Uncanny Avengers is easily one of Marvel's most high-profile new books. It kicked off the Marvel NOW! relaunch this past October, featuring an all-star creative team and a cast comprised of major X-Men and Avengers characters working towards a common goal.
Unfortunately, this major new team is faced with some major new challenges right out of the gate. The opening arc sees our heroes battling a reborn Red Skull empowered by the brain of Charles Xavier. Things are only going to get worse from there. That was the theme of today's Next Big Thing press call. Both Rick Remender and Tom Brevoort were on hand to discuss Ragnarok, the next big story arc in Uncanny Avengers.
Uncanny Avengers #6 cover
“A lot of the foundation stuff is picking up from The Dark Angel Saga." said Remender, referring to his seminal arc on Uncanny X-Force. "But at the same time, I didn't want it to be a sequel to that. It doesn't belong as such. Something that Tom and I have worked really long and hard at doing here is spending the last few months cooking up a story that really incorporated Kang into the Apocalypse mythology that's been going on, as well as dealing with some of Thor's involvement in this history between them. Obviously the fun of Uncanny Avengers is the A meeting the X in big ways that's canon and going to affect the Marvel Universe in a large way.”
Elaborating on how The Dark Angel Saga plays into Ragnarok, Remender said, "By the end we saw Archangel had impregnated Pestilence. Whatever she gives birth to is going to be a problem for people and is also going to involve some of Kang's machinations and schemes. So it's going to boil into something that has a magnitude and a scope that I don't think anybody will to anticipate."
Uncanny Avengers #6 interior art
Naturally, with a name like Ragnarok, Thor and the Asgardians will be playing a heavy role in the conflict. And as you can see from the issue #6 preview art included in this article, that includes the younger, pre-Mjolnir Thor currently featured in Jason Aaron's Thor: God of Thunder. Remender said, "I wanted to start trying to find ways to take Uncanny Avengers and have it interconnect with the other titles in the Marvel Universe. I was in conversations with Jason Aaron, and we spent a lot of time on the phone figuring out inter-connectivity here. You're going to see that young Thor in Jason's story and that ax that he picks up play a monumental role moving forward in Uncanny Avengers." Issue #6 will actually be a flashback tale that features an early meeting between this younger Thor and a younger Apocalypse in the 11th Century.
He continued, "When you read issue #5, 6, 7, by the end of it you'll have an idea, and there are so many reveals and so many things that I don't want to kill the surprise of because it's going to be so much fun. You'll get a really nice glimpse of how this series is going to interconnect with some of the other stories that Jason's been telling and moving forward into the Marvel Universe now so that we can see some of the repercussions of this. And they are going to be big."
Uncanny Avengers #6 interior art
The ties to Aaron's comics won't end with Thor. The work both writers have done on Wolverine in recent years will also play a significant role in Ragnarok. Remender explained how Wolverine's recent battles with Apocalypse and the death of his son Daken in the current Uncanny X-Force storyline will impact the character in Uncanny Avengers. "Wolverine is in a lot of different books. What you see reflected in his day-to-day is a guy who's stretched so thin because he's trying to outrun something. I'm trying to address that a little bit and especially use the death of Daken as a catalyst for character development. As far as my take on him, I don't see Wolverine the preemptive killer again. I see him as having learned that lesson."
He continued, "I'd like to think that the events of Final Execution could leave some mark on his soul. That was the intention, where he is not so quick to the claws and maybe trying to live up to what Charles Xavier laid out for him, which was a path to fight the animal. With the death of Xavier and the death of Daken, those two things lead to the noble samurai trying to find that path."
Uncanny Avengers #6 interior art
As for the rest of the team, Remender said, "The story is intended to put a light on each of the members to really develop them in the context of the story. Every single one of our heroes has a character or somebody involved in this fight that gives them a personal context more than just trying to stop whatever it is the villain is doing." He also teased that the Red Skull will have a continued presence in the book beyond this initial opening arc.
Remender revealed that he recently completed scripting issue #7 and is working on fleshing out issues #8 and 9. He currently has the series outlined in concrete form up to issue #20. "I've got a much better idea of who these people are and their character arcs. It's difficult. There are a lot of characters. Any time you take on a team book, the beginning is very arduous, because you want to make sure you're responsible to continuity while not being tethered and slavish to it, which can really kill your ability to bend the characters and tell exciting new stories." He later noted that the first two issues of the series are intentionally slow-paced in order to introduce the key characters and the team, but that the pace of the series picks up immediately with issue #3.
A major element of today's announcement was the news that Daniel Acuna will take over interior art duties on the series beginning with issue #6. Brevoort said, "Certainly people are aware of the work Daniel has done in recent years, most recently on Uncanny X-Men and Avengers before that. He's sort of a world class talent that's just about ready to pop. As you can see from the preview pages we sent out, he's been working ahead. While people have only seen two issues of Uncanny Avengers right now, he's finished with #6, he's working on #7 right now. The folks that were fearful we would reach a point where the series would never ship -- that's clearly not going to be the case... And he does beautiful work. Everything is done by Daniel -- pencils, inks, colors. It's the whole package. It's getting his rich, stylized, fully painted art on a regular release schedule."
Uncanny Avengers #6 interior art
Remender said, "The previews that were sent out are some quiet moments because we didn't want to reveal too much of the story. But those quiet moments really show what Acuna can do. When you see Thor in the tavern or building the London Bridge in the 11th Century -- this is not easy stuff, and he just nails it. He sells the reality while also making it look like a Marvel comic book."
Unfortunately, neither Remender nor Brevoort were very encouraging about the possibility of John Cassaday returning to pencil the series, saying only that "the door is open" if Cassaday wishes to return. Cassaday will continue providing covers for the foreseeable future, but Acuna is now billed as the regular artist for Uncanny Avengers.
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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