Finished rereading the first 1/2 of Stephanie Brown Batgirl run today after like 10 years. Gotta say I love Steph so much, really wish they would have given her a longer run as Batgirl.
You very well may be getting your Cates/Stegman ASM wish (I think that was you who mentioned it). Saw Donny tweet that they have something big in the works.
I'm, like, 99.9% sure that's what's happening. Maybe Marvel will do something counterintuitive and dumb by moving Cates to Avengers & Aaron to Spidey, lol, but like, all the clues are there for Cates/Stegman. AND, I'm like 97% sure it's gonna involve the Ultimate Universe, both to pick up the Maker threads from Cates' Venom and to have that corporate synergy with the two upcoming Spider-Verse-y films (No Way Home, which we all know has multiverse shit, & next year's Into the Spider-Verse sequel).
What if the next Cates & Stegman project ends up being an Image project (instead of the ASM relaunch I’ve been hoping for)? lol. Who else would Marvel get for ASM, though, considering the timing?
New project from Cates & Stegman is, indeed, a new creator-owned, non-Marvel project: Vanish. (Intentionally given a “v” name to be on shelves by Venom, lol.) Publisher not shared yet. Super 90s-flavored, like, straight up Spawn & Youngblood & The Darkness energy all over it, lol. I’m really happy for Ryan finally having a creator-owned project, and doing that now with that Venom momentum is certainly a smarter choice than doing ASM Volume Whatever. Just don’t know how much I want Unfiltered Ongoing King in Black, more or less, in my pull (if it ends up being a traditional ongoing series), lol. (Also, Donny heavily teased that he is, indeed, playing with The Maker & Ultimates in something coming up, but no info on when or how.) Apparently, a Spider-Man announcement from Marvel is dropping tomorrow. The Ben Reilly looking stuff is… something. I like Kelly Thompson, Saladin Ahmed, & Zeb Wells a lot, but if it ends up being a writer’s room thing (like Brand New Day era) and they keep churning issues out so quickly, I ain’t putting that on my pull.
Another interesting tidbit from the Stegman/Cates stream: Apparently, the initial pitch for Venom was to have Miles Morales play a recurring role as Eddie Brock's mentee, ending with Miles becoming Venom instead of Dylan. Which is why Miles has a big part in the first arc of Cates' Venom but didn't stick around. Between that and the stuff at the end of Bendis' time at Marvel... I really wonder how much the Spider-Verse film might've saved Miles Morales: Spider-Man?
Stray Dogs was an absolute gem. Total surprise for me as I'm not familiar with the creative team. It has cartoon illustrations but a dark noir story, and not in an eye rolling edgy way. I mean look at this art.
New Team of Writers Take Spider-Man Beyond Your Wildest Expectations in 'Amazing Spider-Man' #75 Not sure how I feel about this.
I unsurprisingly have a lot of thoughts about this, lol... I get that Ben Reilly died & Pete returned in [adjectiveless] Spider-Man #75 in the 90s, but I don't love this being Amazing Spider-Man #75 instead of either #1 or #876 (Slott's run ending at #801 makes ASM's legacy numbering so awkward, lol). Also, how many people are gonna buy a Spider-Man series starring Ben Reilly... three times a month? Roughly $12/month on a series where a clone of Peter goes around as Spidey, not even wearing either of his iconic 90s costumes people like me have nostalgia for, seems like a big ask. On the optimistic end of the spectrum, the Brand New Day era did have some really good stuff (in spite of also launching a status quo I fundamentally disagree with), so bringing back the "writer's room" approach has its merits. Especially in the era of a super collaborative X-office, with Hellions writer Zeb Wells as seemingly the initial driving voice. Throw in Kelly Thompson & Saladin Ahmed, who are both great Marvel writers, and you do have quite a strong group driving this. Worth noting that Thompson's a big Nextwave fan, and that's where the Beyond Corporation comes from... (Don't love Patrick Gleason for this, though. I initially dug his Rebirth Superman, but it had some rough stretches & aged poorly overall; feel like some of us graded it on a curve because it came after New 52. Hope he doesn't sneak in any issues where Spidey tells us we have to love America & the troops.) Ultimately, I think it depends on "which incredible artists" they bring in. I mostly remember Brand New Day for being drawn by Marcos Martin, Chris Bachalo, etc. Get a similarly strong team of artists here, and it'll work.
I was gonna check it out, but my local didn’t order it in. Hope to snag it when I go out of town this weekend.