Marvel Teases New Spider-Man, Wolverine Comics, ‘Controversial’ Hulk
Marvel Comics will reboot about 60 titles this fall following the conclusion of its Secret Wars storyline, with editor-in-chief Axel Alonso teasing an “all new, all different” Marvel universe and fresh iterations of classic heroes, The Wall Street Journal reports.
“In the fall, the Marvel universe will see the arrival of an all-new Hulk, a Hulk you’ve never seen before that’s sure to be exciting and controversial,” Alonso said. “It’s going to be water-cooler talk. There will be a new Spider-Man in town, and — spoiler alert — there will be an all-new Wolverine. So let the speculation begin.”
This upcoming spate of No. 1 issues is part of a larger shift to publishing titles seasonally, à la TV programs, and Marvel hopes the approach will increase interest and accessibility. “I think they’re going to offer diverse and exciting and, above all, accessible entry points into the Marvel universe,” Alonso said. “There will be a lot of flavors.”
Though Marvel’s movie-verse has garnered much attention for its rapid, remarkable growth, its comics wing has ushered in a swath of changes that adhere to Stan Lee’s principle of building a universe that reflects the real world. For instance, Marvel had its first African-American hero Sam Wilson, AKA the Falcon, assume the duties of Captain America; and it has upped its number of female superheroes, creating an all-female Avengers called A-Force, handing Thor’s Mjolnir to Jane Foster and introducing a Pakistani-American teenager from New Jersey as the new Ms. Marvel.
“The world as it is now is not the world of the 1960s,” Alonso said. “It’s a world where the new Peter Parker can be a 16-year-old Pakistani girl from Jersey City, where an African-American [person] can dress in the red, white and blue and ponder what that means.”
Artists and writers like Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Mark Waid, G. Willow Wilson and Dan Slott will helm the upcoming slate of new comics. Alonso also promised greater diversity in Marvel’s creative team, saying, “There’s always room for improvement. We have a lot of exciting new voices coming up in the next year.”