Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza + Stephen Mooney bring ‘Free Agents’ to Image Comics

The new “superhero series with a twist” debuts in July.

Two veteran superhero writers will return to the genre with a fun concept. Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza — who, between them, have written X-Men, Justice League, Avengers, Superman, X-Force, Astro City, New Warriors and countless other superheroes — are teaming up with artist Stephen Mooney, colorist Triona Tree Farrell and letterer Tyler Smith for Free Agents.

“It’s a superhero series with a twist,” Busiek said. “The Agents were done. They were retired, and had started building new lives, going to college, making themselves a place here on Earth. And then it all starts coming back.”

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The Fantastic Four battle Atlantis’ past to save its future in ‘Giant-Size Fantastic Four’

Fabian Nicieza and Creees Lee bring a former ruler back from the dead to plague a Namor-less kingdom.

Writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Creees Lee will pit the Fantastic Four against Natlus, an ancient ruler of Atlantis, in Giant-Size Fantastic Four next year.

“As a 12-year-old who bought—and still has—the original Giant-Size Fantastic Four run which featured great Marvel creators of the ‘70s like Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Chris Claremont, John Buscema, Rich Buckler and more, it was a thrill to write this issue!” Nicieza said. “I tried to follow in the footsteps of those issues by creating something big and new. I came up with a character whose name and history will have Sub-Mariner fans either chuckling and saying, ‘Why did no one ever think of that?’ or ‘They’ll want to drown me!’ I’m excited to see which it will be!”

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‘Cable’ suits up for the final battle of the Krakoa era

In a new miniseries, longtime Cable writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Scot Eaton bring together Cable and … Cable?

As a part of the Fall of House of X storyline that will effectively end the Krakoa era of X-Men comics next year, Marvel has announced Cable by Fabian Nicieza and Scot Eaton.

Nicieza has a long history with the character, having written him in the early days of X-Force as well as in the well-remembered Cable and Deadpool series. He and Eaton will have two Cables to play with, as grizzled veteran Cable teams with the younger Cable introduced a few years back to fight Orchis and a new threat called the Neocracy.

“It’s always fun to write Cable and challenge him with a big physical and emotional conflict,” Nicieza said. “Having written him more than anyone else on the planet, it’s also fun to add to that total!”

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Fund Me Tuesday | ‘Outrage’ by Fabian Nicieza + Reilly Brown

Help bring the Webtoon comic to print by pledging by Nov. 12.

Fabian Nicieza and Reilly Brown’s creator-owned comic Outrage started life as a webcomic on Webtoon, and now a print collection is being crowdfunded via the publisher Rocketship.

Outrage Volume 1 will collect the entire 26 chapter run of the first season of the Outrage webcomic, running 150 pages. As they have with other collections of webcomics, Rocketship has redesigned the pages for print.

“After our years on Marvel’s Cable & Deadpool comic, Reilly Brown and I had been looking to work together again and we both thought the silliness and seriousness of Outrage would be a perfect fit,” Nicieza said on the project’s Kickstarter page. “The digital comic debuted on Webtoon in the fall of 2018 and was an instant success among readers with slightly unhinged inclinations.”

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Image announces new ‘Astro City,’ ‘Arrowsmith’ + more from Kurt Busiek

The publisher will reprint several older Busiek comics, as well as new series like ‘Free Agents.’ Plus, more ‘Autumnlands’!

Image Comics today has announced enough new Kurt Busiek projects to fill that empty space you’ve been saving on your bookshelf. In fact, you may need a bigger bookshelf …

Next year the publisher will launch new volumes of Astro City and Arrowsmith, as well as a new comic called Free Agents. Autumnlands, Busiek’s Image Comics series with artist Benjamin Dewey and Jordie Bellaire, will also return, and the publisher plans to release new editions of Shockrockets, The Wizard’s Tale and Superstar: As Seen on TV.

“I’m thrilled to be back at Image and glad to be working with Eric Stephenson and the whole crew here,” said Busiek. “Image is the best comics publisher for creator-owned work, so it’s very nice to be bringing my books together here, where they can be available as a group, supported by the team here—and sitting alongside such great series as Saga, The Walking Dead, Criminal, Savage Dragon and so many more. And not just because Image is only about 20 minutes from where I live, so I can actually drop by the place, once the pandemic is in the rearview. My creative partners and I are looking forward to a having a home for the work we’re doing now and lots of new ideas to come.”

Here’s a look at what to expect:

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‘X-Men Legends’ will tell new stories from the team’s past

First story arc will feature Fabian Nicieza and Brett Booth returning to the “lost Summers brother” storyline.

Marvel has announced another X-Men series, X-Men Legends, that should be a treat for old school fans. It will feature revolving storylines by classic writers like Chris Claremont, Louise Simonson, Larry Hama, Peter David and others, who will “dive into the rich history of the X-Men to tie up loose ends, resolve long-standing plot danglers, and reveal shocking truths that will change the past and future of the X-Men.”

’90s X-Men writer Fabian Nicieza will write the first arc, which revisits the “third Summers brother” storyline that featured Adam-X. Adam-X, who debuted in X-Force Annual #2 way back in 1993, was rumored to be the third Summers brother, but as fans know, that turned out to be Vulcan.

Nicieza will be joined by artist Brett Booth on this arc.

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30 years of changing the world: Celebrating the anniversary of the New Warriors

Hear from writers, artists, editors and fans about the impact ‘New Warriors’ has had on them.

Special thanks to Doug Smith, who contributed additional reporting to this post.

Thirty years ago, comic shops were selling the first issue of a brand new comic book series starring a brand new Marvel Comics superhero team. The New Warriors starred a lineup of mostly forgotten and obscure characters by a creative team who had never launched an ongoing series before. Conventional wisdom at the time said the new series would fail. And yet, improbably, New Warriors not only survived, it thrived. At its peak, it was among the top 25 best-selling comics in North America and the United Kingdom.What was it about this underdog series that defied the odds?

Was it the characters? The book starred supporting characters like Namorita from Sub-Mariner and Marvel Boy from The Thing, and stars of previously cancelled comics like Nova and Speedball. Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief at the time, Tom DeFalco, assembled the team. He also included the abandoned co-star of the animated Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends TV show, Firestar, and a new character co-created with Thor artist Ron Frenz, Night Thrasher.

Was it the creators? Writer Fabian Nicieza inherited these characters and immediately embraced them as his own. The first two years of the book was tightly plotted out and featured sharp dialogue, humor, betrayal, adventure and surprise revelations. Artist Mark Bagley, initially inked by Al Williamson and later by Larry Mahlstedt, injected character-driven storytelling with fun action in every issue. After two years, Bagley was moved to Amazing Spider-Man and replaced with Darick Robertson, who brought his own dynamic and expressive storytelling visuals. Even 30 years later, the series is fondly remembered by fans and comic book professionals, even inspiring some of them to become professionals.

We reached out to a number of comic book writers, artists, retailers and others to hear in their own words what made the New Warriors so special to them. We also reached out to Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley, as well as the first editor on the series, Danny Fingeroth, and writer Evan Skolnick, who succeeded Nicieza as writer, to get their own thoughts on their time working on this secret classic.

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