Russia has claimed it has carried out successful tests of a hypersonic missile, a year ahead of schedule. According to government-controlled news agency Sputnik, the missile system - known as Zircon - could be installed on Pyotr Veliky, the country’s nuclear-powered missile strike ship. The hypersonic missiles are a “quantum leap in technology,” defence analyst Tim Ripley’s told DW.

We’ve got a brand new episode of This Week in Marvel, presented by Loot Crate, to help you kick off the weekend!

Ryan and Ben give you the rundown on this week’s comics hottest releases including SECRET EMPIRE, MOON KNIGHT, CABLE and more! We’ve also got tons of comics news from Tom Brevoort and Alanna Smith (49:23); West Coast news from Marc, Christine with your weekly dose of Marvel Games and Marvel Animation (1:14:21); and both coasts dive into the 90s-tastic world of X-Cutioner’s Song Pt. 1 with our Unlimited Reading Club (1:21:13)! It’s all here on a funky fresh episode of the official Marvel podcast!

Be sure to join our #TWIMURC next time where we have both coasts tackle X-Cutioner’s Song Pt. 2! Share your thoughts with us using the hashtag #TWIMURC!

Loot Crate has assembled the Marvel Gear and Goods crate for the ultimate Marvel fan. This crate features official Marvel items like collectible home goods, apparel and more every other month! If anyone knows the importance of downtime, it’s Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, Jessica Drew and their Wall-Crawling peers. Unwind after a hard day with denizens of the SPIDER-VERSE! Order your own Marvel Gear and Goods crate by heading to lootcrate.com/MarvelGear and use promo code “MARVELPOD” to save $3 on your subscription today.

Download episode #292 of This Week in Marvel from Marvel.com, check out Marvel Podcast Central, grab the TWiM RSS feed and subscribe to This Week in Marvel on iTunes, so you never miss an episode! We are now also on Soundcloud! Head over now to our new hub to listen to the full run of This Week in Marvel!

This Week in Marvel will focus on delivering all the Marvel info on news and new releases–from comics to video games to toys to TV to film and beyond! New episodes will be released every Thursday (or so) and TWiM is co-hosted by Marvel VP & Executive Editor of Digital Media Ryan “Agent M” Penagos and Marvel Editorial Director of Digital Media Ben Morse, along with Marvel.com Editor Marc Strom, Marvel.com Assistant Editor Christine Dinh, and Manager of Video & Content Production Blake Garris. We also want your feedback, as well as questions for us to answer on future episodes!  Tweet your questions, comments and thoughts about TWiM to @AgentM, @BenJMorse, @chrissypedia or @Marvel with the hashtag #ThisWeekinMarvel!

For most kids, finding out your folks belong to a world-dominating cabal of super villains would be about the craziest thing in the world—but they’re not the Runaways! Back in 2003, Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona introduced us to a book called RUNAWAYS and a cast of characters that we instantly fell in love with. The adventures of Nico, Karolina, Chase, Molly, Alex, and Gertrude grabbed a faithful fan following that led to a number of volumes as well as appearances in other books like AVENGERS ARENA and A-FORCE.

In September, the newly announced RUNAWAYS creative team of novelist Rainbow Rowell and artist Kris Anka will have plenty of plans for the kids as they continue to grow up in a world jam-packed with threats large and small constantly threatening existence. The gang will get back together again starting with Chase and Nico who haven’t exactly been on the best of terms lately. We talked with Rowell and Anka about the importance of this book, where they plan to take it, and how they’re working together to get there.

Marvel.com: Was RUNAWAYS a book you got into when it was coming out? What does it mean to you as a comic reader and a creator?

Rainbow Rowell: Yeah, I read it in real time when it was coming out, and stuck with it ‘til the end.

I think I started reading RUNAWAYS because I’ve always liked teen teams. I was really into NEW MUTANTS and GENERATION X, too. But then it became my favorite comic—and introduced me to Brian K. Vaughan, who is one of my favorite writers, in any genre.

