X-Men #36 annotations
X-MEN vol 7 #36
“A Theft”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colourist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: The Chairman, taking Magneto’s bloodstained helmet from him. Once again, this issue is billed as a DNX prelude.
THE X-MEN:
Cyclops, Temper, Kid Omega, Psylocke, Beast, Magik and Juggernaut. To be honest, there’s not much to say about the core cast as individuals in this issue. Temper and Kid Omega continue to fight as something of a duo. Kid Omega has a routine where he can telepathically provide his team-mates with a video-game style map of their environment and the locations of their opponents; Psylocke regards this as a bit gimmicky, but genuinely useful.
SUPPORTING CAST:
Magneto. We get some further explanation of Magneto’s mysterious condition, originally identified by the X-Men as “resurrection-linked degeneration sickness”. In the “Age of Revelation” event, we learned that nobody in that future timeline had any memory of Magneto having this condition. Now, in this issue, the Chairman says that Magneto’s condition is due to “information sent from the future, encoded into your DNA”. Magneto says that “we” have the same theory, presumably meaning at least himself and the X-Men’s Beast.
The “message” would presumably be one of the two messages that were sent back in time in X-Men: Age of Revelation using Schwarzchild’s powers – one sent by the Chairman, in the body of the future Beast, and the other sent by the real future Beast after he returned. Quite why either of them would choose to send the message by encoding it onto Magneto’s DNA isn’t explained yet. According to the Chairman, the message is the last piece of information he needs to create his X-Virus, which would tend to suggest that it’s the Chairman’s own message. Cyclops also concludes at the end of the issue that the Chairman wanted Magneto’s DNA for this purpose.
Magneto is underwhelmed by the Chairman’s invocation of the “Magneto was right” slogan, which he associates with platitudes – it dates from the Grant Morrison run when he was being treated as a Che Guevara figure. He refuses to endorse the X-virus plan, not because it involves violence but because it involves genocide. On that basis, Beast just beats him up and takes cell samples.
Ben Liu. For some reason, it’s Ben who’s the first to figure out that Magneto was the real target, and he seems particularly agitated about it.
Animalia and Xorn are also around.
VILLAINS:
The Chairman. He says that he’s close to re-creating the X-virus from the “Age of Revelation” timeline, but that mentions that he’s had to use workarounds, because he doesn’t have access either to Revelation’s powers, or to the Technarch biomass that Revelation took advantage of.
He claims to be able to fix Magneto’s powers, but might just be bluffing in order to get his hands on the sample. Still, his clear preference is to recruit Magneto rather than just to take the samples. He talks up how much Magneto has done for mutantkind over the years, and his symbolic value – some of this seems to be acknowledging his own radicalisation during the Krakoan era, and recognising Magneto’s importance in legitimising Krakoa at the time.
The Chairman claims that Magneto became the X-Men’s teacher during his time as a villain, and quotes The Merchant of Venice: “The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction.” In the original context, this is Shylock promising revenge for the way he has been treated by Christians.
Joseph. 3K don’t actually know that Schwarzchild is a prisoner of the X-Men. Instead, their mission is to keep the real X-Men occupied while the Chairman goes after Magneto. Joseph chooses to tell Cyclops that it’s all a distraction once he’s been defeated – possibly just to try and turn a defeat into a victory and regain his dignity. H
He insists on being called Magneto, as he did in issue #24, and is obviously irritated when anyone calls him Joseph. He refers to the 3K X-Men as “my X-Men”, and generally carries himself as their leader, but they don’t seem to have any time for him. They certainly don’t show any teamwork with him, and Cyclops defeats him singlehandedly.
Once defeated, he calls “mother” for extraction – in other words, his creator Astra, who is a teleporter.
The 3K X-Men (Constellation, Galatea, Juice, Psychovore and Timebomb). Kid Omega says that Cassandra Nova has “psychically hardened” them to the point where he can’t simply shut them down remotely. Presumably he means that they have the same sort of psychic traps as Schwarzchild and Ben Liu did in previous issues.
