Slugfest | Black Widow gets ‘Venomous’ in a new one-shot

Plus news and announcements on Hellverine, Misty, Nick Cagnetti, Paul Pope, Blood Hunt, Briar, Joy Operations and more!

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you that we haven’t otherwise covered. Hit the links for more information.

If you’ve been reading Venom of late, you know that the Black Widow — who already has a cool spider name — has gone and gotten herself a symbiote. This summer, writer Erica Schultz and artist Luciano Vecchio will “unleash Natasha Romanoff’s full potential as a symbiote warrior” in a new one-shot.

Black Widow: Venomous will not only show the super-spy figuring out how to work with her new partner, but will also set the stage for the upcoming Venom War event.

“Who doesn’t want to write Natasha Romanoff? And with a badass symbiote, it didn’t take much to convince me,” Schultz said. “Luciano Vecchio’s art is so amazing. It’s been so fun to delve into Nat’s spy craft techniques, and you just may learn something new about her.”

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‘Ultimate X-Men’ will feature Armor, Maystorm and more

Peach Momoko will offer a completely new take on the X-Men next year.

Readers of Ultimate Universe #1, which arrived in stores today, not only learned more about Jonathan Hickman’s approach to this new take on the Marvel Universe, but also saw preview pages from Peach Momoko’s upcoming Ultimate X-Men.

(And if you missed them, no worries — you’ll find them at the bottom of this post).

In conjunction with the release, Marvel has revealed more details on the title, which Momoko will both write and draw, and which will offer a very different take on Marvel’s merry mutants — something more like manga or the Demon Days stories she did at Marvel.

The two characters featured in the preview, for instance, aren’t pulled from the original five, who were first introduced in the 1960s, or even the “new X-Men” introduced in the 1970s — they’re Armor, a character introduced in 2004, at least in the beginning, and Maystorm, a new character who was created as part of a line of variant covers.

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Marvel announces three more ‘Ultimate’ titles for 2024

Peach Momoko, Bryan Hill, Stefano Caselli and more will contribute to the resurrected Ultimate Universe.

Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, which was reincarnated in the recent Ultimate Invasion miniseries, will grow next year with three new titles, following the Ultimate Universe one-shot coming Nov. 1.

Spider-Man, Black Panther and the X-Men will get new Ultimate titles in this “world outside your window” approach architected by Jonathan Hickman.

“What made the Ultimate Universe originally really interesting was that it was a reflection of the world outside your window, in the moment that you were living in. What does it look like in the world we’re living in now?” Hickman said back in June. “It’s kind of shocking how much the world has changed in that period of time. The idea of what it would be like to see the genesis of super heroes in a brand-new world is a really fascinating exercise.”

Hickman himself will write one of the titles, Ultimate Spider-Man, while Bryan Hill will write the first-ever Ultimate Black Panther series.

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Bendis + Maleev will deliver a ‘Masterpiece’ in December

The six-issue miniseries features a 16-year-old genius who learns her parents were master criminals.

Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev are reuniting on a new series from Bendis’ Jinxworld imprint at Dark Horse. Masterpiece will star the daughter of two famous criminals who gets pulled into the life when their last victim comes for revenge.

Bendis and Maleev have been working together for more than two decades now, from Sam & Twitch for Todd McFarlane to Moon Knight and Daredevil at Marvel to their creator-owned series Scarlet.

“Anytime we’re given an opportunity to work together, we take it very seriously to make sure it’s everything it should be. I don’t want to waste a moment of his time. A lot of thought goes into what we do,” Bendis told the Hollywood Reporter.

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Marvel announces ‘Star Wars: Visions’ series by creators from around the world

The series of one-shots will kick off in November with Peach Momoko.

Marvel and Lucasfilm will bring the Star Wars: Visions series to comics with a series of one-shots by comic creators from around the world — starting in November with Peach Momoko.

If you aren’t familiar with Star Wars: Visions, it’s an animated TV series on Disney+ that has featured cartoons by creators from around the world, each bringing their own style and vision to the Star Wars universe. Given that she’s already re-envisioned the Marvel Universe in her Demon Days series, Momoko seems like a natural choice to kick the initiative off.

“I really enjoy thinking about how to tell my own version of Star Wars, while keeping in mind the concepts of the original universe,” Momoko told StarWars.com.

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Jeff Lemire’s ‘Fishflies’ comes to print this summer

Image Comics will publish the comic, which was first syndicated on Substack, starting in July.

Following its debut in print on Free Comic Book Day, Jeff Lemire’s Fishflies will launch as a series from Image Comics in July.

The series, which initially debuted as a subscriber-only digital series on Lemire’s Substack, is a tale of small-town surrealist horror set in Ontario. Each issue of Fishflies will be giant-sized at 56 pages each, and it’ll run for six bimonthly issues.

