May 2018 solicitations

[Captain M]

I was expecting a lot more new titles to make up for the questionable decision to only have one Avengers title. I understand that this is the first month of the new editorial line, so there are probably more things to come, but it would be good to have an assurance that we wouldn't just have so many characters being arbitrarily sent to limbo right now.

^^^^^^^^^^

[PhoenixThanos]

Marvel should never have stopped the 1st series of Uncanny Avengers especially with that crap "Axis event", after enduring two crap attempts at Uncanny Avengers we now again have an over saturated X-team market with blue, gold, red and astonishing, talk about mutant overkill.

[Tony Stark]

I'll be getting:
Free Comic Book Day Avengers/Captain America
Avengers #1 and #2
Black Panther #1
Hunt for Wolverine Adamantium Agenda #1
Invincible Iron Man #600 THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU IT'S OVER HE'S RUN IS OVER
The PUNISHER #224 AND #225
Moon Knight #195
Star Wars: Poe Dameron #27

[King_Thor13]

I was expecting a lot more new titles to make up for the questionable decision to only have one Avengers title. I understand that this is the first month of the new editorial line, so there are probably more things to come, but it would be good to have an assurance that we wouldn't just have so many characters being arbitrarily sent to limbo right now.

Mighty Thor: At the Gates of Valhalla, Incredible Hulk #217, Amazing Spider-Man #800, Spider-Man (Miles Morales) #240, Marvel Two-in-One #6, Rogue & Gambit #5 and Astonishing X-Men #11/#12 seems like the end of their respective runs. So June/July will have a lot of the big stuff. Thor, Hulk, Spider-Man, Miles, Fantastic Four (?) and an X-title or two. That's when we'll probably get new creative teams for Jessica Jones and Defenders too, and potentially new books like Cloak & Dagger, X-Factor, X-Force and another Avenger title. I'm really excited for what comes next. Venom doesn't interest me at all- he's overrated as hell. While it sounds cool, taking T'Challa to the planet Bast and away from possible Wakanda oriented stories with Killmonger, Nakia and M'Baku bothers me. And I have mixed feelings about the new Avengers title. That's hardly a good start to the relaunch. For me anyway. Very intrigued by the other changes, and what has yet to come

[Prof. Warren]

Well that sucks.

Idk how Thanos did sales-wise (though with the direct market if you're not Batman, Justice League, Amazing Spider-Man or an event, does it really matter?), but Donny Cates' run sounds like it's been phenomenal. He's still on Doctor Strange and taking over Venom though so as long as I get my Donny Cates fix I'm good.

I imagine that Cates' Thanos run was never meant to be a long term ongoing. As great as it is, I don't know how many Thanos stories Cates really has to tell once this arc is done.

It's been an awesome story but where do you go next after "Thanos Wins"? I'd actually rather him go to a book like Venom where he can go nuts and stay for a long haul. I just hope he stays on Strange for awhile as well.

[Prof. Warren]

By the way, I'm loving No Surrender and love seeing the excitement it's bringing back to the Avengers but I find it ironic that some fans are looking at the upcoming relaunch of The Avengers now and complaining that too many characters are going away. Well, yeah - the marketplace has been saying for awhile now that there's too many Avengers, too many teams, and that the franchise needs to be streamlined again. No Surrender was always billed as the end of this particular Avengers era and it's ending because it was perceived as being over-stuffed, unwieldy and lacking focus.

People sent a message. Marvel heard it and responded.

And as much as I thought the Avengers line always had consistent quality across the board, I agree that it needed to be pared back. It had more books than the market could support and having too many Avengers teams out there ultimately diluted the importance of the central team.

The line might expand again at some point (at least to a second title) or Marvel might launch other non-Avengers teams to try and give some characters a new home but for now I'm excited to have them getting back to a single title. I miss the days when The Avengers was just The Avengers. It made the book feel more special and more central to the MU. I'm looking forward to it getting that feel back. The Avengers has felt like a non-essential book for too long prior to No Surrender - even when it's been well-written - and that just shouldn't be the case.

I'm glad that No Surrender has gotten the franchise back on track but I'm even more excited for what's next.

