Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. This edition focuses on Marvel’s January solicitations, plus at least one project coming in February. Hit the links for more information.
Deadpool and Wolverine, you might remember, had a pretty big summer together, but the lovefest is far from over. In January Marvel will launch Deadpool/Wolverine by former Wolverine writer Benjamin Percy and his X-Force colleague Joshua Cassara.
“Josh and I really hit it off when we were working together on X-Force and became great friends,” Percy told IGN. “When he made the jump to X-Men, it was honestly a little traumatic for us both—but if you get the opportunity to draw a flagship title, you have to go for it. And he drew the living shit out of that series. We never stopped texting or hanging out at cons. We’re always trading stupid jokes (and many hundreds of Arnold Schwarzenegger GIFs). I even helped his wife locate one of the elusive 12-foot Home Depot skeletons recently, so we’ll both be celebrating Halloween like bosses. This is all to say: we were both so damn excited to get the band back together. Deadpool/Wolverine is us cartwheeling onto the stage and shredding our guitars once more while smoke machines churn and pyrotechnics explode all around us.”
Here’s the description from Marvel:
The most unlikely team-up turned most demanded one, Deadpool and Wolverine are back together again and ready to blow your minds in this ongoing series that hits like a never-ending action movie – with the fate of the world in the balance! When a fan-favorite villain is unearthed, you’ll get to see a new side of our heroes and their adversary as an ages-long plan comes to fruition. And the only thing that stands between the Earth and annihilation is the Best There Is and the Merc With The Mouth.
And are the first issue’s variant covers by Greg Capullo, Cassara, Jerome Opena and Doaly, as well as some preview pages:
This one arrives in shops on Jan. 1.
If you were wondering when you might see the future version of Luke Cage introduced in last year’s Timeless one-shot, wonder no more. Power Man: Timeless by co-writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing and artist Bernard Chang will bring the ultra-powerful hero — he has the powers of the Hulk, the Sentry and Iron Fist combined — to the present day for a five-issue miniseries. Andrei Bressan provides the cover for issue #1, which arrives in stores Feb. 5.
Speaking of Marvel’s annual December one-shots, we learned last month that Cable and Bishop will be featured in this year’s Timeslide one-shot by Steve Foxe and Ivan Fiorelli. From there, Cable will go on to star in Cable: Love and Chrome, a five-issue miniseries by David Pepose and Mike Henderson.
“To me, Cable has always been such a fascinating and complex character — a soldier from the future who spends every day of his life battling against the ravages of the Techno-Organic Virus. For years, that’s a war that Cable has waged alone — but what happens when he finally meets someone with this exact same terminal condition?” Pepose asked Comicbook.com. “Get ready for an epic sci-fi adventure that will cross the boundaries of time itself — and deliver all the larger-than-life action that every good Cable story demands!”
Cable: Love and Chrome #1 arrives Jan. 1 with a cover by Ian Churchill and a “flashback” variant by Mike Mignola.
Marvel will once again dedicate one of their Marvel’s Voices specials to a specific character for Black History Month, with 2025’s featured character being Storm. Storm: Lifedream will land in stores Jan. 29, and will feature stories by Angélique Roché, John Jennings, Curtis Baxter, Brittney Morris, Karen S. Darboe, Edwin Galmon and more. Taurin Clarke did the cover, while Lucas Werneck provides a variant.
Back in 1982 Marvel’s What If? series presented a unique pairing when they published “What if Dazzler became the herald of Galactus?” Get ready for five more unique pairings, as Marvel will publish a series of one-shots in January that find everyone from Spider-Gwen to the Hulk wielding the power cosmic.
The one-shots are:
- What if Galactus Transformed the Hulk? by Mat Groom and lan Medina; arrives Jan. 1.
- What if Galactus Transformed Gambit? by Josh Trujillo and Manual Garcia; arrives Jan. 8.
- What if Galactus Transformed Moon Knight? by Alex Segura, Scot Eaton and Cam Smith; arrives Jan. 15.
- What if Galactus Transformed Rogue? by Ann Nocenti and Stephen Byrne; arrives Jan. 22.
- What if Galactus Transformed Spider-Gwen? by Kalinda Vazquez and Daniel Picciotto; arrives Jan. 29.
Each of the amped-up characters was designed by classic Silver Surfer artist Ron Lim, who also did the main cover for each issue.
Alex Paknadel and Diógenes Neves’ X-Men Infinity Comic will arrive in print in January. X-Men: Xavier’s Secret bridges the Krakoa era and the From the Ashes era with a story that shows us why Jean Grey went into space, the full extent of Professor X’s crimes and more. The one-shot arrives Jan. 22 with a cover by Martin Coccolo and a variant by Justin Mason.
With One World Under Doom kicking into gear in February, it’s probably a good time to check in on the Fantastic Four, who will obviously have a vested interested in Doom’s agenda. January’s Fantastic Four #28 will serve as a prelude to the big crossover event, as the Fantastic Four calls on Dane Whitman, aka the Black Knight, for help with their magical Doom problem. This issue is by Ryan North and Steve Cummings, with a cover by Joshua Cassara.
You may have heard that Marvel’s First Family is getting a film next year, so expect to see all sorts of FF related goodness in comics — including a year’s worth of Disney/Fantastic Four mash-up covers on each issue of their comic. The first two, shown above, will appear on Fantastic Four #28 and #29, and they are by Andrei Bressan and Paolo Mottura, respectively. The first variant arrives the same month as the one-shot What if Mickey and Friends Became the Fantastic Four?, so be careful not to get them confused.
Finally, there are plenty of other big releases coming in January and february that I’ve already covered, but in case you missed them, here’s a list:
- Star Wars: A New Legacy one-shot
- Star Wars: Legacy of Vader by Charles Soule and by Luke Ross
- Doctor Doom & Rocket Raccoon, by JMS and Will Robson
- Doom Academy by MacKenzie Cadenhead, Pasqual Ferry and João Lemos
- Eddie Brock: Carnage by Charles Soule and Jesus Saiz
- Ultimate Wolverine by Chris Condon and Alessandro Cappuccio
- Sam Wilson: Captain America by Greg Pak, Evan Narcisse + Eder Messias
- Daredevil: Unleash Hell by Erica Schultz and Valentina Pinti
- New Champions by Steve Foxe and Ivan Fiorelli
- Rogue: The Savage Land by Tim Seeley and Zulema Lavina
- Magik by Ashley Allen and Germán Peralta