Thirsty Thursdays: Your One-Stop Shop for All Spec News

Welcome to a new weekly check-in/spec-in on all things post-NCBD.  While I will touch on some of the big news of the week, I will be focusing on some of the deeper cuts as well.

Speaking of deep cuts, after reading Marvel 1001, the follow-up to Marvel 1000, I wish I had left the book on the shelf.  It seems as if they had essentially taken all of the fluff that ruined that 1000 issue and bookended it with a teaser for the Masked Raider.  If you followed my MeWe page, I isolated the 22 pages written by Al Ewing and created a chronological retelling of the story he was telling.

When I discussed the book on the podcast, I was coming up blank on one of the characters featured in the silhouette shot by Christian Ward but lo and behold, I found him in a two-page spread of the History of the Marvel Universe book.  The original Angel, Thomas Halloway, appeared, fittingly enough in Marvel Comics 1, and later had his origin told in issue 20.

History of the Marvel Universe 3

                                                                  Marvels Project 3

In Marvels Project #1 Halloway was the caretaker of the elderly Two-Gun Kid who had returned from spending time in the future.  After revealing the future still to come, the Two-Gun Kid left his mask and six-shooters for Thomas upon his death. He was then inspired to become a super-hero.

At the end of that series in issue 8, Captain America is seen giving the case with the mask and gun to Halloway's son echoing a scene we would see in Marvel 1000.

Breaking News!

As NYCC is in full swing, the big news so far is the prestige names attached to optioned Image titles.  James Wan involved with Gideon Falls; Ryan Coogler with Bitter Root; could Bryan Hill complete the trifecta?

 

The more I see of Lemire's upcoming Black Hammer spin-off, the more I think this could generate some heat.  Great premise; intriguing design work.  Apparently, Sorrentino agrees.

First stealth appearances of Skulldigger and Skeleton Boy (not counting a preview book appearance) were in the World of Black Hammer Encyclopedia, still available at cover.

The design for the upcoming Iron Man 2020 has design elements of the limited series Machine Man 2, no?

Lightning round for the books from October 2nd:
Over in Fantastic Four, we get our first meeting with the Unparalleled.  Of particular interest is Sky who is being featured in upcoming solicits in regard to her 'soul bond' with Johnny Storm.  There is an Unparalleled variant cover available.

Another former flame of the Torch (see what I did there?) pops up in the dead book walking, Future Foundation 3.  Apparently, nobody learned from her initial appearance in which she had posed as Alicia Masters (FF 265) up until her first true appearance in issue 357.  Anyone remember that Golden Egg birth?

Spider-Verse 1 gave us the expected firsts including some of the Twitter-spheres Spider-Personas in the back-pages but the person(a) of interest here is Spider Zero.  I had previously laid con-SPEC-ture that this may turn out to be Annie Parker and while she did create the web in her role as Patternmaker, it turns out that she has gone missing.  Spider Zero lets Miles know that it is the job of the next generation of Spider-heroes to grab the reins setting up long-term potential.  

 

I also highly recommend picking up the Spidergeddon Handbook which is an indispensable resource to tracking first appearances and can still be had for cover.

Well, they were off by a century but Savage Avengers 6 finally has Conan packing heat.  Nothing else to see here

I won't touch too much on the other big books here as Immortal Hulk 24 and the Absolute Carnage tie-in have both been discussed ad infinitum elsewhere but I will say that Ghost Rider 1 met and artistically exceeded expectations.  Kudos to Ed Brisson and Aaron Kuder.  I've mentioned on my podcast as well that it might be worth grabbing copies of the whole Daniel Way through Jason Aaron run with a particular eye towards the first appearance of Sarah the Caretaker.  She will be featured in the back-up feature Caretaker Chronicles which promises to expand her role and tie in Ghost Riders throughout history.

First Appearance of Sister Sarah, the Caretaker

Cover appearance of the Caretaker; first appearance of numerous historical Ghost Riders

Aaron Kuder art from Ghost Rider 1

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the Legion made their full-on return in Millenium: Legion of Super-Heroes 2.

While they also appeared in Superman last week, in this issue, we get a full team shot, some named characters and even a Booster Gold and OMAC origin nod in this issue.  And I can't help but notice Rose's very EMERALD EYES. Hmmm...

The other DC book worth mentioning (apart from Grant Morrison taking Green Lantern off the rails and out of the theme park) is Justice League in which we meet yet another strangely familiar League.

Nope, not those guys....

....these guys.

And finally, it looks like we have a potential second-half book of the year candidate in that SW: Age of Resistance: Rey.  The Comichron numbers will tell the final story, as will the first 9.8 to market.

Look out for a new episode of The Comic DeSPECtive this weekend where I'll go more into depth on items here as well as explore all the news out of NYCC.