Marvel Comics will lose 54 years of continuity as Earth-616 will merge with the Ultimate Universe in the latest companyline crossover: “Secret Wars.” (Artwork property of Marvel Comics)
By: Jacob Elyachar, jakes-take.com
Marvel Comics unleashed the “announcement to end all announcements” that will effect its publication history!
Multiple comic book news outlets such as Bleeding Cool, Comic Book Resources and Newsarama revealed that the House of Ideas will merge both Earth-616 and the Ultimate Universe together in the company’s latest crossover: Secret Wars.
Marvel Comics’ Senior Vice President of Publishing and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort stated that the eight-issue crossover series has been building up in Secret Wars co-creator Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers and New Avengers series…that focused on incursions happening across the universe.
Readers already have seen bits and pieces of the consequences of the incursions. The arrival of Angela in the main Marvel Universe, Galactus’ unsuccessful invasion of the Ultimate Universe and the Infinity mini-series already shook up both universes, but the characters of both universes will participate in a “survival of the fittest” battle as they will duke it out with their counterparts from multiple worlds throughout the eight issues.
By mashing these two universes together in the crossover series, this will end over 54 years of continuity in the main Marvel Universe and over 15 years worth of continuity for the Ultimate Marvel Universe.
While shocked fans quickly shared their outrage on social media, celebrated comic book icon and the father of a bulk of Marvel’s legendary characters, Stan Lee took the news with stride.
Lee told Newsarama in an exclusive statement that the announcement is “probably good” and was very intriguing to him.
In all honesty, shaking up the Marvel Universe is a good idea!
While I will have fond memories of reading classic stories such as “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” the first Secret Wars, J. Michael Straczynski’s monumental run on Amazing Spider-Man, Brian Bendis & Mark Bagley’s Ultimate Spider-Man and Jason Aaron’s Wolverine & The X-Men, it is time to tell new tales.
Just imagine Miles Morales and Peter Parker working together in New York City! How about Doctor Doom meeting his match with his Ultimate counterpart? What will the All-New, All-Different Avengers look like? The possibilities are endless!
As long as they do not remake old stories and put the right creative teams on the right solo, duo and group titles….it might turn into Marvel’s version of The New 52!
What do you think about this announcement?
