I was over at Comics Alliance & they had some promos images from Marvel Comics next big event called "Point One". To read their coverage & see the promo images go here. Upon seeing the images & reading what little has been revealed it brought up something I've been thinking about lately: what will be Marvel's response to DC's "New 52". I'm guessing that this it. In thinking of what a Marvel response would be called I came up with the name "New 61" since I thought they might try something similar to get new readers too.
How did I decide on the number? Much like how DC likes the number 52, I think Marvel also likes the number 61. 1961 being the year the first issue of Fantastic Four came out, the book that started off the how "Marvel Age of comics" & this being the 50th anniversary to that event why not reboot/relaunch? DC did that in 85! I thought about using the number 616 but thought was too high & Marvel official doesn't use that number (at least they say they don't but it has popped up in a few of their books over the years). So I went with the lower number & thought it would be easier for them to put out 61 books a month as opposed to 616 books a month. I don't anyone could do such that high number to get out something that people would think as being quality. I also had a thought that 61 being a larger number then 52 that it could be Marvel's way of saying DC up. "We did 61 books while you only did 52. *sticks out tongue*"
Using some of the imagery/style from their "Point One" Promos, I made this:
I sure hope that it didn't take Marvel longer then 30 seconds to do that gradient background because that's all the time it took me in Photoshop. :)
I make a reference back to a earlier "event" that Marvel made a big deal over: The Heroic Age. That "age" is only like a year or two old. I did think about referencing another similar "event" they did: The Dark Reign by saying 61 exciting new comics setting the stage for who reigns in this new age but I thought it would be too long & kind of hokey. I wasn't sure I even wanted the word "exciting" in there for a thought that the tag line might be too long with it.
Now I enjoyed what I read during that reign & that age mostly because they were none events.At least I thought they were none events. There were just comics with a DR or HA header on the cover which meant that they had some involvement in the events of that "event". I thought it worked because you didn't need to read a main book (there was none) that then tied into other things. You could just read what you want. The more you read the more of the "event" you knew about but you could just read a small number of books & not have to worry about reading other stuff because of the times they didn't crossover all that much.
But then that's sometimes Marvel's problem: they don't crossover. Events from an Avengers comic might not matter to events in a X-Men comic (But then it seems that most events from the X-Men comics in the past few years haven't really matter to the rest of the Marvel comic books so why would it work the other way around). Events in an Avengers might not matter in an Iron Man comic even though he was present for said event from the Avengers comic. That how it is currently they have 2 events running at the same time: Fear Itself & Spider-Island. Or at least I thing they are happening at the same time, the books are coming out of the same times. I'm not reading any of the SI stuff (save for 1 books so far but that book had Frog Man in it & Frog Man is cool) & I'm reading 2 books that have ties to FI (Iron Man & Avengers Academy) but I'm reading the main book. I haven't heard that they are referencing/referenced each other but if they were happening concurrently wouldn't they have to? They use similar locations & characters.
Take Spider-Man for example, he's involved in both events: he not only has his own books to be in & has storyline/Spider-Island stuff there, he also in the Fear Itself books which has storyline stuff to deal with & he's also (sort of) in the FF books which has it's own storyline stuff there. If that is all taken place at once, Spidey is a busy guy! What with him currently wearing 3 different costumes (his normal one, his FF one & the one he got in FI). Where does he store the one's he's not wearing at the moment? The Negative Zone? Aunt May's house? The Daily Bugle? In a Phonebooth?
But now I think I'm rambling but I have thought about a number of these things. I just haven't put them up here on the blog since I think it's just me rambling & people might not want to read about that. But then isn't that what a Blog is for: a place for you ramble on about stuff? :)
I think I finish up but before I do, I made something in response to at least a part of hubbub surrounding "Catwoman #1":
Because that's what the DCU needed more sex! :(
I'll be back soon with my thoughts on the books from this last week of the launch issues of the New 52!
Until then: Stay Jazzy everyone!
- Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment