The third Marvel NOW! ‘Next Big Thing’ press conference is going and during it writer Rick Remender revealed there will be three more characters joining the team in Uncanny Avengers.

Starting in issue #5 we will see Wonder Man, Sunfire and The Wasp join the team. Remender says that all three of the characters are there for a specific reason and explains the reason behind each character:

“Sunfire is brought in for a reason that I don’t want to give away yet, because it deals with the aftermath of the first arc. He and Wolverine have business. He has a natural reason for being there, and I love Sunfire. I’ve never had a member on any team that I feel I can write as surly as Sunfire.”

On the Avengers side, we’ve got Wonder Man, who’s going to play an interesting role. He’s now something of a pacifist, and a major reason he’s on the team is for PR purposes; using his Hollywood skills to help bridge the worlds of mutants and humans.

They don’t have a government source of funding. They’re not going to be getting orders from any government organization, so their funding comes from The Wasp.”

Source: Newsarama

If you’re planning on buying all the variants for Uncanny Avengers #1, I feel bad for your wallet. There are now eighteen revealed covers for the issue and the two most recent ones are sure to be sought after.

First up we have a Neal Adams variant, which is also available in a sketch version, which we are sure you’re going to want.

And then, being that issue comes out in October, we also have a special Halloween variant. No tricks, just a treat.

 

John Cassaday’s hasn’t regularly worked on a Marvel title since his and Joss Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men in 2008 . When they announced that he would be teaming up with writer Rick Remender on Uncanny Avengers, fans of his work were beyond excited. Comic Book Resources recently asked Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso about how he went about bringing the artist back to Marvel as well as giving us a two page sneak peak at the first which clearly features Wolverine and Rogue preparing for the funeral of Charles Xavier.

I met John at his favorite watering hole and leveled with him, said, ‘This series set the tone for the next decade’s worth of Marvel publishing and I’d kill for you to draw it.’ Then I gave him the series outline and a sampling of Rick’s work, most notably Uncanny X-Force, and that was that. A few days later, John texted me and said, he liked it. Shortly after, we closed a deal. The orders for Uncanny Avengers are insane, and it’s a team effort, but John’s role in putting us through the stratosphere can’t be underestimated. He’s a one-of-a-kind artist.

Well, it looks like it’s going to be Rick Remender’s year at  New York Comic-Con. Uncanny Avengers is already set to be the big title this year and a panel listing for Dynamite reveals that isn’t all he’s got going on for him there:

Dynamite Entertainment

Sunday, October 14

1A10

Brian Buccellato , Fred Van Lente , Rick Remender

Join Dynamite Entertainment as they unveil their BIGGEST projects from the BEST creators. Featuring an amazing cast of top talent and announcements from Rick (Marvel Now! Uncanny Avengers/Uncanny X-Force) Remender, Fred (Hulk/Archer and Armstrong) Van Lente, Brian (The Flash) Buccellato and more – all of whom will have NEW projects at Dynamite in 2013. Plus special announcement regarding Garth Ennis, Matt Wagner and more new Dynamite project! Each fan attending the panel will also receive a limited edition comic!

I’m definitely not even going to attempt to figure out what he’s going to be doing. But I know that if he’s writing it….well, I am going to be buying it. Thanks Dynamite for adding another book to my ever growing stack.

Marvel has released a beautiful new variant for the Uncanny Avengers #1. There’s quite a few variants that have been revealed for this issue which looks to be one of Marvel’s biggest launches yet. I have a feeling that this variant is going to be a hot one.

Marvel is pleased to present your first look at the UNCANNY AVENGERS #1 ACUNA VARIANT from artist Daniel Acuña! From the ashes of Avengers VS. X-Men an all-new, all-different Avengers assemble – enter the Uncanny Avengers! From the blockbuster creative team of Rick Remender & John Cassaday, Captain America and Wolverine begin a quest to create a sanctioned Avengers unit cast from the ranks of the Avengers and the X-Men. This October in Uncanny Avengers #1, watch as Captain America, Wolverine, Havok, Thor, Rogue, and the Scarlet Witch come together to take down the Red Skull and protect the Marvel Universe!

An all-new direction! All-new threats! This is Uncanny Avengers NOW! This October, Rick Remender & John Cassaday redefine what it means to be Earth’s Mightiest in Uncanny Avengers #1!

Source: Marvel

Marvel is definitely making sure all comic book stores worldwide are prepared for what could be the biggest launch of the year with Uncanny Avengers Launch Parties on Wednesday, October 10th. These are set to go all day long! In addition to being the first in line to purchase Uncanny Avengers #1, the fans attending will also be able to receive special items exclusive to these parties! So, who’s ready to party?

In order to help ensure these parties are the biggest sales success of 2012, each retailer opting into this event will receive a free Uncanny Avengers Party Kit from Marvel, containing exclusive promotional materials. In order to receive this party kit, every retailer just needs to opt in though Diamond.

“There is no better time than NOW! to get excited for the kick-off title of our new initiative,” said David Gabriel, Marvel Senior Vice-President of Sales. “We’ve taken everything we’ve learned up to this point and are making sure all of our valued retail partners have what they need to get their fans buzzing for this event. Whether it’s advertising, promotional material, multi-tiered ordering incentives or limited edition variant covers, Marvel is committed to making sure that Uncanny Avengers #1 is their highest selling title of the year for comic ships worldwide.”

All retailers who opt into the parties will receive the following as part of the Uncanny Avengers Party Kit:

• Uncanny Avengers Postcards
• Uncanny Avengers Customizable Flyer
• Uncanny Avengers Customizable Press Release
• Uncanny Avengers Backlist Sales
• Uncanny Avengers Mini Posters
• Uncanny Avengers Promo Items
• Uncanny Avengers #1 Personalized Variant
• Uncanny Avengers Party Lithographs
• Mass media promotion around the launch of Uncanny Avengers and the associated parties
• Promotion of parties to Marvel fan base via Marvel.com, Twitter and Facebook
• An additional discount on in stock trade paperbacks
• Free Uncanny Avengers Party Tickets
• Free Uncanny Avengers Pins
• Free Uncanny Avengers in-store signage and shelf-talkers

And that’s not all! Retailers who opt in for Uncanny Avengers Launch Parties will also be eligible to order a Uncanny Avengers #1 ‘Deadpool Call Me Maybe’ Variant! From red-hot artist Mark Brooks, Deadpool is looking to fill a spot on Rick Remender and John Cassaday’s superstar lineup of heroes….but they don’t seem to be answering his calls. This one of a kind variant will have fans flocking to their stores to grab this must have cover! This November, Rick Remender & John Cassaday redefine what it means to be Earth’s Mightiest in Uncanny Avengers #1!

Let’s just say…I want two.

 

Take a look at John Cassaday’s design sketches for three of the mutants who will be joining the Uncanny Avengers line-up as part of the Marvel NOW relaunch. Also featuring commentary on each one by Marvel’s Senior Vice President of Publishing Tom Brevoort.

In essence, Rick and I wanted to go back to something approximating his original cool Neal Adams design—the black highlight-less bodysuit with the concentric circle power effect. That was always his most distinctive look in my opinion, and nothing he’s worn since that has really been all that memorable. So John took his cues from that design, tweaked it a little bit, pulled that strange antennae-thing he had on his head down onto his cowl, and off we went. I seem to recall that John initially had him with a full belt, and I had to talk him into compromising with the sort of side belt things. I’d say it’s more moving back towards the way Neal Adams originally depicted his powers working visually back in the day, only maybe modernized a little bit. So yeah, no glowy “Tron” lines necessarily, but a while lot of concentric circles.

 

In terms of Rogue’s look, I think everybody involved really liked her original Michael Golden outfit, the one with the hood—so this represents a modernization of that approach to the character. As you say, it’s really not all that different from the kinds of things she’s been wearing recently. A little bit less scarf, maybe.

