Secret Empire

[The NZA]

 

After the events of "Civil War 2," the Marvel Universe's biggest and brightest superheroes are reeling at best. Things are about to get a lot worse.

 

It's kind of a mess and that's where Captain America steps in. Everything changed last May for the formerly squeaky clean icon when it was revealed he was actually a Hydra agent, the nefarious underworld organization he had been fighting against for the last 70 years.

 

With this Earth-shattering news still fresh in the beleaguered minds of die-hard Cap fans, the question is where do they go from here? Enter Marvel's new series "Secret Empire," where everything is about to change, not just for Captain America, but for absolutely every hero in the Marvel Universe.

 

This highly-anticipated series -- written by Nick Spencer, with cover art by Mark Brooks and rotating interior art by Steve McNiven, Andrea Sorrentino, Daniel Acuña, and Leinil Francis Yu -- will be the culmination and unresolved turn of events from that shocking story, Brevoort explains. But like all Marvel books, there's no guarantee it will be wrapped up in any "neat, tidy bow" for the readers after its 9-issue run.

 

"We've just come off of 'Civil War 2' and 'Inhumans vs. X-Men,' two big, dark events that had heroes fighting against heroes, over somewhat defensible positions. This is very much more an old school story. You will know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. This is not heroes fighting heroes, this is heroes fighting a bad guy," Axel Alonso said.

 

Alonso said that Secret Empire will feature all of Marvel's major teams and families, including the Avengers, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool, the Champions, and the Defenders.

 

The event kicks off with Secret Empire #0 in April, which Brevoort frames as "the worst day of the Marvel Universe."

 

"Where not one, not two, but three separate events break out all at once. Cap, as head of S.H.I.E.L.D., is able to mobilize forces to all three of those situations. And those three situations represent Hydra's first move. It comes off the blocks explosively right from the get-go."

 

Eight Issues Running til August + #0 in April.

 

ehh...i know we're all event-weary, but they're just not slowing down. spencer's been doing good work on sam-cap, hydra-cap has been interesting enough but i didn't know they were gonna turn it into a thing. no idea if spencer's done a huge event before?

 

will read, but hoping we get by dropping fewer classic avengers this time.

[Iambaytor]

Oh good, we're bringing Hydra-Cap to an end so I don't have to hear the internet whine and moan about him any longer.

[The NZA]

agreed; it's been joel's random people's punchline for a minute now and while it's not been bad, it's not been so exciting as to insist everyone should read it (like when people were losing their shit at hearing doc ock was spidey).

 

you know what plotline i wanna see tied up even moreso, though? kubik, the cosmic cube girl. it'd be great to wrap that up & have maria hill step down or do something else since the way she's been written (post relaunch especially) really feels like a change of guard is overdue.

[Mr. Hakujin]

I didn't read any of that above, but my guess is this is Tony Stark coming out of his death-coma-hibernation to end HydraCap.

[The NZA]

Coming to Marvel... HULKVERINE?

 

 

Marvel’s Editor-In-Chief Axel ALonso has tweeted an image sure to get fans attention. The image, shown at right, depicts a Hulk/Wolverine hybrid in holding tube of some kind, being overseen by two scientists. Alonso labeled the artwork "Under construction", and the artist has been identified as Skan.

 

Currently, both the original Wolverine and the original Hulk are dead. Bruce Banner's hulked out body however, was last seen being passed from the Hand to Captain America - you know, the one who's a sleeper Hydra agent. Could this be one more weapon in advance of Secret Empire?

[Keth]

They should do like a symbiote war. A bunch of symbiotes take over different heroes and villains. Hey Marvel I can come up with silly gimmicks too!

 

Hulkverine could be fun tho

[The NZA]

Marvel Says: No More Major Events For ‘At Least’ 18 Months After Secret Empire

 

 

"Hopefully, you guys will be happy to know that at the end of Secret Empire, we do not have any big crossover event scheduled," Gabriel said during the retailer presentation. "We haven't even talked about one for 18 months, at the very least. Those will be away for quite a while."

 

From context, it seems Gabriel is referring to universe-wide events such as Secret Empire, Civil War II, and Secret Wars. According to the transcript, Gabriel clarified that smaller crossovers would still happen - and could likely be referred to as "events" - in the absence of better terms for marketing.

