Here are some clips of announcements made by Marvel Comics at the Diamond Distribution Retailer Summit. The reports include news on "Dark Reign", "Marvel Noir", "Ultimate Avengers", "Dark Avengers", as well as revelations regarding Spider-Man, Spider Woman, and the Mighty Avengers.
Last night at the Diamond/Alliance Retailer Summit in Las Vegas, Marvel announced plans for "Dark Reign," a new branding tag line that will grace the covers of key Marvel books in the wake of the blockbuster Secret Invasion event and herald a frightening new status quo for the Marvel Universe. And while comic shop owners learned live the early details of the phrase that will doubtlessly dominate sales in their stores through 2009, we tapped Dark Reign mastermind Brian Michael Bendis for the early scoop on the new status quo.
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The hints dropped at San Diego Comic Con came full circle in Las Vegas last night with the announcement at the Diamond/Alliance Retailer Summit that writer Mark Millar will return to the Ultimate line with the all-new ULTIMATE AVENGERS ongoing in 2009. But while the team-focused series has a lot of characters in common with his acclaimed run on ULTIMATES, Millar promises that the format of this new title will be unlike anything fans have seen in the Ultimate U before.
"[ULTIMATE AVENGERS] is an event book," the Scottish scribe says. "The structure I pinched is from [Jeph] Loeb, where you have every six issues a new artist and a big new event. So if you can imagine Civil War happening twice a year, that's what it is. Every six issues is a new arc, a new artist and a new big event in the Ultimate Universe. This is the book that everything will tie into in some regard. This is the pulse at the heart of the Ultimate Universe.
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Well wonder no longer, because early next year Marvel Noir will debut with three limited-series creating all-new stories re-imagining our heroes in the roaring 30's.
"The Noir line came together in one of our editorial meetings," Alonso explains. "We had a couple of promising pitches that re-imagined Marvel characters against a Noir backdrop so we figured why stop there? If you imagine an icon like Spider-Man or the X-Men or Daredevil as a product of the 30's, the story possibilities are endless."
"All of the characters will be playing themselves," Cosby reveals. "It was actually kind of frustrating when we started casting for the series. 'Cyclops,' I said, 'Would you be interested in playing Captain America?' And he scoffed—SCOFFFED!—at me and said, 'That's not who I am.' I mean, yeah, he had a point. But he didn't have to be so self-serious about it."
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More specifically Bendis went on to say the post-Invasion Marvel Universe will feature a complete change in his Avengers family of titles, including Bendis leaving Mighty Avengers with issue #20 and the launch of a new title Dark Avengers, with art by Mike Deodato.
His Spider-Woman series with artist Alex Maleev is also still in the works, and the creators duo plan a long run on the title.
The Amazing Spider-Man #600 creative team was not announced, but promo art shown to retailers apparently featured an image of the "classic" Mary Jane with Peter Parker and a caption asking what "really" happened at Spider-Man's wedding.
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