Jen, in the tenor of today's Marvel Universe (at least Bendis' portion of it), maybe, just maybe, you might want to be careful of who your bounty hunting partner is...or at least what species:
I can't imagine this would go over too well right now with your superhero buddies, given what's going on in New Avengers (but apparently nowhere else...)Then again, in the Bendis books, they would spend 5 issues sitting around wondering whom they could trust, and never get around to actually doing anything to check if she was a Skrull, so you'd probably be all right.
And can I get some blogger help here? "Secret Invasion" is the stupidest title for a mega-crossover event ever. I move that whenever we refer to it (as we will have to), we all refer to instead as Skrullapalooza. All in favor?
Cover and panel from She-Hulk #23, where apparently World War Hulk hasn't happened yet, or happened awhile ago, and where Secret Invasion I mean Skrullapalooza isn't on the radar. Do Marvel writers even talk to each other anymore?
SHE-HULK 2 #15-#18 take place before WORLD WAR HULK.
ReplyDeleteSHE-HULK 2 #19 states that it takes place after WORLD WAR HULK.
SHE-HULK 2 #22 states that it takes place three months after SHE-HULK 2 #21.
It's all there in the context of the story and/or captions.
The skrull invasion, so far, has been a closely guarded secret in the super hero community. (Right now, it's only known by The New Avengers and the Illuminati. As far as we know, Iron Man hasn't even told the Mighty Avengers or SHIELD yet.)
Since Marvel puts out over 100 books a month, it's easy to see that some stories need to come out at their own pace and work around continuity, fitting it in when it's most convenient for those individual titles.
If all the comics were put out in a rigid/unflexible timeline where strict adherence to continuity was placed ABOVE ongoing storylines (while that might make some readers happy) it would mean that those storylines would have to constantly slam on their breaks and mention every bit of business from every other title.
To me, that kind of bumpy ride would be far more annoying than the alternative: waiting till storylines are finished and THEN taking a moment to see when, where, and how they fit into the bigger picture.
Just my two cents.
Captions are all well and good, but maybe some actual impact and consequences would be more helpful.
ReplyDeleteFor example, Jennifer was all upset about what Stark et. al. did to the Hulk, risking her life and powers. Now that he's back (since, as you say, this all takes place after WWH), not a mention. Not a peep. Not a shred of concern that Bruce is now in Stark's custody. Not even an acknowledgement that, after America's largest city was destroyed by her cousin, some people might not take kindly to having a She-Hulk running around.
Oh, and that devestation of New York? Let's see, you'd think that we would see some reprecussions in Daredevil (nope), Fantastic Four (nope), Avengers, New or Mighty (nope)...This is the complete opposite of the Civil War, which like it or not, had major implications in every Marvel title, not just captions saying when it took place.
Now, I don't mind series that don't slavishly tie into mainstream continuity (eg, Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men). Hell, I'm all for some measure of looseness.
But Marvel is the one that publicized this as a cross-over blockbuster event that "would leave the Marvel universe forever changed." They declared that this would be an event to ripple throughout their shared universe. Yet, an big explosion in Stamford had far, far more impact on the Marvel universe than the destruction of New York City!!
This isn't about "rigid/unflexible timelines." This is about Marvel's editorial team apparently unable or unwilling to get all it's ducks in a row. Because it's been nearly half a year since WWH started, publishing time, and if most of the major books in the Marvel universe haven't found time to catch up or even acknowledge it, what's the point of a "company-wide crossover?"