It’s been no secret that Marvel was planning some big changes to their comic lineup this year, we’ve already seen some major shifts in Marvel’s comic universe, but it looks like they are planning for a lot more. Get ready for an all new Marvel comics.
Referring to the relaunch as “All New” and “All Different” Marvel is now planning a complete reset that will introduce new characters, and make significant changes to existing ones. With the reboot all Marvel titles will be reset back to issue #1 and will begin anew.
Marvel has already made headlines in recent months by making changes to a couple well-known characters. The mantle of Thor is now held by a woman. Sam Wilson (that’s The Falcon to you) is the new Captain America. Don’t expect those positions to change after everything else changes. Marvel received a lot of positive press when they happened and would likely receive the opposite if they changed back, especially so soon.
While comic reboots are nothing new in history it’s usually been the guys over at DC hitting the reset button. They hit that button a lot. While Marvel has made minor resets to individual characters now and then it’s always handled within the existing Marvel Universe. This appears to be a drastic restart of literally everything. Check out the image below as well as the header for an idea what the new Marvel Universe will look like.
The rationale behind this is obvious. The reason resets happen is because comic book continuity gets incredibly deep and dense as the same books go on for, in some cases, decades. This tends to keep new readers out because they don’t know where to start and don’t want to jump into a story in the middle. By starting over the publisher is telling readers “hey, now’s a great time to get started.” Marvel by virtue of the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe sees a HUGE opportunity to grab new readers.
Millions of moviegoers are on board with Marvel at the theater, the MCU is clear and easy to understand. Marvel is trying to do the same thing with their books. What’s more, by making the new comic universe unique compared to the MCU, readers know that the story they’re getting in the books won’t be the same ones they’re making the movies about.
Change is a difficult thing in comics and it’s likely some of these changes won’t sit well with all readers. Does an all-new Marvel Universe scare you or intrigue you? Are you ready to pick up the new #1’s?
