Marvel Now, But Not Quite NOW!: How Are Their New Series Faring?

With the Marvel NOW! relaunch looming on the horizon following the end of the sprawling Avengers vs. X-Men crossover event, Marvel Comics plans to have dozens of new #1 issues spaced out over a few months beginning in October. That hasn’t prevented them from putting some top talent on high-profile launches over the last month or two, and it seemed as good a time as any to check in and see how those titles are doing.They might not be part of a massive, coordinated effort, but it’s hard to deny that when you relaunch a fan-favorite X-Man; a member not only of the Avengers but of the MOVIE Avengers; and one of Marvel’s most visible, popular female heroes all at once, the stories are likely to make fans stand up and take note. And, starting with Captain Marvel #1 last month, that’s what the publisher has been doing.Our reviewer Nick Winstead waxed enthusiastic about Captain Marvel last month, while Kelly Sue DeConnick–the title’s writer and one of the most visible women in comics right now–told an interviewer last week that she wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t last a year.The second issue of the series hit the stands this week and while I still can’t quite get used to the look of Dexter Soy’s art, there’s no doubting it’s beautiful and well-rendered. DeConnick, meanwhile, has quietly become one of the cleverest, most articulate and refreshing voices in Big Two comics, and only two issues in the title is already in my top five female-led superhero titles of the last ten years, along with gems like Brian Azzarrello’s Wonder Woman and Marc Andreyko’s Manhunter. It’s already up there with Batwoman as one of the best comics in the mainstream market in terms of the way it uses art and panel structure as an integral part of the storytelling, and (like Batwoman again) it uses that to establish an identity all its own and a look that’s identifiable at a glance.DeConnick does a great job making the character immediately relatable, as the first couple of issues have revolved around Carol Danvers more than Captain Marvel, and have seen her grapple with issues of legacy and the meaning of heroes–that’s the kind of issues that DC usually tends to embrace more than Marvel does, but it feels at home in the title.It is, of course, very difficult to imagine what the corporate comics machines at DC and Marvel might do, but it seems unlikely that a title as good as this one, with a writer who’s a rising star (recently, she was teased as the writer of an upcoming Avengers title), will die quietly in the next ten months, so we can probably err on the side of assuming Captain Marvel will survive.