Chaos reigns in Marvel’s annuals this summer

Scarlet Witch, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel and more will be drawn into a plot by Agatha Harkness in ‘Contest of Chaos.’

There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned summer annual crossover, nor is there anything like a good old-fashioned superhero tournament. And Marvel has both going on this summer.

In the spirit of Atlantis Attacks and Contest of Champions, this summer will bring Contest of Chaos, which will run through several Marvel annuals and features a rejuvenated Agatha Harkness using her chaos magic to cause “Let’s you and him fight” confrontations between different Marvel characters.

Stephanie Phillips is spearheading the event, which will kick off with a prelude issue in Scarlet Witch Annual #1 by Steve Orlando and Carlos Nieto. It’ll then run through eight other Marvel annuals, including the big finale in Avengers Annual #1 in September.

Here’s a rundown of who is fighting who, and when and where …

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Get a better look at the characters from ‘G.O.D.S.’

Several variant covers arriving in August offer a look at the cast of the new series coming from Jonathan Hickman and Valerio Schiti.

A series of variant covers released by Marvel gives us our first good look at the characters who will appear in the upcoming G.O.D.S. by Jonathan Hickman and Valerio Schiti.

The upcoming series, which will launch sometime in the fall, was previewed on Free Comic Book Day, where we got out first look at a character named Wyn. But the variant covers, all of which will land in August, reveal several more characters interacting with some old favorites from the Marvel U.

“When I came back to Marvel a few years ago, I wrote two series bibles. The first was House of X and the other one was G.O.D.S.,” Hickman said back in March. “To say that I’m excited to finally be able to share this story with everyone is a massive understatement. G.O.D.S. takes place in its own special corner of the Marvel Universe — in the cracks that lie at the intersection of science and magic — and revisits some characters and concepts that we’ve reimagined for a more modern, continuity-driven audience.”

Here’s a look at the covers:

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Cullen Bunn returns to Marvel for ‘Death of the Venomverse’

The five-issue miniseries is one of many projects coming during the Summer of Symbiotes.

Cullen Bunn, writer of everything from Agent Venom to Drax to the X-Men, has been absent from Marvel for a number of years now, but that’s about to change. Marvel announced that Bunn will return — “maybe for the last time” — to write the upcoming Death of the Venomverse series with artist Gerardo Sandoval.

Marvel revealed the news along with a lot of other announcements related to their “Summer of Symbiotes” publishing initiative at this weekend’s C2E2 in Chicago.

In his newsletter, Bunn said the series involves Carnage embarking on a vicious bloodbath across all of reality, with a terrible agenda that would result in “death and destruction for all reality.” A group of Venoms from different universes team up to stop Carnage.

“The series was originally meant to be called Venomverse 2 or something, but I lobbied hard for Death of the Venomverse, and I’m not going to let that be an empty promise,” Bunn said.

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Slugfest | ‘Summer of Symbiotes’ leads to ‘Death of the Venomverse’

Plus: Marvel Artist’s Editions, Dark Horse graphic novels, Spider-Verse, variant covers and more!

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Marvel has revealed more details and a teaser image for Summer of Symbiotes, something they teased last October along with several other events for 2023. It’s less of a single-story crossover and more of a moniker they are using to describe a whole bunch of different symbiote-themed series, miniseries and events.

While many of the events teased on the image we’ve heard of before, like Carnage Reigns and Extreme Venomverse, there is one new one listed — Death of the Venomverse, which echoes the Death of the Spiderverse storyline we’re seeing in Spider-Man.

Here’s the description from Marvel:

It’s all leading to this! The epic adventures above are spiraling towards an explosive destination, and not all of your favorite symbiotes will survive the journey. The Carnage symbiote is more bloodthirsty than ever and heads to the multiverse for its greatest killing spree yet. But what is it after? Find out more when this upcoming limited series is announced at the Marvel Comics: Spider-Man & the Venomverse Panel at C2E2 2023!

C2E2 is coming up this weekend. Here’s the full teaser image:

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Venom gets extreme — and an anthology series — in May

‘Extreme Venomverse’ arrives just in time for ‘Death of the Venomverse’ and ‘Summer of Symbiotes,’ as Venom celebrates his 35-year anniversary.

How easy would it be to apply the template of the Spider-Verse to Venom? We’ll find out later this year, as Marvel has announced Extreme Venomverse, an anthology series that will feature various versions of Venom from around the multiverse.

This year is the 35th anniversary of the character, who was created by Todd McFarlane and David Michelinie and had his first, full appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #300. But you have to tip your hat to the creators of Amazing Spider-Man #252 — Roger Stern, Todd DeFalco, Mike Zeck and Ron Frenz — for creating Spider-Man’s black alien costume. And are you familiar with Randy Schueller? He was a comics fan who came up with the idea for putting Spider-Man in a black costume.