RUNAWAYS felt like nothing else I was reading at the time. It was completely character-driven. It had teenagers that acted like real teenagers. And they were so funny and heartbreaking. And they made so many mistakes.

Also, thanks to Adrian Alphona, the book didn’t look anything else I was reading.

I just loved everything about it. I remember trying to talk my friends into reading it. Even people who didn’t read comics.

Now that I’ve written books of my own and created my own teen characters, I realize how hard it is to write an ensemble where every character feels distinct and engaging.

Kris Anka: That first issue of RUNAWAYS came out just as I was about to be a freshman in high school. I was born and raised in L.A. There had never been a book that so distinctly lined up with me and my friends. I remember passing around the first few issues with all my friends. It didn’t quite hit me until I was reading the script for the new series that I fundamentally have been preparing for 28 years of my life to draw this book.

It’s not an understatement that I understand this book and these kids through and through. As I was rereading the previous runs and preparing for the new book and getting into the [heads] of the characters it really struck me that I know these kids. Each of the characters reflected someone I grew up with. I mean I literally went to high school with a blonde girl who was the daughter of a well-known actor! I knew a Karolina, I knew a Gert, I knew a Nico. You could almost say there are no other characters in the Marvel Universe that I understand better then these characters.

Marvel.com: The Runaways have gone through a variety of trials and tribulations since their last series ended. How does this new volume find them when it picks up?

Rainbow Rowell: So many trials and tribulations! The series picks up with them really down on their luck. I mean, half of them are dead. They’ve been squashed and scattered, and the ones who are left don’t even think of themselves as Runaways, necessarily. They never chose each other, you know? They were just kids who got thrown together in a crisis.

This whole first arc is about trying to getting the band back together—when you can’t even agree there was ever a band.

Marvel.com: It sounds like the book kicks off with Chase and Nico reuniting. How does she react to letting him back in her orbit?

Rainbow Rowell: She’s so fed up with him. Nico and Chase have spent the most time together since RUNAWAYS ended. They’ve—maybe literally?—gone to hell and back together. And he was a thorn in her side the whole time, constantly on her nerves.

So, Chase shows up in Nico’s living room, trying to get her to help him with this spectacular mess he’s made. And she doesn’t want to! She doesn’t want to get dragged back into his dysfunction.

Marvel.com: Kris, Would you say it’s more difficult working on a super hero comic like this where the characters have very distinct looks and styles, but don’t have regular costumes?

Kris Anka: Absolutely. On most other books I’d have the costume to fall back on that they’d probably be wearing most of the time. On a book like this it’s entirely reliant on a robust and character fitting wardrobe that I have to build for all of them.

Marvel.com: These characters have grown and evolved so much over the years, what still makes them “Runaways?”

Rainbow Rowell: These four people—Chase, Nico, Karolina, Molly—have been through something so tragic and so traumatic and so specific. They betrayed their parents, they saved the world, they made themselves orphans. There’s so much unspoken between them that no one else will ever understand. I think they’ll always feel like home to each other. They’ll always be Runaways.

Marvel.com: Given their ages, the Runaways are always evolving. When coming up with their current looks, how was it balancing what we’ve already seen of them while also evolving them forward? 

Kris Anka: The first big challenge of this book was boiling down their essences and finding what their styles have developed in to in modern L.A. The trouble with teen looks, especially in L.A., is that they don’t last very long. A lot of the styles from the early 00s just aren’t around nowadays and I didn’t want 18-20-year-olds to look dated.

Karolina who started as the daughter of actors sort-of-flower child Socal blonde would definitely be a Yoga-doing-Coachella kid nowadays. Nico’s Goth look has become the witch and crystals look. I spent weeks building Pinterests for each of the characters so I could have a multitude of outfits for them. What we see on the cover just happens to be the first look I [came] up with, but it is in no means the only look for them.

Marvel.com: Kris mentioned looking back at earlier runs; Rainbow, how much did you look back at the previous series or other teen comics to get a feel for these characters?

Rainbow Rowell: A lot. I’m a continuity junky. So there was never any question for me about whether to go back. I reread everything. The whole run. And then I read every appearance the characters have made since. Then I went back to the Vaughan/Alphona stuff again.

