DC, Marvel & Image Comics Oct 2006 Solicitations - August 11 , 2006

Both DC, Marvel and Image Comics have released the retailer solicitations for their titles shipping in April of 06. Click the links below to go to respective pages over at the Newsarama site for the DC and Marvel info. The Image info comes from the good folks at Comics Continuum.

DC Solicitations

Marvel Solicitations

Image Solicitations

It's another week and time once again to check in to see how many tie-ins/spin-offs are coming from the Big Two. This fall DC and Marvel squared off with their two events - Infinite Crisis and House of M. All signs seem to indicate that DC won the first round with their 4 minis dovetailing nicely into the main Infinite Crisis mini-series. House of M had all the markings of an old Annuals event that was essentially a big "What If" story with all the tie-in minis merely fleshing out this new imaginary world created from the fractured mind of Wanda Maximoff.

Now that the heat of summer has given way to the cool breezes of autumn its time to take a look at the new battle in this war for comic readership.

First, let's look at the leader. Infinite Crisis has completed two issues and the stakes certainly are high. The villains are united; an intergalactic war rages in deep space; the heroes no longer trust one another or seem capable of working together; and the forgotten heroes of the lost Earths from the original Crisis have returned intent of restoring the old Earth-2 since Earth-1 has failed to live up to its potential. All in all, its been a great two issues thus far. There are so many possibilities of where this story could go its difficult to predict where things will ultimately end up. DC will be tying in titles through the late fall early winter but the main action seems to be taking place in the pages of Infinite Crisis.

Marvel took a different approach to their event. Starting with House of M, Marvel has chosen to unveil its event starting with the one mini and then exploding it out from there. Several X-Men titles have begun while others were cancelled. The whole world of mutants has been shaken to its core with the world wide Decimation (the clever name of the latest event) of the mutant population. It seems that humanity sees this as its chance to rein in this potentially lethal mutant population and they aren't about to let it pass.

This reduction of the mutant population seems to be the last vestige of the Morrison era being wiped away (except for the horrible Disney-esque look to the Beast). The genie has been put back into the bottle so to speak returning the X-Men back into the little group that protects the human population that both hates and fears them.

While the X-Men are getting decimated, its seems that Spider-man is dying over in his title-wide crossover; The Other. With the addition of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man there are 3 titles telling the story of what might very well be the end of the Spider-Man we know and love. Rumours are running rampant about the lasting effects of this storyline ranging from the return of Spider-clone Ben Reilly to the morphing of Spidey's powers and costume. The variant covers on all the thus-far sold out issues of the storyline that highlight the different costumes wore by the wall crawler seem to bear that last rumor out.

So, in the final analysis, who wins? I think I'll go with the cop-out and say the fans. While mega crossovers are daunting to new readers and can be expensive for fans to collect, I believe both companies are working hard to provide stories that are excessible to the casual reader. DC uses its website to give readers some CRISIS COUNSELLING so that readers don't have to read every title that might tie into the main Infinite Crisis storyline. Marvel has compartmentalized its events into specific parts of its line. If you are an X-Men fan you'll have a several titles to collect over the coming months.

Both companies are putting out some of their strongest stories in years. Its a great time to be a comic fan!