[MarvelMaster616]

Looks like May is going to be an exciting month. Also an expensive month with all those Deadpool variants.

I admit I've been somewhat jaded by all of Marvel's recent re-launches. After Marvel NOW, they've really declined in quality. They just feel like an excuse to slap a new #1 on the page to boost sales. But this one feels different. It feels like Marvel really is trying to change direction. They're putting their core characters front and center again. They're still leaving room for some of their emerging stars. They seem to be seeking a balance between the classics and the new. And if they can get that balance right, then that bodes well for the future of Marvel.

[Fokken]

RUNAWAYS today. RUNAWAYS tomorrow. RUNAWAYS forever.

[Johnrevenge]

RUNAWAYS today. RUNAWAYS tomorrow. RUNAWAYS forever.

Yeah, Runaways seems one of the few quality things to come out besides Champions, Moon Girl and the final issues of Lockjaw and Rogue and Gambit.

The rest looks like garbage.

[Spideybono]

I really liked the Legacy numbers since I have been collecting since 1986. My first issue of Amazing Spiderman was #298 and I was ok jumping on there. It's a shame this couldn't last.

Lot of double shipping and double sized books. Very expensive month

[Prof. Warren]

I really liked the Legacy numbers since I have been collecting since 1986. My first issue of Amazing Spiderman was #298 and I was ok jumping on there. It's a shame this couldn't last.

Books will have dual numbering so the original numbering will continue to be featured.

[Prof. Warren]

Yeah, Runaways seems one of the few quality things to come out besides Champions, Moon Girl and the final issues of Lockjaw and Rogue and Gambit.

The rest looks like garbage.

Really? I find it annoying when old white dudes slag books they don't even read like Champions or America or Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur as "SJW garbage" or whatever they want to label those books as but I also find the flipside of that to be equally annoying.

It may not be something that appeals to your taste, but on any objective level can Mark Waid's Captain America actually be called "garbage?"

Or Soule's Daredevil?

Or Dan Slott's Spider-Man?

Or Jason Aaron's Thor?

Or Tom Taylor's All-New Wolverine?

Or Donny Cates' Doctor Strange?

...Or are they and a lot of other books that are admired and enjoyed by others simply not personally interesting to you and not, in fact, "garbage?"

As I said, I find the intolerant attitude of some older fans towards books that aren't necessarily aimed at them to be contemptible. But intolerance in the opposite direction is no better.

Fans should be better about enjoying what they like while not automatically regarding what doesn't appeal to them as garbage.

[Spideybono]

Books will have dual numbering so the original numbering will continue to be featured.

Yea, l saw that. They tried that before and didnt last

[Prof. Warren]

Yea, l saw that. They tried that before and didnt last

Well, maybe it will this time. We'll see.

[Fuzzy Barbarian]

Really small month for me, since I'm cutting back on following stuff monthly, but even if I wasn't, there's just not much here for me.

Definitely:
OLD MAN HAWKEYE #5 (of 12) - This series has really surprised me. Good prequel while still being its own thing, and I like how Clint is written (particularly in the first issue). Good stuff.

FANTASTIC FOUR OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC (NEW PRINTING) - I don't think the second printing became that hard to find or anything, but yeah, I definitely need to read this run. You know what omnibus you need to reprint, Marvel? The first Hickman one!
X-MEN: THE WEDDING OF CYCLOPS & PHOENIX HC - So... this is basically an omnibus Just call it one! Also, glad it's collecting The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, because there was only one of the recent trade around me and it was messed the **** up.
ASTONISHING ANT-MAN: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION TPB - Mostly liked this run when it was ongoing, but I dropped off it because some of the writing was frustrating, and I was just cutting back at the time. Would be nice to finish the run off... no clue where I was up to or what happened (mostly) though, so having all of it is nice.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOWS VOL. 3 – EIGHT YEARS LATER TPB - Liked the three issues of Houser's run that I read, and I like the premise, so why not?
BLACK BOLT VOL. 2: HOME FREE TPB - Still haven't finished the first volume, but I've heard great things about this series.


