>When writer Jonathan Hickman made his long-anticipated return to Marvel Comics in 2019, he turned the X-Men's corner of the Marvel Universe upside-down in House of X and Power of X. However, those weren't the only plans he had in mind for reshaping Marvel's world. In addition to bringing back the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Hickman is creating what Marvel Comics is now calling GODS, a brand new addition to Marvel's mythology involving agents of "The Power That Be" and "The Natural Order of Things," who are asking questions about such fundamental questions as the nature of good and life and death. Fans got their first taste of GODS in this year's Free Comic Book Day: Avengers/X-Men title ahead of GODS #1 arriving in comic book stores on October 4th.
>ComicBook.com can reveal an exclusive first look at GODS #1, featuring artwork by Valerio Schti and Marte Gracia, as well as the issue's cover by Mateus Manhanini. We also asked Hickman questions about the series, though he remains guarded about its secrets. Take a look below:
>You've said that G.O.D.S. is the other series bible you wrote when you returned to Marvel, along with House of X. How do the two compare? Is there a shared DNA that fans of House of X will spot, or is GODS a very different beast? How does the scale of GODS compare to the considerable scale of what you did with House of X?
I think they're pretty far apart. I mean, I guess they're similar in scale, as that's the kind of stuff I tend to do for Marvel, but one (G.O.D.S.) is an original concept and the other (X-Men) is a franchise with over a half a century of lore attached to it. That's a pretty big difference regarding what you can do story-wise because you don't get to play against existing reader expectations or add a little splash of nostalgia to make a scene have a bit more weight than it would in a vacuum. What you do get is the shiny benefits of something being 'new,' which isn't nothing.
I've also been around long enough that my tics have sort of become a style, so I'm sure that might be something people could point to and find similarities, but to me, these are just very different types of stories.
I suppose the closest thing I've done to G.O.D.S. was S.H.I.E.L.D., which was great fun, but I think I'm much more equipped to do a story like this now than I was then.
Marvel's version of the Authority....got it.
But of course! Gunn is making an Authority movie, isn't he?
Marvel more marketing it as Marvel's version of Sandman
Brevoort compared it more to Saga presumably because of the romance angle between the male lead and his ex.
I get the feeling that once again Hickman is going to introduce a bunch of weird lore that doesn't really fit into established Marvel canon, and once it's done everyone will ignore it except maybe Ewing.
Probably for the best because Ewing's one of the few who can be trusted with that. Love most of his work except the excess homosexualrooning that appears.
May I ask why these images are in such bad quality? They're not like this on the sites I read these on before.
OP presumably fricked up when converting webp files (which for some reason Cinemaphile still refuses to allow) to jpg.
>a babylon event
Not to be confused with a White Event or an Incursion?
a White event was a thing he. got. from the new universe and was a mass empowering event so it will be unrelated to that since no one at Marvel knows what to do with New Universe/New Universal charecters
>G.O.D.S. has been described as taking place in the cracks at the intersection of science and magic in its corner of the Marvel Universe. As much as you're willing to say at this point, what do those cracks and that corner look like? How do magic and science interact with each other? Is this fantasy or sci-fi? Both, or something else?
The cracks and corners look pretty great. Valerio Schitti is a fantastic artist and from the first time I got to work with him on some fairly important New Avengers books back in the day, I knew he had an entirely different gear in his toolbox that he could pull out whenever he had the time and space to do so.
And I'm very happy that, because we've been working on this for quite some time, he's actually had the runway he needed to design all the characters and locations and the additional time to draw the book in the manner he wanted.
As for whether it's Sci-Fi or Fantasy, I'd say one of the points of the book is that the Marvel universe is both, and having someone like Valerio on board who can do both is what makes him the perfect artist for the book.
Hickmens interpretation of Mercator is very diffrent from Howards in Knights of X
What's Mercator for someone who didn't read Swords of X/Tini Howard's Otherworld BS?
a region of Otherworld howard/Hickmen made up for XoS which wasn't shown until Knights of X were it was very boring it's run by the Mutant Mercator from the District X book, i'm not sure how part of the living Tribunal got their though
How powerful is Saturnyne?
could resolve of the issues of the X of Sword crossover herself but wanted to make everyone play Mario party first she later jobbed to Betsy
Hickman has said he basically doesn't consider something canon unless its popular and gets referenced by other writters.
isn't tini howard his protégé or whatever? they even co-wrote that dumb XoS event together.
