Podcasts: Marvel Slate Explored in "Permission to Kill Thanos"

Marvel finally formally announced all of those long-rumored new films they've been circling - The Inhumans, Black Panther, Captain Marvel (not in that order) - and gave us a timeline for stuff like Doctor Strange, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War. In this episode of Giant Size, host Moises Chiullan and myself go after the starting points for people interested in these characters and storylines. We also dust off an interview with Captain Marvel writer Kelly Sue DeConnick, who discusses the importance of heroes like Carol Danvers.

Listen along here or subscribe to Giant Size via iTunes.

The conversation continues directly into Infinity Gauntlet spoiler territory in an episode of Test Pattern. Moises and I talk about where the line might be drawn between Avengers 3 and 4 and why the Marvel announcements draw more optimism than the Warners/DC announcements.

Listen along here or subscribe to Test Pattern via iTunes.

The Trophy Room: Frankenstein, Captain Marvel, and Talking Cats

Hello, folks. I've asked Jacob Hall to come up with a regular feature, and this is it, in its inaugural form - The Trophy Room. Jacob is a writer for Screencrush.com and Movies.com, and a lover of storytelling in all of its forms. With The Trophy Room, he'll give weekly awards to the comics that he thinks stand out.

Welcome to the Trophy Room, where I'll recap my week in comics through arbitrary awards. Everyone's a winner! Unless you're a loser. And then you're probably not a winner. Sorry.

Hickman-iest Comic of the Week: New Avengers #2

The second issue of New Avengers has everything you'd expect from a comic penned by Jonathan Hickman: a few dramatically blank (wasted) pages, lots and lots of dialogue that's bound to pay off three times over in twenty issues and a villainous scheme so complex that it literally requires Mr. Fantastic to pull a Doc Brown and draw a diagram to explain it to the rest of the Illuminati (and the reader). This book certainly isn't going to win over Hickman's detractors, but if you like your superhero stories decompressed and filled with all kinds of nutty hard science fiction, well…then you really should be reading New Avengers.

Unadorned variant cover to Savage Wolverine #1, art by Milo Manara. Marvel Comics.

Least Hickman-iest Comic of the Week: Savage Wolverine #1

On the opposite end of the spectrum from New Avengers, you'll find writer/artist Frank Cho's Savage Wolverine, which manages to squeeze a ridiculous amount of action and momentum into its debut issue. I'm not enough of a Wolverine fan to pick up issue two (I hugely prefer Jason Aaron's silly take on the character over the every-popular growling badass), but this is a perfectly fine book that's going to please fans of the character and satisfy those who hungering to see Wolverine snikt his way through legions of baddies.

Best Use of a Talking Cat: Saga #9

What's up with talking cats becoming the break-out characters in my favorite books? Socks, the Animal Totem turned house cat over in Jeff Lemire's Animal Man, is somehow one of the best characters currently inhabiting the DC universe, but he's got stiff competition in this category from Lying Cat over in Image's Saga. The sidekick/companion of the mercenary known as The Will, Lying Cat is able to detect whenever a character is lying, no matter how petty the mis-truth. It's no exaggeration to say that I laugh out loud each and every time Lying Cat makes an appearance, so I was more than happy to spend an issue away from the series' protagonists and get to know The Will and his world a little better. This issue doesn't get the Comic of the Week award only because this series would win that honor every time it comes out and that's just not fair.

Best Horror Comic Disguised as a Batman Comic: Batman #16

There are parts of me that are deeply uncomfortable with Scott Snyder's Batman, mainly because I can't help but imagine an eight-year-old Batfan picking up an issue and being traumatized for life. But I'll just have to get over that because Snyder and artist Greg Capullo have turned Batman into one helluva horror comic, albeit one starring the Caped Crusader. Although the "Death of the Family" arc has been consistently unsettling, issue #16 is a special brand of grotesque, following Batman as he navigates an Arkham Asylum that's been completely taken over by the Joker. Readers looking for more friendly Batman adventures should check out John Layman's exceptional Detective Comics - Snyder's is a comic for grown-ups with strong stomachs.

Cover to Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #16, art by Alberto Ponticelli. DC Comics.

Most Confounding Final Issue For a Series That's Been Unceremoniously Cancelled: Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #16

Despite being one of the most consistently entertaining titles on the stands, Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. is no more and its final issue is baffling, to say the very least. That doesn't mean it's bad, per se, it just means that it ignores everything that went down in the past couple of issues, leaps backwards in time, revives a bunch of dead characters and tells a story set prior to the events of the "Rotworld" crossover event. I get why this happened - it lets the series end with our titular hero and his Creature Commandos triumphant - but it feels wrong, especially since the whole "Rotworld" thing is still ongoing over in Swamp Thing and Animal Man, leaving Frankenstein's side of the tale feeling woefully incomplete. This is a perfectly entertaining issue, but there's something quietly insulting about it. Instead of an actual ending, this final issue promises future adventures…which we'll never get. Because the series is canceled. Delightful.

