So I have watched the Marvel announcement and I’ve read stuff online, but none of it really made sense to me. So this morning I watched the announcement again and took notes. Here is what I gleaned from it:
– This has been planned since the beginning of Marvel Now.
– The Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe are going to smash together. Imagine 2 pizzas smashing together. Toppings will get switched. Some will drop off.
– This is more that just the Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe. It is all universes you can imagine. That’s it. This is the Marvel Universe moving forward.
– The Final Incursion (the smashing of Marvel U and Ultimate U) will be Secret Wars #1
– Battleworld is the detritus (Brevoort’s word) left over after the destruction of the Marvel and Ultimate Universes. It is a melting pot that New Marvel will be created from.
– Pieces from destroyed worlds are fused together to create Battleworld.
– This is setting up the bedrock of the New Marvel Universe.
– New Marvel Universe is Battleworld before, during and after Secret Wars.
– Once you hit Secret Wars #1, there is no Marvel Universe, no Ultimate Universe. All there is is Battleworld and a whole lot of empty void.
– Every single piece of Battleworld is a building block of the New Marvel Universe moving forward.
– None of the stories are Elseworlds or Alternate Reality. They are not set in the past of future. All are reality.
– “Expect lost of Secret Wars announcements over the next two week.” (I thought this was the announcement to end all announcements)
– The (previously shown) teaser images will be the titles during Secret Wars. They are the heart and center of Marvel U during Secret Wars and beyond.
– All New Marvel
– Alex Ross doing all of the covers
– When you see multiple versions of characters, they are not made up characters, they are from somewhere in the history of Marvel.
– o, 1 & 2 are all shipping in May.
– “Putting an end cap to decades of stories and starting a new era.” – Axel Alonso
– Adding new pieces to the board and removing old.
– Wealth of new series during and after. Great jumping on point for new readers.
– “The Marvel Universe as you know it is done. The Ultimate Universe as you know it is done.” – Brevoort
And here is my big question, that hopefully they will answer:
It sounds like everything is changing for the Marvel U. They stated it quite a few times. It looks to me like all of their books are going to relaunch after Secret Wars. If so, what is the point of launching new #1s right now? Why Ant Man, Squirrel Girl, Hawkeye? Uncanny Avengers #1 ships next week. It doesn’t appear it can last beyond May? So what is the impetus for customers to bother with these books with everything getting shaken up?
I hope it is mind-blowingly successful and creates a lot of new interest in the Marvel Universe. I know lots of my customers have been disillusioned with the Marvel U and have been dropping the books. I pointed out yesterday that Red Lanterns far outsells New Avengers. That, to me, is crazy. And maybe that is the reason for this big shake up. For Marvel to right its ship. Yes, they continually lead the sales charts, but that seems to be more and more due to event/stunt type things rather than good solid stories creating healthy sales. That’s what I hope they are able to get back to.
