Section: Comics

Young Avengers: Youth Movement Pt. 4

Young Avengers: Youth Movement Pt. 4

Young Avengers #1 preview pencils by Jamie McKelvie

By Carla Hoffman

Today we continue our discussion with artist Jamie McKelvie and writer Kieron Gillen on their new book, YOUNG AVENGERS, and their style and approach to the modern young hero in an ever-changing world.

Join us as we talk about the huge gap between the ages of 16 and 18, the difficulties of constant re-expression, traveling from the mundane to the extraordinary, coffee shop couture and what people keep in their closets while they're out trying to save the world. 

Today: fashion and personal identity.

Marvel.com: What draws me into the new character designs is how much what they’re wearing looks like clothing instead of armor or uniforms. No one's aiming to look iconic like Captain America but, in their way, they come across looking more symbolic through their individuality. 

Jamie McKelvie: Yes, I really believe that the strongest designs and costumes stems from the character's personality and background and all those kind of things and that's why, when I did the Captain Marvel redesign, I looked at her background as a military officer and all that kind of stuff and brought that into the costuming.

Young Avengers #3 cover by Jamie McKelvie

And with these guys, yeah, it's the same kind of thing. You've got Miss America who's very powerful but she's also kind of a street level hero.

Marvel.com: It looks like she put together that costume herself, nobody handed it to her.

Jamie McKelvie: In fact, it's not really one particular costume, she's got a change of clothing and it's going to vary from adventure to adventure. 

Marvel.com: Oh, that's awesome!

Jamie McKelvie: Yeah, it should be pretty fun. I've already seen people cosplaying her, like four or five cosplaying the new costume, so it's gone down pretty well. And then you've got Wiccan and Hulkling. The thing with Hulking is his power is shape-shifting and that's the focus of his visuals and the action, so I wanted to keep his costume quite simple and not too busy because it's all the stuff that's he's doing that's more interesting as a visual.

And Wiccan, we don't see him in the costume; he doesn't put it on in this issue, so he's kind of in his normal clothing. The way I see him is kind of that 18 year old kid that you see working in the coffee shop in New York. Not like totally cool because he's still a bit of a nerd but he's definitely pays a little bit of attention to fashion and stuff. 

Young Avengers #1 cover by Jamie McKelvie

Kieron Gillen: He's worked out how hair gel works.

Jamie McKelvie: [Laughs] Yeah. It's a couple of years on and you think about how you change from when you're 16 to when you're 18 and all the styles you've gone through. I really wanted them to feel like real teenagers so part of it was they're not going to be stuck in the same looks they were when they were 16. 

Kieron Gillen: Even I couldn't do that.

Jamie McKelvie: Yeah, well nobody does. Especially in that jump between 16 and 18, I think that's quite a big jump, how you become aware of yourself and your sense of style and all those kinds of things, so yeah, I did that with him.

Tomorrow, Gillen and McKelvie tackle Loki and what lies ahead for the team!

YOUNG AVENGERS #1 debuts January 23.

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HUNTER QUAID Ravages Dark Horse Presents!
HUNTER QUAID Ravages Dark Horse Presents! January 16, MILWAUKIE, OR–From an elevator pitch at Comic-Con to the pages of comics’ greatest anthology, writer Donny Cates and comedian Eliot Rahal are making their Dark Horse Presents debut with Hunter Quaid! Hunter Quaid is a drunken, misanthropic, time-traveling detective from the forties, but that’s not all! As we follow […]
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Uncanny X-Men NOW!: Revolution

Uncanny X-Men NOW!: Revolution

Uncanny X-Men #5 cover by Frazer Irving

By Brett White

With the return of UNCANNY X-MEN as part of the Marvel NOW! initiative lurking just around the corner, the time has come to look even further into the future of mutantkind. Debuting in February, writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Chris Bachalo promise to take readers even further into Cyclops’ inner machinations as he plots the survival of the next generation of mutants.

After the explosive first arc, Cyclops’ team of mutants will be placed in the dynamic hands of artist Frazer Irving, who makes his debut as the second regular artist on UNCANNY X-MEN.

We spoke with Irving as well as Bendis about the series.

Marvel.com: What led to Frazer becoming involved with UNCANNY X-MEN?

