FRESH START: Are you excited? What are your thoughts?

[Mister BoMan]

I am looking forward to Immortal Hulk, Avengers, and Venom.

[cc008]

I'm excited to hear more announcements. I don't appreciate them going at a snail's pace.

[Kurolegacy]

LMAOOOOOOOOOO please tell me you're joking. HAve you even looked at the rosters of the X-Men teams????

You point out Storm in X-Men Gold but you conveniently forget that she's the ONLY nonwhite character. Same with Bloodstorm on X-Men Blue. And Bishop is the ONLY black person on Astonishing X-Men. We don't exist as tokes, Kuro. Most of us can exist on the same team as another black person, we won't explode. Not too mention, the main (and only) Avengers team only has one Latinx character (Ghost Rider) and one black character (Black Panther). Champions is the only team where there are more POC than white people on a team.

also "colored"? really?

Alright if all, I’m going to clarify that I am a black comic book reader. Second yes, colored people aka people of color. Thirdly, just because Champions is a book where minorities outnumber white characters does not invalidate the fact that characters of color receive representation across the board nor am I going to pretend that there is none nor advocate things like a suggestion that I seen on this board of a team composed of only black characters because at that point, you’re just shifting the issue to the opposite end of the same spectrum. I don’t need that kind of hand holding to be able to claim that there is diversity within comics especially when the sheer number of multicultural characters is proof of the fact. So no, I’m not joking when I don’t invalidate obvious diversity by moving the goalposts as to what diversity is just because there’s more white characters than blacks especially with how things have changed over time.

[kevinism]

I think Marvel's marketing department should have invested a bit more into explaining what sets this Fresh Start apart from what came before... will books last more than 12 issues? Will stories be less padded and offer a bit more bang for your buck? Because if this fails and in a year's time we get another bunch of #1s, I think Marvel's position in the direct market will be dangerously shaky, even moreso than it is now as they can only stretch their credibility so much.

None of these things probably. These big banners aren't meant to signal some big sweeping change in direction that makes everything better. They're basically just commercials, "New people, come give this a try!" I don't see people constantly screaming at TV commercials, "Why is there ANOTHER Dr. Pepper commercial??? DID THEY FIX IT???"

[dan12456]

Very dependent on the books/creative teams.
Of the books revealed so far I'm only getting the books I'm already getting Coates BP and Aarons Thor. So not excited so far but not much has been revealed yet.

[Harsh Lesson]

Alright if all, I’m going to clarify that I am a black comic book reader. Second yes, colored people aka people of color. Thirdly, just because Champions is a book where minorities outnumber white characters does not invalidate the fact that characters of color receive representation across the board nor am I going to pretend that there is none nor advocate things like a suggestion that I seen on this board of a team composed of only black characters because at that point, you’re just shifting the issue to the opposite end of the same spectrum. I don’t need that kind of hand holding to be able to claim that there is diversity within comics especially when the sheer number of multicultural characters is proof of the fact. So no, I’m not joking when I don’t invalidate obvious diversity by moving the goalposts as to what diversity is just because there’s more white characters than blacks especially with how things have changed over time.

You may be satisfied with a token character of color here and there, as some people were satisfied with riding the back of the bus, but don’t expect others to share your sentiments when there’s legitimate concern over Marvel reverting back to the status quo.

[DamianWayne1]

I'm looking forward to the new Avengers and Champions teams. Hopefully the X-Books will improve, though I've been liking Blue. If they do get relaunched I hope the Gold replacement will have a better writer. The new Hulk series by Ewing doesn't interest me, but Hulk has never interested me. In my opinion, Hulks (Any of them) work far better on teams than in solos. There's just only so much material for Jekyll and Hyde type characters and especially with a power set like that.

[Harsh Lesson]

I am serious... WE are! what? you don't like "customers" getting what they want? WE asked for the classic white heroes to be back. and it's HAPPENING.. is that a crime?

Fortunately, white people aren’t the world, and this relaunch will fail.

[Dthirds3]

There is nothing eye-catching yet, and I cant escape the feeling narvel will do some thing stupid and ending up overcorrecting them selves.

[mace11]

Fair representation? We currently have Falcon, Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Black Panther, Champions which features more minorities than whites and isn’t going anywhere, we don’t know what they’ll do about Riri having a solo though she is gonna be in Champions, we have a Storm in both X-Men Blue and Gold, Gentle and and Indian woman innX-Men Red, Bishop in Astonishing X-Men, the list goes on. What Marvel are you reading where colored people don’t get representation?

