COMICS: New Artwork And Details On Jonathan Hickman's AVENGERS And NEW AVENGERS
Not excited about "Marvel NOW!"? This might just change that! Revealed in today's "Next Big Thing" blog by Marvel.com, we have a ton of new details and artwork from Jonathan Hickman's Avengers and New Avengers. Read on to learn more about team rosters, artists and more!
• "Avengers is a big book, a special book," says series writer Jonathan Hickman. "I'm working with a small brigade of Marvel's best artists. It's a cool gig. We've got some stuff we're excited for fans to see."
• The Avengers #1 and #2 will be released in December and kicks off with "Avengers World"; a three issue arc with art from Uncanny X-Force's Jerome Opena. The plan is to establish the team as being "something bigger, something more" in order for them to deal with "threats larger and different than anything they've faced before."
• "We will see the back story of how Iron Man and Captain America have been quietly building a contingency plan for the day that comes in issue #1," teased the writer.
• "One of the first things we all agreed on is that the roster should look more like the world. So far we've seen the biggest and most iconic characters, but as we reach issues #7 and #8, we'll see more new characters and characters we're reviving or recreating. Eventually there will be 24 characters. 12 will be either female or minority characters." - Jonathan Hickman
• New Avengers will be about the "Illuminati" and features a team comprising of Captain America, Iorn Man, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, Namor, Mr. Fantastic and Beast. Stephen Epting (Fantastic Four) will serve as artist. It will apparently be much different to The Avengers in the respect that, "the New Avengers are real world, they live in the dark, apocalyptic world as it is," says Jonathan Hickman. "The books will work in tandem. You don't have to read both, but they are two sides of the same coin. Two different stories."
• So, why does the team come together? According to the writer, "The catalyst is an event in Wakanda with Black Panther, the only man who told the original Illuminati it was a mistake. Something occurs so earth-shattering he sees no other course of action than to call on them. Avengers is the day book and New Avengers is night. Avengers is how we want the world to be, New Avengers is how it is. One book is about life, one is about death. The logos reflect all this."
• Captain America will lead The Avengers with Captain Marvel and Iron Man serving as "vice-captains" as they will occassionally split into three separate teams. Meanwhile, New Avengers will see them, "all think they're in charge and none of them are."
• Oh, and who is that on the cover of The Avengers above? HYPERION.