Marvel is going to be having a busy summer as seen in not just June but now July 2022’s solicitations. In July we will finally see the beginning of the long promised Avengers, X-Men, and Eternals crossover event titled A.X.E.: Judgment Day. Along with that July looks to unveil the secret origin of Thor that Jason Aaron has been teasing that digs into his parentage of Odin and Phoenix. That is with a major development in the life of Spider-Man that will throw up major red flags among other things happening in the Marvel Universe. Let’s take a look at everything coming from Marvel in July 2022.
THOR’S TRUE ORIGIN STORY REVEALED
One of the most divisive things Jason Aaron has done during his time at Marvel is change Thor’s parentage so that he is the son of Odin and the Phoenix, rather than Freyja Freyrdottir being his mom. This is a change in the status quo that was recently addressed in the main Thor series where Freyja confirmed while she may not be Thor’s blood mother she will always be his mom. While that was a great moment what we still haven’t seen is how Thor’s birth came to be.
Now that will be something Aaron will address in July’s Avengers: 1,000,000 B.C. It has been a long road to get to this comic book series. The Avengers B.C. roster is one we saw early in Aaron’s Avengers run but never gone all in with. Now it seems that Aaron is ready to go in and explore this ancient version of the Avengers. How this ties into the possible dark future seen in Thor and the plans Aaron has for the rest of his Avengers run is anyone’s guess.
Because of that do not overlook Thor #27 that also comes out in July. That issue will feature a team-up with Venom. We know that in Thor’s dark future vision that Thanos was shown holding Mjolnir with the Infinity Stone on it in one hand and another hand with what appears to be a covered by a symbiote. Factoring all of this July is likely a very important month for Thor and a possible future big event that Marvel has planned around the character by end of this year or sometime next year.
JUDGEMENT DAY BEGINS FOR AVENGERS, X-MEN, & ETERNALS
After several months of build up the A.X.E.: Judgment Day event is finally going to begin. Based on the solicitations the X-Men seem to be positioned as the antagonists of the story as they declare themselves Gods of Earth. This is not the natural next step I thought we would take with the X-Men franchise after the events of Inferno and the upcoming Hellfire Gala. The way the solicitation for A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1 does not paint this in a positive light whatsoever.
Now what I hope Kieron Gillen, Valerio Schiti, and all the creative teams work on A.X.E.: Judgment Day is that trying to paint the X-Men as bad guys never works out for the “protagonists.” The Avengers have struggled to be the same after the Avengers vs X-Men event. And don’t even get me started with the Inhumans. They were absolutely blasted to the land of irrelevance after what Marvel tried to pull with Inhumans vs X-Men. If Marvel isn’t careful the Eternals will be taking up residence wherever the Inhumans are as Scott Summers and Jean Grey expand their House of Summers to include the Eternals’ former home at the end of A.X.E.: Judgment Day.
Jokes mostly aside, the other eye catching note for the A.X.E.: Judgment Day is that all the July issues, including tie-in comics, are X-Men related. It appears that at least to start the event the Avengers and Eternals will be more supporting players as the X-Men are carrying the event. That is not surprising given that the X-Men comics are the much more popular at the moment compared to Avengers and Eternals titles.
PEACH MOMOKO BEGINS DEMON WARS
Peach Momoko’s Demon Days was one of the best comic books Marvel has produced in the last few years. Momoko creative such a unique Marvel Universe almost completely centered around Mariko. Now Momoko is expanding her Marvel Universe with a new mini-series event titled Demon Wars: The Iron Samurai. Based on the title itself it appears that the Demon Days’ version of Silver Samurai will be a central character to the story with Mariko continuing as a major player.
Though given the title itself as well as the covers for Demon Wars: The Iron Samurai it does appear that we will get a Marvel’s Civil War-esque story told. Sides are clearly being drawn with versions of Spider-Man and Black Panther, to name a few, being part of the story. I’m very intrigued as to how Momoko will expand her universe with adaptions of other iconic Marvel characters into the different forms of mythology she has tapped into thus far.
