Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. This edition is all about Marvel’s May announcements, of which there are many. Hit the links for more information.
Marvel released their solicitations for May last week (You can find the complete listings on The Beat) and they included several new stories and big storylines that I may or may not have already covered here. So, here’s a round-up of what to expect and what looks interesting …
May will bring the launch of a brand-new Avengers title, by Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa. The team will be led by Captain Marvel and will include Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Vision and Captain America — aka the former Falcon, Sam Wilson.
Here’s a look at the first issue’s various variant covers, by Daniel Acuña, Derrick Chew, Paul Smith, John Tyler Christopher and Kael Ngu, as well as some of Villa’s interior artwork:
The story will spin out of MacKay’s recent work in the Timeless one-shot, as “the team will embrace a new divine purpose after they’re gifted with knowledge of the Tribulation Events, a series of grand-scale disasters that will spark upheaval throughout the known universe,” according to Marvel.com.
As always, there’s a lot going on with Spider-Man, the Spider-Verse and all the various symbiotes running around the Marvel U. these days.
Of note, Amazing Spider-Man #25 will hopefully, finally reveal the big mystery that Zeb Wells introduced in the first issue of his latest run on the title. The solicitation promises that “Your heart isn’t ready for this one,” so, y’know, eat your vitamins and be prepared for anything.
In addition, May sees the debut of a new Silk miniseries, new Edge of Spider-Verse miniseries, an Extreme Venomverse miniseries, Spider-Man 2099: Dark Genesis and the Miles Morales/Carnage crossover event Carnage Reigns. Perhaps tying into that last one — or perhaps not; the solicits aren’t really clear — is a new miniseries by Sabir Pirzada and Francesco Mortarino, titled Cult of Carnage: Misery:
Based on the solicitation text, it sounds like Little Normie Osbourne won’t be the only member of his family who has a symbiote:
Liz Allen is the mother of Normie Osborn, who she is blissfully unaware is the all-new and all-deadly RED GOBLIN! But what Liz DOES know is that the Red Goblin has been active and has been seen VERY close to her home. And after her late husband’s father, NORMAN OSBORN (maybe you’ve heard of him?), gets pulled into the chaos and violence swirling around Normie, Liz has no choice but to use the resources at her disposal as the head of ALCHEMAX to take matters into her own hands and become something the Marvel Universe has NEVER SEEN BEFORE!
The latest story set in the Momokoverse — is that the right term to describe what Peach Momoko has been doing at Marvel for the last couple years? — will wrap up in May with Demon Wars: Scarlet Sin, which features (you guessed it!) the Scarlet Witch. Or the Momokoverse version of Wanda, anyway, who is called Momiji.
“When designing Momiji, Demon Wars’ version of Scarlet Witch, the first thought that came to mind to represent Scarlet Witch was her anger and betrayal,” Momoko told Marvel.com. “So with this in mind, I was inspired to create her around the Hannya idea. Hannya in Japan is used in Noh theater to represent a woman’s anger and jealousy, and these vengeful spirits turn her into a demon.”
It comes out May 3.
The Fantastic Four will celebrate a big milestone in May — their 700th issue. With a cover by Alex Ross and a story by Ryan North and Iban Coello, the oversized issue features the return of Doctor Doom.
“I feel privileged to be writing the Fantastic Four at any time, honestly, but getting to have a big milestone issue happen on my watch is certainly lucky—and it’s an opportunity I didn’t want to waste,” North said. “A big anniversary issue like this demands a similarly big story, something meaningful, impactful, and memorable. And given that it’s a supersized issue with more room to play, everything aligned to do a story with the Fantastic Four’s most meaningful, impactful, memorable, and supersized villain: Doctor Doom.”
Nick Fury has been around for 60 years in all his various incarnations, and in May Marvel will pay tribute to the super spy with Fury. The one-shot is written by Al Ewing with art by Scott Eaton, Tom Reilly, Adam Kubert, and Ramon Rosanas. Each artist will draw a different era featuring Nick Fury.
“Nick Fury is an entire history of comics in one character,” Ewing said. “Shifting from a tough-talking WWII Sergeant specializing in impossible missions, to an U.N.C.L.E.-esque secret agent beating James Bond at his own game, to a Machiavellian man in the shadows making the grey moral choices we’ve come to associate with the evolving espionage genre. And when the original Fury went cosmic, his son followed in those same footsteps, doing all that with a modern spin and an eye on the silver screen portrayal of our favorite sci-fi spy-guy.”
I stopped following the ongoing Hulk title when they turned him into some sort of spaceship, or whatever, but I am intrigued by this annual. Hulk Annual #1, by David Pepose and Caio Majado, will present a “found footage” take on the Hulk, as a young film-making crew attempts to make the documentary of a lifetime. (Things don’t go well for them).
Finally, several of Marvel’s May titles will include Deadpool homage variant covers drawn by Rob Liefeld. Liefeld redrew the covers for Fantastic Four #52, Secret Wars #8, Captain America #111, Daredevil #163 and the original Wolverine collection, which you can see above.