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Hello! Welcome to Wednesday! It's New Comic Book Day once again, and so it's time for another Waffle. And after last week's rather opinionated Editorial we have some actual items of news for you this week - about which more later. Obviously you still can't come to the shop, but if you want to see what came in for today just click HERE - there's a bunch of new series starting this week, so you might find something new to help you while away those locked down days.
While you're at it you might like to take a look at what's we're expecting to drop in April by clicking HERE - I mean, hopefully restrictions will have eased by then, but we're not counting our chickens, there's a good chance that we won't be physically open until May or June so we might as well get used to the online world for now.
Anyway. Here is the news...
HEROES REBORN AGAIN!
It seems like a lifetime ago when Marvel turned it's major titles over to Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld for a year. (It was actually an event that lasted across the last few months of 1996 and the first few months of 1997 - so for some of you it is a lifetime ago). The result was Heroes Reborn, a sort of softish reboot allowing for a re-alignment of what was then a company in deep trouble.
Many of you are far too young to remember the mid-nineties, but it was a time before the financial security Marvel currently enjoys under the wing of Disney. The speculator bubble that had dominated the early part of the decade had well and truly burst leaving Marvel all but bankrupt. There were genuine concerns that the company might actually go under. Heroes Reborn was a desperate attempt to generate some kind of interest that would boost sales.
I have to be honest - as a reader I'd bailed on Marvel a couple of years before. I had no interest in anything they were publishing - the only character they had that I cared about back then was Spider-Man and the Clone Saga had finished me off. So the whole thing passed me by - I'd have thought, though, that it was a chapter in their history that the company would prefer to draw a line under and never think of again.
Shows what I know, because they're having another go! They dropped this trailer last week:
This time the idea is that Blade finds himself in a reality where The Avengers never existed. Now we have some more details.
In this world, Wakanda is a myth. Thor is an atheist. Tony Stark never built robot armour. Captain America never came out of the ice and so far as the world is concerned he died in the Second World War. And of course this means that the characters who are kinda second string in the 616 Universe have their moment to shine - no Avengers doesn't mean no super-heroes after all.
In this reality The Squadron Supreme of America (in no way a Justice League rip off, sorry homage...) have filled the role as protectors of the planet - only Blade remembers the Marvel Universe that we are familiar with.
Coming in May, Reborn #1 will introduce this different world, Squardon Supreme of America and their pantheon of villains, including Dr. Juggernaut, Black Skull, Silver Witch and of course Thanos wielding his Infinity Rings.
The second issue will focus on Hyperion, the "Super Sentinel of Liberty", facing off against Victor Von Doom, Ultron, and the Immortal Hulk.
Issue #3 will concentrate on speedy sorcery as Blur races through the Dread Dimension in an attempt to preserve his immoral soul from the supersonic spells of the Silver Witch.
The Fourth and final issue turns its attention to Doctor Spectrum, wielding the cosmic energy of his Power Prism - power which has made him the most feared law enforcer in the whole of space. But can he handle the most notorious bounty hunter in the Galaxy? Can he deal with the legendary Rocket Raccoon?
Now. You know me. I'm cynical as all heck about "event" comics. But Jason Aaron, the writer responsible for some of the best Star Wars comics ever, and my favourite ever run of The Mighty Thor (yes, the one when Jane Foster took the hammer) is at the helm. In a press release he said that this is:
“Maybe the wildest story I've ever put on paper. I got to cut loose on this and release my inner comic-reared child in a really profound way, and together with a cadre of immensely imaginative artists, we built a world that I'm pretty confident in saying is quite unlike any version of the Marvel Universe you've seen before. It grew out of the pages of my Avengers run, but kept getting bigger and bigger as it went, and the more pieces I put in place for this Reborn world, the more gleeful and excited I became. This project really stoked the fires of my love for comics in all the right ways.”
So I guess we'll see. More detail as and when we get it.
COMEDY BATMAN PODCAST COMING FROM HBO MAX
Batman: the Audio Adventures will be a comedic interpretation of the Caped Crusader, with Jeffrey Wright upgrading his role as Commissioner Gordon in the forthcoming The Batman movie to voicing the Batman himself. More than that we cannot say, because there is little info on the project as we type so stay tuned for more details as we get them.
Have to say, there was a time when I would have hated the idea of a Batman comedy. There was a time when I thought that the Adam West and Burt Ward show from the sixties was an abomination. I was wrong about that too...
To be honest I think it might be quite refreshing to get a take on the Bat that isn't in the Frank Miller grimdark tradition that has dominated the character since the eighties. Adam West showed us that it can be done, so we'll watch this one with interest.
And that's it for this week. We'll be back on Sunday with the next "What's on the Rack?" and of course we'll be Waffling on again next Wednesday. In the meantime you can catch us on whichever Social Media platform you prefer (unless it's Snapchat WhatsApp or TicToc. I'm nearly fifty and am simply too old for those) and you can email us any time.
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