SHANG-CHI RELAUNCHES WITH THE TEN RINGS
Shang-Chi is getting a fresh new relaunch in July. The new series will be titled Shang-Chi And The Ten Rings. The same creative team of Gene Luen Yang and Marcus To from the previous volume of Shang-Chi are going to be working on this series. This does align Shang-Chi to be closer to being like his MCU counterpart as the Ten Rings were key part of the character in the movies.
What makes things even more interesting is that over in Chistopher Cantwell’s Iron Man series we are going to see Mandarin’s Rings factor into the story going on in that series. With the new Shang-Chi series promising to reveal the true origin of the Ten Rings it’ll be interesting to see what the ties between the two series are. Given what both Iron Man and Shang-Chi are exploring a crossover event between the two is something that could likely take place to clear up the story around Mandarin and the Ten Rings in the comics.
WTF! PETER PARKER TEAMING UP WITH NORMAN OSBORN
If you ever wondered how to immediately unsell me on a new comic book series Amazing Spider-Man #7 solicitation and cover is a strong example. Just as I was excited for Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr’s upcoming run on Amazing Spider-Man they immediately kill all that with the latest solicitations. Its such a shame too because I was genuinely looking forward to Wells and Romita Jr. creative run on Amazing Spider-Man. Wells has shown great talent in writing fun and engaging Spider-Man stories while Romita Jr. is a legendary Spider-Man artist.
But they immediately undid all that excitement by revealing that not only are Peter Parker and Norman Osborn going to be teaming up but that Norman will be providing Peter with a new Spider-Man costume. Does this sound familiar? It should because we just went through a corporate sponsored Spider-Man story during the Beyond Saga with Ben Reilly being backed by the Beyond Corporation. Not only that we are just a few years removed from the Parker Industries story were Peter was also a corporate Spider-Man under his own company.
It is genuinely upsetting that Wells and Romita Jr. are tapping into this well once again that we know never works out for Peter or the Spider-Man franchise as a whole. More than anything it screams desperation to make sure the new Amazing Spider-Man series sells by shock value alone. I am just not interested in a story where Peter and Norman are working together, much less Norman creating a new Spider-Man costume. I am officially tapping out on the new Amazing Spider-Man run before it begins. Maybe if I hear good things about it down the line I’ll check it out on Marvel Unlimited but as of now I am passing on Amazing Spider-Man, something that is not easy for me to say.
MS. MARVEL & WOLVERINE TEAM-UP WITH X-MEN SIDEKICKS
Whatever the X-Men are doing in the Judgment Day event it looks like it is going to have an impact on their credibility. As instead of a team-up series titled Ms. Marvel & The X-Men we are getting Ms. Marvel & Wolverine. The reason I point this out is that its clear that the X-Men, not just Wolverine, are a major selling point for this new series. They are as prominently featured on all the covers for Ms. Marvel & Wolverine #1 as the title characters.
Though rather than a typical mini-series this new Ms. Marvel comic appears to be taking the place of the Marvel Team-Up series. As we see with the solicitation for the Ms. Marvel & Wolverine one-shot it is said that Ms. Marvel will get team-up issues with Moon Knight and Venom in August and September, respectively. This is yet further proof that Ms. Marvel has been lined up to take on Spider-Man’s role of leading the Marvel Team-Up comics. Which is cool as it does pick up on how the last Marvel Team-Up series did appear to be a passing of the torch series when Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel teamed up there.
REED RICHARDS MEETS LONG LOST SISTER
The Avengers, X-Men, and Eternals aren’t the only ones dealing with big events. The Fantastic Four are also in store for a major development as Reed Richards will finally meet his long lost sister in July’s Fantastic Four #46. With how key family is to the Fantastic Four franchise this is a huge deal as Reed’s sister could have big surprises for her brother and extended family.
Credit to Slott and whoever wrote the solicitation for the issue for knowing how to sell Fantastic Four #46. Including the Watchers in the solicitation shows that Reed meeting his sister is something to pay attention to if one or more Watchers will be present. It puts into question the type of impact this mysterious member of the Richards Family will have on the series and Marvel Universe as a whole.