By TJ Dietsch
As the Chaos King wreaks havoc across the Marvel Universe in Chaos War, expect plenty of characters who haven't been seen in a while. Writer Fred Van Lente's three-issue shipping limited series CHAOS WAR: DEAD AVENGERS, starting in November brings Deathcry, Doctor Druid, the female Yellowjacket, and original incarnations of The Vision, The Swordsman and Captain Marvel not only back from the dead, but back into the spotlight.
"The Chaos King is systematically destroying all the dimensions of the multiverse to make himself the sole thing in existence once again," Van Lente explains. "Among those planes destroyed are the afterlives, dumping everyone who used to be dead back onto the mortal realm again. Six of these dead are former Avengers."
Van Lente reveals that a mysterious force, which will be the big reveal of the first issue, calls the team together to fight a villain that makes perfect sense considering the circumstances.
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| The Grim Reaper |
Putting together a story with such a disparate group might seem daunting, but Van Lente revels in writing some of the lesser known characters.
"I think I've firmly established my street cred at Marvel as the go-to guy for mid-level characters," he jokes. "And in all seriousness, I wouldn't have it any other way! It's not that I don't enjoy writing Spider-Man, Iron Man and Wolverine-I've done ongoings with all of them, and really enjoyed a lot of success. But it's hard to remake and redefine those characters, both in the sense that they're spines of the company, and, frankly, since they're icons, why would you remake them? With Swordsman and the female Yellowjacket, that's a different story. They're characters with iffy definitions in the first place, so I really have a chance to go to new places and surprise readers with new interpretations. "
The writer seems to be enjoying himself too. Being a huge Avengers fan, Van Lente brings equal amounts of love and new insight to the characters.
"I am an old-school Vision fan," Van Lente says. "Actually, I'm an odd-school Avengers fan in general. That was the book I collected when I was kid after reading the Roy Thomas/John Buscema reprints in MARVEL SUPER ACTION. So I fell for the Vision/Scarlet Vision romance hook, line and sinker and loved the series that Bill Mantlo and Steve Englehart did in
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| CHAOS WAR: DEAD AVENGERS #1 cover by Tom Grummett |
With a story involving life, death and the very future of the Avengers at stake, Van Lente needed a partner in art who could translate his words into pictures, so who better than Tom Grummett, whose style always showcases the coolness of characters.
"Tom is totally badass," Van Lente exclaims. "I loved his Superboy stuff and the opportunity to work with him on this is terrific. This is a huge, massive, Avengers-y the-universe-is-about-to-end-and-only-we-can-save-it cosmic battle of epic epicitude. You won't want to miss it."
Keep checking Marvel.com all week for more exciting Chaos War news and announcements!
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Thanks for telling me Cap's back. I'm kinda new at this.
So does this mean that they are really back.. for Real?!?!? oh well"No one in comics stays dead except Bucky, Thomas "Toro" Raymond, Madeline "Miss America" Joyce, the Red Raven, Jason Todd, and Uncle Ben" ironically both Jason Todd and Bucky have been brought back.... *sigh*
Im really excited for this book and that Van lente is writing it makes me doubt we will see The sentry which is more then fine with me.
so looking forward to this, but how will vision react to speed and wiccan let alone the new vision. It will also be great having captian Marvel back!
uuuh Cap's been back for a while as the Captain Steve Rogers....