengers Annual #1. I’m starting to stock up on rice now.

DC releases Warlord #1 tomorrow, which shows that the “I Love the ‘70’s” trend isn’t limited to Marvel alone. The Warlord character first appeared in 1975’s First Issue Special, and was one of the only characters to spin out of that title into his own magazine, which ran from 1976 to 1989.

Warlord is another character from days gone by getting another chance at life. Over at Marvel, popular seventies characters such as Spider-Woman, Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel are soon to receive their own books. At DC, eighties icons such as the Question, Vigilante and now Warlord are hitting the shelves.

One might ask why the sudden upturn in old characters getting new titles? I think it is another weapon in the companies’ arsenal to increase readership. It is easier to sell old characters to long-time comic readers than it is to sell them completely new ones. And characters like Warlord are proven commodities. He was popular enough to support 133 issues in his original go round. Who’s to say that he can’t do it again?

As for enticing new readers, every character is new if you haven’t seen them before. And Warlord is firmly entrenched in the “sword and sorcery” genre, a style that is experiencing a recent resurgence. We will have to see whether or not this all will add up to a successful run for Warlord.

Amazing Spider-Man #529 acts as an epilogue to the Spidey title’s “The Other” storyline, and a prologue to the upcoming “Civil War” crossover. In it, we see that the lasting change to come out of “The Other” storyline was... um... er... a new costume for Spider-man.

Yes. Look at it. It’s all red and gold and shiny.

Look! It even has little arms.

Hurm. Yes. Well. Let’s move on.

Next is a rarity in the world of comics: an independent title that actually comes out early. Runaway Comics #1 was solicited by Fantagraphic Books to come out in March. Yet, according to the shipping list for the 22nd on the Diamond Comics Distributors website, we have Runaway Comics #1 coming out tomorrow.

Okay, it's only one week early, but with independent comics often coming out six or seven months after they appear in Previews, this is quite the accomplishment.

Runaway Comics #1 is done by cartoonist Mark Martin. I first became familiar with him from his strip in the Comics Buyers Guide, “20 Nude Dancers 20”. That strip was consistently one of the highlights of the paper, and I am looking forward to this latest offering.

And finally, this week gives us Wonder Woman #226, the last issue of the current series. This is the latest in a line of books (following Flash and JLA) that DC has cancelled with the intention of bringing back later.

However, there’s something odd in relation to Wonder Woman. While Flash and Justice League of America both have teams and approximate start dates announced, DC has kept mum on its future plans for Wonder Woman.

At one time, DC Comics had to publish a comic with Wonder Woman in the title and as the lead feature, or else the right would revert back to the estate of her creator, William Moulton Marston. There is no danger of this happening now, because DC has bought the right to the character outright.

Could the fact that DC is no longer contractually obligated to publish a Wonder Woman comic book mean that they aren’t going to? After all, titles featuring female characters usually sell less than the ones of their male counter parts.

While this might be the rule of thumb, Wonder Woman was an exception. The sales of the book have been respectable, ranking in the top forty of all comics sold for each of the last several months. Also, Wonder Woman is one of DC’s most recognizable icons, third only to Superman and Batman, and was rumored to be next in line to receive an “All-Star” book.

Perhaps this is why we haven’t heard anything on the Wonder Woman front yet. Maybe DC is trying to recruit creative teams for each title and working out marketing plans. Because with all that was mentioned above, and with a major motion picture in the works, it’s not a matter of if Wonder Woman will get a new comic book, but rather “when” and “how many”.

That’s all I have for this week. Next week, it’s ONE YEAR LATER! Well, at least in the DC universe it is, and we will be taking a look at the first batch of OYL books, titles which may include Detective Comics #817 and Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #40 (assuming there are no delays in shipping). And we’ll see if we can slip in some non-OYL books for you, if you’re nice. So join us then, and thanks for your time.