The 3K X-Men are really not happy about being saddled with Joseph as their new leader, and actively cut him out of their communications channels. Timebomb winds him up by calling him “Joseph”, and tells the others that he’s a “petulant child” who hasn’t earned his place among them. She may, of course, also be aggravated that she didn’t get promoted to take Schwarzchild’s place after he was booted out of the group. Still, Galatea sides with her, and Psychovore talks about cutting Joseph down to size once the mission is complete. The only one who seems to accept Joseph as their leader, even grudgingly, is Juice, and he seems to be so slow on the uptake that he hasn’t previously twigged how his teammates feel.
It’s still so weird that we have two different new characters both calling themselves Timebomb.
Sadly, I still feel like the 3KX-Men represent one of MacKay’s weaknesses: creating villain groups who don’t really stand out apart from interesting visuals. Apart from Schwartschild, I don’t think I could have named any of these from memory without nametags.
It’s a little sad that the 3KX team made easy work of the real X-Men, save for Joseph getting his rear handed to him. I know we need to have the obligatory fight scenes because comics, but there -are- some seasoned veterans on this team…
“The “message” would presumably be one of the two messages that were sent back in time in X-Men: Age of Revelation using Schwarzchild’s powers – one sent by the Chairman, in the body of the future Beast, and the other sent by the real future Beast after he returned.”
I never understood the Chairman as using Schwarzschild’s powers to send a message back in time. I only thought he used Schwarzschild’s powers to send himself back in time to his body. The Chairman had no need to send a message back in time- he could just memorize whatever information he needed.
I interpreted the message as being from the real future Beast (that seems to be the understanding of most of the internet).
It’s good we’re FINALLY getting an explanation of how Magneto’s condition came about. I wonder if R-LDS was originally supposed to be a red herring or not. Hopefully Magneto will be out of the wheelchair by the time this crossover is over.
Note that Scott says he’s going to end 3K. He doesn’t say that he’s going to kill the Chairman. I’m not sure if Scott is willing to kill the Chairman at this point or if he even CAN kill the Chairman, who claimed to be immortal thanks to his cloning technology.
It does seem as if Marvel is getting ready for another relaunch as they’ve finally been forcing all these neverending dangling plot-threads to be wrapped up by the time of DNX. Graymalkin in Uncanny. The mystery of Magneto’s R-LDS here. If not, we’d probably still be dealing with this stuff in the background until at least issue #50.
Marvel is really working to regain the market share they lost to DC. A Star Wars/Marvel Universe crossover by Kevin Smith. The Midnight Universe, which is going to draw in a lot of people who were drawn in by DC’s Absolute Universe. Miracleman joining the Avengers, guaranteeing the new Avengers series topping the sales charts for some time.
Throw in some new #1 issues for the X-Men, even if the X-titles are looking like much less of a priority for Marvel compared to all their upcoming gimmicks. Meanwhile, DC is wrapping up the “Next Level” initiative launches, and the Absolute Universe might start to look old in comparison to the shiny-new toy of the “Midnight Universe”.
I’m dubious about the Midnight Universe. Horror takes on Marvel’s properties, headlined by Hickman, Percy and Johnson, will appeal to a certain audience and has a novelty factor, but I see Percy and Johnson as niche writers holding up the darker corners of the MU without wider acclaim. Hickman runs hot and cold–his Spider-Man was a standout in the new Ultimate Universe, but both Imperial and G.O.D.S. fell flat by comparison.
Meanwhile, the Absolute Universe is headlined by some more all-around talent like Snyder, Camp, Thompson, Aaron, etc, and has proven, so far, to be pretty strong on all fronts.
Midnight’s gonna have to work hard to establish itself on a long term basis, assuming it’s not already set for a limited run.
