For the past few weeks, there have been rumors of a Marvel relaunch that would wipe the slate clean and reboot the entire lineup with a brand new backstory like The New 52 did for DC in 2011. Tonight we learned that the rumors weren’t entirely true.
Over at Entertainment Weekly, Marvel revealed that there is a relaunch coming this fall as part of the third wave of Marvel NOW! titles. Marvel has dubbed the event Avengers NOW!, and it includes a new Captain America title, a new Thor title and a new Iron Man title, with new costumes for all of them and other significant changes.
The new female Thor was announced earlier this week on “The View,” as writer Jason Aaron starts a new volume of Thor alongside Russell Dauterman. As revealed on “The Colbert Report” tonight, The Falcon aka Sam Wilson is the new Captain America in the aptly titled All-New Captain America by Rick Remender and artist Stuart Immonen. Tony Stark is still Iron Man in Superior Iron Man by Tom Taylor and artist Yildiray Cinar, but Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso hinted that “Like the Superior Spider-Man, Superior Iron Man is a character that’s hard to root for.”
Alonso added that “The newly-transformed Superior Iron Man has very ambitious plans for [San Francisco] that some of its residents embrace, but not all.” Superior Iron Man will debut in November.
According to Alonso, the original Thor will still be around in the new Thor series, when it debuts in October. But the identity of the female Thor will remain a secret for now.“For reasons that will be revealed in Original Sin, Thor won’t be able to pick up the hammer,” noted Alonso.“Someone has to pick up the hammer. And someone does. And they become Thor…There are several women in Thor’s life, and one of them is going to be the new Thor. You aren’t going to find out who it is for some time. This is a slowly unfolding mystery.”
Related: Marvel Announces New Female Thor Ongoing Series
As for November’s All-New Captain America, Sam Wilson is taking over the role because Steve Rogers recently lost the Super-soldier serum in his body that kept him young and powerful. The Falcon is one of Cap’s long time partners… and yes, he’s keeping the wings on his Captain America outfit.
Angela, Scarlet Witch, Medusa, Winter Soldier, Deathlok, Doctor Strange and Ant Man are also prominently placed on the Avengers NOW! teaser art from EW. Winter Soldier and Deathlok series have already been announced, which may mean that the other characters seen here will likely headline either their own titles or move into prominent roles within other books.
For anyone freaking out over these changes, keep this in mind: it’s comics. More precisely, it’s corporate superhero comics, which will always revert to the status quo. If you don’t like what Marvel is going to be doing, just wait for the next Marvel Studios movie to come along and everything will fall back into the way that it used to be.