 

"If you have another idea for what we should call those stories, please help us," Gabriel said to retailers. Marvel Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso chimed in, agreeing that other terms for short run comic books like "maxi-series" have been shown to negatively impact Marvel's sales in the current market.

 

The recent Clone Conspiracy and projects like the upcoming "Weapons of Mutant Destruction" have been referred to as 'events' by Marvel, but have been much smaller in scope than Secret Empire, Civil War II, and Secret Wars.

 

Given Secret Empire is scheduled to end in August 2017, an 18 month hiatus from "any big crossover event" would last until early 2019. In the past four years, these major Marvel events have occured four to five months apart from one another - some, such as Axis and Original Sin, were one month apart.

 

thank god - this last week was a mes with that sensationalized headline of "MARVEL SAYS DIVERSITY DOESNT SELL", when i thought it obvious that the new class were getting hijacked into the painfully long & pointless civil war 2. this doesn't rule out mini-events (inhumans vs x-men etc) but it feels like we've been on a roller coaster of major crossovers for well over a decade now, and Hickman's Secret Wars is one of the only ones i recall thoroughly enjoying.

 

prolly gonna see some big shakeups to the books, too - here's one marvel fanboy @ GAF's take, lotta spoilers for this event within

 

There's not a lot I can think of that isn't expected to end, especially with secret wars implementing a "hydra runs the world now, deal with it" plot line.

 

The X-titles JUST rebooted themselves, as did the inhumans, so let's disregard those for now.

 

Nova is around 20K copies. it's not long for this world. Dead man walking.

 

Slapstick: even less than that. Dead.

 

Foolkiller: see above.

 

Avengers: Building towards the conclusion of the Kang Arc, with Secret Empire coming up. That's going to end and reboot, guaranteed.

 

Champions: This one is a question mark- it's not selling "great" but is still only at #7. I can see marvel running this one out until #20 or so.

 

Jessica Jones: clearly not meant to be an ongoing, and building towards the resolution of "Jessica ran off with that baby" plotline. Defenders is in August, so who knows.

 

Captain America- Steve Rogers: Steve Dies during Secret Empire, so this is either coming to a hard stop or a reboot

 

Captain America- Sam Wilson: fairly low sales combined with Secret Empire and Sam giving up the Captain America Identity means this one is done

 

Uncanny Avengers: seems to be building towards a conclusion. Rogue is now on Astonishing, Steve is a villain due to be killed off during Secret Empire- Cable is getting his own ongoing. Deadpool is Deadpool. no one cares about literally anyone else on the roster.

 

USAvengers: terrible sales combined with Secret Empire coming up: this one is done.

 

Ultimates 2: is clearly building towards a conclusion- this is not an ongoing no matter what Marvel says. The sales for this have never been great but it is a good book.

 

Infamous Iron Man: Doom is NOT staying Iron Man for more than a few minutes, come on now.

 

Invincible Iron Man: lasts as long as it takes for Marvel to bring back Tony- which will probably be the next event. 18 months, max, though I'd be willing to bet less than this.

 

Mighty Thor: This is the only one I can see continuing for a while. Mostly off-earth adventures, Jane-Thor is selling well.

 

Spider Woman: Already dead

 

Spider Man 2099: Canceled, but not yet dead. one or two months.

 

Ghost Rider: Already Dead

 

Spider-Man: will likely continue as is- but I can see a status quo change after Miles kills Rogers.

 

Spider-Gwen: this one is a bit of a mystery. not selling well but marvel seems invested in the character. I can see a team book happening, the standalone doesn't seem to have much direction at all.

 

Silver Surfer: is concluding.

 

Scarlet Witch: dead

 

Dr. Strange: honestly don't know here

 

Dr. Strange and the Sorcerers supreme: dead

 

Daredevil: no clue, but Daredevil is an icon. will probably stick around, his series hasn't been running that long and we have defenders coming.

 

Luke Cage: just launched, and defenders is in august

 

Iron Fist: see above.

 

Squirrel Girl: honestly not sure. It doesn't seem to sell well, but Marvel seems to have plans for the character.

 

Thunderbolts: Selling abysmally- and heading into secret empire. This one is gone.

 

Man Thing: what the hell is this

 

Black Panther: I don't think coates is contracted for an ongoing. This one is going to end soon.

 

All New Wolverine: no clue

 

I mean, I missed stuff- but this whole list is "dead man walking" territory.

