Cantwell + Eaglesham defect to ‘The United States of Captain America’

New miniseries celebrates the 80th anniversary of the character.

Christopher Cantwell and Dale Eaglesham will reunite several former Captains America to find Cap’s stolen shield in The United States of Captain America, a new miniseries celebrating the character’s 80th anniversary.

“It’s an incredible gift and definitely a creative challenge to take on the character of Captain America, especially during these unprecedented times in our country’s history,” Cantwell told Marvel.com. “With this miniseries we’re hoping to explore what the idea of Captain America means at this precise moment—not just on the grand stage of the world—but to everyday and often overlooked communities throughout the United States.”

Steve Rogers will be joined by Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson and John Walker — aka Winter Soldier, Falcon and U.S.Agent — on a road trip across America as they search for his iconic shield. Along the way, they’ll introduce new heroes who been inspired by Captain America, and who will be featured in back-up stories.

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‘The Marvels’ returns to Marvel’s schedule in April

The new series by Kurt Busiek and Yildiray Cinar will offer ‘a smorgasbord of Marvel heroes and history.’

Marvel has announced that The Marvels, a new series by Kurt Busiek and Yildiray Cinar, will now arrive in April.

The series, which was described as telling “stories that span decades and range from grand adventure to intense human drama, from street-level to cosmic, starring Marvel’s very first heroes to the superstars of tomorrow,” was originally announced last year, but was delayed due to the pandemic.

Alex Ross, who Busiek previously worked with on the Marvels miniseries and Astro City — two projects whose influences seems to live on in this series — will provide the covers.

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Mail Call | ‘Lumberjanes’ reach the end of summer, new D&D and more

Catch up on news from Marvel, DC, BOOM!, IDW and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from publishers in our mailboxes recently. Hit the links for more information.

Former WWE superstar turned author AJ Mendez and Lucifer actress Aimee Garcia will write a new Dungeons & Dragons series for IDW. Dungeons & Dragons: At the Spine of the World will be set in the property’s Icewind Dale world with new characters and artwork by Martín Cóccolo.

Here are some of the character designs, by Max Davenport and Katrina Mae Hao:

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Cantwell + CAFU take over ‘Iron Man’

Tony Stark will don Alex Ross-designed armor in a new series coming this fall.

When Iron Man blasts off this fall in a new series by Christopher Cantwell (Doctor Doom) and CAFU (Jane Foster: Valkyrie), it’ll be Tony Stark once again wearing the armor, in a new suit designed by Alex Ross (Kingdom Come, Marvels).

According to Marvel.com, Tony is “putting away his high-tech toys and high-profile image so he can get his hands dirty again. But can he really lay that Stark-sized ego down? Life isn’t always that simple, something that old friends and frustrating foes are quick to point out.  If you strip a billionaire down to his bolts, does he run solid…or just overheat?”

The series follows the conclusion of the Iron Man 2020 miniseries, which features Tony’s brother Arno as Iron Man. The final three issues of that series will come out this summer.

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Kurt Busiek returns to Marvel for a history-spanning series

Busiek teams with artist Yildiray Cinar for a new series that could include just about any Marvel character.

Kurt Busiek’s known for his work on a lot of different comics, from Avengers to Arrowsmith, but his latest project seems to marry the themes from two of his past projects: Marvels and Astro City.

The Marvels, which will feature artwork by Yildiray Cinar, will tell “stories that span decades and range from grand adventure to intense human drama, from street-level to cosmic, starring Marvel’s very first heroes to the superstars of tomorrow,” according to Marvel.com.

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‘Earth X’ prequel set for January

Alex Ross, Jim Krueger and Velibor Stanojevic tell a new story set in the ‘Earth X’ universe.

Legendary comic artist Alex Ross will once again team with writer Jim Krueger for another “Earth X” story, this one a prequel to the previous trilogy. Velibor Stanojevic joins them on art for Marvels X.

