It wasn’t a big convention for company-owned comics (at least, in comparison to Dark Horse’s supreme domination of the con), but Marvel managed to sneak in a few announcements over the weekend, most of them seemingly unbelievable. But you bet your buttons that it’s happening, folks!
“Avengers Arena” will be hitting its “season finale” starting with issue #14, which kicks off the ‘Boss Level’ arc. It’ll feature the remaining/surviving kids inside Murder World a chance to take down Arcade, and will show the finale of the scene from the first issue. As the Murderworld game was a 30-day challenge, this will bring you to the end of that 30-day challenge and show you what happens next. Place your bets on who wins… now!
It was announced previously that Charles Soule was taking over “Thunderbolts”, but now we know a bit more, including that “Thunderbolts” will be one of the books to feature an “Infinity” crossover tie-in. There will be two one-shots establishing Punisher and Mercy’s role, followed by the crossover issues in which the grounded team are forced to face cosmic-level threats and react accordingly with Jefte Palo joining the book as the new artist.
In what is easily one of the most silly but still kind of exciting bits of news, it looks like Spider-Man 2099 is really actually coming back. Starting in “Superior Spider-Man” #17, Dan Slott and Ryan Stegman bring him to the present day from 2099, and while neither Slott or Stegman are revealing the why of it all, we know the title: ‘Necessary Evil.’ We also know that Miguel will be coming back in time as a reaction of whatever Superior Spider-Man’s effects have on the future in a Terminator-esque situation.
In sad, sad news, the end of “X-Factor” that we’d assumed was coming due to the current arc being called ‘The End of X-Factor’ is — in fact — coming. With issue #257, ‘The End of X-Factor’ begins and runs for six issues, ending the series that began in 2004. Peter David has something coming up with Marvel, currently unrevealed, so you may get something to make up for the gap “X-Factor” will leave in your pull, but for now we pour one out for our fallen friend.
An upcoming X-Event crossover entitled “Battle for the Atom” will take place over Brian Wood’s “X-Men,” Brian Bendis’ “All New X-Men” and Jason Aaron’s “Wolverine and the X-Men,” in which the future versions of the X-Men comprised of Ice Hulk/Thing, Deadpool, Molly Hayes, Junior Wolverine, Xorna and old Beast come back to the present so that they, the past X-Men and the current X-Men can all have a big punch out in celebration of the X-Men’s 50th anniversary. That’s how we celebrate anniversary’s, right? By punching each other up?
The next arc of Cornell and Davis’ “Wolverine” book is called ‘Killable,’ in which Wolverine becomes killable. This ties into Rich Johnston’s rumor about Marvel getting ready to kill the ol’ Canucklehead quite well, because nothing celebrates the release of an upcoming motion picture than killing off the famously-unkillable character it stars! And if you’re wondering why we’re so confident that he dies, check out this tweet:
Wolverine: Killable fundamentally change #Wolverine. The ending will be a major media news story. – @arune bit.ly/12Ibl9r
— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) April 28, 2013
Finally, in a few short tidbits to know:
- Marvel’s digital Wolverine series launches July 9th
- Bendis is writing all of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” issues, and Neil Gaiman is just overseeing Angela’s dialgoue
- Yes, the last two issues of “SHIELD” are coming.
- There’s a surprise additional member of Wood and Coipel’s “X-Men” that won’t be revealed until the last page of the first issue
- Dave Marquez is the ongoing artist of “Ultimate Spider-Man” starting with issue #25, which jumps forward a year in Miles’ life
- Bucky will be joining “Secret Avengers” and appearing in “Captain America”
- Evil Reed Richards returns in “Ultimates”
- The new “Deadpool” arc is a team-up with Cap and Wolverine
