Don’t call it a reboot, don’t call it the end of the Marvel Universe – It’s the best of both as Marvel announces the all-new all-different Marvel for 2015.
Here’s what came out of the big announcement from Marvel this afternoon during the Secret War event in New York City.
- Marvel 616 and The Ultimate Universe will combine during the Secret War event
- The end result will be known as Battleworld floating in a void of nothing
“The Ultimate Universe, the Marvel Universe, they’re going to slap together,” said Alex Alonso, Marvel Editor-in-Chief. “Imagine two pizzas: They’re going to combine toppings, some toppings are going to drop off. And that is the Marvel Universe moving forward. It’s more than the Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe, it’s all the universes you can imagine. That is the Marvel Universe going forward.”
- A lot of this will happen in the Avengers storyline, with the final issues of Avengers and New Avengers building up to the “incursion”, but you’ll have to pick up Secret War #1 to see it all play out.
- A Free Comic Book Day Secret War issue will serve as the primer for what is to come.
- Marvel is quick to point out that the two universes are done as you know them, but they aren’t calling it an end of the Marvel U.
SECRET WARS Live Kickoff
This May, time has run out and Secret Wars, the landmark 8-issue event, is ready to shake the very foundations of the Marvel Universe as you know it. But fir…
I’ll put money that this is going to be similar to the events of DC Comics’ Nu52 initiative, that will allow Marvel to pick and chose what they want to keep and what they want to ditch.
- Miles Morales? Keeping him!
- Peter and Mary Jane back together again? Maybe.
- A lot more Avengers? Movie on the way!
- More Inhumans and fewer mutants? Looking that way.
- A crap ton of new number one issues to flood your longbox? You know it.
Time to let your speculation flag fly and use the comment section below to share your thoughts, reactions, outrage and praise for the big change that is ahead for Marvel.
12 Comments
I’m freaking out, and I think I’m done. We had a good run it was fun while it lasted, but maybe it is time to let go of superhero comics, there other kinds of comics out there, and really super-heroes are for children.
Can I get the original New Warriors before all this Stamford nonsense and my New Mutants before Rob Liefeld ruined everything with all those pockets and teenagers with wrinkles? If so, then I am in… and Marvel can keep Petey single and even make the Scarlet Witch and Pietro the product of parthenogenesis. It’s a fair trade! And some chocolate. For me.
you monsters. please. don’t you appreciate what this means to those who consider reading the adventures of these characters to be one of the few bright and positive points of their life? You’re not DC, your universe is not already suffering from poor sales, badly received storylines, and multiple continuity issues resulting from a sting of “soft reboots”. You already tested the waters of this concept when you first created the “Ultimate Universe”, and that is now considered more or less a failure. Please. DC, who I was an avid reader of since my days as a lonely elementary school student, did this and now, not only do I not follow any of their series, but since these are not the same Superman, Green Lantern, and Flash who I spent my life growing up reading and caring about, I have no reason to “tune back in” like i would when “my” heroes’ would go through major or critically applauded story arcs. It no longer “matters”, I have no more investment in them. One of the reasons I became such a Marvel fanatic was because my “loss” of all my DC heroes. And Marvel comics are REALLY good right now. And since they’ve never rebooted before, it was really easy to get into them (which was a gradual process for me which occurred the more I became disinterested in DC) based on good stories which then made me want to read the stories that were part of these characters histories. But now, like so many things in my life that helped me get through what often seems like a never-ending pile of purposelessness (I’ve never hidden the fact that being a lawyer/passing-the-bar was anything more than a “nothing better to do” option), you’ve eliminated another thing (in this case, following the remaining open-ended superhero universe) that made me ok with living a life where what I do for a living is not my passion. Within the next two-three years I can already feel that I will no longer play or at least feel passion about video games, I barely “follow” any tv shows, and their are books and manga above my bed that I meant to read read WAY BACK in law school. Yes, I know you’re a “fictional” universe made up of lines on papers, but you were important to me and my sense of identity. You existed unchanged since the 60s, you were supposed to be something I could rely on to be around during my life and even after. I nearly wept when I read the finale of “New Krypton” and watched as “my” Superman had to experience the destruction of his people all over again by the very people he had sworn to protect. Now, DC could stop printing comics altogether (including the new “Action Comics” and “Superman” series where he’s only been around for 5 years), and I would feel literally nothing. I know what Marvel is doing is not personal, that it is somehow business (though as stated before, there is no reason why it would be considered a “good business decision”) but today will be remembered as the day that another part of me that separated me from all those “adults” who are satisfied with simply waking up, going to work, eating dinner, and going to sleep (at most watching something like Mom=”Judge Judy” or Dad=”WW2 doc”), and repeating this routine for years at a time was taken long before I was ready to part with it. Fuck you. I hope you consider what you may have done.
