Marvel is going to continue their 2021 with increasing how much King In Black has taken over their universe. Marvel’s latest big event is clearly something that the company has gone all in on, which we see with February 2021’s solicitations. In addition to that it looks like both the X-Men and Spider-Man will still be dealing with the aftermath of X of Swords and The Last Remains, respectively. Then there is the tournament that the Avengers seem to be participating in for control of the Phoenix Force. With all of that it looks like Marvel has a lot of big things going on in February 2021.
KING IN BLACK CONTINUES TO TAKE OVER
If it was obvious before February 2021 shows that King In Black has completely taken over the Marvel Universe. About half of the comics Marvel is publishing that month are related to the King In Black event. On top of that we see several titles like Captain America and Black Widow taking a break in February to make way for all of these King In Black titles.
In the process of going with this route Marvel is ensuring that Knull and the symbiotes are firmly established as top tier villains in the Marvel Universe. While we saw Marvel try that with Empyre that event did not connect in the way King In Black is obviously projected to be. Marvel clearly has confidence that this will be the big event that will sell for them.
Given that for a long time Marvel had relied on Thanos and Doctor Doom to be their top tier villains it is a good move to have Knull join that group. That would also help grow the Marvel Universe back to being a place where we do see genuine heroes vs. villains stories again. It’s a direction that Marvel is finally moving back to after spending two decades having heroes fighting other heroes.
X-MEN TAKE ON BIGGER ROLE IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
One of the things that Marvel looks to be doing in 2021 is having the X-Men become more integrated with the rest of the Marvel Universe. That is something that the X-Men books have been teasing with all the moves Krakoa has been doing since being formed. We got a tease of what looks like in the X-Men/Fantastic Four mini-series from earlier this year.
Now we are seeing the X-Men taking a big part in King In Black as Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, and Wolverine are on the cover of King In Black #4. On top of that we see how both the Marauders and SWORD are both getting their own tie-ins to King In Black. This is all much bigger role that the X-Men seem to playing in the upcoming King In Black than they did for Empyre, where they simply had tie-ins that felt forced.
In addition, we also see that Cyclops will lead X-Men in taking part of the Outlawed direction that the next generation of Marvel heroes are on with Champions #4. What’s most interesting about this is the fact that the X-Men are the first adult heroes who are helping the Champions out with the Outlawed direction they are on. That could further hint at how the X-Men are being set up to be a bigger part of the Marvel Universe as part of the next phase of the plans Jonathan Hickman and the other X-Men writers have for the franchise.
AVENGERS BEGIN THE TOURNAMENT FOR THE PHOENIX FORCE
As Jason Aaron enters the next phase of his plans for the Avengers we are going to see him bring in even more cosmic elements from across the Marvel Universe. That is shown with Avengers #42 teasing us over how the control for the Phoenix Force will come down to a major tournament the team will be participating in. Making this tournament for the Phoenix Force an even bigger deal is the fact we are going to see more than just the Avengers taking part. Characters like Wolverine, Namor, and Jane Foster are also going to be taking part. Having these additional characters involve does indicate that whatever plans Marvel has for what will come later in 2021 in terms of big event will involve whatever Aaron is building in Avengers.
LEGENDARY X-MEN WRITERS REUNITE FOR X-MEN: LEGENDS
As the Dawn of X has gone on we have seen how the X-Men franchise comics have gotten a mix reception. There are many that love it and many that don’t. It has definitely become a taste thing with how fans view where the X-Men franchise should go. And with Hickman and company going even deeper into the current Krakoa direction for the franchise some fans might feel left out.
Likely realizing that Marvel is giving fans of the 80s and 90s X-Men comics something they can get behind with the announcement of X-Men: Legends #1. This new series will be bringing in classic X-Men writers like Chris Claremont and Fabian Nicieza on board to tell X-Men stories that go back to the Claremont and Jim Lee era.
X-Men: Legends is no doubt a nostalgia grab to get a set of fans to buy new comics. What will be interesting about these X-Men: Legends books is how they tie into the current X-Men continuity. Because as the teasers for this comic show, X-Men: Legends is something that are in-continuity stories. Which would mean this is our first look at the pre-Krakoa X-Men look like in the continuity that Hickman created. What possible ties there are between these classic X-Men stories and what is going on in the present adds extra incentive to buy these comics on top of the nostalgia trip.
PETER PARK AND MARY JANE WATSON FUTURE DECIDED
While Peter Parker and the Spider-Man Family look to survive everything Kindred puts them through in “The Last Remains” that does not mean everything will be back to normal. There is major damage that was done across Peter Parker and Spider-Man’s life that won’t be fixed overnight. We see that with how Nick Spencer will have Spider-Man deal with Mr. Negative after Sin-Eater previously cleansed Martin Li. Given that there were many other characters that Sin-Eater cleansed it’ll be interesting to see if Mr. Negative’s status quo is something that extends to other characters like Juggernaut.
In addition to that, Spencer will finally have Peter and Mary Jane Watson finally back together after Kindred had them go through long-distance relationship. Before everything with “The Last Remains” took place it look we saw that Peter was getting ready to propose to Mary Jane when she wrapped up promoting her new movie and moved back to New York City. Given all that has and will go on with “The Last Remains” if that is still even possible is a major question moving forward for Peter and MJ as Kindred has really rocked everything as we learn he is Harry Osborn.
DONALD BLAKE AND JANE FOSTER REUNITE IN THOR
The return of a character that has been gone for a long time is something that is usually a cause for celebration. Unfortunately that is not the case for the recent return of Donald Blake. Rather than celebrating his return Donny Cates has left us horrified at the corrupted version of Donald Blake that returned. The character is not who we knew and there is good reason for that.
Now with Donald Blake out to make sure he is never sent back to the realm he stays in when he would normally transformed into Thor there is no telling what he can do. Which make the meeting between Donald Blake and Jane Foster such an intriguing development. Both Donald and Jane have been through so much since they last saw each other. This meeting will likely set up even bigger things down the line as Jane’s Valkyrie is brought into the fold of Cates’ plans for Thor and the Marvel Universe.
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