Black Panther in Fantastic Four #607 courtesy Marvel
Black Panther will survive and apparently thrive after Avengers vs X-Men!
“Black Panther is hugely important to Marvel NOW!” said Marvel Editor in Chief Axel Alonso,” and you’ll find out where in days to come!”
That’s was Alonso told a fan on this week’s Axel-in-Charge column on Comic Book Resources.
T’Challa recently returned to Wakanda in the pages of Fantastic Four and FF to reclaim his throne. The King gave refuge his fellow Avengers refuge in Wakanda and his nation and marriage is in shambles.
This declaration from Alonso is great news for Black Panther fans and fuels the excitement for a potential solo movie or having him join an Avengers movie.
Avengers Women of Marvel variant featuring Spider-Woman courtesy Marvel.com
One of my favorite elements of the Brian Michael Bendis Avengers era is how he brought the original Spider-Woman back in the spotlight and made her an Avenger. Sure the Spider-Woman who joined New Avengers #1 was actually a Skrull but the real Jessica Drew finally came back.
Jonathan Hickman is taking over Avengers and New Avengers in 2013 as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch. Hickman revealed his Avengers will start with 18 cast members. Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso now confirms Spider-Woman will be part of the relaunched team.
In today’s Axel-in-Charge column on Comic Book Resources a fan asked if more female characters like Spider-Woman will have a place the Marvel NOW! world.
“Spider-Woman will remain part of the Avengers, and may turn up in Avengers Assemble,” Alonso responded.
Spider-Woman on New Avengers #15 courtesy Marvel
“As for Black Widow, while she won’t have a new Marvel NOW! title, she’s currently appearing Secret Avengers, Avengers Assemble and Winter Soldier,” he added.
This is just speculation on my part but could Spider-Woman appearing in Avengers Assemble mean Marvel Films could be considering have Jessica join an Avengers sequel or star in her own movie? Given Joss Whedon’s stunning track record of writing and directing female heroes can you imagine how Whedon would translate the tragic and triumphant life of Jessica Drew!?
A major casualty of the latest AvX chapter: the marriage of one of Marvel’s premiere power couples. This ending means new beginnings for the two iconic heroes.
Spoiler Warning!!!
This Op/Ed reveals a major plot point of Avengers vs. X-Men #9
If you have NOT read AvX #9 stop reading.
Seriously
OK – Here it comes
Storm and Black Panther are over. Ororo fought with her fellow mutants but is switching sides now that she’s seeing how the Phoenix Force has taken over her fellow X-Men. It’s too late. Black Panther gave the Avengers refuge in Wakanda and now his country and people are paying the price after a Phoenix fueled Namor attacked. The relationship was already on shaky ground and the Wakanda tragedy was the final hit. T’Challa annulled their marriage. As the High Priest he can do that.
Storm has always been divided and torn between her love and duty to T’Challa and to her fellow mutants. I believe Storm is being set up to take over the X-Men. Brian Michael Bendis will take over the mutant franchise with All New X-Men starring the original five students but I have to believe there will be another book featuring the current X-favorites.
X-Men #30 courtesy Marvel
I believe the era of Cyclops and Emma Frost will be over after AvX and it’s time for Storm to assume leadership of the mutant family again. There’s no better team to chronicle that than Brian Wood and David Lopez. The X-Men creative team just wrapped their first arc and I can’t rave enough about how Wood and Lopez write and draw Storm as the cool, commanding yet compassionate leader. Storm is one of my favorite characters ever and she’s a challenge to write but Brian Wood has succeeded beautifully and should continue in the Marvel NOW! era.
Marvel is teasing more new creative teams: Rick Remender and John Romita Jr on The Winter Soldier, Matt Fraction and Mark Bagley on Fantastic Four, Simon Spurrier and Tan Eng Huat on X-Men Legacy? The Marvel NOW! universe of 20 relaunched titles is shaping up.
