Hey True Believers!
Bizarrobot here back with the WEEKLY WATCHER on all things MARVEL. There are some bigger releases out as of Today. The death of Spider-man story arch kicks off with ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #153. As more of an Amazing Spider-man reader I have to say I was rather indifferent to this. That was until I saw a preview of the art for ULTIMATE AVENGERS VS. NEW ULTIMATES #1 which hits stand NEXT week ( Feb 9th) which will be tying in to the Death of Spider-man arch. “The comic event that will rock the Ultimate Universe to its very core!” – is what the press release for this says. Being that phrase is grossly misused I’ll just lay back and let the art sell me. I’ll be looking to pick this story arch up and I suggest you do as well.

Marvel is also launching their “Point One” initiative with INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #500. For those of you none the wiser Point One will be lower priced  self contained single issue story line and (like what the Ultimate’s did nearly ten years ago) help new readers figure out the Who’s Who and What’s What of that title. This may remind you of the “Rebooting” of both the X-men and Spider-man movie franchises. If like me you instantly and rather cynically think this is because there are 10 year olds who COULD be nagging their parents into buying them Marvel merchandise and comics, and Marvel has no intention of letting that profitable demographic slip from their grasp ( I think the Tobacco companies put it best when they said “Hook’em Young!”) I don’t think we are all that far off the mark. But why even I am excited for Point One is that this is geared at not JUST getting kids on the band wagon – BUT EVERY ONE. I don’t know about you – but I sure as hell can not afford to get every single title Marvel publishes every month (Over 100 in December ALONE!).  Also – some times story lines just are not that good, and even ardent readers fall off for a while. Point One will basically serve as a Cliff Notes for each story run. In the cases of large, cross title story’s this couldn’t have happened soon enough. I still am not sure I caught all of what happened in Civil War fer cry’n out loud! This will be a much welcome tool, but here hoping that the stories are something less mechanical and forced, but organic and enjoyable on their own.

Here is the list of all the other titles available I was able to scrape together ( cause Marvel didn’t send on out this week)!
All apologies as it is most likely sorely incomplete. I’m sure the universe will forgive me if I forgot an Anita Blake or some such in there.

Amazing Spider-Man #653
Avengers Academy #9
Captain America: Hail Hydra #2
Daken: Dark Wolverine #5
Deadpool & Cable #1
Generation Hope #3
Generation Hope #4
Hulk #29
Invincible Iron Man #1
Iron Man Legacy #11
Marvel Vault: Doctor Strange #1
Ozma of Oz #4
She-Hulks #4
Spider-Girl #3
The Stand: No Man’s Land #1
Thor: Worldengine
Ultimate Comics New Ultimates #5
Warriors Three #3
Wolverine: The Best There Is #3