Marvel's December Solicitations

Still no sign of the fabled Super Hero Squad comic series in the December solicitations but what do we have?

Spider-Man Brand New Day Yearbook - apparently has OHOTMU style profiles that (many would hope) explains some of the post-OMB storyline craziness.

Venom Dark Origin 5 - so far the story has just made Eddie more of a creepy loser but who knows how the story will turn out.

Lots of solicitations are classified until after Secret Invasion 8, so there's many, many gaping holes for titles like Initiative, Ms. Marvel and Iron Man. The Fantastic Four Cosmic special is equally classified, but Marvel seems to be insisting that Sue is due to die. If she is, that would explain why they're pumping out appearances of the Lady Liberators in Hulk, She-Hulk and the She-Hulk one-shot.

Immortal Iron Fist 21 gives us yet another possible glimpse into yet another possible future. Some day I expect Marvel to do a Countdown Arena type story where various characters from various futures fight to the death. My bet for favorite battle? The Moon Knight of 2099 will team up with the Iron Fist of 3099 to battle Killraven (the first one) whose brain has been placed in a Deathlok unit.

The Marvel Apes series has had a few surprises but it seems like December's 0 issue, chock full of reprint goodness, is just a test to see how padded the eventual hardcover needs to be.

New Warriors, the title (issue 19 that is) features more of Thrasher's visit to yet another possible future, while New Warriors, the group (the originals that is) visit Nova in Nova 19. Between Avengers The Initiative, appearances in New Warriors and now Nova, the original New Warriors (or Counter Force or whatever Marvel's trying to bill them as now) are getting as much as, if not more, exposure than the group that has their name.

Marvel has fallen in love with one shots recently and this month is no different, with one shots for She-Hulk, Moon Knight (a Christmas special at that), Thor, Wolverine and Punisher receiving one-shots, and Dark Reign following up on Secret Invasion's aftermath.

Thunderbolts 127 is apparently setting the stage for a board clearing, game changing new line-up and things don't look good for Songbird. Poor Songbird.

What If is back with another set of one-shots, and Marvel's Noir series of mini-series kick off with Spider-Man and X-Men.

Marvel's Adventures line only offers up Spider-Man, Avengers, Fantastic Four and Super heroes this month, but Wolverine and Power Pack continues.

And wrapping things up, Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men Kingbreaker are leading into the War of Kings.

Marvel's November Solicitations

As long-term readers know, we've been diligently looking at Marvel's fall solicitations for a possible Super Hero Squad comic book. It started in May when MSNreported on the upcoming video game and we noticed some problems in the reporting. Don't get us wrong, we think a Super Hero Squad comic sounds great, but Marvel's Marvel Adventures Line seems to be the closest we've got for now.

So while there is no Super Hero Squad comic listed in November's solicitations so far, there are a few interesting items.

First up, for family friendly fair, Franklin Richards new one-shot is Sons of Geniuses, the new Power Pack series will feature Wolverine, Amazing Spider-Girl continues with issue 26, MA: Spider-Man 45 features Doc Ock, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 4 comes out, MA: Avengers 30 guest star's Tigra and promises a new team member, MA: Fantastic Four 42 features an election in Latveria, and MA Super Heroes 5 features Doctor Strange and Spider-Man fighting mystical creatures. Marvel Adventures Hulk and Iron Man both appear to be missing. Hulk's solicitations last months didn't indicate it was over, but the last time MA: Iron Man was solicited was for September, and then it was as Iron Man Golden Avenger 1.

Other than that, there's additional one-shots for Thor and Wolverine and the usual assortment of Secret Invasion books.

With the launch of a second Wolverine-related First Class that, like Wolverine Origins before it promises to be an exploration of Wolverine's history before joining the X-Men, The solicitation for Power Pack and Wolverine best sums up all the Wolverine issues this month.

"All right, bub. Gimme my appearance schedule for October..."
"Sure, Mr. Logan! There's your regular solo title, of course. Plus, the usual line-up of team books."
"So that's just UNCANNY, ASTONISHING, NEW AVENGERS and X-FORCE. No prob."
"There's also your side projects. ORIGINS, FIRST CLASS, MANIFEST DESTINY, another FIRST CLASS..."
"Uh huh. Anythin' else?"
"Don't forget cameos! Possibly AVENGERS/INVADERS... maybe a SECRET INVASION appearance..."
"Hmph. Sounds like a light month to me. Think I got room for one more book. You got anythin' FUN?"
"Actually..."

Of course, that ignores his Ultimate appearances in Ultimatum (with 1 and 2 shipping that month), a probably appearance in Ultimate X-Men, appearance in Marvel's Director's Cut of the Free Comic Book Day 2008 X-Men title, his Marvel Adventures Avengers appearance, Secret Invasion: X-Men 4, and of course his appearance in X-Men Legacy, which is tying up the crossover from Wolverine Origins and one of October's one-shots, which brings the total up to about 20 appearances, if all those cameos come through of course. Maybe he'll start making cameos in the Marvel Illustrated titles (Three Musketeers or Odyssey would both be good choices).

No Squad in Marvel's October solicitations either.

Continuing to track the lack of a Super Hero Squad comic first mentioned by MSN as dropping this fall, we already discussed September's lack of a SHS comic when those solicitations were released. Now that October's Solicitations are released we can see that nope, still no Super Hero Squad comic title as MSN reported. Now, the original article said launching "Fall 2008" so that means it's possible November's solicitations could have something, or even December's (since winter doesn't begin until December 21) but that's stretching it.

In other comic news, October seems to be all about the secret origins as we continue the trend in Avengers titles to focus on how non-Avengers were kidnapped and replaced by Skrulls (Mighty Avengers 19), get the secret origins of the Hood (New Avengers 46), Captain America (Captain America White 1), House of M Magneto (Civil War: House of M 2), Ghost Riders Ketch and Blaze (Ghost Rider 28, Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch 1), Ms. Marvel (Ms. Marvel 32), possibly Mutant Zero (Avengers: Initiative 18), Jackpot (Secret Invasion: The Amazing Spider-Man 3, Amazing Spider-Man Annual 1), Black Widow (Twelve 8), Eygpt (Thor: Truth of History), Subject X (Astonishing X-Men Ghost Boxes 1), Prof X (X-Men Legacy 217, Wolverine 29 Origins and X-Men Original Sin), and Magneto (X-Men: Magneto Testament 2).

So we'll see you again when the November Solicitations are out and maybe then we'll learn about the Super Hero Squad comic. Of course, MSN has been wrong before (in fact, they were wrong a couple times in the very article that said there was a comic series coming, like when they said there were Super Hero Squad comics already running.)

No SHS in Marvel's September Solicitations

Way back when we reported on MSN's report on the Super Hero Squad video game. We had some questions about the reporting, notably when it said "Marvel Comics is now featuring Marvel Super Hero Squad comic strips within several of its all ages books and will be introducing a dedicated Marvel Super Hero Squad comic book series in fall 2008."

The problem? Marvel doesn't feature Super Hero Squad comic strips anywhere, but does reprint some Mini-Marvels strips in the Marvel Adventures line, and nobody else referred to a dedicated comic book. The closest anyone came to was Hollywood Reporter's claim that there's an upcoming "book series" for the fall (Hollywood Reporter just says "the fall" while MSN said "Fall 2008").

Because of that report, we've been eagerly awaiting Marvel's Solicitations for any of the fall months. The bad news? September has come and gone without any sign of the Squad.

But of course we'll keep looking.