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‘Marvel Comics #1000’ brings together 80 creative teams for one 80-page story

Anniversary project celebrates 80 years of Marvel.

After teasing a whole lot of creative teams on Twitter and in its comics this week, Marvel Comics has announced Marvel Comics #1000, an 80-page comic that arrives in August.

According to the New York Times, the story will start at “day one” for Marvel, in 1939, and each page will correlate to one year in Marvel history — and will be created by a different creative team. Names that Marvel has announced include current Marvel creators like Mark Waid, Al Ewing (who helped architect the project), Saladin Ahmed, Jason Aaron and Gerry Duggan, as well as key creators from Marvel’s past, like Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Erik Larsen and Rob Liefeld. There’s also folks who haven’t done comics before, like basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas and The Goldbergs creator Adam F. Goldberg.

“Our characters are mentioned in so many different ways and in so many different mediums and we always keep track,” Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski said. “Now these distinguished individuals are able to contribute back to the comics they grew up on.”

Alex Ross will provide the cover:

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Comics Lowdown: Alex Ross’ ‘DayGlo’ Fantastic Four pitch

Plus: Bill Jemas, Liza Donnelly and an IKEA comic!

Artist Alex Ross pitched Marvel on taking over the Fantastic Four last year, and you can find his pitch inside Marvelocity, a coffee-table book that highlights the artist’s Marvel work. The 13th Dimension reviews the book and shares several pages from the 2017 pitch. “It just goes to show you that even the biggest talents in comics don’t always get what they want – and what Ross wanted was an eye-popping comic that echoed the DayGlo ’60s while offering something fresh,” reviewer Dan Greenfield writes.

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Comics Lowdown: Chuck Wendig says Marvel fired him because of negative tweets

After posting a controversial interview, Bleeding Cool gets a new editor in chief! Plus Steve Ellis, Alex Ross, MAD Magazine and more!

Comics writer and novelist Chuck Wendig says he has been fired from Marvel “because of the negativity and vulgarity that my tweets bring. Seriously, that’s what Mark [Paniccia], the editor said. It was too much politics, too much vulgarity, too much negativity on my part.” Wendig had just been announced as the writer of Shadow of Vader, with artist Greg Smallwood, and said he had another as-yet-unannounced Star Wars comic in the works.

In addition to various Star Wars comics, Wendig also wrote Star Wars: Aftermath, a novel that included LGBT characters and was one of the first books published after Lucasfilm ended the “expanded universe” Star Wars books. After it was published, Wendig said he received “TONS” of harassment online — “harassment that has gone on for years, harassment that has required me to contact local police and warn them of SWATting attempts, harassment across all corners of the Internet, here, FB, Reddit, YouTube. Some of it was bot stuff, obviously, or sock puppets, but some of it was pretty creepy, and very personal.”

This story has been reported on widely, with stories from Deadline, io9, the Verge, Vulture and more. Update: Wendig has a post answering many of the questions he’s received since he went public with this news.

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Conan draws his ‘Savage Sword’ again in February

Gerry Duggan and Ron Garney headline the return of ‘Savage Sword of Conan.”

Conan the Barbarian won’t be the only new Conan title coming out from Marvel next year. The publisher announced at New York Comic Con the return of Savage Sword of Conan, by Gerry Duggan, Ron Garney and Richard Isanove.

“My first job was in 7th grade, working part-time at a comics shop that needed help going through their inventory,” Duggan told Marvel.com. “I fell in love with the classic Conan material that year. To be able to play in this sandbox now is a dream come true.”

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An end, and a new beginning, for ‘Astro City’

With the final issue of the current volume due out in April, writer Kurt Busiek reveals the title’s future.

DC Comics’ solicitations for April 2018 reveal that the latest volume of Astro City, currently published as a part of their Vertigo imprint, will end with issue #52. But don’t panic: writer Kurt Busiek says Astro City will be back, as a graphic novel rather than a comic series.

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