San Diego Comic-Con 2018 has come to an end. The last few days brought along a great number of news items from the comic book world led by what the future of the X-Men will be. That long with a few other news items showed that comic books are still part of San Diego Comic-Con even as the convention has become more about movies and TV. Let’s take a look at what were the other big news items that came out of the last two days of SDCC 2018.
MARJORIE LIU IS THE FIRST FEMALE TO WIN BEST WRITER EISNER AWARD
The Eisner Awards are the prestigious award a comic book creator to win. So when I heard that Marjorie Liu won for Best Writer I was extremely happy for her. She is a very talented writer and it is clearly something that meant a lot to her from how Liu talked about it on her Twitter account. While she did win the award in a rare tie with Batman and Mister Miracle writer Tom King this is a major accomplishment for Liu.
In reading about the win it was surprising to learn was that Liu was the first female writer to win the Best Writer award. There have been and continue to be a lot extremely talented female writers creating great work for a long time, like Kelly Sue DeConnick, Gail Simone and Devin Grayson. Hopefully with this win we see more female writers getting opportunities, something that we are actually seeing with Marguerite Bennett, Kelly Thompson, Margaret Stohl and the Benson Sisters get more work to grow their names at Marvel and DC Comics. And Liu winning the Eisner Award is just another example that young girls who aspire to be comic book creators that they can be recognized and rewarded in the comic book industry.
Source: Christian Hofner at ComicBook.com
UNCANNY X-MEN RETURNING IN NOVEMBER
By far one of the bigger comic book news items to come out of SDCC 2018 is Marvel bringing back Uncanny X-Men in November. While we didn’t get information on the creative team or which X-Men will be on the team it was just good to hear the series will be coming back. Along with Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers and Fantastic Four, Uncanny X-Men is one of Marvel’s iconic titles. Given that the X-Men event Extermination is just about to begin and we are getting Marvel’s October solicitations on Tuesday we probably won’t learn who the creative team is until the end of August at the earliest. But the fact we are getting Uncanny X-Men back is something to celebrate as the X-Men begin their march to prominence again.
Source: Jamie Lovett at ComicBook.com
X-MEN: BLACK REVITALIZING X-VILLAINS
As I mentioned in my article about how Marvel could bring the X-Men back to prominence, re-establishing the X-Men’s villains is an important part to the equation. That is exactly what Marvel is likely doing with the upcoming X-Men: Black mini-series. Each issue in the X-Men: Black mini-series will focus on a key villain from the franchise’s past. Those villains will be Emma Frost, Magneto, Mojo, Mystique and Juggernaut.
While four of the five headlining villains have gone back and forth working with and against the X-Men over the years X-Men: Black has the potential to set them up in roles that will be incredibly important in the future. And the fact that Chris Claremont is returning to write the Magneto one-shot in X-Men: Black it does seem like each of these characters will be placed in antagonistic roles for the franchise.
Source: Chris Arrant at Newsarama
HARLEY QUINN FORCES BATMAN INTO HEROES IN CRISIS
The cover for Heroes In Crisis #2 was a strong visual as we see Harley Quinn strangling Batman, using the Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth to do so. This image does show us that the series by Tom King won’t just be about Harley Quinn, Booster Gold and Wally West, the last one is still rumored to be involved. Given that King and others at SDCC 2018 were pushing the narrative of Batman’s broken heart he may be one of the characters that will deal with his own problems in Heroes In Crisis. That would be an interesting thing to see Harley Quinn be the one to get Batman to deal with this, if the cover is to be believed
Source: Jim Johnson at CBR
WALLY WEST FATED TO DIE IN HEROES IN CRISIS
Speaking of Heroes In Crisis, something that was seemingly thrown around during DC Comics SDCC 2018 panels was Wally West possibly dying. King mentioned that DC can’t have a Crisis event without a Flash dying. Adding to that it was said that Dan Didio jokingly said “Wally West, God rest his soul.” Those two quotes seem to tease the fact that the classic Wally West may die not long after returning to the DC Universe proper. Hopefully that is not the case and this is just a misdirection on DC’s part because it would be extremely upsetting to see Wally West return just to kill him of not long after.
Source: John Saavedra at Den of Geeks
FANTASTIC FOUR NEW BIG BAD REVEALED
Previously known as Eradikus we now have an official name for the new major villain that the Fantastic Four will be facing off against in Dan Slott and Sara Pichelli’s run. Now the character is known by the name of Griever. In all honesty, I actually prefered the name Eradikus as it fit more with the cosmic-type character this new villain is. But given that Slott and Pichelli creative run has yet to begin their is plenty of time to get used to the name Griever. The design itself looks cool and stands out from the normal Marvel villains. Now it will just be about execution of the character’s motives so she can match or surpass the level of threat Doctor Doom is within the Fantastic Four franchise.
Source: Stephen Gerding at CBR
MARVEL LAUNCHING NEW DIGITAL INITIATIVE
Digital is clearly a market that Marvel wants to tap into more. Before SDCC 2018 Marvel announced a new digital original Jessica Jones series. Now they have announced three additional digital original comics: Luke Cage, Iron Fist: Phantom Limb and Daughters of the Dragon. These four titles starring individual members of the Defenders will be under the new Marvel Digital Originals line of comics. This is a good place to put titles for Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing. These characters have not sold big numbers in their previous physical ongoings. Given that Marvel is creating this Marvel Digital Originals line shows that they see an opportunity in this space for these characters. It also may mean that Marvel has found growing success in the digital first market for some comics to launch a new publishing line for these comics.
Source: Joshua Yehl at IGN
THE VISION GETS A NEW LIMITED SERIES
Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta’s run on the Vision has gained greater recognition as strong word-of-mouth has gotten more people to pick up the series in trade paperback format. It seems that strong word-of-mouth has paid off as Marvel is giving fans another limited series for The Vision and his family. This time around the series will be written by Chelsea Cain and Marc Mohan and artwork done by Aud Koch. These are names I am not familiar with but it is great to see Marvel take a chance on the Vision again as they are likely backing on the positive word-of-mouth to sell people on trying the first issue at the very least.
Source: Tucker Chet Markus at Marvel.com