Tag: Dan Slott

The Watcher faces a ‘Reckoning’ next March

‘Reckoning War: Trial of the Watcher’ will tie into next year’s big Fantastic Four storyline.

The Watcher isn’t one for the spotlight — he prefers to watch — but that changes next year in Reckoning War: Trial of the Watcher, a one-shot special that ties into the Fantastic Four: Reckoning War storyline by Dan Slott, Carlos Pacheco and Rachael Stott.

Slott will be joined by the wonderful Javier Rodríguez for the one-shot, which will “shed light on the First War that rocked the Marvel Universe.”

“One of the key players in all of this is Uatu,” Slott said to Newsarama. “[The original war] is something the Watchers have been keenly aware of, and the possible thought of it happening again brought Uatu back. Maybe it’s time for the Watcher to stop watching and start doing.”

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Marvel announces eight new ‘tentpole’ titles for this coming winter

Daredevil, Fantastic Four, She-Hulk and more have new projects lined up at the House of Ideas.

Marvel revealed today eight new titles for the coming winter that they’re referring to as “tentpole” titles — or titles that “will shape the future of the Marvel Universe in the months to come.”

Marvel announced earlier this month plans to reveal several new projects today in celebration of their birthday — so, Happy Birthday, Marvel!

The projects range from event titles to new ones featuring some characters you’ll soon see on Disney+.

Here’s the lowdown on the eight titles:

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‘Fantastic Four’ #33 provides ‘the greatest reaction page in the history of comics (this week)’

Carla Hoffman offers a quick review of the second chapter of Doctor Doom’s wedding.

So I love superhero weddings almost as much as I love pro wrestling weddings, and the two genres have a lot in common.

After all, none of us are coming to the nuptials to see love triumph or watch people slow dance at the reception; we want to see the carnage. If there’s a big cake, we want someone to go through it. If the officiant asks for anyone to “speak now or forever hold your peace,” there should be at least five people jumping to their feet to object. 

It’s drama, it’s fashion, it’s a comic book wedding for Fantastic Four #33.

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Marvel celebrates 60 years of the Fantastic Four in August

Dan Slott, John Romita Jr. Mark Waid, Paul Renaud and more contribute stories to the giant-sized issue #35.

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Fantastic Four, Marvel has announced that August’s issue #35 will be special giant-sized issue featuring three stories.

The main story will featured the FF going up against all the Kangs, as the time lord and his various incarnations target the team at different points in history. It’ll be written by Dan Slott and drawn by John Romita Jr., who recently returned to Marvel after spending a few years at DC, and inker JP Mayer.

“I’ve read, and been told by much smarter people, that ‘luck is the residue of design’ so I won’t even attempt to claim I designed the events of these last few months, but I will take this kind of luck any day any time,” Romita Jr. said. “I was lucky to begin my career with Marvel and now am extremely lucky to re-connect with Marvel. That’s an enormous amount of good fortune. I sincerely thank all the folks up at Marvel, and Disney, who worked for this fortunate re-connection to happen.

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Eynd of Empyre

Carla Hoffman looks back at Marvel’s Empyre, both as a game-changing “event book” and from a story perspective.

With the world in flux, we can at least count on a major summer event to remain a constant for comic fans. Neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night will keep our Big Two from their appointed rounds of throwing their entire universe (or multiverse, as the case may be) into flux to determine the definitive path for their respective companies. At least until next year.

Let’s look at this year’s Empyre by Dan Slott, Al Ewing and Valerio Schiti, and see if a comic can rock our world harder than real life already has. WARNING: spoilers ahead for the basics of the main Empyre series, so if you’ve read all six issues, grab your comics and read along!

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Dog Man, ‘Empyre,’ Doctor Who and more

New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from Al Ewing, Simone Di Meo, Dav Pilkey, Emma Kubert, Jen Hickman, Zac Thompson, Jody Houser and more.

We are back again with a look at what’s arriving in comic shops, bookstores and on digital this week. And what a week it is, with new Dog Man, Black Widow, Doctor Who and many other debuts, along with the big ending of Marvel’s Empyre miniseries.

If you’re wondering what to get this week, check out a few recommendations below. You can check the Comic List page to see what’s arriving in your local shop, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.

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Marvel announces a ‘permanent status quo change’ for ‘Fantastic Four’

Artist RB Silva joins writer Dan Slott on the title in October.

Marvel today began teasing some of their October comics on their website, as they tend to do. In addition to a look at the cover to X of Swords: Stasis and the reprinting of the Official Handbook of the Conan Universe, they also teased the post-Empyre direction of the Fantastic Four.

First off, RB Silva will join Dan Slott on the title with issue #25, which sports a cover by Mark Brooks:

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What Are You Reading? | Red Goblins, celestial avatars, Klan smashers and Texas blood

See what the Smash Pages crew has checked off their ‘to read’ list lately.