I didn’t really need to get a feel for the Runaways or teen comics; I already had that. But the exciting part of the project for me was moving these characters forward in a way that felt true to who they really are and what they’ve been through so far. Really bringing them back to life.

I wanted to write them in a way that would feel true to old Runaways fans—like me—and that would endear them to new readers. I hope that new readers fall for these characters the way I did 14 years ago.

Marvel.com: From a writing perspective, how has it been shifting from prose to comic scripting?

Rainbow Rowell: I’ve spent the last two years working on screenplays and the graphic novel I’m doing with Faith Erin Hicks, so I was all warmed up for RUNAWAYS.

But I’m still getting used to the pacing of a 20-page book—and how fast it goes. I think my original pitch for this six-issue arc would actually cover five years of monthly comics. Kris and Nick Lowe, our editor, have been really patient and generous with me.

Marvel.com: Kris, Rainbow comes from the world of prose writing. Do you think that gives her a different approach to comics?

Kris Anka: Definitely. In sort of a selfish way Rainbow’s new-ness to comics really helped me sort of specify early on and help us develop our work flow better so that we worked more fluidly with each other. There would be normal things you’d put in to a script that for this book I wasn’t looking for this time that helped lessen the learning curve for her and gave me more freedom.

When I got the first [drafts] of the scripts Rainbow had broken most pages down into beats, but it read so clearly to me and was so captivating I had no trouble in figuring out the panels and pacing that I asked her not to bother putting the panels in because it was already so clear. Plus given Rainbow’s skill in capturing characters I just couldn’t put down the scripts and I kept wanting to read more and more, which definitely helps get me excited to draw the book.

Marvel.com: Along similar lines, how has it been working with Kris on this series so far?

Rainbow Rowell: It has been, without exaggeration, a pure delight. Kris is a bountifully talented artist. And he brings everything I was specifically hoping for to the book. Adrian Alphona set the bar high for these characters. He drew them with distinct body types and each with their own sense of style. Kris gets that. I remember looking at Kris’s first drawings of Chase and thinking, “This looks exactly like Chase, but also brand new, and also somehow better than ever.”

Kris was already a RUNAWAYS fan. So we were both starting at the same place, and I think we immediately trusted each other with the evolution of these characters.

To see that next step in their evolution, check out RUNAWAYS #1 by Rainbow Rowell and Kris Anka in September!

Victor Von Doom spent decades clashing with the heroes of the Marvel Universe. After remaking said universe during Secret Wars, though, he decided to turn over a new leaf and help fill in for Tony Stark following Civil War II. But that doesn’t mean his former enemies will so easily flip the script and welcome him with open arms. In AVENGERS #8, writers Mark Waid and Jeremy Whitley along with guest artist Phil Noto explore what happens when the Infamous Iron Man shows up and not only demands a place amongst the world’s greatest super heroes, but also to lead them.

With the June 7 issue hitting soon, we talked with Noto about jumping in on such a big-deal team book, working with new costumes, and how he achieves his unique style.

Marvel.com: Can you talk a little bit about your general process? From the pencils we see here, you start with traditional line work, but end up with these amazingly textured images at the end. How do you do it?

Phil Noto: Well, to begin with, it’s all digital. That makes the process much easier for me. I rough out the story in Photoshop, then do tight ink work in Clip Studio. After the inks are done, I use Clip Studio once again to flat the colors then I take it back to Photoshop to do the final rendering. I use a lot of Kyle Webster’s watercolor brushes to give it that natural texture.

Marvel.com: Is it any more difficult hopping in on a team book like this than a solo one?

Phil Noto: Yes, there’s definitely quite a difference. When I was working on BLACK WIDOW, most pages would be Nat and another character or two at the most. [POE DAMERON] got a little busier with his squadron and the droids. AVENGERS often has multiple characters in the scene. Other than just taking longer to draw, the trickiest thing is setting them in a correct way so the letterer can clearly place the word balloons.

