All-New, All-Different Marvel (abbreviated ANADM) was the 2015 relaunch of the Marvel Universe, following the events of their massive Secret Wars event earlier that year. Much like Marvel NOW!, their 2012 rebranding, this new initiative was not a reboot — more of a deck reshuffling than anything else.
ANADM picks up where Secret Wars left off with an eight-month Time Skip, much like the one that preceded it during The Avengers (Jonathan Hickman). Dubbed "Eight Months After," the start of ANADM sees characters adjusting to their new lives after the fall of Battleworld with very different status quos, i.e. the Fantastic Four scattered, shakeups to the X-Men, brand new Avenger teams formed, and more. Needless to say, the Marvel Universe is starting to look all-new and all-different.
In 2016, Marvel returned to the Marvel NOW! branding, effectively supplanting ANADM as the new status quo of the Marvel Universe.
Compare to DC Comics' DC YOU campaign, which launched after a similar Crisis Crossover, Convergence, ended the New 52 banner without rebooting their continuity. Also compared to DC Comics' One Year Later, in which major status quo changes were initiated after a lengthy time skip following a Crisis Crossover, in this case Infinite Crisis.
- New status quos for the Fantastic Four, the Ultimate Fantastic Four, and their supporting casts:
- Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Susan Richards/Invisible Woman, and their children (Franklin Richards and Valeria Richards) go missing in action. They are Faking the Dead as they and the Future Foundation children are fixing the multiverse.
- Johnny Storm/Human Torch joins The Inhumans and the Uncanny Avengers.
- Ben Grimm/Thing joins the Guardians of the Galaxy.
- The Maker is a supervillain that takes on the New Avengers.
- Galactus is the enemy of the Ultimates.
- Doctor Doom, now without his scars, works alongside Iron Man.
- X-23 takes up the Wolverine mantle.
- Bad Future characters stick around in the present:
- Maestro, the nefarious future Hulk.
- Old Man Logan, the post-apocalyptic Wolverine.
- A monstrous team of Howling Commandos.
- Amadeus Cho as the "Totally Awesome" new Hulk.
- Ultimate Marvel characters spared from their now-defunct universe join the main universe:
- Miles Morales, the Ultimate Spider-Man, alongside a good portion of his supporting cast (including his dad, Ganke, Kenny Kong, and Bombshell) His mother is also alive and well in this universe.
- Reed Richards, the Maker.
- Certain concepts like the Triskelion and Ultimate Thor's Mjolnir also make the transition.
- A massive status quo change to the X-Men:
- Beast joins The Inhumans.
- Kitty Pryde joins the Guardians of the Galaxy.
- An Unexpected Character or two from the past:
- Red Wolf, an obscure Native-American tracker (and one from the 1872 universe, rather than 616).
- Citizen V, a former persona of Baron Zemo.note
- Devil Dinosaur, an oft-forgotten dinosaur from prehistory.
- The dissolution of S.W.O.R.D. and its replacement with the Alpha Flight Space Program, led by Captain Marvel.
All-New, All-Different Marvel (October 2015 — October 2016)
- All-New, All-Different Marvel Point One — One-shot featuring stories by various writers setting up ANADM titles.
- Avengers #0 — One-shot featuring stories by various writers setting up the new Avengers teams.
Avengers (Team books)
- A-Force — The all-female team of Avengers, returning from Secret Wars with the same lineup plus Captain Marvel. Written by G. Willow Wilson with art by Jorge Molina.
- All-New, All-Different Avengers — Featuring a new team of Avengers note in the wake of Secret Wars, now operating without limitless funds and putting an emphasis on the Marvel Universe's newest heroes. Written by Mark Waid with rotating art by Mahmud Asrar and Adam Kubert.
- New Avengers — A.I.M. becomes the Avengers Idea Mechanics note under Sunspot's leadership. Written by Al Ewing with art by Gerardo Sandoval.
- The Ultimates — Mind you, this team isn't made up of characters from Ultimate Marvel, but rather: Black Panther, Blue Marvel, Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, and America Chavez, all fighting against "huge problems" facing the universe — and possibly, multiverse — beginning with Galactus. Written by Al Ewing with art by Kenneth Rocafort.
- Uncanny Avengers — A new Unity squad of Avengers note forms, this time incorporating Inhumans into the mix as well. Written by Gerry Duggan with art by Ryan Stegman.
Avengers (Solo titles)
- All-New Hawkeye note — Described as a "darker" take on Hawkeye that pits Clint against Kate, told in the present as well as the future. Written by Jeff Lemire with art by Ramon Perez.
- Black Panther — T'Challa returns with his first ongoing series in years, this time dealing with terrorists organizing a political uprising in Wakanda. Written by Ta-Nehisi Coates with art by Brian Stelfreeze.
- Captain Marvel — Carol returns from her solo adventures in outer space to serve as Earth's primary defense against extraterrestrial threats, effectively replacing the S.W.O.R.D. organization. Written by Fazekas & Butters with art by Kris Anka.
- Deadpool — The Merc With a Mouth is back from the dead in this new series, written by Gerry Duggan with art by Mike Hawthorne.
- The Mighty Thor note — Jane Foster continues holding the mantle of Thor, finding herself in the midst of a civil war on Asgard. Written by Jason Aaron with art by Russell Dauterman.
- The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl note — Everyone's favorite butt-kicking, nut-eating heroine is back! This time following her move off-campus and delving deeper into her origin — oh, and she's an Avenger now, too. Written by Ryan North with art by Erica Henderson.
