In this week’s column, there’s an update on speculation about Pixie’s status in the post-Messiah Complex X-Men, some stuff about the new Invincible Iron Man ongoing, and speculation about what Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan might be up to…
NEWS: Just as a postscript to our original piece of X-Men speculation, turns out that the image of the team with Pixie is apparently promo/cover art for an original comic that Marvel will be releasing as part of this year’s FCBD. Will it turn out to be as important to the X-Men franchise as last year’s Swing Shift was to Spider-Man? Time will tell. JH
NEWS: Marvel to launch second Iron Man ongoing. As good a writer of modern superheroics as Fraction is, it feels a little like it’s being set up to fail. Sure, the movie buzz will keep it afloat in the short term, but even the Fantastic Four, a far richer stable of characters, couldn’t keep up a second ongoing series for long. I can’t help but wonder what they’re going to do to make this title substantially different from its parent series – it’s an odd move to see, especially when half the reason that the Spider-titles were consolidated was because everyone knew that stuff that happened in the peripheral books didn’t really count towards the character – surely Invincible Iron Man is going to have exactly the same problem? JH
SONG: You’ve probably seen this – from the creator of the brilliant “Hey Hey 16K” – already, but just in case you haven’t… “Alan Moore”, by MJ Hibbett. No words necessary. SP
SPECULATION: Brian Wood, a creator everyone knows I have serious fanboy issues with, is going to giving a joint Q&A with some-time collaborator Becky Cloonan at Wondercon on the 23rd. Brian reposts the press on his blog, which has the following information attached: Brian and Becky will have an exclusive announcement to make during this panel!- while this is sure to be good news, with Wood currently exclusive at Vertigo, Cloonan’s pencilling gig on American Virgin at an end with the cancellation of the title, and the rights to the Demo collection now licensed to DC, there’s a fair chance it’ll be the rumoured sequel series to Demo. If so, that’s utterly fantastic – it’s a series that, alone, managed to contain about 3 of my top 10 comics ever. Whether they announce a direct sequel to Demo, a thematic/structural one, or even something else entirely – it’s got my money already. JH
In the Marvel Spotlight issue devoted to Messiah Complex, Bruabaker mentioned how he’d like to write an issue with Pixie as the only character, so I’d assumed that she’d be heading to Uncanny after the crossover…