It’ll, at the very least, get some speculator interest for at least a bit of time. The Midnight Universe doesn’t interest me because Hickman is the only writer I enjoy out of the three, and he is writing the X-Men versus vampires, which is not something I ever wanted to see again.
Agreed. I have no interest in whatever Percy is doing, and I can’t wait for Johnson to be done with Infernal Hulk, so those two titles are already both on my “meh” list. I’ll check out Hickman’s X-Men for a few issues but it’s not exactly lighting my fires.
I don’t even know if all three titles are sharing a universe or thematically connected stand-alones.
Hear me out: in order to make the Chairman see the error of his ways, DNX is going to end with Cyclops and Magik going back in time to retrieve the original teenage X-Men, who will then stay in the present day for far too long. Beast will organize a mutant march and then get killed by the Inhumans
If Midnight X-Men can hit the same balance of fantastic character reinvention and amazing creative talent as the Absolute Universe books I’ve read, then I’m in. I love some alt-universe X-Men. So far, I’m not inspired by “Cyclops with a beard and a buzz cut,” but Hickman usually has some twist up his sleeve.
Also: if they really add Miracleman to the 616 Avengers, then that will be interesting for about 3 issues before no one cares anymore. High powered characters don’t play well in the Marvel Universe. But maybe Zdarsky can find some new angle that makes MM not Marvel-Superman or Marvel-Shazam or Sentry 2.0.
“Hear me out” – Chris M
ROFLOL
>Miracleman joining the Avengers, guaranteeing the new Avengers series topping the sales charts for some time.
I’d like to think I’m a relatively informed comics nerd, and I don’t think I could name three facts Miracleman. The new new Avengers lineup already looks pretty fun, and I’ve liked Chip Z’s work so I’ll pick it up, but I don’t know if I’m alone in not caring about Miracleman.
On the topic of this issue, MacKay seems to have a hard time writing fight scenes that can happen in one issue. We got the two teams lining up to fight, setting up matchups, then… it ended. Which I guess is fine since they’ll certainly fight in DNX but it was still odd to spend page space setting up a fight that didn’t happen.
The Magneto/Chairman stuff was good. The Chairman continues to be defined by his blind spots when it comes to human behavior – trying to pitch Erik Lensherr to join in a genocide while he’s in a synagogue is such a failure to read the room that it reminds us why he needed Sage and others to have X-Force’s plans not immediately go all ACME.
I think a lot of Miracleman’s mystique among older fans in the know came from the longstanding rights issues that have since been resolved. Marvel have been teasing his reintroduction since 2009 without generating too much excitement, but maybe “The Sentry: This Time It’s the One Alan Moore Wrote for a While. No, the Other One” will take off under Zdarsky’s pen.
OK, I did some Googling- Miracleman’s series in 2014 came in 81st by issue 3 according to Comichron.The 2022 series apparently didn’t do that well either.
The 2014 series was also a reprint book. I’m guessing that after all those years, almost everyone who cared about Moore’s Miracleman had spent the money hunting down the original issues or the Trades. Now, if “The Silver Age” did that poorly, that would be a bad sign.
Based on what I know of comic book fans is that it will draw in added readers who will buy the Avengers issues to see how badly Marvel messes up by using Miracleman in the Marvel Universe snd how upset it will make them so they can get online to tell everyone that Marvel is awful.
@Chris V: I’m personally super meh on horror books so my interest level in the Midnight line is zero. Vampire Storm…again? Mr. Fantastic but weeeird? Kennedy doing the podcast rounds to affirm that, Well, Actually, It’s Not Just Man-Spider Plus? Nothing about the pitch invokes confidence so far. And the general consensus I’ve seen re: Midnight amongst my friends and an X-Men Discord group I check in with once every few months has also been a big, collective shrug.
