Whether it’s for the silver screen or pen and ink, Marvel uses the season of Comic-Con to tee up the big stories they’ve got cooking. San Diego Comic-Con in July saw the House of Ideas build up to comic arcs involving the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, and this weekend’s New York Comic-Con focused on the other heavy hitters in the comics. Let’s dig in, shall we?
Blade’s daughter is finally here
Back in May, Marvel’s Free Comic Book Day issue shone the spotlight on Brielle Brooks, daughter of the famed vampire hunter Blade. Going under the codename Bloodline, she’ll be headlining her own five-issue miniseries, aptly named Bloodline: Daughter of Blade. Written by the FCBD team of Danny Lore and Karen S. Darboe, the miniseries will see Brielle come to grips with her new powers and learn more about her bloodline, which will inevitably involve meeting her father.
With how comic book storylines eventually make their way to the MCU in some capacity, it stands to reason that Brielle’s solo is a stepping stone to showing up in the Daywalker’s corner of the MCU, assuming Blade’s movie locks down a director. Look for Bloodline: Daughter of Blade to begin on February 1.
Symbiote lovin’, had me a blast
In the last several years, Marvel’s comics have gone to great lengths to establish a cosmic, occasionally goofy mythology for the Symbiotes that often become a problem for Spider-Man and other heroes. After 2020’s King in Black event ended with Venom (Eddie Brock) becoming god of the Symbiotes and sharing the mantle with his son Dylan, the goo monsters are back and ready to start shit for the fourth or fifth time in recent memory.
No additional details were given on the Summer of Symbiotes event, but Marvel did tease that it would be spinning out of events in Venom (Al Ewing, Ram V, Bryan Hitch), Carnage (V, Roge Antonio, Francesco Manna), and February 2023’s Red Goblin (Alex Paknadel, Jan Bazaldua). And is often the case for Symbiote-related stories, new gooey heroes and villains will be making their debut during the event.
The Guardians of the Galaxy broke up?
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy haven’t been seen since 2021 when Al Ewing and Juan Frigeri’s run concluded. At the time, the five-person team typically associated with the MCU greatly grew their ranks to feature Super-Skrull, Nova, and Doctor Doom, among others. That run ended on a happy note, with the Guardians all agreeing to go and take a vacation (except Doom, he went back to Earth). But in the year and change since the comics last focused on the Guardians, they’ve apparently all gone their separate ways.
Like “Summer of Symbiotes,” no creative team or additional details were given for a new run that will debut in the spring. For the starting arc at least, rebuilding the team will be the primary focus, which incidentally doesn’t sound terribly dissimilar to what the cinematic versions of the Guardians will be up to around that same timeframe.
Hickman continues to tease
Back at SDCC, writer Jonathan Hickman teased his next project, which will feature art by Inferno collaborator Valerio Schiti. While the 2023 book didn’t get a full reveal, concept art was shown off, which featured someone who appears to be Doctor Strange in various cloaks.
Hickman’s previously referred to this book as “Sandman for the Marvel universe.” Given that Strange’s often involves the inevitability of change, and the tagline references “the powers that be meeting the natural order of things,” the chances of Hickman tackling Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme (who’s currently dead at time of writing, mind) grows ever more.
The X-Men prepare for a Sinister future…
Speaking of Hickman, during his tenure with the X-Men, he made Mr. Sinister into one of the most important figures in mutantkind’s rise to prominence and the island nation of Krakoa. But you don’t trust a mad scientist farther than they can clone you, and Nathan Essex has been getting up to some shit across Immortal X-Men and the primary X-Men book that finally comes to a head.
Beginning in January, Sins of Sinister will follow three separate time periods wherein Sinister’s various schemes across time result in yet another alternate timeline. Following the “Sins” one-shot from Immortal’s Kieron Gillen and Lucas Werneck, the event will play out across a trio of three-issue books to replace the comics Immortal, X-Men Red, and Legion of X.
Storm & the Brotherhood of Mutants (Al Ewing & Paco Medina) follows the titular weather goddess as she and her crew go on a revenge quest after the destruction of Mars; Nightcrawlers (Si Spurrier & Medina) focuses on Sinister’s assassin army led by Wagnerine, and Immoral X-Men (Gillen & Medina) sees the Quiet Council go at each other’s throats as Emma Frost comes for his crown.
After April’s Sins of Sinister: Dominion closes things out, everything will be good for the mutants, yeah? Yeah…no.
…Right before Krakoa’s about to go up in flames
The Dawn and Reign of X have been pretty eventful for mutantkind. But we’ve known since the beginning that all of this was fated to end, and we’re now at that point. Come summer 2023 and after Summer of Symbiotes, the mutants will be going into the Fall of X. What kind of fall we can expect, and what will follow this Krakoan experiment, we’ll have to wait to find out.
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