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All-New Marvel NOW! Brings New Series, New Creators, and More!

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In case you missed all the big announcements for Marvel NOW! to come out of NYCC over the weekend, here is a complete list of all the new series, with the creative teams and cover art that will be gracing shelves in 2014. Personally, I’m looking forward to the new “Silver Surfer” series from Slott and Allred, and “All-New Ghost Rider” from Felipe Smith and Tradd Moore.

Official Press Release:

New York Comic Con may be behind us, but All-New Marvel NOW! is just getting started! This Winter, the Marvel Universe heads in an exciting, all-new direction to deliver the best comics on the market with all-new ongoing series from blockbuster creators AND must read .NOW entry #1 issues for all readers!

“All-New Marvel NOW! ushers in 2014 with bold new launches and exciting new story lines for ongoing series that provide wide-open doorways into the Marvel Universe,” explained Axel Alonso, Editor In Chief, Marvel Entertainment. “With new voices joining our creative chorus, and new heroes stepping into the spotlight, the Marvel Universe is about to expand in every way possible. Our NYCC announcements were only the tip of the iceberg — we’ve plenty more to come.”

Titles announced at New York Comic-Con 2013:

All-New Ghost Rider #1
By Felipe Smith (Writer) & Tradd Moore (Artist)
March 2014

All-New X-Factor #1
By Peter David (Writer) & Carmine DiGiandomenico (Artist)
January 2014

All-New X-Men #22.NOW (=All-New X-Men #1 in All-New Marvel NOW!)
By Brian Michael Bendis (Writer) & Stuart Immonen (Artist)
January 2014

Avengers A.I. #8.NOW (=Avengers A.I. #1 in All-New Marvel NOW!)
By Sam Humphries (Writer) & Andre Araujo (Artist)
January 2014

Avengers Undercover #1
By Dennis Hopeless (Writer) & Kev Walker (Artist)
March 2014

Avengers World #1
By Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Nick Spencer (Writer) & Stefano Caselli (Artist)
January 2014

Black Widow #1
By Nathan Edmondson (Writer) & Phil Noto (Artist)
January 2014

Captain America #16.NOW (=Captain America #1 in All-New Marvel NOW!)
By Rick Remender (Writer), Pascal Alixie (Artist) & Nic Klein (Artist)
February 2014

Captain Marvel #1
By Kelly-Sue DeConnick (Writer) & David Lopez (Artist)
March 2014

Elektra #1
By Zeb Wells (Writer) & Mike Del Mundo (Artist)
March 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy #11.NOW (=Guardians of the Galaxy #1 in All-New Marvel NOW!)
By Brian Michael Bendis (Writer) & Sara Pichelli (Artist)
January 2014

Iron Patriot #1
By Ales Kot (Writer) & Garry Brown (Artist)
April 2013

Loki: Agent of Asgard #1
By Al Ewing (Writer) & Lee Garbett (Artist)

New Warriors #1
By Christopher Yost (Writer) and Marcus To (Artist)
February 2014

Punisher #1
By Nathan Edmondson (Writer) & Mitch Gerads (Artist)
February 2014

Savage Wolverine 14.NOW (=Savage Wolverine #1 in All-New Marvel NOW!)
By Richard Isanove (Writer & Artist)
January 2014

Secret Avengers #1
By Ales Kot (Writer) & Michael Walsh (Artist)
March 2014

Silver Surfer #1
By Dan Slott (Writer) & Mike Allred (Artist)
March 2014

Superior Spider-Man 27.NOW (=Superior Spider-Man #1 in All-New Marvel NOW!)
By Dan Slott (Writer) & Giuseppe Camunicoli (Artist)
February 2014

Thunderbolts 20.NOW (=Thunderbolts #1 in All-New Marvel NOW!)
By Charles Soule (Writer) & Carlo Barberi (Artist)
February 2014

These titles join already announced Avengers 24.NOW, All-New Invaders #1, Inhuman #1 and She-Hulk #1 as the Marvel Universe charges into a bold-new direction this December with All-New Marvel NOW! – featuring unique new series, new mission statements, epic scales, and bigger conflicts than ever before.

Every FIRST ISSUE bearing the All New Marvel NOW! branding includes a code for a free digital copy of that same comic on the Marvel Comics app for iOS and Android devices. But that’s not all! Select .NOW! titles will also come with a digital code for the entire first collection of that series ABSOLUTELY FREE!

Once again, the biggest creators bring you the biggest characters in the biggest stories…and it’s happening NOW! Look for All-New Marvel NOW! in print and digital starting this December!