- The Vision — The titular android builds himself a family and moves to the suburbs in his first ongoing series. Written by Tom King with art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta.
Captain America
- Captain America: Sam Wilson note — Sam Wilson continues his tenure as Captain America, though it seems his relationship with Steve Rogers might be a little strained. Written by Nick Spencer with art by Daniel Acuna.
- Captain America: Steve Rogers — In the wake of Avengers Standoff, Steve Rogers' youth is restored and he returns to the Captain America mantle. Written by Nick Spencer with art by Jesus Saiz.
Iron Man
- International Iron Man — Brian Michael Bendis returns with his Daredevil collaborator Alex Maleev to take Tony on a worldwide adventure to rediscover who he is... and figure out who his parents really were.
- Invincible Iron Man — Continuing Matt Fraction's title of the same name with a new volume, described as the "heart" of the new Marvel Universe and restoring some luster to the Iron Man name. Written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by David Marquez.
Squadron Supreme
- Squadron Supreme note — Their first ongoing title since 2008, featuring a lineup that pulls each member from a different reality destroyed by the incursions prior to Secret Wars. Written by James Robinson with art by Leonard Kirk.
- Hyperion — The Squadron Supreme leader is stuck in the American heartland, dealing with his new life, written by Chuck Windig with art by Nik Virella.
- Nighthawk — The Chicago bound, treacherous Batman analog in his own series, written by David Walker with art by Ramon Villalobos.
Cosmic
- Angela: Queen of Hel note — A story about "love and war" that sees Angela gain dominion over Hel. Written by Marguerite Bennett with art by Stephanie Hans and Kim Jacinto.
- Drax — Written by CM Punk & Cullen Bunn with art by Scott Hepburn.
- Guardians of the Galaxy — Featuring a new team note as Peter Quill ascends to become Emperor replacing his father, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Valerio Schiti.
- Guardians of Infinity — note Rocket Raccoon, Groot and Drax team up with the original Guardians of the Galaxy/Guardians 3000 and a mysterious new group known as the Guardians 1000. Written by Dan Abnett with art by Carlo Barberi.
- Nova — Sam Alexander is reunited with his father. Written by Sean Ryan with art by Cory Smith.
- Rocket Raccoon & Groot — After headlining their own solo books, the infamous pair team up for a new ongoing series. Written by Skottie Young with art by Felipe Andrade.
- Silver Surfer — A continuation of the previous volume written by Dan Slott with art by Mike Allred.
- Star-Lord — Before Star-Lord, he was Peter Quill, NASA washout. Written by Sam Humphries with art by Javier Garron and Will Robson.
- Venom: Space Knight — Flash Thompson is Ambassador to Earth and a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Time to make the universe a safer place. Written by Robbie Thompson with art by Ariel Olivetti.
Inhumans
- All-New Inhumans — A new book starring popular Inhuman Crystal and starring new and old Inhumans. By Charles Soule, James Asmus, and Stefano Caselli
- Karnak — The Inhuman's first solo title. Written by Warren Ellis with art by Gerardo Zaffino.
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur — An all-ages title that sees the titular dinosaur's adventures with a girl named Lunella Lafayette, AKA Moon Girl. Written by Amy Reeder and Brandon Montclare with art by Natacha Bustos.
- Ms. Marvel note — Continuing the adventures of Kamala Khan, navigating her life with newfound fame as Ms. Marvel, as well as being one of the newest Avengers. Written by G. Willow Wilson with art by Adrian Alphona and Takeshi Miyazawa.
- Uncanny Inhumans note — Described as a street-level take on the characters, now featuring Johnny Storm and the Beast. Written by Charles Soule with art by Steve McNiven.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. note — S.H.I.E.L.D. returns in this new title ... but it seems like HYDRA might be involved with them in some way. Written by Marc Guggenheim with art by Mike Norton.
- Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D. note — The monstrous team of supernatural beings note led by a (Life Model Decoy) Dum Dum Dugan returns from Secret Wars, this time sponsored by SHIELD. Written by Frank Barbiere with art by Brent Schoonover.
Spider-Verse
- The Amazing Spider-Man — Parker Industries is booming as Peter Parker moves on up! Written by Dan Slott with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli.
- Carnage — Cletus Kasady is on the move again and the FBI, joined by John Jameson and Eddie Brock, are tracking him down. Written by Gerry Conway with art by Mike Perkins.
- Radioactive Spider-Gwen note — Continuing the adventures of Gwen Stacy, Spider-Woman of Earth-65; notable in that she isn't being folded into the new mainstream Marvel Universe. Written by Jason Latour with art by Robbi Rodriguez.
- Silk note — Cindy Moon becomes known as the "Sinister Silk" in this new volume of her title. Written by Robbie Thompson with art by Stacey Lee.
- Spider-Man 2099 note — Same future, new costume. Written by Peter David with art by Will Sliney.
- Spider-Man — Starring Miles Morales as the main web-slinger of New York City with Peter Parker as a mentor. Written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Sara Pichelli.
- Spider-Woman note — Jessica Drew returns in a new volume of her title, with one major change: she's pregnant. Written by Dennis Hopeless with art by Javier Rodriguez.
- Spidey — The (in-continuity) adventures of the web-slinger "before he became amazing." Written by Robbie Thompson with art by Nick Bradshaw.
- Web Warriors note — Returning from Secret Wars. Spider-Gwen leads a team of Spiders note to defend the multiverse. Written by Mike Costa with art by David Baldeon.
