Alonso, Brevoort Discuss Universe-Melding "Secret Wars," Address the Reboot Question

[ViewtifulJC]

"The Ultimate Universe and the Marvel Universe are going to smash together," editor-in-chief Axel Alonso explained. "Imagine there's two pizzas. They're going to smash together. You're going to have all-new toppings. Some toppings are going to drop off. You're going to yell about some that are missing. You're going to love the new ones that are there. That's the new Marvel universe moving forward."

[krisis]

Knowing that they've been planning event for this for several years of retreats makes sense. In retrospect, for many franchises you can look at the AvX/MarvelNow dividing line as when character-driven stories stopped really being the point with a renewed focus on convention-breaking, since Marvel had a possible out hovering in the near future.

Avengers > Went from team as family to a meta-story about fighting the reboot
X-Men > Went from focus on species survival to mutants as actual terrorists contrasting with the purity of the original five
Captain America > Aging the character a decade and then entirely, new Cap
Iron Man > Sent him to space, made him adopted, turned him evil
Thor > Made him unworthy, new Thor
Spider-Man > Turned him evil (and successful), reversed that, had him battle a multi-versal threat
Wolverine > Took away his healing factor; killed him

Plus, lots of risk-taking that can be reversed if it backfires - killing young characters in Arena, making Inhumans a franchise, new Ms. Marvel, and tons of throwing unlikely series at the wall to see if they stick.

I don't know how I feel about Secret Wars yet, but at least some of the character choices leading up to it make more sense now!

[Habis]

[B]I can't wait to have 50 Wolverines running around! Me neither

At what point during the last two decades there haven't been 50 Wolverines running around? He can't be everywhere at the same time, logic says that he has an army of doubles.

[Prime]

About damn time Marvel did a reboot.

[mace11]

Its not necessarily a reboot in classic comic book terms but Marvel never makes anything "classic." They've been a flagship for experimentation and for many years continuity. As certain comic title sales have diminished, they tried to change characters to appeal to the masses with about a 50% success rate. To me, this is another experiment in comics which will slog down the entire industry with a lackluster story and enough sales to boost another event. It may not be a reboot, but its definitely a "HEY GUYS, HERE ARE SOME NEW NUMBER ONES, YOU LOVE NUMBER ONES" which usually smells a lot like a reboot so I understand why people are using the term.



If a reboot is when Marvel redoes character backstories and/or reworks characters, then Marvel has been doing it for years! Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are no longer children of Magneto, a Muslim Ms. Marvel, Daredevil is now decently happy, Hawkeye is the lazy Avenger, Scott Summers is now a jerk and Wolverine and Uatu are dead. (Not all of these "reboots" are bad, but you get the gist of what I am saying; Marvel Universe is like quicksand, its always changing.)

Marvel does not call it a reboot however.
They called it a time shift.

They do not do reboots,and never will.
They will tell you that.
They say that is a dc thing.

[Sighphi]

Marvel does not call it a reboot however.
They called it a time shift.

They do not do reboots,and never will.
Call them or write to them,and they will tell you that.
They say that is a dc thing.

You know that reboot became a term to use because remake for some apparent reason wasnt trending anymore.
Studios wanted to distance themselves from the apparent stigma the word remake had.

We all know what this is, they are changing the whole universe to launch a whole mess of new books.
What origins are kept or not doesnt matter because Marvel pretty sure dont care about that. It's all about what is happening now.

[Peter Parker]

At what point during the last two decades there haven't been 50 Wolverines running around? He can't be everywhere at the same time, logic says that he has an army of doubles.

I like to think separate parts of him chunked off in battle healed into completely new Wolverines.

[jackolover]

There's no reboot.

That's what it sounds like to me. Marvel history isn't broken? That's questionable, considering sliding time scales are fudging history on a continual basis, so if that isn't Marvel history broken, what is?

[Sirzechs]

You know that reboot became a term to use because remake for some apparent reason wasnt trending anymore.
Studios wanted to distance themselves from the apparent stigma the word remake had.

We all know what this is, they are changing the whole universe to launch a whole mess of new books.
What origins are kept or not doesnt matter because Marvel pretty sure dont care about that. It's all about what is happening now.

This, DC also didn't call New52 a reboot, they said it was just a relaunch of the merge timeline.

[Sasquatch by Night]

What will this mean for titles that just launched, like Ant-Man?

[Habis]

Knowing that they've been planning event for this for several years of retreats makes sense. In retrospect, for many franchises you can look at the AvX/MarvelNow dividing line as when character-driven stories stopped really being the point with a renewed focus on convention-breaking, since Marvel had a possible out hovering in the near future.

Avengers > Went from team as family to a meta-story about fighting the reboot
X-Men > Went from focus on species survival to mutants as actual terrorists contrasting with the purity of the original five
Captain America > Aging the character a decade and then entirely, new Cap
Iron Man > Sent him to space, made him adopted, turned him evil
Thor > Made him unworthy, new Thor
Spider-Man > Turned him evil (and successful), reversed that, had him battle a multi-versal threat
Wolverine > Took away his healing factor; killed him

Plus, lots of risk-taking that can be reversed if it backfires - killing young characters in Arena, making Inhumans a franchise, new Ms. Marvel, and tons of throwing unlikely series at the wall to see if they stick.

I don't know how I feel about Secret Wars yet, but at least some of the character choices leading up to it make more sense now!

Everything ends, so nothing matters!

[solletaire]

Marvel does not call it a reboot however.
They called it a time shift.

They do not do reboots,and never will.
They will tell you that.
They say that is a dc thing.

I think Marvel has successfully been doing "secret reboots" all along. If you look at Marvel back issues starting in the late '80s you'll see how with every creative shift on a title there has been a shift in characterization and reinvention of characters, franchises, and concepts. Sure they never said outright that it was a reboot and they made it appear as though the characters history is unchanged... However, how many times have creators referenced Chicheter's run on Daredevil and his supposed death... or the fact that Xavier wiped Magneto's mind ... Xavier is good then evil then good again... Cable seems to have forgotten he had a son way before Hope Summers was in the picture, not to mention how many times Aunt May has died...

Retcons+omissions=secret reboots.

This is just more official and I am pretty excited to see what happens

[Random4]

so is it a reboot or not

[jackolover]

Why does everyone keep calling it a reboot? It's not. Reboot comes with reworking or completely redoing characters backstories, there is absolutely no indication this is happening, it seems like all characters are keeping their histories intact, it's just that some alternate universe characters will be joining the main universe. There may be a reLAUNCH after Secret Wars is done, but that's not the same as a reboot.

Yeah, it did sound like a melding of the MU and Ultimate Universe, but that maybe just reading too much into it. I did see a corrosion of the MU recently, as though it was fracturing, with a host of characters losing their stability, like Rogers, Thor, and Stark, as examples. Sure, Marvel could rejig them all back together again, but why break them in the first place? Just to reform them after SECRET WAR, in some schmultzy way?

I just wonder what the purpose of SW is anyway? Hickman went this way since Marvel NOW started, knowing that SW was his end game, and he frames his post-AXIS stories as super heroes gone bad. Is this the way for the super heroes to pay for their sins? And then once they fight each other and the Beyonder goes away, what? Go back home to old boring Earth 616?

[Jackraow21]

At what point during the last two decades there haven't been 50 Wolverines running around? He can't be everywhere at the same time, logic says that he has an army of doubles.

Wolverine is dead in most of these alternate universes anyway. Ultimate, DoFP, AoA, etc. The only ones where he's alive are Old Man Logan and X-men '92 I think.