For more on All-New Marvel NOW!, please visit www.marvel.com and join the conversation on Twitter with hashtag #AllNewMarvelNOW.

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[Review] Graphic Novel ‘Tender’ Is Brilliant Feminist Body Horror That Will Make You Squirm & Scream

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Tender Beth Hetland Graphic Novel

Beth Hetland’s debut graphic novel, ‘Tender,’ is a modern tale of love, validation, and self-destruction by way of brutal body horror with a feminist edge.

“I’ve wanted this more than anything.”

Men so often dominate the body horror subgenre, which makes it so rare and insightful whenever women tackle this space. This makes Beth Hetland’s Tender such a refreshing change of pace. It’s earnest, honest, and impossibly exposed. Tender takes the body horror subgenre and brilliantly and subversively mixes it together with a narrative that’s steeped in the societal expectations that women face on a daily basis, whether it comes to empowerment, family, or sexuality. It single-handedly beats other 2023 and ‘24 feminine horror texts like American Horror Story: Delicate, Sick, Lisa Frankenstein, and Immaculate at their own game.

Hetland’s Tender is American Psycho meets Rosemary’s Baby meets Swallow. It’s also absolutely not for the faint of heart.

Right from the jump, Tender grabs hold of its audience and doesn’t let go. Carolanne’s quest for romantic fulfillment, validation, and a grander purpose is easy to empathize with and an effective framework for this woeful saga. Carolanne’s wounds cut so deep simply because they’re so incredibly commonplace. Everybody wants to feel wanted.

Tender is full of beautiful, gross, expressive artwork that makes the reader squirm in their seat and itch. Hetland’s drawings are simultaneously minimalist and comprehensively layered. They’re  reminiscent of Charles Burns’ Black Hole, in the best way possible. There’s consistently inspired and striking use of spot coloring that elevates Hetland’s story whenever it’s incorporated, invading Tender’s muted world.

Hetland employs effective, economical storytelling that makes clever use of panels and scene construction so that Tender can breeze through exposition and get to the story’s gooey, aching heart. There’s an excellent page that depicts Carolanne’s menial domestic tasks where the repetitive panels grow increasingly smaller to illustrate the formulaic rut that her life has become. It’s magical. Tender is full of creative devices like this that further let the reader into Carolanne’s mind without ever getting clunky or explicit on the matter. The graphic novel is bookended with a simple moment that shifts from sweet to suffocating.

Tender gives the audience a proper sense of who Carolanne is right away. Hetland adeptly defines her protagonist so that readers are immediately on her side, praying that she gets her “happily ever after,” and makes it out of this sick story alive…And then they’re rapidly wishing for the opposite and utterly aghast over this chameleon. There’s also some creative experimentation with non-linear storytelling that gets to the root of Carolanne and continually recontextualizes who she is and what she wants out of life so that the audience is kept on guard.

Tender casually transforms from a picture-perfect rom-com, right down to the visual style, into a haunting horror story. There’s such a natural quality to how Tender presents the melancholy manner in which a relationship — and life — can decay. Once the horror elements hit, they hit hard, like a jackhammer, and don’t relent. It’s hard not to wince and grimace through Tender’s terrifying images. They’re reminiscent of the nightmarish dadaist visuals from The Ring’s cursed videotape, distilled to blunt comic panels that the reader is forced to confront and digest, rather than something that simply flickers through their mind and is gone a moment later. Tender makes its audience marinate in its mania and incubates its horror as if it’s a gestating fetus in their womb.

Tender tells a powerful, emotional, disturbing story, but its secret weapon may be its sublime pacing. Hetland paces Tender in such an exceptional manner, so that it takes its time, sneaks up on the reader, and gets under their skin until they’re dreading where the story will go next. Tender pushes the audience right up to the edge so that they’re practically begging that Carolanne won’t do the things that she does, yet the other shoe always drops in the most devastating manner. Audiences will read Tender with clenched fists that make it a struggle to turn each page, although they won’t be able to stop. Tender isn’t a short story, at more than 160 pages, but readers will want to take their time and relish each page so that this macabre story lasts for as long as possible before it cascades to its tragic conclusion. 

Tender is an accomplished and uncomfortable debut graphic novel from Hetland that reveals a strong, unflinching voice that’s the perfect fit for horror. Tender indulges in heightened flights of fancy and toes the line with the supernatural. However, Tender is so successful at what it does because it’s so grounded in reality and presents a horror story that’s all too common in society. It’s a heartbreaking meditation on loneliness and codependency that’s one of 2024’s must-read horror graphic novels.

‘Tender,’ by Beth Hetland and published by Fantagraphics, is now available.

4 out of 5 skulls

Tender graphic novel review

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