Weirdworld
- Black Knight — The classic character finds himself in Weirdworld for an ongoing series described as Game of Thrones meets Breaking Bad. Written by Frank Tieri with art by Luca Pizzari.
- Weirdworld — A continuation of the Secret Wars comic, only this time with the protagonist being a 16-year-old girl named Becca. Written by Sam Humphries with art by Mike del Mundo.
X-Men
- All-New Wolverine — Now with Laura Kinney (aka X-23, Wolverine's younger female clone) under the cowl. Written by Tom Taylor, with art by David Lopez on the first arc. Marcio Takara takes over on art duties beginning in issue 7 and for the Annual, with Ig Guara covering issues 10-12.
- All-New X-Men — The younger, time-displaced versions of the original X-Men (with Wolverine in the place of young Jean) take a roadtrip to pave their own paths in life. Written by Dennis Hopeless with art by Mark Bagley.
- Extraordinary X-Men — A new team of X-Men note unites to investigate the mysterious (and harmful) effect of Terrigen mist on mutants; intended to be the new flagship X-Book. Written by Jeff Lemire with art by Humberto Ramos.
- Old Man Logan — Returning from Secret Wars. The post-apocalyptic, alternate future Wolverine acclimates to the modern day Marvel Universe. Written by Jeff Lemire with art by Andrea Sorrentino.
- Uncanny X-Men — A new team of (morally-ambiguous) mutants note forms in this new volume of the original X-Book. Written by Cullen Bunn with art by Greg Land.
- X-Men '92 — Returning from Secret Wars, Professor Xavier and his X-Mennote are joined by Cassandra Nova's pupils as they return to the Xavier Academy. Written by Chris Sims & Chad Bowers with art by Alti Firmansyah.
Solo titles
- Astonishing Ant-Man note — Picks up where the last volume left off, with Scott further developing his security business staffed by reformed(?) criminals, who may or may not be encouraging Scott to relapse into his old ways. Written by Nick Spencer with art by Ramon Rosanas.
- Black Widow — Somewhat picking up where her previous series left off, Natasha Romanoff returns with a "back-to-basics" approach to spy work. Written by Mark Waid with art by Chris Samnee.
- Daredevil — The Man Without Fear sets up shop in New York's Chinatown and takes on a new apprentice, Blindspot. Written by Charles Soule with art by Ron Garney.
- Doctor Strange — Bringing Stephen back to a more grounded, street-level feel for his first ongoing series in over twenty years. Written by Jason Aaron with art by Chris Bachalo.
- Hercules — Zeus' son (and sometimes Avenger) decides to get back in shape and show that he's the world's first superhero! Written by Dan Abnett and Luke Ross.
- Howard the Duck note — Howard "gets a new hat." Written by Chip Zdarsky with art by Joe Quinones
- Mockingbird — Coming off the heels of a SHIELD one-shot, Mockingbird headlines her first ongoing series. Written by Chelsea Cain with art by Kate Niemczyk.
- Moon Knight — Marc Spector finds himself trapped in a mental institution. Written by Jeff Lemire and art by Greg Smallwood.
- Patsy Walker, a.k.a. Hellcat! — The classic character gets her first ongoing title note , following Patsy's solo adventures as a hero in New York City. Written by Kate Leth with art by Brittney Williams.
- The Punisher — Frank Castle's back as he investigates a new drug that grants users unstable versions of Captain America's Super Serum Formula, written by Becky Cloonan with art by Steve Dillon.
- Red Wolf — Red Wolf from 1872 gets an ongoing written by Nathan Edmondson with art by Jeffrey Veregge. Described as "the Jason Bourne" of the Wild West.
- Scarlet Witch — Wanda Maximoff headlines her first ongoing title, which sees her "fixing" witchcraft in the Marvel Universe. Written by James Robinson with rotating artists.
- Totally Awesome Hulk — Super genius Amadeus Cho becomes the newest Hulk. Written by Greg Pak with art by Frank Cho.
- The Unbelievable Gwenpool — Gwen Poole note enters the Marvel Universe and causes chaos. Written by Christopher Hastings with art by Gurihiru.
Teams (Other)
- Contest of Champions — A new volume of the title, based on the Android/iOS game of the same name. The Collector has kidnapped heroes and is forcing them to fight one another. Written by Al Ewing and art by Paco Medina with aid from the game company Kabam.
- Deadpool & the Mercs for Money — Deadpool has his own team of mercenaries who only have one objective, getting paid. Written by Cullen Bunn with art by Salvador Espin.
- The Illuminati — The Hood gathers a team of Marvel antagonists note in the name of protecting other villains and being just all-around evil for personal gain. Written by Josh Williamson with art by Shawn Crystal.
- Spider-Man/Deadpool — The Merc with a Mouth and the Wonderous Web-Slinger together in their own book! The wisecracks will fly! Written by Joe Kelly with art by Ed McGuiness
- Power Man and Iron Fist — The "Heroes for Hire" Luke Cage and Danny Rand reunite. Written by David Walker with art by Sanford Greene.
- Starbrand & Nightmask — A duo of reimagined concepts from The New Universe introduced in The Avengers, the titular characters balance their lives as cosmically-powered superheroes and newly-enrolled college students. Written by Greg Weisman with art by Dominike Stanton.
- Thunderbolts — The Winter Soldier leads a new team of Thunderboltsnote to clean up the mess caused by the Avengers Standoff crossover. Written by Jim Zub with art by Jon Malin.
Limited titles
- Amazing Spider-Man & Silk: The Spider(fly) Effect — Peter and Cindy embark on a time-traveling adventure in this digital-first series. Written by Robbie Thompson with art by Todd Nauck.
