New Spidey "Event" Starts in October

As the entry below makes pretty clear, most of my comics focus has been on DC, but there are a few characters from Marvel that I try to keep up with at least through the industry news sites. Top of that list of course is Spider-Man, whose main books I don't read at all anymore, though I still keep up with Ultimate Spider-Man via trades.

When J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) first started on Amazing Spider-Man over four years ago, he introduced a cool concept that put Spidey's origin in a new light -- that Spider-Man was part of a legacy, and Parker was chosen to be the next in line. It introduced the character of Ezekiel, a previous "chosen" one, and Morlun, an energy vampire that Spidey has yet to defeat.

After this initial story, the book got further and further away from what I liked about the character and I stopped buying the trades (I have the first 4 from the JMS run; I should have stopped 1 or 2 before that).

Now, in the first multi-title crossover since the books were revamped four years ago, Marvel is introducing "The Other," a 12-part, 3-book crossover event premiering in October. Besides JMS' Amazing Spider-Man, the story will be found in Marvel Knights' Spider-Man (currently written by Reginald Hudlin) and the debuting Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which features writer Peter David returning to the character for the first time in well over a decade.

The story, which is written about in the current issue of Wizard, features the return of both Ezekiel and Morlun and revisits the legacy idea. According to a follow-up article on Newsarama:

Strazynski, Hudlin, and Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada tease the storyline in the Wizard piece, neither confirming nor denying the identity of “The Other,” or if Peter Parker will be under the Spider-Man mask after the final word is written and page is drawn.

This of course brings back memories of the infamous "Clone Saga" an intriguing story that saw Peter replaced as Spider-Man by a clone named Ben Reilly. The story now stands as a symbol of eveything that was wrong with comics in the 90s, as it was driven by marketing , rather than editorial, and ran on aimlessly far too long (over 2 years), shifting directions constantly, and finally concluding in a way that pretty much no one was happy with.

It took quite a few years for Spider-Man to emerge from the mess, which happened with JMS' arrival on Amazing Spider-Man (hey, full circle!).

We can only asume Marvel has learned from this mistake. While the new arc is 12 issues long, since it takes place in 3 titles, the whole thing will wrap up in 4 months. However, with JMS' recent major mis-step with Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn, fans are a little skeptical.

DC Comics' Master Plan

"If you can wait for the trade, then we're not doing our jobs."

Damn that Dan DiDio (VP – Editorial, DC Comics). He’s right. Never have I bought so many monthly comics at once because I can’t wait for the trade. Why? Read on.

It started with Identity Crisis, which revealed a dark secret from the JLA’s past (mindwiping of villains – and Batman) and saw the death of heroes (Firestorm), villains (Capt. Boomerang) and heroes’ family members (Robin’s dad, Elongated Man’s wife), and betrayal by another hero’s wife (Atom’s estranged wife, Jean Loring).

Around the same time, this was happening, hints that something big and bad was coming started showing up in comics throughtout the DCU. DC conveniently collected many of these hints in Prelude to Infinite Crisis.

In the meantime, Hal Jordan returned to land of the living and mantle of Green Lantern, leaving the Spectre without a host.

Then came the Countdown to Infinite Crisis, which got Blue Beetle killed for discovering that former JLI leader Max Lord was the secret leader of a black ops group dedicated to “controlling” the meta-human population.

From Countdown, out spun four mini-series:

• The OMAC Project -- most directly continued from Countdown, reveals more about Max Lord’s organization and plans
• Villains United – takes the idea introduced in Identity Crisis of the villains banding together to overcome the heroes, and adds a splinter group of villains who don’t want to join
• Rann/Thanagar War – re-establishes and expands DC’s cosmic/sci-fi characters and settings
• Day of Vengeance – DC’s magic based heroes fight a host-less Spectre and the new Eclipso – Jean Loring

Then there’s DC: Special the Return of Donna Troy, a four-issue mini-series, which brings back the former Wonder Girl/Troia from her supposed death that happened in the battle that led to the formation of the new Teen Titans and the Outsiders. Donna is apparently the lynchpin of the Infinite Crisis.

Meanwhile, the repercussions of mind-wiping Batman are being addressed in a current JLA arc, while Batman also deals with apparent return from the dead of Jason Todd.

All of this (and much more) lead to Infinite Crisis, a 7-issue mini-series written by Geoff Johns starting in October. All we know so far about that is what’s it’s NOT: a continuity reboot. However, about mid-way through the series, EVERY DCU book will be set “One Year Later”. DCU mastermind Dan Didio revealed this at the Wizardworld Philly convention last month.

With Johns’ role as the writer of Infinite Crisis (as well JSA, Teen Titans, GL: Rebirth, the new Green Lantern title, and until recently, The Flash), DC made official what he had been doing unofficially for the past few years -- continuity cop, that is making sure that the “shared universe” is consistent, even as writers tell their own stories.

Separately, Grant Morrison returned to DC in a big way with his ambitious Seven Soldiers project – seven four-issue mini-series, where he revamps some of DC’s lesser known/used characters in separate, yet linked storylines. Morrison apparently has dozens of notebooks filled with his revamp ideas, and DC called his bluff – he’s officially their second-tier character revamp guy, much like editor Julie Schwartz did with characters like the Flash, Green Lantern and the Atom, when he ushered in the Silver age in 1956. The announcement also hints that Seven Soldiers isn't as separate from these other goings on as it may seem.

Every Monday, DC's website provides "Crisis Counseling" a recap of all the books from the previous week that tie in to the Crisis for those who just can't buy everything. I think this is a great idea, but unfortunately, they don't archive previous installments.

So, I'm buying a lot more comics these days (Teen Titans, Outsiders, JLA, Batman, OMAC Project, Villains United) but I've never been more excited about my weekly comic reads. I'll probably end up geting a lot of these in trades too. Somebody is certainly doing their job right.

Flash Forward

David Goyer, currently riding high as the screenwriter of the most faithful movie Batman adapatation ever, is starting to talk about his next project -- The Flash, which he will write and direct (which he also did for Blade: Trinity, so that may be some cause for concern).

In a recent interview with the New York Daily News, not only does Goyer talk about Batman, but he drops some hints about his take on the Fastest Man Alive:

"Fans know there's been more than one Flash over the years," Goyer adds. "There's been a lot of speculation and rumor, but both Barry Allen and Wally West will be in this movie."

Goyer is referring to the The Flash's "normal" identity. He started as Jay Garrick in 1940. Allen took over in 1956 and Wallace (introduced as Kid Flash in 1959) in 1986.

"We're going to go into the 'Speed Force' and a lot of the cosmic aspects of the character from the more recent past," Goyer says. "Trust me, we're going to do a lot more than have the Flash run on water and create vortexes."

The article also includes plenty of quotes from Batman Begins star Christian Bale on the character. Pretty good read overall.