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Avengers (December)
Jonathan Hickman made Fantastic Four relevant again, and brought a unique storytelling style to the superhero blueprint. So far, he’s not talking much about his new Avengers, only to say that:
- The book will be bi-monthly.
- It will feature both popular and lesser-known characters.
- Shang-Chi, the master of Kung Fu, may be one character.
- Hickman has much love for the cosmic storylines like the Kree/Skrull War or Avengers Forever (my fav).
The writer also plans to keep the roster very full:
“It’s not six Avengers, it’s 18 or more… “The obvious solution is for the heroes to become something bigger and larger, a more appropriate response to an ever more dangerous time.”
With the Avengers film being such a big success, it’s curious to hear that the new Avengers volume could veer so far away from the original roster. Then again, longtime readers remember what Brian Michael Bendis did with New Avengers in the mid-2000s; he essentially introduced an assortment of superheroes that had never really been paired – some popular (Wolverine, Spider-Man), some lesser-known (Luke Cage, Spider-Woman): the results were pretty spectacular. Hopefully Hickman’s experiment yields similar results.
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Marvel NOW!: Implications for Marvel Movies
As Disney/Marvel continue to expand their superhero brand, it’s apparent that they are literally expanding their superhero brand, by finding a way to shuffle characters so that certain ones get more exposure (See: Rocket Raccoon). The name of the game for both Disney/Marvel and DCE/Warner Bros. has been how to maximize the profitability of these superhero universes – meaning capitalizing on more than just the big two or three most popular characters. Because Rocket Raccoon plush toys would definitely sell with the juice box crowd…
As for what this NOW! relaunch means, as far as Marvel Movies go: Aside from the Rocket Raccoon example, I wouldn’t put too much stock in seeing an Avengers/X-Men movie. Unless Fox and Disney/Marvel have some back room deal none of us know about, it won’t be happening anytime soon while each respective studio is making money off their own franchise. The Avengers is setting box office records, and Fox got enough out of X-Men: First Class to start work on a sequel. So again, an onscreen merger is unlikely at this point.
Still, for longtime comic book fans this is big, crazy, exciting news – let us know how you feel about it in the comment section below.
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Be Sure to check back to Screen Rant’s Comic-Con Coverage Page for the latest news about what’s going on with Marvel NOW! – and all the juicy things we learn while our reporters are scouring the halls of the ‘Con.
The 2012 San Diego Comic-Con takes place between July 11 – 15th, in San Diego, California.
Source: EW
Ryan Reynolds Drops Out of 'Highlander' Reboot 
No Loki in 'Avengers 2' 
'Man of Steel' Director & Writer on What Has to Happen in 'Man of Steel 2' 
'Man of Steel' Ending Controversy 
oookay with a risk of sounding bad I have to ask, why the hell did they change another white person black?
that did it to the King Pin(who all knows was big and white) and then they did it to Nick.. was it to please the African american community or something thing?
now I can under stand the punish when they turned him black but that was to hide who he was and there is no better way to change one’s identity than by going to a different skin color.
however they just screwed up Nick and Fisk by turning them black. now I am no way raciest nor a bigot but come on!
that would be like turning Charlies Xaver black or Logan black, ect.
if they did it just to please the minorities then they are as stupid as they come.
after all if we turned blade white I am sure we would never hear the end of it…
At the risk of sounding like a pessimist: No business ever makes such changes merely to “please” a certain group or to try and be more PC. It’s a marketing move. For the same reason universities have photos on their brochure of a black guy, white girl, asian guy and hispanic girl all sitting and studying on the lawn together.
I’d say it’s a pretty fair bet that Marvel wants to increase it’s bottom line by appealing to more groups than just white kids. I certainly don’t blame them. Last census 27% of Americans identified themselves as something other than white. Why not try to give those groups characters with whom they can identify too? As a comic reader for 20+ years, if those groups buy more comics then it helps keep the comic industry strong and in business – so I don’t mind at all.
Fury turned black with the all the Ultimate universe of Marvel comics. and to prepare for future movies with Sam L jackson playing the characther. I have no problem with a black Fury, since the white fury always looked like Mr. Fantastic with an eye-patch.
I see your point, but turning Nick Fury black is and would NEVER be the same as making Wolverine, Proff X or Superman as a black person.
as for the minority qtion that you said then i can confirm that this was the issue in DC universe and that is why a black green lantern was introduced in comics / animation.
“and to prepare for future movies with Sam L jackson playing the characther.”
