Comic Book Thread: Combined for greatness

[Delirium]

Just read Secret Wars. I'm going to need a mop.

[Krandor]

Secret Wars question

Spoiler: show

Ok so, T'Challa, Reed/Sue, and the Future Foundation remember everything, do Miles and Doom also know? Also I see that Miles mom is alive again

And is this effectively saying that everything up to the start of Hickman's Avengers run still happened, but it's a reboot from that point on? Fuck I'm kinda confused at some of this stuff

And oh man, that page of Doom/Reed's faces together was incredible.

[Krandor]

I've been at work piecing everything together in my head, and with Secret Wars now concluded I'm seeing how this is all still directly connected to Fantastic Four : Dark Reign.

And goddamn is that a fascinating payoff. I'm gonna write up some mini essay later for my own satisfaction when I have a keyboard and I'm not typing on my phone.

Also, I saw that Miles now speaks in all caps like the 616 always has, but the Maker still speaks in upper/lower case.

[Kaslo]

I just want to spend all day discussing Secret Wars 9... Also, must keep a burger in my pants at all times just in case.

[Kaslo]

[Vagrant]

Spoiler: show

A Future Foundation exploring and creating the new universe titles could be pretty interesting to do

[Kaslo]

I kind of has to happen now lol

[tyven]

I DONT UNDERSTAND A SINGLE THING THAT HAPPENED IN SW9

this video better explain it!

[Krandor]

I DONT UNDERSTAND A SINGLE THING THAT HAPPENED IN SW9

this video better explain it!

Video covers it pretty well, though there's definitely still some things that are unclear.

Spoiler: show

From reading on some forums I think the general consensus is that most of what Marvel was publishing up to Secret Wars is still in effect, though Time Runs Out (and it's associated 8 month jump) never happened. We know that the incursions and the Illuminati's actions were still a thing due to the Squadron Supreme series and the fact that Reed and the FF are having to rebuild existence. My main question is how Miles and the Maker fit into the new timeline, since that's the big change we see going forward. Miles knows what happened (and now speaks in all caps 616 style), but the Maker knows something is different about reality and is now the only person who speaks in Upper/Lower Case like everyone did in the Ultimate Universe.

Anyways, about FF : Dark Reign and how this all ties together (really short version and kinda sloppy since I condensed a lot of my thoughts)

Spoiler: show

As is obvious, Hickman's entire run, even when he was handling the Avengers, is all about Reed, and to a lesser extent Doom. The Dark Reign series revolved around Reed wanting to "Solve Everything" and eventually coming to the conclusion that the only way to do so was to act independently, because other people getting involved ruins his plans/goals. This leads to the whole Council of Reeds, which eventually gets fucked up at the same time Reed realizes that his family is actually the driving force behind everything he does, and without them he his nothing. His family has to get involved to help provide the solution to his problems and right the wrongs. We also see that for all his knowledge and ability, he still lacks the driving focus and determination to pull the trigger on some things. Hence, All Hope Lies In Doom. Doom's involvement in Fantastic Four/FF was the thing needed to save Reed and his family. This teaches Reed the importance of needing other people involved, to provide various checks/balances and for those capable of doing what he could not.

Moving on to Avengers/New Avengers, it's a similar situation except now expanded with the Illuminati. The same core issue presented to Reed is now present among all the members of the Illuminati, believing that they are the only ones fit to make the decisions needed to preserve existence. But once again they lack what is needed to fix the problem, and just like before, All Hope Lies In Doom. Doom saves all of reality, but like many times before with him, he is blinded by his personal issues. It effectively becomes an inverse of what happened in Fantastic Four, where Doom needed to step in to set things right. Here Reed plays the role of" Doom, destroyer of worlds... What gods dare stand against me?" Reed has to step in to provide the needed spark, and instead of taking absolute control and acting independently (as he assumed was the answer following Dark Reign), he has learned that he needs a guiding hand so he doesn't repeat the mistakes of the past. But in contrast to the previous situations where he separated the decisions from his family (Civil War, Secret Invasion, Council of Reeds, etc), he now has his family as the primary catalyst of his endeavor.

