• Over 20 titles will be relaunched, but Marvel NOW! is not a reboot in the same vein as last year's "The New 52" by DC Comics. Instead, it is just a shake-up of creative teams and a new direction (and in some cases, new-look) for the heroes in the post Avengers Vs. X-Men universe.0
• Rick Remender (Uncanny X-Force) and John Cassaday (Astonishing X-Men) will be teaming up for the Marvel NOW! flagship series, Uncanny Avengers. The book will star Captain America, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Havok, Rogue and Wolverine and the first arc will feature the team taking on the Red Skull from WWII.
• Jonathan Hickman (Fantastic Four) and Jerome Opena (Uncanny X-Men) will be teaming up for The Avengers, a book which will reportedly feature a cast of 18 heroes. Meanwhile, Hickman will also be writing New Avengers, although there are currently no details as to what we should expect from that series.
• Brian Michael Bendis (Spider-Men) and Stuart Immonen (Fear Itself) will be teaming up for All-New X-Men, a series which will see the original five X-Men - Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel, Beast and Iceman - arriving in the present as teenagers. While it sounds like a limited series, this will in fact be a new ongoing.
• Last week saw the release of several one-word teaser images released by Marvel promoting the debut of several new titles in November, details of which are all listed below.
• "Worthy" - Jason Aaron (Wolverine & The X-Men) and Esad Ribic (Uncanny X-Force) will be teaming up for a new Thor series.
• "Indestructible" - Mark Waid (Daredevil) and Lenil Yu (Secret Invasion) will be teaming up for a new Hulk series.
• "Chimichangas" - Brian Posehn (Anger Management), Gerry Duggan (Attack of the Show!) and Tony Moore (Venom) will be teaming up for a new Deadpool series.
• "Soldier" - Rick Remender (Secret Avengers) and John Romita Jr. (Kick-Ass 2) will be teaming up for a new Captain America series.
• "Family" - Matt Fraction (The Mighty Thor) and Mark Bagley (Avengers Assemble) will be teaming up for a new Fantastic Four series.
• "Extended" - Matt Fraction (The Defenders) and Mike Allred (Daredevil) will be teaming up for what appears to be a new FF series.
• "Legacy" - Simon Spurrier (X-Men: Curse of the Mutants - Smoke and Blood) and Tan Eng Huat (Punisher) will be teaming up for what appears to be a new X-Men Legacy series, although that is pure speculation at this point. • Despite these creative team changes, we do know that some of the writers above will be staying on titles they currently work on. Ed Brubaker (
Captain America) will remain on
Winter Soldier, Jason Aaron will continue to write
Wolverine & The X-Men and Mark Waid will still handle writing duties on
Daredevil. However, the fate of many other books remains unknown.
• Currently unconfirmed rumours include Mark Waid taking over
Avengers Assemble, Brian Michael Bendis writing a new
Guardians of the Galaxy ongoing series and Frank Cho both writing and pencilling
Wolverine. There has also been talk of a new
Nova series.
• One title that Marvel have been VERY quiet about is
The Amazing Spider-Man. With current writer Dan Slott promising some very big (and controversial) changes in issue
#700, it is unclear whether that means he might be planning to actually kill off Peter Parker, especially as the hero is getting a new sidekick in the form of "Alpha"...