Spoilers for Age of Ultron.
Age of Ultron #10 hit the stands yesterday (click here for our review), capping off Marvel's latest event storyline. Whatever your opinion of the way the event wrapped up, it's clear that Marvel is very much looking ahead to what comes next and the lasting ramifications of Ultron's brief return to power. The series culminated with the death of Ultron, the splintering of the timestream, a rift being opened between the Marvel Universe and Ultimate Universe, and the Marvel debut of former Image Comics character Angela.
That's a lot of material to chew on. And these ramifications will be explored in a number of upcoming Marvel projects. Angela will be joining the cast of Brian Michael Bendis' Guardians of the Galaxy in a new story arc co-written by her creator Neil Gaiman. Joshua Hale Fialkov will explore what happens when Galactus sets his sights on the Ultimate version of Earth in the upcoming mini-series Hunger (formerly titled Age of Ultron: UC). As for the broken timestream? That conflict will play out across Marvel's catalog, including the upcoming X-Men crossover Battle of the Atom.
With so much fallout to explore, we're not surprised that Marvel chose to hold another "Next Big Thing" press call to discuss these upcoming projects. Bendis and Fialkov were both present, along with Executive Editor Tom Brevoort and Senior Editor Mark Paniccia, to discuss what happens next.
To start things off, Bendis noted his relief at finally being able to wrap up Age of Ultron, a story which had been in the works at Marvel for several years. "It feels good. There was a roller coaster of reactions to the story, from people screaming at me that it was the best thing they ever read to people going 'I'm gonna kill you.' And at the top of it is a rumor that Angela is not Angela, that it's Jean Grey from the future. There's a segment of the population, that when they see red hair, all they see is Jean Grey. I don't know what to do with that information other than to say that Angela is Angela. We've gone to great lengths to introduce her, and I promise you that she is at face value what she's supposed to be... There's no other secret behind her. She's not going to pull off her clothes and reveal anything. She's not Miracleman. She's not Jean Grey. She is Angela."
Bendis then discussed the challenges of planning the event and its eventual ramifications. "A lot of it was me and Tom planning alone and working on this for quite a long time in order to have something for Bryan Hitch to draw. That was a lot of fun, and then plotting some of the bigger elements for the second half. The second half opened all of these cool opportunities, and we kind of put it out there to everyone who would listen to us at Marvel - we're doing this crazy timestream story and we want to get to a place where there are real ramifications for it." He continued, "Literally, the question was - what's the craziest thing we can have fall into the Marvel Universe, legally in the world of copyright?" He revealed that it was Joe Quesada who called him him with the news that Angela was an option.
Meanwhile, Matt Fraction was credited with the idea of having Galactus cross over from the Marvel Universe to the Ultimate Universe. Bendis said, "I was very happy , because as crazy as this is to have a moment where time and space rip, you really want things to happen that are unique and special, and even if they're a little confusing to the reader at the moment, the promise of what's to come is filled with that Marvel Comics excitement that we all pray for."
From there, talk shifted directly to Fialkov's Hunger mini-series, which launches next month. Fialkov said, "I wished really hard to get to do the coolest thing possible in the Ultimate Universe, and I was allowed. Who knew? I'm a huge, huge Jack Kirby nut. I love so much of what he created. I especially love Galactus. I have Galactuses all over my office. He continued, "The Ultimate Universe has seen its fair share of weird stuff, but everything they've seen sort of has logical roots. Yes, they've seen giant spaceships, but once you've a guy in an iron suit flying around - okay, that kind of makes sense. The idea of a gigantic purple man appearing in the sky and sucking the life from your planet is so far beyond the experience of these characters. It really gives you the opportunity to tell crazy new stories we haven't seen before and to explore what that means... What I hope comes across in the book is the sense of wonder that's being brought into the Ultimate Universe, but handled with the grounded, smart, modern tone that Brian has spent the past decade establishing."
