Not quite. It was the Marvel Knights imprint as a whole that basically dragged Marvel out of the gutter, which is why you end up with Quesada as EIC. Quesada and Palmiotti got Marvel farmed out to their studio Event Comics for a lot cheaper than Liefeld and Lee had charged for Heroes Reborn. They put talent behind the imprint and updated publishing processes behind it that made the books look better than they had. Black Panther was a strong part of the imprint, but not anywhere near a single factor. Jenkins and Lee's Inhumans was Eisner award winning. Smith's Daredevil was absolute shit but got attention and Quesada's art was good. Ennis' Punisher was definitive.

The health of Marvel has been given as a barometer for the health of the comics market as a whole by Chuck Rozanski, so MK bailing them out can be extrapolated eventually to the industry. Carl Icahn, Toy Biz, and Ron Perelman's war came close to destroying Marvel, as did Bob Harras' term as EIC. Which is why it's wonderful Harras' is EIC at the Distinguished Competition now.

 

Ah, see this is just Grant Morrison pulling strings so that if he ever gets to write Captain America he can do his "Three Batmen" thing again, with Steevil, the reborn "Memory Cap" from the end of Secret Empire, and the "real" Cap from 2005 who was alive the whole time.

 

Man tomorrow's the day! I can't wait for Absolute Carnage to hit. I was originally skeptical of Donny Cates, but so far, I've not been dissapointed.

 

I decided to pick up Absolute Carnage, despite having not read the current Venom title.

Holy moly, that was a great issue. I’m excited for a Marvel crossover event again.

 

What happens?

 

Spoiler

First, they recap everything that's happened so far in Venom.
Then, Eddie and his son, Dylan, are running away from the police and Knull, and they manage to evade and they good to see Peter Parker.
Later, they're at a dinner, with Peter Parker now as Spider-Man, and he knows that Dylan is Eddie's son, and gives him some advice. The news shows some bodies have been dug up.
Soon, they meet the Maker, who creates an invention that requires a sample of Carnage. They refused to use Harry Osborne's child, and go to see Norman Osborn.
They both end up not being victorious, because Knull ends up infecting the inmates in the jail and has Norman Osborn under his control.

 

He’s upped the scale of Venom’s stories to the cosmic realm. Sure is a a far cry from Venom’s beginnings hunting street thugs.

 

Venom’s always had a cosmic comnection due to the symbiote but yeah Cates basically just took it to a different level. Honestly not so fond of how everything’s so complicated now but I did like his introduction of Knul to tie into other things in cosmic Marvel.

 

Now that whole “most important scene in X-Men history” finally makes sense as of House of X #2.

Wow.

 

Yeah, that comic definitely did some stuff.

 

Agreed. Hickman really raised the bar for X-Men. Heck Marvel books this week were very on point.

 

House of X still doesn't give me high hopes for the X-Men going forward. It's just more confusion and retcons. Maybe it'll make sense at the end of it all.

 

I liked the issue and I'm really intrigued by its ramifications, but at the same time I'm not entirely sure what it actually means. Hopefully we'll get some more context for what this changes as the miniseries goes on.

Also, something I missed until it was pointed out to me:

Spoiler

We know that Moira is on her tenth life right now and we know what all of her previous lives were, in all the weight of the huge retcon, it's really easy (for me, at least) to overlook the part where the book completely skips over Moira's sixth life. It's not covered in the comic or any of the prose pages and it's missing from the timeline at the end, too.

 

Do we know that? I need to get a second reading in.

This really is fascinating though. And it adds a fair amount of depth to X-men history. It makes it possible to explain retroactively a lot of things as advice given to thread the needle and avoid tragedy.

 

Wait.... So

Spoiler

Moira

is basing a Time Lady now?

 

Well, obviously something in particular happened in that life and it might become important down the road.

 

Yes. She’s

Spoiler

a mutant with the power of reincarnation. She lives the same life over and over. But, if she dies as a child, it will be permanent.

Basically a giant time loop.

 

Spoiler

It's not really the same life. Each version has differences, which means she's basically lived and died in nine alternate universes before she was born in the 616.

 

I suppose... man, when you put it like that this is a pretty bonkers power.

 

Moira's

Spoiler

mutant powers have definitely given the character the spotlight she has been missing for years. Here's hoping they explore more of it, post House/Power of X.