Maybe:
AVENGERS #1 - Still not sure about this. I mean, it can't be worse than Waid and Bendis, but... eh. Still surprised Jean isn't on this team... or Logan, actually, but I'm sure he will be once that Infinity story ends. Also, Robbie... Idno, just not seeing it, but I can see Aaron proving me wrong. I'm just not keen on such a young character being on the team of older people, probs because it lowkey reminds me of ANAD Avengers. Also, no Iron Fist? Boo! Though Aaron has said the cast has some revolving door slots, so I guess he'll show up eventually. Glad that Marvel are cutting back on the amount of Avengers comics, at the very least, and it will definitely be more inviting to new readers this way than having a million Avengers teams.
AVENGERS #2
HUNT FOR WOLVERINE: Weapon Lost #1 (of 4) - Wait... is this the main series? Wasn't it just supposed to be called Hunt for Wolverine? And it was solicited for April? Is this a tie-in? Seriously this is already killing my interest in this series.
HUNT FOR WOLVERINE: CLAWS OF A KILLER #1 (of 4) - Because I like Mariko Tamaki. The series itself... meh. I guess Tamaki's gonna follow Pak's lead and just have evil Sabretooth again. Whelp... that was a wasted opportunity.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #701 - So far, the run has been okay, but I think that's partly because it's just a return to form after Spencer's run. Not sure if I'm gonna keep reading past #700, especially since I'm just not interested in a story set in the future like this.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #702
X-MEN RED #4 - First issue was good, managing to avoid typical X-Men cliches and not being boring about it like Astonishing X-Men... then the last few pages killed my enthusiasm and brought back the X-Men cliches in full. Will depend on how the series goes, but it's probably going to be an issue-by-issue basis, especially given how... eh All-New Wolverine is for the first four trades.
X-MEN RED ANNUAL #1
EXILES #3 - Blink can pop Wolverine claws now apparently... that or Marquez got lazy with the things she uses to teleport. Also, I still don't like her new haircut. Peggy Cap looks cool though. I was gonna trade-wait this series and catch up on the original Exiles... but it hasn't aged that well, and I don't think it was ever that great to begin with, because it's become a chore to read by the second Ultimate Collection.

FANTASTIC FOUR BY JOHN BYRNE OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC (NEW PRINTING) - Okay, I'm like 90% sure the Byrne omnibi aren't that hard to find, if at all. I think my LCS and a book store still have at least one of them actually. but if they don't, this too, because I've heard great things about this run, especially for how Byrne helped Sue become less damsel-y. Also, introduced Frankie Raye, who I really liked in the 1987 Silver Surfer ongoing.
STAR WARS: DOCTOR APHRA VOL. 1 HC - I liked the character in Gillen's DArth Vader run, and I feel in the mood for some decent Star Wars stuff.
TALES OF SUSPENSE: HAWKEYE & THE WINTER SOLDIER TPB - Depending on how it ends. The first two issues have been alright, aside from killing Skids, who I liked in Ed Brubaker's X-Men run. Seriously, the C-list X-Men characters are always so ripe for good stories
CABLE: REVOLUTION TPB - That is a lot of Cable. I've never heard anything about Cable's comics aside from how nineties the early stuff was, so... maybe, if I can get some thoughts on this run. Crap, I'm surprised that one writer did all these issues!
SECRET AVENGERS BY ED BRUBAKER: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION TPB - Crap. Bought the first hardcover early last year when it was super discounted. It was... okay (never finished it) if a little boring. I might give it another go. All I've heard about this series is that Warren Ellis wrote Cap condoning torture, which was hated, and Rick Remender added Agent Venom to the team eventually.
SILVER SURFER EPIC COLLECTION: THANOS QUEST TP - Because the single issues are expensive because they lead up to Infinity Gauntlet. This might make me get the first Epic Collection too, actually, just for convenience because single issues are annoying to unbag and read then re-bag.
THOR EPIC COLLECTION: WORLDENGINE TPB - I like Ellis and Waid, and kind of appreciate Messner-Loebs for being the first Wally Flash writer, so maybe. Though I've never heard of these stories.