X-Men go ‘Planet Size’ for new team reveal

Gerry Duggan and Pepe Larraz create a new special that ties into the ‘Hellfire Gala’ storyline that will run through the X-Men titles.

Marvel has been teasing an upcoming Hellfire Gala, both in the X-Men line of comics and through their own promotional channels — it’s where we’re supposed to learn who will be on the new X-Men team that Cyclops and Jean Grey are putting together, along with the results of the fan vote for one of the members.

This gala will run through 12 of the X-titles — that’s quite a party! — and will also get a special of its own, titled Planet Size X-Men. Gerry Duggan and Pepe Larraz are working on this double-sized issue.

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Mail Call | Momoko’s ‘Demon Days’ continues in June

Plus: News from BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse and more!

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.

The first issue of Peach Momoko’s Demon Days arrived last Wednesday, and Marvel took the opportunity to announce the second issue’s title and focus: Demon Days: Mariko.

Mariko is the former fiancée of Wolverine; she was the daughter of a Yakuza boss and eventually took over his duties before dying back in the early 1990s. The issue will also introduce Nightcrawler and Black Widow into this alternate reality Momoko has created.

“The first issue of Demon Days starts off in feudal Japan with Sai (Psylocke)… but the next issue will be completely different. Different timeline, different characters (even the main character is changing), different tone to the story. But it is still a connecting story,” Momoko said.

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Mail Call | Black Cat kicks off Marvel’s ‘Infinite Destinies’ event this summer

Plus more news from Marvel, DC, Image, AfterShock, Dark Horse and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.

Last summer the “Infinite Destinies” storyline was supposed to run through several Marvel annuals, including Iron Man, Captain America, Black Cat and Thor, among others. The story revolves around the returning “infinity stones,” those pesky don’t-call-them-infinity-gems MacGuffins that regularly take center stage at Marvel.

Anyway, like with many other things, the COVID pandemic and comics industry shutdown threw a wrench in Marvel’s plans, and those annuals were never released. But now it looks like they are back on the schedule for 2021, with an added prelude comic to kick things off — Black Cat #8 by Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa.

“Felicia Hardy- the Black Cat- gets tangled up with the Infinity Stones, some of the most dangerous prizes in the universe. Felicia may be the most accomplished jewel thief on the planet, but when those jewels hold the power of the cosmos, it’s a whole new ball game. Felicia is in a race against the others who would seek to control the stones for their own ends- like Nick Fury (and a secret someone you won’t see coming!),” MacKay said. “Who can cross the world’s most dangerous men, wrangle a pack of villains hopped up on fragments of infinite power, (hopefully) get the job done and look great all the while? The Black Cat, that’s who!”

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Reptil roars in a new series from Marvel this May

The ‘Avengers Academy’ student breaks out into his own miniseries.

As revealed in their May 2021 solicitations, Marvel will put the spotlight on the shape-changing Reptil in a new miniseries by Terry Blas and Enid Balám.

The character first appeared in the pages of Avengers Initiative by Christos Gage and Steve Uy, and went on to appear in Avengers Academy and Avengers Arena. But his breakout moment likely came from his appearances on Marvel’s animated Super Hero Squad Show.

“I’m so excited to be making my Marvel debut with such a fun and complex young character,” Blas said. “He’s Mexican-American, like me, and I’m delighted to bring a story with more of that representation to Marvel. Also, he can turn into dinosaurs and isn’t that every kid’s dream?”

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Learn what happened when Boba Fett lost a frozen Han Solo in ‘War of the Bounty Hunters’

The crossover event starts with an “alpha” issue by Charles Soule and Steve McNiven.

Star Wars’ most notorious bounty hunter, Boba Fett, will take the spotlight in a new crossover event launching in May called War of the Bounty Hunters. The story will kick off with an “alpha” issue by Charles Soule and Steve McNiven, as we learn what Boba Fett was up to between the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi films.

It sounds like that infamous cargo he was carrying may have gotten lost somewhere between the two films.

“Boba Fett is in possession of Han Solo at the end of Empire Strikes Back, and at the beginning of War of the Bounty Hunters, he is not,” Soule told StarWars.com. “And he is going to do everything he can to get him back, no matter what. No matter who is standing in his way.”

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‘Shang-Chi’ ongoing series debuts in May from Yang + Ruan

The new series will pit the new leader of the Five Weapons Society against other Marvel heroes.

Gene Luen Yang and Dike Ruan, whose Shang-Chi miniseries recently wrapped up, will continue to tell stories about the Master of Kung Fu. Marvel has announced the two creators will helm a Shang-Chi ongoing series, which starts in May.

Now the leader of the Five Weapons Society — the evil organization once run by his dad — Shang-Chi’s new status quo will put him on a collision course with some of Marvel’s other heroes, including his form Avengers teammates.