Runner-Up Comic of the Week: Daredevil #22

Fact: there is no superhero book on the stands better than Daredevil. Mark Waid and Chris Samnee continue to tell the ever-pitch dark story of Matt Murdoch without wallowing in grime, walking the finest of fine lines between fun and morbid. Daredevil is telling a story about damaged people at the end of their ropes, but it's still, somehow, an absolute joy and pleasure to read. Bonus points for Waid's take on the Superior Spider-man, which made me realize that character is going to be genuinely hilarious as he navigates the dense Marvel Universe.

Comic of the Week: Captain Marvel #9

For its first eight issues, Kelly Sue DeConnick's Captain Marvel has been a consistently entertaining series with a solid grasp on its characters and fun (if not especially memorable) conflicts. Well, something went wonderfully right with issue #9 and the result isn't just good: it's Matt Fraction's Hawkeye and Waid's Daredevil good. Instead of sending Carol Danvers on another journey through time and having her fight another giant robot, DeConnick sends the former Ms. Marvel on her most interesting adventure to date: a very, very busy day in New York City (drawn by Filipe Andrade, whose anime-influenced pencils are stunning). By keeping her on the streets instead of in the cosmos, DeConnick grounds Danvers and her conflicts, making scenes like a battle with two time-displaced dinosaurs somehow relatable (because it's going to make her late for her cat's vet appointment, you see). I don't know if this signals a major shift in the book's tone or if it's just a one-off, but consider me a big fan of this (pardon the pun) grounded Captain Marvel.

I Want My Marvel NOW: Fantastic Four #1, Avengers Assemble #9, Thor #1, and the X-Men!

It was a huge day for Marvel NOW today, as six titles came out under the "reboot that isn't a reboot" banner - four all-new books and two jump-on issues of existing titles. You can read about the previous Marvel NOW releases here. To recap, until today, I liked Deadpool the most, and even after today's haul, A+X remains the least satisfying of the bunch. Fantastic Four is near and dear to my heart. This is the comic series that first got me interested in comics. I watched the old cartoon with HERBIE - even watched the teen Ben Grimm TV show, the one with the "Thing Ring" - and because of Fantastic Four, the first comic book artist and writer I ever followed was John Byrne, whose landmark run in the 1980s is still looked up to as the second most definitive run on the book after Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. I've checked in on the book now and again over the years, but the only time I've had it on my pull list recently was under the care of Mark Waid and Mike Weiringo.

The good news is that Matt Fraction and Mark Bagley's Fantastic Four feels more like the spiritual successor to Waid's run than anything I've read since. Fraction lays down a new direction - the team are going to slip out of time and space for a bit to teach their children practical lessons in inter-dimensional exploration (while Reed searches for a solution to a newly discovered physical problem he has; one that can't be solved on Earth), but the tone is highly reminiscent of Waid's. There's good-natured humor, comfortable characterization, and an air of anything-goes unpredictability that hints at future greatness.

Bagley seems to be trying something a little different with his art style. There are hints of Alan Davis (or Bryan Hitch by way of Alan Davis, who was obviously an influence on Hitch), but I'm not sure that those kind of larger open panels, with more detail, serve Bagley well. I'd almost rather see him swing the other direction - stripping away his linework to get down to efficient cartooning - but that's Monday morning quarterbacking on my part. Admittedly, I've never been a Bagley fan, though my opinion of his work has mellowed over the past twenty years (when he replaced Larsen on Amazing Spider-Man, I was one sad Spidey fan). He's a workhorse, and that's admirable.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes. I'm in. It'll be nice to read this Fantastic Four every month.

Avengers Assemble is the Avengers book that's supposed to best match the Avengers movie. The thinking here is that someone interested in the team can buy this book and get the characters they expect, behaving pretty much the same way that Joss Whedon made them behave in the blockbuster. It's the movie tie-in that isn't a movie tie-in. Brian Michael Bendis, already stretched thin writing two Avengers titles, always seemed like an odd choice for this series, and I was curious how Kelly Sue DeConnick (currently the fastest rising star in comics) would approach the book, knowing that she'd be adding a couple of characters from outside the movie roster (Spider-Woman and Capt. Marvel).

Well, she approached it like DeMatteis/Giffen's Justice League, which I don't think I've ever seen applied to Avengers before. The book's number one goal seems to be amusement, with adventure bringing up the rear. It's a very playful take on the team. DeConnick writes Tony Stark as Robert Downey Jr. straight-up, not even pretending not to (Gillen walks a finer line in the Iron Man monthly, reviewed here). If you're an Iron Man purist, you might wrinkle your nose, but if you love the Iron Man films, this is the Stark you know.