Fialkov revealed that Rick Jones is the lead protagonist of Hunger. Jones was previously transformed into the Ultimate Universe version of Nova in Bendis' Ultimate Doomsday trilogy. Fialkov said of Jones' everyman status, "Brian really created a unique and different take on Rick Jones that's really smart and really fun. He's sort Spider-Man taken to the extreme - with great power comes something that completely ruins your life. You just want to be a normal guy and have fun and do things. So imagine Rick has been off in space, doing his thing and minding the store, and suddenly a gigantic man from another universe crashing through and sends everything into chaos. And that's really the root of the story to me - Rick coming to terms with the fact that this responsibility is not going away." Alongside regular Ultimate Universe players like Captain America and Reed Richards, the series will also feature several major cosmic players, including the Chitauri and Kree empires, Captain Mahr-Vell, Silver Surfer, and Ronan the Accuser. Fialkov also teased that Hunger will show very clear ties to his work on The Ultimates.
Of course, this isn't the first time the Ultimate heroes have dealt with a version of Galactus. Warren Ellis introduced the Galactus Swarm in his Ultimate Galactus trilogy several years ago. And as can be seen in the preview art at the bottom of this article, it appears that the Swarm will lay a role in the conflict as well. Fialkov said, "I'm a big, big fan of what Warren did in that mini-series and its ramifications throughout the ultimate Universe. The Galactus Swarm is essentially seeking out whatever large energy source it can find. And I don't know if you know this about Galactus, but that guy is a giant source of energy... Pretty quick, the two are going to become aware of each other."
Paniccia said, "This is a Galactus story you have not seen before on many levels. Much like Age of Ultron brought the quintessential Ultron story of - this is what happens when this creature from the Marvel Universe fulfills its promises. What's going to happen if Galactus does the same? Down the same road, I think you're going to find a pretty horrifying, but at the same time exciting Galactus story, fulfilling the promise Jack Kirby started many decades ago." Bendis remarked that the danger is heightened by the fact that the Ultimates can't simply redirect Galactus back to his universe. "It's like saying, "Here, go eat them.'"
When asked about the appeal of writing Angela and what she brings to the Marvel Universe, Bendis said, "Right now she's a force of nature heading towards us, and she doesn't understand how she got here or why she's here... She's a very, very caustic character who will not put up with the kind of nonsense going on in the Marvel Universe. She's a very angry, and rightly so, fish out of water, and headed right towards Earth. And as we've stated in the early issues of Guardians of the Galaxy, the Guardians have made it their job to protect Earth." He continued, "I love fish out of water stories. I love the Guardians. It was a perfect fit and a great second story for all the characters in Guardians. And how she will acclimate to the Marvel Universe and this elaborate back-story that Joe and everyone have put together for her as we reveal how she could be in the Marvel Universe and what role she'll play."
As for the ramifications of the broken timestream, Bendis said, "Not everyone knows what happened. Some people, as you saw from one of the 50 epilogues in Age of Ultron #10, are hearing abut it secondhand or just felt it without knowing exactly what happened. Those ramifications for those people, some of whom are the biggest brains in the Marvel Universe, will continue, including what's going on in All-New X-Men. That trickles over into Battle of the Atom, which is coming in September. There's a lot happening. We have time and space characters trickled all over, and they may be in more trouble than they would ever realize."
Ultimate Spider-Man fans surely noticed a cameo by Miles Morales in the pages of Age of Ultron #10. We asked Bendis how Miles would factor into these upcoming conflicts and whether the tease about a possible version of Miles existing in the regular Marvel Universe would be addressed. He said, "Coming up over the next 6-8 months big stories about Miles and the concept of a Marvel multiverse and the characters realizing there's a door you can open and there's something on the other side. And what that means for them and how they're going to do with reality knowing there's maybe another Tony Stark over there that has his s*** together a little better. And Miles really, above anything he'll ever be able to come to terms with because he's taken the mantle of Spider-Man, becomes a very important linchpin in the future of the Ultimate Universe."
Bendis continued, "There's a lot of teasing and a lot of promise, and we're going to pay it all off. And what we've been very excited about is, because it's the Ultimate Universe, there's almost an obligation to pay it all off in a way that hasn't been seen before. As I said before, that's what we're most proud of with the Ultimate Universe, and the fans of the Ultimate Universe - that's what they're looking for."
Hunger #1 is scheduled to ship in July. Scroll down for a look at preview art from the issue.
Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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