Frazer Irving: Well I was at a strange point in my career around the time of New York Comic Con last year when I had a rather large number of projects being offered to me, all of them good, all of them interesting, yet I am but one man and thus I had to choose carefully based on a secret system I use for making difficult decisions. Factoring in scheduling and the writers involved, I chose two projects to work on the next year, UNCANNY X-MEN being one of them. I admit I was flattered and a little bemused when it was offered, but once I’d heard why they wanted me to do it, I felt a lot more confident that I could actually bring something to this party. In short, they asked me, I looked at the calendar, I said “Why me?,” they said nice things, I agreed.

Iron Man by Frazer Irving

Brian Michael Bendis: Anyone who’s read a comic book in the last few years knows that Frazer Irving is a very unique, amazing talent. When his name came up as someone who could work on UNCANNY, I was thrilled to get him. I sent an -email to him right away asking him where he’s at as an artist and what he wants to do. He sent this whole big letter back and it was ninety percent of what I was already going to give him. I couldn’t be happier with the story that I have for him to do and his enthusiasm about doing it. I think about 80 percent of the success of the X-Men books has been the quality of the amazing artists that have worked on WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN, ALL-NEW X-MEN, and now UNCANNY X-MEN. Frazer is right up there with them and this’ll be great.

Marvel.com: Frazer, have you noticed anything different about drawing the X-Men?

Frazer Irving: In the past it was always a case that there are too bloody many of them! Always the crowd scenes. Always. However, I’ve matured and have a different take on what the differences are. I read mostly Marvel stuff as a kid, so when I approach these characters I feel like I actually know them. Whether this will make the chemistry work better or not is what we’ll find out once it’s all done and out there I guess.

Marvel.com: Brian, right now you’re working with Stuart Immonen and David Marquez on ALL-NEW X-MEN and Chris Bachalo on UNCANNY, all artists that you have worked with previously. What is it like working with a new partner?

Brian Michael Bendis: Well, it’s funny that you say that. Marquez is still a new person even though we’ve become friends very quickly. I pride myself on having very long creative relationships with many people. There are a lot of artists that I’ve worked with for a very long time. I look at that with the same kind of pride that I look at the long relationship with my wife. Look at that, I guess I’m not a total [expletive].

Uncanny X-Men #1 cover by Chris Bachalo

At the same time, it’s such a wonderful experience to find someone new to connect with creatively and see what they can bring out of you and what you can bring out of them. When it works, it’s the best feeling in the world. Any writer or artist will tell you this. When you can find someone that you don’t even know and they’ve got something for you to draw that you would have never thought of to do by yourself, or that artist draws your stuff in a way that no one else has ever thought of, it’s the best feeling in the world. That’s why I got so excited about Frazer. I saw someone who’s making some choices that are completely unique. Completely different from the choices that I’ve been making. I want to see that all rubbed up with what I do.

Marvel.com: Do you have any particular favorite past runs of issues that you're bringing with you, or do you have new ideas you'd like to add to the X-Men mythos?

Frazer Irving: The John Byrne and Chris Claremont days were the best for me. I grew up on it, I cite it in conversation all over the place, and it made me want to draw comics. It also taught me tragedy, integration, political and social structures, tolerance, and many other virtues and concepts that school failed at miserably. In that respect what I’m bringing with me are those themes, as opposed to the gaudy uber-violence aspect that some artists may have been attracted to at different stages of these characters’ lives. Each of the X-Men is a cipher to me, an idea made flesh—or pixels, if you want to start getting pedantic about it—and that’s how I see them. That’s how they act at the end of my Wacom stylus.

Marvel.com: UNCANNY X-MEN has a large cast, as most X-Books tend to have. What is your approach when working with a larger cast as opposed to a smaller one?

X-Men by Chris Claremont & John Byrne

Frazer Irving: Each time it’s different. This time I was going to try cloning myself, but I realized that I would just spend all day arguing with myself in a rhetorical Mobius strip. Then I figured that the best way to tackle ensemble casts is to modify the way I draw them so that they become distilled into far simpler patterns of shade and color so that they would be recognized even if they were small figures or drawn in two tones. It helps that they have super hero costumes for that. I try to apply different textures specific to each character too, and to enhance the depth I even restrict certain mark making to the mutants to avoid the humans looking too much like them. We’ll see if it works.

