Comic Book Resources

The Fifth Color – TIMECRASH! October Solicitations for 2009

As a wise man once said, “Fool me once, shame on you…”  Last month, HeroesCon sniped my preview review in the land of Spider-Man reveals so no!  Oh no.  Not this time.  I waited, went to Comic Con and then came back to sit with you Dear Reader and get to the bottom of these little “TO BE REVEALED AT SDCC” notations.  Classified info be damned!  We’re gonna look at the big picture, no matter how lines we had to stand in (I mean, no matter how cozy and thorough the primetime CBR coverage was)!

Here it is, folks, October at the House of Ideas and we’re in for something mighty and massive.

First off, topping the charts of “We Can’t Tell You” is the full-frontal deadity of “Necrosha”, the X-Arc taking over X-Force, X-Men: Legacy and New Mutants.  Selene looks to be raising all the dead of Genosha and it’s going to take the three combined teams to sort that mess out.  The Hellfire Club’s once Black Queen has a history of ruling over people who could treat her ill-defined mutant powers as a sign of godhood and dragging up the dead of Genosha is a pretty decent page out of the Selene playbook.  Various plot elements will gather together, each story will contain their own little unit of reaction to the crisis at hand ‘Morlock Massacre’ style, to quote Chris Yost.  Not a bad ‘wait for SDCC’ announcement as Misters Yost, Kyle, Carey and wells had a lot to pitch to readers that a few sentences beside a picture probably wasn’t going to do much justice.  I could go on about the upcoming plotline, but they already did that for you here.

The second big X-Announcement is the return of Magneto to Uncanny X-Men #516.  We’ve kind of seen him lurking around since #500 and we know he’s gotten his powers ‘back’ thanks to the High Evolutionary and we also know now that whatever the Dark Avengers/X-Men Utopia crossover comes up with, it’s going to lead into the next story arc called ‘Nation X’.  Now, I don’t know about you, but if I used to lead the mutant island of Genosha and some lady started resurrecting my dead nation, I’d have to come down and regulate.  But this indeed seems to be untied to Necrosha and Mr. Fraction isn’t giving up the details.  Is this is good ‘wait for SDCC’ announcement?  Not really.  They could have simply announced that Magneto is returning and a big plotline is starting and given those at the X-Panel the same information.  It really didn’t have to wait.

They weren’t afraid to tell us about the upcoming Doctor Voodoo: Defender of the Supernatural series, starting out at #1 in October, but they did save the penciller for the big show, so we can all sit back in comfort knowing that the reigns of Marvel’s new premiere supernatural title will be in the hands of writer Rick Remender and artist Jefte Palo.  An artist who’s been kicking about the MU for awhile, he’s got a dark and moody style that will certainly fit well with the book’s direction.  Was this a good ‘wait for SDCC’ announcement?  Yes, actually.  Brother Voodoo as the Sorcerer Supreme should be a big freakin’ deal and making sure you get an exclusive announcement at Comic Con will ensure that people at one time or another will be talking about it.  Announcing an artist allows Marvel to post up some preview work and showcase the style to come.  There’s enough in the solicitation to introduce us to the book and character, the extra reveal of art gets one interested for more.

Almost in reverse, Hulk #16 has a big ‘do not open until SDCC’ label on it and at the Cup O’ Joe panel, we were all introduced to… the red She-Hulk.  Who she is, what she’ll be doing, matterless as Ed McGuiness gives us a picture of a big red bodacious babe who will play a large role in the World War Hulks storyline (that’s Hulks with an s!) coming out in December.  Jeph Loeb was certain to call her extremely important and very dangerous, but… that’s about it.  Man still won’t give up the goods on the identity of the red Hulk, he’s not even going to start in on the red She-Hulk.  Was this a good ‘wait for SDCC’ announcement?  I want to say no, because really, the picture of the babalicious red She-Hulk (Rhe-Hulk?) is about all the buzz we got and leaving that and a ‘Who is she?  Who was she?  Who does she want to be?’ question-filled solicitation wasn’t going to hurt any upcoming announcements.  But at the same time, this got Loeb talking about World War Hulks and was a good segue into a shaky idea.

Obviously, there’s more to talk about, the five Deadpool books coming out (oh please, Ryan Reynolds!  Come home to Marvel, baby!), the eight Spider-Man titles (just like a Spider!), the start of Norman Osborn’s Lists and reprints, but we’ve had a week to sit with these.  If you haven’t had that week, go here to peruse the list of who gets a Zombie cover this year.