Marvel’s solicitations for October were released today and it appears that the House of Ideas is ending nine titles, including such mainstays as Fanastic Four, Incredible Hulk, and Invincible Iron Man in order to make way for the Marvel NOW! reboots (see "Marvel NOW The Answer to DC’s New 52").  Marvel plans to reboot one series per week between October of 2012 and February of 2013 to provide a new "jumping-on" points in an effort to lure lapsed readers and attract new ones, tasks that DC’s “New 52” accomplished very successfully with the rebooting and renumbering of its titles.  The list of titles that will see their tear-stained final issues in October includes Captain America, Fantastic Four, FF, Incredible Hulk, Invincible Iron Man, New Mutants, The Mighty Thor, Uncanny X-Men, and X-Men Legacy.

 

So far Marvel has announced only a handful of Marvel NOW! titles including a new Uncanny Avengers book by Rick Remender and John Cassaday, an All New X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen, as well as an Avengers series written by Jonathan Hickman and Jerome Opena, and New Avengers by Hickman and Steve Epting. 

 

Marvel has also announced that Ed Brubaker will be ending his 7-year run on Captain America (see "Brubaker Off 'Captain America'"), so rebooting the Cap franchise in the Marvel NOW! framework appears a "no-brainer," though the timing of the re-launch or re-boot has yet to be announced.  Similarly there has been no word yet on any possible new versions of the Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, Invincible Iron Man, and The Mighty Thor, though it would be totally unprecedented for Marvel to allow such mainstream titles to lie fallow for too long.  Of course the publisher has to save some announcements for Comic-Con, so stay tuned for what promises to be a significant amount of Marvel news over the next week.