Marvel.com: You're working with some newer mutants as well, like Christopher Muse and Eva Bell. Is there more leeway with how you handle them as opposed to icons like Magneto and Cyclops?

Frazer Irving: Nope, [because] I still have to use Chris’ designs, so essentially I’m working with the same sort of material. Us artists always have a way of making characters our own, even if it comes down to modifying the costume to suit our strengths.

Marvel.com: Are there any new characters or designs that you'll be tackling during your arc?

Frazer Irving: I cannot say. There’s this bit of paper, possibly from someone whose name could be Naria Dee Anderson, which says stuff like I’m not allowed to say anything before the boss okays it, and it mentions windows and stuff, so best bet is that I keep my trap shut on such matters.

Marvel.com: Brian, with these two artists on UNCANNY, how does this book’s tone compare to other series? And Frazer, what’s it like to follow someone as distinctive as Chris?

Cyclops by Stuart Immonen

Frazer Irving: I never follow him anywhere; it’s just someone that looks like me.

I don’t mind being the second artist on a book like this. I did it before in other series and if anything it encourages me to be more myself as I know that the tastes of the readership will be catered for in the long run even if they don’t dig my particular take on it, so I don’t have to worry about pleasing anyone. I just do the doodling.

Brian Michael Bendis: There are people who see Immonen and Marquez as similar, where I wouldn’t see them as similar at all. Bachalo is very, very, different, but when you hear about [him] on the same book [as Frazer], it sounds right. You might not know why, but it feels right. It’s the same thing with Marquez and Immonen. What you want are artists who have their own identity. You don’t want people imitating Immonen or Bachalo. You want unique flavors. That’s kind of what we did on Avengers for many years. At the end of the day, people want the highest quality book with unique flavors. They want us to raise our flag and do our thing. I’ll continue on that road with X-Men as I did on Avengers. Back when we went from David Finch to Steve McNiven on NEW AVENGERS, you wouldn’t think that they would match. What they did match was keeping the quality of the book high. That’s my goal. That way, when Chris comes back, people are excited. The same with Frazer. It’s always exciting and always surprising.

Iron Man by Frazer Irving

Frazer is very excited to be doing this. I mean, the right kind of excitement. As a fan, behind the scenes, when I know someone is this excited about the book, I know it’s going to be special. They’re coming it at from the right place and there’s going to be something there worth a damn.

Marvel.com: UNCANNY X-MEN is a title with a lot of history, 50 years of history this year, to be exact. How does it feel to now be a part of such a long-running title?

Frazer Irving: 10-year old me would have wet himself.

The Future of Marvel NOW! Is Revolution
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Journey Into Mystery NOW!: Ravenous

Journey Into Mystery NOW!: Ravenous

Journey Into Mystery #651 cover by Jeff Dekal

By Carla Hoffman

At the center of monsters, mayhem and family drama, proud and noble Sif, warrior of myth and star of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY strides forth, seeking adventure.

Kathryn Immonen answered our questions about the next arc of this thrilling saga. Who do the gods look to as a hero? What separates man and immortals? Read on and find out!

Marvel.com: Sif! She's awesome. While Thor is a hero for the people of Midgard, does Asgardia look up to Sif the same way? Is she a hero of the gods? Or are all Asgardians kind of their own personal heroes?

Kathryn Immonen: She is seriously awesome. And that’s an interesting question or three. I can’t honestly imagine Sif ever framing herself in that way. I think she strives to be heroic, of course, and noble, always, but I think we need to remember that she—and the rest of them—are very, very old. So not only is she playing the long game, she’s seen a lot; seen the very best and worst that Asgardians can be.

Marvel.com: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY has really opened up this whole new world outside our windows and let us live there, so to speak. With so much to work with in Norse and Marvel mythology, how do you pick which characters to use?