Correction: the folks at Marvel used Sam L. Jackson as a template for Ultimate Nick Fury WAAAY before there was going to be any version of Nick Fury in any film. When they were casting Nick Fury, they went “oh hey, we should just use the actor we based him on!”
i believe you are as stupid as they come good sir. if you have payed any attention to fury hes been black for what 10 years now? and a black kingpin isnt a bad idea in the slightest infact that role that Duncan played in Daredevil was almost perfect he just didnt have much of a story behind him. but anywho chaning the race of a superhero is something i disagree with completely like with this new black/lantino spiderman, but sometimes it works
I guess I’m not that excited about it. I’ve always felt these comic “universes” are not good for creativity. If one character’s sales sag, they have a guest appearance by a more popular character. Maybe not all these characters should have their own titles and they should try something else besides superheroes once in awhile.
This is one of the DUMBEST ideas EVER!!!! Why can’t these publishers just leave well enough alone? A reader gets comfortable with a character or specific book for awhile and then BAM!!!! Everything changes!I get it that change can be good sometimes, but full-blown redo’s on a specific character or team is unacceptable. Take when Spider-Man got organic webbing in the comic. What was that about? And then going on to try to make the reader believe that it was more than a simple accident that gave Peter his powers? Who’s side is Magneto REALLY on? He goes from good to bad then back to good then back to bad again. Same thing with the Juggernaut. Plus all the constant “deaths” and “rebirths” are insane and I agree with the poster that said something about changing the skin color of a character, like Nick Fury or the Kingpin. To do it simply to make the character more identifiable with a wider audience is just plain lame. You lose the essence of the character, plus tons of years of backstory, for what? A bigger profit in sales? LAME!!!!
they will NOT get bigger sales numbers just because they change the skin color of a characther. so just forget that idea. plus the backstory does NOT have to be lost just because the skin color changes.
but when they make a new universe or new storyline. they are free to change the skin color as much as they want. as for black nick fury he was introduced with the ultimate universe of marvel comics.
as for black king pin; there was a good reason for the change aswell. i think they just rather change skin color for a characther then make up a new LAME one like DC comics with a black green lantern and later a ginger green lantern…
theres more than one green lantern?
just wanna clear this up Magneto couldnt care less about being “good” or “evil” he simply belives mutants deserve the same if not better rights than normal people and will stand beside anyone to help him acheive it.
Sounds like a great idea. they should have done this YEARS ago. but i guess it is never to late.
btw: i did not know that Susan was apart of either xmen or avengers. she has her own team. so its a bit strange to have a xmen/avengers comic and then F4 member(s) are apart of it. if they dont explain it as Susan being the only surviving member of F4 and has joined xmen/avengers. that would work. i always liked her the most.
Sounds idiotic, Xmen should be separate fromt he Avengers always, those comics are entirely about something else, when i was growing up in xmen there was alot of pain of the characters and fighting between the mutants and solving the question what is their role in the world, here they are gonna just fight evil bad guys because they want to destroy MURICA and the new world order lol together with super rich tony stark under the watchful eye of the government who IF YOU REMEMBER always shat on the mutants…
As a former reader and collector of comics, I can see both the readers’ sides and Marvel’s side of things. I appreciate that, Marvel, as the “creator” of its universe has ideas about what it wants to do and that they may be willing to risk losing readership for that creative option.
I am firmly of the camp that appreciates, first and foremost, the original universes that I became familiar with (whether Marvel, DC or Archie). I do not take changes lightly and often changes in the staff and story lines turned me off of comics and then ultimately their publishers.
The Marvel universe I am used to had Steve Rogers as Captain, Bucky his long dead ally (they changed that by bringing him back as a former Russian operative). Spiderman loved Gwen then Mary Jane, eventually married MJ and so on and so forth.
I did appreciate the Breakout storyline that brought Spiderman together with the Avengers and then that unraveled with cheesy illustrations and the whole Skrull conspiracy (including “clones” of Mockingbird and Hawkeye).
The Thunderbolts was a brilliant idea but gradually it got darker and more ridiculous as comics went from fairly light hearted to dismal and depressing. I always read comics for escapism and for enjoyment not for seeing how dark and depressing the world might be with superheroes and villains in our midst.
I get the feeling that maybe some of the writers and artists might have benefited from counselling or therapy rather than inflicting such awful stuff on their readers.
Screen Rant’s rules: “No profanity or personal attacks.”
Mongoose made a valid point and there’s no need to get offensive because of it.