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Venom battles Doctor Doom in ‘Lethal Protector II’ miniseries

David Michelinie and Farid Karami send Eddie Brock to Latveria in the new miniseries.

It was on this day in 1987 that we saw our first glimpse of Venom, the character co-created by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #299. So it’s an appropriate day for Marvel to announce a sequel to Venom: Lethal Protector, the recent miniseries by Michelinie and Ivan Fiorelli.

For Venom: Lethal Protector II, Michelinie will be joined by artist Farid Karami as they pit Venom against Doctor Doom.

“One of the happiest parts of my career was when I was originating and developing Venom,” Michelinie told Marvel.com. “So returning to that era is like having my own time machine. And to put Venom up against Doctor Doom, my favorite villain… sweet icing on the cake!”

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2023 Free Comic Book Day gold titles include Spider-Man, Fishflies, Dog Man and more

The first 13 titles include selections from Marvel, BOOM!, IDW, Image, Dark Horse and more.

Diamond has announced the first round of Free Comic Book Day titles for 2023. The “gold sponsor” titles for next year will include comics from Marvel, Dark Horse, AfterShock, Image, VIZ, Kodansha, Archie, BOOM!, Graphix, IDW, Titan and Dynamite, for a total of 13 titles, as Marvel will have two gold level books.

“This year’s lineup of titles has something for every kind of comic fan,” said Ashton Greenwood, Free Comic Book Day spokesperson. “We’re looking forward to another great year celebrating comic books and comic book shops, and we think this year’s lineup gives fans a lot to be excited about!”

The rest of the batch — otherwise known as the silver sponsor titles — will be announced later this week. Free Comic Book Day is scheduled for May 6, 2023.

Here’s a look at each gold-level title:

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Marvel’s 2023 Free Comic Book Day offerings will feature X-Men, Spider-Man, Venom and more

‘Summer of Symbiotes,’ ‘Fall of X’ and more will be previewed by Marvel next May.

Marvel has announced their plans for next year’s Free Comic Book Day event, as the publisher will release four free comics on that day.

Just like they did this year, Marvel will use FCBD to promote several of their upcoming events, like Summer of Symbiotes and Fall of X. They’ll also have another Marvel’s Voices issue, and will round things out with a title aimed at the younger set — Spidey & His Amazing Friends, which will adapt the Disney Junior TV show.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | ‘Batman Incorporated’ is back in business

See what’s arriving in comic shops this week.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital.

I’ve pulled out some of the highlights below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:

As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So always check with your comics retailer for the final word on availability.

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Mary Jane Watson teams with the Black Cat for new ‘Dark Web’ miniseries

Jed MacKay and Vincenzo Carratù bring together the former rivals in December.

Two of Spider-Man’s ex’s will team up in a new miniseries this December, as a part of the bigger Dark Web crossover event Marvel announced at the San Diego Comic Con earlier this year.

The series will be written by Jed McKay, who wrote the most recent Black Cat series as well as the Black Cat/Mary Jane one-shot that tied into the “Beyond” storyline in Amazing Spider-Man. He will work with artist Vincenzo Carratù on the series, who has drawn several series for Dynamite in recent years.

“I’ve kind of lost track of how many lives Felicia has left at this point, but she keeps coming back- and this time she’s brought a friend,” MacKay told Marvel.com. “Getting back to Mary Jane and Black Cat after their one-shot last year has been a delight—and seeing how they’ve been catching up on all the drama that’s happened since then has been, well, catnip.”

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Slugfest | A round-up of comics publishing news

Ultraman, Blink, Sleeper Agent, Human Target and more slug it out in our first Slugfest comics publishing news round-up.

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.

Ultraman returns in August

Marvel has announced a third Ultraman miniseries by Kyle Higgins, Mat Groom and Davide Tinto. Subtitled ‘The Mystery of Ultraseven,” the story will include “an enigmatic new Ultra and a secret that has remained hidden for decades.”

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David Michelinie returns to write Venom in a new ‘Lethal Protector’ miniseries

The co-creator of Venom returns for a story set in Venom’s past.

David Michelinie, the writer of Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man and other titles who co-created Venom, Carnage and War Machine, will return to Marvel for a new miniseries featuring Venom.

Venom: Lethal Protector — which shares a name with a 1993 miniseries also written by Michelinie — will be set in the past and feature artwork by Ivan Fiorelli.

“Getting to do a multi-issue story with the original Venom was like sitting down to dinner with an old friend—who wants to eat your brain for dessert!” Michelinie told Marvel.com. “It was both fun and exciting, and I hope people enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.”

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