Context is king.
X-23's most basic surface level characteristic that any idiot should grasp: Stoicism.
I don't demand that her every minor appearance be a nuance in-depth examination of her character, but is it to much to ask she be written in Archetype?! This is storytelling 101! If you want people to stay invested in a character, you need to, at the bare minimum, write them such a way that they can plausibly be believed to be the same character!
There was a main story?
only peeked through it for the MiracleMan page
"Cable was right!"
Honestly this was underwhelming and pretty boring. My eyes just started glazing over pages and I can’t even recall more than one or two stories.
Funny thing is, while Marvel fudged the numbers, there was a genuine milestone comic released by DC Thomson (nothing to do with DC Comics, they're a Scottish newspaper company) yesterday. Beano #4000. And they really have published 4000 issues. The advantages of weekly publication! Never been renumbered either.
Appreciation Thread Indexes
Marvel | Spider-Man | X-Men | NEW!! DC Comics | Batman | Superman | Wonder Woman
There is one page for each year Marvel's been around plus 2020. The pages are not necessarily set the year they represent, but feature characters from a milestone that year- IE, 1961 has an interview with the Thing. Al Ewing writes a longish (Maybe twenty pages?) story that forms the skeleton of the issue. It concerns the Scientist Guild from Marvel Comics #1-who were there when the first Human Torch was activated- and a new macguffin called the Eternity Mask that is revealed to have been passed down throughout Marvel characters for centuries. It's not really a history in the same way Waid's History of the MU is, but it does concern a secret history.
Does anyone else feel a bit cheated that there was no digital code to redeem? I know they don't do it with TPB's but this is sort of a hybrid. Really just a large magazine style.
Yet Doom makes 3 appearances. Not that I'm complaining. Reed does appear along with JMS on the What Do You Regret page towards the end.
I think this was one that kind of made me blink to see he contributed to this, along with Chris Claremont. I thought Claremont doesn't write anything for Marvel these days and JMS had moved on especially after very public disagreement about the whole Mephisto/Mary Jane stuff. I also was surprised to see the Heinberg/Cheung page for Young Avengers.
Last edited by Iron Maiden; 08-29-2019 at 08:53 AM.
But it was also sold as an anniversary celebration issue, which it was not. Too many real milestones left out and some utter head scratching inclusions.
Yes. Very much so.
IIRC, Claremont is still under exclusive contract to Marvel. But they got a lot of these big names, because it was supposed to be an anniversary book, and because it is only one page. Not a huge commitment for anyone.
Namor the Sub-Mariner, Marvel's oldest character, will have been published for 85 years in 2024. So where's my GOOD Namor anniversary ongoing, Marvel?
If I had to guess, the non-Ewing writers probably had a lot of leeway and personal choice over what they got to do for their page.
The variety and diversity of the pages is incredible. I'd be very interested in how the pages were selected and how subjects were selected. The assignment of years is also something that isn't clear. Were creators A and B given yest xxxx and told "do whatever, but link it to something in that year?"
According to BleedingCool, they actually shuffled around some pages and dates... so, I think there was some degree of "do what you want, and we'll make it work".
If I had to guess, they probably gave each team a year and a list of characters they might want to use?