What’s All This Then?: All-New Marvel Now!

What's All This Then? will be an ongoing article series on COMICS!!  Yes..the one thing we clearly love and has fueled our childhood imaginations, yet something we don't often cover due to time constraints and lack of man power. Welp, now Andrew O'Brien steps in to fill those super hero buccaneer boots! We start with a little dissection of Marvel's love affair with #1 issues...

A little over a year ago Marvel launched their massive publishing event Marvel NOW! and it was heralded as one of Marvel’s best ideas since Civil War. Essentially, it was just a shuffle of their creative deck. They had some creators on long-standing runs, such as Bendis’s 200+ issue Avengers run and Brubaker’s 7 or so year Captain America run, who were ready to move on and let other people take over these characters. This sparked controversy because, to do this, Marvel was going to “cancel” over half of their titles and relaunch them just like another superhero comic company who shall not be named (but may have characters whose names rhyme with Cooperman and Fratman). Marvel, prepared for this comparison, stated that Marvel NOW! was merely putting fresh new creators on their beloved titles with complete and utter respect for the continuity that came before. As luck would have it, Marvel has a cornucopia of fantastic talent and ever since Marvel NOW! launched, books like Hickman’s Avengers, Bendis’s All-New X-Men, and Slott’s Superior Spider-Man have stood strong on the top 20 in comics sales.

Bendis Talks Guardians of the Galaxy in Marvel Now

We don't talk a whoooole lot about comics here on Idle Hands, but I thought, what with a Guardians of the Galaxy movie being one of the most talked about topics in the geekiverse at the moment, let's take a closer look at this book and get some insight into the big screen event!

"This will be the most surprising chapter of Marvel NOW! This is a brand new #1 that starts these characters off in a place for new readers but doesn't rob them of what made them great in the first place. It's also a great place for you to hop on and see why we're excited for these characters to be in a movie and why it's as good a franchise as Marvel has. This ties into a lot of things already happening in the Marvel Universe. The things that have happened on Earth in the past few events have had a butterfly effect through the galaxy. The abuse of time travel, the use of the Infinity Gems...these things have costs. The Guardians are the first line of defense for Earth. If you're looking at Earth in the Marvel Universe from a distant, it looks like an insane asylum! It's a place where the Phoenix Force doesn't destroy the world, where Galactus doesn't feed. It's the scariest place anywhere to the rest of the galaxy! Wait until Earth joins the cosmic community... A lot of big time cosmic players are on stage right from the beginning.

Why Marvel NOW?

They've been pelting my email box...wearing away at my curiosity wall. Before DC's New52, my purchases were almost completely Marvel with titles like New Mutants, Deadpool, New Avengers, Thunderbolts and Uncanny X-Force topping my list of must buys....but things were starting to get stale..and overly complicated. Gone were the days when those good ole' mutant boys would pick up a bat and some gloves and just rile each other up before someone like Juggernaut came to ruin the party. It was just no fun. The NEW52 piqued my with characters I was always interested in, but worlds that shifted too wildly from day to day...and were too numerous. HOW MANY EARTHS DO YOU NEEEED??!! Seeking to get back to basics and attract a new generation of readers, the NEW52 was born, and with it came a giant sized press push, which was well deserved for a gutsy move such as revamping your entire comics empire.

In steps Marvel NOW, with wordage in each press release that does not commit to such a radical revamp, but promises endless possibility through fresh ideas and new directions.