Like I said last week, summertime is the right time for crossovers and comics. This week brought us a taste of Empyre, Marvel’s big crossover event featuring the Avengers, The Fantastic Four, the Kree, the Skrulls, the Blue Area of the Moon, the Swordsman and all that crazy cosmic space action Marvel fans have come to know and love. You can see Carla’s thoughts on it below, along with a list of comics Shane has been buying for his kids and Tom’s thoughts on two politically minded books from DC.

You can tell us what you’ve been reading in the comments below or on social media.

Shane Bailey

Lately my kids have started wanting to read more comics. My little one has always been into them, but now the older kids are as well. So I let them pick out their own comics to read on comiXology Unlimited.

My 9 yr old son picked Amazing Spider-Man: The Red Goblin by Dan Slott and Stuart Immonen, and he loves it. He wouldn’t stop commenting on how crazy scary Norman Osborn is, how it was gross when Carnage bit the head off a rat, and during one issue when the Goblin had a captive and was interrogating him, he wondered aloud over who it was, making guesses and gasping when he found out who it was and that Norman knew who Spider-Man was. It’s great seeing him get excited at things that are old hat for me. It made me appreciate those moments more.

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Cosmic collisions promised in ‘Empyre’ trailer

Watch a teaser for next April’s big event series from Marvel, featuring the Kree, Skrulls, Avengers and more.

Marvel has released a teaser trailer for their next big event, Empyre, which was also teased in last week’s $10-for-an-advertisement one-shot, Incoming!

The story will be written by Al Ewing and Dan Slott, with artwork by Valerio Schiti. It will star the Avengers and Fantastic Four in a story of “galactic intrigue and cosmic ramifications” that features the Kree, the Skrulls, Hulking and more.

Check out the trailer below:

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‘Iron Man 2020’ is coming, of course, in 2020

Dan Slott, Christos Gage and Pete Woods bring Iron Man into the (very near) future.

Over the weekend at the New York Comic Con, Marvel announced that Dan Slott, Christos Gage and Pete Woods are working on the next iteration of Iron Man — Iron Man 2020, which spins out of Slott’s run on the character thus far.

Inside the Iron Man 2020 armor is Arno Stark, Tony Stark’s brother. He’ll be facing down with the Robot Rebellion, as artificial intelligence battles for robot rights.

“Like the inexorable turning of pages on a calendar, we’ve been building up to the arrival of 2020 and the advent of Arno Stark as Iron Man ever since this latest run began!” says Executive Editor Tom Brevoort. “Here, all of the larger themes we’ve been playing with will come to the fore in a big, sweeping, epic action movie that anyone can enjoy!”

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Smash Pages’ favorite comics of 2018

See what the Smash Pages’ staff enjoyed reading this past year.

With 2018 winding down, Smash Pages’ contributors take a look back at some of their favorite comics of the year, from Hey Kiddo and Spectacular Spider-Man #310 to Wet Moon and The Secret Voice.

Brigid Alverson

Silver Spoon, by Hiromu Arakawa (Yen Press)
Arakawa is best known as the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist, but you couldn’t get any farther from that series than Silver Spoon, a comedy about a city boy who goes to agricultural school in rural Hokkaido. Yuugo Hachiken worked hard and did everything he was told, but he still didn’t get into an elite high school, so he takes what he thinks is the easy way out by going to a school that’s not academically focused—or so he thinks. In fact, the students at Ooezo Agricultural High School are very knowledgeable in their fields, but those fields are things like genetics and animal husbandry. The rubber really hits the road in the practical lessons, though, and Hachiken quickly realizes he is out of his depth when it comes to herding chickens, riding a horse, or fetching a stray calf. There’s a lot of city mouse-country mouse comedy in this series, but it’s also a fascinating look at where our food comes from (at least in Japan), and the different agricultural models espoused by different farmers. In fact, like Hachiken’s classmates, this book is very smart and sophisticated in addition to being endlessly entertaining.

Meal, by Blue Delliquanti and Soleil Ho (Iron Circus)
The idea of eating bugs may elicit an “Eeeww” from most people, but Delliquanti and Ho go beyond the ick factor in this romance about an insect cuisine enthusiast and a chef who wants to start a new restaurant based on the dishes of her youth—dishes that include ants, grasshoppers, and tarantulas. There’s a love story woven in there as well. Yarrow has just moved to a new city in hopes of getting a job in the kitchen of Chandra Flores, insect chef extraordinaire, who is about to launch a new restaurant. Milani, her neighbor, is friendly and helpful but the two have a little trouble making it click. At the same time, Chandra suspects that Yarrow is only into insect cuisine because it’s sensational, while to her, it’s part of her heritage. There’s a lot in this slim volume: Love, food, bugs, and bugs that are food, and the creators even include a couple of recipes at the end of the book.

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