Marvel NOW's New Creative Teams

We’ve talked about this Marvel NOW thing before, and the rest of the internet is full of theories and rumors as to who’s doing what. Last week Marvel helped to put a good chunk of those rumors to bed with several images which we’ll get to in a second. First I want to talk about this whole thing, is it just me or does this feel like a poor mans New 52? They’re rebooting or at the very least renumbering half their books and switching creative teams around to try and drive life back into the books. Isn’t that almost the exact same thing DC did a year ago? Regardless some of these changes have me interested and others I couldn’t care less about, come November I think a lot of comic shops are going to see a shift in what books their regulars are picking up. Whether that’s good or bad we’ll just have to wait and see.

So lets talk about the images, if you’ve been on the internet in the last week you’ve probably already seen these, but we’re going to talk about them a little more here. So first up lets go with this one

I don’t read any of the Hulk books, and I’m probably not going to start, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a pretty cool team. Mark Waid has been killing it with Daredevil (another book I don’t follow, but the few issues I have read were great). He’s also got a whole digital distribution thing going on with some creator owned books, Waid is quite the busy guy. And working along side him is Leinil Francis Yu who is pretty popular for events but doesn’t do a lot of on going series so this should be pretty cool. Unfortunately it also means his work on creator owned stuff with Mark Millar will end up being delayed. Overall this seems like a pretty good pairing, and if you’re a Hulk fan definitely a book worth checking out.

Next up we’ll look at the team who’ll be taking over for everyone’s favorite Merc with a Mouth

The first thing about this image is the tag, Chimichangas. I love this, every other teaser is more powerful example of the hero, invincible, indestructible, family, but not Deadpool no he likes Chimichangas. That kind of sets the tone for what we can expect from this book. Writing duties are going to Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan, and most of you are probably wondering who the hell those guys are. Well Duggan writes for G4, mostly Attack of the Show and has some other credits to his name as well. Posehn on the other hand you’d probably recognize even if you don’t know his name, he’s a comedian and has been in movies and TV. Deadpool is a funny character, whether he’s being a goof or a deranged killer he’s generally pretty funny. That said selecting two guys with comedic backgrounds to write this book is a genius move, so long as they can continue to develop the character and not just have each page full of one liners and 4th wall breaking. On art we’ve got Tony Moore, the only thing I really know him from is Venom of which he’s done a handful of issues, and they’re generally pretty good. Not the best, but hopefully he finds the right way to portray Deadpool.

Our third image is for a book that we’re not sure about and I’ll tell you why below

So why didn’t I just say this was for X-Men Legacy? Because honestly I’m not sure, no one really is. It’s not confirmed if that’s going to be a book after Marvel NOW starts or not. The X line is getting shaken up pretty bad and there’s no telling what’s going to make it through. Odds are this will be part of the mutant-centric books but whether it’ll be X-Men Legacy is something we’ll need to wait for. As for the creative team, Simon Spurrier and Tan Eng Huat are pretty unknown to me. I did some research and unfortunately I haven’t read a single thing Spurrier has done so I can’t really give you an opinion. I did see some examples of Huats artwork though and I like it, so at the very least it might be worth checking out for the art.

The next teaser is brought to you by the letter ‘W’

This is both awesome and disappointing, Thor is a fun character and Jason Aaron is a great writer. Add Esad Ribic to the mix and you’ve got a good recipe for a comic book. So why am I disappointed? Well Aaron is currently writing Wolverine and the X-Men and hopefully continues to do that even after picking up Thor. If he leaves though, that book will definitely suffer. On the bright side for Thor fans assuming this is for The Mighty Thor, Aaron is a great replacement for departing Matt Fraction.

Can you guess what’s next?

Captain America is getting a new team, Ed Brubaker has been on Cap since 2005. He gave us the Winter Soldier, got us through Civil War, and helped bring Steve Rogers back from the dead (again). All runs come to an end eventually though, and it’s time for someone new to pick up the shield. Who better to do that than Rick Remender, if you’ve read Venom or Secret Avengers lately you know this guy can do soldiers, and a Captain America book is just different enough from those others that we’re bound to see some interesting stuff from Mr. Remender. The problem I have is the artist choice, John Romita Jr. If you’re familiar with this site you know I’m not a fan, I think he’s held on this pedestal because of his dad and his artwork just doesn’t make it. He’s not a bad artist, way better than I could ever be, but that doesn’t mean he should be doing big action books like Captain America.

The next image is for the newest book on the list

FF was originally only going to run until Fantastic Four 600 picked up, but the book did so well that they decided to keep it. And now with Jonathan Hickman heading off to bigger and better things this title, along with Fantastic Four are left empty. Fear not though, as the image above declared Matt Fraction will be taking over. So all you FF fans out there worried for the books future, knock it off you’re in good hands with Mr. Fraction. The artist for the book will be Mike Allred, who I haven’t seen a ton of work from, what I have is good but it does have kind of an older feel too it.

We’ve only got two more teasers left, and this is the one that I found most interesting.

Like FF, The Fantastic Four is getting a new team as well, and like FF the writer is Matt Fraction. I’ve already said that he’s a great writer so not much else needs to be said for him. The exciting thing is the artist will be Mark Bagley. I’m a big fan of his and this may be what gets me picking up Fantastic Four for an extended period. I was planning on picking it up for the last few issues of Hickmans run for the artist on it Ryan Stegman. But now with Fraction and Bagley officially taking over I may just keep buying the book.

And finally

Obviously with all the books Fraction is doing now, he wasn’t going to be on Iron Man much longer. And with the crazy shipping rate recently it only makes sense that he’s wraping things up from his long run on the book. Taking over for him and Larocca will be Uncanny X-Men team Kieron Gillen and Greg Land. I’ve been reading Uncanny and it’s a fun book, every issue isn’t a hit but enough of it keeps me wanting more so I keep coming back. With these guys going over to Iron Man I’m really excited. I like how Gillen characters work, and with such a smaller core cast than an X-Men book he will hopefully shine.

So that’s all the teasers so far, In the coming weeks I’m sure we’re going to start hearing more about these titles and more. One that I’m waiting for is Amazing Spider-Man, will Dan Slott be continuing his run or is someone else going to be taking over. I’m hoping for Slott, his run has been amazing and it would be sad to seem him end it.

So what are your thoughts on all this stuff, good or bad let us know in the comments!

Chris talks a bunch on PodQuest each week. He's also been known to write about stuff from time to time. You can Email Chris or follow Chris on Twitter @Just_Cobb or Facebook

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