RatCreature (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ratcreature) wrote2007-06-20 10:50 pm
ratcreature) wrote2007-06-20 10:50 pm
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Marvel: newuniversal?
I haven't seen any new issues of newuniversal (written by Warren Ellis, art by Salvador Larroca) in the last couple of solicitations, which led me to believe that it may have been a miniseries rather than an ongoing one as I thought, but then I actually read the first six issues-- I had read the first issue when it came out, but it seemed very much a comic that is better read in larger chunks, so I waited-- and it turns out that it isn't, not even the end of a clear arc, #6 just stops with a "to be continued..." So does anyone know what's up with the series? Is it on hiatus? Cancelled?
It would kind of suck if the series stopped prematurely. While it isn't exactly an awesome comic, it's not awful either, and I'm quite enjoying it so far. The story isn't original (not even in the "new twist on old idea" way), which isn't surprising since I understand it is some kind of remake of a short-lived old Marvel alternate universe (that I had never heard about) or something like that. Basically it's just an "superpowers emerge because of mysterious event, what happens next?" setup, with some mythology stuff abut the nature of those superpowers and their trigger (the "White Event") thrown in, and the art isn't memorable either (though not awful or anything), but I'd still like to see the rest. It may have taken a bit, but after six issues I'm now actually somewhat interested in the characters and the plot.
On a somewhat random and ranty note: why is Marvel so fond of pasting "new" in their titles anyway? Like, there's "New Avengers", "New X-Men", "New Excalibur", "New Warriors"... far more than DC does. I find it annoying, and it makes collecting series a pain because you first have "Team Blah" then it changes to "New Team Blah" for a bit, then it either goes back to "Team Blah" directly or first to "Fabulous Team Blah" if they feel inspired before it reverts to "Team Blah" again, possibly with messed up numbers, and if you try to figure out in which order the story lines were published a while later, you need several hours of web research to untangle the mess. Not to mention that you risk getting the wrong comics when you try to get them via mail order, because you didn't realize that the website actually offered "The Fabulous New Team Blah" (say the Volume 2 incarnation of Team Blah) when you wanted that issue of "The New Fabulous Team Blah" (say the Volume 4 incarnation of the same). Does this actually help immediate sales? I mean these restarts are just as likely to give me an excuse to drop a series from my pull list and not add the new one if I'd been already following it, as to add it when I didn't, it really depends on the artists and writers, and well the inertia of having a a comic on my list and being completist about it goes actually a long way to stick with a series through a run by a team I dislike, whereas name changes give me an easy out. And like I said, retrospectively they get really confusing fast.
It would kind of suck if the series stopped prematurely. While it isn't exactly an awesome comic, it's not awful either, and I'm quite enjoying it so far. The story isn't original (not even in the "new twist on old idea" way), which isn't surprising since I understand it is some kind of remake of a short-lived old Marvel alternate universe (that I had never heard about) or something like that. Basically it's just an "superpowers emerge because of mysterious event, what happens next?" setup, with some mythology stuff abut the nature of those superpowers and their trigger (the "White Event") thrown in, and the art isn't memorable either (though not awful or anything), but I'd still like to see the rest. It may have taken a bit, but after six issues I'm now actually somewhat interested in the characters and the plot.
On a somewhat random and ranty note: why is Marvel so fond of pasting "new" in their titles anyway? Like, there's "New Avengers", "New X-Men", "New Excalibur", "New Warriors"... far more than DC does. I find it annoying, and it makes collecting series a pain because you first have "Team Blah" then it changes to "New Team Blah" for a bit, then it either goes back to "Team Blah" directly or first to "Fabulous Team Blah" if they feel inspired before it reverts to "Team Blah" again, possibly with messed up numbers, and if you try to figure out in which order the story lines were published a while later, you need several hours of web research to untangle the mess. Not to mention that you risk getting the wrong comics when you try to get them via mail order, because you didn't realize that the website actually offered "The Fabulous New Team Blah" (say the Volume 2 incarnation of Team Blah) when you wanted that issue of "The New Fabulous Team Blah" (say the Volume 4 incarnation of the same). Does this actually help immediate sales? I mean these restarts are just as likely to give me an excuse to drop a series from my pull list and not add the new one if I'd been already following it, as to add it when I didn't, it really depends on the artists and writers, and well the inertia of having a a comic on my list and being completist about it goes actually a long way to stick with a series through a run by a team I dislike, whereas name changes give me an easy out. And like I said, retrospectively they get really confusing fast.
no subject
Also, if you like Warren Ellis, might I suggest Stormwatch (6 issues), Planetary, and Ministry of Space. All very good, very interesting, and insightful.
As for the "New" blah blah, I can answer the Excaliber one. The New Excaliber is called that because it's post-House of M, and there are only 198 mutants left. So it's "new" because they had to reconstruct the team from almost-scratch. (It didn't quite live up to my standards, even with Nocturne). New Avengers is along the same line; though I think that's more entwined with the Civil War timeline (only "registered" mutants can join sorta thing).
If you want to avoid "new" for a while, give the Exiles a try (love 'em). There is a short "New Exiles vs. Original Exiles" plot, but it's short, and really worthwhile. Young Avengers is another favorite of mine, but I'm biased for the canon gay couple and the issues they address. *grins*
Then, of course, there's the Ultimate universe, but that's a whole other bag of apples.
no subject
And yeah, I've read some of Ellis' other stuff with mixed reactions.
I'm aware that they tend to rename after team events that lead to teams being reformed or whatever, and I actually read Avengers during that weird Scarlet Witch thing that got the series renamed. But I still think the relaunch and renumbering practice sucks. When a series does that it's completely confusing to keep track of when you come to it later.
I mean DC does it too though currently they tend to do it without the silly "new", like when the relaunched The Flash recently, and I've heard they are about to re-relaunch yet again and go back to the old numbers (well to the numbers of the second volume of Flash, it's not as if they hadn't relaunched before). My favorite example for this are the (Teen) Titans, where the series went from Teen Titans to New Teen Titans to the renumberered New Teen Titans (Vol. 2) while the other became Tales of the Teen Titans while continuing the numbers of the first volume (or something I always forget what exactly that was) to the Team Titans to the Teen Titans (Vol. 2) to The Titans and finally back to the Teen Titans (Vol. 3) again, and it's always with reasons, but first getting into that series I needed a frelling flowchart just to understand what order the series was in.