Marvel Comics...?

I just looked through the Marvel Comics solicitations for October, and I was reminded of something. I can't remember the last time I was excited for a Marvel book. It was probably while Joss Whedon was on Astonishing X-Men or Runaways. Or possibly the Cosmic books, pre-War of Kings.

There were only two items in the solicits that I will definitely buy. The Dr. Strange Strange Tales TPB and Annihilators: Earthfall #2 (the last vestiges of Marvel's cosmic universe).

I'll read Astonishing X-Men #43, since it's a done-in-one story dealing with something set up during Joss Whedon's run. But this book has steadily dropped readability since the end of Joss' run. Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi were great choices to take over after Joss and John Cassaday left. And Phil Jiminez was an understandable choice once Simone Bianchi left. But Daniel Way? Hardly a name that'll draw people to the book. He's certainly been prolific, and not a lot else.

I'll also read X-Men: Schism, Uncanny X-Men, and Wolverine and the X-Men, but I doubt I'll enjoy any of them. For the past few years, I've been reading X-Men, and then immediately forgetting them as soon as I put the book down. Remember when the X-Men were awesome? Yeah, so do I.


What happened to Marvel? I remember when they were a majority of my pulls every week. I guess it's event fatigue. Every time I turn around, they have another event happening. House of M (which was great) to Civil War (which was good) to Secret Invasion (which was an interesting concept but only mediocre in execution) to Dark Reign (no) to Siege (that was a thing, right?) to Fear Itself (hammers for EVERYONE!!). They totally destroyed my favorite Marvel series before canceling it (Runaways). They canceled two series that I always enjoyed (Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk). Where has Doctor Strange been? And the cosmic stories? They had been amazing, and now....it's like they've forgotten things happen in space.

Most importantly (to me), marrying Storm to T'Challa was not something that ever bugged me. But when they took the marriage as an excuse to almost never have Storm anywhere, I was bugged. MORE STORM!

/rant