Makes sense. Both claim to be fans of something then write horrible dr who fanfiction all over it.
Howard being even allowed near a pen should be a hate crime.
well with any luck someone might fix her mess of Marvel UK at some point since whatever she was going clearly failed miserably on the sales end so Marvel just decide to hit it back to status quo at some point down the line
What if something's unpopular but it still gets referenced by other writers?
>The staff of the living tribunal
Oh wow the staff of a jobber
Y.A.W.N.
>You're introducing a cast of new and mysterious characters that are said to be agents of the Powers That Be and the Natural Order of Things. What more can you say, at this point, about who these characters are, who, or what, they serve, and what that working relationship between them is like?
Well, except for Doctor Strange (who's in the first few issues), and some cameos by Marvel regulars, nothing I say here is going to help anyone understand these concepts and characters because they're new.
And the book is kind of out there.
The good news is that the first issue is 55 pages long, and by the end of that issue, you'll have a solid idea of what the book is all about.
>People often associate your work with big ideas, with the examination of systems as a recurring theme. What are the ideas and systems you're trying to consider with G.O.D.S., and should we expect to see them represented via infographic pages, which people also associate with your writing?
I guess thematically, it's a book about gods and men. Or things we think of as gods and men. The axes of science and magic, good and evil, and life and death. So fairly primal stuff. People will pick up on all that immediately, I think.
As for the Marvel Handbook stuff I like to add into the comics, I mentioned earlier that the first issue is pretty long, but so far each issue has been a little longer than what we consider a standard page count. I'm honestly not sure we're going to have the room.
If we don't, I might add some stuff to the trade, but if there's room, I'm sure some data pages will pop up.
>https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/marvel-gods-jonathan-hickman-preview-interview/
>drilled for exotic matter
is Hickmen picking up a. plotpoint that Ewing mentioned in Sword about Mysterium being mined will have consuqunces?
No it's from Hickman's New Avengers/Avengers that AIM was drilling into the multiverse looks for cool shit which is how they snagged Hyperion whose universe was destroyed by the Incursons.
Nobody cares about Ewing shit lol
Ewing and Hickman are BFFs, Hickman is the reason why Ewing is writing an X-book. Lol.
How powerful do we think Cubisk Core is? As powerful as Strange? Stronger? I don't think he will be the big bad as he's referenced having a god. It will be a Nimrod compared to the Dominion scenario.
>G.O.D.S.
>H.E.L.L.
it's always the analysts that come up with the acronyms because they're so fricking bored in the office
Why can't Hickman just write a conventional story? Why does every story he write have to be huge and multiversal?
>Why can't Hickman just write a conventional story?
Because he can't. He has to write that crap to hide the fact he'll never be able to write anything else.
Because he’s one of the few people that can do it well.
Lol
Lmao
Also so this is just knockoff eternals? Which were just knockoff actual gods?
Why doesn't Stephen King write sloppy romance novels like Nicholas Sparks? Why didn't Cormac McCarthy write YA space opera stuff about spunky teens of color discovering their secret powers?
That's how dumb you sound.
Last I checked Stephen King doesn't hijack and retcon existing ips to write horror.
That's what all Big 2 capeshit is you fricking idiot. You absolute dumbass.
>hurr duurr why is this Batman writer aping off previously established IPs?
How fricking stupid can you be
Hickgay please leave...permanently.
Why does co dislike Hickman?
NTA, but his stories usually retcon a bunch of preexisting lore and have garbage payoff.
Other than FF, he
1) either runs off and doesn't actually finish his stuff (HoX/PoX) and his book is more just a setup for future writers (Ultimate Invasion)
or
2) he finishes and his run is a complete mess that got hijacked by one storyline and he misses the landing completely (his run on New Avengers, Avengers and Secret War, his run on Secret Warriors and SHIELD)
He's just a complete mess of a writer that's only big because Marvel is good at PR. Not to mention he retcons and disregards stuff that he doesn't like for example retconning War of Kings and Inhumans ruling the Kree.
I swear people forget all this every time he starts a new run on a Marvel book. Every time people get suckered in by the first few issues, insist this time it'll be different, insist that the massive "this changes everything" retcons his run is built on are actually good ideas. By the time it's all over most of them will have finally remembered all the previous times he did the same thing. Then they'll forget all over again and get excited about his next book.
feels like 1$ dollar store vertigo
do marvelgays enjoy this?
Incoming flop
Taking bets on what the new graphs are gonna be.