The Scarlet Witch has always had one of the least practical costumes for a super hero, so having come out the other side of “AvX” and “Children’s Crusade,” that was something we were looking to address. I didn’t really have anything specific in mind other than, “More practical” and “Keep the tiara…” That Tiara is the most easily identifiable aspect of any Scarlet Witch outfit. It was John who came back with the more covered-up civilian style, which we liked and made sense. Wanda is in a different place right now, she doesn’t feel like a super hero any more and she’s looking for a way to atone for her past actions and to move forward as a person, so this look underlines that change in her outlook.

 

On whether or not we may see team costumes:

The team may still get team costumes. It was one of the ideas that Rick tossed out initially, and it may still be something we do down the line once they’re established as a team. But with that being the new thing in super hero teams, it does start to become a bit ridiculous… Wolverine stopping off in a phone booth on his way to this meeting or that meeting in order to change his clothes. Doesn’t seem like the sort of thing he’d worry at all about, really.

 

Source: MTV Geek

 

 

 

While no details are known yet about All New X-Men other than Brian Bendis and Stuart Immonen bringing the original X-Men into the present day as permanent members of the current squad…we do have the first issues cover for you to check out!

As well as issue number 2 of Uncanny Avengers:

From the ashes of Avengers Vs. X-Men an all-new, all-different Avengers assemble – enter the Uncanny Avengers! From the creative team of Rick Remender and John Cassaday, Captain America and Wolverine begin a quest to create a sanctioned Avengers unit cast from the ranks of the Avengers and the X-Men. This November in UNCANNY AVENGERS #2, The Red Skull makes a move that transforms him into the most powerful man on Earth! And with anti-mutant sentiment at an all-time high, it will be up to Captain America, Wolverine, Havok, Thor, Rogue, and The Scarlet Witch to take down the Skull and his S-Men!

Source: Newsarama

• THIS IS IT! The greatest era of the Marvel Universe starts here! From the ashes of AvX an all-new, all-different Avengers assemble!
• Captain America begins his quest to create a sanctioned Avengers unit comprised of Avengers and X-Men, humans and mutants working together – so why is Professor Xavier’s dream more at risk than ever?
• The first attack of the most loathsome villain in history will quake the Marvel Universe forever!
• The funeral of one of Marvel’s greatest heroes!

UNCANNY AVENGERS #1
Written by Rick Remender
Pencils & Cover by John Cassaday
Variant Cover by Skottie Young

So, let’s be real here for a minute. As much as we love Captain America…his suit just really is kind of goofy when you look at it these days. Much in part due to the more military like suits we saw Chris Evans sporting in Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. Those suits looked really great on the screen. With the upcoming Marvel NOW! event we will see Cap getting a costume update courtesy of artists Jerome Opena (Uncanny X-Force) And John Cassaday (Astonishing X-Men) and I can honestly say…I am into them.

Editor Tom Breevoort on the design:

“The approach and the thought was very simple: we wanted to modernize Cap’s outfit so as to reflect the gear worn by actual soldiers, to convey that sense of the character visually. Every costume design change is really change for change’s sake, and certainly Cap’s costume is a classic. But that said, it’s been updated before, and so long as what we ended up with still looked like and gave you the silhouette of Captain America, that was what was important to me. We just did years of stories in which Bucky wore a variant of Cap’s costume, and people were able to accept it just fine, and still recognize and react to him as Captain America. Same thing here. We weren’t really thinking about the movie incarnation per se, though it’s difficult to avoid it I suppose. But even there, Cap’s already had two completely different suits in the movies, in CAP: FIRST AVENGER and then in MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS. What we were really going for, more than anything, was the feeling of Cap being an actual soldier. At the outset, I did some research and collected a bunch of different photographs of modern military gear, helmets and what-have-you, and they all informed the design we eventually settled on.”

Source: MTV

I will admit it is a pretty cool line-up. Anything with Havok on the team means I’m reading it. I love Havok…but why is he back in a version of his classic suit? It also appears that Cap and Thor will definitely be getting more movie inspired looks after ‘AvX’.

Source: EW