Every year, Marvel publishes a Timeless one-shot teasing its upcoming storylines for the year. Let’s dive in and SPECULATE on where those teases will take us!!
Clockwise starting at 12
Nova And Apocalypse
In the pages of X-Men: Red , Al Ewing has regularly featured Nova as a recurring character. The most recent, concluding arc of that series saw Apocalypse come to Mars to be reunited with the Araki mutants (See X of Swords and Planet-Size X-Men for a full breakdown of how we got there). Depending on how things shake out with the end of the Krakoan era, Mars may remain a mutant planet, explaining how these two disparate characters could come together.
Hank Pym Ultron Leading A Bunch Of Zombie Villains
This is the ending of the tragically cut-short Avengers Inc. series from Al Ewing. This scene will almost certainly occur in the next and final issue of the noir series
Green Goblin
There are two possibilities that I can really think of here. The vastly more likely one (in my opinion) is Norman Osborn returning to the Green Goblin mantle. Norman has been acting as a hero since the events of Nick Spencer’s Last Remains storyline, with recent issues of Amazing Spider-Man hinting that the goblin persona is reemerging. Marvel has weirdly chosen to spoil this entirely and flat-out stated that the status quo reversion will begin in the pages of one of their Free Comic Book Day offerings . Marvel has also been heavily hinting that their upcoming Web Of Spider-Man one-shot will be setting up a lot of the year’s upcoming Spider-Man-related stories, which could include more details on the Green Goblin.
The other, less likely explanation is that this is referencing the Proto-Goblin, the original goblin who first appeared in Spider-Man Minus 1 and the subject of the upcoming J.M. DeMatteis flashback series Spider-Man: Shadow of the Goblin.
Blade Fighting Hulk
This happened in the recent Blade #7. Marvel has been quietly building up the horror and monster corners of its universe in the pages of Incredible Hulk , Jason Aaron’s Avengers , Moon Knight , and Blade (I am sure I am missing a couple, Marvel puts out a LOT of comics every week. Some would say too much. I would say too much). Monster-related keys could see some interesting play this year, so it’s something worth keeping an eye on.
Fantastic Four
I have no idea what this is teasing. That being said, you should totally check out the current Fantastic Four run. It’s a lot of whacky fun and Ryan North is a master of making hard sci-fi and advanced physics easy to understand.
Dario Agger Holding A Copy Of Immortal Thor #1
This is a storyline playing out right now in the pages of Immortal Thor (and the recently announced Roxxon Presents: Thor ) where the evil oil company Roxxon has bought the Earth-616 Marvel Comic Company. It’s very meta, but interesting and echoes some of the story beats Writer Al Ewing used in the pages of Immortal Hulk.
New Moon Knight
This is what’s going on in the pages of the new Vengeance of the Moon Knight series, written by rising star Jed MacKay and continuing off of his phenomenal 30-issue run of Moon Knight . The art on that book is so freaking cool and MacKay is a great writer. I am not expecting a huge investment out of this, but I spent the extra 5 bucks to get the 1:25 cover in case the new Moon Knight is a really big hit with fans. Worst case I have a cool-looking cover for a series I like.
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Tombstone
Tombstone has been a big part of the current Amazing Spider-Man run and is a central character in the current Gang War crossover.
Dr. Doom With Sorcerer Supreme Vibes
I really do not know. I checked the next three months of Marvel’s solicitations and none of them made me think of this. There was a spoiler variant for Timeless that featured Doom as the Sorcerer Supreme, but that book has not really moved since its release.
Prisoner X
The Krakoan era is coming to an end and the X-Men line is expected to undergo some big shifts under new line editor Tom Brevoort . I know there was a Prisoner X event comic that I never read, but maybe something from that book will be coming back around? We do not know much about what the Post-Krakoan era will look like at the moment, so stay tuned.
Miles Morales
Marvel has been hyping the upcoming Miles Morales: Spider-Man #300 as a major milestone in Miles’ life (To see how they somehow arrived at the number 300, check out the Miles Morales entry in our comprehensive Marvel Numbering Guide ). The book is explicitly referenced in several upcoming solicitations and mentioned at the end of Timeless . That being said, when does Marvel not pretend like every issue is the biggest deal ever?
Vampires
This is the upcoming event Blood Hunt . Blood Hunt is written by Jed MacKay and will represent the culmination of several storylines in current Marvel titles, including Moon Knight / Vengeance of the Moon Knight (Both also written by Med MacKay), Avengers , and Blade .
Spirit of Vengeance Leaving Johnny Blaze
This refers to the upcoming Ghost Rider: Final Vengeance series, which Marvel has spoiled and revealed that The Hood will become the new Spirit of Vengeance . I know that may sound whacky, but it is actually a continuation of the very interesting work Benjamin Percy has been doing in the pages of Ghost Rider (particularly the Annual, which featured the Hood). The Hood first appeared in the eponymous The Hood #1 and is set to be the villain in the upcoming Ironheart MCU project. So there could be a moneymaking opportunity here depending on the price you can get the first appearance for and if the show or comic is a hit with fans. I am not holding my breath on that personally, but your individual risk appetite may vary.
Kid Venom
In the pages of Death Of the Venomverse #2, manga writer Taigami first introduced Kid Venom. The character is set for his own upcoming solo series and represents a clear appeal to the highly lucrative manga market. If the series is popular, the variant of his first appearance featuring the character could become the book to own.
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The Punishers
This will probably be a storyline in the new Punisher series. The tease clearly shows the popular Punisher version of the War Machine armor that first appeared in Punisher #218 . Now you just need people to care about this new Punisher.
New Champions
Marvel decided to give a bunch of heroes the Spider-Boy treatment and created variant covers featuring their own “long lost” sidekicks . It seems like Marvel is going to be making all of those characters real, effectively doing a massive version of what they did with Gwenpool . The solicitation for the upcoming Spider-Woman #6 is the following: “Brokenhearted, Jess decides to leave New York for a fresh start. But the trek across country will not be a smooth ride. A new adventure starts here! Introducing some new faces and with the potential to become New…Champions?!”. Sounds like Spider-Woman #6 may feature the first in-story appearance of all of these characters.
The Blue Guy
So that kind of looks like Mr. Sinister, especially with the diamond on the forehead), but there is also a touch of Iron Man there, as the arc reactor-shaped hole in his chest indicates. If you have been following the pages of Immortal X-Men , Invincible Iron Man , Fall of the House of X , and/or Rise of the Powers Of X , you will know that both Iron Man and Sinister are at the center of current X-Men storylines and the conclusion of the Krakoan era. A version of Mr. Sinister is the big bad and it has been frequently teased that Tony Stark has some sort of secret weapon up his sleeve. My guess is Stark will infect the technology that Mr. Sinister has overtaken and use that to end the wider threat to mutants.
The Cosmic Abstracts
This is probably an extremely vague tease for future issues of G.O.D.S . , which writer Jonathan Hickman has explicitly stated will involve fundamental changes to these larger-than-life cosmic entities.
Scarlet Witch
