By Steve Morris
Excellent news has come in from Marvel today! I refuse to be objective, because today comes that announcement that Journey Into Mystery WILL continue, as I previously reported, with the new creative team of Kathryn Immonen and Valerio Schiti coming onboard as of issue #646. Alongside the new creative team comes a new focus, as the series switches from following Kid Loki on his magical exploits, and instead turns to the swashbuckling swordplay of Sif.
Which means Marvel now have comics spotlighting Captain Marvel, Dazzler, Red She-Hulk, and now Sif. There’s some momentum gathering there, isn’t there? Here’s the cover, which I think is by Stephanie Hans.
Immonen previously wrote a Hellcat miniseries for Marvel, as well as the modern classic Pixie Strikes Back, which is one of the best stories ever told by Marvel. Her focus on Sif means that Kieron Gillen’s grip on Kid Loki may well continue, but it also gives Immonen the chance to flesh the character out. Perhaps most strongly characterised by the Thor movie from a few years ago, Immonen notes that
One of the really interesting things about Sif to me is that she’s defined by absence, with her lover, Thor, and brother, Heimdall, always away from her
The series will see Sif embark on a new mission to define herself as a warrior, which brings her into conflict with a lot of old Asgardian lore, and allows Immonen to play around with monsters and swordplay. In the liveblog, she talks about how daunting it is to follow such a fan-favourite run, but has some interesting ideas about how her run with the series is going to play out. Particularly interesting is her suggestion about the predestination inherent in the Asgardian characters. There’s always going to be an endpoint at ‘Ragnarok’, so how much of their lives is basically spent treading water before that happens?
I see a similarity between Sif and Loki because neither of them can ever be Thor. I think that has more effect on her then she’ll admit. She’s been told she’s capable of anything, but at the end of the day, she will never be Thor. It’s a matter of finding out how to be enough anyway.
The first issue with Sif in the lead, issue #646, will be released in November. And hey – it’s $2.99
Best of luck to the new team and the new direction but for me Kid Loki written by Gillen was the only reason to pick up JiM.
Schiti has seriously been rocking the sinfully under-reported Battle Beasts for IDW.
This won’t make me pick up a Marvel book though.
That’s no problem, Ron.
Having never bought it before, I’ll be picking it up in light of this news. Call it breaking even for Marvel.
Kathryn Immonen is VERY uneven as a writer. This is probably not a positive step.
Well, Captain Marvel, Dazzler, Red She-Hulk, and Sif will each be a fun little 12 issue experiment.
Going to give this a try as Immonen is a writer I’ve liked a lot. However, is it $2.99 or $3.99? It says $3.99 on the cover.
If it’s $3.99 now, that’s a price rise from Gillen’s run, which had a $2.99 cover price.
Marvel issued a clarification for those who have an…issue with the price on…the…issue.
It will remain at $2.99.
Dazzler is just a prominent character in a team book, isn’t she? If we’re finally allowed to count those, Marvel has had loads more female-led series recently.
I feel like I *should* be glad JiM is continuing, but Sif doesn’t seem particularly interesting to me and the only thing by Immonen I’ve really liked is “Wolverine & Jubilee”.
Of course… when they started JiM, I wasn’t particularly interested in Loki either and Gillen was still only in the beginning phases of his awesomeness, so who knows what might happen here?
Dazzler is team leader! Also, she is DAZZLER. She should be in every comic
Well, so’s Dani Moonstar. And Storm. And Hope, until not long ago. That is to say, they’re all team leaders. They’re not all Dazzler too, that would be awkward. Funny, but awkward.
It was just above cancellation-level with a better and more well-known writer and a better and more well-known protagonist. And it was only $2.99 then, not $3.99.
I give it six issues. After the fourth issue it’ll already be down around 20,000 copies.
Oh well, we can always pretend that it didn’t work because the new writer and protagonist are female.
I read the recent “date” issue of Kitty Pryde and Colossus.
She’s rather strong-willed and another team leader.
Perhaps Marvel should take all the strong female X-Men and feature them in a separate series? Maybe title it “X-X”…
Good luck to the new creative team. I’m so excited that Gillen is taking over Iron Man. He’s my current favourite comic book writer. Woot!
Anyone know what’s happening to Kid Loki? Is he going to another book?