Everything is related. That’s what you’ll learn if you watched this year’s superhero movies, beginning with Black Widow, threading into Hawkeye. Loki and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings wove their way into the coming Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness and even if you haven’t seen Spider-Man: No Way Home yet, you know from the trailers it, too, ties into the Multiverse with the appearance of Doctor Strange. And we won’t say how, but if you decided to skip it (and it’s been available in different forms via theaters and digital home release for weeks now), Venom: Let There Be Carnage finally connects Sony’s Marvel world with the giant MCU you know from Disney (another big connection to tie the four corners of Marvel together this month if you’re paying attention). Sure, we may have thought the Sony tie was going to happen in WandaVision, when Sony X-Men’s Quicksilver showed up on Wanda and Vision’s doorstep, but for whatever reason it didn’t happen. The real deal finally began in the sequel to 2018’s Venom(reviewed here). Yes, everything is connected. But that’s not the only reason to make sure you watch Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
In less than four weeks pop culture convention Planet Comicon Kansas City returns, this time to celebrate its 20th year. Even more than before the event is hosting a pantheon of nationally recognized comic book writers and artists for its seventh year in the downtown Kansas City, Missouri, venue at the giant Bartle Hall facility at the Kansas City Convention Center. The show runs Friday, March 29 through Sunday, March 31. Bring your stacks of comics for autographs from your favorite creators–we’ve included here only a few important and familiar books by creators scheduled to be at the event. Attendees will see some of the biggest names and most popular character creators spanning fives decades of comics, including:
Chris Claremont, writer and creator of dozens of characters including Rogue, Mystique, Phoenix, Emma Frost, Legion, Gambit, and Captain Britain. His classic books include a long run on Uncanny X-Men, including the popular story arcs The Dark Phoenix Sagaand Days of Future Past, adapted into X-Men: Days of Future Past, multiple X-Men movies, and this summer’s coming film Dark Phoenix.
Jim Starlin, writer/artist and creator of Thanos, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, the Master of Kung Fu, and the first graphic novel published by Marvel Comics, The Death of Captain Marvel. His classic books include Batman: The Cult, Batman: A Death in the Family, and Cosmic Odyssey.
Jim Steranko, writer/artist known for his unique 1960s style, his work on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., plus memorable runs on Captain America and X-Men. He was also a creator of concept art designs for Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Fabian Nicieza, writer known for creating Deadpool in the pages of The New Mutants, and working on dozens of key superhero titles. His classic books include New Warriors and Psi-Force.
Keith Giffen, artist and creator of Rocket the Raccoon and Lobo. His classic books include several issues of Legion of Super-Heroes.
Kevin Eastman, writer and creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Steve McNiven, artist and creator of Marvel Comics’ Civil War. McNiven is known for his cover art on dozens of Marvel titles.
Bob McLeod, artist and creator of The New Mutants. (A concept that is the subject of 20th Century Fox’s last slated Marvel project, the coming late summer big-screen release The New Mutants).
James R. Tuck writes a faithful adaptation to the original comic books by David Michelinie, Mark Bagley, and Ron Lim. The story catches up after Peter Parker parts with the alien symbiote that looks like a dripping ink blot, after he makes an arrangement with the new host, Eddie Brock, to leave and do no harm. But trouble comes looking for Eddie when he joins a group of underground people in San Francisco. The father of a man killed by Eddie/Venom is determined to avenge his son. He and his lackeys, the Jury, take him on, plus a mastermind arrives and creates five spawn from the symbiote, spawn that Venom must eliminate with or without the help of Spider-Man.
The comic books Venom: Lethal Protectoris based on provided much of the source material for last year’s Marvel Venom movie, so fans of the character, the comics, and the movie will be familiar with this take on the villain as he more overtly switches away from villainy to the stuff of anti-heroes–much like Deadpool and Punisher. In fact it’s difficult not to see Deadpool, Punisher, and Marvel standards like the Hulk in both Venom’s origin story and his ongoing handling. Like Hulk’s Banner, particularly from the classic TV series, Eddie Brock is constantly moving from place to place to escape his past. The book telegraphs what a Venom story in the vein of the 1980s The Incredible Hulk could be like.
Last week we saw Superman turn 80 and reach his 1000th issue of Action Comics for DC Comics. It’s hard to believe that Spider-man is the first character to be featured on a cover for an Issue #800 from rival publisher Marvel Comics. But that issue finally arrives this month for the long-running monthly series The Amazing Spider-man, more than 55 years after Spidey’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. This month’s benchmark issue will be a giant 80 pages wrapping up the four-part story “Go Down Swinging.” Written by Dan Slott, interior artwork was created by Stuart Immonen, Humberto Ramos, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Nick Bradshaw. Peter Parker takes on Norman Osborn and Carnage, combined to become the Red Goblin. Then in July as part of Marvel’s “Fresh Start” it all begins again with The Amazing Spider-man, Issue #1, with creative duties handed over to Nick Spencer and Ryan Ottley.
The Amazing Spider-man #800 is arriving with at least 38 variant covers, drawn by Steve Ditko (2 remastered covers), Alex Ross (2 versions), Frank Cho, Adam Hughes (4 versions of an image of Mary Jane), Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson, John Romita, Sr., John Cassaday, Gabriele Dell’Otto (2 versions of 2 covers and a third image with wraparound cover for Comicxposure), Mark Bagley, Moebius (2 versions), Inhyuk-Lee (2 versions for Frankie’s/7 Ate 9), Greg Land, Tyler Kirkham, Ron Frenz and Brett Breeding, Humberto Ramos, Nick Bradshaw, Paolo Rivera, Francesco Mattina (connecting cover to Venom, Issue #1), eight covers by Scott Campbell, two editions pre-autographed by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr., and a blank sketch cover.
We’ve searched high and low and came up with 38 covers being offered. Are more coming? Possibly. The difference in some is the inclusion of a logo–or not (frequently referred to as a “virgin cover”). Many will require work to track down as some are store exclusives, and at least one will be offered at an initial price in excess of $1,000, while ten standard release variants will be easier to acquire. Take a look at large images of all these great covers:
