Comic Review – “Incoming!”

It’s finally here. The Marvel Comics event has arrived to connect the dots of everything that has happened across the Marvel Universe in 2019 and set up what is coming in 2020. “Incoming!” is here.

The new comic features all of your favorite characters and draws from your favorite stories of 2019, including “Absolute Carnage,” “House of X” and even “Marvel Comics #1000.” It all comes together in this 90-page murder mystery.

The massive new comic starts off with by pulling from the Masked Raider, who we were introduced to back in “Marvel Comics #1000.” He comes across a mysterious murder and enlists the help of a hero to solve it. The trail begins there and it continues to grow and pull in more and more of our favorite heroes until it becomes so much more than just a murder.

“Incoming!” shares more similarities with “Marvel Comics #1000,” including the style of story telling. The reader is never left in any one spot for too long, bouncing from one hero to the next as the story is put together piece by piece. It is certainly more cohesive than “Marvel Comics #1000,” which featured several pages that simply served comedic or nostalgic purposes, but the style is very similar.

The scope of “Incoming!” is on another level. While I enjoy comics that really dive into my favorite characters, it’s stories like this that really feel important. The fate of the entire Marvel Universe is at stake here and it starts with such a small, simple investigation.

And with a story of such enormous scope, you’re going to get a whole lot of characters. Personally, I am very interested in learning more about the mysterious Masked Raider, who kicks off the chain of events by enlisting the help of Daredevil, who ropes in Jessica Jones, and so on.

Another interesting layer to this comic is the other stories in play throughout, drawing the attention of heroes like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four away from the impending threat. It will certainly be interesting to see how things like  the threat of a war with Atlantis and the Robot Revolution impact the future of this overall story.

“Incoming!” also looks to the future to build on stories that haven’t yet begun. Arno Stark, of the upcoming “Iron Man 2020” series makes an appearance, teasing his involvement in the upcoming crossover as well has his own story.

On its own, “Incoming!” is not likely to be your favorite new comic. But what it does is pull everything from the past year together and set up a huge new story for 2020. I obviously won’t get into the story that is about to be launched out of this new comic, but I will say it looks like some familiar threats are going to be back in play and will be stronger than ever. It’s going to take all of the heroes we saw in “Incoming!” and then some to protect the Earth this time.

We’ll have to wait until April 2020 to see what happens in “Empyre.”

Marvel’s “Incoming!” is available now.

Mike Mack
Mack is the Editorial Director for Marvel and ESPN content and he has covered comic cons, theme park events, video game showcases and other fun events. He is a fan of theme parks, sports, movies, Marvel Comics and is a self-proclaimed "nerd."