Heck, if you loved the Avengers movie, this is the book for you. DeConnick seems to be capturing an overall spirit of what she enjoyed about the film (the chemistry between the crew), not tied to servicing specific movie nods like making sure Black Widow or Hawkeye show up (they don't). Stefano Castelli is called on to do a variety of facial expressions more than big action (just like Kevin Maguire did on Justice League), and he's a better match with DeConnick's sensibilities than Dexter Soy is with her on Captain Marvel.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes, but not monthly. Not yet.  It's so, so close though. I think I need some reassurance from Marvel that this is a book they actually care about, not just a (well-written and entertaining) movie supplement. I need to know that this book is going places.

Thor: God of Thunder sort of shocked me with how good it is. It has the same doomed campfire tale feel as Conan comics have, and the art is really phenomenal. I love Jason Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men, and pretty much hated Aaron's Hulk, so I had no idea what to expect with this book. Aaron sets up the story of a mystery godkiller who has affected Thor's life across three different eras. The book eschews superheroics for hard fantasy, and benefits greatly because of it. Not all ice cream should be vanilla.

Dean White is giving Esad Ribic's art a beautiful painted feel, and the team is already indispensable to this title. Often, art this good can't be maintained on a month-to-month basis, and my one hope for the book is that it finds a way to always look this good as it continues. Aaron's writing is solid, but this is really a "perfect storm" book - where the art and the words work together to create an exemplary final package. One piece of it is not more important nor more impressive than the other.

I can't believe I'll be buying a Thor book on a monthly basis, but there you have it.

I'd mentioned Wolverine and the X-Men as a book I already enjoy, but issue #19 is the first to bear the Marvel NOW name. What does that mean for new readers? The same thing it means for old readers, turns out. There's big shake-ups going on at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, and #19, while not a new direction, introduces new dynamics and fresh storylines for the future of the book. The gimmick here, if you haven't read it, is that Wolverine has started a school in Jean Grey's name to educate young mutants and let the kids be kids instead of X-Men-in-training. Wolverine is a presence in the title, but the book is really an ensemble piece, with Kitty Pryde and Beast sharing the spotlight with the eclectic student body.

#19 is literally packed with cameos from all across the Marvel Universe, heavy on the humor, and if you try this issue and don't like it, you're probably not going to like the series. Kitty's looking for a new teacher, Wolverine and Beast are assisting a comatose alien student, and something is simmering between Husk (who may be crazy) and Toad (who may be bitter). If you like your books fun, this is a fun one. I'd also recommend it to old fans of Generation X. The spirit of that book lives on in this one.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yep! Month after month! Been reading since #1.

Probably the most hyped book in the Marvel NOW launch is All-New X-Men #1, and it's the most traditionally X-Men flavored of the three X-books this week (which makes sense, as this one and Uncanny X-Men are the flagships of the X-brand). Bendis's first issue feels dense, which is a welcome change for that particular writer, and he's assisted by career-best artwork from Stuart Immonen (with inks by Wade Von Grawbadger).

In the aftermath of Avengers Vs. X-Men (AVX), Cyclops has distanced himself from Xavier's dream of a peaceful mutant/human cohabitation. Instead, he's allied with former villains White Queen and Magneto, and he's scooping up as many mutants as he can as part of a militant mutant agenda. The X-Men are, of course, concerned about Cyclops basically becoming the next Magneto, so Beast concocts a kooky plan that involves going back in time and bringing the Cyclops from the past to the the present day to talk some sense into his future self.

It's all sort of ridiculous in a big comic book way, but, damned if it isn't entertaining. Bendis only seems to operate under the desire to create definitive runs of whatever book he's working on (the success of those attempts can be argued), and while it's way too early to start throwing words like "definitive" around, you at least know that this is a writer with plans.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes, it's going on the pull list. I want to know what happens next.

X-Men Legacy #1 has an uphill battle ahead. I don't think anyone is a fan of Legion aka David Haller, the psycho son of Professor Charles Xavier, but if there is a fan out there, they're in luck. Legion has his own solo book now.

And it's not bad, but it's not an easy sell. In the first issue, Legion's multiple personalities are being extinguished under the training of someone called Guru Merzah, until Legion gets a psychic vision of what Cyclops did to his father at the end of AVX, and all of his training goes out the window. This is the oddest book yet in the Marvel NOW launch, feeling far removed from the Marvel U, with just a dash of psychotronic Vertigo flavor. I'm not even sure how it got past the pitch stage, but kudos to the X-editors for taking a chance.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? No, but this is a book that deserves a shot. Writer Simon Spurrier's doing weird stuff in here, and I'm not sure how this series will sustain past 4 or 5 issues. The only way it could sustain is to get even weirder, and if that's where it goes, I could see this becoming a cult favorite. This has an audience. It isn't me, but I hope it finds its people.

NEXT WEEK: Rick Remender and John Romita Jr. on Captain America #1 and Mark Waid and Francis Leinil Yu on The Indestructible Hulk #1.