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Hey everybody, welcome back to another week in Marvel Snapshot! In this week’s edition, I’ll be taking a break from the great character spotlights, and talk about the year ahead. Marvel has some big things planned, but also big competition to deal with. I’ll be hitting on the recent announcement of “Fear Itself,” and also a death in Marvel’s first family, the Fantastic Four.

Alright, first things first. I have a request for all comic book companies in general. Please stop teasing readers with death. That’s a very simple request, and one I think everybody on the planet is on the same page with. The whole “somebody in the Fantastic Four is going to die” bit is already rubbing people the wrong way, and it didn’t even happen yet. Shouldn’t that fact alone be very revealing as to what people do and do not want to read? I remember buying issues of Fantastic Four a while back and being teased with “The Death of the Invisible Woman,” only to be then given the death of AN Invisible Woman from the future. Not the Sue Richards that actually is seen in FF every month, and the one that would make a real impact or be talked about for more than ten seconds. No, it was some version that no one on this planet even cares to read about. Now, I’m not doubting Hickman’s abilities, because he has been brilliant on Secret Warriors, and even some of the FF stories have been decent, but he’s really got his work cut out for him to make this work.
So, I heard Spider-Man is going to die as well. OK, well, not the Spider-Man that’s been swinging around New York City since the 60s, but Ultimate Spider-Man. Wow. I’m going to run right out and buy that title because I read about that, let me tell you. Between Ultimate Spidey, and a member of the FF dying, I really think Marvel is starting out this year behind the eight ball. The one thing I read about that might be able to save them is Fear Itself. This was announced recently and really has me intrigued as to how it will play out. Apparently, Marvel’s greatest heroes will have to conquer fears that superpowers won’t be able to stop. Matt Fraction (X-Men, Thor) is handling this one along with artist Stuart Immonen (New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man). I actually am excited for this one and hope Marvel can rebound from a mediocre year in 2010 with this story. I mean, let’s face facts about 2010, shall we. Thanos Imperative was good, but other than that and maybe Secret Avengers, all I heard about was DC, how Blackest Night was so great, and that Brightest Day was going to be even better. Now the latter part of that statement hasn’t proven itself to be true, because I haven’t heard anywhere near the buzz about Brightest Day that Blackest Night had, but you can’t deny Geoff Johns’s work with that mini-series.
In my opinion, this could be a make or break year for Marvel and DC. In the understanding that they could lose a significant amount of readers to Dark Horse, IDW, and Top Cow. I’m definitely on the fence about certain stories these days, when in the past, I would just whip out the wallet and buy from Marvel. Now I keep hearing about great stories like Artifacts, Infestation, and the exploits of Conan, Kull, or Hellboy. I’ve actually read some of the Conan and Kull books, and they are really well done. BOOM, Archaia, Th3rd World, Image, the list goes on and on as far as the competition. Again, 2011 could be a big year for Marvel Comics, and we know the hype machine will have the movies and DVDs selling, but I’m more interested in the comics being well written and not redundant, than blockbuster movies with millions of dollars spent on special effects.

In closing, I know that ultimately the almighty dollar will be the deciding factor for Marvel on what is good and what will be thrown into the recycle pile, but for me, I know I’m going to try out some of the other offerings out there just because I’ve been hearing such great things about the current indie scene.

Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net