Alonso, Brevoort Discuss Universe-Melding "Secret Wars," Address the Reboot Question

[Raye]

Its not necessarily a reboot in classic comic book terms but Marvel never makes anything "classic." They've been a flagship for experimentation and for many years continuity. As certain comic title sales have diminished, they tried to change characters to appeal to the masses with about a 50% success rate. To me, this is another experiment in comics which will slog down the entire industry with a lackluster story and enough sales to boost another event. It may not be a reboot, but its definitely a "HEY GUYS, HERE ARE SOME NEW NUMBER ONES, YOU LOVE NUMBER ONES" which usually smells a lot like a reboot so I understand why people are using the term.



If a reboot is when Marvel redoes character backstories and/or reworks characters, then Marvel has been doing it for years! Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are no longer children of Magneto, a Muslim Ms. Marvel, Daredevil is now decently happy, Hawkeye is the lazy Avenger, Scott Summers is now a jerk and Wolverine and Uatu are dead. (Not all of these "reboots" are bad, but you get the gist of what I am saying; Marvel Universe is like quicksand, its always changing.)

Creating a new legacy character (Ms. Marvel), character development over time, (Cyclops) or revealing something previously unknown (Scarlet Witch/Quicksilver) within existing continuity is COMPLETELY different from a reboot. Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Carol Danvers, Scott Summers, Hawkeye, all of them their histories ARE INTACT, they have just changed over time within continuity. (I do not read Daredevil, so I dunno what is going on there, but... character development is not a retcon) Nothing AT ALL has changed about the experiences they have been through, their memories of all their past adventures and relationships are still there. Same goes for this.

these characters are not, and have never been, preserved in amber, unchanging. Normally character development is considered a GOOD thing.

Now, I will say that Marvel HAS rebooted/retconned some characters, (Spider-Man in OMD being the one that springs to mind) and I will concede that it MIGHT happen in a few cases during Secret Wars, but it is not a line wide reboot.

[Jackraow21]

So it sounds like some books will be replaced (either temporarily or otherwise) with focuses on the Alternate Universes, certainly sounds like ASM will be where we have Renew Your Vows, and the X-Men books might focus on the umpteen alternate universes there. Maybe GOTG and Nova will have Infinity Gauntlet?

Please, please, please, please, please have Soule and McNiven be working on Old Man Logan during Secret Wars. Assuming Uncanny Inhumans goes on hiatus during this, they would be the ideal creative team for an OML project IMO.

[hondobrode]

LOL

Not a "reboot" but changing things up.

I don't care, and Marvel needs to do something different cause after reading for 40 years, they've almost completely lost me.

Marvel cuts down DC for their Crisis and reboots, but really it's two different ways of accomplishing the same thing.

I'll read Secret Wars and see what comes out of it. I've actually enjoyed most of the Ultimate line and guessed this was coming.

It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

[Nite-Wing]

people don't get what a reboot is
heroes reborn happened and now we have another heroes reborn coming up

[Anduinel]

people don't get what a reboot is
heroes reborn happened and now we have another heroes reborn coming up

And I expect it'll last about as long. *shrug* I'm only buying two Marvel books right now anyway, so if they want to give me a jumping-off point, their loss.

[ExodusCloak]

people don't get what a reboot is
heroes reborn happened and now we have another heroes reborn coming up

But why? I thought Heroes Reborn was unsuccessful? Shortly after we had holofoil covers and bankruptcy.

[Daredevil is Legend]

Daredevil is getting a change of direction which will be more in line with the upcoming Netflix TV show. It is inevitable. I also predict the return of Karen Page post-Secret Wars.

I think so too.Especially Karen.Maybe she comes over from Ultimate.

[Lady Warp Spasm]

I'll wait and see. If the characters I still vaguely care about are around after this Secret Wars business, and I like how they sound/look etc. I'll give 'em a go, if not, no big deal. I did enough berserker raging over the 2014 Marvel NOW status quo to barely care at this point.

And while they are whittling down comics, it would be super nice if Marvel whittled down the cover price too while they're at it.

[Ravin' Ray]

We need to define the exact definition of "reboot", without qualifiers like "hard" or "soft" if we're going to move forward on this.

[Xalfrea]

We need to define the exact definition of "reboot", without qualifiers like "hard" or "soft" if we're going to move forward on this.

Frankly, so many of these knee-jerk Reboot reactions can best be summed up like this:



The fact that there are folks that confuse "reboot" with "change-up" is troublesome.

[mails24]

I know it's the "cool" thing to do to go on internet message boards and complain about stuff that hasn't come out yet, so I'll bite. This has disaster written all over it. The basically are taking all continuity/universes, throwing it in a mixing bowl and seeing what comes out of it as a result. Explains why they have done the things they have in the last 1-2 years: Killing Wolverine & The Watcher, New Captain America (Black) & Thor (losing his arm), ending Fantastic Four, Avengers, etc. Marvel has a dismal record when it comes to line-wide crossovers (Civil War & House of M being the two good ones IMO). That coupled with the fact that Axis was a complete mess and it only dealt with about 2/3 of the Marvel characters, I can't see this actual event making any sense. I think I'll just skip this and catch up with the aftermath if it interests me. My guess is that they will bring back Wolverine, re-superserum Cap, re-endow Thor, form a new Fantastic Four and do the obvious and bring Miles Morales to the new universe. I can't wait to have 50 Wolverines running around!

[Rocker75]

This doesn't seem to be a reboot. Which is good as I don't want one of those.

As a total Marvel Zombie I will be getting this and I do hope to enjoy it. But:

A) Battleworld looks rubbish. The MU is great because of the recognisable locations. A sci-if crazy planet does not appeal at all (loved Secret Wars back in the day but nobody (except Ben Grimm) really wanted to stay).
B) If this is just a lame way to resurrect a bunch of characters or leave us with multiple Wolverines (or whoever) kicking around then that's also dull.

[mails24]

I have to say that I don't really like Axel's reign at Marvel. Comic prices have increased, variant covers have increased, number of titles have increased, titles are constantly being "All New" (cancelled 7 relaunched with new numbering) and now he is taking the collective Marvel Universes (and the continuity of each) and mixing it all up to make it more confusing. As a long time Marvel fan who has collected comics for over 20 years and currently reads about 15 Marvel titles, I think this might be my time to exit the Marvel universe.

[Sirzechs]

Nice try but whether they want to admit it or not its a reboot, its the same thing as COIE and Flashpoint, when the world merged in COIE, Earth one retained large portions of its history, E2 characters were embedded into the timeline as if they were presented there in the past, and duplicates were killed off and erased.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

I know it's the "cool" thing to do to go on internet message boards and complain about stuff that hasn't come out yet, so I'll bite. This has disaster written all over it. The basically are taking all continuity/universes, throwing it in a mixing bowl and seeing what comes out of it as a result. Explains why they have done the things they have in the last 1-2 years: Killing Wolverine & The Watcher, New Captain America (Black) & Thor (losing his arm), ending Fantastic Four, Avengers, etc. Marvel has a dismal record when it comes to line-wide crossovers (Civil War & House of M being the two good ones IMO). That coupled with the fact that Axis was a complete mess and it only dealt with about 2/3 of the Marvel characters, I can't see this actual event making any sense. I think I'll just skip this and catch up with the aftermath if it interests me. My guess is that they will bring back Wolverine, re-superserum Cap, re-endow Thor, form a new Fantastic Four and do the obvious and bring Miles Morales to the new universe. I can't wait to have 50 Wolverines running around!

I can't wait to have 50 Wolverines running around! Me neither