COMICS: Avengers and X-Men Unite To Take On the Red Skull In Upcoming AXIS Event

This October, Rick Remender will launch Avengers & X-Men: AXIS, a nine-part event published over the course of three months that will see a ragtag group of mutants and Earth's Mightiest join forces to take on the Red Skull and his team of villains. Red Skull has attached the brain of Charles Xavier to his own, adding the Professor's telekinetic abilities and the force of Onslaught to wreak havoc and enslave humanity. Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort says that the other antagonists - Doctor Doom, Hobgoblin, Carnage, Sabertooth, Enchantress and Absorbing Man - all seem more sympathetic compared to him; the Red Skull "is pretty much black all the way in, and the deeper you go, the blacker it gets. The Skull is really all about grinding other people under his boot heel.'' 

After "reconciling and becoming friends and enjoying high-fives and hugs and cuddles" in his Uncanny Avengers series, the team of Iron Man, Storm, Thor, Medusa, Deadpool and Luke Cage will "have to deal with a threat that is ultimately too big for them to contend with even working together." Tony Stark in particular will play a key role, but Brevoort promises that we'll see new sides of both heroes and villains alike explored in the storyline and "lasting and natural and additive'' changes. He essentially describes AXIS as "kind of a Michael Bay movie. It's big and spectacular and has a ton of full-out bombast." Below is some new artwork featuring the Red Skull, and an official promo by artist Jim Cheung.