Marvel Officially Announces Avengers, Eternals, X-Men Crossover Judgment Day
On Wednesdays, Marvel Comics officially announced its next major event, Judgment Day. Kieron Gillen writes the event, teaming with artist Valerio Schiti on a story that sets the Avengers, the Eternals, and the X-Men at odds with each other. The story kicks off in July. Gillen is already writing Marvel's ongoing Eternals series and is about to launch the new Immortal X-Men series as part of the Destiny of X relaunch. He'll weave storylines from those two titles into threads from Jason Aaron's and Javier Garron's recent Avengers plots. Schti recently worked on high-profile Marvel titles including Empyre and Inferno. Here's the story summary provided by Marvel:
"The X-Men have achieved immortality and mutants have taken their place as the dominant species on the planet. The Eternals have discovered long hidden knowledge about their species, including a devastating truth about mutantkind. The Avengers have come into direct conflict with the Celestials and are currently using a fallen Celestial as their base of operations, slowly unlocking its secrets… When the Eternals brazenly target the mutant nation of Krakoa, the Avengers try desperately to de-escalate a potentially apocalyptic war. But this is no simple conflict. The Eternals' purpose cannot be denied and mutantkind's future will not be threatened. And after the opening battles, new players and revelations for both sides will emerge as the inhabitants of the Marvel Universe are JUDGED by the greatest power they've ever come into contact with."
In the press release, Gillen says, "There's a classic metaphor to describe the Marvel Universe – a toybox, which creators take toys out of, play with and put back. I get it, but it's never quite how I've seen it – I think 'play' in another way. I think of a music shop, with all these instruments with their different qualities suggesting different songs, different stories. For all the Marvel instruments I've played, I've never written an event. Writing an event is something different. It's not like playing an instrument. It's having all the instruments in the Marvel music shop. That's not like writing a song. That's like writing a symphony.
"I looked at everything in Eternals and Immortal X-Men and everything else all the X and Avengers writers have done and thought... yeah, this is an event. In fact, an event is the only way to do justice to this. The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson described the music he was reaching for as Teenage Symphonies to God. I think that's what the best Marvel Events aspire to be, and it's what we're aspiring to here. I want the scale. I want the heartbreak . I want a book that wears its heart on its sleeve even as it puts a fist in your face. I want something Wagnerian in its volume as emotional as God Only Knows."
Schti adds, "It is great to have the opportunity to draw another Marvel event after Empyre. The difference is that last time I was just excited, but now I know how high the expectations are, so now I am both excited and a bit scared! Luckily for me I have the great Kieron Gillen and Marte Gracia watching my back and together we can face any cosmic threat!"
Before the event launches in full, Marvel Free Comic Book Day: Avengers/X-Men #1 will set the stage when it releases on May 7th. Marvel also says to read upcoming issues of Eternals, Avengers, and Immortal X-Men to follow the buildup to Judgment Day.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments. Judgment Day begins in July.