In a retailer-friendly move that's sure to generate lots of excitement, Marvel Comics has unveiled 8 major titles heading into 2022 with an MCU-style timeline announcement. Much like Marvel Studios' past timeline announcements revealing upcoming slates of films and series on Disney+, Marvel Comics has followed suit with its own timeline reveal. While there's a variety of intriguing and exciting stories, the timeline includes the significant Timeless event featuring Kang the Conqueror at the end of the year, helping shape the Marvel Universe as it heads into 2022. Furthermore, despite Marvel President Kevin Feige's suggestion in the past that the Marvel Studios timeline announcement in 2014 wasn't the best move, it does seems as though it works much better in the comics' favor on multiple levels.
Back in 2014, Kevin Feige released the entire slate of Phase 3 films in a massive timeline covering the MCU's film release schedule heading all the way to 2019 with Avengers: Endgame. However, as Marvel Studios actually progressed through this timeline, a lot of things changed. Schedules and released dates were altered, titles were changed, and projects such as Inhumans weren't made at all with new films being added such as Ant-Man and the Wasp. In retrospect, Feige has mentioned that the large timeline release wasn't the best move, informing the following announcement strategies that have covered more set in stone (and smaller) timelines of about two years, revealing future films and series as they go. In contrast, Marvel Comics' new timeline announcement covers the next six months of publishing, revealing titles that are probably already near completion while also have much more flexibility to change the schedule if needed.
Marvel Comics' new timeline begins with Devil's Reign, featuring Mayor Wilson Fisk aka the Kingpin declaring war on superheroes coming from Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto, which will be followed by Jason Aaron and Aaron Kuder's Avengers Forever, seeing the Multiverse's Mightiest Heroes assembling. This year will then close with Timeless from Jed MacKay, Kev Walker, Joe Bennett, Mark Bagley, featuring Kang the Conqueror protecting the 616 as the stage is set for Marvel's "timeless future" in 2022. The new year will then bring X Lives of Wolverine and X Deaths of Wolverine, two interlocking X-Men stories from Benjamin Percy, Joshua Cassara, and Federico Vicentini that will look at what happens when "Wolverine's pasts meet his future." Rainbow Rowell and Rogê Antônio will have a new She-Hulk series, which will then be followed by Dan Slott's Fantastic Four: Reckoning War, an event involving the Watcher that's 15 years in the making as the original Secret War is reignited. Lastly, a new Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur series is coming, though the creators are as of yet top-secret.
The great benefit of this new timeline announcement for retailers is two-fold: not only is Marvel Comics instilling confidence that there is a plan despite the recent publishing and distribution disruptions caused by the global pandemic, but it also allows retailers to gauge excitement on social media for individual titles, allowing them to make their pre-orders accordingly. Furthermore, the other benefit of this timeline release model for the comics (as opposed to the films) is that even if something needs to change with one Marvel Comics title (like the Wolverine stories) it's unlikely that it will impact something like Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur's release, having less of a domino effect than the MCU would potentially have due to its more strict release schedule.
Given that Kevin Feige himself is now the Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment in its entirety as of 2019, one has to wonder if this similar MCU-style announcement of the past was his brainchild. It certainly seems to be a better fit for the comics over the films. Perhaps Marvel Comics fans can expect to see more timeline announcements in the future? Either way, it's certainly an exciting method that's bound to generate some positive hype for the Marvel Universe's future.