So I’ve wrapped up my series on the Marvel relaunch and now it’s time for the climax. Just as a bit of an update, here’s a reminder of the books that kicked this off:
Uncanny X-Men (x2) Sunspot
X-Factor United Guardians of the Galaxy (x2)
Unstoppable X-Force Quasar
Wolverines Blue Marvel
Mystique Novas
Deadpool (x2) Fantastic Four (x2)
The Avengers (x2) Inhumans
Secret Avengers The Amazing Spider-man (x2)
Invincible Ironheart Daredevil
Captain America White Tiger
The Mighty Thor Cardiac
The Incredible Hulk Moon Knight
Black Panther The Punisher
Captain Marvel Heroes for Hire
Wonder Man and Beast The Wild Pack
Thunderbolts Wiccan and Hulkling
Ant-Man Champions
Dr. Strange Beetle
Ms. Marvel Spider-man and his Amazing Friends
All of those series would have gotten a one-year guarantee, so who knows if they’ll all still be around at this point. In an ideal world, they would be, but there’s definitely a few I could see not making it. Anyway, within the three year plan, some new books will be added, mostly spin-offs, including the launching of the Marvel Horror sub-line, spun out of a Dr. Strange/Moon Knight crossover. The new series I envisioned are:
Midnight Sons: New team made up of Moon Knight, Brother Voodoo, Nico, Blade & Daughter, Johnny Blaze and Elsa Bloodstone.
Blade: Resurrecting the perpetually in limbo story of Blade and his daughter
Brother Voodoo: A more “blue collar” Dr. Strange, more into the horror than the good doctor’s bizarre, “Lovecraftian” adventures
Venom: Returns to Flash’s story after he is reluctantly bonded back with Venom during the events of Secret Avengers
Astonishing X-Men: In this book, we follow the “main” X-Men team, the strike force led by Havoc and Polaris and including fan-favorite heroes like Armor and Strong Guy
The Annihilators: Spinning out of a cosmic crossover, Ronan reassembles a new cabal of Annihilators to secretly protect the universe from threats before they see it coming. Includes Miss America, Beta Ray Bill, Silver Surfer, Smasher and Blue Marvel.
Synth: Viv Vision gets an official superhero name and a new solo series
Miss America: Multiverse spanning solo title for America Chavez. Let’s face it, the current series is a mess, and in part because of the bizarre direction the writer has taken Chavez. She needs a writer who can handle the epic scale of her multiverse-wide missions.
So now we reach the culmination of the last three years. A lot has happened to set up the events of the first line-wide crossover since the relaunch. The of the most pivotal books in setting up Goblin War are Amazing Spider-man, Sunspot, and The Wild Pack, but the entire line contains threads leading up to this point. The cosmic titles, after a sub-line crossover involving the Brotherhood of Raptors, is in a fragile state, with the Shi’Ar having withdrawn themselves from the galactic playing field, young heroes Quasar and Kid Gladiator exiled, and the fledgling Nova Corps is struggling to hold a semblance of law and order in an increasingly chaotic universe. Ronan’s Annihilator’s, meanwhile, discover that the rising chaos is giving power to the long formant Goblin Force. And that can only mean the return of the Phoenix is not too far behind. Their attempts to contain all potential Phoenix hosts push them into conflict with the heroes of Earth.
On Earth, the plot developments center around the Hellfire Club. On the pages of TASM, we discovered that Bobby DeCosta’s mentor and closest advisor was in fact a disguised Norman Osborn, but his intentions were unclear. In Wild Pack, Roderick Kingsley pulled back the curtain on Norman’s Shadow Council, operating behind the scenes of the Hellfire Club and manipulating Bobby’s grand plans to their benefit. The first hero to learn of this is Cannonball, who is murdered, the crime pinned on his best friend, Bobby. With the heroes unsure who to trust, Norman makes his final move: Retrieving the necessary relics to hold a ceremony summoning the Goblin Force, empowering his minions and making himself the Force’s avatar, the Goblin King.
