Marvel Solicits are out.

[neuhallidae]

Avengers Academy behind the cut, the rest of the solicits are here.





AVENGERS ACADEMY #1
Written by CHRISTOS GAGE
Pencils & Cover by MIKE MCKONE
Variant Cover by MIKE MCKONE
Variant Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC

THE HEROIC AGE IS HERE!

A BRAND NEW ONGOING AVENGERS TITLE BEGINS HERE!

Determined to keep the tradition alive, founding Avenger Hank Pym leads a core team of veteran heroes in creating a place where the next generation of Earth's Mightiest can be trained by the greatest of those who preceded them. An institution where everyone who has ever been an Avenger can share their skill, knowledge and experience. The future is in their hands...and in the hands of the six young superhumans chosen to make up the inaugural class. But who are they? And what dark secret will turn their world--and potentially the entire Marvel Universe--upside down by the end of the issue?

If you think this is just another teen hero book...the last page shocker will prove you wrong! Writer Christos Gage (AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE) and superstar artist Mike McKone (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN) unite to bring you a bold new era of greatness!







So now we finally know what the goddamn hell's gonna happen to Pym once the Heroic Age kicks off. On one hand, I'm a little iffy about that, since he didn't seem too keen on anything instructor-like in The Initiative, but that could have been just still coping with the whole Skrull and losing Jan stuff. On the other hand, they should totally have this in the infinite mansion, if it survives the end of Mighty Avengers. Just because the half-hungover mental image I've got right now of the Jocastas as hall monitors is hilarious as hell.



Also, it looks like there's a miniseries coming of Cap, Thor, and Iron Man trying to find some kind of neutral ground after Siege. Unfortunately, it's yet another Bendis title, but if it means that all the infighting isn't going to just get completely swept under the rug for the Heroic Age, then I might check it out anyway if I've got the money. Especially because it will have delicious, delicious Alan Davis art.

In other, other solicit news, Moonstone is back in the Thunderbolts proper, Luke Cage will be finishing out a miniseries (surprisingly not written by Bendis), Atlas will bring up the issue of the apparent death of Crusader in The Initiative (that's not in the solicit, but Parker's said so on twitter), and Spider-Ham's getting a 25th anniversary special.

Comments

[icon_uk]

UNCANNY X-MEN #525

Cyclops has sent Cable, Cypher and X-Force on a suicide mission into the future to destroy the portal"

Cypher? With X-Force! Bleagh!

[protogarrett]

But he's so gritty now so it works. He'll be bashing people in the head with a pipe.

...like Amara.

[icon_uk]

As Cyclops pointed out to Emma, "If we excluded X-Men who had tried to kill us whilst under mind control, there'd be nobody left on the team!" (And it should be noted that Emma tried to do it WITHOUT mind control as an excuse!)

[bj_l]

Sounds like he is just a guest member of the team to help them with destroying the portal. Probably by using his powers to communicate with computers or something.

[icon_uk]

Well, I can hope!

[sun_man]

Looks terrible

[sherkahn]

I won't be picking up Avengers Academy. just getting bad vibes from the ideas and concepts.

[terrykun]

Oh I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Mockingbird, I like you already.

Reptil, you can go sit in the corner.

This actually looks like a lot of fun, getting a campy LoSH feel from it so far.

[akodo_rokku]

Aw, don't be mean to Reptil. I liked him when they did the comic about him back before the show!

[crabby_lioness]

I'm sitting here with a big goofy grin on my face because my FAVORITE COMIC BOOK STORY OF ALL TIME is being offered up in a hardcover collecton this June. Yep, I'm talking about Englehart's Vision and the Scarlet Witch, the comic book that did more than any other to make the Marvel Universe seem like a real place where real people did more than just fight. They lived, loved, got married, had marriages fall apart, dealt with their families, took care of their lives, and oh yeah had babies.

This story did more than any other to cement my position as a Marvel fangirl -- until John Byrne TOTALLY UNECESSARILY retconned the twins out of existence. At that point (1991) I dropped Marvel completely (no great loss, it was the 1990s) and didn't pick up another Marvel comic for over 15 YEARS. The fact that this corresponded with me learning the twins had been re-retconned into existence with a decent story is not entirely coincidence.

[amaniwolf]

I'm kind of on the fence with this, i like the look of the characters, and i love Alan Davis art, but instead of making all new characters, why not revamp some of the old teen heroes, hanging around and use them? I can think of quite a few who are in comicbook limbo.

[akodo_rokku]

That's my thought as well. No established characters at all?

I hope we at least get to see some of the old Initiative characters teaching.

Especially Robbie Baldwin.

[cainofdreaming]

Hmm, I wonder how Cap's going to react to the kid whose face looks like his greatest foe.

[icon_uk]

He actually looks like a cross between Red Skull and Iron Man... DEFINITELY not a good mix for Cap!

[cainofdreaming]

"I've only been here for three hours and I've already been hit on the head with a shield at least a dozen times. Man, I should have gone to Xavier's."