I think you’re correct in that Marvel is angling for sales dominance again–the Star Wars crossover + calling in the Spider-Man/Wolverine cavalry on Avengers particularly reek of desperation–but I’m not seeing nearly the same levels of hype or even curiosity around Midnight like I saw for Absolute. Prematurely positioning Midnight as their answer to Absolute, when they literally had that answer with the fantastic Ultimate 2.0 and then blew everything up, will not end up being a favorable comparison if the books are no good.
I do wonder what’s in store for the X-books after DNX: Will Gailcanny and Jedjectiveless finally, mercifully end? We will get a more unified line with more diverse creators? Will Brevoort continue to strip mine the Hellfire concept because nothing else he’s doing is working? Are we already angling for a Second Krakoan Age? Will Ta-Nehisi Coates take over as Conductor of X? If your dreams don’t scare you, dream bigger, right?
People don’t even need to buy the books now to complain about them.
Maybe it’s me but I totally forgot it was Wednesday. Aside from the Absolute books and Al Ewing books I’m not really looking forward to any of this. It’s like I keep waiting for the books to get good and they just… don’t.
@moonstar, I was impressed that Marvel set a 2 year clock on Ultimate’s 2, and kept[t to it. A lesson learned from Krakoa and the original Ultimates.
Absolute is barn storming at the morning but there is an unspoken clock where the Absolute and the All in mainline books will clash in the next year or 2. The hinted this with the absolute legion in KO. I’m not sure it will continue much after that maybe 4 year run. Especially as DC don’t wont to promote the edge Condiment king, or Absolute Metal men.
My problem with the Absolute (well, one of many problems) line, ditto the Midnight books, is that I would like to have actual good stories with the established characters. I read Snyder talking about wanting to do an Absolute John Constantine, and I just don’t see the point when you’ve got the ACTUAL John Constantine right there.
I agree with Moonstar’s statement above that Marvel’s current moves just reek of desperation.
Yeah, the Midnight line is giving off major ‘gimmicky and skippable, out-of-continuity 1-shot’ vibes. It baffles me that people are trying to frame it as some kind of answer to Absolute. No one would be giving it even a passing thought if Hickman’s name wasn’t attached to it.
And I also can’t imagine Miracle Man being any kind of draw to Avengers. He’s very niche.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Midnight and Miracle Man spur only negligible interest on release. If they’re actually quality books, then maybe they can gin up some retroactive buzz?
@Chris V- Ok I found the data for Miracleman: the Silver Age. Issue 4 came in 92nd. I don’t think Miracleman is a good seller.
I’m thoroughly confused by the idea that Miracleman would have any kind of modern sales appeal at all. Setting aside that its main claim to fame for decades was being unfinished and difficult to track down, that archetype has spawned a ridiculous number of derivatives in the years since. You might as well use Hyperion, or the Sentry, or Blue Marvel at this point.
Speaking as a Miracleman fan (discovered the book circa 1990), I was barely even interested in the Neil Gaiman continuation. I’m perfectly willing to denounce adding him to the Avengers without bothering to read the issue, because it’s a TERRIBLE idea.
(Just to be clear, I was a huge Neil Gaiman fan in those days… but even then his Miracleman was at best a modestly interesting coda running minor variations on Alan Moore’s big ideas.)
@rei rei: Hoxpox drug me back into comics after quitting during Chuck Austen’s run, and now, for the first time ever, I’m actively seeking out DC books. Currently there’s not even a single Marvel book that I’d recommend to any of my casual reader friends.
@Alastair: For better or worse, self-imposed limits, narrative or otherwise, have never stopped Marvel before. Just crazy to me we live in a world where Mayday Parker gets extended to over 100 issues, but Marvel somehow can’t promote Ms. Marvel beyond a 5-issue mini and oh btw we’re pulling the plug on Earth-6160 because we’re committed to this Maker-as-Revelation worldeater endgame. Ultimates was incredible, bold, anti-fascist and anti-racist–seemingly the perfect X-book from my wildest fantasies. Just sucks to mourn its loss with nothing else remotely as daring waiting in the wings.
