Last week, we saw the teaser of Jason Aaron and Simone Bianchi on a new series with the word “BIRTH”. Today, that series was revealed to be none other than Thanos Rising. Arriving in April, Aaron and Bianchi will be teaming up to tell the high profile tale of the origin of the cosmic villain.
This limited series will have a ton of eyes on it as it presumably takes the same approach Marvel did with Wolverine: Origin back in the 2000s as the attempted to lay down the origin of Wolverine before it happened in the movies. With the teased appearance of Thanos at the end of the Marvel’s The Avengers film last year, it’s clear that Marvel wants to get the history of this villain in place before he becomes a mega movie star.
Aaron posted to his Facebook fan page about this project, describing it as “sci fi horror story” and added some more color to his attraction to the project:
I’ve wanted to do more cosmic stuff for a while now. Really ever since my Secret Invasion tie-in issues of Black Panther. That wasn’t really a cosmic story, I suppose, since it took place in Wakanda, but it was me writing aliens in a big way. I even wrote one issue from a Skrull general’s perspective. Well, this is me diving into the deep end of the cosmic pool.
Thanos Rising #1 hits comic shops in April, 2013.
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Dig it. Bianchi’s never been my favorite – but probably only because he’s been anchored to Loeb in those horrible Wolverine arcs.
Aaron kicks ass.
Really like both these guys. Can’t wait to read this.
Any idea how many issues this will actually be since you said its going to be a limited series?
5
Super excited Aaron has done nothing bad so far.
Incredible Hulk?
I dismissed Aaron’s run on Incredible Hulk as too goofy when I first layed eyes on it. That was a mistake. When I gave it a chance I found it a really zany tongue-in-cheek take on the green goliath. That’s what opened the door to more of Aaron’s stuff, and really got me reading Marvel Comics again.
Is it just me or is that cover the almost exact same image of Thanos as seen at the first post-credit scene of the Avengers?
It’s just you… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwiB_0eN_SE&feature=player_detailpage#t=27s
Yeah I based it off of what I remembered as seeing but when I went on google to check the image out, it’s not the same at all. Just a close-up of his face turning on the right side… 😉 My bad!
Eh, no harm not foul. The way I see it there is no “bad” to take possession of! 🙂
I’m guessing this is the reason Keatinge’s Thanos mini was canned? Fair enough…I’d love to read Aaron’s take on him.
Mildly interested in this one. Truth be told, I’ve never been a big fan of Cosmic stories, but I’ll probably give the first issue a chance since I do like the creative team.
Why does everything have to be movie related?
Because that’s where the money is.
I don’t care whether stuff is movie related or not; however,
Is that really where the money is?
Cuz as far as I can tell and from what I can gather from most sources, most movie related comics have not had any substantial sales increases.
Are regular comic buyers really buying movie related comics more than any other #1?
Well, according to Diamond, the top three sellers are:
TOP 10 COMICS
RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE ITEM CODE VENDOR
1 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700 $7.99 OCT120626-M MAR
2 AVENGERS #1 $3.99 SEP120526-M MAR
3 BATMAN #15 $3.99 OCT120183-M DC
All three of them had movies this summer. Whether it’s cause and effect, I don’t know.
I would really love to get a look at digital sales numbers, because I suspect there are waaaaayyyyy more purchases of movie related comics by kids who can’t or don’t go to a local comic book store.
@ScorpionMasada: Even thought the Walking Dead might be a special case, I’d say that the success of the TV show has had an impact on comic sales (at least for the collections). And I believe I’ve been reading that comic book sales were up industry-wide in 2012. I have no proof to back it up (not sure anyone does), but I don’t think all of that sales increase can be attributed entirely to hardcore fans buying more books than usual.
And really, because the audience numbers for movies and television are so many magnitudes larger than the audience numbers for comics, there’s very little risk for the publishers (and their parent companies) to court the tv/movie audience with product they might connect with because they liked the characters in that other medium.
@ScorpionMasada: The movies are where the money is so it makes sense, from a business stand point, that the comics would want to (or be told to) emulate them.
movies may have little impact on monthly sales in comic shops, they have a huge impact in bookstores outside the comics market. Infinity gauntlet became the #1 selling tpb (beating the walking deads that typically sit at the top of the list) for a few weeks after the avengers movie, and that was just a tease of the character. Watchmen sold huge numbers the year the movie came out. Movies have an impact on sales, just not in shops
Good points and no offense to everyone involved but I’m looking at Conor for the answer to this one.