In the end, Reed did finally solve problem #101, but as opposed to its initial presentation where its on the wall in his isolation room, he has progressed and come to the realization that solving things on his own separate from his family is not how things should be done. Fully learning to embrace his own nature while integrating it with his family has family presented him with the means to Solve Everything.

[Zealot]

What a perfect comic book. What a simply perfect comic book.

Plenty of questions coming out of Secret Wars #9, but it all has to do with post-SW stuff. Everything about the issue was flawless.

[Zealot]

Okay, I've had more time to absorb it now. What a perfect ending to that story.

However, coming out of it -

Spoiler: show

From the ending we can take it that the entire Time Run Outs and Everything Dies stories never happened, since it starts back with New Avengers #1 and this time (Hickman is a genius) everything lives. But people have referenced the fact that there was some universal upheaval, but then the universe didn't end. And Miles, at least, seems to remember the Molecule Man and Battleworld, as do, presumably, Black Panther, Doom, and Reed. The Maker, however, has only the sense that this universe is different. The Iso-8 thing in Ultimates and Contest of Champions also clues us in that a lot of people know that there was some sort of shift from "universe 7" to "universe 8."

Also, if Squadron Supreme can be believed, SOMETHING happened that still caused worlds to die, leaving each of those without a home and, for some reason, Namor still destroyed the new Doctor Spectrum's world. So despite no incursions, some worlds still died.

Finally, I can't tell you how brilliant Panther's Infinity Gauntlet was. What happened the last time they used it in the Marvel U? Every gem except the Time Gem was destroyed. What does T'Challa use to escape Battleworld and give everything a second chance? God, this was set up so beautifully. Every delay was worth the payoff.

[Krandor]

Thinks it's far enough into the day to not have to spoil stuff.

Just saying that I think with the new timeline I'm 90% positive the incursions happened, at least to some degree. Otherwise there's no reason for what happens in Squadron Supreme and for Reed doing his thing.

I'm pretty sure everything up until the time jump happened, and even then we see that alot of it is still in effect (Sunspot buying AIM being one of the big ones)

[grantlogan]

I believe that incursions also remained after the semi reboot. I'm late but holy guacamole, did you see Squadron Supreme killed Namor?

[6souls]

Fantastic Four on long-term hiatus

Marvel Comics executive editor Tom Brevoort confirmed in a new interview that over the course of the new Secret War miniseries, one of the end goals for Marvel was to come up with a way to shelve the Fantastic Four. Said Breevoort, "at a certain point, we set out [in Secret Wars] to do the last Fantastic Four story, at least for the time being...we didn't necessarily start with that as the original goal."

He further explained, "Fantastic Four has been one of those books that, for a number of years, has been effectively taken for granted. It's been considered stodgy, or old school, or some people see it as a thing that's there and people are comfortable because it's there, but they're not particularly passionate about it. So we're not going to have that book for a while."

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansit...news/?a=129969
http://www.comicbookresources.com/ar...arvel-universe

[Zealot]

Yes, and that is the only reason.

If they had to be put to bed, I'm just happy it was with this story. What a send-off.

[Kaslo]

Yes, and that is the only reason.

If they had to be put to bed, I'm just happy it was with this story. What a send-off.

James Robinson's run also was a good love letter to Fantastic Four too, the combination of that and Secret Wars is about the perfect sendoff.

[Krandor]

Looking at sales charts for 2015, Marvel had 40 of the top 50 selling issues of the year.

Star Wars absolutely dominated in sales along with Secret Wars and alot of the #1s

[Kaslo]

Looking at sales charts for 2015, Marvel had 40 of the top 50 selling issues of the year.

Star Wars absolutely dominated in sales along with Secret Wars and alot of the #1s

To be fair, a lot of issues this year were skewed due to Lootcrate.

[Delirium]

Coworker and I had an interesting conversation over lunch today. Who do you believe is the best "world builder" that currently writes comic books?

[RalphTheDwarf]

I'm in a bit of a pinch and I apologize if this isn't the appropriate topic for this. I just got notice that my local comic shop is closing down for good and I need to find an alternative asap. I mainly get manga and a couple of smaller publisher comics like Gold Digger from Antarctic Press. I'm not having much luck finding any shops online that do mail order of this kind of thing. A google search for the latest issues don't turn up much other than pirated pdfs of the issues, and Amazon doesn't carry it. Any help is appreciated.