Inner Conflicts with Marvel

When it comes to comics, i have to have to FULL picture. Take DC Comics for example. With their New 52 format, they've re-started their entire universe. (If you don't know about the New 52, you could always check out my earlier posts... please? I've had like 3 views in the past week.) As it stands now, i read over half of DC's monthly releases. The titles i don't read monthly I buy in collected volumes. Basically I've read about 85% of DC's collective universe.
Marvel is a different story. I've always had mixed feelings for the title that the company publishes. the X-Men are great but there's like a million of them and there's always like 20 ongoing X-Men titles at any given time.

The series is so bogged down by continuity it's almost impossible to just pick up the series. Did you know there are two mutant schools now? Yeah. One ran by Cyclops and the other by Wolverine. That's right. The immortal, claw welding psychopath is now teaching children. But wait. Wolverine isn't immortal anymore because terrorists from a miniature universe decided to sap Wolverine's healing factor. Well at least the other school is taught by Cyclops, Professor  Xavier's star pupil. No way anything could go wrong the-

What was that? Cyclops is recently escaped from jail where he was imprisoned for allowing the Phoenix Force to inhabit the bodies of the X-Men and almost destroy the world a billionth time?

Great.

Spider-Man's okay too except no, not really. He's a 30 year old man who hops around New York City in bi-colored long-johns and who has more anxiety and depression then Hamlet. Don't get me wrong, Spider-Man is a great character and when he was younger (like high-school and college days) the costume choice and the forced witty humor made more sense. 

There hasn't been any growth in Spider-Man since he realized that "with great power there must also come great responsibility". And even then he allowed Gwen Stacey to get thrown off a building to her death. Because THAT'S responsible.  What Spider-Man needs is more character growth. More love and respect from those who write th-

What was that? Doctor Octopus switched his mind with Peter Parker's while Ock was on his death bed? So Parker's dead and the Good Doctor is now Spider-Man? The sad part is it's a great series. REALLY great. And it's all going to go down the drain. Everyone knows Peter Parker will come back. EVERYONE. So once he does we just go back to two years ago before any of this happened.

Then there are the classics: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, THE AVENGERS. The only problem with these characters is the movies that Marvel has been releasing. With the popularity of the movie franchises Marvel has been changing and upgrading their characters to better fit with the movies. I have two examples of this: Nick Fury and Phil Coulson.

In The Avengers Fury is played by the irreplaceable Sam Jackson. Well those of you who knew about Nick Fury before the movies probably know that he's an old Caucasian man in the comic books. (Except the Ultimate version, which is the one the movie based Fury off of.) Well now we have a white Fury and a Black Fury. Except no we don't, because that's confusing. Around the time that Marvel released Superior Spider-Man, Fury was rebooted as an African-American. I'm not the kind of guy to get upset over something like changing the race of a character (Miles Morales is a great Ultimate Spider-Man) but it is pretty confusing.

Then we have Coulson. Who died in the Avengers but not really. I guess he just got down-sized to a TV show or something? Now there's a Phil Coulson of the Ultimate Marvel universe and in the mainstream Marvel Universe. I don't even know what the guy is useful for at this point. 

Cancelled...

First off, those of you who aren't hip to The New 52, it is the "rebooted" DC Comic's universe. A little over 2 years ago DC decided to cancel every running title and restart with 52 new titles. Hence: New 52.

I've been a pretty big fan. A lot of the continuity problems were solved, the characters became more accessible, and hell, Cyborg became a founding member of the Justice League. Its hard to top that.
Well I've found out recently that a handful of these titles will be ended in April 2014.

These titles include: Justice League of America, Storm Watch, Superman Unchained, Teen Titans (perhaps the biggest blow),  Suicide Squad, and Nightwing.  All in all that is a devastating blow.  These are all titles I like and they've been given the axe.

It's not all storm clouds of sadness. As is often times the case, with death comes rebirth. There are several new titles being released: Aquaman and the Others, Justice League United, Secret Origins, and Sinestro!!!

It's a shame to see a lot of these titles go, but hopefully the new titles can help expand the New 52 Universe.