@Chris M: To be fair, I do feel like Absolute Batman is just a villain redesign showcase with very little in the way of character arcs. My favorite issue, though, was the annual written by Daniel Warren Johnson–I couldn’t believe that he was even directly calling out white supremacists (in this political climate!) much less having them mutilated on page, and it was so so so stirring and satisfying. Absolute WW has been 1000000% appointment reading, however. Overall, three strong core books–Absolute WW, Batman, Superman–with incredibly distinct artistic identities that conform to no house styles whatsoever.
Re: Miracleman: Big shrug from me too. If Marvel’s pinning their sales bump hopes on an ancient, omnipotent, boring, white guy (to contend with the fresh, omnipotent, boring, white 9/11 Captain America they just created), do we get to finally fire Kevin Feige? Because his reign as Chief Creative Officer has been such a nothingburger so far (and frankly, he’s only managed to ruin Ms. Marvel). Maybe the real endgame is for Chris Evans as MCU Miracleman post Secret Wars alt universe shenanigans.
@Moonstar Dynasty
Kevin Feige has almost zero influence on Marvel Comic books, and any spillover effect from the MCU to the comics has far more likely to have been at the behest of Dan Buckley, Brad Winterbaum, C.B. Cebulski, or Steve Wacker.
Feige’s ‘reign’ as Chief Creative Officer has produced the most successful film franchise in the history of movies. How do you think he ‘ruined’ Ms. Marvel? Feige is the one who greenlit the TV show, and Iman Vellani has been generally recognized as one of the bright spots of the last few years of the MCU as it has tried to transition through it’s awkward ‘Multiverse’ era.
I’m confused by your post.
@Maxwell’s Hammer about @Moonstar Dynasty:
I think Moonstar was referring to Ms. Marvel’s death and resurrection as a mutant to have some MCU synergy, which has led to a lackluster status quo for her and relaunched minis instead of a strong ongoing (which I would argue is something a strong character like her should have, although I admittedly haven’t like much of her stuff post-G. Willow Wilson’s run).
I don’t know enough to attribute it to Feige, but that seems to be what Moonstar is doing.
@Sol: To be fair (and with the obvious caveat that one should feel no particular need to be fair to Gaiman these days), there *was* merit in further exploration of MM’s “utopia”, since by that point Moore was more interested in the grand sweeping changes than in how any particular character felt about those changes. “The Golden Age” got some pretty good stories out of bringing the reader back down to “street level”, as it were. As a self-contained coda, it works great.
“The Silver Age” is a different story, but then, its production was such a mess, and Buckingham was so clearly checked out and uninterested in actually writing it, I can’t really see a way it could’ve turned out any better than it did.
@CJ Standal: “MCU Synergy” is of course the boogeyman du jour, but in this case the facts don’t quite line up.
The MCU show aired in 2022; Kamala had been in decline for a while by that point, between the not-particularly-well-received Ahmed run and the cancellations of both Secret Warriors and Champions. She deserved better, sure, but unless Kevin Feige is secretly Kang I’m not sure how the pieces are meant to fit together to make it his fault.
I’m apparently one of the few who enjoyed MM: The Silver Age — and I’d really love to see The Dark Age one day, against all hope — but I don’t think Buckingham being checked out was the problem. He redrew the first two (three?) issues of The Silver Age to fit his current style, which was above and beyond in my book.
I don’t know much about Buckingham’s refusal to write The Dark Age, but I assumed it was to distance himself from a poisoned project. If there were other reasons, I would legitimately be interested in hearing more. I feel pretty invested in the utopia falling apart at this point, so I’ll cling to any MM gossip anyone’s got.
