It’s Monday, which means it’s Mighty Marvel Monday, the weekly news round up of Marvel-related news, or as I like to say, my version of Last Week Tonight except I’m not a British man, and this is not HBO, so not really much like Last Week Tonight at all except for the once-a-week news format thing.
It’s Labor Day in the United States, or con-recovery day for those who attended Dragon*Con or FanExpo this weekend. I hope you all had an amazing time, and I envy you all.
Also, I found out last week that my mother, despite not reading comics nor having watched any of the Marvel movies or TV shows, is now reading this column, basically just to support me, so hi, mom!
It’s another slow-ish week for Marvel, but some big stories!
Top Stories
The top story at Marvel Studios this week was the restructuring that now has Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige is reporting directly to Disney studio chief Alan Horn, circumventing Ike Perlmutter at Marvel Entertainment. The buzz has asserted that this is A Good Thing, since Perlmutter had a reputation for being “difficult,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. A more concrete reason came out a few days later, citing budget concerns over Captain America: Civil War, but in general, this does not seem to have immediate effects on the current Marvel cinematic trajectory.
I am personally more excited about the rumored casting of Misty Knight. According to Deadline, Simone Missick has just been cast for Netflix’s Luke Cage, and her character is described as “Missy, a woman with a strong sense of justice,” but the article adds speculation that she’s really Misty Knight. I am in full support of this, if it’s true, because hopefully that will add more reason for Marvel to create a Misty Knight-centric ongoing (preferably written by Jeremy Whitley).
And speaking of comics–
Marvel’s big comics reveal this week was who was going to be the star of Totally Awesome Hulk. I received this truly bizarre looking promo/teaser image on Wednesday:
I don’t know what’s up with that hair/fuzzy beard combo, or why they blacked out his fist, but it seems even more odd when compared to the official cover:
The answer is Amadeus Cho, who has been a minor character for about a decade, and the first Korean-American Hulk. I was expecting a lot of headlines to quote the lyrics to “Rock Me Amadeus,” but was sadly disappointed, so….
Marvel was quick to promote both their Korean-American Hulk and their Korean-American creative team, and this interview with EW is particularly good. In general, I think this has the potential to be every bit as game changing for Marvel as when Miles Morales took on the mantle of Spider-Man, but I have one reservation, which I found succinctly expressed by this tweet:
https://twitter.com/bairfanx/status/639812525782118401
It’s been pointed out that these sketches are commissions, but that really doesn’t make me feel any better as a woman who reads comics. It’s not just the artwork–it’s the disrespectful attitude and “just not getting it”-ness as pointed out in this article, What the Hell is Frank Cho Doing? that is the problem. Cho’s attitude towards women as characters and fans is important to me as a potential consumer of this book, and a reason for me not to put it on my pull list at all.
Second comics story–more variant covers! Following the recently announced cosplay covers was this announcement of a series of 90s-era inspired nostalgia covers. I grew up in the 90s, but these covers don’t inspire 90s nostalgia so much as a thankfulness that we’ve moved past the era of musclebound male power fantasy covers. Granted, only six of them have been released, but that seems to be the unifying theme so far, and when at least two of the covers are going to be drawn by Rob Liefeld, I’m not overly optimistic.
ICYMI
Chris Evans’ tenure as Cap has been, up till now, mournfully assured to end after the fourth Avengers film, but now this may not be the case.
Whatever has happened to take Chris Evans from never wanting to act again to where we are now, I can’t but cheer for, not for myself, necessarily, but because he seems happy, and when the actors I love are happy? I’m happy. Unless, of course, he’s happy because of a Patriots win. That’s tantamount to treason in my parents’ house and it’s almost football season.
