From The Age of Ultron A New Age Rises

From The Age of Ultron A New Age Rises

By: Jay

“Age of Ultron” is Marvel’s big event for 2013, which has fans wondering: why? The series appears to take place in an alternate reality. After all, Peter Parker seems to still be in his body and, oh yeah, Earth is being controlled by Ultron. Even though all evidence indicates Age of Ultron is on an Alternate Earth, Marvel insists this is happening NOW! So what could Age of Ultron bring to the table that could make this THE big Marvel event of the year? How about a new role for Ultron’s daddy Hank Pym in the Marvel Universe?

From the Marvel June 2013 solicitations we found out that the Age of Ultron one-shot tie-in Age of Ultron #10 A.I.

“By story’s end, Hank Pym will have an entirely new role in the Marvel Universe!”

It’s important to remember that Marvel has it’s own Diamond catalog and only gets on the cover to the main Previews catalog a few times a year. For the month that Age of Ultron wraps up Marvel decided to showcase Age of Ultron #10 A.I. on the cover, with the tagline “A New Age Rises”. Please note that this issue is written by Mark Waid and not the main Age of Ultron series writer Brian Michael Bendis, and goes on sale the week after the main series ends.

Marvel has been tight-lipped about the “unguessable ending” of Age of  Ultron #10. It is so secret that Marvel’s CCO Joe Quesada is drawing the final pages of the issue and Brian Bendis has said “literally five people know” what happens. Could Hank Pym’s new role be that “unguessable ending”?

Is that enough to make Age of Ultron this year’s big event though? Hank Pym has been through a lot of changes since his first appearance. What else does Marvel have to offer that will make fans who aren’t picking up this title kick themselves for not doing so? How about introducing a character to the Marvel Universe?

We now know that Marvel will be introducing a character to the Marvel Universe that many comic book fans may recognize, Spawn’s Angela. The character Angela (as well as other characters co-created by Neil Gaiman) were tied in a decade-long legal battle over who owned the copyrights to the characters from Gaiman’s run on Spawn, which concluded in 2012. Gaiman’s co-ownership of Angela, Medieval Spawn and Cagliostro were all affirmed in the ruling.

The news was officially released by Marvel via the New York Times Arts Beat blog this past Thursday morning. In the announcement Quesada states that the arrival of Angela has “been in the works for quite some time. We were looking for a good entry point to tease our fans and to let them know she was going to be a major player.” Marvel later confirmed on their site that Angela’s appearance will be at the end of the series, with Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso comparing it to the post-credits scenes that have become popular in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with this scene being written by Bendis and drawn by Quesada as a part of the “unguessable ending” that has been teased since the hype for this series began.

Don’t think of Angela’s appearance will be a one-time thing. Marvel has promised that Bendis will continue to use her, and even revealed that her next appearance will be in Guardians of the Galaxy #5, which will be co-written by Bendis and Angela co-creator Gaiman.

So what do you think? Let us know what you think Marvel will do with Angela and how she will fit into the Marvel Universe and what Hank Pym’s new role be in the Marvel Universe will be.