Kathryn Immonen: Of course, a big part of it is who is available, what characters are currently status quo. And then, you have to think about whether or not there’s actually a good reason to, say, bring Balder back from Limbo at this time. Where have we left characters, where do we want them to go? And after all this has been considered responsibly, at the heart is just who is good together? What is strange and wonderful and funny? What could be sad and awful? And always transformative, to some degree. For issue #651, I really wanted to write the Warriors Three and I wasn’t ready to stop visiting with Volstagg’s spirited and hilariously difficult children. 

Journey Into Mystery #649 cover by Jeff Dekal

Marvel.com: For me, the best parts about mythologies be they Norse or Greek or Egyptian or Marvel, is that they always center around family. That gods fight and love and struggle like humans, just on these vastly epic scales. Your thoughts?

Kathryn Immonen: I think that’s right. I also think that part of what appeals to us about seeing gods struggle with identifiable human emotion and have it create enormous chaos or just be expressed on a massive scale is that it physically, actually reflects how big those things really are for people. Whether it’s love or joy or grief, those things do feel like they should literally be moving mountains and tearing worlds apart.  

Marvel.com: I love the touches of small town Oklahoma you've brought to the realm of Asgardia, from the Red Cross care packages sent in the wake of disaster to the unique backdrop only we mortals can provide with a mug of beer in a bar. Will we be seeing more influences between the two realms?

Kathryn Immonen: [Artist] Valerio [Schiti] and I both agree on our love for the secondary characters and local color. As I’ve said before, one of the things that’s interesting and challenging about the Asgardians is that, unlike costumed heroes, they never take it off.  So you don’t get the useful dialogue that happens when you’ve essentially got two characters for the price of one. In some ways, the comparison and contrast with Midgard helps to stand in for that and it’s also necessary because otherwise it would be like being in a house where everybody’s a giant; unless you’re provided with something to indicate scale, you’d never know it.

Marvel.com: Lost lore seems to be a theme as well, as the forgotten old Berserker knowledge starts the first arc and the second starts with a loss of monster hunting expertise. Not just lost, but never existed! For people that exist in a never-ending cycle of legendary history told over and again, that must be terrifying. How do you bring a sense of danger to people who will, essentially, live forever?

Journey Into Mystery #648 cover by Jeff Dekal

Kathryn Immonen: The Asgardians have such a strong sense of who they are and how much their actions matter, how decisions they’ve made have come back to bite them, that I don’t think any of these characters take one day for granted. So, it’s not like they’ve become immortal—(Idunn’s apples not withstanding—and can now slack off, it’s their status quo. And they know their situation can change and they are always going to be fighting to make it better. Having said that, clearly there are characters in this pantheon that feel more oppressed by the weight of history than others and that’s not different from those of us who aren’t going to live forever.

Marvel.com: Who will be the artist on this upcoming arc?

Kathryn Immonen: The amazing Matteo Scalera is doing issue #651 and then Valerio is back. I continue to thank my lucky stars.

Marvel.com: Thor has long been our outlet to the world of dragons and battling giants so it is completely fantastic that JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY is bringing us even more of clashing swords and faraway lands of magic. What are your influences for bringing such a rich genre to the comic book stands?

Kathryn Immonen: You know, I haven’t actually thought about this until this moment. But now that I have, I don’t think I can understate the formative influence of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonrider books and the original “Star Trek” as well as the hours I spent scared half to death on Sunday afternoons watching the horror matinees alone in the rec room.  

Marvel.com: We've seen dragons and undead and Valkyries and giants and it's only been two issues to hit the stands! What monsters can we look forward to seeing ahead?

Kathryn Immonen: Issue #649 is an insane monster explosion. I won’t spoil it for you.  I also really, really love a talking animal and will continue to exploit any and all talking animal opportunities.

Journey Into Mystery #647Journey Into Mystery #646 cover
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5.2 Reasons it’s a Great Time to be a Green Arrow Fan
Reasons it's a Great Time to be a Green Arrow Fan

If you love the color green and you love people that shoot other people with arrows—and the idea of those two things together gets you more excited than Wonder Woman at a sword sale—then slip on an extra pair of your excitement pants because

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Download Episode 64 of This Week in Marvel

Download Episode 64 of This Week in Marvel

It's episode #64 of This Week in Marvel! Join Ryan, Blake and Marc as they look at the latest print and digital releases including AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #16, CAPTAIN MARVEL #9, DAREDEVIL #22, NEW AVENGERS #2, SAVAGE WOLVERINE #1 and more, plus new additions to the Marvel Comics app and Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited! Also, get answers to dozens of your questions!

