All of the talk leading up to this summer’s Generations comic book event and on the horizon sits Hydra’s finest moment in Marvel history. Hydra, with Captain America at the helm, will be taking over the Marvel industry, as reported by Newsarama. Exactly what does an “industry-wide Hydra takeover look like? Marvel Comics’ Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso explains.
We’re branding the first month (issues #1 – #3) as ‘United We Stand’. You’ve likely seen that on the marketing so far. It’s all about the heroes coming together to face off against Hydra. For month two, June (issues #4 and #5) will be branded ‘Hydra Nation’. I’ll let you speculate as to what that means,” said Alonso in a Diamond Comics Distributors interview shared with retailers this week. “In the first week of June we’re planning a widespread ‘Hydra Takeover’ of the entire comics industry. This includes many popular websites, some Marvel apps & sites, and even brick and mortar retail locations, as well as online retailers and sales outlets. Look for some more info on that in the next few weeks.
This is far from the only steps Marvel has taken to secure a successful release. Other acts include appearing on “talk shows, TV ads, and some other thing we can’t talk about.” This basically means you can expect a healthy dose of Marvel information on ABC family of networks, which may even include ESPN, though that has not been specified. The sports network has partnered with Marvel in the past and even released one of their acclaimed 30-for-30 documentaries on athletes and how they are real life superheroes.
Aside from the upcoming bombardment of information about Secret Empire, Alonso says that the company has learned from their mistakes. They realize people are getting tired and frustrated with event after event and they took time out of the release to assuage customers that they’re learning how to balance everything out without tiring out the consumers.
It’s also a good time to mention that we took some learnings from last year and cut down the number of tie-ins to this event,” said Alonso. “We get that some fans or stores may have event fatigue, while others continue to demand more and more. So we think we’ve found the happy medium for Secret Empire.
Finally, Alonso addressed the late shipment situation and promised that Marvel has taken special care to avoid delays, especially those that plagued the Civil War II series from last year. Alonso said that they already have comics turned in and that goes up to Secret Empire #4, so that should come as a relief to anyone that experienced delays with their print shipments on previous series’.
Most important to conclude with is that we here have heard the retailers and fans and we understand the issues with shipping late on events. We are doing everything in our power to keep this series on time and ending the last week of August. Stick with us here, because well before this event is concluded, you will be saying Make Mine Marvel,” said Alonso. “To further the point on the shipping, Secret Empire’s on-time and moving ahead nicely. Pages from issue 4 are already in and they look amazing. Not only will this ship rapidly but the fevered momentum will continue into the summer until we blow the lid off the entire Marvel Universe.
Oh, and if you think you’ve figured it out, you haven’t. Marvel is pretty sure that they’ve kept this one under lock and key. They’re extremely excited to see fan reactions, but they feel confident in the fact that this is one story’s end that fans won’t see coming. I’m going to bet they’re wrong because readers are smart. They may not have it yet, but they will.
Lastly, I think I’d want to say that this story is not what you think it is. Lots of people out there have lots of guesses. But no one has figured out what’s going on, even after reading the 0 issue,” said Alonso. “And that’s probably the most exciting part for us. Because it means we get to surprise some people along the way. What Nick and his collaborators have cooked up is a really fun story that will test the heroes in a number of ways. I’m fairly certain that all Marvel fans will be ecstatic when they reach the conclusion of Nick’s epic!
Let us know what you think about Secret Empire in the comment section. Are you excited? Are you event fatigued? I never get tired of new stories and events, even if they aren’t all amazing. There is a lot of quality writing going on right now, so it’s hard to imagine that Secret Empire will fail to inspire.