Season One: Marvel hits refresh

[sherkahn]

It had to happen. The Ultimates universe was not enough. Yahoo has the article about Marvel.



Albeit it, it is not a complete reboot to the characters and the history, just contemporary additions added on to their origins.

From the article:

Marvel Comics is updating the origin of the Fantastic Four this week in a sleeker tale dubbed "Season One" with a more contemporary vibe, while sticking to the roots of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, brother Johnny, and Ben Grimm, otherwise known for the past 51 years as Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Human Torch and the Thing.

Think tablet PCs instead of room-sized computing machines.

The revision is part of Marvel's push to add modern touches to its characters. Marvel also is bringing a modern spin to the origins of its other classic characters this year in similar "Season One" editions, including Daredevil, Spider-Man and the X-Men.


I'll say it once, I'll say it again. I get that you need to add contemporary, relevant material so that new and younger readers can latch on to the characters and the qualities that we love in these heroes (and villains), but it's feels like taking all that rich history (good and bad) and seeing them flush it down the commode.

We'll see how this "refresh" is handled when the books come out, as some reviews are already being posted.

For legality...

Comments

[mrstatham]

No. This is Marvel's blatant attempt to cash in on the success of DC's Earth One stuff, although hilariously, Marvel have somehow done a better job before DC managed to even get their shit off the ground properly.

[valtyr]

Your comment above to filthysize seems to support it's like Man Out Of Time - a modernised origin for the 616 character released to coincide with a big movie, easily accessible to the 'new reader'.

And I don't even think it's a bad idea. Has the FF's origin been updated from 'beat the Commies into space'? It probably has, but doing it again won't hurt, and they'll do it again in fifteen years, by which point Tony will have gotten his heart damage in the Iraq war - or maybe the Iran one...

[mrstatham]

Well, it does seem like they are timing the release of Season One books to tie with the Avengers and Spider-Man releases, which is pretty savvy and makes good business sense - but at the same time, nearly none of the characters have films released this summer to properly tie-in with, except for Spidey.

So I'd say it's a mix of both. People will go to the Avengers, see it's a Marvel movie, go buy a Marvel book, which handily tells them a new, simple origin for the characters.

As for Tony, didn't Ellis update the character so he got his heart damage from the first Gulf War?

[valtyr]

There isn't much likelihood of a new Daredevil or FF movie soon, so yeah, they're probably hoping that a new reader might just pick up a vaguely familiar character with START HERE on it. There were recent origin retellings for Jan and Hank and Wanda and Pietro, too, none of whom are imminent on the big screen.

Could well be, it's generic in my memory - but origins are always going to trail the characters like comet tails. (With the odd exception like Magneto and Cap.)

[filthysize]

Yeah, in Extremis, but I think valtyr means that in 15 years, if you want to keep the same origin, Tony will have to be a POW in the 2003 war.

Man, come to think of it, in just a few years, we'll have a Captain America who never got to see the World Trade Center.

[korvar]

It was fascinating when it was realised that he'd missed the entire Cold War. It completely changes the feel of his history if he never fights "the commies".

[halloweenjack]

Has the FF's origin been updated from 'beat the Commies into space'?

Byrne updated it to having Reed Richards testing out a faster-than-light starship (and, in a What If? in which he put off the flight until the shielding was upgraded (and therefore the FF became non-powered adventurers, a la the Challengers of the Unknown) and there are space colonies all over). Have no idea if that's still canon in any way.