[jcbaggee]

"Iron Skull! Do I want to kill you....or kiss you!?"

[quicksilver]

I probably would have given this a shot before the price hike, but Marvel has pretty much outpriced me on the floppies now. If it's good, I'll wait until the trade has been out for a year and pick it up for a few bucks used. Otherwise, eh. I'm not feeling it.

[kagome654]

Oh boy, cannon fodder!

[grazzt]

Yes! I just noticed a new Anita Blake series. That means the Invincible Super Blog will be doing a new series of Annotations (read: mocking it like no tomorrow).

[milleniumrex]

I hate Red Skull Jr. already. The others I'm mostly neutral on.

[pyrotwilight]

Let me guess...Reptil will die first issue? Probably killed by Striker and Steel Skin guy will be blamed.

[lamashtar]

Reptil is the only original character in the cartoon Superhero Squad so he's probably pretty safe til that gets canceled.

[elsewhere7.livejournal.com]

Not big on Fortress, most of the others are also unknowns. But, it's a group of not 'more of the same' (*coughNewAvengers*) people, so I'll probably take a look.

[mullon]

Whose the bastard spawn of Red Skull and Luke Cage?

[neuhallidae]

Fortress. New boy. Dunno anything about him yet.

[lamashtar]

These are not the teen heroes I want to see, Marvel...:(

[tahngarth.livejournal.com]

Yay, more characters who will be marginalized/killed off/appear only in crowd scenes in about five years or so.

Say hi to the Young X-Men, Young Avengers, Initiative and The Order from me!

[scottyquick]

Hmmm ... a team of teen heroes inspired by Earth's mightiest heroes. Some sort of Young Avengers, maybe.

[theanswer]

I remember when they did this with New X-Men. They had a great team and series going and then for no apparent reason they cancel it and start a series with the same concept, but with a new cast nobody cared about.

Yup, this will end as abruptly as Young X-Men did.

[flidgetjerome]

It's a good move for Pym? He's always better when he's support-staff than when he's front-line.

It could actually be really nice if they played up the school aspects, make it a sort of Xavier's Academy for non-mutant metahuman kids. Get some of the Young Avengers to be background characters, have intervarsity sports matches with Xaviers, it could be fun.

[crabby_lioness]

That would be cooler than Marvel has been in a very long time.

[jcbaggee]

So on those solicits, it says Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth #12 is part of a 13 issue limited series. Did I miss something? I've seen no mention before this of MWAM being limited.

(Not that I'm complaining. My God, Deadpool is more places than Wolverine)

[twigcollins]

If you think this is just another teen hero book...the last page shocker will prove you wrong!

I'll take that bet.

[akodo_rokku]

Considering the "shockers" we've gotten in teen hero books over the last few years (mostly horrible murder) I'll take that bet too.

[r0b666]

While I think the concept is a good one I rather they use the Young Avengers and/or other existing characters we never see who are interesting instead of inventing the generic 6 over there.

[falseaesop]

There's no way in hell this last page shocker can possibly equal MVP's brains going splat over Cloud 9's face in Initiative #1.

Poor Cloud 9.... so sad that none of the Initiative guys are going to be in this book.

[twigcollins]

Did anything interesting ever happen with Cloud 9? I stopped paying attention when she jettisoned her personality and went GRIMDARRRRK.

[akodo_rokku]

I don't think she's appeared since she was sniping skrulls in Secret Invasion.

[falseaesop]

The was the filler issue right in the middle of a storyline with Reptil (who seems to be in Avengers Academy) where various Innitiative grads were helping train him at Camp Hammond, Cloud9 was of course overseeing the shooting range where Reptil went on and on about how freaking cool she was... and she got real quiet.

Then during Dark Reign when the Nevada team lead by Prodegy went rogue, the New Warriors showed up as a sign of solidaridy... so Norman let the Shadow Initiative and Taskmaster loose to 'make an example of them'. Cloud was supposed to start popping unregistered good guy heads. She 'missed' Night Thrasher... so Taskmaster... who was standing next to her and knew she missed on purpose pushed her out of the way and took the kill shot himself.

Luckily that helmet on Night thrasher is bulletproof.

After that it seems that all the original class were forgotten about for Tasky, Constrictor, and Diamondback. I mean I have nothing against Tasky, I like Taskmaster... but what about Cloud 9?

[ninjapeps]

Christos Gage? okay, that should be worth a read.

[schala_kid]

OMG that page with the Power Pack and Baby Nick Fury, Baby Thor, and Baby Beta Ray Bill is soooooooooooooooooooo cute!!!!!

[iskander]

I really liked some of the previous title had.I wonder if they will show up at all?

[thandrak]

Is that Jubilee on the left? An' Reptyl still looks like Cosmic Boy to me.

He has a Red Skull Face.

[01d55]

That kid in the back needs a new face.

He needs a different face bad, you guys.

Re: He has a Red Skull Face.

[twigcollins]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that.

In one of those big, full-spread fights every Marvel comic seems to have every six pages, he's gonna get clobbered by like, twenty-seven people who have no idea who he is.