Hello! I’m feeling ambitious today, so I’m starting a new column. (I also wrote a review of a comic called Wolf’s Head #4, you can read that next if you haven’t yet.)
So, if any of you are readers of my other column, This Week in Marvel Unlimited, you may have noticed that I usually say that I’m looking forward to reading something… someday. There’s a reason for that.
Back during the publicity push for Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel I thought it would be interesting to go read Marvel Comics’ crossover event “Secret Invasion.” That storyline dealt heavily with the Skrulls, and the Skrulls were going to play a big part in Captain Marvel. Since all of Secret Invasion is on Marvel Unlimited, I figured, why not check it out?
Then I thought, why not check out other crossovers that I never fully read before? So with some major help from a site called Comic Book Herald I went all the way back to Avengers Disassembled (July 2004) and started reading massive Marvel crossovers.
Several “events” later, I read Secret Invasion. After that, the next big thing was “Dark Reign”. Thanks to his highly publicized actions during “Secret Invasion”, Norman “Green Goblin” Osbourne becomes top cop in the United States, and by extension, the world. The thing is, “Dark Reign” wasn’t really a crossover. It was a line-wide direction.
So, I started reading pretty much every Marvel Comic that interested me, month to month. And I’ve kept going like that ever since.
If you listen to our podcast, I usually update our listeners as to where I’m at whenever we record. Last night I finished off July, 2011, and filled up my MU library with stuff I wanted to read from August. I’m averaging two months of comics for every month of real time. Which means I should be catching up to “current time” sometime around 2027. 😀 I realize that may seem slow to everyone, but I’m reading a lot of books! The list for August currently stands at 55 books, and will likely grow. How so? Let me explain.
For most of the books, which are ongoing, I will read an issue, and then add the next issue of the run to my library. So, when I finish off a month, most of the next month’s books are already in there. I use the browsing screen (Marvel Unlimited’s app has a great feature where you can browse by publication date) to add in anything else like one-shots or new books.
The thing is, some of the books (I’m looking at Amazing Spider-Man in particular) were being published more than once a month. I don’t have all the ASM issues for August in my library right now… they’ll be added one at a time as I get to them. So I’m not sure the final count for August. If people are curious enough, let me know and I’ll do it the harder way and find out. (Yes, I am trolling for comments. Sue me! 😀 )
A minimum of 55 comics are going to take me some time. We’re talking well over a thousand pages of comics. That’s why I’m only managing two months per month of real time. (I can’t spend all my time on Marvel Unlimited. I don’t want to burn out, plus there’s too many other things I need to do. 😀 )
So, what am I reading in August, 2011? It’s dominated by two events: Fear Itself and Spider-Island.
I find it amusing that I’m reading Fear Itself right now. Fear Itself was a big event that was an odd mix of Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run and Thor. The plot is this: Sin, the Red Skull’s daughter, awakens the Asgardian Fear God called the Serpent. The Serpent summons seven hammers to change people into his old servants, the Worthy. Each hammer bestows Thor-level power. The world starts spiraling into terror, and all the heroes have to cope.
The reason I’m amused that I’m reading this is because right now, another big Asgardian inspired crossover, War of the Realms, is being added to Marvel Unlimited week-by-week. So while I read one big Asgardian crossover I know another big Asgardian crossover is waiting for me at the (current) end of the line. 😀 August, 2011 has issue #5 of Fear Itself and a whole bunch of crossover titles. So it’s starting to come to a crescendo (Fear Itself was a 7 issue LS.)
Spider-Island is the first big event of Dan Slott’s amazing (pun intended) run of Amazing Spider-Man. I’d always heard good things about Slott’s run, and I gotta say, I’m really enjoying reading the beginnings of it.
What else is there? Well, on the X-Men side there’s the Schism storyline that set up a new status quo for that corner of the MU. By the time its over Wolverine & Cyclops will go their separate ways and each take a bunch of X-Men with them.
I’m reading a number of books from Greg Pak & Fred VanLente: Incredible Hulks, Herc, and Alpha Flight. Mark Waid’s run on Daredevil started in July, so I’m looking forward to issue #2. These are all really, really fun comics; comics that successfully mix humour with drama. I highly recommend them. And I’m continuing with the Bendis-era Avengers books. For the most part I’m enjoying them, although the work isn’t nearly as strong as what Bendis did on Ultimate Spider-Man.
And with that, I’m going to call it a day on this column. The next one will come out when (you guessed it!) I get to September, 2011. I’m still feeling my way here, figuring out how to make this an interesting read. I hope you’ll stick with me while I do. At least I won’t have to repeat all the exposition next time! 😀 😀 😀