Download episode #64 of This Week in Marvel from Marvel.com

Download episode #64 of This Week in Marvel from Marvel.com, check out Marvel Podcast Centralgrab the TWiM RSS feed and subscribe to This Week in Marvel on iTunes or Zune, so you never miss an episode!

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 Digital Media Group Executive Editorial Director Ryan "Agent M" Penagos and Marvel.com Editor Ben Morse, along with Marvel.com Associate Editor Marc Strom and Associate Producer 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 @Agent_M@BenJMorse or @Marvel with the hashtag #ThisWeekinMarvel! And if your message is longer than 140 characters, send it through fans.marvel.com!

Want more info on what's in this episode? Here you go:
Print comic books and collections on sale this week
See what's new on the Marvel Comics app
"The Amazing Spider-Man" now on Blu-ray and DVD
"Astonishing X-Men: Unstoppable" and complete series now on DVD and Blu-ray
Avengers Vs. X-Men hardcover on sale now
"Marvel's The Avengers" now on Blu-ray and DVD 
Get the latest news on Marvel NOW!
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Avengers Arena NOW!: Game On

Avengers Arena NOW!: Game On

Avengers Arena #8 cover by Dave Johnson

By Paul Montgomery

Much as they dream of hitting reset on the wily Arcade’s deadly game, the young inhabitants of Murderworld must focus on surviving each day as living pawns in AVENGERS ARENA. Every new dawn demands of them hard and fast responses to questioned loyalties, an ever-changing environment and their own willingness to live when it might mean another could die.

Arcade drew first blood, but soon these reluctant contenders from the Avengers Academy, the Runaways and all corners of the Marvel Universe, may well relent and kill to survive. With past alliances tested and in some cases shattered, the game could change them before they can ever hope to change the game.

We spoke to writer Dennis Hopeless about taking AVENGERS ARENA to the next level.

Marvel.com: Heroism seems to get people killed in Murderworld.

Dennis Hopeless: [Laughs] I don’t know that that’s necessarily intentional. I sort of based the early conflicts in the book on “Survivor.” Particularly the early seasons of “Survivor,” where it’s very clear that several players are playing the game from the beginning and others take a while to figure out what’s going on. Therefore, you have people who have other motivations than to win the game who are taken advantage of by people who have just accepted that this is what’s going on. The whole storyline with the Nightstalker, who is showing up and attacking people at night, is a person who is very calculating. They’re trying to play the game and get other people off their game. You’ve got a character like Darkhawk, who’s a hero and a grown man, whose whole thing is “We can beat this, we can stop this. Every villain can be beaten. We’re going to do other things.” Because of that, he doesn’t have his eye on the ball and things don’t end up going very well for him.

Avengers Arena #4 cover by Dave Johnson

Marvel.com: Thus far, friends and lovers ended up liabilities rather than assets. Do the kids look at it that way? Can familiarity become less comforting as this goes on?

Dennis Hopeless: Yeah. That’s a big part of it. Early on, the characters all kind of banded together in their most comfortable groups; maybe not the people that they’re best friends with, but with the people that they know the best. That will change and grow throughout the course of the series as those loyalties are tested and broken. People start to question whether they can trust anyone and have to decide who they’re willing to stand up for and who they’re willing to sacrifice. Early on, my goal was to make it so that they assess the situation but haven’t really thought it through. They’re all just kind of deal with it, if that makes any sense. By the end of the first arc, it’s become quite a bit clearer to people what’s going on and what they’re going to have to do. I think taking comfort in anything in Murderworld is kind of a bad idea.

Marvel.com: As the survivors dwindle as the game goes on, how does that affect the resolve of someone like Hazmat versus someone like X-23, just seeing those numbers?

