Marvel Comics August solicitations are here! And to no surprise Marvel’s upcoming plans are dominated by Spider-Man and the X-Men. While the Avengers have their average presence. But when you see what’s planned for Spider-Man and the X-Men both franchises far overshadow everything going on with the Avengers. Given how hot both the Spider-Man and X-Men franchises are it is not at all surprising. X-Men ’97 certainly has given a boast of attention for the X-Men as the Krakoa Era wraps up while Spider-Man has a bunch of things going on that include a new Venom event. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the biggest takeaways from Marvel Comics August solicitations.
JONATHAN HICKMAN & GREG CAPULLO LAUNCH WOLVERINE SERIES
Marvel is certainly going all in on Wolverine once again. The upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine movie is making Marvel get back to fully investing in Logan. We see how before the official ongoing series launching in September Marvel is going to be launching a new Wolverine mini-series in August.
What makes this new mini-series a headscratcher is that Marvel may cannibalize the sales of Saladin Ahmed and Martin Coccolo’s Wolverine ongoing. That is because the Wolverine: Revenge mini-series creative team is Jonathan Hickman and Greg Capullo. When thinking of possible S-tier creative teams having Hickman and Capullo names on the cover is just that. With the creative team alone it makes Wolverine: Revenge an instant must-buy series.
With so many Wolverine titles it will certainly be interesting which titles are the most successful. Even with it being a mini-series Hickman and Capullo’s Wolverine: Revenge is an instant must-buy series. The question will definitely be if Ahmed and Coccolo can get enough momentum to establish their ongoing so it isn’t just seen as the second Wolverine series.
VENOM WAR BEGINS
After months of build-up the Venom War event will finally begin in August. Marvel is not wasting anytime going from one big event to another. I wouldn’t blame anyone for seeing Venom War beginning in August and having a burn out feel. While there is no doubt Venom War will be successful sales wise Marvel is becoming to reliant on big events rather than quality comic book runs to lift them up on a month-to-month basis.
From how things stand it looks like Venom War will stay in the Spider-Man and Venom sphere of the Marvel Universe. Marvel can, and likely will, expand Venom War to have tie-ins involving the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men in future months. But sticking to Spider-Man and Venom tie-ins is for the best of this event. It at least creates a focus on the characters that have long had ties to the symbiote.
From a story standpoint it’ll be interesting to see what Venom War means for the this franchise within Spider-Man. We’ve seen a rapid expansion of more symbiote users over the last decade. This event could either end with that expansion continuing or a more focused one depending on the results. We’ll have to wait and see.
AVENGERS CROSSOVER WITH ULTRAMAN & PREDATOR
The biggest thing going on for the Avengers in August are two crossover mini-series. The first is Ultraman x Avengers by Kyle Higgins, Mat Groom, and Francesco Manna. Ultraman has been a legendary Japanese franchise that’s consistently had shows, movies, and various publications since its debut in 1966.
The power of Ultraman is even shown with how it’s Ultraman that is the led franchise in this crossover with the Avengers. With the Kaiju and Tokusatsu genres being some of the biggest around right now having the Avengers franchise have something in that setting is a great choice. Higgins and Groom experience with Power Rangers and Massive-Verse should make Ultraman x Avengers a fun series.
The other big crossover starting in August is Predator vs Black Panther. Marvel has certainly been making more use of having the Fox properties under the Disney umbrella with them. At this point Predator could be a permanent member of the Marvel Universe. It also looks like with Ultimate Black Panther becoming the main ongoing Black Panther series we will be seeing more mini-series with T’Challa when it comes to the main Marvel Universe.
GAIL SIMONE LAUNCHES UNCANNY X-MEN
In the post-Krakoa Era Marvel is not rushing the relaunch plans for the X-Men. They are pacing things for each month to add a new ongoing series for the core X-Men franchise. August’s big addition to the franchise will be the long-awaited Gail Simone-led Uncanny X-Men series.
Simone has been long teased to be working on an X-Men comic book, even when she was only working on DC Comics’ titles. A couple years ago we saw what a Simone X-Men comic book could be wit her work on the short-lived Domino series. That solo series showed Simone knows how to write within the X-Men universe.
And of all the new X-Men comic books Uncanny X-Men appears to be the closest to the roster we saw in X-Men ’97. Without Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm around it is an opportunity for Rogue to step up as a the leader of the Uncanny X-Men team. This is a big opportunity for Rogue as she is normally just given the role of the team’s tank. With the X-Men redefining themselves in the Marvel Universe post-Krakoa Era for Rogue to elevate herself as a strong leader. The roster of Wolverine, Gambit, Nightcrawler, and Jubilee can make her successful in that role.
