Complete Marvel Reading Order News and Reviews

by Joshua Starnes, CMRO Editor

If the fine folks at Marvel Comics have learned anything it is that the best thing to do with a franchise is to pump it for mini-series and spinoffs for all its worth, because there is absolutely no downside to that. See X-Men for more examples.

So, like it or not we’ve got more Avengers heading our way this fall as the men at Marvel announced this week that “Mighty Avengers” would be returning this September featuring the adventures of a new Avengers team run by Luke Cage and starring Spectrum (the old Captain Marvel), Falcon, Ronin, Blue Marvel, She-Hulk, Power Man (no, the other Power Man), White Tiger (no, the other White Tiger) and Spider-Man, but no Iron Fist, from a script by Al Ewing and featuring art by Greg Land, recently of Kieron Gillen’s “Iron Man” re-start.

The new book will join the likes of “Avengers” “New Avengers” “Secret Avengers” “Avengers Academy” and “Avengers Assemble” as Marvel’s current number one franchise nips at the heels of “X-Men” for the title of most number of spin offs.

For most of the 2000s “Mighty Avengers” was the ‘other’ Avengers book during Brian Michael Bendis run, before ending as a result of the AvsX crossover, presumably to be replaced by “New Avengers” (or maybe it was by “Avengers” it’s hard to keep track these days).

The new “Mighty Avengers” (not to be confused with New Mighty Avengers, which will inevitably occur one day) will spin off out the events of “Infinity” the Jonathan Hickman written cross over coming later this year.

According to Marvel, while the main Avengers books will travel to deep space to deal with the menace of Thanos during the “Infinity” cross over, leaving the Earth potentially undefended from Thanos’ evil lieutenants.

Enter Cage and his new Avengers team.

And according Ewing, he will be approaching the book in the old ‘Marvel style’ letting Land develop the issue story from his plot, and then plugging in dialog to fit. After years of being the house style the trend has been towards full script over the last decade, even at Marvel. While that seems unlikely to change in the wake of “Mighty” it should make for an interesting experiment, at least.

by Travis Starnes, CMRO Editor

As we get closer to principle photography starting on Guardians of the Galaxy, the first non-sequel coming out in Marvel’s second round of movies, the cast is being firmed up and word is going out about who will be in the movie.  The next addition to the cast is Karen Gillan best known for her roll as Amy pond, one of the beloved Doctor Who companions who recently left the show.  It is as yet unknown yet who she is playing in the movie, although we do know she is not one of the listed Guardians.  The announcement only listed her as the “lead female villain”.  With the distinction of “female villain” and knowing Lee Pace and Michael Rooker have been tagged as being the films villains, it is hard to say exactly how big her role really will be.

There was a report back in April that Ophelia Lovibon was going to be a villain in the move, and a suggestion that she would be an aid to the Collector, an immortal being who possess one of the infinity soul gems.  This report, originally from THR, was later retracted and since there has been no mention of her at all attached to the film.  It is possible that the role is the same and Gillian is just stepping into the role.

The suggestion that it could be connected to the Collector does have a hint of possibility to it however.  In the comics, the Collector was one of the two people who at times possessed the reality infinity gem.  The other was Thanos, who is considered by many to be a sure thing as the villain of the next Avengers movie.  If that is true, and knowing how Marvel likes tying their projects together, then there is a possibility that this connection might be a way to weave the Guardians movie into the fabric of the Marvel Movie universe.

A new ‘Man of Steel’ trailer has been released (the 6th so far released).  We get our first glimps of Jor-El, being played by Russel Crow, as well as some nice action pieces.  Warner Brothers is banking on this film to carry on with the success of the Dark Knight franchise.  With Chris Nolan’s exiting of DCs flagship movie, and the failure of their other submissions in the market, this movie needs to be a win for both the comic book movie and the movie studio.

by Josh Starnes, CMRO Editor

With the vast seeding of Marvel film properties across different film studios over the years before comic book films became summer tent-poles, it has seemed inevitable that at some point more than one studio would try to claim their own version of the same character, with more questions of how that would work.

With news Thursday that Quicksilver would be appearing in some role in “X-Men: Days of Future Past” when it comes out in 2014, that inevitability came to pass.

“Before he was an #Avenger he was just a REALLY fast kid. Thrilled to say #EvanPeters is joining #XMen #DaysOfFuturePast as #Quicksilver,” Days of Future Past director Bryan Singer tweeted Thursday morning.