And he seems to be a bit nebulous on whether there is really a significant impact. hahaha
Walking Dead and Watchmen are the only recent films/TV shows that I have encountered non comic readers reading the books.
@ScorpionMasada: I’m not being nebulous, you just responded to something I said with something I was not at all talking about. I wasn’t talking about comic book sales, I was talking about corporate dictates.
@ScorpionMasada I don’t think when Conor said “that’s where the money is” he was referring to the increase in comic sales a movie may or may not bring. I believe he is referring to the massive money the movies themselves bring in.
Why does everything have to be tied in to the movies?
Because that is where the money is.
The original question wanted to know why the COMICS are “linked” to the movies.
Conor answers with a claim the money is there.
I infer Conor might be talking about COMICS.
Conor clarifies that he was referring to the MOVIES and company dictates.
I infer Conor doesn’t really think COMICS “linked” to the film really generate substantial sales.
I agree with Conor.
I hope Conor can see where his original reply could lead a reader to the conclusion that Conor MIGHT think that COMICS linked to movies generate stronger sales than those that don’t.
I do not need John repeating what Conor already posted right above him.
@bub64882 I don’t think correlation means causation in those examples. I would think even without a movie the “last” issue of Amazing Spiderman, a new number 1 for Avengers and a Batman and Joker book would be the top sellers.
I think characters that gain popularity in comic are typical chosen for movies to exploit an already large fan base (Why do you think Marvel Started with the X-Men and Spiderman and not Black Panther, Ant Man or D-Man). The Avengers became a billion dollar movie franchise but I doubt their comic sales increased even a fraction of that.
Obviously if a new guy walks into a comic store with no comic knowledge he probably is more likely to try the Avengers because he’s heard of it. I doubt the number of movie goers who then tried the comic for the first time is statistically significant.
Fuck! Why Bianchi!!!! Why!!!!! I fucking LOVE Thanos and Jason Aaron, but why Bianchi??????? I can’t stand is art! Fuck!
when i was younger if there was a character that i didnt know about i would research about them i liked thanos because of infinity gauntlet i didnt wait for a adaption or an unneeded origin story i just looked for his back issues that had him in it you would think with such sites as this and even Wikipedia we can just check his story there but i do understand that yes that where the money is at and people are to lazy to look stuff up (sigh its getting harder to be a wide-eyed happy comic fan nowadays)
Yeah…having an A-game comic creator depicting a popular fan favorite character is crummy. Times are indeed tough.
@zero2680: Has Thanos origin ever been fully explored? I know he has a basic backstory but has it every really been fleshed out? I didn’t think it had.
I keep throwing my money at the screen.
HA HA! Taping my credit card to the screen! I’m all the way in.. I love cosmic when it’s done well. The most recent benchmark is DnA’s Annihilation work and G of G.
I’m keen to see what, if any, ret-conning is done to super-rapist….errr….Starfox.
You got your Thanos in my Jason Aaron!
You got your Jason Aaron in my Thanos!
Lol, love it! Perfect response.
April can’t come fast enough!
I’m gonna wait for reviews/word of mouth on this one, but I wanted to chime in just to say that someone out there enjoys Bianchi’s art (hint: me). He’s far from my favorite. Hell, he probably doesn’t even make my top twenty, but he’s really talented. When it works, his stuff can be pretty gorgeous from an illustrator’s perspective. Not for everyone, I suppose. But I think seeing what he can do with the cosmic stuff might just get him some attention.
Dude who called Baby Thanos was right!
8)
The most enjoyable artwork for Thanos when he was either drawn by George Perez or Ron Lim.Damn, I miss the old Silver Surfer comics from the early 90’s!
Don’t worry this means Ron Lim is going to come out of retirement and team up with Hickman on a Surfer ongoing. Right?
I gotta love both your comments and agree but thought Thanos looked great in Thanos Imperative as well. I’d love to see a Hickman SS series w Lim especially.
I’m too much of a cosmic geek with Marvel to not check this out, I’ve become a bigger & bigger admirer of Jason Aaron’s work in the last year love seeing talent pigeonholed in one area jump into other ponds, and he’s shown us his range goes far beyond the initial edgy expected violent to light hearted funny like with the Doop Woleverine & the Xmen issue, and here’s him going in foreign territory and I can’t wait to see the result. Haven’t been a fan of Bianchi’s art other than that half Wolverine half Sabertooth face cover they made a poster out of, I think my lack of liking Bianchi’s art stems from really liking Cassaday’s art on Astonishing X-men and when him & Whedon were done, that out of left field change did not appeal to my eye candy probes, Thanos, harbinger of Death, show us what your made of.