Written by: Al Ewing and a ton of others
Art by: Humberto Ramos and so many more
Cover Price: $9.99
Release Date: December 26, 2019

Well, the cover of Incoming says the “future begins here” and that’s all well and good, but I just want to know if I should be wearing shades! Just like the big Marvel #1000 issues, this one is a doozy with a creative team bigger than some island nations and a price tag to match. So, did it get me fired up about what’s to come or did it convince me to sit yet another “Next Big Thing” out? Let’s find out…

The issue opens up with the murder mystery that I have been told will rock my world. Well, it didn’t right away as we get the Masked Raider investigating this “locked room murder” and instead of getting the who and what, we push on to get Daredevil and Elektra.

This is a big issue and I know it may be a little silly wanting more information right away, but I did need something right off the bat to get me fired up to tackle this big sucker and this first scene wasn’t it. Sure, I continued, but not with bated breath, that’s for sure. My breath never did get bated at all while reading and that kind of tells you how I felt about this issue overall.

It’s a given that some people will love this issue and some will hate it and while we all have our reasons for such things, to me it will boil down to whether or not you are caught up with most of the Marvel books right now and if you will be reading them all from this point forward. Incoming gives the reader a rundown of what the characters and teams are up to in the MCU and then a springboard into what they will be up to in 2020. There is the murder mystery, of course, but that seemed secondary as I went through it.

The number of creators is crazy and it’s cool that each gets to play with their characters and teams. It may seem silly to say, but everything felt right because of it. It felt right, but was it engaging? I didn’t think so. Everything sped by like a teaser trailer for the next big thing(s) when I wanted and expected the big thing right now and because of that, I ended up feeling let down and even a little bored by the last page. Maybe I’m to blame for expecting too much, by at $9.99, I wanted more than a commercial of what’s to come.

The issue did look great and it was cool to see a quick view of the kick-ass artists that Marvel has right now. My favorites were Mattia De Iulis, Ryan Stegman and Humberto Ramos. I was way more impressed with the art in the issue than anything else, but with that price tag, I can’t recommend it just for that.

Final Thoughts:

If you are wondering where most of the Marvel books are heading in 2020, then this may be worth a look. However, if you are looking to dive into the murder mystery that C.B. Cebulski and Marvel have been hyping, you may be very disappointed. I was here for the later and while I loved the art througout, I left this issue very underwhelmed overall.

6.0/10