SDCC 2010: Marvel Comics ACTUAL COMICS REPORT!!

Brought to you by Lori DeVirgilio of the multi national DeVirgilio Corporation and Nerd Rapist Association.

At San Diego Comic Con this year there seemed to be something missing in most of the updates I have seen and that was…COMICS! The show’s focus has been more Hollywood and less about the origin of these great characters. Don’t get me wrong; I’m really happy to see a hobby of mine that I have had since I was 12 become “trendy” but what about the damn books!? Reading is fundamental….isn’t it?? Apparently the creators themselves were so swept up in the Hollywood hubbaloo that they neglected to tell us anything useful in the panels that revolved around the books themselves. During the Marvel writer’s panel they showed a few pictures of upcoming storylines which were either obvious in content or teasers to things that they were going to announce “next week”. NEXT WEEK?!? This is San Diego fucking comic con...this is your largest audience.

One of the first photos was of Hulk wrestling with Red Hulk. Ooohhh breaking news. Really?!? After the discovery that Red Hulk aka Rulk (Spoiler) is actually “Thunderbolt” Ross they are going to make them fight?? Really? Wow that was a shocker. Sarcasm doesn’t translate well on this forum. Rulk will be joining the ranks of the Avengers in issue #7.

They also announced that the Big Three are going to have a book together. This was actual news. They hinted that Iron Man, Steve Rogers (former Captain America) and Thor are going to have a journey that will not be set in the present time line. Written by Loeb and McGuinness.

After the current arch Nova is on in space they will be taking a hiatus from the Guardians of the Galaxy. There are future plans for the characters but none at the present other than Rocket Raccoon who will be getting his own miniseries. Cosmic Avengers is also on it’s way.

Also on the way is a new X-book called “Generation Hope” that focuses on Hope’s life with the x-men without her mentor/foster father Cable. She will be fighting along side the Five Lights who are five newly indentified Mutants who are the first lights on Cerebra since M-Day. It will also forge a closer bond between Rogue and Hope. There is some hidden connection between these two characters but no info on what that might be as of yet. Sisters perhaps?

Marvel also announced that the “Green Ladies” are coming back into the fold. They didn’t specify who they are but with my fingers crossed it will be She-Hulk who has been quiet this year since her solo title was cancelled. I really hope they don’t pit her against her red counterpart. It would be a mirrored storyline to the all too obvious direction the Hulk solo series is already heading.

One of my biggest gripes with Marvel is the upcoming vampire tie-ins. The company is extremely excited about this arch and stated that the vampires are going to be a big staple in the Marvel Universe in years to come. I guess they are trying to jump on the bandwagon and hope that the Twi-hards will buy their books. The Focus of the arch is Dracula who appears to be killed by his son Xarus in order to retell Dracula stories with a new perspective aka redundancy. Who cares! Keep these mediocre stories in a mini series instead of letting this garbage pollute the few books I still actually enjoy. Mutants already have powers….why do they need to be vampires also. The only time that premise was readable was in Uncanny X-men annual #6. It wasn’t riveting enough to warrant it being rewritten. The ONLY thing worth posting about is the rumor that Jubilee is going to be re-powered...and that’s only news if you are the one person on the planet who doesn’t find her character irritating.

The biggest news revolves around the new “Man Without Fear”. After the current run of the “Shadowland” series there will definitely be a new man without fear announced. The peeps at Marvel showed some possible choices with adjoining teaser art of characters: Nova, Gambit, Kraven, Black Panther and Falcon. My money is on Falcon. His character needed to be dusted off a bit and the other characters are staples in their own solo series or active in collaboration titles. Falcon is also the only person who is in desperate need of a reboot. I mean he has telepathic connection with birds? Yeah he isn’t really useful. He needs to be butched up in order to fit in with the Marvel Knight titles.

Lastly they posted these two images. As a huge marvel fan I literally have no idea what these could be. The panel of writers at the Cup of Joe discussion stated that it was a big deal. The rest of the panels were dedicated to fan questions that not relevant to any upcoming storyline.

So there you have the Marvel update from SDCC. Most of the information was leaked a few days prior on the trusty interweb. The rest was really pointless. Let’s hope the big announcements the week AFTER comic con make more of an impact on us rabid fans and give us something to actually geek out over.