In celebration of it’s 50th year as a publisher, Marvel is launching a new line of stand alone graphic novels entitled “Season One”.The books will star young and “modern” versions of the characters in order to retell the classic stories and make them accessible for a brand new audience. “Everything you know about them, everything that’s existed for the last 50 years still exists and is still there,” says Tom Brevoort in a USA Today interview. “These are individually new stories, even though they’ve got bits and pieces of old and formative origin stuff in and around them, as well.”
There will be four titles in the beginning, with more to follow soon. The initial list of titles are as follows:
- Fantastic Four: Season One by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Stephen King’s The Stand, Glee) and David Marquez (Secret Warriors), due out in February
- X-Men: Season One by Dennis Hopeless (Legion Of Monsters) and Jamie McKelvie (Phonogram), on sale in March
- Daredevil: Season One by Antony Johnston (Daredevil) and Wellinton Alves (Nova), in April
- Spider-Man: Season One by Cullen Bunn (Fear Itself: The Deep, Sixth Gun) and Neil Edwards (Fantastic Four), arriving in May.
Marvel has often tried to find interesting ways to make comics accessible to new friends without dissing the old ones (at least, not too hard), such as the Ultimate universe. Releasing graphic novels that tell the origin story of a popular group is certainly an intriguing take on the idea – although it is eerily similar to a (seemingly abandoned?) idea a certain other publisher had. The nice note there is that the other publisher’s attempt at the endeavor were quite well received, and with the line-up that Marvel is providing things are certainly looking optimistic.
For an 8 page preview of Fantastic Four, a 2 page preview of Spider-Man, and one of Jamie McKelvie’s X-Men Character Designs, please check behind the cut.