That announcement comes just a few short weeks after “Avengers 2″ mastermind Joss Whedon announced that he would be adding both Quicksilver and his sister, the Scarlet Witch, to the cast of the highly anticipated sequel due out in 2015.

“There’s a specific arrangement with those two characters that would allow us to use them with ‘Avengers,’ but not discuss or reference their mutant or Magneto-related lineage. They can use them as mutants and as Magneto’s relatives, but cannot have anything to do with ‘The Avengers’,” Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige explained in an interview with SuperHero Hype in 2012.

What remains a question then is exactly how Quicksilver will be shared between the studios as a character—whether or not Peters will play the character in both films or if two actors will play the same character for the two different studios. Reportedly the same situation could occur with the Scarlet Witch.

As to who will play his sister, according to an interview with The Mary Sue, rumor has it Irish actress Saoirse Ronan is being considered.

“I have heard about it and yes, I would. Yeah, of course I would. I love Joss and I love those films, and I love his handle on them and how he portrayed these kinds of superheroes. I think it’s very different from what anyone else has done. So yeah, I’d love to be in it,” Ronan told the website.

Evan Peters can currently be seen in the hit FX show “American Horror Story.”

by Josh Starnes, CMRO Editor

In one of those hilarious misunderstandings which will happen from time to time when you work for a major media publisher, the creators of the lowest selling Avengers title – Kelly Sue DeConnick’s ‘Avengers Assemble’ – found out they were all out of work on Tuesday when a newsletter for subscribers (all two of them) informed them that they’re subscriptions would be transferred over to Jonathan Hickman’s much more popular ‘Avengers.’

Only it turned out they weren’t, and it wasn’t.

Marvel quickly sent out a replacement note on Tuesday, according to Newsarama, informing loyal readers (both of them again, we’re assuming – it’s a low selling title, you see) that in fact “Avengers Assemble” was not cancelled and would in fact continue on for the foreseeable future.

Whoops! Has Kang been messing with the time stream or have we just been getting confused?

The Avengers keep on assembling! Avengers Assemble is not ending, it’s carrying on its merry way, and its loyal subscribers will stay right where they are.

Marvel Universe Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will also be keeping on track.

We’re so sorry about the confusion! Avengers forever!

Sincerely,

Your friends at Marvel

That was how the note from Marvel’s RSS feed read.

Launched as a side title to go along with the Avengers dynamic on display in the film last summer (and which is never on display in the actual Avengers title) ‘Assemble’ has been one of the few books not to see a sizeable bump from the Marvel Now! relaunch and has instead been slipping in sales along with marginal titles such as Gambit and Journey Into Mystery, according to a report by the Beat.

Avenging Spider-Man, however, really is cancelled and will be replaced by Superior Spider-Man Team-Up. Which may or may not be an improvement.

by Josh Starnes, CMRO Editor

Marvel and Disney are not the only comic media company and corporate parent facing a difficult transition at the moment. Film financing firm Legendary Entertainment, the bank behind much of Warner Bros. 2000′s success, is poised to cut ties with the studio and set up shop elsewhere.

Since 2005 Legendary, the brainchild of financier Tom Tull, was created to channel private equity money into film production, closing the gap between continually tough to find bank financing compared with rising production costs. Beginning in 2005, Tull’s firm has co-financed and produced some of the studio’s largest moneymakers including “300″ “The Dark Knight Trilogy” and the “Hangover” films, along with this summer’s upcoming “Man of Steel” and “Pacific Rim.” Basically any really expensive, non-Harry Potter film running through the system.

Over that time, however, Tull has reimagined Legendary as less of a financing partner and more of a media company in its own right, which produced its own film – the Jackie Robinson biopic “42″ – and launched its own publishing division, currently producing “The Tower Chronicles” graphic novel series from Matt Wagner and Simon Bisely, with “Pacific Rim” tie-in comics and a new series from Grant Morrison on the hook, with television production in the pipe as well.

Such over reach has reportedly rankled Warner Bros. studio president Jeff Robinov, according to a report from Variety, and with Warner Bros. head Alan Horn fled to the safety of Disney, the relationship between the company’s has reportedly begun to fray.

