There’s nothing big companies love more than giving their customers the appearance of reinvention. For a recent example, look no further than electric boogaloo Chuck E. Cheese. Of course, that is only the appearance of change; I doubt I’ll be heading to Chuck E. Cheese any time soon, but I’m sure the pizza is still awful and the animatronic rock show still creepy as hell. When companies actually give the consumer something new, as Coca-Cola discovered with New Coke, they’re likely to riot in the streets.
This column has detailed numerous atrocities committed by DC Comics since the launch of The New 52 a year-and-a-half ago, so I won’t bore you with more. Suffice it to say, fan reaction has largely been of the New Coke variety. Last October, a year and one month since DC shook things up, Marvel initiated their own relaunch called Marvel NOW!
(A brief aside about the name: All-caps and exclamation point aside, I think it’s much better than The New 52, if only because it gives the non-fan a clear idea of its premise. “Marvel NOW!” clearly means that this is the current Marvel Comics status quo, what they’re doing right now. If you don’t follow comics news and therefore don’t know that DC is publishing 52 new titles, what does “The New 52” mean to you? 52 new what? Unnecessary pouches on Batman’s costume?)
Marvel made sure to avoid calling it a “reboot,” not only to avoid negative connotations with its Distinguished Competition, but because it wasn’t one: instead of hitting the reset button on its history, Marvel decided to spice things up creatively. The Marvel comics of the 21st century, the ones that have had such a huge influence on those worldwide box office smashes, had been defined by lengthy, character-defining runs. To mention but a few, Jonathan Hickman’s three years with Fantastic Four and its sister book FF made sure that “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” was deserving of that title once more; over a half-decade, Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca not only brought The Invincible Iron Man into line with the popular Robert Downey Jr. incarnation, but explored Tony Stark with the kind of depth the character hadn’t seen since the ‘80s; and Brian Michael Bendis’ run on a couple dozen Avengers titles from 2004 to 2012 turned a flagging team book into the kind of franchise which could spawn a billion-dollar movie.
So if the publisher was keeping its fictional universe intact, re-shuffling its creative teams was almost as big a gamble. Though there have been nearly as many distracting costume changes as in The New 52, that’s just one of those rock ‘n’ roll Chuck E. Cheese-type changes. It’s impressive how many substantial changes Marvel has made to their world, and how many of them have been paying off.
The relaunch has grown out of last year’s Avengers vs. X-Men event which, while not noteworthy as an actual comic book, provided plenty of fodder for the next chapter of the Marvel Universe: Captain America’s realization that he could have done more for mutants, Cyclops’ Phoenix-possessed murder of Professor Xavier, and the creation of a new breed of mutants following years of near-extinction have all spurred major storylines. As such, the titles that have been most directly affected are those starring X-Men.
Rick Remender and John Cassaday’s Uncanny Avengers has melded both the Avengers and the X-Men, but instead of being another cash-grab crossover, the series has been host to a number of interesting ideas. Captain America created the Avengers Unity Squad, and installed Cyclops’ brother Havok as its leader, as a way of publicly mending the fence. The first arc involved perennial Cap foe Red Skull digging up Xavier’s corpse and using the professor’s telepathic brain to turn the humans of New York City into mutant-hating bigots. The X-Men have always been Marvel’s great analogue for oppressed minorities, and Uncanny Avengers’ approach is even more direct than most stories. As such, the book has courted controversy. When Havok stated that he disliked the term “mutant” and referred to it as “the ‘M’ word,” some readers saw it as politically correct whitewashing. Which is certainly more compelling than most fanboy controversies. (For a thoughtful examination of the issue, I direct you to Moisés Chiullan’s post on the matter.)
Art from ‘All-New X-Men’ #3 by Stuart Immonen.