- Daredevil/Punisher — Daredevil and Blindspot work to protect a defendant in the former's latest court case from The Punisher. Creative team TBA.
- Deadpool & Cable: Split Second — A digital-first limited series reuniting the Merc with a Mouth with his Soldier with the Scowl buddy from the future. Written by Fabien Nacieza with art and co-written by Reilly Brown.
- Vote Loki — The Trickster God has set his sights on becoming the ruler of the free world but does he have something more sinister planned? Written by Christopher Hastings with art by Langdon Foss
- X-Men: Worst X-Man Ever — A digital-first series taking place in a "best of" X-Men universe, starring a new mutant named Bailey Hoskins. Written by Max Bemis with art by Michael Walsh.
Crisis Crossover events
- Avengers Standoff — The quiet town of Pleasant Hill has a mysterious secret, one that draws out S.H.I.E.L.D. and all the Avengers into it. Designed to be Captain America's 75th Anniversary event. Involves Captain America: Sam Wilson, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D., Illuminati, All-New All-Different Avengers, New Avengers and Uncanny Avengers
- Deadpool v. Gambit —The Merc with the Mouth and the Suave, Card-Throwing Cajun team up to pull off one last job. Written by Ben Acker & Ben Blacker with art by Danilo Beyruth.
- Spider-Women — When Spider-Gwen needs some inspiration, she hops back over to the main universe to talk to Jessica Drew and Cindy Moon. However, someone followed her - Jessica and Cindy's Earth-65 counterparts. Involves Spider-Woman, Silk and Radioactive Spider-Gwen.
- Apocalypse Wars — En Sabah Nur declares that Mutants are the weakest species and decides to clean house. Involves Extraordinary X-Men, Uncanny X-Men and All-New X-Men.
- Civil War II — A sequel to the original Civil War. Iron Man and Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) clash over a young man named Ulysses, who is believed to see into the future. Written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by David Marquez.
The All-New, All-Different Marvel provides examples of:
- Adaptive Armor: Tony Stark's newest Iron Man armor is said to be able to transform into any of Tony's old armors at will.
- This also appears to be how Ultron functions, now that he's bonded to Hank Pym.
- The Adjectival Superhero: Several heroes gain books with new adjectives in the relaunch ("Extraordinary" X-Men, "Totally Awesome" Hulk, "Radioactive" Spider-Gwen, "International" Iron Man), plus Silk is being pitched as the "Sinister Silk". The Spider-Man books also play with this, with Peter Parker as the Amazing Spider-Man and Miles Morales as just (the adjectiveless) Spider-Man. Interestingly, Miles and Star-Lord lose the "Ultimate" and "Legendary" adjectives from their new titles, even as they share their codenames with others and the adjectives would help differentiate them.
- Affirmative-Action Legacy: Lots of notable examples.
- The All-New, All-Different Avengers are mostly comprised of characters who have taken up the mantle of other (white and/or male) heroes, including Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel), Miles Morales (Spider-Man), Sam Wilson (Captain America), Sam Alexander (Nova), and Jane Foster (Thor).
- X-23 taking up the mantle of Wolverine, the person she was cloned from.
- Kitty Pryde is also taking up the mantle of Star-Lord; Peter abandoned the role to rule Spartax as its monarch prior to Secret Wars.
- The new Giant-Man is Raz Malhotra, a gay Indian man.
- The "Totally Awesome" Hulk was eventually revealed to be Amadeus Cho, a Korean-American.
- Though Peter is still active along with Miles, Hobie Brown, the Prowler, also doubles as Spider-Man when Pete's away from New York to keep up appearances.
- At the end of Standoff gives us a new female Quasar. Though this is a lesser example since Wendell Vaghn (the first Quasar) mostly abandoned the role after the death of the previous Quasar (who was both a woman and a lesbian).
- Ambadassador: Flash Thompson is now this. And seeing as he's part of the Guardians of the Galaxy, well, that means he gets to clean up stuff both diplomatically and through his fists.
- Ascended Extra: Gwenpool in general. Introduced as a Gwen Stacy/Deadpool mashup gimmick for variant cover of Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars, Marvel then proceeded to give her a backup story in the new volume of Howard The Duck, a holiday special with her name in the title, and finally her own ongoing series.
- Back from the Dead:
- Deadpool, obviously, both literally and figuratively. His series will deal with the ramifications of deciding Deadpool was dead.
- Miles Morales' mom, Rio, is alive once more (having been killed by a stray cop bullet during Miles' battle in a hospital with the second Venom), much to Miles' shock and happiness.
- Oksana Sytsevich, Martha Connors, and Billy Connors have been resurrected by an unknown individual rounding up several of Spider-Man's old villains.
- Hyperion, Starbrand, and Nightmask are all alive and well and featuring in their own series despite dying while battling the Beyonders before the final incursion.
- Contest of Champions brings back the original Night Thrasher who was apparently killed in the event which set off the original Civil War event. Solicitations for Civil War II mention that he will be involved with the second one in some form
- Bodyguard Babe: Mockingbird is one of Peter's bodyguards, along with Spider-Man.
- Backdoor Pilot: Mockingbird's SHIELD 50th Anniversary one-shot ended up being this to her first ongoing series.
- Bat Family Crossover:
- Peter Parker seems intent on making himself the Marvel Universe equivalent of Bruce Wayne. Specifically, he's tracking down several of the surviving Spider-Totems - namely Miguel O'Hara, Miles Morales, and Cindy Moon (who turned down his offer and has seemingly gone rogue) - and recruiting them to help fight crime.
- The 2016 Avengers event, Avengers: Standoff! - Assault on Pleasant Hill, is set to be this, focusing on the Avengers titles and celebrating Captain America's 75th Anniversary.
- The Spider-Women crossover is a Spiritual Successor to Spider-Verse, bringing all three Spider-Women note together to fight a common enemy.
- Apocalypse Wars will incorporate the entirety of the X-Men line of books: Extraordinary, Uncanny, and All-New.
- It is unknown the full scope, but Civil War II will heavily involve Iron Man and Captain America once more.
- Canon Immigrant:
- Contest of Champions will mark the official Marvel Universe debut of the Korean heroine White Fox. She was introduced in last year's Avengers: Electric Rain, a Web Comic used to promote the South Korean release of Avengers: Age of Ultron.
- The book will also introduce Guillotine, a French heroine co-designed by Marvel and Kabam. She'll appear in the comic first before appearing in the Contest of Champions video game as a playable fighter.
- Miles Morales, Old Man Logan, Red Wolf, and the Maestro make the jump from their own continuities to the mainstream Marvel Universe.
- A mainstream Marvel Universe version of Antonia Yinsen from Mighty Defenders will appear as the Wrench Wench for the New Avengers. However, she's been renamed Toni Ho to better fit East Asian naming conventions (since Ho was her and her father's family name).
- Regent from Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows is revealed to have survived and is back to stealing super powers.
- The Maker — Reed Richards from Earth-1610 — shows up in the pages of New Avengers, while his 616 counterpart goes unaccounted for.
- Averted with Spider-Gwen, since her home reality (Earth-65) still exists.
- The power-enhancing substance Iso-8, originally introduced in the Marvel: Avengers Alliance game, is now an official part of the universe, appearing in Sam Wilson: Captain America, Contest of Champions and The Ultimates.
- Call-Back: When Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Iron Spider (Mary Jane) fight the Regent, they note a strange sense of deja vu but feel that something important is missing. In Renew Your Vows, Alternate Universe versions of Peter and Mary Jane teamed up to defeat their version of the Regent with the help of their daughter, who doesn't exist in the mainstream continuity.
- Chekhov M.I.A.:
- Bruce Banner is nowhere to be found, and his whereabouts is going to be an ongoing mystery in Totally Awesome Hulk.
- In Uncanny Avengers #1, Johnny Storm reveals that Reed and Sue are "gone" and that Peter and Johnny were part of the Avengers Unity Squad to "honor their memory". The final issue of Secret Wars reveals that they are working with the Future Foundation to restore the multiverse.
- Maximus is nowhere to be found in any of the Inhumans' plotlines after his role as the Prophet in Secret Wars, despite typically being the Inhumans' primary antagonist. He finally resurfaces during Civil War II, when Triton makes a Deal with the Devil with him to have Maximus punish Tony Stark more harshly for kidnapping an Inhuman, since Triton feels Medusa has been too soft with her retaliation.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Totally Awesome Hulk will see the debut of Amadeus Cho's little sister, a character who was heavily alluded to in The Incredible Hercules, but never actually appeared.
- Cleavage Window: Magik's new outfit retains the look of her old outfit.
- Close-Enough Timeline: Justified in-universe by the emergency measures that Doom, and later Reed Richards, took to preserve any kind of timeline during Secret Wars. It's a new Marvel Universe with aspects of other universes crammed in for good measure.
- Comes Great Responsibility: One of the main ideas behind Totally Awesome Hulk is the idea of giving the burden of the beast from a psychologically damaged adult to a young teen who, despite his incredible smarts, hasn't really lived life to the fullest.
- Continuity Reboot: Averted. Marvel editorial has been pretty clear about this in recent months, despite being cryptic about it originally. The Marvel universe will definitely be altered, but character histories will be kept largely intact.
- Cool Car: The All-New, All-Different Spider-Mobile, which takes a few cues from the Tumbler and can also turn into something of a spider mech, too!
- Corporate-Sponsored Superhero:
- The New Avengers are sponsored by the A.I.M. corporation. As Sunspot has bought them, it might also cross over to Crimefighting with Cash.
- Spider-Man is now "working" for Parker Industries both as its mascot and as Peter Parker's bodyguard, a cue taken from Iron Man.
- Averted with the Avengers. The government apparently doesn't want to run the Avengers anymore and Old Man Steve absolutely refuses to allow any corporations to back them, thus putting Stark Enterprises and Parker Industries out despite both heroes being around (or at least Peter was). In fact, the Avengers Unity Squad is being funded by Deadpool's insane popularity.
- Darker and Edgier: Charles Soule has stated that his Daredevil run will return to the character's grittier incarnation after the more lighthearted Mark Waid run. The cover makes it a point to show this, with pretty much everything being draped in shadow and artist Ron Garney allegedly using whole bottles of ink for his illustrations.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Similar to Spider-Woman's change, Peter and Miguel's new costumes will debut in the iOS/Android game Spider-Man Unlimited before appearing in the comics.
- The Earth-Prime Theory: Played straight this time around as Earth 616 is the first reality restored by Reed and the Future Foundation, with all other realities following.
- Election Day Episode: Vote Loki. If the 2016 US elections weren't messy enough already.
- End of an Age: Marvel's more overtly supernatural, magical or otherwise metaphysical titles are undergoing a kind of thematic crisis.
- Doctor Strange's arc is dealing with The Magic Goes Away being invoked across dimensions by an Antimagical Faction of science zealots who are executing all magic-users, magical beings and are somehow disrupting magic itself making enchantments across worlds break and fail. His has a few crossovers with other titles called "The Last Days of Magic".
- Hercules is dealing with a new pantheon of gods, inspired by modern sensibilities, violently colonizing the world by hunting down all classic mythological creatures and gods.
- Wanda is dealing with something that has broken magic and witchcraft as she travels the world solving magical crises.
- Evil Weapon: Guillotine's demonic BFS is constantly craving the blood of her victims and not afraid to tell her so. While her ancestors were either antiheroes or villains and all-too willing to feed it, much to its chagrin, the current Guillotine is engaged to a police officer and trying her hardest not to kill.
- Face–Heel Turn: A few comics seem to hint towards this.
- Silk is working with the Black Cat, though it seems that this may be a case of playing The Mole.
- Uncanny X-Men shows Magneto with his more villainous red and purple outfit and Sabretooth in his traditional fur-lined brown and tan outfit, though Cullen Bunn has said that Sabretooth is "redeemed".
- The Ant-Man teaser questions whether Scott has truly left his life of crime behind him, especially considering the influence that his growing number of supervillain employees may have on him.
- An odd fish concerning Sunspot - despite being actively a hero, because he took over A.I.M. and few governments actively trust him, he can't leave his base, lest he end up getting arrested.
- Probably the most shocking example yet: In Captain America: Steve Rogers #1, the last few pages has Steve Rogers throw his team mate Jack Flag out of a plane, then state "Hail HYDRA". Yes, Steve Rogers is supposedly a HYDRA agent, and has been the entire time. While it's yet to be seen what exactly is the background behind this, it led to major backlash from fans on the Internet.
- Fantastic Racism: Whoo-boy, not only has humanity's hatred of mutants ramped up, they're now turning their attention to the Inhumans. In this case, this is pretty much justified thanks to Black Bolt's Terrigen Bomb way back in Infinity (though it should be noted that most don't know Black Bolt detonated said bomb on purpose).
- Fiction 500: When we last saw Parker Industries, the Ghost had leveled the building. Now, it's one of the world's biggest corporations, though Peter refuses to dominate the global markets and focuses on humanitarian efforts, much to Sajani Jaffrey's contempt.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Red Wolf gets hit with this hard when he's zapped from his timeline's 1872 into Earth-616's present day at the end of the first issue of his series.
- Fish out of Water: Jeff Lemire has stated that this will be a big focus of Old Man Logan's character. Even the cover of his first issue makes it a point to bring this up.
- Foregone Conclusion: Since ANADM was announced during Secret Wars, the fates of many characters —including ones in the promotional image above— were left pretty unambiguous.
- Genre Roulette: Some of the ANAD titles branch off from being modern superhero stories to borrow heavily from other genres.
- All-New Inhumans is a Conspiracy Thriller.
- Avengers Standoff: Welcome to Pleasant Hill and Vision are Psychological Horror stories, and Karnak seems to be heading that way as well.
- Black Knight and Weirdworld are Heroic Fantasy.
- New Avengers is a Genre Throwback to the craziness of The Silver Age of Comic Books.
- Starbrand & Nightmask is a Cosmic Horror Story pretending to be a Slice of Life story.
- Carnage plunges straight into Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- New Avengers picks up the story thread from Time Runs Out of Sunspot taking over A.I.M. and turning it into a force of good. Of course, since A.I.M. has a history of being evil, that's going to be a tough pill to swallow.
- Eddie Brock/Toxin is confirmed to be back on the side of good, though it's implied that things will deteriorate for him and John Jameson◊.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Inverted, averted and played straight
- Played straight with the Sam Wilson Captain America is in some really deep doo-doo, after he refuses to be bipartisan and quits S.H.I.E.L.D., with both the public and some of his old friends, including Steve Rogers.
- Inverted with the Peter Parker Spider-Man and Deadpool, with Spidey being the mascot of Parker Industries and Deadpool going so far as to fund the Avengers Unity Squad.
- Averted with Tony Stark - he might not be the financial powerhouse that he was, but it seems that he's recovered heavily from the Superior Iron Man incident. Even if Steve Rogers (again) is still miffed at him.
- Ms. Marvel's first new story explores what happens when her image is used wrongly.
- Both defied and parodied in Silk. Cindy is working as a mole for SHIELD to spy on Black Cat. As such, no matter how much Villain Cred she tries to accrue, the public (including J. Jonah Jameson ironically) see her attempts to Kick the Dog as Poking the Poodle at best.
- In Hercules (2015), Herc finds that muggles see him as a Destructive Savior whose "help" is sometimes worse than the original problem. He also happens to be working very hard to prove this perception wrong.
- Kryptonite Is Everywhere: The Terrigen Mists are dangerous to mutants now and the X-Men are trying to find out why.
- Legacy Character:
- In addition to several Affirmative Action Legacies described above, we have Old Man Logan as a second successor to the original Wolverine.
- The new Deadpool series reveals that he's essentially leasing out his name to everyone and anyone who can pay.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to the grim nature of The Avengers (Jonathan Hickman) and Secret Wars, the entire Marvel line will probably show shades of this in some degree, not to mention the All-New, All-Different Avengers focusing on less-apocalyptic stakes.
- The Magic Goes Away: A common theme in the books of mystically-empowered heroes is that magic itself is under attack. Doctor Strange has the armies of the Empirikul destroying magic and magic users throughout the multiverse, Scarlet Witch finds that witchcraft in particular is being twisted and corrupted, and in Hercules, the creatures and gods of the old world are being forced out by an uprising storm as new gods born of the modern age are beginning to take form. Inverted in the New Avengers 2015 where the Avengers 20XX fight to stop the magic from coming back thanks to an Eldritch Abomination as it would cause the End of the World as We Know It.
- Me's a Crowd: In a seemingly franchising way. There are at least three Spider-Men (Miles, Peter and Miguel) with Peter showing off that his Future Foundation, Sonic and Iron Spider costumes are ready to be used as well. However, at least one interview seems to hint that there's a fourth and he/she is running around in the current costume.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: According to its tagline, the Uncanny Avengers are "Fighting for Humanity, Inhumanity, Mutants... and Deadpool"
- Mythology Gag: Took nearly twenty years, but Songbird finally joined the Avengers as was foretold in Avengers Forever.
- New Season, New Name: Axel Alonso notes that Marvel will be shifting to publishing structure closely resembling television seasons, which Marvel NOW! experimented with through their three different phases (Marvel NOW!, All-New Marvel NOW!, Avengers NOW!).
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Oh, is it? With various people being on various teams you wouldn't expect them to be on, characters getting their own series you wouldn't dream of and a whole new universe to play with.
- Not Quite Back to Normal: While most of the Multiverse was restored to its state before the Incursions and Secret Wars, some universes - like Earth-833 and Earth-1610 - remain destroyed. There's also the multitude of changes to the status quo that have occurred.
- Oh, Crap!: Deadpool says this when Old Man Steve gives him an Avengers Identicard with his face on it and being signed off by both Steve and Barack Obama.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten:
- In Patsy Walker, a.k.a. Hellcat, Patsy has to deal with not only supervillains, but the fact that her mom's past romance stories about her as a teen are being reprinted by Patsy's childhood frenemy.
- In Starbrand & Nightmask the fact that Kevin accidentally blew up his old college while getting his powers is a recurring personal issue regards his attending a new college.
- Powered Armor:
- Spider-Man's new costume is the newest iteration of the Spider-Armor.
- Iron Man's new suit of armor can mimic the abilities of all of his prior suits.
- Ragtag Band of Misfits: The new Squadron Supreme is made up of people from various unrestored universes such as the original universe of the Squadron Supreme, Thundra's universe and the universe of The New Universe.
- Reality Bleed: Although the multiverse is slowly being restored some people from Battleworld are displaced from their home realities onto Earth 616 with their memories of the Secret Wars largely intact. In the case of 1602's Witch Hunter Angela, this has gone so far as to rewrite history with a cursed play written with the blood of a man made immortal by a Faustian deal attributed to Shakespeare.
- Recycled In Space: Brian Michael Bendis jokingly mentioned that part of the reason for having Kitty Pryde and the Thing on Guardians was so he could run with the idea of "Jews in Space".
- Ret-Gone: Editor-in-chief Axel Alonso has implied this to be the fate of everyone from Earth-1610, other than Miles Morales, his mother, The Maker, and a select few other people.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The cause of Sam Wilson's bipartisan departure - a hacker revealing extensive secrets about S.H.I.E.L.D. - is based in part on the entire Wikileaks scandal. The website hosting the information is even called Whisperleaks.
- Screw Destiny: The story behind All-New X-Men - mutantkind is on the brink of extinction and what's left has decided to pull up their roots and get the hell outta Dodge. However, four of the five original X-Men, along with three others, have decided to forge their own destiny instead of having either humankind or the remaining mutants tell them they should roll over and die or run and hide.
- Sequel Series: A few.
- Bendis' Invincible Iron Man will pick up threads left by Kieron Gillen's run on that title's previous volume, namely regarding Tony Stark's true parentage.
- Spider-Man (also by Bendis) has been described as a sequel to the Spider-Men limited series, with Peter Parker and Miles Morales working together to keep New York City safe.
- Deadpool & Cable: Split Second is a mini series follow up to the cult classic series, Cable & Deadpool.
- Totally Awesome Hulk continues plot threads from Pak's The Incredible Hercules series.
- The new volume of Uncanny Avengers continues a plot thread from Death of Wolverine: Deadpool & Captain America.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong:
- The Spider-Man 2099 series has Miguel bouncing back and forth between the present day and 2099 to help make his time better.
- This is the main drive of The Ultimates, to fix things that have broken. And their first objective is Galactus!
- Cable makes a return appearance in Uncanny Avengers to help save the Unity Squad from suffering a Total Party Kill.
- Sidekick Graduations Stick: Hulkling and Wiccan joining a team of Avengers instead of sticking with the Young Avengers.
- Sins of the Father: In a way. The original Cyclops has done something to piss off humankind to the point where they're trying to bring mutantkind to extinction again.
- Space Police:
- Carol Danvers' new status quo, effectively replacing the role S.W.O.R.D. used to hold toward intergalactic safekeeping in regards to Earth.
- Also part of Flash Thompson's new status quo as he joins the Spaceknights, as in ROM: Spaceknight.
- Spiritual Successor:
- Ant-Man is one to The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, with the same writer, same focus on dysfunctional small-time villains, and some of the same characters.
- Believe it or not, Amazing Spider-Man appears to be the successor to old-school Iron Man comics, as Peter is now the owner of a multinational tech company with a high-tech super-alter-ego that poses as his bodyguard. Dan Slott even described Parker Industries as like Stark Enterprises, but "less angsty". In turn, the Miles Morales Spider-Man is the successor to Peter's original Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World status quo.
