Today Marvel released their full solicitations for April 2010. I thought there were a bunch of WOW! items within that bunch.

Here's a link to the solicits:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/marv...ns-100119.html

Here are the top 10 items that most caught my attention -

1. Marvel Masterworks: Black Panther Jungle Action hardcover
HOLY CROW!!! Panther's Rage, Don McGregor's story that introduced Erik Killmonger and fleshed out Wakanda, has long been a favorite of mine. To the best of my knowledge, it has never been collected or even reprinted in any form. This volume, priced at a whopping $64.99, may be too much even for a Panther freak like me. Not only does it collect all of Panther's Rage but also the much less interesting follow-up McGregor did, which pitted T'Challa against the Ku Klux Klan in the American South. I am going to go back and forth a zillion times between now and then on whether or not I want to pick this up. If this were a softcover of just the Panther's Rage story, there would be zero debate. I'd pick it up in a heartbeat.

2. Guardians of the Galaxy #25
My excitement can't be stated without unleashing an tremendous spoiler. If you really want to know, go to Bubblehead's thread about it:
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=268259

3. S.H.I.E.L.D. #1
I'll let this solicit speak for itself:

"Leonardo Da Vinci was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. So was Issac Newton. So were Imhotep and Zhang Heng and Galileo and many other geniuses throughout time. They were the first heroes to defeat Galactus and the Brood and turn Celestials back. They saved the world long before Captain America or Iron Man were ever born, but what does this mean to our heroes of today? What does this mean to Nick Fury?"

4. Franken-Castle double-shot
The craziest variation on the Punisher appears not only in his own title, Punisher #16, but also in Deadpool Team-Up #894. I like this.

5. Iron Man Overkill
Yeah, I know they have a reason to increase Iron Man's visibility as his new movie approaches, but this looks a little out of control to me:

1) Invincible Iron Man #25
2) Iron Man: Legacy #1
3) Iron Man 1.5 #2
4) Iron Man 1.5 #3
5) Iron Man Noir #1
6) Iron Manual Mark 3 #1
7) Iron Man Magazine #1
8) Iron Man Poster Book
9) Iron Man will also be appearing in: Super-Hero Squad #4, Siege #4, Siege: Embedded #4, Black Widow #1, Avengers vs Atlas #4, Avengers: the Origin #1, and Super-Heroes #1. That's just what I can confirm.
10) Collected Editions: Invincible Iron Man TPB no.3, Iron Man vs. Whiplash, and Essential Iron Man vol. 4

6. Roger Stern writes Spider-Man/Juggernaut story
Yeah, I'm old enough to remember Amazing Spider-Man #s 229-230, a classic fight between Spider-Man and the Juggernaut, which was written by Roger Stern. This month, Amazing Spider-Man #s 628-629 feature parts 2 and 3 of a brand new Spidey/Juggernaut story written by the same, cool guy. I cannot wait for this.

7. Spider-Man: Fever #1
Brendan McCarthy, an amazing psychadelic artist I know from his issue of Solo is both writing and doing the art on a 3-issue Spidey series. I will be all over this. Here's a link to a site with a couple of his pictures: http://lambiek.net/artists/m/mccarthy.htm

8. Deadpool #22
Once again, I will let the solicit explain for itself:

"“DO IDIOTS DREAM OF ELECTRIC STUPIDITY?”
Somewhere in rural North Georgia, a brazen band of brigands have made the mistake of robbing Deadpool’s bus, stagecoach-style. But en route to delivering a hefty comeuppance to these redneck rogues, Deadpool makes a “shocking” discovery...as will you, intrepid reader. Brace yourself for the introduction of Appalachia’s own vilest of villains, the disgraceful WHITE LIGHTNIN’!"

And the picture of the cover makes this seem even more fun and obnoxious. I'm going to have to come around and finally start liking Deadpool, aren't I?

9. Philip K. Dick's Electric Ant #1
I'm a fan of Dick's crazy sci-fi and also a big fan of David Mack, creator of Kabuki, one of my all-time favorite comics. There's no way I am going to miss Mack writing the adaptation of one of Dick's stories in comics form.

10. Mighty Avengers #36
Hank Pym & Jocasta vs Ultron by Dan Slott in a story entitled "WWJVDD," as in What Would Janet Van Dyne Do? Who cares about Siege? This is where it's at.

I'd like to see Roger Stern and Don McGregor give Bendis and these other schmucks some writing lessons.

In other news, SWORD was cancelled after only 5 issues. Sucks. I was actually starting to become interested from what I've heard and will pick up the trade when/if it is released.

The FF solicit shows the return of a character with ties to Annihilation.

Anyone remember that recent teaser image Marvel released which included Galactus in that Da Vinci type sketch with the infinity gems? I think we've just been told what it was a teaser image for.

Boo.

I have a feeling that it's somewhat to blame, as it will have scrapped alot of the Lockheed storylines that were unfolding in SWORD.

I really hope Unit gets picked up in another book, he's just too good a character to slip by the wayside...

Even though I am a rabid non-X-Men guy, I heard a lot of good things about SWORD. 5 issues is pretty rough. The call to cancel that probably had to happen before the third issue was even out. That is ridiculous.

In regards to the Fantastic Four, it surprised me that I had 10 things I found more interesting than something that looks as cool as that. I will most definitely be buying that story arc.

The FF line has potential, we've been getting teasers of it for a long time now.

Years ago, I probably would have been quite impressed by that S.H.I.E.L.D. solicit, but nowadays it seems that everyone has received the Wolverine treatment and gotten (and keeps getting) a heretofore-unrevealed past. So my initial reaction was a big "Ho hum, this business again?"

I'm also somewhat interested in the fact that the April solicits indicate they're ending so many series, presumably in the wake of the whole Siege storyline wrapping up. Are we getting relaunches in the near future, or is Marvel finally trimming down their stable to concentrate on decent writing?

With respect to Iron Man: Legacy, why does Marvel keep thinking that Iron Man can sustain two ongoing series? Didn't they try this with Iron Man and Invincible Iron Man running concurrently?

However, for high points, I'm primarily excited about two things: Guardians of the Galaxy 25 and the Marvel Masterworks Silver Surfer TPB. In my book, you can never go wrong with more affordably-priced Silver Age reprints!

I suspect they're planning on IM2 doing big, and that in turn will do big numbers for their Iron Man comics, which offers a prime opportunity to throw more stuff out there and see what people latch onto.