Say Goodbye to the Marvel Universe!

Lots of big happens from the House of Ideas today.  After months of teasers, this afternoon Marvel Editors Tom Brevoort and Alex Alonso had a press conference at Midtown Comics in New York City to spill the beans on Secret Wars.

Some of the highlights of the Press Conference included:

- Some background on the Secret Wars events.  Apparently, Jonathan Hickman had pitched it to Marvel even before he had started working on Fantastic Four.  So everything Marvel has done in the last few years has been done through the intent of moving towards Secret Wars (including Avengers Vs X-Men, Age of Ultron, Axis, and Original Sins).

- They also called this the most coordinated event Marvel has ever done...though I am not sure how much of a ringing endorsement that is.  Original Sins had a major plot point happen off panel...

- The Big Announcement is that after Time Runs Out, the only two realities left will be the Ultimate Universe and the 616 Universe.  And they will crashing together.  Battleworld will be the bedrock that the New Marvel Universe will be built on.  Secret Wars 1 deals with the destruction of these last two worlds.

- The many teasers Marvel has posted over the last few months (Civil War, Age of Ultron Vs Marvel Zombies, Years of Futures Past, Planet Hulk, Armor Wars, House of M, Infinity Gauntlet, Old Man Logan, Inhuman: Attilan Rising, Ultimate The End, Age of Apocalypse, Future Imperfect, AvX, Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, and X-Men '92) are all titles that will be launching during or after Secret Wars.

- There are many more titles to be announced.  These books will be the core of the Marvel universe moving forward.  For example, if you are an Amazing Spider-Man fan, it is being replaced by Renew Your Vows.   

- No creative teams were announced for these books yet, though Brevoort said, "Most of those creators are working on books during Secret Wars. They may not be exactly the same book,” Marvel’s Executive Editor continued. “There may not be a Guardians of the Galaxy book but there's probably going to be something that involves some bit of that business, or stuff that may be done in Guardians in the future. Everything is going to kind of change and shift as we go. We're not entirely ready yet to map it all out for you."

- There will be many more Secret War announcements in the comic weeks.

- Secret Wars 0 will set up the entire story and be released  for free on May 3 for Free Comic Book Day.

- The first two issues of Secret Wars will be coming out in May.  Issue 2 is going to have more pages because it helps to establish the new Marvel Universe.

- There is a huge expansion of the Secret Wars website.  The website's interactive Battleworld Map fills in some details about some of the worlds that will be featured in Secret Wars.  A  lot of the worlds are still shrouded in mystery, though many of them have dates when more information will become available.

Commentary:  There is a lot to absorb here.  It is really not a shock that Marvel is doing their own New 52 (kind of).   I am really curious how this will all play out.  I have a lot of concerns about Hickman being the main architect here.  His stories typically bore me.   I had to drop both New Avengers and Avengers, even though I was determined to stick it out until Secret Wars.  Both of them were just painfully dull. 

I am looking forward to a lot of the tie-ins/new titles.  X-Men '92 and Renew Your Vows are probably the two biggest ones for me.  I grew up on the X-Men cartoon, and I really think it's about time Marvel put Spider-Man back with Mary Jane.  That cover image is probably my favorite piece of comic art from the last year.

Marvel hasn't said which titles would be sticking around or when they would be launching.  They did say some were ongoing and some were limited series.  As more news comes out, stick to Critical Blast and we'll keep you in the know.  

Oh!  If you haven't seen it yet, here was the Battleworld trailer Marvel posted a few months ago: