The Marvel Universe Will Be Very Different This Fall When 'Secret Wars' Ends

We're not even halfway through "Secret Wars," Marvel Comics' universe-exploding summer crossover event that's playing across multiple titles, and Marvel is already giving us our first look at the next Marvel universe. On Thursday, the company announced an "All-New, All-Different" universe will be coming this fall.

With All-New, All-Different Marvel, the leading publisher is revamping its entire lineup with the release of 60 new books that are all starting from Issue No. 1. Speaking to Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso teased that the new universe will feature an all-new Hulk that readers have never met before, a new Spider-Man, and an all-new Wolverine.

"You're going to be looking at, in certain cases, new characters inhabitiing those roles, and new characters dealing with profound changes in the relationships with others around them and where they live," Alonso told USA Today. "We've challenged everybody [the creators] to come up with the right 'Oh [expletive]' reveal for their characters to shake it up and make it interesting."

Lately, Marvel hasn't shied away from shaking things up, especially in service of promoting diversity in its offerings. In the fall, the leading comic book publisher debuted the first black Captain America, Sam Wilson, a.k.a. Falcon, and a female Thor, who was recently revealed to be Jane Foster. Most recently, it introduced an all-female Avengers team called "A-Force" as a tie-in to the "Secret Wars" event.

All of the changes coming to its characters and stories spin out of "Secret Wars," which saw the Marvel universe collide with the Ultimate Universe, and the remaining pieces of each universe's Earth were used to create Battleworld. According to USA Today, the new titles will pick eight months after this transformative event, and the first pages of each will bring both new and old readers on what has changed.

If this all sounds familiar, it's because DC Comics did something very similar in 2011. Following the end of "Flashpoint," which also significantly altered the DC Universe, the second leading publisher launched 52 new titles starting at issue No.1. The goal of the New 52 was to simply DC's complicated, retcon-prone universe and make their books more accessible to new readers, which is also what All-New All-Different Marvel is trying to do.

"The real beauty of that [starting eight months after "Secret Wars"] is if you're one of these fans who've been around more many years, it's a great, exciting mystery," David Gabriel, Marvel's senior vice president of sales and marketing, said to USA Today. "And if you're these new fans who maybe only jumped in ithis year when you saw the 'Avengers' movie, you'll be able to pick up any of these comics and you will not need to know 50 years of backstory of anybody."

Some of Marvel's best creators are leading the revamp: Brian Michael Bendis, who played an important role in the innovative Ultimate Universe, Mark Waid, G. Willow Wilson, Dan Slott, and Jeff Lemire. UFC fighter CM Punk will also be writing a title featuring Drax from the Guardians of the Galaxy.