It’s not shocking news: In September of this past year, DC relaunched their entire universe after a short time-travel related/universe warping event that reinvigorated their line and gave DC some of the best sales they’ve seen in years. The move was at first received skeptically by fans and critics, but the results are here regardless. It’s a fantastic time to be a DC comic.
With that in mind, there has been a lot of discussion about if Marvel would do the same. It’s also no great secret that the various publishers watch one another and take cues from what works and what doesn’t, and it was generally assumed by the collective commentative internets that a reboot from Marvel was on the way (with iFanboy stating that it had already sneakily happened). However, Tom Brevoort had stated that it wasn’t likely to ever happen, and that seemed to be that.
Now we have the announcement about Marvel’s big 2012 event, helmed by the Marvel Architects: AVENGERS VS. X-MEN. The event will pitch two of the biggest Marvel franchises against each other for the fate of the universe, with the Scarlet Witch (a reality-warping mutant) and Hope Summers (a mutant tied (in)directly to Jean Grey and the mighty Phoenix Force) in the center of the conflict, as informed by USA Today. It’s sure to be an epic smash-up of fantastical proportions, with all your favorite heroes beating each other at a level more vicious and chaotic than 2006’s Civil War.
However, three things come to mind. Given that a) the book is written and illustrated by Marvel “Architects”, with the term architect implicitly implying that something is being built/created/crafted, b) the Scarlet Witch has reshaped reality before in House of M (see image to the right) by Brian Bendis and Olivier Coipel (two of the Architects working on this event), as well as in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, which is still being completed, and c) the Phoenix Force directly relates to both death and rebirth on a massive scale — well, is Marvel perhaps sneaking in a quiet little reboot here to combat against DC’s successful one? It’s undeniable that DC saw success from their line wide reboot, after all, and, as fellow MC writer Brandon Burpee notes, if Marvel really does make Hope the new host for the Phoenix and she somehow reforms the Marvel Universe, Marvel has a built-in tagline – “The new Marvel Universe is built on Hope.”
Of course, this is all wild speculation. We can probably (correctly) guess that there will be some new books after this event, maybe a title relaunch or two. There probably won’t be 52 #1s after the event, though; that seems a tad bit unreasonable given Marvel’s current climate/output. However, one does have to note that Marvel has a huge film coming out in 2012: The Avengers. The hope for this is to ostensibly bring fans from the theater into the comic shops, and outside of a new Avengers comic starting in March and a brand new Uncanny X-Men #1 in stores now, what better way to capture new readers than to make their entire comic book line accessible?
Still, it doesn’t make total sense that Marvel would do a universe wide reboot after this event given their current business model (or what we, as onlookers, can assume is their business model). Even if they did, you can almost hear the screaming fanboys shouting “You’re just copying DC!” already. So no, its probably safe to say Marvel won’t reboot their entire universe — but a soft-reboot perhaps? A few continuity tweaks here, a few switch-ups and status quo changes there? After something like “no more mutants,” you can almost count on it.