Marvel.com: Infamous Iron Man makes his presence felt by the team in this issue. How was it working with that new look?

Phil Noto: It was very cool. I’m a giant fan of Alex Maleev’s work on [INFAMOUS IRON MAN] and it was fun getting to draw a “simple” Iron Man.

Marvel.com: Speaking of new looks, many of these characters are rocking relatively new costumes. Was there any difficulty making them work together on the page?

Phil Noto: Not really. There’s a lot of red and blue of course. I tried to differentiate the hues a bit. I generally balance out a page or a panel with a certain color to tie it all together to begin with. It’s similar to working on a cover illustration where you’re just trying to put together a cohesive palette on the page.

Marvel.com: How was it working with Mark and Jeremy on this story?

Phil Noto: It was wonderful! I’ve known Mark for quite a while and we’ve always wanted to work together on something and this was a great chance. I’ve never actually met Jeremy but he’s done such a great job with Nadia in [UNSTOPPABLE WASP]. She came across so clearly in the script, it was no trouble at all to picture her body language and expressions.

To see how the team takes to Victor’s desire to join the group, check out AVENGERS #8 by Mark Waid, Jeremy Whitley, and Phil Noto on June 7!

Every Friday we use the powers of Marvel Unlimited to look back at the very first appearance of a major character, place or object that made waves this week.

Nathaniel Summers never stops fighting for the future, even if that means traveling to the past. Readers got a new look at that unconquerable spirit as his new series CABLE launched this week from James Robinson and Carlos Pacheco, but it’s been there since the beginning. And, of course, that start came back in 1990’s NEW MUTANTS #87 when the gun-toting soldier fully debuted in the issue created by Louise Simonson and Rob Liefeld. He literally burst onto the scene to stop the Mutant Liberation Front’s attack on a top-secret energy research station.

Readers also got to know another new character a bit better in this issue, Stryfe! He debuted in issue #86 as the leader of the MLF and sent the group to another locale, but this time Cable lied in wait! Unfortunately, the bad guys got the drop on him and left him unconscious so they could achieve their true goal of grabbing Rusty and Skids from a government facility. At the end of the installment—which also featured the title team making the long trek back from Asgard—Cable realized that he’d need a team of his own to go up against Stryfe’s. In the next issue, he escaped Freedom Force’s clutches and finally met up with the New Mutants in #89.

Cable eventually took over the team and the book morphed into X-FORCE. The militant mutant helped turn the kids into a well-oiled tactical squad that continues to influence the X-books in various ways to this day. In 1993, Cable scored his first solo series which ran until 2002. Creators like Fabian Nicieza, Art Thibert, Steve Skroce, Jeph Loeb, Ian Churchill, Joe Casey, Jose Ladronn, David Tischman and, of course, Liefeld, all lent their talents to the book in that time.

New Mutants (1983) #87

• Published: March 10, 1990
• Added to Marvel Unlimited: March 05, 2008
• Writer: Louise Simonson
• Penciller: Rob Liefeld
• Cover Artist: Rob Liefeld

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What is Marvel Unlimited?

The longer Cable stuck around, the more readers learned about him. For instance, he technically first appeared back in UNCANNY X-MEN #201 as Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor’s son Nathan. In X-FACTOR #68, they sent the child to the future for protection. There, Mother Askani helped raise him and he also ran into his lifetimes-long enemy Apocalypse for the first time. For more even more on Cable’s youth, check out ADVENTURES OF CYCLOPS AND PHOENIX!

Flash Forward

Though he’s carried out many important missions over the years, Cable’s most important assignment came during the Messiah CompleX crossover. That story took place after Scarlet Witch decimated the homo superior population, but found one single mutant birth popping up on everyone’s radar at the same time. As the various factions fought over the baby girl, Cable swooped in, grabbed her and made off through the time stream with the savior named Hope. After the crossover ended, they moved on to a new volume of CABLE wherein he trained her as they traveled through time, avoiding enemies like fellow future mutant, Bishop! They succeeded and eventually returned to the present where they went their separate ways, but still share a strong bond.