After a few cryptic teasers, Marvel Comics has finally revealed the first details and artwork for writer Kieron Gillen and artist Valerio Schiti's Judgement Day event. Kicking off in July, the series will tie into Gillen's Eternals and Immortal X-Men runs as well as Jason Aaron's Avengers for an odyssey that will usher in dramatic developments for these three core Marvel teams.
The X-Men have achieved immortality and mutants have taken their place as the dominant species on the planet. The Eternals have discovered long-hidden knowledge about their species, including a devastating truth about mutantkind. The Avengers have come into direct conflict with the Celestials and are currently using a fallen Celestial as their base of operations, slowly unlocking its secret.
However, when the Eternals brazenly target the mutant nation of Krakoa, the Avengers try desperately to de-escalate a potentially apocalyptic war. But this is no simple conflict. The Eternals’ purpose cannot be denied and mutantkind’s future will not be threatened. And after the opening battles, new players and revelations for both sides will emerge as the inhabitants of the Marvel Universe are judged by the greatest power they’ve ever come into contact with.
"For all the Marvel instruments I've played, I've never written an event. Writing an event is something different," Gillen says. "It's not like playing an instrument. It's having all the instruments in the Marvel music shop. That's not like writing a song. That's like writing a symphony."
"I looked at everything in Eternals and Immortal X-Men and everything else all the X and Avengers writers have done and thought...yeah, this is an event," the writer continues. "In fact, an event is the only way to do justice to this. I want the scale. I want the heartbreak. I want a book that wears its heart on its sleeve even as it puts a fist in your face."
Free Comic Book Day: Avengers/X-Men #1 will offer our first look at Judgement Day on May 7, but in the meantime, you can check out an awesome piece of teaser art for the series below: