Can any comic fans fill me in on current Marvel continuity?

[Klaus]

Wasn't there a JLA story like this a while ago? The JLA went missing and Batman had a secret program to recruit a new team?

Yup. Batman had a backup plan in case the main JLA went missing, 'cause the world needs a JLA, not only for power but as a symbol. So he picked up Jason Blood/Etrigan (the mystical expert), Green Arrow (the voice of conscience), Hawkgirl, Faith (Joe Kelly's creation), Major Disaster, Firestorm, The Atom and for team leader, Nightwing ("the only one I could have ever chosen.") Of note is the fact that Captain Marvel turns down the offer (why?) and also changes is in Billy Batson mode when he gets the offer (what? and in front of the JSA? No one knows Billy's ID! Curse you, Joe Kelly!)

Batman's recored speech to the new JLA is the best part of this storyline, the ultra-confusing and ultra-boring "Obsidian Age".

 

[Plane Sailing]

My Goodness.




I think I stopped reading Marvel about the time of Secret Wars (or was it Infinity Gauntlet), but from what you describe I don't think I'd even *recognise* marvel nowadays!

 

[DonTadow]

Now that's just silly. Look at Wolverine, he's in the X-men comic and travels out to the Savage Lands, then gets picked up by the Avengers so he could join their team. He's also in Astonishing X-men at times. Then in his comic he goes crazy and kills all kinds of heroes over the space of a few months and then turns good again.

So right now, he's missing in X-Men and has gone rogue in Wolverine unless you read The New Avengers where he's basically a member now. So I'm thinking Wolverine has a few clones out there. That way he can be in so many story lines at once. Hey, Spider-man did it.

:\

Wow now i'm confused. I was under the assumption that Astonishing Xmen was a seperate timeline/ storyline by Joss Whedon. IT's the only reason i buy it is because it doesnt deal with the convultion.

 

[Villano]

Yup. Batman had a backup plan in case the main JLA went missing, 'cause the world needs a JLA, not only for power but as a symbol. So he picked up Jason Blood/Etrigan (the mystical expert), Green Arrow (the voice of conscience), Hawkgirl, Faith (Joe Kelly's creation), Major Disaster, Firestorm, The Atom and for team leader, Nightwing ("the only one I could have ever chosen.") Of note is the fact that Captain Marvel turns down the offer (why?) and also changes is in Billy Batson mode when he gets the offer (what? and in front of the JSA? No one knows Billy's ID! Curse you, Joe Kelly!)

That's it. I think I stopped collecting JLA right after that. It was when Kelly introduced that dream machine so he could do imaginary stories.

After JLA, I swore I'd never buy anything by Kelly again. Yuck!

 

[stevelabny]

Wow now i'm confused. I was under the assumption that Astonishing Xmen was a seperate timeline/ storyline by Joss Whedon. IT's the only reason i buy it is because it doesnt deal with the convultion.

you are completely misled. astonishing picks up exactly where grant morrisons run on x-men left off. it is 100% tied in to the continuity of the marvel universe.

now, i'll question this:
why would you ONLY buy a title because it doesnt fit in with other titles?
wouldnt you really be buying it because it was joss? or the art? or the team members?
picking a title only to be out of continuity seems silly.

 

[stevelabny]

and before anyone reads this thread and says "gah, comics suck, i won't buy/read any"

remember that I'm summing up longer stories in single sentences (where every comic story will sound silly) and that I have been soured a lot by the marvel universe in the last 2 years so some of my dislike might shine through.

and as the "rate batman begins" thread shows, we apparently all have very different tastes when it comes to our super hero stories.

so go read/buy some comics.

 

[DonTadow]

you are completely misled. astonishing picks up exactly where grant morrisons run on x-men left off. it is 100% tied in to the continuity of the marvel universe.

now, i'll question this:
why would you ONLY buy a title because it doesnt fit in with other titles?
wouldnt you really be buying it because it was joss? or the art? or the team members?
picking a title only to be out of continuity seems silly.

Let me clarify. I was buying it because it was Joss (genuis writer) and it had nothing to do with the convuluted storylines in Xmen. I read xmen up to 6 or 7 years ago after I just missed some issues and got too confused. I hope they don't make me have to buy other titles for storylines. I felt when I was reading it it the storyline was self contained.

 

[Dagger75]

I always wonder whats going on in the comic world.

