Marvel just released their comic book solicitations for March 2017. Just from a glance it looks as though March will be a time for endings as there are many stories coming to a close and characters dealing with their direct aftermath. Characters like Spider-Man will be dealing with the fallout from Clone Conspiracy while the Inhumans and X-Men try to recover from their war. What other notable things does Marvel have in store for us in March 2017? Let’s take a look.
MARVEL ENDING CROSSOVER SEASON?
Crossovers and event comics have been Marvel’s thing for a long time 2016 and the first part of 2017 have seen a non-stop barrage of them. Now hopefully with stories like Inhumans vs X-Men and The Clone Conspiracy coming to a close Marvel can allow their creative teams to focus on their individual stories. It will only improve the quality of Marvel’s catalogue for creative teams to actually begin to form their own stories rather than trying to tie everything in to an event. Though March still has a few other events like Monsters Unleashed and Deadpool: Til Death Do Us…still taking place during March along with the one’s mentioned earlier.
INHUMANS VS X-MEN CONCLUDES
Like Civil War II before it, Inhumans vs X-Men is another superhero vs superhero event that I have had no interest in. Though I almost purchased the first issue of the event I actually ended deleting it from my cart before hitting checkout the week it came out. The event has not done enough to garner my interest or cash from.
But unlike the event I am actually very interested in the fallout, especially with the X-Men side of things. From the looks of it the X-Men will be coming out on top by the end of this event, which is good for both franchises. For the X-Men it looks like we will be getting better line-ups for their team books and X-Men: Prime #1 looks to set the stage for that. I’ll be particular interested in how the team is now set-up as it looks like the Jean Grey School will be no more with Magneto and Kitty Pride taking their own group of X-Men.
And while it was clear from the marketing so far, these new solicitations for the X-Men comics are nailing us over the head with how important Jean Grey is. Whether putting so much stock on Jean’s star will actually turn out to be beneficial for the X-Men brand will be up in the air. It’s definitely someone different as Cyclops and Wolverine have dominated the attention since House of M.
As for the Inhumans, I still can’t completely get behind them no matter how much Marvel wants us to. They’ve become too much of an X-Men-lite. What I’m hoping for from Inhumans: Prime #1 is that Marvel takes the team off Earth and expand their reach across the universe. Going into space will be beneficial for them as there is a lot of untapped potential in other parts of the Marvel Universe only the Guardians of the Galaxy are exploring. Then maybe we can actually see how the Inhumans stand out from the Avengers and X-Men.
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN JOINS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
After four issues on her own it is time for the new Iron Man to join the rest of the Marvel Universe. Riri Johnson has brought something new to the role of Iron Man. And while it may be questionable if she is established enough to be on one of Marvel’s current teams she could add a new dynamic to any team she may join.
What’s more interesting is that this would be the first time since the event of Civil War II that we may see all these characters interact with one another. If that is the case things can quickly get explosive since teams like the Avengers and Champions aren’t in great standing with one another. Maybe Riri as Iron Man can be the one to help mend fences within the Marvel Universe. Or we could be in store for Civil War 3 in the near future.
THE CLONE CONSPIRACY AFTERMATH
The Clone Conspiracy has been a polarizing event as fans sit on the love it or hate it fence. I for one have enjoyed it so far, though it is looking more and more like Dan Slott’s Spider-Man run is coming to a close. As for The Clone Conspiracy itself, there have already been some big developments that are going to leave big ramifications for the Spider-Man books moving forward. One such ramification is the return of Spider-Man villains that were formerly deceased sticking around such as Rhino. The Clone Conspiracy: Omega should give us a better idea of which Spider-Man supporting characters and villains stick around.
Also over on Amazing Spider-Man we will be getting the big return of Norman Osborn, who has been a background player during this latest volume of the series. Now that Slott has recruited Stuart Immonen to help him with Norman’s return it looks like Spider-Man life will become even more difficult to maintain.
Now these are the things that stood out for me from Marvel’s March 2017 comic book offerings. What Marvel comics are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below.