THE WAR
It is at this point that the event begins. The crossover lasts two months, with the main story being told in the weekly Goblin War title, while every book in the line will feature at least one crossover issue addressing the global catastrophe. Accompanying this will be two bi-weekly mini-series: Goblin War: Battlefield New York (Following Harry Osborne and a ragtag group of street level heroes and villains as they take on his brother Gabriel in the ruins of NYC) and Goblin War: Hellfire (Centering on Otto Octavious and other Hellfire Agents as they address the events).
The “main event” kicks off with Norman, as the Goblin King, unleashing waves of destruction in New York, before sending his “Mini-Bosses” off across the world to face down heroes in their individual titles. The Avengers move to take him on, but the battle only results in heroic casualties and the complete devastation of a vast stretch of Eurasia. Content with the hell he has raised on Earth, the Goblin King sets forth into space. The heroic remnents split, some to stay on Earth and others to join the gathering army on the Fantastic Four’s baseworld of Archaeopea. All eyes are now turned to Quentin Quire, as he leaves his friends behind to undertake a crash course in the Phoenix, which is rapidly becoming their only hope.
The heroes of Earth and Space unite on Archaeopea, complete with the arrival of Galactus the Lifebringer. The Goblin King has assembled his own army, however, and overwhelms the heroes, even defeating Galactus and destroying Archaeopea once more. On their last legs, they turn to Gladiator, who at last agrees to lower the Shi’Ar shields and join the fight, having been led to believe that the Phoenix will not be involved. A final chance comes when Norman’s lieutenant, Sin, defects, and offers a way into his base. Peter Parker, well acquainted with Normans mind, leads the charge against the Goblin Army while a small strike team of heroes infiltrate their stronghold with Quentin. In the final battle, Norman is killed along with several more heroes, and the Goblin Force is unleashed in its full, uncontrolled chaotic form. Quentin, however, manages to harness the Phoenix to banish it just in time.
AFTERMATH
The war may be over, but the newfound peace is fraught with new problems for our heroes. The rampant devastation on Earth alone will force a major reshuffling of the global status quo, most specifically the question of what to do with the vast “Dead Zone”, now overrun with residual energy or “Goblin Wraiths”. In the pages of X-Men, Genesis will take it upon himself to create a mutant paradise within the wasteland, a step that he sees as fulfilling his destiny for good but others fear brings him closer to Apocalypse. In space, Gladiator are incensed by Quentin becoming the new avatar of the Phoenix. He will continue to learn to control the vast power in his own new
Phoenix ongoing, but to keep the volatile peace between the Shi’Ar and Earth he must leave all of his friends and his love for Idie behind. Through his new avatar state, he will gain access to the White Hot Room to communicate with past hosts, including his recently fallen mentor Rachel and Jean Grey herself. On Earth, the Senior Class of X-Men must finally graduate to the “big leagues”, but without their classmate. The Avengers restructure into
Avengers: East and
Avengers: West, coping with their significant losses and the changing status quo, as the world struggles to unite in order to finally take their place in the cosmic hierarchy. A disgraced Sunspot takes to space to start over, leaving the Hellfire Club in the hands of Peter Parker. Earth is about to take the first step into a much larger world, but will it survive the experience?
Other new ongoings to spin out of the event are:
Alpha Flight (Earth’s first line of defense against the universe)
Puma (The dark anti-hero breaks free from the Thunderbolts to carve his own path)
Nightcrawler (After falling in battle, Kurt awakes in what seems like paradise, but something is amiss)
Mr. Negative (Having aided the heroes in their fight, Martin has a full pardon. What will he do with his new life?)
Hellfire (The remaining loyal Hellfire Club agents, led by Otto Octavius, are out to ensure that the world unites and survives the aftermath, whether it likes it or not)
Radioactive (Radioactive Man died a hero’s death in the Goblin War. But China isn’t about to give up their most powerful warrior. A young street orphan is about to take on the bizarre legacy of “The Glowing Love God”, no matter how she feels about it)
Mania (Andi finally got out of the Thunderbolts, only to get dragged right back in as team leader. But that’s not going to stop her and Thunderball from cleaning up the streets of Vegas on a mission for the Midnight Sons!)
So this has been my Marvel Fan Relaunch. I hope you all enjoyed reading it! I’ll be waiting for my call from Marvel editorial, any day now! :)