Marvel will be heavily leaning on the X-Men in September. That’s not surprising since the Fall Of X event is being set up as a game changing period for not just the X-Men but the Marvel Universe as a whole. That includes a major wedding that will see the worlds of X-Men and Avengers coming together to celebrate. Along with that we got new eras for Captain America, Daredevil, Nightcrawler, and more will begin in September as well. Let’s take a look at the biggest takeaways from Marvel’s September 2023 comic book solicitations.
TONY STARK AND EMMA FROST ARE GETTING MARRIED
Two characters I never thought we see married are Tony Stark and Emma Frost. Both characters have never shown wanting to be tied down that way even in their long-term committed relationships they have had in the past. But now Tony Stark and Emma Frost are getting married to each other. And we have X-Men and Invincible Iron Man writer Gerry Duggan to thank for that.
The timing is certainly interesting as it is happening at the beginning of the Fall Of X event. We know that Fall Of X is having such a big impact on the X-Men franchise that is getting extended to the Avengers involvement. This marriage between Emma Frost and Tony Stark does further hint at how Fall Of X is not just an X-Men event. This could also mean that we will see more of the plot revolving around Orchis impacting the Avengers titles as Iron Man has been dealing with the organization recently.
The wedding between Emma Frost and Tony Stark is significant for another reason. Because with X-Men #25 dedicated to the wedding this is yet another month without a new X-Men post-Hellfire Gala 2023 being spotlighted. This brings into question if we will even have an X-Men team announced at Hellfire Gala 2023 or if the events from this year’s party leaving us without an official X-Men team. That could very well be the case since we know that we got the Dark X-Men around during Fall Of X and both Jean Grey and Cyclops are tied up with the former’s solo series and Contest Of Champions event. Not having an official X-Men team could be an important element to why Fall Of X is happening.
J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI RETURNS FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA
Marvel attempted to go the Spider-Man and X-Men route with their last Captain America creative run by having multiple titles for the franchise right out of the gate. For all the good intentions to give both Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson equal amount of attention it does not appear to have worked. Even with a crossover event the two Captain America comics did not catch on. Which is honestly not surprising since even the Avengers struggle with multiple titles and the related solo characters like Captain America normally only get one ongoing.
Now it looks like Marvel is going back to having one core Captain America series with Steve Rogers as the lead. For this series relaunch Marvel is also bringing back J. Michael Straczynski to write the ongoing. On one end, it is certainly exciting that JMS is back to writing comics and Captain America is a character he can certainly excel at writing. Though in recent years JMS has been focused on TV and movie projects so we don’t know what that will mean for scheduling as JMS comics do hit delays.
From a story perspective, going with the “Man Out Of Time” tagline that has followed Captain America is not the most exciting thing to see utilized. At this point Steve Rogers has moved past having that tagline tied to him. This is hopefully just marketing and not JMS mentality of how to write Steve. With JMS writing a story that involves the past, present, and future of the Marvel Universe it hopefully means we will see an emphasis on Captain America being a symbol of hope. We will see starting in September.
PREDATOR VERSUS WOLVERINE MAIN EVENT
Marvel, at least in comic book form, is making use of Disney now owning Fox properties to create new comic books. We’ve seen both Aliens and Predator comics from Marvel. What we haven’t had just yet is a crossover between the Marvel Universe with Star Wars, Avatar, Predator, or Aliens. Now that is finally changing as we are getting with our first big property crossover with Predator vs Wolverine in September.
If there are two characters made to fight each other it is Predator and Wolverine. These two just look like natural enemies when you look at Marco Checchetto’s cover. You just imagine how bloody of a fight these two will get in. And that is all Predator vs Wolverine needs to be. Just four comic book issues of bloody violence of Wolverine and Predator tearing each other apart.
And it looks like for this story the creative team of Benjamin Percy and an army of artists are going to be using Wolverine’s Weapon X history. This eliminates the X-Men or other Marvel characters from getting involved in the fight. Setting it in the Canadian wilderness creates a setting that works to both characters strengths so who gets the advantage will be interesting to see play out.
WASP CREATES AVENGERS INC.
When thinking of what would be next for Janet Van Dyne, her creating a company called Avengers Incorporated was not in the list of ideas. While she has a business background creating a company around the Avengers sounds more like something Tony Stark would do. But with this Avengers Inc direction it does give Wasp to make her own.
The biggest selling point for Avengers Inc. is the creative team. Al Ewing and Leonard Kirk are an excellent creative team for Avengers Inc. Ewing also has recent experience writing Janet Van Dyne in the Wasp mini-series, which was a solid comic book. Ewing also has shown he is great at writing superhero team books with his work on Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men Red.
