By Bad Man | Follow on Twitter
Hosted by Nick Lowe, Axel Alonso, Tom Brevoort, Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman and Matt Fraction the AvX Livestream revealed new details and answered fan questions on what promises to be Marvel’s biggest event coming April next year. Here’s the 12 things you need to know about this coming event distilled from the feed and laid out below:
1 Fraction says it’s “bigger, badder and more berserk than anything Marvel has ever done.” Nick Lowe calls it “the biggest fight you’ve ever seen.”
2“We’ve had a very interesting arc for the Avengers throughout the Heroic Age,” Bendis says, adding that the series have been looking at “how the world perceives the Avengers.” Brevoort confirms that yes, Avengers X-Sanction is in fact a prelude to Avengers vs. X-Men. The specific event that Cable goes back in time lead directly into AvX. Axel Alonso mentioned House of M and Messiah Complex both as important starting points.
3 Bendis notes Wolverine and Storm being Avengers will be a major factor in Avengers vs. X-Men. How will this affect Wolverine, and his new school? Aaron: “He’s in a weird predicament. That’s a big question: Which side of the fence is he going to fall on? He’s been an X-Men a lot longer than her’s been an Avenger. That’ll be an interesting question to watch unfold.”
4 “The seeds for this event were planted many years ago in House of M,” Alonso says. “The moment there was a little girl named Hope with green eyes and red hair, it raised questions.” The X-Men “got a glimmer of hope literally from a girl named Hope,” Aaron continues. “She is the mutant messiah. It’s not conjecture, as far as Cyclops is concerned.”
5 Fraction says it’ll be fun to put Cyclops and Captain America against each other, and that he loves writing Hope. “They’re both very much guys that will do what it takes to get the job done,” Brubaker says of Cyclops and Captain America, saying that Cyclops is more willing to make sacrifices at this point in his life than Steve Rogers. Aaron says Wolverine is in a “very interesting place” headed into the fight.
6 Brevoort agrees that it’s totally different than the way they’ve done events before. “Brian wrote the first issue, Jason wrote the second issue, and so forth.”"Each individual issue is being set up and structured in a sort of way that each writer’s perspective comes across,” Brevoort continues, saying that Brubaker’s issues will read like a Brubaker comic, but the series as a whole will still have a cohesive feel.
7 When asked if Jean Grey is coming back, Alonso chooses to “punt,” but recommends keeping an eye on Hope.
8 Cosmic characters will be involved in AvX — via the Phoenix — but Marvel’s not ready to specify exactly how yet. There’s “big plans for Nova, and you’ll get your first glimpse of him in this event,” Alonso says, adding that readers will have to wait and see exactly what role he’ll play, but Nova fans will be excited.
9 “There’s no way to keep the sum total of X-Men out of this story,” Brevoort says. “The Avengers are going to need to field every asset they can get their hands on, and that includes Avengers Academy, possibly Young Avengers.” Brevoort says you’ll see a wide variety of characters throughout the Marvel Universe. “Everybody will get a panel or two here or there.”
10 Bendis says S.H.I.E.L.D. will see a “potential reinvention” as a result of AvX and the current H.A.M.M.E.R. story in Avengers.
11 Tie-ins will be limited to the Avengers titles and X-Men titles, it looks like. (Though, there are a lot of those, of course.). The artist plan is Act 1: John Romita Jr. Act 2: Olivier Coipel. Act 3: Adam Kubert.
12 This will not lead to any form of reboot
And to view the whole event back, click here
