Marvel will be having a busy April. They will be kicking off spring with the first big Avengers event of the year, titled Blood Hunt. Along with that, we will be getting the penultimate issues of Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X. In the middle of these events, both Spider-Gwen and Deadpool are getting their own respective fresh starts. Find out what are the biggest things to look out for from Marvel Comics with our breakdown of their April 2024 solicitations.
BLADE LEADS AVENGERS IN BLOOD HUNT
The Avengers’ first big event of 2024 will be one led by Blade. Given that Blade is being set up to be a major player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe this is not too surprising. Marvel has been investing in elevating Blade much more in the last few years. The Blood Hunt event will help to further drive up the stories led by Blade that Marvel can reference in the coming years.
An intriguing note is that Blood Hunt may be taking a much more R-rated tone. At least that is what is teased with Blood Hunt #1 coming in a special Red Band polybag. Having this separate edition from the normal one does create questions as to what will go on in Blood Hunt #1. Will there be a death that gets an extended scene? Or should we be expecting a lot of gore in Marvel’s upcoming big event?
Jed MacKay and Pepe Larraz taking a Marvel Knights-like approach for Blood Hunt would work for the characters involved. With vampires being the lead villains, they should be shown as much more violent than the typical Marvel villain. Our heroes dealing with the fear of being turned into a vampire’s thrall or being killed should be a big part of the narrative.
DEADPOOL RELAUNCHED AGAIN
Lately, a character that has become known for relaunches for their comic book is Deadpool. Marvel has had a hard time putting together a creative team that can have both critical and commercial success. This is not to say there have been bad Deadpool runs. Moreso, there hasn’t been a creative team that has been able to fully tap into Deadpool’s fan base to make the series a top seller. Given Deadpool’s popularity, his title has the potential to be a consistent Top 25 seller.
With Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool 3 still scheduled for 2024, as of now, Marvel is relaunching the comic book once again. This time with Cody Ziglar and Rogê Antônio as the new Deadpool creative team. This is a solid creative team for sure. Hopefully, they can find the magic with the character that makes this a commercial and critically well-received. If not don’t be surprised if we see another Deadpool #1 in 2025, as the cycle repeats itself with the Merc With A Mouth series.
ROXXON DEBUT NEW A.I. GENERATED THOR
Whether we like it or not, A.I. will only continue to grow in 2024. Marvel is jumping on that train by launching Roxxon Presents: Thor. More specifically, Al Ewing looks to be going meta with the A.I.-generated content thread as part of his Immortal Thor run.
If you read Immortal Thor #6 this development is not all that surprising. With Roxxon recently purchasing the in-universe version of Marvel Comics this was the direction Ewing’s story was going. Ewing has built enough trust with his comic book work, especially at Marvel. He clearly has a plan for a bigger direction to take with Roxxon owning Marvel Comics.
With Roxxon Presents: Thor centering around an A.I. generated God of Thunder there is no better artist to do this type of comic with than Greg Land. Presents: Thor is just made for Land’s style so this God of Thunder looks like all the bad A.I. generated as possible. And Land won’t have to adjust his art style to accomplish that trace-drawn look. He was born for this meta-story about A.I generated people.
SPIDER-GWEN PERMANENTLY MOVES TO EARTH-616
Spider-Gwen’s popularity has consistently risen since she made her debut in the original Spider-Verse event. Her popularity has been so undeniable that she has been the constant in all the Spider-Verse related comic books. Even with Peter Parker or Miles Morales usually leading all the Spider-Verse events Spider-Gwen has really been the torchbearer for this side of the Spider-Man franchise.
Now after teasing Spider-Gwen being part of Earth-616, she will be making the permanent move to the main Marvel Universe. It is a shame that Spider-Gwen can’t continue to do her own thing on Earth-65. The Earth-65 Marvel Universe has been cool to see take shape. We got to see iconic Marvel characters in different roles.
That said, Marvel has certainly put together a great creative team for Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider. Stephanie Phillips has built a strong catalog of cool comic book work. Her Grim series with BOOM! Studios is excellent. She has also done cool superhero work like Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman: Evolution, and Rogue & Gambit. She is a creator that Marvel should invest in as her writing style can work for all their franchises.
DEBUT OF ULTIMATE STORM AND KILLMONGER
Of the Ultimate Universe titles Marvel is putting out Ultimate Black Panther has the most potential. This is a completely fresh start for the Black Panther franchise. With that fresh start Bryan Hill and Stefano Caselli can take all the best versions of Black Panther into his Ultimate Universe counterpart.
A major example of that is the debut of Ultimate Killmonger. Killmonger has become a very popular villain thanks to Michael B. Jordan’s portrayal of the character. His comic book counterpart has not even come close to the MCU Killmonger’s popularity. With Ultimate Black Panther this is an opportunity to fully tap into the potential Killmonger has.
Pairing Killmonger with Ultimate Storm is a surprising development. With Black Panther and Storm having such an iconic relationship Killmonger adds to the potential of the series. Especially as the freedom fighter direction for Ultimate Killmonger and Storm appears to paint them in an anti-hero directions. The question is if their freedom fighter stance also puts them at odds against Wakanda.
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN CHANGING ICONIC DYNAMIC
J. Jonah Jameson’s hatred has been a constant in every Marvel Universe we’ve seen across comic books, movies, and TV shows. It is part of the Spider-Man brand. Leave it to Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto to explore the Spider-Man vs Jameson rivalry in a new way. That is what we are seeing teased in Ultimate Spider-Man.
Though as Hickman and Checchetto proved in Ultimate Spider-Man #1, they aren’t afraid of changing the dynamic. The big change will come from Jameson having Ben Parker by his side to work on Spider-Man stories together with. We already saw how working with Ben has made Jameson a person with actual morals. Not only that, but Ultimate J. Jonah Jameson actually shows that he has journalistic integrity. That should make the approach Jameson and Ben take in the new age of superheroes an intriguing element to this Ultimate Universe.
X-MEN TRAITOR ROCKS FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X
Both the Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X tease that a major traitor will be revealed. This traitor will be the connecting piece that sees the story in both titles merge. The question is who this traitor will be and from which side.
The question about which side this traitor is coming from is because we know Firestar is still part of Orchis. Gerry Duggan invested a lot of time in making Firestar’s triple agent role a major role in the end of the Krakoan Age. Doing this reveal in the penultimate issue of the crossover would leave room to see how Orchis reacts.
Though given that the solicitation for Fall of the House of X #4 says the betrayal will rock the X-Men it could be someone else entirely. Given that it and Rise of the Powers of X are playing around with timelines the betrayal could come from an X-Man. Who that is could be a major surprise. We’ll have to wait and see.