As Marvel’s big event Marvel Now! begins in October, the publisher announced today that nine titles would end their run. The October solicitations for Marvel that went live this morning mark the end for Captain America, Fantastic Four, FF, Incredible Hulk, Invincible Iron Man, New Mutants, The Mighty Thor, Uncanny X-Men and X-Men Legacy. This announcement isn’t somewhat of a surprise as new books were to begin to roll out starting in November with the new Uncanny Avengers, by Rick Remender and John Cassaday, along with All-New X-Men, by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen, then in December Avengers, by Jonathan Hickman and Jerome Opena, and in January, New Avengers, by Hickman and Steve Epting. Also, writer Ed Brubaker announced two weeks ago that he was ending his seven year run on Captain America which fits nicely into Marvel’s plans.
What remains to be seen however, is what will replace these mainstay titles as well as when they’ll be replaced. The time gap will be short as Marvel promised a slow rollout of relaunch titles between October and February. If that isn’t enough to soothe fans concerns, Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso had this to say last week:
“I feel that it’s a much more humane approach for retailers and fans to tell them: ‘Look. In the months of October through February, every week you can go into a comic book store and find a few new jumping-on points for the Marvel Universe, a place you’re going to like visiting. Or revisiting,’”
Speaking to Comic Book Resources, Alonso explained, “Marvel NOW! starts with the creator, so don’t expect writer shake-ups across the line by the fourth or fifth issue, or half the titles to get cancelled and replaced by a new #1. We aren’t throwing $#!# at a wall, seeing what falls off and then replacing it with more $#!#. [Laughs] We’re building books we expect to last.”
Needless to say, fall is going to be an exciting time for the Marvel universe.
