A while back I wrote a blog about how Marvel is getting more cohesive in their storytelling. This is a back up to that that further cements what I like and don’t like about the direction Marvel Comics is heading in. A lot has happened so far in this New Year, some good and other not so much. Let’s look at the stories, characters, and titles that I like a lot going into the future.

First let’s look at the much debated Amazing Spider-Man, my favorite character to be certain. One More Day has some fans pulling their hair out while others are applauding Marvel for taking the character back to his roots so to speak. In my opinion there is validity to both of those claims. In the end the character will survive this and likely be better for it. I feel like people don’t miss things until their gone, and that’s what Mary Jane is. Soon Marvel will bring her back and the book can continue. Fans that jump ship will be missing out on a major storyline when the Mephisto issue is finally addressed.

Spider-Man is Marvels flagship book, therefore it’s under the microscope half the time facing a lot of scrutiny. I have to applaud guys like Joe Quesada to a certain degree for moving forward despite the objections of guys like me. At the end of the day they still have Spider-Man three times a month like clockwork and for that I’m grateful.

While it hasn’t been getting a lot of press lately Ed Brubaker is still writing Cap. That’s easily one of Marvels bright spots and a joy to read for me every month. Killing Steve Rogers was a bold move that people don’t give Marvel near enough credit for. While Steve’s death may be old news, the adventures of one James Bucky Barnes have been stellar to say the least.

Including him in with the New Avengers was the master stroke that I was waiting for as I think it’s important to start mixing Bucky in with the rest of the Marvel U. When we talk about comics the one thing we don’t get to say a lot is the word permanent. Maybe this time we’ll get exactly that.

The next thing I want to discuss is Dark Reign, the new crossover that is primarily affecting the Avengers titles, but is still causing reverberations all across the Marvel Universe. I like the way Brian Michael Bendis moves characters around on the map. I like the way he sets up stories, and I like the way all of this is unfolding. Dark Reign isn’t a standalone title, there aren’t any issues to buy which I thought was a good idea considering that they just finished wrapping Secret Invasion. There was no way people were going to be down to spend money on another series so soon after the last.

While Dark Reign isn’t the same kind of series that Secret Invasion was it still keeps a lot of players on the field so to speak. Where was Nick Fury before all this? Bendis has taken the character and utilized him better than writers have in maybe decades. For the first time in a lot of years Nick Fury is relevant again and we have Bendis to thank for that.

The other big series that Marvel is doing is called War of Kings and that story acts as a follow up to the Annihilation series that were so good. This one promises to bring interstellar warfare to a new level with Vulcan squaring off against the Inhumans who have taken control of Kree Space. Again, Marvel is taking established characters that have fallen out of the public eye a bit and thrust them back into the spotlight.

Despite stumbling a bit with issue 600 Thor is still going strong ever since he stepped back into the fold. JMS has done a great job of making him relevant again which is no easy task now that Ares and The Sentry have basically replaced him in the Avengers books. With the Odin Power Thor is a drastically different character despite what Jeph Loeb thinks. One of the biggest disappointments of the year was when Thor showed up in the Hulk books.

Speaking of disappointments, it hasn’t all been pixie sticks and cap guns this year. Marvel is hoping that Darkhawk will attract readers and that’s a gamble. The X-Men books are weird right now with Cable running around in the future with what appears to be a baby version of Jean Grey. Wolverine is in more books than Spider-Man in his heyday with more on the way, which should say something about the state of things right there.

Love it or hate it Marvel comics has really tried to shake things up this year and build on the momentum they got out of last year’s run. That’s really all that we can ask for, is that Marvel tries to constantly improve their stories and their characters. We may not always be happy with what they ultimately decide to do, but we do have to appreciate the fact that they are trying.

I know that Marvel isn’t perfect by any stretch, but I also want to point out that it has to be very difficult to do what they do, so lets cut those guys a little slack… but just a little.