Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Mar 6, 2015 12:47:16 GMT -6
www.newsarama.com/22628-10-events-marvel-comics-probably-won-t-revisit-in-secret-wars.html
Secret Sins Past?
Now that many of Marvel's Secret Wars tie-ins have been announced, the number of remaining events and stories to be revived in Marvel's crossover to end all crossovers is rapidly dwindling.
One of the latest has been revival of Grant Morrison's New X-Men with E Is For Extinction, and a return to the world of the Maestro in Future Imperfect. With so many stories being revived, we thought we'd take a look at the other side of the coin - the ones that probably won't be making a comeback.
Kings of Pain
Hands up: Who even remembers “Kings of Pain”? If you don’t, that’s okay — it was a 1991 X-Men annual crossover that, unusually enough, doesn’t actually feature any of the actual X-Men team of the time, instead focusing on the New Mutants, X-Factor, various X-Men-adjacent characters from the period (Moira McTaggart! Madrox! Polaris!) and, unexpectedly enough, the New Warriors.
Considering it’s technically a sequel to the Claremont/Byrne “Proteus” storyline, you’d think more people would remember this one, but apparently not. But think of the nostalgia value for bringing the various characters involved in this pre-“Mutant Genesis” crossover back together again!
Subterranean Wars
With the entire Marvel universe in flux, and most of its Earth - including the subterranean bits - absorbed into Battleworld, it may be some time before we see the Mole Man and the various underground denizens of the Marvel Universe rear their sun-starved heads again. Therefore, a revival of this 1991 crossover between the annuals of Avengers, Hulk, Namor, Iron Man and Avengers West Coast might be off the table for awhile.
That shouldn’t be surprising: after all, when was the last time we even revisited the once-popular underground realms of the Mole Man, Tyrannus or the Deviants outside of the Fantastic Four titles? Who even knows what’s been going on under our feet all this time? Maybe we should rename it Basement of M and see if anyone’s interested.
Lifeform
In another world, “Lifeform” — which ran through a number of 1993 annuals, including Punisher and Hulk — would fit into the current Marvel Universe quite well, being both topical and featuring current favorite evil scientists A.I.M. The original event focused on a schizophrenic villain who, after being exposed to an experimental virus, continues to mutate and evolve into something that becomes progressively less human — if progressively more deadly to those around him.
Out of control mutations — shades of the Terrigen mists! — and concerns over uncontrollable viruses? This is far more in tune with today’s Marvel Universe than a retread of "Armor Wars", let’s be honest.
Spidey's Totally Tiny Adventure
Sure, “Spider-Verse” featured all of the possible Spider-Men (Spider-Mans?) that have ever appeared ever apart from the ones that might be legally troubling, and we’re just finished a story where Peter Parker kinda-sorta-didn’t-really die, but still: Did either of these epics cut Spider-Man down to size as effectively as this 1990 Spider-Annuals crossover that brought the character into the Microverse?
Bringing this storyline back wouldn’t just offer up a fun romp in the middle of far more dramatic events elsewhere in the Marvel Universe, it’d also bring back the Microverse once again, a concept that is constantly (sadly) forgotten in the middle of everything else that the MU has available. It’s time to get small again.
The Evolutionary War
Quick! What was this 1988 event — which ran through 11 different annuals that summer, from X-Factor to Avengers, with Alf of all things featuring a tie-in of sorts — actually about? The difficulty in remembering the basic plot of the original may be what’s behind this storyline not being revisited during Marvel’s current nostalgiafest (Short version: The High Evolutionary wanted to evolve humanity, whether it was ready or not).
With so many recent Marvel events hooked around evolutionary themes, however — Inhumanity, House of M and “Decimation,” even Avengers Vs. X-Men if you focus on the Phoenix restarting the mutant race and putting humanity on the defensive angle — there’s something to be done with the idea of the High Evolutionary revisiting Earth and deciding that he’s unsure about the way things are turning out without his guidance.
And, with the High Evolutionary currently appearing in Uncanny Avengers, anything is possible...
Man and Wolf
As the “Years of Futures Past” and “Armor Wars” teasers demonstrated, Marvel’s not beyond mining short runs of stories within one title as material for their Summer 2015 plans, which makes it even more shameful that we have yet to see any sign that the 1992 story that finally answered the question “Would Captain America be more awesome if he was a werewolf?” with a resounding “You bet your lupine behind.”
There was a lot to be entertained by during the era in which the original version of the storyline was released, but the image of a CapWolf defiantly raising his shield has proven to be as iconic as even that Jim Lee X-Men #1 cover. Enough with the revisiting the Iron Spider costume, Marvel: it’s time to see Cap embrace his inner beast again. And no, that’s not a Hank McCoy reference.
