Marvel fans are bracing for INFINITY! The huge cosmic event kicks off in August. The Avengers head into space to face aliens racing to Earth while Thanos launches a sneak attack on our planet. Avengers World was the first arc by Jonathan Hickman. Now it will take an Avengers Universe to defeat the Mad God of Titan and the mysterious Builders.
Hickman and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort previewed the massive storyline with first looks at incredible images from the all-star art team in today’s Marvel.com liveblog.
“Infinity is an outgrowth of everything that has been happening in Avengers and New Avengers since Marvel NOW! began. It’s a big sci-fi event, a war fought on two fronts. The Avengers are in space dealing with a threat on its way to Earth, and while that’s happening, Thanos picks this moment for he and his forces to descend on a largely unprotected Earth looking for something he desires,” said Brevoort.
“Before I was doing Infinity, I was always going to do a story called Avengers Universe happening at this time in the Avengers books. This is the culmination of everything we started in Avengers #1 on Mars with the Garden, talking about the Builders, this ancient race who has built great societies and destroyed them if they didn’t find them worthy to survive. Because of the events in New Avengers, the Builders are headed to Earth,” said Hickman.
“There will be huge galactic events and things going on in our backyard. The two arms will dovetail before all is said and done.” – Tom Brevoort
Hickman has introduced new villains, new heroes and new versions of the Marvel New Universe characters on his run. Brevoort teases who to watch out for as the mega-series unfolds:
“You’ll see more from Starbrand and to a lesser degree Nightmask in Infinity. You’ll see stuff from the Garden characters, Ex Nihilo and Abyss. Black Bolt and the Inhumans have a huge and perhaps unexpected role.”
“There’s some good material from the Skrulls and the Super-Skrull, Ronan and the Supreme Intelligence, Gladiator and the Imperial Guard.”
In New Avengers the Illuminati have tried to save Earth from incursions from other Earths. The members of Marvel’s secret society even used the ultimate weapon of Thanos to save the Earth – and now there are consequences.
“The Infinity Gems, when last anybody knew about them, were broken by the Illuminati, and that will not go untouched on in Infinity,” said Brevoort
“I’m actually writing about that today.” added Hickman.
“Like any good story, we needed forerunners of the bad guy and so Thanos’ allies serve the story. They’re colorful characters with cool names, which is never bad, but you’ll see mostly in New Avengers them in play,” said Hickman.
The Inhumans will be pulled into the conflict but one fan asked about the X-Men’s involvement.
“It depends on which characters you’re talking about. It’s a Marvel Universe story, so they will be involved, but Battle of the Atom is also going on. They’re not all absolutely front and center, but they’re not absent. You’ll see stuff involving them right from the jump. You saw them in the prelude.” said Brevoort.
“The mutants affiliated with the Illuminati are very involved,” added Hickman. Beast is a member of the current Illuminati.
Hickman is the architect working with an incredible team of gifted artists and reveals how the team helps him build worlds and lay out the complex storylines:
“I’ve worked with Jerome Opena and Dustin Weaver before, and both are fantastic artists equally adept at world building and character interaction, so writing for them is always a pleasure. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say the fantastic stuff I visualize in my head is always better when realized by those two guy,” said Hickman, “I’ve always wanted to work with Jim Cheung. He’s one of my favorite artists and a really cool guy. I’ve asked for him on just about everything, so it’s such a pleasure to see him drawing the stuff I’m writing. It’s wonderful. All three guys are great. I’d be remiss not to say Mike Deodato is doing great work on New Avengers and Leinil Yu is killing it on Avengers. Breathtaking stuff. I gave Leinil hard as stuff to draw as anybody and he’s crushing it. He’s unbreakable,” praised Hickman.
As huge as Infinity is – this is just the first year of Hickman’s Avengers era this is just the beginning.
“Infinity is big, and will project us forward into something even bigger.”
Infinity #1 arrives this August.
For the entire liveblog here’s the Marvel.com link.
Keep scrolling for more previews of Infinity covers including the new villains who serve Thanos.
Avengers #15 – a prelude to the big event – arrives next Wednesday.
Infinity #1 arrives in August – the first of six big chapters with several tie-ins.
By Editor