The actual John Constantine is sitting there to use, but I wish he wasn’t if Scott Snyder is going to be one writing him. The actual John Constantine is supposed to be dead. Peter Milligan killed him at the end of Hellblazer (vol. 1) but did so in an open-ended, ambiguous enough fashion there was room for bringing the original back under Si Spurrier (sort of). Then, Spurrier killed John Constantine again. It’s best to leave the character lie, as I’ve found his use as part of the DCU since Flashpoint to be absolutely terrible (the next DC Absolute title). Only Si Spurrier’s return of JC to Hellblazer’s Vertigo roots (I realize JC, as a character, did exist in the DCU for a time post-Crisis) was worth using the character.
It does seem that Kamala Khan is a character associated with and best-handled by her co-creator, G. Willow Wilson. Without Wilson, the character has consistently failed, when it initially looked as if she was going to be the next breakout star for Marvel Comics (the first since Deadpool).
Iman Vellani is currently breaking into comic books as a solo writer currently at Image. While a lot of Chachu is very different than anything that would work for Ms. Marvel, if Vellani decides to further pursue a career as a comic writer, perhaps she could be the one to fix Kamala Khan in the comics. I’d argue that Vellani’s prior writing credits on Ms. Marvel should be given as asterisk, as Chachu is a very different project than her past Marvel writing credits.
It’s blasphemous (especially in 2026, but I’ve been saying this since I read “The Golden Age” in 2001), but I enjoyed the original Neil Gaiman run on Miracleman more than Moore’s run (which isn’t to say I didn’t love the Moore run as well). Each part of the whole played to the writer’s strengths. Moore excels at big ideas, while Gaiman is more comfortable dealing with quieter, character moments (again, not that Moore isn’t an absolute expert at characterization). Moore was rewriting HG Wells featuring superheroes with his Miracleman, while Gaiman was fleshing out what the world created by Moore would actually be liked for a multitude of characters. “The Silver Age” did not play to Gaiman’s strengths as a writer. I feel “The Dark Ages” would have put Gaiman even further out of his depth, and it seems the themes being set up for the finale return to playing far more to Moore’s strengths than Gaiman, although that’s a moot point, as if it is ever completed, it won’t be either man writing it.
@Diana, I was more thinking that’s what Moonstar was thinking (MCU synergy), not that’s what happened. There’s maybe a partial synergy argument about moving her away from her Inhumans roots, since that part of the Marvel TV/movies didn’t take off, which is what the ressurrection kind of did by making her a mutant. Ms. Marvel as a mutant could work better than it has, but I don’t think it’s the main hurdle for her lately.
I more tend to think that writers don’t know how to handle Ms. Marvel, other than creator Wilson. That’s a little weird to me, since I think she’s a great character with a lot of relatable characteristics that should be easy to write, but maybe there’s some element of needing more of a rogues gallery. I think her and her supporting cast are the large draws.
@Thom H. – I also have enjoyed what of the MM Silver Age I’ve read, and I also don’t really see Buckingham being checked out. His pages looked great to me, as always, and I totally understand not wanting to finish the project at this point.
For others’ comments on “why not use the existing Constantine” instead of an Absolute one? I mean, most of what the other Absolute characters are like aren’t close enough to their regular-DCU counterparts that you could just use them, imo. And all that continuity can intimidate some readers, especially if it’s not very coherent/consistent. Part of the point of the Absolute U is to get a different take that won’t work for the standard versions of these characters.
Lastly, I also 10000% agree that Absolute WW is appointment reading, the best Absolute book.
I’m wondering how you’d redo John Constantine in Absolute form (outside of the lack of past continuity). Would he be one of those wealthy, flashy magicians that the mainline JC despises? Would he be a devout Christian? JC is already the underdog living in a world being run and ruined by wealthy interests while the majority hold little to no power. Would Absolute JC have voted Thatcher?
@Maxwell’s Hammer: Feige was named Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment (i.e., *all* of Marvel, including comics) in Oct 2019. Not exactly “zero influence,” I’d argue.
Cody Ziglar went on a podcast a couple of years ago claiming Zeb Wells–writer of ASM at the time–was asked by Feige to make Kamala a mutant (which Marvel denies), which you might recall led to the disastrous, unceremonious killing of Kamala after maybe 17 total panel appearances outside of her own book, and then subsequent resurrection into a mutant.
