Marvel MAD-ness

Joe Madureira is back this November doing interiors for an on-going series: Avenging Spider-Man!

And it's going to be a Spidey book focusing on superheroics (not so much with the super soap opera / personal life stuff) with the Avengers. Pretty much like a revamp of the classic Marvel Team-Up books I loved so much as a kid.

A little more background on why this news gets me so excited:

I love Spidey as much as the next guy, but with the reboot in the "One More Day" / "Brand New Day" storylines (basically, reverting years of Marvel history and undoing Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane Watson among other important events), I got a little lost.

Many readers jumped onboard during the controversial (but often times great) "new status quo". I checked it out a few times (mostly because I love writer Dan Slott's previous work on She-Hulk and other titles), but for the most part, I had way too many other comics to read, to add on a stack of Spideys.

The bottomline: I love team books. I always feel that they are more bang-for-the-buck because you get more of your favorite characters in the same comic each month. Hence, Spidey as a member of the Avengers and the FF (Fantastic Four is now the Future Foundation....*SPOILER* Human Torch died and Spidey's on the team now) is simply awesome.

Now, there was a very, very short period in time when I gave up on comics. It was a year or two tops. When high school and being cool (mostly, it was for girls) was more important than getting my stack of four-color happiness. I missed out on some of the late 80s and early 90s storylines (No great loss, right! HA! Nerd joke.) But I absolutely credit a handful of artists for bringing me back from the brink.Their work was so dynamic and different that I was compelled to come back to my first love and haven't given up a week since. (Ok, let's name a few: Jim Lee definitely kicked it off, J. Scott Campbell, Todd McFarlane, Chris Bachalo, the Kubert brothers, Brett Booth, Tony Daniel, Marc Silvestri, and R.I.P. Michael Turner and Mike Wieringo.)

Joe Madureira's work on X-Men, especially on the "Age of Apocalypse" storyline, was one of the seminal works that cemented my lifelong comic fanboy status. The anime/videogame style that he excelled at, was something fresh and earth-shaking. It was a style that I initially didn't think would work, but ultimately became one of my favorites. As long as comics were as good as this. I would never give them up. (Not even for girls! *I love you, ERL.*)

Joe Maduriera actually took an extended hiatus from comic books and focused on working on video games. Fans always appreciated an image here and there (for Wizard magazine, tribute/guest shots, etc.), but it was never enough. We wanted more of Joe Mad's art -- whether it was his creator-owned Battle Chasers or something for Marvel or DC -- we were being deprived!




For almost a decade, we hadn't seen any interior art done by Joe Mad -- until Ultimates 3 in 2008. I was not disappointed. As with most of the Ultimates storylines, this one was extremely intense. Lots of twists and turns, courtesy of Jeph Loeb, but it was really the art that did it for me and had me chomping at the bit for each issue.

Since the end of the series, we haven't heard much from Joe except for the occasional cover. Guess he was working on the new Spidey book! I can't wait to see it. Looking forward to new Joe!



*images  sourced from around the Web. Thank you, Internet! Thanks Marvel and Joe Mad!*