Marvel is looking to make August a big month for themselves. One way they are doing this is to release a massive celebration issue in the form of Marvel Comics #1000. Outside of bringing in some of the biggest names in the industry Marvel is also beginning their big symbiote event with Absolute Carnage. What else does Marvel have planned for August? Find out as we take a closer look into Marvel’s recently released August 2019 solicitations.
MARVEL UNIVERSE COMBATS ABSOLUTE CARNAGE
Carnage is a villain that I have always appreciated but Marvel have largely failed to capitalize on what makes it a great counterpart for Venom and Spider-Man. Especially in the last two decades Carnage has not been given anything of substance to show why it can be a great villain. Now that can change with the Absolute Carnage event.
Marvel is showing that they want to make Absolute Carnage a big deal in August as they are also releasing several mini-series, as is typical with events. Given how quickly Absolute Carnage is being published, with two of its first four issues releasing in August, it’ll be interesting to see how the event goes down. This could very well be just phase one of a bigger plan Marvel has for Carnage and the rest of the symbiotes next year. At the very least it could build Carnage the credibility it has been missing for a long time.
X-MEN HISTORY AS TOLD BY HOUSE OF X AND POWERS OF X
In a recent interview Jonathan Hickman mentioned that House of X and Powers of X are not a time travel story. Both series are set to establish what the X-Men franchise will be about in the future. Seeing as the August issues of House of X and Powers of X will reveal more information about the new continuity for the X-Men characters it’ll be very interesting to see how everyone’s history will be streamlined. That is something the X-Men are in dire need of and Hickman is just the guy to establish what all the iconic X-Men’s histories should be.
MARVEL #1000 CELEBRATION
Marvel is jumping on the #1000 issue bandwagon that Action Comics and Detective Comics just celebrated. They are doing this by assembling some of the biggest creators in the industry for Marvel Comics #1000. This is the big idea that current Marvel Editor-In-Chief, CB Cebulski, said would sell one million copies. To get to that intended sale number Cebulski and Marvel’s editors are no doubt going to release countless alternate covers. Hopefully from a content standpoint Marvel Comics #1000 will be worth purchasing and not a cheap attempt to grab headlines for a week.
SPIDER-GWEN JOINS MARVEL’S EARTH-616
It was only a matter of time that Marvel finally pulled the trigger on having Spider-Gwen join the main Marvel Universe. She has been in her own universe since being created and only visiting the Earth-616 for occasional team-up comics like Clone Conspiracy. Now she is going to make a home on Earth-616 as she will be attending ESU while still trying to being part of her universe. Much like Spider-Men a few years back, this could very well be step one in bringing in Spider-Gwen into the main Marvel Universe full time.
Given that she is going to become a student at ESU it’ll be interesting to see if that means she and Peter Parker are going to interact more. Right now Peter is once again enrolled in ESU to regain his degree that he lost thanks to Doctor Octopus. This could be a good chance to give us a different type of relationship between the pair as Peter can be more of a mentor to Gwen. It’ll also be interesting to see how Gwen works as an ESU student and if she takes on a different identity since 616-Gwen Stacy was a well known student at the university.
AGENTS OF ATLAS RISE
Agents of Atlas are being brought back with two heavy hitters of writers teaming back to do so. Greg Pak and Jeff Parker have made names for themselves and add credibility to Agents of Atlas being a comic that Marvel fans should be looking forward to. It’ll give see characters like Amadeus Cho, Silk and Shang-Chi an opportunity to step up since they are normally not front and center in titles they are involved in to get a chance to shine.
In particular, this will be a good chance for Shang-Chi to start playing a bigger role in the Marvel Universe. With a movie in development, Marvel needs to start showing why Shang-Chi is someone that Marvel comic fans should love. He is a badass martial artist that hasn’t gotten to many chances to shine. He has mostly been used as a background character for most stories involving the greater Marvel Universe. This is an opportunity to fix that and start building the fanbase to get excited for an MCU Shang-Chi movie.
FANTASTIC FOUR START THE FUTURE FOUNDATION
Much like the X-Men, the Fantastic Four are starting to slowly be reintegrated into the Marvel Universe. They still aren’t as prominent as they once were but the fact that Marvel is already giving the Fantastic Four a spinoff title is a good sign. The Future Foundation has always been a great concept that Jonathan Hickman introduced to involved the expanded Fantastic Four family. Giving the Future Foundation their own title will help grow this corner of the Marvel Universe. At the same time Jeremy Whitley can give lesser known characters a chance to expand who they are to strengthen future Fantastic Four stories.
