The repercussions of the Secret Invasion event are being felt throughout the Marvel Universe.  Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., which became War Machine: Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D. will end and give way to an ongoing War Machine book that starts in December. Marvel’s Jim McCann told ICv2 that a post SI world needs a James Rhodes, but was reluctant to say why because he didn’t want to give away too many secrets about upcoming events in Secret Invasion.

McCann also told ICv2 that Andy Diggle (Green Arrow, Batman Confidential) would be coming to Marvel to take over the writing of Thunderbolts with Roberto della Torre providing the pencils.  The Secret Invasion events have a profound effect on the Thunderbolts, and as McCann put it, “Secret Invasion messes up a lot of people this is one of the first places people will see it.”

 

On the cosmic level Marvel’s next big outer space event, War of  Kings, is also affected by Secret Invasion and shrouded in mystery.  Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, War of Kings largely results from events that took place in Secret Invasion (and Secret Invasion: Inhumans) in particular as well as Annhilation: Conquest.  Look for Vulcan, the Shi’Ar, Black Bolt and the Inhumans to be major players in this saga of conflict, which is slated to commence in December.

 

Not all of Marvel’s Comic-Con announcements were related in some way or another to Secret Invasion.  The House of Ideas is reaching out to young readers in a major way with an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, which is being written by Oz maven Eric Shanower and illustrated in a very striking and original way by Skottie Young.

 

Meanwhile an all-female creative team consisting of writer Valerie D’Orazio and artist Emily Warren is resurrecting Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger team—and according to D’Orazio the engine that drives her interest in the project is “the unfulfilled-yet-yearning relationship” between the protagonists, which she compares to similar longings between characters such as the X-Files' Mulder and Scully and BTVS’s Buffy and Angel.

 

Marvel counts 2009 as its 70th Anniversary (based on the 1939 founding of Timely Publications) so expect the number one comic publisher to come up with more than a few surprise announcements over the next few months.  Right now the House of Ideas is playing its cards close to the vest—saying, for example,only that Mark Millar will return to the Ultimate Universe, but not providing very much in the way of contextual information--still the shroud of secrecy should be lifted over a wide range of Marvel projects as the company's 70th anniversary gets closer and the events of Secret Invasion play out.