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“but the series (secret wars) has been hit with massive delays. in spite of this, marvel has decided to continue the publisher’s plan to re-launch the entire universe with all-new , all-different marvel.”

considering how every time we turn around it seems that the secret wars series keeps getting pushed back, i’m curious, what other options did they have? were they gonna stop putting out new books until the secret wars series finally finished? maybe just put out reprint books until the secret wars finale, or just release any finished pages of the series, a few pages at a time until it’s all done. i guess they could have mad scrambled some more battleworld and warzone books, but would that have made the fans happy or just piss them off? a massive , company wide, game changing, mega event, and the flagship book of the entire enterprise is no where to be found. that’s gotta be embarrassing.
i wonder if the massive delays are holding up any plans or release dates for stories or books that would spill the beans of the secret wars finale if they come out before the finale.

“What other options did they have?”

Well, there was always “behave like a professional publishing company, don’t indulge in editorially-mandated mid-series rewrites, and schedule enough lead time to produce the comics on the solicited dates”, of course. But that would imply a level of competence and planning that seems sadly lacking in the modern comics industry. I imagine that Sol Brodsky and John Verpoorten are turning in their graves…

Any thoughts on the Perlmutting of Squirrel Girl into a non-mutant?

It’s a good start.

Sheesh, all diversity driven, but you really can’t replace the original characters. Thor a woman, Captain America an African-American. What’s next, Iron Man, a cross dresser, and Spider-Man the Korean?

Maybe they should just invent more cool heroes and introduce the diversity that way? Inferno looks like a promising new hero, who seems to be Hispanic.

“What’s next, Iron Man, a cross dresser, and Spider-Man the Korean?”
I’d buy both of those comics, though I think the Iron Maiden one would top the list.

But yeah, new heroes strike me as the better proposition. The problem is that in the era of multi-media synergy, the big 2 would be taking a big risk trying to get traction out of a new creation, at least where potential legal claims are concerned. And any creator with a great idea for a new character (of any stripe) would be silly to give them over to Disney or Warner. If you want innovation, look elsewhere. But diversity is possible even within the narrow parameters of Marvel and DC legacy characters.

If I had the chance to ask the Marvels powers that be a single question, it’d be this: “This is because Tumblr is in love with Anthony Mackie, isn’t it?”

@Dave – so what if they did become that? You’ve heard of legacy characters, no?

Lame, invent a new character if you want more diversity

Spider-Man the Korean?

Mark Millar already did this one in his Ultimate Avengers series that followed the Ultimates. If I remember right the character was also supposedly able to talk anyone into suicide.

That said, the replacing of the lead with another character is pretty common for Captain America and Thor. Remember US Agent and Thunderstrike? They did this same thing as recently as 2011 when Bucky replaced Cap and What’s His Name replaced Thor for like two issues after Fear Itself.

1. I really hope that this is a solid story and not just a gimmick to garner publicity and increase sales. As a long time comic reader, we all know that this is a short term thing before the inevitable headline of “Cap Returns!” (Um, Cap was dead, how long ago???)

2. It really makes sense from a character standpoint that Sam got a turn. Good for him. Not from left field at all. And I mean that non-sarcastically.

3. I wonder what Kyle Baker thinks about all this? Especially the statements of “Cap has never been black before.” Um. Truth, anyone?

My greatest concern is that Tony Stark moving to San Francisco will upend any plans Mark Waid has for Daredevil. Other than that possibility, this all looks fun to me.

Remember fun?

The House of Original Idea is truly over and done. Steve Rogers has lost the serum and is old now. I think I already read this “back in the day” with Captain America #291 (thereabouts) which led to a superb finale with the battle between Cap and the Red Skull in Captain America #300 and #301 where Cap returned to normal. And Marvel wonders why I stopped buying their shit.

It’s a back-door pilot.
The “new” version gets the spotlight. Marvel tests a new character, created in-house, and if worthwhile, spins it off, or moves it over into a team book.

DC did this with Batwoman in Detective.
Marvel did it before with Captain America/The Captain/U.S. Agent.
John Byrne did it with Alpha Flight.

white people

Fond as I am of Sam, there are other black men associated with Cap– and sadly, Marvel seems to have forgotten them… I’ll always love Eli if they don’t, tho’. :(

This feels like a rather hollow gesture when it comes to diversifying the line, since this is obviously a temp move. I suspect both Thor and Steve will be back to status quo by the time Avengers 2 comes out. So that’ll be what? About two trades worth of material each for nuThor and Sam? I don’t think it’s worth getting het up about because there is some definite positive aspect to all this, but I’m not inclined to go crazy applauding it either.

You know what’s funny about this? There were a certain contingent of people whining about the Thor announcement, that it was sexist because it was a woman taking a male characters name and how it subjugated female identity and why can’t we get original female characters with agency. What those people don’t get is that argument by default is inherently entitled and racist because just as it says we can’t have a SHE Hulk or a Spider WOMAN, it also says we can’t have a black Nick Fury because he’s not the REAL nick fury, he’s just the BLACK nick fury. There’s a variety of reasons why creating original characters in the big two environment is a problem for creators and I don’t want to wait for diversity on the timetable of those arguing we should wait for companies to give us original diverse characters rather than having a female version of a male hero or a black version of a white hero because AGENCY! It’s taken decades but She-Hulk is her own character, Spider-Woman is her own character, Batgirl is her own character. A black Nick Fury is now accepted as is Miles Morales Spider-Man. These are iconic characters, once white males, who are now women and people of color. It’s more important for women and minorities to take up that mantle than to wait for an “original character” slot to debut in. I love what Image is doing and their diversity, but lets face it, not a single Image character, with the possible exception of Spawn, is iconic. And probably never will be. But we have Sam Jackson/Nick Fury toys in the toy aisles now and that’s pretty dang cool. An original diverse character is great. But not as great as a black Captain America or a woman being worthy to wield Mjolnir.