Hey, it was Comic-Con weekend in San Diego, which you were probably already aware of, what with all the news. We weren’t there, but we heard some things, and we’ve got some thoughts.
Herewith, some quick-and-dirty observations from the show that was.
The return of Hall H
The MCU ain’t what it used to be pre-Avengers: Endgame, but it’s undeniable that Marvel Studios’ Hall H presentation dominated the news cycle Saturday night into Sunday. Announcing Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom will do that.
That said … sigh … the announcement of the return of Downey and co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo to the Avengers film franchise gets at something I was feeling after seeing Deadpool & Wolverine earlier that day: I’m over the gratuitous stunt casting in Marvel movies.
Think about it: Three of the biggest post-Infinity Saga movies of the MCU — Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and, now, Deadpool & Wolverine — relied heavily on dusting off old characters for one last go-round. By replacing Jonathan Majors (a right and appropriate call given his conviction on domestic violence charges) with an evil version of its former marquee star, Marvel Studios is making it clear its next great idea is its last great idea. In that way, the movies are starting to reflect the comics: Safe, nostalgia-driven, desperate for commercial validation.
Anywho, Marvel also brought fresh looks and stars from Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thunderbolts* (Ooooooh, a mystery asterisk!) and Captain America: New World Order. So if things seemed light this year on account of last year’s writers and actors strikes, it looks like things are about to ramp back up.
DC wins
The RDJ announcement was a head scratcher for many (at least in the CXF Slack), but the real wet-your-pants moment of Comic-Con may have come Friday, when DC Comics/Studios announced it was bringing back “The DC Bullet,” its 1977-2005 logo, designed by Milton Glaser, as its official insignia.
Starting in October, the bullet will appear on all DC content across media and merchandising.
Now, you may say, “But Dan, didn’t you open this column talking about Marvel’s poisoned, masturbatory emphasis on nostalgia? Isn’t this the same thing?”
To quote a doctor from The Simpsons, “Yes, a little bit!”
But also, look at the DC logos that have succeeded the bullet. They’re ugly by comparison. Less so the current one, but definitely the two that came after it. They’re “graphic design is my passion” logos. Especially that one where the D and the C overlap? The first time I saw it, I messaged my ComicsXF Interview Podcast co-host/ride-or-die Matt Lazorwitz and said something to the effect of, “What the shit is this? Are those letters? Someone was paid for this atrocity?”
Now, things make sense again.
And quite frankly, it’s a good time for DC to resurrect the bullet. It’s a victory-lap statement, as we start to see footage from James Gunn’s upcoming Superman movie and feel the hope that the S is supposed to stand for. Not to mention DC’s upcoming slate of comics, featuring heavy hitters like Scott Snyder on Batman, Kelly Thompson on Wonder Woman, Chris Condon on Green Arrow, Jeff Lemire on the Justice Society and, in what might have been my favorite news from all of Comic-Con, Ram V and Evan Cagle on the New Gods.
From a purely comics perspective, DC won San Diego. Meanwhile …
Marvel didn’t
One of Marvel’s SDCC panels included a Humberto Ramos sketch of studio head Kevin Feige and comics head C.B. Cebulski posed back to back like they’re the polar-opposite leads of a bad ‘90s NBC sitcom that lasted six months in the post-Seinfeld slot after Caroline in the City got canceled. It speaks to the increasing intermingling of the comics and movies/TV as reflected in Marvel’s comics announcements. Chief among those was a teaser for a story called “One World under Doom,” allegedly spinning out of the events of this summer’s Blood Hunt crossover.
As we know now, Doom will be the big bad at the end of this phase of Marvel Studios movies. That phase ends in 2027 with Avengers: Secret Wars. Secret Wars (2015) was literally a story about there being one world under the rule of Victor Von Doom. This isn’t just a snake eating its own tale, it’s choking on it.
Other announcements included a Gerry Duggan-written West Coast Avengers revival (Iron Man writer continues to write Iron Man), a new Spider-Girl and a TVA miniseries expressly created to introduce more Marvel Studios concepts into the comics, up to and including Miss Minutes, Sylvie, Tracker B-15, Ourobouros and the Owen Wilson version of Moebius (versus the Mark Gruenwald one that already existed).
At least …
All the best X-Men are women
You thought From the Ashes was done with a dozen? Nah, the glut train is just getting started. At San Diego, Marvel announced two more ongoing solo series, Psylocke (by Alyssa Wong and Vincenzo Carratu) and Laura Kinney: Wolverine (by Erica Schultz and Giada Belviso). That’s 14 series, six of which are female-led solos. Hard to complain about a lack of diversity when you’ve got that many books, nearly half of which are about women (although of those, three are written by men).
The problem is, we’re still not sure how many of them are going to be good. So far, we have one high-profile book of mixed results (X-Men), one good book (NYX) and one so forgettable no one at CXF wanted to review it (Phoenix). Eleven more to go.
A fresh Cup o’ Joe
Remember Joe Quesada? Used to run Marvel Comics, was its chief creative officer for years, once cameoed in a Kevin Smith movie as a pizza delivery guy? Drew that X-Factor issue with the hologram on the cover? I was wondering what happened to him.
Well, wonder no longer.
Mad Cave Studios — easily the most rapidly expanding publisher in indie comics — has teamed up with European publisher Dupuis to host Amazing Comics, a Quesada-led imprint based in Idaho, according to marketing materials. The line will debut, date TBD, with Disciple, a reimagining of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet written and drawn by Quesada and co-written by Charles Dorfman.
A prelude issue was circulated at Comic-Con. Hopefully there’s more info to come between now and release so this doesn’t sink beneath the waves.
Abrams presents Frank Miller Presents
Abrams ComicArts, known for putting out some beautiful books (Alex Ross’ Fantastic Four: Full Circle, The Uncanny X-Men Trading Cards: The Complete Series), is getting into the floppy game with three series starting this fall, featuring talent like Frank Miller, director Darren Aronofsky, Martin Morazzo and Emma Kubert.
This follows a previously announced deal for Abrams to publish the collected editions of comics from Miller’s Frank Miller Presents, a line of comics I have definitely heard about people reading.
I’m being sarcastic, but also if you search “Frank Miller Presents” on Previews World, where it was once considered a “Deluxe Tier Publisher,” the most recent comics solicited from FMP came out in February, so this is likely the logical evolution of Miller’s publishing plan, taking shelter under a larger house with built-in infrastructure.
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