Film studios, and Warner Bros. in particular, have always been hard on financing partners—just ask anyone at Village Roadshow about their post-”Matrix” relationship with the studio—and with the agreement between the companies up for renegotiation Tull has reportedly already begun talking with other studios about taking his dollars and ideas with him.

by Josh Starnes, CMRO Editor

The first major rumor of Marvel’s hotly anticipated Avengers 2 appeared to be confirmed on Tuesday in the pages of Entertainment Weekly’s “Iron Man 3″ cover issue.

Following news that writer-director Joss Whedon had indeed handed in first draft of the Avengers 2 screenplay and pre-production was starting in force for the film (which is due to lens next year), rumors for what and who the film would contain quickly began to fly. And while the villain is not known (though strongly hinted to be Thanos as seen from the end of the “Avengers”) Whedon has confirmed the rumor that brother-sister duo of Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch were in the current draft.

A notion which Marvel Studios President, and Avengers 2 producer, Kevin Feige was quick to attempt to shoot down.

“I’m not confirming or denying. The draft could change six months from now,” Feige said in the story.

But with pre-production getting ready to ramp up and the film needing to be looked in for production sooner rather than later, the odds of major characters getting excised seem low.

In another corner of the Marvel Studios universe, rumors of a Black Panther film (or at least an appearance in someone else’s movie) continue to ramp up following tweets from actor Morris Chestnut in April that he had been in talks with Marvel about the role. Chestnut’s chances seem to have cooled since then, but Latino Review reports that actor Chad Boseman, currently seen starting as Jackie Robinson in “42″ may have the inside track on the role.

Over at the Fox side of thing, where the Fantastic Four and X franchises still reside, news of director Josh Trank’s (“Chronicle”) re-boot of the FF has begun to heat up, and move in surprising directions.

According to a report from The Wrap, Trank is considering Chronicle star Michael B. Jordan for the role of Johnny Storm, which if true marks the first African American actor to be considered for a lead role in the franchise.

by Josh Starnes, CMRO Editor

The Diamond Comic Distributor retailer summit is in full swing in Chicago as we speak, er, read so expect all sorts of interesting news to seep out about smaller publishers looking to push their brands over the next couple of days, and none at all about Marvel or DC.

The smaller publisher of the day is perennial #4 (or is that 5) publisher Dark Horse, which announced current sales successes (it rhymes with Mar Mors) and plans for the future. Most of which involved Marvel and DC cast offs.

The biggest news out of Dark Horse has to do with what Dark Horse does best – licensed comics. They’ve been getting their brains beat in on that front by IDW, Boom! and a bevy of other pretenders over the past few years, and with the Star Wars license returning to Marvel they appear to have little to hide behind beyond Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s skirts at the moment.

So it doesn’t hurt at all that they announced they had acquired the Halo comic license from Marvel (turnabout is fair play after all) and would be starting off their Halo history with a three issue mini-series out next year.

After the surprising success of the Hyrule Historia, they unsurprisingly announced they would be putting out more, similar game world guides for other brands in the not too distant future.

Somewhat surprising, however, was the announcement that Dark Horse had picked up the right to publish Elfquest from DC, and would not only be reprinting all of the old Elfquest material (something DC hadn’t been quite so good about, not owning it after all), they would be putting out a new, and final Elfquest story, the Final Quest.

Buried down at the bottom of their announcements also was the fact that they had picked up and would be publishing Geoff Darrow’s “Shaolin Cowboy” last seen seven freaking years ago, disappeared along with the rest of Burlyman Comics.

For those whom “Shaolin Cowboy” does not draw happy memories of a mute monk doing kung fu with a zombie cannibal shark aided only by an oar with chainsaws tied to either end, some history.

Shaolin Cowboy was one of the two bi-monthly comics launched by the Wachowski Brothers Burlyman Comics in 2004 in the wake of the release of the Matrix sequels. Taking the comic company, originally formed solely to publish a surprisingly popular print version of the films’ surprisingly popular webcomics (most produced in-between the first two films), with the money and attention of the sequels the Wachowski’s decided to take the plunge back into comics storytelling with the aid of their two comics pro storyboard artists – Darrow and Steve Skroce (Amazing Spider-Man, once upon a time). Thus was born “Doc Frankenstien” a sort of Doc Savage book starring Frankenstein and written by the Wachowski’s themselves with art by Skroce, and said Shaolin Cowboy. Each managed a smidge less than 10 issues over the course of three years before disappearing off the face of the earth.

Now with news that Cowboy is coming back at least one of the two will be very, very, very slowly finished.