Rick Remender had an incredible 2011 with Uncanny X-Force. 2012 sees the writer take on another of Marvel’s covert teams: The Secret Avengers. In today’s Marvel presser Remender and artist Gabriel Hardman revealed their plans for the team.
Secret Avengers 21.1 (with artist Patrick Zircher) will introduce the new Masters of Evil who have set up their own sovereign nation. This issue will be bringing new team leader Hawkeye into the book.
“In Clint’s eyes, he’s the direct approach kind of guy, he doesn’t like spy work, but cap thinks this fits his skill set. An archer or a sniper needs to be covert and deadly. Cap’s only concern is Clint’s temper, so the Point One issue is a test, ” Remember says of Clint Barton.
“The first big story is based around a guy named father, who readers of Uncanny X-Force will be familiar with. He had a hand in creating a race of descendants from all the robots in the Marvel Universe who live in the core of the Earth. The threat is actually much bigger, and we’ll reveal it as we go. It’s something I’ve been working on for some time.” Remender said of the growing mech threat.
“Adaptoids are like Sentinels for Avengers. They have a deep hatred for the Avengers. They view them as the bad guys. They protect humanity at the expense of other species like mutants or these guys” Remender added about the frequent Avenger foes.
Arthur Adams will provide covers. Gabriel Hardman will handle variant covers and interior art. With such a diverse team (Hawkeye, Valkyrie, Venom, Black Widow, Human Torch, Beast, Captain Britain) who is the big challenge?
“It’s fun drawing this characters I’ve never worked with. I need to find individual personalities for these guys. Beast is probably the biggest challenge because the way he is visually interpreted varies a lot and I needed to nail down my way to draw him. I basically draw him as Lemmy from Motorhead, so hopefully that will work,” Hardman said.
“I haven’t gotten to draw Venom in action yet, but I love that costume and am excited to do it. I like the more down to earth, gritty look for Hawkeye. It’s more practical…though the fan in me would have had a lot of fun drawing the goofy purple costume,” Hardman continued.
Secret Avengers 21.1 on sale January 25th. Secret Avengers 22 on sale February 8.