JASON AARON’S THOR RUN ENDS WITHOUT THE GOD OF THUNDER
When Marvel announced that Jason Aaron’s run on Thor was coming to an end soon we knew that whatever that final story is it would be epic. Aaron’s run is one to be remember. Now it looks like Aaron plans to end his run without the God of Thunder in his final story arc. That is if we are to believe what is being said in the solicitation for Thor #16. It at least seems that however War of the Realms end that something will happen to Thor that takes him off the table for a period. That could have larger ramifications for other comics since Thor is a big part of the Avengers. Whatever the case may be we should expect an epic conclusion to Aaron’s memorable Thor run.
CAPTAIN AMERICA BEGINS THE LEGEND OF STEVE ROGERS
With each passing issue in Ta-Nehisi Coates run it seems as though Steve Rogers is getting farther and farther away from the Captain America identity. It looks like that will continue to be a trend as Steve is still on the run as “The Legend of Steve” begins in Captain America #13. The good thing for Steve is that he will have Sharon Carter’s Daughters of Liberty to back him up.
Given what Captain America #13 states it seems that Steve and the Daughters of Liberty will be going on a world tour in order to take the Power Elite down in a methodical way. This change in approach adds to how big of a threat the Power Elite are. Going with this route will give Coates the chance to build both the protagonist and antagonist side of this conflict.
SPIDER-MAN’S LIFE STORY COMES TO AN END
Spider-Man: Life Story has been one of the biggest surprises of the year. The reason it has been so surprising is that Chip Zdarsky has gone in a route that was unexpected. Seeing Peter actually age as the decades pass starting with the 1960s has given a completely different vibe to Spider-Man’s history. Zdarsky has been able to adapt iconic Spider-Man stories into the time period while showing how Peter Parker acts as he gains more experience and progresses professionally.
It is completely different from every Spider-Man story we have gotten to this point. Now Spider-Man: Life Story will come to an end in August with a 72-year-old Peter Parker in 2019. There is no predicting how Spider-Man: Life Story #6 will complete Zdarsky’s mini-series. I just hope that Miles Morales is involved in a pass the torch role. Though given that Miles isn’t mentioned in the solicitation that is a big unknown.
CAROL DANVERS NO LONGER CAPTAIN MARVEL?
This may be just me looking to into it but it does seem as though Marvel is setting a much bigger story for Captain Marvel in the near future. Since she has become such a well-known character after her MCU movie it has been surprising that Marvel hasn’t taken more of an advantage of that. Though given Captain Marvel #9 solicitation and other recent events around the Avengers it would not be surprising if we are slowly building to an event that centers around Carol Danvers. That is very much needed given that Captain Marvel has never been given a great role in big Marvel events, just see how much damage Civil War II and Secret Empire caused her character arc.
What would be a good event for Captain Marvel is another Kree-Skrull War type story. That is something that Kelly Thompson seems to building as shown with Captain Marvel #9 emphasizing Carol being labeled as a Kree traitor.
INVISIBLE WOMAN VS BLACK WIDOW
Secret agent isn’t a role that you would think Sue Storm would fill. That looks to be something that Sue will now get involved in as she gets in a secret alliance with Black Widow. Since the new Invisible Woman takes place in the past this could be an opportunity for Mark Waid to write a more antagonistic Black Widow before she became closely tied to the Avengers. The dynamic between Invisible Woman and Black Widow has not been previously been explored. So this is also a good chance to get a fresh team-up and see how Invisible Woman and Black Widow work together.
IS MATT MURDOCK STILL DAREDEVIL
The last year of Daredevil comics have taken Matt Murdock to his limits. He has been tested mentally, physically and spiritually. That all led to the shocking conclusion to the Zdarsky first story arc where Matt gave up being Daredevil for the time being. But since this is comics afterall we all know we won’t be without Daredevil for long.
The question the solicitation Daredevil #9 has for us is if Matt will be the one wearing the Daredevil costume. The covers show us a Daredevil in the black version of the costume that the Netflix series made famous. That change seems to indicate that someone new may be under the mask. Though that just may be Marvel and Zdarsky trying to throw us off since Matt’s return as Daredevil just seems inevitable in the grand scheme of things.
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