I stopped because to get a the whole story arc you needed to get Spider Man, Amazing Spider Man, Wed of Spider Man, the Avengers, X-Men, Classic X-men then X-factor all in one month and these stories when on for 6 months. I got tired of trying to keep up. Batman ticked me off when they started doing the same thing. I could buy Batman and Detective comics but not the 50 different JLA and what not.

Plus I could never get my hands on the cool issue. The stupid comic shops only ordered those for there primary members then sell the other for like $20 a pop.

Bah, sorry this turned into a rant.

Last I read about Marvel was that Captain America quite. What happened?

 

[Dragonblade]

House of M is either an Age of Apocalypse story, or will wind up completely changing Marvel
continuity. So you might just want to wait till its done to see what happens.

In other news: (and this will have spoilers for anything I can think of)

got that people? SPOILERS. ALL OVER.

Scarlet Witch went bonky and brought mayhem and destruction to the Avengers. Ant-Man2 (Scott Lang) and Jack of Hearts are dead. (Jack exploded, Ant-Man was at ground zero) Hawkeye is "dead". (zapped by an illusionary alien ship. surprisingly no body was found)and Vision was ripped into shreds by a rampaging She-Hulk and is being labeled as "dead".

The Avengers disbanded, Magneto took Wanda off the ruins of Genosha, where he's hanging out with Xavier and Wanda's powers becoming even more uncontrollable are what has led up to House of M #1. Apparently, Magneto is using her to remake the world to his specifications.

The "New Avengers" are together, and the team now consists of Cap, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Spider-man, Spider Woman, and maybe Sentry and Wolverine. Depending on if the first storyline ever ends.

The "Young Avengers" are a new team that claims to have been gathered by a Vision backup protocol to find the next generation of Avengers when necessary. The team is also still forming and currently consists of Asgardian (probably not one), Hulkling (revealed to be a shapeshifter), Patriot (the grandson of one of the original black Captain America prototype) , and Iron Lad (claims to be a young Kang, back in time to stop his evil older self)
Ant-man's daughter Cassie (Ant-girl?) and another chick combat-type (Hawkette?) are waiting to become members. The book is surprisngly entertaining.

I'm not fully caught up on the X-books, but they're just as complicated as always. Currently, Jean is dead again, Cyclops and his new girlfriend Emma Frost are headmasters of the school, Colossus is alive, and Squidboy is dead. I miss Squidboy.

Captain America got his series re-started at #1 again and the series is supposed to be good. I haven't read it yet, but I know that the Red Skull gets killed in #1, and other supporting characters get offed in future issues. The popular theory is that the killer mmight be Bucky. I bet its Toro.

Iron Man also has been re-numbered. But the new book never comes out and barely has Iron Man in it.

Thor fulfilled his duty and ended the Ragnarok cycle. Thor, and all the other Asgardians are dead. For now. Dollars to doughnuts he somehow gets reborn in House of M.

Spider-man has had his hands full with Gwen Stacy's kids. That's right, when she went to Europe back in the day, it was to hide the fact that she was pregnant with Norman Osborn's kids. What a dirty slut. Venom is also dead, and the symbiote had attached itself to Scorpion last I checked. It was bouncing around for a while. Carnage got ripped in half by Sentry in space in New Avengers. At least somethign good has happened.

The FF hung out with a human Galactus for a bit, and swapped Johnny and Sue's powers. But I'm pretty sure the status is back to quo in time for the movie. I havent read the last issue or two.

Hulk hasn't made any sense for a long time.

If you have any favorite 2nd string characters, current editorial policy is to treat them like dirt, kill them or ignore them. But I can try to answer specifics.

Wow! I have been out of it for a long time. The funny thing about comics is that everything goes in cycles. Sales will flag, so Marvel or DC or whoever will give the greenlight to hose the universe. Then sales will go up for a time, then old timer fans will complain and newcomers will be confused. So they change creative teams, have some massive reality shifting story arc that completely wipes away all the wacked changes and bring the universe back to status quo. Then the process starts all over again.

 

[Silver Moon]

Pick up Exiles. It's basically the old TV show "Sliders", with a bit of "Quantum Leap" tossed in for good measure. It stars a rotating group of X-Men as the main characters. Since they slide into alternate realities every few issues you don't have to worry about contiuity much, so just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Thunderbolts is also a good read these days too. Mach IV (Beetle) is now team leader. They went back to the old idea of villains becoming reformed, tossing in a whole new group of B-villains onto the team (but without bothering with new identities this time).