Wasn’t really expecting such a full-throated defense for Feige, but since you brought it up: The “awkwardness” of the MCU Multiverse Saga would be 100% Feige’s fault given his immense creative control in the company. In fact everything he’s touched since becoming CCO has generally been pretty bad.
I can see Constantine fitting in pretty well with the Absolute Wonder Woman cast. It already includes Zatara and Zatanna, and WW herself is a magic user.
Constantine could be a younger, bad boy magician who thinks he knows everything — lots of potential, not much experience — which sets him up for conflict with WW and/or her supporting characters. He certainly wouldn’t get top billing, but that could be a fun reinvention.
Will Nick Necro be around to put John in his place (reference to the “New 52” version we wish we could forget)?
Chris V, I agree whole-heartedly about Constantine and I did not mean to imply that I wanted Scott Snyder anywhere near the character. It was more just an example of my frustration with that “new hotness” of stuff like the Absolute line. I don’t care about edgelord alternate reality Batman, I want actual Batman with good stories (and yes, I know we’ve had that lately too with Watters and Taylor).
While I appreciate the shot in the arm that the Absolute line has given to DC in the past year, I have zero interest in it. I tried both Absolute Batman and Superman, and was not a fan of either. If you love those books, awesome, glad for it, but they’re most definitely not for me.
@CJ Standal: I wonder if it might be something even simpler – maybe Marvel has lost interest in kid/teen superheroes altogether. Kamala aside, there was that horrendous attempt at New Warriors a while back; the Young Avengers are *still* shelved; the Champions failed; Spider-Boy and Spider-Girl got cancelled; and no one’s done anything with any of the cast from Anthony Oliveira’s Avengers Academy since its unceremonious cancellation.
I think it says a lot everyone’s spent most the comments discussing DC rather than Marvel, never mind this month’s X-Men
@Diana, I can see that as definitely at least being part of it. Aside from Miles, I’m struggling to think of any kid/teen superheroes Marvel is pushing consistently.
You’d think Spider-Man being their flagship character and tied heavily to his teenage roots, they’d want to mine that audience and potential more.
That being said, the characters you mentioned all didn’t do well recently, so there’s something about their marketing, approach, and/or audience that has made these fail recently and Marvel being risk-averse might avoid that area now. Shame.
@Moonstar Dynasty
I don’t think it has all been rainbows and sunshine, but there has been a lot of good under Feige.
He got rid of Ike Perlmutter, he bolstered the animation wing, got all Marvel TV stuff under one roof, and produced some really great TV stuff. I’d argue the only overtly bad mis-fires have been ‘Secret Wars’ and ‘Brave New World’. I won’t say everything they’ve put out has been S-Tier, but it has all been quality stuff (the two above-mentioned projects notwithstanding), albeit sometimes a bit niche.
I think his biggest crime was letting the market get too oversaturated, thus making new projects seem less special. But even given that, I’ve generally enjoyed (almost) everything.
I’m curious what you’d consider the horrible things he’s done that would lead to such a sweeping statement as “everything he’s touched…has been pretty bad.”
And for the record, no, I don’t think he’s that involved with editorial decisions going on in the Comics wing. He certainly didn’t go to any writers and say, Hey, kill Kamala and resurrect her as a mutant. I can imagine him suggesting she become a mutant, but blame the writers and editors for the clunkiness of the execution.
@Evilgus: I don’t mean this as shade towards Paul, but annotating individual issues that aren’t especially complex or hard to follow doesn’t really leave all that much to talk about. It’s probably not a coincidence that the X-Axis/review posts tend to generate more relevant conversation instead of DC or Russian literature or whatnot.
@Maxwell’s Hammer: Even if it *was* an edict from on high, there’s an argument to be made that Kamala should’ve been a mutant all along. She would’ve been, if it hadn’t been for that ridiculous Inhumans push at the time.