MTV Geek revealed Spurrier, Huat, Legacy. Does this mean X-Men Legacy will relaunch? Spurrier wrote a great mini starring the hilarious X-Club. My thought is that since All New X-Men by Bendis will feature the original teen mutants as the flagship X-book, this relaunched Legacy will focus on the current X-Men that surive AvX.
courtesy Marvel.com
IFanboy revealed Remender, Romita, SOLDIER tease but does this mean the duo is taking over Captain America or The Winter Soldier book? Remender is writing the Marvel NOW! kickoff book Uncanny Avengers featuring Cap but given his track record (Uncanny X-Force, Secret Avengers, Venom) I’d love to see how he writes Bucky.
courtesy Marvel.com
Matt Fraction (Thor, Invincible Iron Man, Defenders) is succeeding Jonathan Hickman as writer of Fantastic Four. USA Today revealed the teaser Hickman, Bagley, Family and the teaser Fraction, Allred, Extended. Could this mean the FF (Future Foundation) book will continue with Mike Allred (Madman)on art. Fraction’s new Hawkeye book with David Aja debuted this week.
courtesy Marvel.com
Let’s recap the other teasers of the week:
Kieron Gillen and Greg Land, Invincible=Iron Man
Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic, Worthy=Thor
Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu, Indestructible=Hulk
Brian Poesin, Gerry Duggan, Tony Moore, Chichimangas=Deadpool
Jonathan Hickman is leaving Marvel’s First Family for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The Marvel NOW! relaunch will see a new Avengers series premiering this December and a New Avengers title in January by Hickman. The visionary creator (Fantastic Four, SHIELD, Manhattan Projects) is revealing his new vision for the team in the aftermath of Avengers vs. X-Men and an 8 year run by Brian Michael Bendis.
Hickman tells Marvel.com how the Avengers came his way.
“I did not actively go after it. There was a retreat where we were trying to figure out what was going to happen after Avengers Vs.X-Men. This is before we really got into writing AvX. One of the things that we talked about was changing creative teams across the board, and that, later on, turned into something that we decided to do. I was one of the ones that popped up and said “Well that’s fine. Whatever we need to do. Whatever we think is going to work, whatever we think is going to be exciting, whatever is going to be new and fresh.” You know, we all need new experiences. So I volunteered to quit FANTASTIC FOUR on the spot. I said, “You know, I’ll go first. Whatever. I’ll quit FANTASTIC FOUR and I’ll go write Squadron Supreme or something, right?” And I don’t think I got the ball rolling or anything like that, but it certainly let everybody know that I was more than happy to jump around and try new things.
courtesy Marvel.com
Then when it came time to do roster shake ups, I didn’t solicit for any gig. I think they just sort of started talking about it around the office. And we had done the ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES launch, and even though that launch did not go as well as we wanted because of the New 52 kind of swallowing it over at DC, everybody thought I did a pretty good job. And I thought it was pretty solid. It showed that I can do work with what is essentially an Avengers team and I started getting phone calls about it.
But at the same time, I’m pretty sure that [Avengers editor Tom] Brevoort was on vacation when all of this kind of came to a head. So when Brevoort got back from vacation one of the first conversations I had to have was “You know, some of the management types, some of the brass are talking about me doing this and it’s your book, Tom, I’m not interested in doing it if you don’t want me on there.” And Tom said, “I’m the Avengers guy. I’m the one who’s going to have the final say-so.” I replied, “I love working with you and all that kind of stuff, but let me know and if you don’t want me on the book, obviously I’m not interested in doing it if you don’t want to do that but I would love to do anything with you again.” And anyway, it all worked out. We talked about what we wanted the book to be and I was asked to take the job and once I had Tom’s blessing I said yes. And then we got into what the book was going to be. That’s really convoluted, but that’s kind of what happened.”
Fantastic Four’s theme was family. The Avengers themes are bigger and more ominous.
“Yeah, very much so. AVENGERS and NEW AVENGERS are really just two sides of the same book, of the same story. Thematically, they’re aligned too. AVENGERS is about life and NEW AVENGERS is about death. That’s what the two books are. It’s a big book. In the AVENGERS, we tackle the biggest things.”