Dude, I feel practically the same way you do. To a worrying level actually (even the DC thing), though it wouldn’t surprise me if more people feel this way too.
Can I make a vote for “Let’s wait and see . . . ”
I’m not excited about the premise of a new reboot, and I definitely don’t want to see The New 52 in Marvel. But like we’ve said time and time again – a lot of good ideas sounded bad at first, like the Winter Soldier and Superior Spider-Man.
Honestly, I kinda saw some of this coming after Axis. It sounded like Marvel was trying to cram in a lot of crazy ideas – like Superior Iron Man and Lady Thor – before their big event, maybe to throw some wildcards into the Secret Wars. All we definitely know is Ultimate Marvel is combining with Marvel 616. Right now, there’s not too much of Ultimate Marvel left – save for Miles Morales and a couple other characters.
It might go bad or it might not. We’ll just have to wait and see.
For now, let’s just breathe in . . . breathe out . . . a couple more times if you have to.
Listen to Blue Yonder. Listen to the Schleicher. He’s very careful in pointing out what was said and not said. Calm down. I was upset about Superior Spider-Man, but knew deep down I’d get Pete back, and I did. Grab your towel, and remember: DON’T PANIC. This could be incredible. At the very least, it will be different, and that ain’t a bad thing.
I’ll wait and see. Actual big fighty fighty could be at least entertaining. That said, I read Superhero comics because of nostalgia and familiarity, they are blast from the the past for me, so I have absolute zero attachment and interest to Captain Falconerica, or lady Thor or any other character modern Marvel could come up with and shoehorn in to change things just because. Until Steve Rogers is Captain America again, Thor is the one he should be and so forth, Im done with Marvel.
Wake me up again if/when traditional characters are back.
Can we get back the Marvel universe of the 70’s where we had:
ONE Avengers and ONE X-Men series and we didn’t have to read some 20 different books to get all the storyline.
The F..F. were considered the “first and best” by the actual Marvel characters and not just some side group.
Epic stories were told within the pages of the main titles themselves and culminated in epic finales in a summer annual.
Creative teams changing on titles were promoted by glossy, large ads in the comics but yet didn’t warrant a stopping of the current series just to re-launch with new numbering.
Okay I’m done.
I love Jonathan Hickman’s writing. I think his Avengers / New Avenger stuff (where Secret Wars is spinning out of) is riveting, even though it’s dark and none of the heroes are acting particularly heroic. And yet I love it, and I have confidence in Hickman to redeem all the darkness. That said, all of this sounds like a great jumping off point. I’ve been a Marvel guy for 35 years, and despite all of the twists and turns and takes on characters I didn’t necessarily agree with, the characters feel like, well, friends. I understand it may be a good solution for their publishing line, or bottom line, but when I read the news, all I felt was a sense of loss. I reserve the right to reverse myself – my curiousity will probably get the better of me and as the creative teams get announced I may dip back in – but as of right now, it actually just makes me sad.
Does Marvel still own the Malibu comics characters (Ultraforce, Prime, etc)? Because this would be a great opportunity to bring a few of them back in a similar way like how DC folded the Wildstorm universe into the DCU when New 52 hit.
I believe they do, but that the Malibu creator contracts make it less attractive to USE those characters, as it means more off the company’s bottom line to put Prime or Hardcase in the Marvel Universe…
That said, anything is possible.
Yeah, I remember there were some issues back in 2005 (before Disney bought Marvel) when rumors were swirling about an Ultraverse revival due to how the original contract was worded. But I still wonder if they might have tried to work something out since then (it has been about 10 years, so who knows), or if there may be some way to use a select few characters rather than reviving the entire Ultraverse.
I know the Ultraverse characters weren’t the most original, but some of them were pretty interesting takes on familiar concepts and I wouldn’t mind seeing them pop up again at some point.