Psylocke who is a poc is in Astonishing X-men too.
Armor who is east asian is a strong supporting character in x-men gold.
Generation X has alot of poc in it.

X-men blue will have a new cast and most of the main cast are poc.
New Cast of X-Men Blue Reveals Escalating Wolverine War Between Marvel’s X-Books

The solicit for X-Men Blue #25 finally reveals the new team roster for X-Men Blue, which has been teased for a few months. With the original X-Men “lost in space,” as the solicit reveals, a new team will take their place to take on an evil alliance of Emma Frost, Miss Sinister, and Bastion. That new roster, the cover appears to reveal, consists of Polaris, Xorn, Bloodstorm, Jimmy Hudson, Gazing Nightshade, and Daken.

Nightshade is east asian by the way.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/01...-blue-x-books/

[fin5]

I really likr the fact that there going to stck with the numbering while l its starting over from 1

[Yohei72]

Did I see someone say above that Ewing's off Ultimates 2 for Fresh Start? Do we know yet if Ewing is continuing on Royals and Ahmed/Ward on Black Bolt? I'm just getting into those via trades, really enjoying them. My enthusiasm will be tamped down some if they get s#$%canned.

That said... I'm a relatively recent comics convert of a few years' standing, and someone who's been pretty Marvel-deficient, until late last year when I decided to make a deliberate dive into the Marvel pool. So it's good timing from my POV for there to be a kind of soft relaunch with an attempt to neaten things up for new readers, and some new creators on new-ish versions of old chestnuts. But it comes down to the quality of the individual books. I've immensely enjoyed Aaron's Thor and think Del Mundo is a great choice for that world, so thumbs up for that. And for Aaron on Avengers - especially with the 18 issues a year, so I don't have to wait as long, and the epoch-hopping structure that I enjoyed on his God of Thunder. Immortal Hulk sounds like a blast. I'm not familiar with past versions of Exiles, but the interview with Ahmed that I just read makes it sound like a hoot. I'll give those all a chance.

So overall, mildly excited, but the proof is in the pudding. I have little history with or investment in most of these characters, and I'm more of a creator-focused than a character-focused comics reader. I'll at least start reading anything if it's a writer or artist I admire, or I hear it's really good, and I'll drop anything if the quality flags for a little while.

The "diversity" questions that are getting heated in this thread are important, but that's a much longer post to give them the consideration they deserve. I'll just say I hope Marvel has better plans for maintaining/increasing representation of minority and non-male characters, themes and creators than just having "diverse" versions of classic straight-white-male characters. That was never going to be a good long-term plan, and to my taste has a "token-ish" flavor. (And yet... I love Jane Thor. I'm actually dreading seeing her die, and hoping against my better "dead characters should stay dead" instincts that she gets a vigorous afterlife as a Valkyrie or someone similar. Aaron has strongly hinted as much, if I recall correctly.)

[anyajenkins]

Jane Thor sold pretty well, I'd be surprised if she didn't come back.

[mace11]

Riri was rolled out poorly and thus didn't do well. I don't know about Cho, but Wasp didn't do all that well either. Miles, Kamala, and Robbie however, have been quite successful. Overall, I would say that the legacy heroes were about fifty percent success, fifty percent failure.

Incorrect.
Riri Williams book Invincible Iron Man is not doing poorly.
In fact it is doing better then kamala,miles and robbie.
The success for the legacy heroes is higher then the 50% you mention.

[Kurolegacy]

You may be satisfied with a token character of color here and there, as some people were satisfied with riding the back of the bus, but don’t expect others to share your sentiments when there’s legitimate concern over Marvel reverting back to the status quo.

Seriously? You're comparing the fact that diversity has expanded exponentially over the years in comics to riding on the back of the bus? Why? Just because there are still white characters around? So you're just gonna ignore things such as the fact that in recent years Falcon stepped into the role of Captain America and despite being the only black character on the team, has been the leader of the team ever since the post-Secret Wars relaunch even after returning to Falcon, that Luke Cage has led 2 Avenger teams of his own since the Heroic Age, that from Regenesis until IvX Storm was consistently the leader of her own X-Men team and became the Headmistress of the school from post-AvX until Resurrexion, that the majority of the Young Avengers are LGBT characters, the fact that all of the current X-Men teams are led by women, that Rogue has been the leader of the Uncanny Avengers since post AXIS and that's not even everything. None of that comes close to comparing to 'sitting in the back of the bus' as if it were anything comparable, none of these people would ever be in any kind of position of authority. So no, diversity isn't anywhere near as low as you claim it to be just because you choose to move the goalposts until it fits whatever narrative you want it to be.