The All-New, All-Different Marvel Universe

Mashable revealed bits of what the new Marvel Universe will look like after Secret Wars. The “soft” reboot will change the status quo of the universe, but not get rid of existing continuity and history. The company will launch around 60 new first issues, so new readers can jump on.

Editor-in-chief Axel Alonso said that the comics will be moving to more of a TV season format; I’m guessing that means we’ll be seeing longer arcs and story-threads that will last between 12-24 issues. Comics have been moving to this format for years; gone are the stand-alone stories. It fits into the trade paperback/graphic novel market.

Comic Book Resources gives a detailed run down all of the recent post-Secret Wars Marvel news.

We’re getting new a Hulk, Spider-Man, and Wolverine. I believe it’s leaked that the new Hulk will be the Maestro and Spider-Man is Miles Morales, but the Wolverine news is curious. They won’t confirm if it’s the Logan that died in the 616 Marvel Universe. I’d say the 2 favorites after Dead Logan would be the Ultimate version or Old Man Logan. I’m pulling for Dead Logan.

They also announce that in addition to new series and characters, there will be new artifacts. I’m reading this as the Infinity Gauntlet will be coming back. They are knowingly headed that direction in the movies, so they’ll want to play it up in the comics. Plus, the Secret Wars tie in comic gives them the perfect way to reintroduce it.

All of this sounds much better than the New 52 DCU reboot. There is so much history with the characters and pretty much erasing it from continuity hurt the books. Want fresh takes on characters? Create separate continuity like Marvel did with the Ultimate Universe, Max Universe, etc. I might sound bitter, but many of the DC changes caused me to just about drop all of their books.

Marvel could face this issue too, if they deviate too much from the core of where their books were. Then I’ll be left to Image and indy books.