Dennis Hopeless: Both of those girls are in very different places. X-23 is really well equipped for this game, from both a skills and power set standpoint. But, she’s also vowed not to kill. Her entire character up to this point has been about putting away the things that make her good for this. Issue #8 is all about Laura trying to deal with the fact that she’s perfect for all of this but wants no part of it. The strongest relationship that Hazmat had was taken away right off the bat. I think she understands better than anyone exactly how real the game is. She also tends to run a little hot and that is even intensified by what happened to Mettle in issue #1. She hasn’t necessarily bought in to killing everyone, but she’s going to do everything she can to protect her friends. That’s her primary thing now. She’ll do anything to keep the people that she has left safe.

Avengers Arena #4 variant cover by Bobby Rubio

Marvel.com: Should we worry about the quiet ones? Lying low seems like a really effective way to get through the game.

Dennis Hopeless: Yeah, definitely. There was something to what Arcade said at the beginning. The clever ones were hanging back. Several people realized right off the bat that this guy is clearly very powerful, we’re not going to be able to do anything here, let’s watch him and figure it out. Some of those people are just going to be concerned about surviving and staying away from the conflict. Others are the ones that are actively game playing from the beginning. I would say that the quiet ones who are in the shadows are probably better at surviving this than the people that Hazmat’s assisting.

Marvel.com: I imagine that some of the kids are more comfortable with the idea of hanging back and being passive than others. Some might think of that as cowardice. They’re not doing enough to help everyone else out. They’re lying low while friends, strangers, innocent people are dying.

Dennis Hopeless: The reason that we follow the characters from a different point of view each issue is that this situation affects everyone differently and everyone has a different agenda, whether they realize it or not. For some people, it would make more sense to hang back, try to stay alive, see what’s going to happen, keep an eye on things. Figure out if there’s going to be a way to save people or avoid conflict. Other people are avoiding conflict because they’re not confrontational. There are different kinds of people who would hang back. There are those people who are quick-tempered, quick to jump into things, or not necessarily that good at strategy. They don’t get that element of the game. I think the individual personalities of each character really affect how they react to this, what they do early on, and what they’ll continue to do as the game ramps up and gets more intense.

Avengers Arena #5 cover by Dave Johnson

Marvel.com: X-23 bides her time under heaps of snow, lying in wait for hours. What’s going through her mind while she’s doing that? If you’re lying under the snow for a really long time just waiting, what are you thinking about while you’re under there?

Dennis Hopeless: Laura would probably be thinking about what she’s willing to do. What she’s out there doing is trying to find whoever it is that attacked one of her friends. The Avengers Academy cast at this point is her family. Justin’s been attacked and disappeared. At the same time, she doesn’t want to kill. She doesn’t want to buy in to what the game is and what Arcade wants her to do. She would be down there trying to decide, “If I catch this person, what am I going to do to them? Am I willing to kill? What will I do in that situation?” Luckily, the person that she finds is not that person that did it, so she doesn’t have to make that choice at the moment.

Marvel.com: A late addition to the ensemble, Darkhawk, keeps coming back as a true wild card in this game.

Dennis Hopeless: Everything isn’t necessarily as it appears with Darkhawk. There are plans going forward for Darkhawk, but as you saw in the end of issue #3, Chris has lost his amulet and appears to not be in very good shape. Darkhawk will be in the series and a big part of it, but how that works out is still a mystery.

Marvel.com: Arcade stole the show in issue #1. Should we expect more of his Willy Wonka meets Takeshi Kitano theatrics as the numbers begin to dwindle?

Dennis Hopeless: Arcade pokes his head in when he gets bored. Issues #5 and #6 are the next time that Arcade decides to really impose his will on things. Issue #7 is an Arcade focused issue where we learn the hows and whys of some of the stuff in Murderworld. If possible, and when he’s enjoying what’s happening, he prefers to sit back and let the thing play itself out. If he gets bored or thinks he can turn up the heat by a little manipulation, he’ll do that and we’ll see that from time to time.

Avengers Arena #5 variant cover by Joe Quinones

Marvel.com: Does it ever get scary how fun it is to write a character like Arcade?

Dennis Hopeless: It is. It’s weird, because when I write what’s happening to the kids, I’m very much in the mindset of those characters. That’s really hard. Killing these great characters or putting them in mortal peril one way or the other is difficult and you have to force yourself to do it. You have to force yourself to do bad things to characters you love. But when you write Arcade, once you get in his head, you don’t care about other people. He’s self-obsessed. To him, these are just game pieces he can move around. I guess it is scary when I step back and look at it. Going inside Arcade’s mindset and it’s all “Gore is fun!” or whatever. [Laughs]

Marvel.com: They say when you’re in the most stressful situations you see what kind of person you truly are. Do you think that’s true here or is the situation so twisted that we’re seeing people act in ways that might be out of character?