Citizen Kang
On the one hand, it’s tempting to look at a lot of Rick Remender’s recent Uncanny Avengers work as a version of this 1992 crossover between the Captain America, Thor, Fantastic Four and Avengers annuals, in which the heroes end up being manipulated by the time-traveling super villain in his attempts to rule the world — but that’s mostly because Kang only has two plots, and one of those was Kurt Busiek’s climactic Avengers storyline, which is the sort of thing you can’t do twice.
But a fast-paced storyline that throws its heroes to different points in time with Kang being a deranged puppet master with an overly-convoluted plan at the heart of things? This is what the character was built for, and if that can be served up with a pun relating to one of the most important films in cinema history and a lack of angst following the return trip? Who could say no — and why would they want to?!?
Operation: Galactic Storm
What is more surprising: that we’ve not seen a teaser heralding a return to this 1992 Avengers family crossover that saw Earth’s mightiest heroes intervene in a battle between the Kree and the Shi’ar, or that someone thought that “Operation: Galactic Storm” wasn’t in poor taste as a title back in 1992 in the first place? The jury may still be out.
Nonetheless, as Infinity demonstrated, there’s life out there in space — or, at least, in massive space conflict. And with the current success of Guardians of the Galaxy and related titles, you’d think that revisiting this series would be a no-brainer. Maybe it's still to come in yet another Secret Wars spin-off series announcement...
The Crossing
Much derided at the time, the benefit of perspective and hyperbole means that it’s easy to see that the only real difference between the 1995 unravelling of all things Avengers and 2004’s Avengers Disassembled is that Brian Michael Bendis was smart enough to realize that turning Tony Stark into a teenager and the Wasp into… well, whatever the hell she turned into was waaaay more out there than killing Hawkeye and declaring the Scarlet Witch crazy because of superpowers and old school continuity.
With Jonathan Hickman’s time on the series introducing countless alternate earths, why not introduce one where the events of “The Crossing” didn’t get undone almost immediately by Heroes Reborn, but instead show us what a world 20 years later, as different as that might be…? As long as the Wasp isn’t a weird monster thing for no reason anymore, of course.
Sins Past
Okay, only joking. No-one wants to find out that Gwen Stacy had even more babies as a result of an ill-conceived (no pun intended) affair with Norman Osborn. Although if Dan Slott was given the chance to revisit this storyline just to erase it from all points of Spider-Man history across the multiverse, that we’d be in favor of.
Secret Sins Past?
Now that many of Marvel's Secret Wars tie-ins have been announced, the number of remaining events and stories to be revived in Marvel's crossover to end all crossovers is rapidly dwindling.
One of the latest has been revival of Grant Morrison's New X-Men with E Is For Extinction, and a return to the world of the Maestro in Future Imperfect. With so many stories being revived, we thought we'd take a look at the other side of the coin - the ones that probably won't be making a comeback.
Kings of Pain
Hands up: Who even remembers “Kings of Pain”? If you don’t, that’s okay — it was a 1991 X-Men annual crossover that, unusually enough, doesn’t actually feature any of the actual X-Men team of the time, instead focusing on the New Mutants, X-Factor, various X-Men-adjacent characters from the period (Moira McTaggart! Madrox! Polaris!) and, unexpectedly enough, the New Warriors.
Considering it’s technically a sequel to the Claremont/Byrne “Proteus” storyline, you’d think more people would remember this one, but apparently not. But think of the nostalgia value for bringing the various characters involved in this pre-“Mutant Genesis” crossover back together again!
Subterranean Wars
With the entire Marvel universe in flux, and most of its Earth - including the subterranean bits - absorbed into Battleworld, it may be some time before we see the Mole Man and the various underground denizens of the Marvel Universe rear their sun-starved heads again. Therefore, a revival of this 1991 crossover between the annuals of Avengers, Hulk, Namor, Iron Man and Avengers West Coast might be off the table for awhile.
That shouldn’t be surprising: after all, when was the last time we even revisited the once-popular underground realms of the Mole Man, Tyrannus or the Deviants outside of the Fantastic Four titles? Who even knows what’s been going on under our feet all this time? Maybe we should rename it Basement of M and see if anyone’s interested.
Lifeform
In another world, “Lifeform” — which ran through a number of 1993 annuals, including Punisher and Hulk — would fit into the current Marvel Universe quite well, being both topical and featuring current favorite evil scientists A.I.M. The original event focused on a schizophrenic villain who, after being exposed to an experimental virus, continues to mutate and evolve into something that becomes progressively less human — if progressively more deadly to those around him.
Out of control mutations — shades of the Terrigen mists! — and concerns over uncontrollable viruses? This is far more in tune with today’s Marvel Universe than a retread of "Armor Wars", let’s be honest.
