Wow is this really the first time a "What If" like this happened? It seems like such an obvious story to explore
I'm pretty sure the "Pete keeps the Black Spider-man Suit and continues down a dark path" thing has been done a few times, but I can't remember a story where he becomes "Venom" and all that entails. Could just be forgetting one/missed one though.
It technically has been, in What If vol 2 #4 by Danny Fingeroth & Mark Bagley, which was reprinted only like 2-3 yrs ago in one of those True Believers reprints: (Though, the symbiote ends up jumping to the Hulk around the halfway point.) I think the main idea here is less how 100% original the starting concept is & more how it’s done. Not sure if it’s a miniseries or oversized one-shot or whatever, but Chip tweeted this about it: I believe so. Haven’t read a ton of non-Venom Donny stuff yet, tbh. I know Cosmic Ghost Rider is a spin-off from his Thanos story, but I’m pretty sure it’ll work fine without that backstory (as long as you know going in that the character started in an alternate future timeline).
If you plan to have DC Universe Infinite and like horror comics, they'll also have the Hill House stuff which I highly recommend. Plunge is the only one that I didn't read yet, but I enjoyed the others.
Something funny to me about them teasing something with the same name as a big 90s initiative they had, but with basically 100% the opposite aesthetic. Wonder if it has anything to do with Jason Aaron’s Avengers run, which is telling a Phoenix story right now, & has been doing its own thing in its own little bubble with zero fanfare or ties to anything else for so long, lol.
Was his Thor run new reader friendly? I've always heard good things about Aaron's run on Thor but I read the first issue and was lost if I remember correctly
I’m a brand new reader and Ive found Cates’ run to be very accessible. I actually went back and found the last two Aaron runs because I’ve enjoyed this one so much.
Some fun stuff in the Marvel April solicitations. Chip’s Spidey-as-Venom story is confirmed to be a 4-issue miniseries, & he’s also writing one of the stories in Carnage: Black, White, & Blood #2 (with Checchetto art). Plus another issue of New Mutants (still drawn by Rod Reis), Eternals (Esad Ribić), & Silk, plus Walt & Weezie Simonson on X-Men Legends. And, Sophie Campbell doing a Marrow story in a Women of Marvel one-shot.
Horror anthology series from Image, where a different writer handles each issue but Michael Walsh (who’s very good) draws them all. Which, is a cool format; don’t get a lot of comics where the art is consistent & the writers rotate. First issue written by Chip Zdarsky. Future writers include Kelly Thompson & Jeff Lemire.
With the switch to the DC Infinite app I just got a big dump of 6 months worth of comics! Woohoo! and it includes vertigo and black label stuff.
You know what else they’re gonna have, which I ain’t gonna stop saying everyone needs to read? Milestone comics.
The new Heroes Reborn being mashup characters - I'm not crazy, they did this like a year ago with the Infinity Warps, right?
Infinity Warps was like 2-3 years ago, though I know the pandemic's messed with our concept of time, lol. And, whatever the heck Heroes Reborn is, it seems to me a little different from just straight up another batch of amalgam characters. More than anything, it kinda gives me some "What If" vibes. Overall not super exciting to me thus far, but I think I'm good with the Marvel comics I'm already planning to buy this spring, lol. Just glad it's not, from what I can tell, any sort of big relaunch or whatever.
Browsing dollar boxes at the one local comic shop has become my new favorite way to spend otherwise empty Saturdays. I know they have a lot of space & have handled the pandemic well (they're operating well below legal COVID capacity requirements), & I always end up with some stuff I'm happy to leave with. This time, I somehow stumbled on copies of Watchmen #2 & 4 in those dollar boxes, lol. Also started collecting J2 (the son of Juggernaut from MC2, Spider-Girl's world) & Sina Grace's Iceman run. And, also doing well on getting some of Claremont's Morrison-era X-Men & some Marceline Adventure Time comics.
Catching up on Future State and so far it’s the definition of a mixed bag. The new characters are interesting (love Yara the new Wonder Woman), but the stories are so disjointed and unclear on the timeline and even the universe, that it’s hard to really get invested or even know what’s happening. Hopefully they get better when the second issues start coming out but the lack of a strong frame story/premise is making it difficult to comprehend.
This is my *exact* problem with it. There's absolutely no cohesion between them, and some stories involve characters that are also involved in other stories but it's not the same story or even timeline? Like... even within the same issues, since they're pairing stories together. But 100% agreed, I'm enjoying the new characters, specifically Yara. Kinda wish the New Batman had more going on than being... Batman with a mask, but hopefully that'll grow in the coming issues, and if not, at least in the ongoing post-Future State.