Marvel Re-Invents Itself

[Melbosa]

So not sure if you guys saw this yet today or not: http://ca.ign.com/articles/2015/01/20/the-marvel-universe-is-coming-to-an-end-in-may-2015, and more + press conference: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=58625.

Looks like Marvel is finalizing every story arc, line, universe and version of their comics and starting from a new One Universe set on one planet called Battleworld.  Basically they are starting from comic issue #0 (called Secret Wars #0 free on Free Comic Book Day :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Comic_Book_Day).

Some direct quotes worth sharing:

Once you hit 'Secret Wars' #1, there's no Marvel Universe, there's no Ultimate Universe; It's all Battleworld. None of these stories are What Ifs aren't alternate reality stories.

This is putting an endcap to decades of stories, and starting a new era. When you see the scope of the stories, you'll see what we're willing to do. If we wanted to resurrect Gwen Stacy, this would be the place to do it, wouldn't it? If you ever wondered what would happen if you take the 'Age of Ultron' universe and perch it next to the 'Marvel Zombies' universe, this would be the place to do it.

You guys will be yelling and screaming, loving and hating in equal measure

Basically every line of Marvel comic books are now a nation or section of the Battleworld and live in the same universe: http://www.newsarama.com/22828-marvel-release-full-map-of-secret-wars-battleworld.html

I'm guessing the movies will show the original content, but the comics are going to be all brand new now!  Feels a little Star Trek rebootish to me, but in no similar way.

[Mr. Analog]

Yet another reboot, yawn

I guess the corporate overlords (Disney) want to change a few things around

I'm guessing more generic Princesses

[Melbosa]

LOL... well should be interesting.  Just wondering how you employee all those Artists and Writers that were working on what maybe 50 or so comic 'verses and start them over from ground zero on a One Universe with multiple Peter Parkers or Banners, Ant-man Henry Prime and Ant-man Steve, Fantastic 4s x10, etc all on one planet.  And then make the worlds relate-able to the next generation of comic book viewers while still appealing to the existing fans.  I mean Spiderman won't just be from NY anymore... this isn't your original Earth based superheroes... now they come from a completely mashed up one universe, one world.

So I guess they can retell some of the original stories, but most of the origin story stuff now will be all new, at least I think.

Very curious to see what this ends up being in a year or two.

[Mr. Analog]

In doing some more reading on this while my @%&# compiles I've come to the conclusion that this isn't a reboot (even though Marvel want fans foaming at the mouth thinking this is the case)

All of the 616 history will have happened, just with a few additions (and possibly some duplicates)

TBH it's about time Marvel started making waves in comics because right now their films are doing really well they need to bank on that. DC has been doing fairly well even after the disastrous retcon-fest of New 52, again I'm pretty sure the marketing behind this is to get people talking about it BECAUSE of New 52 (and how divisive it was)

Anyway, my two cents...

[Melbosa]

Yeah why I titled the thread Re-Invent.  From my readings too I believe it isn't a reboot so much as a fresh starting point with a significant wrap-up to all previous lines of comics for Marvel.  Feels rebootish but isn't.

[Mr. Analog]

From my experience most retcons fail to change much (cough, DC, cough) I doubt it will rock the boat too much myself

Here we go with a bunch of alternative Spidermans again *shakes fist*

[Tom]

Hey, maybe that means they'll reboot the spiderman movies a few more times!

[Melbosa]

So I've been trying to really follow how the hell this all works with Marvel at the moment, and then someone on reddit put it all together for me rather nicely: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kbh5tsjzITUO4IfELCLk9xzzSlvgvriXeXfNO3igQsQ/edit?pli=1#gid=0

Can also follow: http://marvel.wikia.com/Secret_Wars

Anyway I've been looking to find out what to read, when and how, and when the releases were coming.  Once I found this it all made so much more sense.

[Darren Dirt]

Yeah but there's still always gonna be the problem of what order are you supposed to watch everything in the MCU