Previously On Comics: So Much Marvel Edition

Happy Monday, everyone! Summer’s coming to an end, so I hope you spent your weekend in style. Here are highlights from the week in comics news.

Captain America: Civil War is coming out in digital HD and Blu-ray in a few weeks, and you know what that means. Gag reel time!

I’m a little surprised we don’t see much of Tom Holland. Surely, there were some bloopers featuring the newest incarnation of Spiderman?

Meanwhile, if you were wondering what Thor was up to while everyone was choosing between Team Captain America and Team Iron Man, all your questions have been answered.

This short originally debuted at SDCC earlier this summer, but it’s new for those of us who didn’t get the chance to attend. Poor Thor, left out when he just wanted to be included. It does raise some questions though. Is this post-breakup Thor? Does this set the stage for the new love interest in the forthcoming Thor movie? And is it just me or do Darryl’s co-workers look a little done?

Last week, the final chapter of Bleach was published in Weekly Shonen Jump. Yes, it actually happened. The Big 3 is no more and only One Piece is left standing.

Following in the footsteps of Naruto, Bleach‘s finale found a mixed reception with fans–particularly the romantic resolution. Endgame ships are always tricky, especially if you’re convinced your ship is canon or will become canon. For what it’s worth, as someone’s who read a lot of manga, especially shonen manga, especially shonen manga of the Weekly Shonen Jump brand, the end ships were pretty telegraphed as far as the genre goes, in my opinion. In many ways, the plot resolution is a hot mess, but the overall plot of Bleach has always been a hot mess, so I can’t say I’m angry or surprised about that. The endgame ships, however? Not really a surprise, if you’ve been paying attention to manga finales and endgame ships of Weekly Shonen Jump manga over the last two decades. Their brand absolutely has a preferred slant, and I’ll leave it at that.

But fans aren’t the only ones who had things to say about Bleach. In last week’s issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, other mangaka passed on their well wishes to Tite Kubo. I raised my eyebrows at Eiichiro Oda’s comment: “Kubo-san must be very tired after serializing Bleach for 15 years. Rest well.” Dude, you’ve been serializing One Piece longer than him!

Some comics, like Bleach, have planned endings. (Don’t believe anyone who says Bleach was cancelled. It most definitely was not. They announced the manga ending 3 years ago. This was not a surprise to Tite.) Other comics like Nighthawk, however, do get cancelled.

Nighthawk‘s cancellation has reignited the continuing discussion of solicitations, pre-orders, and the changing habits of the reading demographic. Personally, as a manga reader, I don’t understand this concept of determining which titles live and die by pre-orders and monthlies. Why aren’t sales of trades and collected volumes taken into account? In Japan, many manga titles–such as Bleach–remain in serialization because of the collected volume sales. I don’t understand why you’d ignore people who don’t read monthlies. I’ve actually started reading U.S. comics again within the last year, but I don’t read single issues. I’m never going to read single issues. My money means nothing? Really?

And that’s it for this week. See you next time!

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Megan Purdy

Megan Purdy

Publisher of all this. Megan was born in Toronto. She's still there. Philosopher, space vampire, heart of a killer.

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