Releasing in January:
Jan 2
Champions #1 - (yet another) restart; issue #27 of the previous volume came out earlier this month. Same writer (Jim Zub), new artist (Steven Cummings).
Conan the Barbarian #1 - return of one of Marvel's all time successful licensed properties. Accompanied by two of the $1 True Believer reprints per week in January (10 in all), including reprints of Conan #1 and #4 on the same day this new Conan comic comes out (Jan 2).
Man Without Fear #1 - (yet another) Daredevil relaunch, this is a weekly miniseries running 5 issues.
Marvel Tales: Fantastic Four #1 - Described as an anthology series, this is a 96 pager and reprints FF #4, 245, and Annual #6
Star Wars: Age of the Republic - Obi-Wan Kenobi #1 - Lots of Star Wars one-shots this month. Not my thing, but I suspect you'll like this sort of thing if it's the sort of thing you like.
Wolverine The Long Night Adaptation #1 - An adaptation of a scripted podcast. 5 part miniseries.
Jan 9
Captain Marvel #1 - Ye gads, there have probably been about 10 or 11 CM #1's in the 21st century. EDITED TO ADD: I was partially right, this will be Vol 10. This is *only* the 4th CM volume to star Carol Danvers. Showing my age I guess, but here is yet another Marvel comic where I've heard of the writer but not the artist.
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1 - replacing the cancelled Peter Parker, Spectacular Spider-Man series. Amazing Spider-Man is on Vol 6; I don't even want to think about how many Spider-Man series that are not ASM have come and gone in the last 20 years.
Star Wars: Age of the Republic - Jango Fett #1 - See my comment on the other Star Wars comics coming out in January.
Web of Venom: Venom Unleashed #1 - Yay more Venom.
Jan 16
Black Widow #1 - This is the 8th BW #1 in the last 20 years. Granted, the first 4 were all limited series, but the previous 3 ongoings didn't, er, go on for long (8, 20, and 12 issues respectively). "Jen and Sylvia Soska — the Twisted Twins of horror — join rising artist Flaviano to weave a web of vice, violence and vengeance ...". These are names that are all unfamiliar to me, but then again, I am an old man.
Invaders #1 - Cap, Bucky Winter Soldier, and the original Human Torch, team up against Namor, who i guess is now a full fledged villain. Seems like a limited premise to me
Marvel Comics Presents #1 - The original volume of this series went to 175 issues. Then they relaunched it in 2007, and it just made it to 12 issues. Can an anthology be successful in 2018? I hope it can but I wouldn't put cash money on it.
Star Wars: Age of the Republic Special #1 - See my comment on the other Star Wars comics coming out in January.
Jan 23
Crypt of Shadows #1 - One-shot horror comic celebrating Marvel's 80th anniversary.
Guardians of the Galaxy #1 - A few years ago, if you said "Donny Cates", people would say "Who?", and now he's everywhere. I'll give this at least a one issue try.
War Is Hell #1 - One-shot war comic celebrating Marvel's 80th anniversary.
Jan 30
Age of X-Man Alpha #1 - One-shot. "The age of X-Man dawns…and the X-Men cannot stop it." Not sure what that means and no desire to find out.
Journey Into Unknown Worlds #1 - One-shot science fiction comic celebrating Marvel's 80th anniversary.
So about 10 or so ongoing series, a bunch of one-shots, and a few miniseries - all adds up to a LOT of first issues. So fellow fanatics, what are you looking forward to? What are your thoughts on all of this?
Replies
I will buy: Invaders, Marvel Comics Presents (at least the first issues).
I will probably buy: War is Hell, Journey into Unknown Worlds.
I might buy: Man Without Fear #1.
Is this an unnamed soft reboot of some kind? Or does Marvel just routinely start every title over at #1 once a year?
The answer to both questions is ... it sure feels that way!
Marvel made a big deal of their last official reboot, Marvel Legacy, kicking it off with a 50 page one-shot of the same name, and adjusting the issue numbers of many of their series to revert them back to higher number, eg. last year's ASM (Vol 4) 32 was followed by ASM 789. Safe to say it was a pretty big flop as Daredevil and Peter Parker, Spectacular Spider-Man were the last two series in the triple digits. DD is getting a new #1 in February (I think), and PPSSM was cancelled and is being replaced with Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man as mentioned above. All the other series that went to the so-called "Legacy Numbering" either got relaunched with a new number 1 in 2018, or cancelled outright.
A lot of what Marvel has been doing in the past few years just reeks of "throw it at the wall and see what sticks". They have, and have had, a lot of talented creators working there, including the past few years. But sometimes it feels like the panic button is the first resort, not the last one. And to answer your first question in a serious vein, this feels like a soft reboot of the whole line, just one they don't want to draw attention by giving it a name.
Captain Comics said:
I stand corrected: this does have a name, according to wikipedia - "Fresh Start". It marks the return of Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Logan, Odinson, and Bruce Banner to their classic superhero identities and the reuniting of the Fantastic Four.
Also Cyclops, apparently. Are there any dead X-Men who remain dead? Aside from Thunderbird, who was replaced by an identical brother, which really shouldn't count. I think even the male Banshee is back. (No idea what happened to the female version.)
If memory serves, the banshees were supposed o be female. It's like calling a male character "Succubus."
Richard Willis said:
I know -- or I have known since I learned about banshees in Irish literature in high school. But that was after Marvel introduced the male banshee, Sean Cassidy, in 1967. He died at some point and was replaced by his female cousin, Theresa, who was a mainstay in Peter David's X-Factor.
i know I pre-ordered Conan and the Jango Fett one-shot. Outside of those, I don't remember what I ordered. I may have bought some of the other one-shots but I'm not sure.
The male version of a succubus is an incubus. I don't think there is a male version of a banshee. (Well, except in X-Men.)
Richard Willis said: