Oh boy… here we go again. To say that One More Day was a controversial Spider-Man story is like saying that Sarah Palin is just somewhat misguided about her political views. OMD brought the comic book world crashing to its knees and crushed the hopes and dreams of an entire generation of nerds. I mean, if Spidey’s marriage can’t survive a little meddling from the devil, what chance do any of us have? However, you are almost able to forgive Joe Quesada for the bastardization of Spidey canon (I don’t acknowledge that JMS had anything to do with that story) because Brand New Day has been, for the most part, an enjoyable ride. ASM has, since OMD, been a pretty damn good comic book. And to find that kind of consistency from a large group of writers working on one book, pushing it out 3 times a month, is rather astonishing.

And then Quesada decided to pick at that slowly healing scab. Enter One Moment In Time. Even the title brings up horrific, sleepless nights caused by OMD. But enough introduction. Let’s see how the first issue of this thing holds up.

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Mondo Marvel Panel

Hey everyone, Mike here reporting from Chicago. Nick and I covered some panels today, so look out for his DC Nation post sometime soon.

Today, though, I hit up the Mondo Marvel panel featuring Jim McCann, Mark Paniccia, Dan Slott, Jason Aaron, Sean McKeever, Chris Yost and Craig Kyle. There was a little bit of information at this panel, just a bit more than the Ultimate’s panel, but nonetheless it was informative. I took notes on my iPhone so if I missed some small stuff, I’m sorry.

The convention covered a bunch of things, but I’ll just spit it to you as I got it:

Dan Slott featured a teaser for his arc that will be coming up in Amazing Spider-Man featuring none other than Mysterio! (But I thought he was dead?! Oh wait, this is Marvel mwhahaha). This should be showing up around issues #618 or #619.

Paul Toben and Patrick Scherberger will be putting out a 4 issue limited series called Spider-Man and the Secret Wars–yeah, from way back then–which will cover a bit of retelling of Spider-Man’s place in Secret Wars and his view of things.

More after the break

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We’re getting close to the monumental issue of #600 in the Amazing Spider-Man series and boy oh boy is this new arc, titled “American Son,” creating some great building blocks and also tieing Spider-Man into Marvel’s Dark Reign.

The thing about Dark Reign that is bugging me the most is how addictive it is. Seeing the bad guys doing bad things (primarily Norman Osborn) and getting away with it and having the good guys (ie. Ms. Marvel, the New Avengers, etc.) unable to do anything is like crack to me. I can’t get enough of the stuff. Chances are Brian Michael Bendis will cause me to overdose, but nevertheless, Spider-Man getting added to the mix perplexes me as I wait to see what the brilliant Joe Kelly writes up for this arc.

More after the break.

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Amazing Spider-Man #583 Cover

You know, I haven’t been the biggest fan of Brand New Day, but I’ve come to appreciate what the guys over at Marvel are doing and by-golly, I’ve started to enjoy the last year in ASM. It’s not the comic that I look forward to reading the most every week, but it’s consistently interesting and I’m always left with a feeling of “what’s going to happen next”. And then this week’s shit-hole of an issue came out, with all the hype surrounding it.

So, just to start things off, this issue focuses a lot more on Peter Parker‘s life outside of being Spider-Man. When I heard that this was to be the focus of the issue, I was genuinely excited. I enjoy issues that are not full of superhero action and focus on character development. So, most of the issue is about Peter and his relationship with Betty Brant, as well as her trying to set him up on dates. The rest of the issue is a backup story featuring Barack Obama. If you didn’t hear all the news about this during the week, you must have been living under a rock. Suffice to say, it’s about Obama encountering a super-villain at his inauguration.

Now, hit the break and let me tell you what I really think about this issue.

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Secret Invasion #8 Cover

I had two editorials floating around in my head and I had thought about doing them separate. Then, I realized that both ideas tied together quite nicely. One was on the end of Secret Invasion. The other, the beginning of Ultimatum. What is even more interesting is the fact that this is a perfect time to be talking about both of these major stories. Secret Invasion just altered the Marvel Universe in interesting and crazy ways and Ultimatum is set up to do the same in the Ultimate Universe. And, as my title suggest, both events are “game changers”.

Game changers are always interesting, no matter what subject you are talking about. In sports, the game changer makes you stand up and cheer or shake your head in disbelief. When we’re talking about episodic story telling, like in comics, we get much the same reaction. Some marked issue 8 of Secret Invasion as a sign of great things to come. Others felt that we are in for a bunch of… well… bullshit.

So why do writers plan the “game changer”? Well, look no further than Joe Quesada‘s own explanation in this past week’s “Cup O’ Joe“, where he said the following:

But the truth of the matter is, we wanted it to be more unpredictable. Being unpredictable, I believe, leads to better storytelling. It’s not clichéd storytelling. Again, we get or characters in a place that readers don’t necessarily expect, get their backs against a wall, and see what happens. Look, at the end of the day, I think that’s what leads to great storytelling—put your characters in a place that readers never saw coming.

I think that anyone who read the end of Secret Invasion and information about what Dark Reign is going to be feels the sense of uncertainty. A sense of unpredictability. Personally, since this is an editorial, this made me so very excited for the next year of Marvel comics and beyond. I immediately decided that I’ll be buying New and Mighty Avengers. I had already decided that Dark Avengers is going to be sweet. So, what did Secret Invasion do for me? It got me into Avengers books. And that, my friends, is a good thing.

Ultimatum #1 Cover

On the other side of the Marvel pond, we have the Ultimate Universe, which just started the Ultimatum big event. It is hard to judge Ultimatum yet, because there’s only been 1 issue thus far, but it’s hard to get as excited as I did for Secret Invasion. And I really, really, really want Ultimatum to be awesome. I love the Ultimate Universe and it has seriously been going downhill recently (except Ultimate Spider-Man, of course. Love ya, BMB). So far, however, things are not looking good for Ultimatum.

First, the delays. I don’t know whether to blame Jeph Loeb for this or artist David Finch. According to what I’ve read, it is because the other Ultimate titles are not lining up correctly with the Ultimatum story and they are not quite ready for the end of Ultimatum. This is quite disappointing. Marvel did a great job keeping Secret Invasion on track, for the most part, and was able to immediately launch into the post-SI/Dark Reign world.

This brings me to my other problem with Ultimatum thus far: it is causing the end of 2 of the Ultimate books, Fantastic Four and X-Men. Now, of course, either one of these books (or both) could both be relaunched, as it is hard to imagine a Marvel universe without these characters, but as it stands right now, these books are gone at 60 and 100 respectively. So what does that leave? Spider-Man and the already announced Ultimate Avengers, which is less like Ultimates and more of a book that will focus on a bunch of different characters. This is not enough to keep this universe going. If this is the big game changer for the Ultimate Universe, it feels more like the game is going to be the end of the universe. And that would be a very sad day.

So, what’s my conclusion? Game changers are good. In fact, they are great. Whether you agree with the change or not, it helps keep things interesting. I was upset about Brand New Day at first. Now, I still don’t know if I agree with a lot of it, but at least Spider-Man is interesting now. In fact, it is one of the most interesting Marvel books right now. However, this game changing events need to be handled correctly and, unfortunately, this is not happening in Ultimatum.

Amazing Spider-Man #579 cover

I’ve noticed in the last, oh I don’t know, 12 or so issues of Amazing Spider-Man that each issue is building something. Each issue is adding some kind of minor or even major subplot or character or something to this unforeseeable and grandiose fortress that is the Spider-Man world and frankly I love it.

This week’s issue is no different.

If you haven’t been reading, last week Peter Parker found himself in the middle of an attempted mass-murder of a jury who would most likely convict a mob boss via a collapsed subway. All this was orchestrated by, if you haven’t seen this month’s cover: The Shocker.

But before I give out any more juicy details, we can break for the jump.

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It seems to happen every year. All your favorite comics start ramping up their storylines. Something big is coming. They are all leading to something. The big summer event! And, like moths to the flame, we get extremely excited about the upcoming crossover in our favorite universe. Finally, all our beloved characters join together to fight a common threat and we flock to the comic shops to pick up endless tie-ins.

And then, 4 months later, suddenly, our passion for this event, this amazing, life-changing book that will forever alter the comic world forever, dies and we are left wondering when this epic story will end and we can get back to loving our comics again. This, my friends, is what we call event fatigue and it can happen to the best of us.

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I’ve always been at least a casual fan of Neil Gaiman‘s original Sandman series, but then, who hasn’t? Dream‘s intrigues with his family, the crazy art, the way it leaves you often thinking at the end of an arc, the little stories nestled away, just stellar stuff.

Sadly, the original coloring doesn’t live up to the discerning eye of today’s comic reader (at least, not mine); plus, it can be difficult to pickup an old issue for the sake of one-shot enjoyment without having to be intimately familiar with every ounce of backstory that has happened before.

This is part of what makes this comic adaptation of Gaiman’s novel “Sandman: the Dream Hunters” so wonderful. Starting as a simple Japanese fairy tale about a monk, a bold badger, and a wily fox, the tale time-releases mood and energy with fantastic lines, color, and page design by P. Craig Russell.

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Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 cover

In case you didn’t read Brian Reed‘s awesome mini-series Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man, you won’t know that it was all about the new and seemingly familiar Jackpot of created in Amazing Spider-Man: Brand New Day. This year (or whatever time is between annuals), the Amazing Spider-Man Annual is focused on the one and only Jackpot and boy oh-effing-boy is it damn crazy.

Why? Because you finally find out who Jackpot is. You do. It’s quite a story… Thanks to good ol’ McGuggs…

BUT, before I give anything away, let’s take a jump and I’ll splurge all sorts of details…

**sp-sp-sp-spoilahs and mo-ah aftah tha break**

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Dead of Night Featuring Warewolf By Night #1 Cover

My first impression when viewing the solicitations for the new year for the big 2 comic book publishers was “this is it?” Honestly, it felt a little underwhelming. Considering the fact that Marvel is coming off their big cross-over event, Secret Invasion and in the midst of a whole boat load of X-Men stuff, you’d think that more would be happening. Same for DC, where they are set to finish up their big cross-over, Final Crisis, is post-Batman R.I.P. and is also finishing up Superman‘s major New Krypton story arc. But then I dug a little deeper and pulled out a whole bunch of great gems to get excited for. And I’m sure there’ll be more, as many Marvel solicitations are still classified until Secret Invasion wraps up next month. January is shaping up to be a pretty good month to be a comic book fan. And guess what, it is also my birthday month. So, faithful readers, I expect each and every one of you to go out and get me a comic book for my birthday. Seriously. Do it! But until then, read on for some previews so you can decide which one to get me…

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