SPIDER-MAN & DAREDEVIL VS KINGPIN OF CRIME
During 2024 we’ve had comic book issues from Amazing Spider-Man and Daredevil reestablish Wilson Fisk as the Kingpin of Crime again. That is a big change after Wilson Fisk spent has spent years since the Secret Empire event establishing his political career. That political career went up in smoke after Devil’s Reign.
Now we’ve seen Fisk seemingly renegade on his promise to his bastard son, Butch, to let him be the Kingpin of Crime. To be fair to Fisk, Butch has failed to have any sort of impact on the Marvel Universe as the new Kingpin. So it is not surprising that the August issues of Amazing Spider-Man and Daredevil will fully reestablish Fisk as the Kingpin of Crime to a larger audience.
This return as Kingpin will likely set the stage for a big street-level event in 2025. Setting that up through Amazing Spider-Man and Daredevil will make sure this will get maximum attention. Though it also looks like Zeb Wells’ Amazing Spider-Man run has more issues behind it than in front of it. Which plays into this focus on the gang wars evolving.
STORM JOINS THE AVENGERS
Coming out of the Krakoa Era it appears that Marvel is making an effort to position all the X-Men teams as full superhero teams rather than a team with nation specific purposes. We see that with all of the X-Men ongoing titles. This effort is clearly to align the X-Men more with what their traditional approach to superhero teams like Avengers and Fantastic Four are.
The reintegration into the superhero community is driven home by the fact that Storm will become a member of the Avengers. The Avengers adding an Omega-level mutant to their roster certainly elevates the team.
What’ll be interesting with Storm’s addition will be what it means for their ranks. Storm is character that is known as a leader. The Krakoa Era drove home how important Storm’s leadership is. While I don’t expect a clash with the Avengers current leader in Captain Marvel there is no doubt that Storm has much more experience, especially as a successful team leader. Exploring how Storm’s addition shakes up the team will be interesting as she shouldn’t just be made to be another member of the team.
SPIDER-MEN & SPIDER-WOMEN FORM THE SPIDER-SOCIETY
After all of the Spider-Verse events that we have gotten since the original one in 2014 we will finally see the Spider-Man Multiverse Family creating an official group. That comes in the form of the new Spider-Society mini-series that we will see launched in August. It’s honestly surprising its taken this long to launch a Spider-Society series given how many Marvel Team-Ups style Spider-Verse comic books we’ve gotten.
The solicitation for Spider-Society #1 doesn’t give us much of an idea of the story structure to expect for the mini-series. Though given that Alex Segura is the only writer it does indicate that we will see all of the Spider-Men and Spider-Women working together at the same time rather than separate stories. Which would be different from Marvel’s usual approach to Spider-Verse titles.
JEAN GREY TEAMS UP WITH CORSAIR
With the Krakoa Era over Jean Grey is being given a new cosmic direction. With how important her relationship with Cyclops and Wolverine there was was a question with where Jean would be relationship wise. Given the solicitation for Phoenix #2 we do have confirmation that Jean and Scott’s marriage will stay intact even as they are both doing their own things.
That confirmation comes in the way of Jean teaming up with her father-in-law, Corsair, in Phoenix #2. With Jean still getting adjusted to having a more cosmic direction, having a team-up with Corsair can certainly help her a lot. Corsair can share his knowledge and experience with the wider Marvel Universe to help Jean better understand where in the cosmos she should be paying attention to.
MILES MORALES MOST IMPACTED BY BLOOD HUNT
As has become the norm for big events things appear to mostly going back to normal for the Marvel Universe post-Blood Hunt. The only character that appears to be impacted by the events of Blood Hunt will be Miles Morales. That will be due to Miles still being impacted by a vampire curse that will be a major story in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #23 and the new Blood Hunters mini-series.
Having Miles’ Spider-Man lead how Blood Hunt still impacts the Marvel Universe is a smart call. Miles popularity should help at least Blood Hunters be more successful without him. Though how big of a deal these two Miles Morales related vampire stories are will really show if Blood Hunt moved the needle at all for vampire related stories in the Marvel Universe.
IRON FIST QUIETLY CELEBRATES 50TH ANNIVERSARY
We are at the point that every month we see a character or team celebrating a milestone anniversary. For the month of August, it will be Iron Fist’s turn to celebrate. The month will see Iron Fist celebrating his 50th anniversary.
To be fair for Iron Fist this is a big anniversary. Unfortunately, the only plans Marvel has to celebrate Iron Fist’s milestone is the obligated oversized one-shot that assembles legendary creators. That is always the least Marvel and other companies do for this type of milestone anniversary celebrations.
What will really tell if Marvel still sees Iron Fist as a viable character is if we get an ongoing or mini-series that spins out of this 50th anniversary one-shot. Iron Fist, like so many characters, has a ton of potential. The character has shown to be able to have commercial and critical success with the right creative team. Marvel just needs to invest in the character rather than trying to replace him or do something that just does not fit the character at all.
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