“For years the books I both write and draw seem to switch back and forth between grounded, slice-of-life human drama like Essex County and Royal City or more genre driven work like Sweet Tooth,” said Lemire. “With Fishflies I really tried to combine these two aesthetics into one big story. Fishflies has the scale and drama of my more grounded work but also the genre fun and mythology of things like Gideon Falls. I think the result makes it unlike anything I’ve done before, yet very familiar at the same time.”

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Marvel reveals more about ‘Fall of X’ at MegaCon

Kate Pryde becomes Shadowkat again and gets a new costume, Colossus leads X-Force and Tony Stark teams with Emma Frost.

Marvel shared several tidbits and teasers about the upcoming Fall of X crossover event during a panel at this weekend’s MegaCon. The panel featured Senior Editor Jordan D. White, writers Gerry Duggan and Benjamin Percy, and artist Joshua Cassara.

We don’t know a lot about the overall Fall of X storyline just yet, but we do know a few things. For one, it’ll kick off in this year’s Hellfire Gala special, after getting a preview of sorts in four one-shots. It’ll also involve non-mutant heroes like Iron Man, as Tony Stark lost his company to X-Men villain Feilong and it’s now making its own Sentinels. While the overall plot is still unknown, it’ll involve “danger, conspiracy and sacrifice” that “threatens to shatter everything mutantkind accomplished on Krakoa.”

One thing revealed at the panel is a teaser image that lists all the crossover titles that will be part of the event, including several new titles that we haven’t heard about yet. The list includes current titles like X-Men, Wolverine, X-Force, Immortal X-Men and Invincible Iron Man, as well as the new (yet familiar in some cases) Astonishing Iceman, Children of the Vault, Uncanny Spider-Man, Alpha Flight, Dark X-Men, Realm of X and the previously announced Uncanny Avengers.

Here’s the teaser image by Bryan Hitch:

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Slugfest | A round-up of Marvel announcements for May 2023

See what’s coming up this May for the Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man, Hulk and more.

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 …

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Slugfest | Gustavo Duarte’s ‘Speechless’ arrives in print in April

Plus: Jimmie Robinson, Mecha Archie, Sins of Sinister, Dead Romans and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you from comics creators, publishers and more. Hit the links for more information.

DC Comics will release a print collection of the digital series Speechless by cartoonist Gustavo Duarte in April.

The series has been appearing on the DC Universe Infinite app, with three issues featuring Harley Quinn, Cyborg and Superman appearing thus far. Like much of the Brazilian creator’s comics, each chapter is wordless.

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It’s Vader time in the latest ‘Black, White & Red’ anthology from Marvel

The four-issue anthology miniseries will launch in April.

Darth Vader joins the likes of Elektra, Deadpool and Wolverine later this year as the Star Wars villain headlines in his own Black, White & Red miniseries.

Marvel’s Black, White & Red series feature stories by a variety of creators told in three colors. Luckily Vader’s lightsaber fits the theme.

“This is a project we’ve been waiting to do for a while and we’ve got more amazing talent lined up that I can’t wait to announce,” Editor Mark Paniccia told Marvel.com. “It’s such a thrill to use this unique storytelling approach on one of the greatest villains in the galaxy.”

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Spider-Gwen encounters more clones in a new miniseries

‘Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones’ by Emily Kim and Kei Zama introduces a new set of familiar villains designed by Peach Momoko.

Following the events of the recent Spider-Gwen: Gwenverse miniseries that pit a multiverse of Gwen Stacys against the villain Finale, Marvel has announced Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones by Emily Kim and Kei Zama.

The miniseries will feature the character sometimes known as Ghost Spider battling an army of Gwen Stacy clones based on various Spider-Man villains, including Sandman, Vulture and more. The new verisons of Gwen have all been designed by artist Peach Momoko.

“I was a little nervous taking on Spider-Gwen because she’s such an iconic hero,” Kim said. “But the rich story premise and fantastic team has made the process a blast. I’ve quickly fallen in love with Gwen and her unique voice and am excited for people to see how she handles a crazy slew of Gwen clones.”

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‘Miracleman’ #0 preview features Young Miracleman, Big Ben, a new Warpsmith and more

The one-shot anthology includes stories by Jason Aaron, Leinil Francis Yu, Ty Templeton, Ryan Stegman, Peach Momoko and more.

Marvel has revealed more details and some preview artwork from the upcoming Miracleman #0, a one-shot anthology that celebrates the character’s anniversary and return to comics. It will also preview Miracleman: The Silver Age, which marks the return of Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham to a story they began telling several decades ago.

Other creators contributing to the anthology include Jason Aaron, Leinil Francis Yu, Michael Carey, Ty Templeton, Ryan Stegman, Peach Momoko and Paul Davidson.

Stories in the special zero issue include, according to Marvel:

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