I think this is my final issue. This cover–probably for having been printed in advance–still shows “of 8” whereas the series has been expanded to 9 issues at least. And displaying the tardiness of this book, the first POST-Secret Wars books hit this week already…meaning that only 2/3 into this event series, we’ve already got the post-series status quo showing up.
Back in 2005/2006, DC did their One Year Later jump, intentionally midway through Infinite Crisis…but that was promoted that way. That something would happen in Infinite Crisis and all of DC‘s titles would jump ahead a year, though Infinite Crisis itself would still have a couple issues remaining to play out.
It was PLANNED that way.
And frankly, despite the early “fun” to Secret Wars stuff and the nostalgia factor…I find myself back to the general negative feelings on their stuff that I’ve often wound up with.
They hype this big, huge event far beyond anything that could truly, possibly be delivered. And then while the story has barely started, is less than halfway through…they’re already hyping the NEXT thing. The NEXT status quo, the NEXT event, the NEXT whatever.
There’s no room for things to just settle, to let something play out, to give books several months to “cool off,” to explore ramifications and “aftermath” of stuff from one big event before jumping into the next.
Solicitation cycles and all that, I’m sure. To say nothing of the 6-issue periodical volumes.
I’d truly had high hopes that we’d see a fresh, all-new Marvel Universe that I could start with, Day One, and “meet” characters anew. We’d still have had everything to that point, but now have a new universe for EVERYONE to start with…even if it also involved a mashup of “the 616” and the Ultimate lines.
But other than several characters “crossing over” or “carrying over” or whatever (hardly much different than say, Sugarman, Dark Beast, Holocaust, and Nate Grey–X-Man–carrying over to the “main” X-Men line after the original Age of Apocalypse), it’s the same Marvel Universe that we started with.
“My” Wolverine is still dead, with X-23 and a crossed-over Old Man Logan as a replacement/excuse to keep original-Wolverine dead while still HAVING Wolverines.
Then there’s opening the issue onto a white page with gray lettering stating “Three Weeks Later.” Given the sporadic release of the title and my having trailed off on tie-ins and such, I found it a bit jarring and less than appealing. “Three weeks after WHAT?!?” I asked myself. “I don’t even remember how the previous issue ended!” Sure, a few pages in, I came to a recap, but that doesn’t change my initial, involuntary reaction to the issue.
And while I didn’t “notice” it as much earlier on, or could overlook it, or whatever…I can’t help but feel a sense of pretentiousness to the book…that sense now of it trying to be some High Story, on some higher, multiple-levels more than “just” some straight-up super-hero thing with a huge quantity of characters all interacting that leads to a new Marvel Universe from the parts.
As is often the case, though…it will likely read a LOT better in a collected edition, when the ENTIRE story can be binge-read. At this typing, I figure I’ll finish out the Age of Apocalypse series, probably watch for some other stuff in dollar bins that I started with…but by and large, I think I’m done with this until I suck it up and buy a collected edition. 3 issues left, one probably a $4.99 to $5.99 as an extra-sized finale…that’s $13-$14 toward a collected volume!
Filed under: 2015 Non-Review posts, 2015 posts | Tagged: Comic Reviews, comics, Doom, MARVEL, Marvel Comics, Secret Wars, secret wars 6 | Leave a comment »
Comic Reviews by Walt 