From the solicitation for Avengers Inc. #1 we aren’t sure if this will be a true team book. Because right now Wasp is mentioned to be teaming with Victor Shade, an alias that Vision used decades ago. Hopefully its not just a Wasp and Vision book. Characters like Black Widow, Hawkeye, Ant-Man, Hellcat, and Iron Fist could be good additions to provide a balance for this new Avengers book.
NIGHTCRAWLER JOINS SPIDER-MAN FAMILY
Nightcrawler is making sure that if he is jumping ship from the X-Men he is going to be joining another, equally, popular franchise. That is because starting in September Nightcrawler will be going by the Uncanny Spider-Man. This is not surprising given how popular Spider-Verse has made all of the alternate versions of Spider-Man and Spider-Woman. Having X-Men like Nightcrawler have their own Spider-Man variant does make him even more popular.
This is also a chance to have Spider-Man get more involved with the X-Men in the future. We know in recent years Marvel has had Spider-Man team up with Wolverine. Amazing Spider-Man also had a crossover with X-Men to begin 2023 with Dark Web. So the ties are already there for the Spider-Man franchise to have their characters be allies for the X-Men during Fall Of X.
Specifically, on the Nightcrawler front, it’ll be interesting if the change to Uncanny Spider-Man will switch to him dealing with other villains beyond the X-Men franchise. Spider-Man has Marvel’s best rogues gallery and there is plenty of opportunity to see how Nightcrawler battles them. From dream team-ups to fights Uncanny Spider-Man can be one of Marvel’s biggest successes in 2023.
SALADIN AHMED & AARON KUDER BEGIN DAREDEVIL RUN
If there is one comic book that fans can be confident will always be good it is Daredevil. Just about every creative team that has worked on Daredevil has delivered excellent work. We have just had another example of Daredevil being a benchmark comic book with Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto’s incredible run on Daredevil. Through that run Matt Murdock and Elektra Natchios were put through the ringer, that included the former’s death.
Now we know that Matt Murdock wouldn’t stay dead. The solicitation for Daredevil #1 in September makes that clear as the creative team Saladin Ahmed and Aaron Kuder feature Matt Murdock in their teaser for their new run. They do show they will use the momentum from Zdarsky and Checchetto’s run to launch into their plans for Daredevil. This is a move that has been a strength of the Daredevil series as creative teams have built off what came before them.
The immediate question that we see brought up in Daredevil #1 is what the status quo for Elektra will be. Elektra has shown she can carry the Daredevil legacy on her own. But now after all that she and Matt have been through maybe we will see her go back to her Elektra Natchios solo mercenary days. Hopefully Elektra will get some sort of direction and gets a costume similar to her Daredevil as that was a great costume for her character.
ULTIMATE INVASION CONCLUSION BEGINNING SOMETHING NEW
We know from Ultimate Invasion #1 that The Maker is looking to create his own universe rather than simply bring back the Ultimate Universe. He did so by going to Earth-6160, rather than the Ultimate Universe that has the designation of Earth 1610. He already made big changes by stopping Earth-6160’s Peter Parker from becoming Spider-Man, at least in his traditional origin.
Now as teased in Ultimate Invasion #4, the final issue of the event, Jonathan Hickman and Bryan Hitch are indicating this is just the start of something. We see on the cover that The Maker seems to have created clones of Captain America, Thor, Vision, Wasp, and Giant Man. This could all just be for creating a dynamic cover. Or it could be part of The Maker’s plans to create his “perfect” Ultimate Universe.
Though we know that The Maker will have competition from Kang in creating this new Ultimate Universe, with the Avengers and Miles Morales’ Spider-Man in the middle. All this leaves us wondering if Ultimate Invasion #1 will truly lead into the revival of the Ultimate Universe. This is likely something we will find out soon, possibly during San Diego Comic-Con.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN BACK TO BLACK SUIT ERA
From a sales and headline making perspective Zeb Wells’ Amazing Spider-Man has been a success. Though you would not know that given that both Zeb Wells and editor Nick Lowe have become silent on talking about Amazing Spider-Man. That is a big change as Marvel was actively pushing both of them to promote their creative run until the critical disaster that was Amazing Spider-Man #26.
But through all of that silence Wells and Lowe appear to plan to now have Peter Parker return to his time wearing the black Spider-Man costume. That is at least teased in Amazing Spider-Man #33, though the Peter appears back in his normal non-Green Goblin modified costume in Amazing Spider-Man #34. So maybe the black Spider-Man costume is just a nod to the famous battles with Kraven.
This does bring into question if Peter suddenly tapping into his inner Kraven the Hunter for the September arc of Amazing Spider-Man means the end of his partnership with Norman Osborn. Wells has pushed Peter and Norman’s relation hard throughout his run. Norman has basically replaced MJ and all of Peter’s love interests. For those reading Amazing Spider-Man that is likely something to watch out for.
