“Heroes, Villains, and Me” is a weekly article on Geeky KOOL about the world of comic books and my reaction to it.
“Heroes, Villains, and Me” is not a comic book review article. I will write about current events, speculation and rumors, or my own wacky thoughts about the world of comic books.
This week Marvel officially announced their new thing, “Marvel Now”. Prior to Marvel announcing this, rumors had been milling around about “Marvel Now” being a reboot. The rumors stated a reboot was likely since DC’s successful soft reboot last year. Marvel revealed little by little but eventually clarified that Marvel Now is not a reboot.
Marvel Now is a change of the writer and artist creative teams on many Marvel books and moving characters in new directions. They will be creating some new books and many of their current books (if not all) will get new #1 issues. They have stated that this is not any type of reboot and the Marvel characters will continue to carry their long histories.
While this was going on and rumors were swirling, I made a list of things I would like to see from this new Marvel Now movement. These things do not appear likely to occur but I thought I would share my opinion anyway.
1) Heroes should only be on one team at a time
It gets a bit ridiculous when a character is on numerous teams at the same time. How does Wolverine have time to be on 2 Avengers teams, two X-Men teams, his own solo adventures, and still run a school for mutants? The answer is that it is impossible. Spider-Man is not much better with two Avengers teams, the Fantastic Four, a secret identity including a career as genius inventor. These characters are great and help sell issues but come on. Make them a member of one team and leave it at that.
2) Spider-Man should not be on a team
I am huge Spidey fan. But I have not read any team book that has found a balance of the Web Head’s personality and him working with a team. I was dying for Spider-Man to be added to the Avengers but now that I have read it, I wish they would not have. I have a hard time with how he is written with a team. Maybe someone just needs to change the method he is used there but I am not sure it will be done correctly.
He is great for solo action. I love when he teams up with other heroes. He is even picking up a side kick soon and that will probably work out. I think the difference if the Wall Crawler is the focal character or not and he is not a focal character in the Avengers or the Fantastic Four.
3) One Team with a Particular Name
There should only be one Avengers squad and X-Men squad rather than multiples. This would be the way people can read the flag ship comic and then adventure out to the other related comics if they want. If they are all named Avengers or X-Men then I feel I must read them all and usually don’t read any of them.
It gets greatly confusing when we have New Avengers, Might Avengers, Avengers Assemble, Secret Avengers, and any other Avengers squad. Don’t even get me started on the upcoming “Uncanny Avengers”… <eye roll>. The exception to this would be if you want to divide them by location i.e. West Coast Avengers and the humorous Great Lakes Avengers.
If you want multiple teams, call them something different. The X-Force, New Mutants, and X-Factor are all X-Men titles and good examples of having related titles without having to use the same name. The X-Men need to get back to it and introduce it to the numerous Avengers squad.
4) Make the Main Marvel Universe All Age Appropriate
I talked at length about this a couple a weeks ago. Stories should be appropriate for an eight year old to read but well written so a forty two year old will can enjoy it. I don’t need to see Spider-Man waking up next to a mostly naked Black Cat. You could imply this occurred without showing the image and make it more family friendly.
Another piece of this is the costumes of the female heroes and villains. I understand some characters are going to be sexier and have outfits that are more revealing. But not every female with abilities should wear hooker outfits. Their costumes should be somewhat realistic to fight in. Six Inch Stilettos are not crime fighting shoes. Micro bikinis are not good for tangling with Doctor Doom.
5) Fix the One More Day- Spidey/ Mary Jane Marriage.
The stories since A Brand New Day began have been really good. Dan Slott has written some great stories. I would content that the heart of these stories could have been written with Peter still married to MJ.
The misperception is that being married made Peter boring. This gave Peter a whole new level of things to consider when he acted. His actions and choices might not only affect his life but that of his wife and potential family.
I have been married for 21 years and it is anything but boring. I believe the writers could write a married Peter and Mary Jane as exciting and interesting. If my wife was a superhero, it would not make our relationship more boring.
There have been a ton of great heroes who have been married and the stories did not suffer. Look at Mr. Fantastic, the Flash (both Wally and Barry), and even Superman before the reboot. Those are just a few.
6) Make Your Crossovers Count
After Fear Itself, I gave up on the big crossovers. One of the reasons being, they did not seem to matter in the Universe. We saw many cities either destroyed or partially destroyed but it never affected regular continuity. It was never mentioned in Spider-Man that New York was devastated by this attack. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this will change the Marvel Universe forever and doesn’t even change it for more than an issue.
I hear that Avengers VS X-Men might make some lasting changes. I hope this is true but we will see if it makes a difference in five years.
Maybe a better idea would to stop these major crossovers. I know that will not occur since the crossovers are major money grabs for Marvel (and DC). But they aren’t getting my money until they prove they are better than the last few.
7) Death Should Matter
It used to be shocking when heroes would die in comic books. Mostly because those characters either stayed dead or at least were dead for numerous years at a time. Marvel has been bad about killing someone for ratings. They usually bring them back within a year or two.
Someone will point to Jean Grey as an example of how Marvel can let someone stay dead. The former Marvel Girl has been dead for a decade now (her second or third death). Rumor is she will be back at the end of Avengers VS X-Men or at least by the start of Marvel Now.
Since Jean died, Thor has died twice, Captain America and the Human Torch have both died and all of them have come back. I know I am missing several that died and have been brought back since then. Heck, they just brought back the original Marvel “Captain Marvel” and killed him right back off. Death of a hero should matter and be everlasting.