Dennis Hopeless: Sure, to some extent. I think it’s also the case that who you are and who you’re going to be is not set in stone when you’re that age. Some of these characters are really young. Some are 13 or 14 years old. That’s honestly one of the brilliant things about AVENGERS ACADEMY. The reason that the Avengers set up this school and brought these kids in is because they’re damaged and there’s a real potential that these people could grow up to be bad and be super villains instead of super heroes. Testing your resolve and testing what kind of person you are down deep, for people who haven’t decided that for themselves, makes it more interesting. They’re making decision, they’re making choices, and the way that they deal with the situation will affect who they’re going to grow into and who they’re going to be. They’re going to have to deal with these decisions for the rest of their life. I see it both ways. I see the situation warping them while also telling them what they’re capable of and what they’re willing to do.

The Future of Marvel NOW! Is Game On
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Scott Snyder Talks BATMAN #17 and the Conclusion of “Death of the Family”

Since its launch this past October, “Death of the Family” has been shaping into one of the most terrifying crossover events in contemporary comics.

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New in Marvel AR 1/16/13

New in Marvel AR 1/16/13

Have you taken the next step in your comics reading experience by experiencing Augmented Reality via the Marvel AR App for iOS and Android devices? If not, you’re missing out! Here’s Marvel Content Producer & Manager of the AR App Judy Stephens to give you the overview:

“The Marvel AR App brings new, exciting and free content to your print comics by using an iOS or Android device. To access any of the content, all you need is your phone/tablet, the app and an internet connection. Hold your device over the panel with the AR icon and watch the future unfold! With Marvel NOW!, we're kicking off a schedule of even more Marvel goodness for your eyes and ears! Each week stay tuned for bonus content including videos from the creators, original sketches & pencils, art evolutions, surprise celebrity appearances and more! 

Got an idea for a Marvel AR video or bonus content? Let us know on twitter @Marvel!”

Have you got your Marvel AR App downloaded and your iOS and Android ready to go? Then check out the exciting AR content available this week!

ALL-NEW X-MEN #6

Following their incredible initial arc, the original X-Men attempt to plan their next move in this issue by Brian Michael Bendis and guest artist David Marquez! Editor Nick Lowe gives his Lowe-Down on Archangel while Marquez unloads about his penciling process and working with 3-D.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #3

Cap’s odyssey in Dimension Z continues with Rick Remender and John Romita Jr. at the wheel! Romita runs through designing the Phrox, plus get a look back at Captain America through the years.

INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK #3

Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu pit the Hulk and S.H.I.E.L.D. against the new Quintronic Man! Waid provides insight into the big fight scene as well as future battles coming to this series.

NEW AVENGERS #2

The Illuminati have gathered in Wakanda and must figure out how to save reality as Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting continue to unveil their epic! Learn more about Black Panther in a character bio and see an Epting Art Evolution.

SAVAGE WOLVERINE #1

The world’s most dangerous mutant strikes out in the Savage Land courtesy of writer and artist Frank Cho! After a cover recap featuring the vocal stylings of Frank Tieri, let Cho guide you through this new series as well as the Savage Land itself, plus hear from professor of pulp fiction William Gleason and the Internet’s favorite feline, Lil Bub!

Want a taste of AR for yourself? Check out this video of Lil Bub introducing SAVAGE WOLVERINE #1…

Each Marvel NOW! comic with Marvel AR also features a special look at what’s led up to the issue and what to expect within that you can access just by aiming your device at the cover. And don’t forget to pick up the AVENGERS VS. X-MEN hardcover collection, on sale now with over 100 AR Executions!

Enjoy this week’s AR, and we’ll see you next week for another round!

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DAN DIDIO, JIM LEE AND DC ENTERTAINMENT’S STELLAR TALENT TO GUEST STAR ON SYFY’S HIT COMPETITION SERIES ‘FACE OFF’

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