@Diana
Yeah, and that was an Ike Perlmutter thing. Feige famously wasn’t crazy about pushing Inhumans, and certainly had no influence over whether Kamala would be an Inhuman or a Mutant. Once he was in charge, Feige’s move to cancel the planned Inhumans film was the first domino in getting the X-Men back to front and center.
*…back to front and center in the comics, that is.
@Moonstar Dynasty- “Just crazy to me we live in a world where Mayday Parker gets extended to over 100 issues, but Marvel somehow can’t promote Ms. Marvel beyond a 5-issue mini and oh btw we’re pulling the plug on Earth-6160 because we’re committed to this Maker-as-Revelation worldeater endgame. ”
The point is that we DON’T live the same world where Spider-Girl got 100 issues anymore. Ever since Alonso took over. most Marvel series have been cancelled by issue 50. The longest series IIRC was the Nick Spencer/ Beyond run of Spider-Man, which lasted 93 issues. We just don’t live in a world where Shang-cHI could get a 111 issue run anymore or Ghost Rider could get a 93 issue run.
Regarding Kamala, her series was failing BEFORE Wilson left. Issue 38 (Wilson’s last issue) came in 137th, issue 37 came in 146th, issue 36 came in 142nd. In fact, in 2017, David Gabriel seems to claim that diversity was a factor in Marvel’s low sales and that caused a controversy- it was widely acknowledged at that point that Kamala’s title wasn’t selling very well. (I don’t think diversity was the cause of Kamala’s problems- Carol’s titles have sold poorly at times also.)
As for why Kamala’s title was failing, I’ve heard a couple of theories.The first is that Kamala’s fans decided to wait for the trade to an INSANE degree, so the sales of the monthly issues were low. The second is that Civil War II hurt Kamala’s book badly, and she never really recovered from it.
@Diana- I agree with CJ Standel. Marvel TRIED with Champions, Spider-Girl and Spider-Boy but sales on those books were horrendous by the time they were cancelled. It’s not that Marvel has lost interest in kid/teen superheroes- it’s that their attempts don’t sell.
Kamala, incidentally, seems to be in the same position as Namor and Richard Rider. Namor’s books were often low selling but Marvel put him in the Defenders- he could always appear there if he didn’t have a book at the time. Nova’s books were low-selling but Marvel put him in the New Warriors- he could always appear there if he didn’t have a book at the time. Unfortunately , the Defenders and the New Warriors were cancelled.
This is exactly what happened with Kamala and the Champions- ideally, she would have been able to keep appearing in the Champions after her own book was cancelled. The problem is that the Champions sold poorly and was cancelled. So now Marvel has to figure out what to do with Kamala.
In Rich’s case, they seem to have solved the problem by having him appear in EVERY space story Marvel puts out. He seems contractually obligated to appear in every story where at least part of the story takes place off-planet.
I maintain that Ms Marvel always had a use by date. Her concept is a fangirl caught between two worlds (super/neighbourhood, Pakistani/American, human/Inhuman etc.). But it was only a matter of time before she became a mainstream superhero herself, who has teamed up with every A lister, been to other planets, and who presumably no longer writes fanficton about superheroes she’s shared a bathroom with. So there goes half her appeal.
I mean, characters like Spider-Man had a similar start, it’s not impossible to cross over. But it’s not easy.
I feel like the more you know about Miracleman, the less the prospect of him in the Avengers appeals. Which version of him do you use? The pre-Moore Shazam ripoff? Arguably the only version that could actually “fit” in the 616, albeit awkwardly. Some version from within the Moore run? That just calls attention to how this story is (inevitably) way less interesting. After the Moore run? That version wants to — and has — Taken Over The World, which the inherently conservative Avengers have traditionally viewed as villianous. Some other version? Why even bother calling him Miracleman?
[Add my voice to the “Absolute Wonder Woman rocks” pile!]