This week Marvel has revealed the creative teams for a number Marvel Now relaunches including Mark Waid and Leinil Yu on Hulk, Kieron Gillen and Greg Land on Invincible Iron Man, Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic on Thor, and Brian Posehn, Gerry Duggan, and Tony Moore on Deadpool (see “Waid and Yu on 'Hulk'"), and today The House of Ideas doubled the ante by unveiling four more creative teams for a quartet of additional titles that will be relaunched as #1’s in the Marvel NOW! program.
In addition to its typically coy approach to revealing the exact nature of the relaunches, Marvel has taken to doling out its "teasers" as "exclusives" for various pop culture news sites. First today on MTV.com was perhaps the easiest to decipher, a gold "Legacy" teaser that most likely indicates writer Simon Spurrier and artist Tan Eng Huat will be embarking on a new X-Men Legacy title.
Then on ifanboy.com came a more ambiguous teaser, a blue-ink "Soldier," which could of course be linked either to a revamped Winter Soldier, or given the particular blue used in the lettering could also refer to a retooled Captain America title. Whichever it is, fans will want to take notice because of the quality of the creative team that includes writer Rick Remender and artist John Romita, Jr.
USA Today, a favorite repository of Marvel news got two teasers today, both of which involve writer Matt Fraction. The easiest to decipher is the "Family" teaser, which clearly puts Fraction and artist Mark Bagley on the Fantastic Four, the original core title of the Marvel Universe as Fraction takes over for the departing Jonathan Hickman. The second teaser, "Extended" would appear to be connected with "Family" and quite possibly refers to the FF comic that spun off from the Fantastic Four in the wake of the “death” of the Human Torch. Fraction will team up with the stylish artist Mike Allred (Madman) for what could be a revamped (and re-numbered) FF series.
After an initial flurry of announcements about Marvel NOW! that included the announcement of the October release of Uncanny Avengers by Rick Remender and John Cassaday, the All New X-Men comic in November by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen, a new Avengers series by Jonathan Hickman and Jerome Opena in December, and a revamped New Avengers in January by Hickman and Steve Epting (see "Marvel NOW! The Answer to DC's New 52"), the House of Ideas was strangely low key about its Marvel Now initiative at Comic-Con. But this week’s announcement of eight new Marvel Now series demonstrates that Marvel Now is looking more like the major initiative that it appeared to be when Marvel was talking about having a revamped and renumbered #1 issue in stores every week from October through February. The scheduling may or may not work out to precisely 1 new #1 title a week, but it appears that Marvel is planning something quite close to what it originally announced.
