After Secret Wars is done, the Marvel Universe is going to look very different. Someone else is going to be the Strongest One There Is. Another wall-crawler will be using the name Spider-Man. Oh, and Wolverine—a Wolverine, anyway—is coming back, too.
In reports hitting today via Mashable and USA Today, Marvel Comics has announced that they’ll be relaunching their entire publishing line with new #1s as part of an initiative they’re calling All-New, All-Different Marvel. The focus will be on new characters and status quo changes that will shake things up the same way that the new female Thor and Sam Wilson’s becoming Captain America did. Here’s Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso to Mashable:
“We chose all of our creators to come in with a hook — a big thing has happened that changes the status quo of the character.”
“These changes were not short-term. We’re deeply invested in those characters.”
Marvel’s looking to replicate the media buzz that the Captain America and Thor moves generated, with Alonso saying that “the all-new Hulk ... this character is certain to cause debate.” The USA Today article quotes him as saying:
“You’re going to be looking at, in certain cases, new characters inhabiting those roles, and new characters dealing with profound changes in the relationships with others around them and where they live. We’ve challenged everybody to come up with the right ‘Oh (expletive)‘ reveal for their character to shake it up and make it interesting.”
Alonso also said that character and creator diversity will be a big focus of the All-New, All-Different push. Based on the promo image above, it seems like original Captain America Steve Rogers will still be be the older version from before Secret Wars. The inclusion of Miles Morales—Peter Parker’s successor in the alternate reality Ultimate Universe—into the Marvel Universe is all but a given, too, with both this image and his recent appearance in an All-New, All-Different Avengers preview story. It’s a safe bet that he’s the new Spider-Man Alonso mentions. (He’s not a new creation, of course, but he’ll be new to the mainline Marvel Universe.) And the character on the far right is a version of 1970s-era Native American hero Red Wolf, who’ll be showing up in a Secret Wars tie-in title. A teaser for the All-New, All-Different Marvel will be out in July, previewing the coming changes before the fall.
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