 

[Visitant]

Ok, I'm pretty much going to quick recap what we talked about on the show this week:

 

It's not diversity that's the issue here, it's having great new characters and not giving them any fucking breathing room. You made new characters, and immediately threw them from event to event. You had a UNIVERSE RESET and gave us no time to learn who the fuck these people are.

 

Give us time to grow and enjoy these new characters. Stop the god damn events and let us just...like a single comic without it being reliant on 5 billion other comics to get the whole story.

[The NZA]

issue # 1 dropped yesterday, anyone read it? the parallels to this arc of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are really great timing

 

 

it's a bit fun seeing Steve as this master strategist who's not held back by much, up until Jones is involved - no idea how he has those Avengers in line, though.

 

 

as someone who's already weary of big events & unsure about Spencer taking this the whole way, a 9 issue series seems pretty drawn out - but it's bi-weekly and looking to wrap up late summer, so i guess there's that. still wondering how this ties into both ulysees' vision of how cap ends with Miles (though his visions were less accurate later i wanna say) and the clear revival for Legacy.

[The NZA]

....anyone else reading this? as a cap fan, i can't look away

 

ive said forever that i dig the arcs where good guys/badasses go evil & we see how many it takes to take them down: millar fucked cleremont's idea with wolvy right up with enemy of the state, and i wanna say Tower of Babel was the closest bats has gotten in a while too. so seeing cap as the master strategist unhinged - but trying to still be somewhat honorable - has been interesting so far. as of issue 2, Spencer's clearly trying to incorporate different corners of the marvel universe here.

 

still, the last page....it feels too early for a 9 issue series, hard to not see this as an obvious pump-fake, like widow herself said earlier.

[Iambaytor]

Now that Secret Empire is winding toward a conclusion can we agree that it's been fucking great? This is THE perfect book for the world right now and while it's thrown a monkey wrench in the stories of several books as these things are wont to do (I maintain the Monsters Unleashed model of just doing an extra issue to tie in to big events without touching on it in the main book is the way to go) but this has really been the book that shit like Age of Ultron, Secret Invasion, Civil War (both 1 and 2), and Dark Reign were trying to be. People getting butthurt over Nazi-Cap really cut into the chances of this taking off like it should've but it's probably my favorite event right now shy of the most recent Secret War.

[The NZA]

i need it to tie up before i can really say, but i think ti's taking way too much shit from a crowd that, as you said, either hates the concept or is just event-weary.

 

i'd compare this a bit to the kinda story Cleremont wanted to tell with for years (and Millar absolutely screwed the pooch with Enemy of the State): Cap unhinged in the early issues was great, because you saw him play Danvers like a fiddle & his strategy locked the powerhouses out in space & the vigilantes in NY's darkhold within minutes. since then, we've just seen which players stayed on or joined up & the deals he was making, which for me had a hint of House of M too:

 

 

Odinson usually thinks himself above human politics, but follows/trusts steve and can't downplay him picking up mjolnor again (even though i think it was bullshit to do this in a FCBD issue that's easily missed), and there's something of him wanting to find where Jane went. Punisher upping the fascist ante didn't throw me off like some others did, as he also respects steve.

 

 

most of the other avengers staying are are clearly compromised. but the hopelessness of the rebellion, the badass UN moment of T'challa dropping the gauntlet - it's been fun, even if we know all the bodies dropping will get cube'd or fixed soon. im getting a bit annoyed at the background story of "real" (?) Steve, Sam, Buck & Skull in the background beating each other while shirtless but as you said, we're nearing the finish line.

 

i don't know how they reset all these relationships & the state of america in time for the coming status quo but i imagine it's cosmic cube time again & i'm wondering how much that'll take from the ending. still, ive enjoyed it more than not, and as an aside: however this event is looked at down the road, i think Spencer's gonna get his due for how he handled Sam's time as Cap, cause a few missteps aside, that was pretty good.

[Iambaytor]

I don't worry about status quo, the nature of legacy characters is that they can be restored back to zero at the wave of a hand and it needs to happen to keep things going. Who cares if we remember Secret Empire in six weeks or 60 years, it's good now.

[The NZA]

fair, but ive come to realize there's not many event books so good/enjoyable i actually buy them in trade. i don't know about this one, but you're right - Hickman's Secret War is high on my list, i just wanna see if it's in his forthcoming Avenger omnibuses or something.