Hickman confirmed his Avengers will start with 18 members. Jerome Opena (Uncanny X-Force) will be the artist on Avengers. Steve Epting will be the artist on New Avengers.
For his entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
Producer Bryan Singer confirms that the sequel to X-Men: First Class will be titled Days of Future Past and based on the classic story by Chris Claremont. For an X-Men comic reader – it’s close to the Holy Grail of mutant epics.
“It’s going to be very ambitious. It deals will aspects of that comic but also some very new things”Singer tells IGN.
Uncanny X-Men #141 courtesy Marvel.com
In Uncanny X-Men #141 and 142 the Days of Future Past was a powerhouse two-part story in two timelines. In a future North America rules by Sentinels (mutant hunting robots) most super heroes have been hunted down and exterminated or imprisoned. Magneto, Storm, Colossus and his wife Kate (Kitty Pryde) are in the camp. Rachel Summers (daughter of Scott/Cyclops and Jean Grey) and Franklin Richards (son of Reed and Sue of the Fantastic Four) are together and living in the prison camp too. Wolverine is with an underground resistance movement.
The future X-Men conceive a daring plot to rewrite history and change the nightmare future. Rachel uses her psionic powers to send Kate’s consciousness into the past and into the body of Kitty Pryde who just joined the X-Men. Kitty must convince the mutants to go to Washington, D.C. to prevent the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants led by Mystique. The killing of Kelly led to the country’s hatred of mutants and implementation of Sentinels. While the past X-Men race to prevent the assassination, the remaining future X-Men fight the Sentinels.
Uncanny X-Men #142 courtesy Marvel.com
Since this storyline features a much older Wolverine and Hugh Jackman is getting older…maybe Jackman could make an appearance as the older Logan leading the underground resistance movement in the future.
The next X-Men film will likely not follow the storyline exactly but it could be an exciting way to reboot the entire film franchise but like Spock created a new timeline in JJ Abrams Star Trek.
We could forget X-Men: The Last Stand ever happened. Professor Xavier and Cyke would still be alive. It could be a whole new beginning for the film franchise and I love Rachel Summers.
Avengers vs. X-Men #9 is a dramatic, action packed epic with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on the run, heroes switching sides, chilling hints of what’s to come and….heart and humor?
The truth nature of the Phoenix Force is being revealed…and it’s scary as hell. But the true nature of a hero is what makes this issue a standout and a testament to why I love comic books. Jason Aaron successfully balances personal drama with big screen spectacle.
The Phoenix Four are more powerful than ever after last issue’s shocking battle. Tony Stark’s genius is stalled. Thor’s might is crushed. It’s hard for the remaining Avengers to be inspired by Captain America’s leadership. Who knew your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man could be a crucial factor in a cosmic level clash?
Peter Parker takes on the Phoenix fueled Colossus and Magik! Spidey sacrifices himself to save his fellow heroes. Peter takes a beating and uses his wit…and that may drive a wedge that may be lead to the final undoing of the Phoenix Four. Jason Aaron nails Peter Parker as the “everyman on the ground” in this epic conflict.
Avengers vs. X-Men #11 courtesy Marvel.com
As that bloody battle plays out two of Marvel’s signature couples are being shattered. Black Panther and Storm stop fighting long enough to finally talk in the aftermath of the devastating battle in Wakanda but is may be too late. Emma Frost is trying to warn Cyclops about the danger from within but it maybe too late. Emma Frost may on the way to causing a cosmic carnage worse than the Dark Phoenix Saga. The seeds may be planted for an Avenging Emma and for the final act: there can be only one!
Christopher Eccleston is in final talks to play the villain in Thor: The Dark World for Marvel according to The Hollywood Reporter Heat Vision. Eccleston played the famous Time Lord when Doctor Who was relaunched in 2005 but for only one season. Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones) is directing the sequel with Chris Hemsworth back at Thor. The villain is said to Malekith, the king of the Dark Elves.
Since leaving the Tardis, Eccleston played Destro in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and guest starred on Heroes.
Madds Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) was in consideration but is out due to his commitment to play the Hannibal Lecter in a new NBC series based on the infamous connoisseur.