“I’m very, very thankful for all the support that we got for the Shang-Chi miniseries. I mean, the first two issues sold out,” Yang told Marvel.com. “I’m thrilled that we get to continue the story of Shang-Chi and his siblings in the Five Weapons Society. We’re going to show how Shang-Chi’s brand-new role affects the rest of the Marvel Universe. We’ll have him interact with old friends and new foes… and even old friends who become new foes. Dike Ruan and I are already hard at work. The stuff I’ve seen from Dike so far has been his best yet.”

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Mail Call | DC in May brings Star Girl and more

A round-up of news from DC, Marvel, Oni Press and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.

DC Comics released their May solicitations on Friday, and with them came several announcements and reveals throughout the week. In addition to the new Wonder Girl, Mister Miracle and Future State: Gotham projects, DC announced they will release two interesting one-shots — the first being Star Girl one-shot, featuring not only the star of the hit CW show, but also the Seven Soldiers of Victory. It’s by the character’s co-creator, Geoff Johns, and artist Todd Nauck.

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‘X-Corp’ to debut from Marvel in May

Mutants get down to business in a new title by Tini Howard and Alberto Foche.

The X-Corporation, a concept introduced back in 2002 during Grant Morrison’s run on X-Men, is coming back in a big way. Marvel has announced that X-Corp, which will tie into the current X-Men line overseen by Jonathan Hickman, will debut as an ongoing title in May.

Tini Howard, the writer of Excalibur, will join artist Alberto Foche (Dan Dare) on the title. This title has been rumored since the launch of the Hickman-era titles, which Howard addressed with Marvel.com.

“Hello! Some of you have been waiting a while for this book, and I’m the one to blame. I first pitched this story because I absolutely love the weird corporate world within Marvel Comics — specifically books like New X-Men, All-New X-Factor, and the history of what the X-Corporation was before. But in a new mutant era of gates and deals, X-Corp‘s ‘corporate embassy’ is a bit obsolete — and I refuse to sell you guys anything I wouldn’t buy myself,” Howard said.

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Marvel announces five ‘Heroes Reborn’ one-shots

Peter Parker, Magneto, Baron Zemo, the Imperial Guard and more join in on the alternate reality event.

Marvel has announced that the upcoming Heroes Reborn event miniseries will be accompanied by five one-shots that take place in this new world created by the Phoenix — one where the Avengers never formed.

They’ll feature characters and themes that should be familiar to readers of both Marvel and DC; with the Squadron Supreme being the Marvel universe equivalent of the Justice League, it’s not surprising that some of these one-shots get a little “meta” in their homages.

They are:

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Russell + Izaakse team for ‘Fantastic Four: Life Story’

The six-issue miniseries will tell the story of the Fantastic Four across 60 years.

Following in the footsteps of Spider-Man: Life Story, Marvel has recruited Mark Russell and Sean Izaakse for Fantastic Four: Life Story. Each issue of the six-issue miniseries will be set in a subsequent decade, starting with the 1960s, and tell the story of the life of the Fantastic Four against the historical backdrop of each decade.

“What I’ve always loved about the Fantastic Four is how it reduces the cosmic struggle of human survival to the scale of a family squabble while treating personal relationships as a matter of truly galactic importance,” Russell said. “Weaving their story and their world into our story and what’s happened in our world over the last sixty years was an important reminder to me of how smart it is to approach life like that.”

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Marvel reveals more ‘Heroes Reborn’ details + covers

Dale Keown, Federico Vicentini and James Stokoe join Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness for the event series.

Marvel has revealed more details on their upcoming Heroes Reborn event series, which will spin out of Jason Aaron’s current run on Avengers. The alternate-reality story imagines a world where the Avengers never assembled.

Ironically, the Squadron Supreme — Marvel’s, um, homage to the Justice League — will become Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in this vacuum. They’ll also take center stage on the series’ covers:

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Mail Call | Z2 to publish graphic novel inspired by All Time Low

Plus: news from Image, AdHouse, Dark Horse, BOOM! Studios and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.

Z2 Comics has announced another music-related collaboration, this time with the pop-punk band All Time Low. In June, the publisher will release a graphic novel inspired by the 2017 album Last Young Renegade.

“When we wrote our album ‘Last Young Renegade’ we imagined an entire world separate of our own, almost a “what if” version of All Time Low, both with our musical sound and with the visual narrative we put together around it” says All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth. “Creating ‘Young Renegades’ the graphic novel allows us to tell more stories in the universe we imagined and delve deeper into the mythos and thematic ideas that were at play when we were celebrating that era. ‘Young Renegades’ is another branch, another thread and another look into the LYR continuity through an incredible medium we’ve never collaborated in before. Working with the story-tellers and artists on this project has been an incredible new undertaking and we can’t wait for everyone to enjoy it with us.”

Young Renegades will be written by Tres Dean and Robert Wilson IV, with art by Megan Huang.

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