A month ago, Marvel sent its comics fans into a flurry of speculation when it dropped a teaser dubbed Generations, hinting that original legacy characters like Tony Stark, Jean Grey and Captain Mar-Vell could be coming back alongside the heroes that have taken on their mantles. Well, now they have just confirmed that indeed that’s exactly what’s happening.
Image: Marvel. Art by Alex Ross
New details were revealed through America’s ABC this morning, and it sounds like it represents some huge changes for the Marvel universe going forward. For example, see all those classic versions of heroes in that art up top — even the dead ones, like Jean Grey, Logan and Bruce Banner? They’re all back. And it isn’t an alternate universe, or time-travel. They’re really back.
Generations will be a 10-part series running between July and September that pairs a current hero with their legacy incarnation. Some of these will be easy to do — like Clint Barton and Kate Bishop, or Peter Parker and Miles Morales. Some, like Carol Danvers and Mar-Vell, or Young Carol and Kamala Khan, will require some comic book tomfoolery. But according to Marvel these are absolutely “canonical” tales in so far as a comic book universe’s canon can go. Here’s the list of pairings and writers for each story in Generation‘s 10-issue run:
- Iron Man (Tony Stark and Riri Williams) — written by Brian Michael Bendis
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker and Miles Morales) — Brian Michael Bendis
- Ms Marvel (Carol Danvers and Kamala Khan) — G. Willow Wilson
- Thor (Odinson and Jane Foster) — Jason Aaron
- Hawkeye (Clint Barton and Kate Bishop) — Kelly Thompson
- Hulk (Bruce Banner and Amadeus Cho) — Greg Pak
- Jean Grey (young and older) — Dennis Hopeless
- Wolverine (Logan and X23) — Tom Taylor
- Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers) — Margie Stohl
- Captain America (Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson) — Nick Spencer
According to Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso, these stories will have big impacts going forward on the younger generation of characters. For some, it means asking some introspective questions about what they do next after being paired with their predecessors — especially when some of these icons return from the dead:
[But] the answer might be different for each character. There’s potential for friction, there’s potential for team-ups. Minimally, it’s something that’s going to require food for thought and introspection on the part of every character. That’s part of the goal when we were sculpting it.
It sounds like this is going to involve some pretty major shake-ups for the Marvel Universe either way. Seeing these legendary incarnations of heroes return is definitely something that’s going to draw a lot of attention — and let’s be honest, there was no way Marvel wasn’t going to bring major characters like the original Hulk and Wolverine back to life eventually.
However, hopefully their return does not ultimately end in diminishing the diverse variety of heroes Marvel has created with characters like Sam Wilson, Kamala Khan and Laura Kinney with these mantles. We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds: Will all the returning heroes stick around after the event? Will there be simultaneous Hulk and Wolverine comics being published, much like there have been multiple Captain America and Spider-Man titles? What about the rest?
At the moment, there’s no reason to suspect the worst, because all we know for certain is that Generations is bringing back some of Marvel’s biggest legends. However, I’d be lying if I weren’t a little apprehensive.
Comments
18 responses to “Marvel Is Resurrecting Wolverine And Bruce Banner In Marvel Generations”
Of course they are.
Then they’ll kill them off again.
Then Steve Rogers will be good again.
Then they’ll recycle another Civil War.
Then another house of M.
Then another Secret Invasion.
Then another…. meh. Whatever as long as they’re decent.
And then they’ll have all the pairs team up with the other characters who’ve used the names, but Marvel ignored to pretend the current replacements would last.
Ben Reilly, Thunderstrike, US Agent, various Guardsmen, Noh-Varr, Photon, Rachel Summers, et al, are… The Stand-ins!
Does Agent Venom still exist?
Nope. The symbiotic is with some criminal guy at the moment. But it’ll be back with Eddie Brock next month
And they haven’t even explained how Flash lost the symbiote nor mentioned what his current status is.
How is that character’s name not USA Gent?
Wouldn’t suit him – he’s a conceited, loud-mouthed prick, even the other Avengers couldn’t stand the guy, and slapped Tigra in the face once while she was possessed by cat spirits or something. First scene together too, so I guess he lost the Gent title by introducing himself with the old “hysterical womenfolk just need a slapping” 1800s bit.
They should just send the young x-men back in time and have it reboot, clean up (ie get rid of the trash mutants that no one knows what to do with) and simplify X-men comics back to the core originals who were a diverse mix of characters
They are probably too white (not even taking the piss for once).
I guess I’m thinking late 80s early 90s so you’d have Storm, Bishop, Jubilee and Psylocke. Plus others from other teams and series who are designed with great backstories, powers and iconic costumes
Yeah, we could only be so lucky
I want this event to be good so badly, maybe even too badly. I just want them to actually build on these characters rather than treating them like lego blocks where they just freely trade out parts and character growth is non-existent.
I’m expecting a “passing of the torch” to happen with all the characters, locking in the new versions as 100% legit and the new characters going forward. The old ones will just disappear, die or retire to only return when Marvel needs a profit boost
If they were looking for a profit boost it would be a permanent shift. They are getting quite thoroughly destroyed right now, DC is pretty much completely in control without even needing crossover events. Marvels only real contenders were pretty much what you would expect in Starwars, Amazing Spider man (though even he is slipping) and IvX (crossover event).
No-one ever stays dead in super-hero comics (except bit players who die to create angst). They come back a few episodes later with a slightly different wardrobe, and some extra abilities.
Or they wake up and it was all the dream of some uber being who’d had a bad oyster for dinner.
If you remember during ” future imperfect ” story line, the maestro said that “Death didn’t have the same meaning to them.
Interesting that Jean is returning but not Cyclops.
Yet another article that claims Jean Grey is dead.
She’s not.
She merged with the Phoenix Force.