Announced in the latest "Next Big Thing" Liveblog over at Marvel.com, it has been confirmed that Kelly Sue DeConnick (Captain Marvel) and Stefano Caselli (Amazing Spider-Man) will be taking over the reigns of Avengers Assemble from issue #9 onwards. As you can see from the cover by Steve McNiven below - a textless version of which was released last week - the title will form part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch this November. The series will reportedly feature, "Tight 'get in, get out' adventures, focused mostly on the classic, 'public' Avengers from the movie, drawing in other characters as it demands," according to Tom Brevoort. It was also confirmed that both Spider-Woman and Captain Marvel will be joining the team.
Writer Kelly Sue DeConnick clearly has some very interesting ideas for the series, telling the site the following. "I'm interested in new media ideas. I want to weave that into the book. How does the age of the Internet affect the Avengers' public persona? I really really like Jessica Drew. I like how crazy and broken she is. She's a character I really wanted to write. I don't ever want to be in direct competition with Brian Michael Bendis," she adds. "I might be able to beat him up, that's possible. We're different writers with different takes. We do have a similar sense of humor and love for banter-y dialogue. I have been a fan of Brian's for many years long before I knew him. But I'm writing my Avengers book."
The first arc (by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley) focused very much on the cast of the film - Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye - but Brevoort reveals that we should expect to see a much larger range of heroes this time. "In the same way Jonathan Hickman's Avengers will have a large core cast of at least 18 people, for any particular story in Assemble we can pull in as many of those characters as need be." For example, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Scarlet Witch will all also appear in the first arc of the series. As for what we should expect from that, DeConnick (the first female writer to pen an ongoing Avengers series) reveals, "The first arc is kind of an Amazing Race thing where the Avengers are teaming up and competing with each other. Spider-Woman is with Hulk and Thor with Iron Man."
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