Spidey's Totally Tiny Adventure
Sure, “Spider-Verse” featured all of the possible Spider-Men (Spider-Mans?) that have ever appeared ever apart from the ones that might be legally troubling, and we’re just finished a story where Peter Parker kinda-sorta-didn’t-really die, but still: Did either of these epics cut Spider-Man down to size as effectively as this 1990 Spider-Annuals crossover that brought the character into the Microverse?
Bringing this storyline back wouldn’t just offer up a fun romp in the middle of far more dramatic events elsewhere in the Marvel Universe, it’d also bring back the Microverse once again, a concept that is constantly (sadly) forgotten in the middle of everything else that the MU has available. It’s time to get small again.
The Evolutionary War
Quick! What was this 1988 event — which ran through 11 different annuals that summer, from X-Factor to Avengers, with Alf of all things featuring a tie-in of sorts — actually about? The difficulty in remembering the basic plot of the original may be what’s behind this storyline not being revisited during Marvel’s current nostalgiafest (Short version: The High Evolutionary wanted to evolve humanity, whether it was ready or not).
With so many recent Marvel events hooked around evolutionary themes, however — Inhumanity, House of M and “Decimation,” even Avengers Vs. X-Men if you focus on the Phoenix restarting the mutant race and putting humanity on the defensive angle — there’s something to be done with the idea of the High Evolutionary revisiting Earth and deciding that he’s unsure about the way things are turning out without his guidance.
And, with the High Evolutionary currently appearing in Uncanny Avengers, anything is possible...
Man and Wolf
As the “Years of Futures Past” and “Armor Wars” teasers demonstrated, Marvel’s not beyond mining short runs of stories within one title as material for their Summer 2015 plans, which makes it even more shameful that we have yet to see any sign that the 1992 story that finally answered the question “Would Captain America be more awesome if he was a werewolf?” with a resounding “You bet your lupine behind.”
There was a lot to be entertained by during the era in which the original version of the storyline was released, but the image of a CapWolf defiantly raising his shield has proven to be as iconic as even that Jim Lee X-Men #1 cover. Enough with the revisiting the Iron Spider costume, Marvel: it’s time to see Cap embrace his inner beast again. And no, that’s not a Hank McCoy reference.
Citizen Kang
On the one hand, it’s tempting to look at a lot of Rick Remender’s recent Uncanny Avengers work as a version of this 1992 crossover between the Captain America, Thor, Fantastic Four and Avengers annuals, in which the heroes end up being manipulated by the time-traveling super villain in his attempts to rule the world — but that’s mostly because Kang only has two plots, and one of those was Kurt Busiek’s climactic Avengers storyline, which is the sort of thing you can’t do twice.
But a fast-paced storyline that throws its heroes to different points in time with Kang being a deranged puppet master with an overly-convoluted plan at the heart of things? This is what the character was built for, and if that can be served up with a pun relating to one of the most important films in cinema history and a lack of angst following the return trip? Who could say no — and why would they want to?!?
Operation: Galactic Storm
What is more surprising: that we’ve not seen a teaser heralding a return to this 1992 Avengers family crossover that saw Earth’s mightiest heroes intervene in a battle between the Kree and the Shi’ar, or that someone thought that “Operation: Galactic Storm” wasn’t in poor taste as a title back in 1992 in the first place? The jury may still be out.
Nonetheless, as Infinity demonstrated, there’s life out there in space — or, at least, in massive space conflict. And with the current success of Guardians of the Galaxy and related titles, you’d think that revisiting this series would be a no-brainer. Maybe it's still to come in yet another Secret Wars spin-off series announcement...
The Crossing
Much derided at the time, the benefit of perspective and hyperbole means that it’s easy to see that the only real difference between the 1995 unravelling of all things Avengers and 2004’s Avengers Disassembled is that Brian Michael Bendis was smart enough to realize that turning Tony Stark into a teenager and the Wasp into… well, whatever the hell she turned into was waaaay more out there than killing Hawkeye and declaring the Scarlet Witch crazy because of superpowers and old school continuity.
With Jonathan Hickman’s time on the series introducing countless alternate earths, why not introduce one where the events of “The Crossing” didn’t get undone almost immediately by Heroes Reborn, but instead show us what a world 20 years later, as different as that might be…? As long as the Wasp isn’t a weird monster thing for no reason anymore, of course.
Sins Past
Okay, only joking. No-one wants to find out that Gwen Stacy had even more babies as a result of an ill-conceived (no pun intended) affair with Norman Osborn. Although if Dan Slott was given the chance to revisit this storyline just to erase it from all points of Spider-Man history across the multiverse, that we’d be in favor of.