The flagship X-books of Marvel NOW! are Uncanny X-Men and All-New X-Men, both written by Brian Michael Bendis, with Chris Bachalo illustrating the former and Stuart Immonen the latter. During his time on Avengers, Bendis was afforded the opportunity to play with a few of Marvel’s merry mutants, particularly Wolverine, but this is his first extended tour of their corner of the Marvel U. Bendis’ Avengers run, though popular, had its fair share of problems, but the change of cast seems to have re-energized the writer. Uncanny focuses on Cyclops’ attempts to train a new generation of mutants capable of protecting their species, while All-New finds the time-displaced original X-Men confronting the grim future they’ve created.
Cyclops and Wolverine’s fundamentally different points of view have always been a crucial part of their dynamic, and now it finally feels as if their love/hate relationship is coming to a head. Both Uncanny and All-New echo classic Claremont X-Men, with character-based storytelling, philosophical discussions about the mutant race, and wild superhero action all swirling together for a smart, entertaining read. All-New X-Men has been especially rewarding, as Wolverine is being forced to reconcile his feelings for the Guevara-like revolutionary of today’s Cyclops with the fresh-faced, youthful Cyclops he never knew. Bendis’ handling of the angsty teen mutants proves that his Ultimate Spider-Man was no fluke.
Meanwhile, over in Avengers Tower, Jonathan Hickman has taken the reins with Avengers and New Avengers. Much like Fantastic Four/FF, the two books can be read independently but serve as worthy companion pieces. Hickman has a way of writing cosmic threats which seem scarily real. The Avengers are Earth’s mightiest heroes, but when faced with challenges on as grand a scale as the ones Hickman has thrown their way, you come to realize just how small they appear against the vastness of the galaxy. New Avengers stars Marvel’s Illuminati, made up of super-geniuses like Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Strange, and is one of the single best titles to come out of Marvel NOW! As this tiny band of great minds struggles to contain a galactic threat behind the scenes, the fate of the universe hangs in the balance. Hickman promised it would be the most important book of the relaunch, and thus far, he’s made good on that promise.
Not all of these new ideas have been able to live up to the old ones. After Hickman’s move to Marvel’s premier super-team, Matt Fraction took over both Fantastic Four and FF. Fraction is an extremely talented writer—Hawkeye may be Marvel’s crown jewel right now—but Hickman’s take on the characters was so definitive that any attempt to take them back to their simpler roots is bound to feel reductive. FF has been faring better, largely because it stars a replacement team led by Ant-Man, but the best thing about the series is the retro stylings of artist Michael Allred. Kieron Gillen, a similarly talented writer penning Marvel NOW! highlight Young Avengers, has been struggling with Iron Man. Though the exploration of Tony Stark’s futurist sensibilities is neat, something about it feels off, the outer space setting too radical a departure from what made Fraction’s run so memorable. It doesn’t help that the book is penciled by Greg Land, who literally just traces stuff.
While both those series have their problems, they’re at least trying different things. As is to be expected, though, Marvel NOW! has had a handful of disasters, the most unmitigated being The Superior Spider-Man. As someone who grew up on Spider-Man during the “Clone Saga” debacle and has read his fair share of terrible Spidey comics, The Superior Spider-Man is easily the worst. I didn’t like Dan Slott’s run on The Amazing Spider-Man, back before he killed off Peter Parker, and all of its problems have been magnified in Superior. I don’t object to the basic idea of Doctor Octopus’ mind residing inside Peter’s body, but Slott writes with all the emotional maturity of the kid’s comics he cut his teeth on. He treats Superior as if it’s one of Marvel’s innocent ‘60s comics, replete with extensive narration, thought balloons galore, and simplistic dialogue, yet the story he’s writing is one of the darkest in Spider-Man’s history. The result is something too adult for children and too childish for adults. Of all the bold ideas that have taken root in Marvel NOW!, The Superior Spider-Man is the one wayward, misguided effort that never should have gotten past the drawing board.
Still, the good far outweighs the bad here. After seven months, there have been a number of must-read series—those I haven’t mentioned include Thor: God of Thunder, Journey Into Mystery, and Indestructible Hulk—and a general air of reinvention that’s fresh enough not to smack of gimmickry. The New 52 has settled into a dull, gray house style, but Marvel NOW! suggests imagination hasn’t entirely abandoned the Big Two. What’s next?