- The new Squadron Supreme series is partially this to The Authority, with the members deciding to take a brutal and proactive approach to dealing with threats. Their first target is Atlantis and Namor, which they pretty much destroy and kill respectively.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Once more, the Avengers take the spotlight with a whopping thirteen titles note , with the Spider-Family coming in with ten and Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men with seven.
- Status Quo Is God: Averted like you wouldn't believe. Many readers speculated that the return of the Marvel U would return Steve Rogers and the Odinson back into their normal roles, especially given the popularity of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, but not only did they keep their current roles, but other characters have changed; whether it's new roles (like X-23 as Wolverine and Kitty Pryde as Star-Lady) or changes in their lives (Peter Parker being rich and Jessica Drew expecting a child).
- Sterility Plague: In addition to killing the mutants off, the Terrigen Mist is making them sterile so that no new mutants can be born.
- Take That!: In issue #6 of Spider-Man/Deadpool, there's a fictional movie titled Nighthawk v. Hyperion: Yawn of Boredom, with the tagline "You won't believe their mothers share a first name". See here. The same issue also takes a few jab at Fox's Marvel movies: one panel shows Storm and Wolverine wondering why other heroes ignore them, the next panel shows Spider-Man wants to help out in a Deadpool movie but the director barely pays attention at him and says he wants to team-up Deadpool with Colossus instead, this leads to Deadpool's protesting that he barely spoke to Colossus in the comics.Deadpool: Ugh. None of that made sense. Why were they fighting one minute, then best friends the next?
- Take That, Critics!: Many of the new series are throwing in deliberate jabs at the critics of the new directive. Thor, Captain America, and Wolverine have all snarked at least once about how people don't accept them in their new roles.
- Take Up My Sword: Played straight with X-23 donning the costume of Wolverine. While Peter Parker and Peter Quill are still alive, Miles Morales and Kitty Pryde have taken on the titles of Spider-Man and Star-
LordLady respectively. - Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
- According to solicitations from All-New, All-Different Avengers, Kamala Kahn (the new Ms. Marvel) and Sam Alexander (the new Nova) will not be very friendly with each other while on the team.
- This is the problem with the current Avengers Unity Squad: Peter up and quits after having dealt with Deadpool for so long, Rogue and the Human Torch had been dating prior and Rogue herself drops the bombshell about the Terrigen Mists killing mutantkind. Oh, and Rouge's not very fond of the Inhuman Psynapse on principle, either.
- Time Skip: ANADM will pick up eight months after the conclusion of Secret Wars, promising shake-ups to existing character quos.
- Totally Radical: The title Totally Awesome Hulk.
- Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World:
- All-New, All-Different Avengers has this problem, as half of their team are teenagers still in school.
- Deliberately invoked by Nightmask in Starbrand & Nightmask, where Nightmask drags them both off to college because he thinks the both of them should be experiencing the "go to school" part, while Starbrand would rather focus entirely on the "save the world" part.
- Wham Episode:
- Invincible Iron Man #1 - Doctor Doom is still alive... and his face is whole and without the horrible scars!
- Amazing Spider-Man #1 - Doctor Octopus is hiding inside the Living Brain, Silk is working for the Black Cat, and Regent survived the Secret Wars, running the new jail called the Cellar and stealing the powers of criminals.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- In a meta sense, there's no sign of pre-Secret Wars and during-Secret Wars titles such as The Punisher, Loki: Agent of Asgard, All-New Ghost Rider and Runaways (2015), thus it is unknown if they're still going and not getting renumbered or if they're just being out and out cancellednote .
- In a comic sense, Web Warriors seems to address a question that was left unanswered with Spider-Verse: what happens when people find out your Spider-Man is missing, not knowing he's actually dead?
- Astonishing Ant-Man #2 features the return of Darla Deering (Ms. Thing —- and not to mention, Scott's girlfriend) after being conspicuously missing for the first seven issues of the Nick Spencer run.
- What the Hell, Hero?: There are several characters from various alternate Earths currently in the main Marvel universe, and they are not happy about how the "heroes" actively worked to destroy their worlds and save their own during the Incursions.
- Wolverine Publicity: Word of God is that there was a conscious decision to avoid this. Unlike the pre-Secret Wars books where many characters (especially the six movie Avengers) were on multiple teams at the same time, the relaunched team books generally have distinct casts. One of the few exceptions is Captain Marvel being in both Ultimates and A-Force, and even then Marvel admitted at SDCC that this was an oversight they were looking to correct by downgrading her to guest-star status in A-Force.
- At the same time, there is definitely still a massive push for MCU characters. The Vision and Scarlet Witch have ongoing solo books for the first time thanks to Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Panther is the lead character in Ultimates (and is confirmed to be getting his own series) thanks to Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange is getting his own book again thanks to his own movie, the push for the Inhumans across several titles continues, and as mentioned above, Captain Marvel has her own solo series plus appearances in two different team books.
- Deadpool is joining the Uncanny Avengers and having a buddy comic with Spider-Man, culminating the massive profile boost the character has received in recent years (complete with his movie out next year).
- Spider-Gwen is getting a relaunch of her title, picking up where the pre-Secret Wars title left off, as well as being a major player in Web Warriors.
- Iron Man has two solo titles and is one of the main members of the Mark Waid Avengers team.
- Rocket Raccoon has his team-up book with Groot, is a member of both Guardians teams, and has so far featured in every issue of Drax.
- Drax is also in both Guardians teams as well having his own title.
- Johnny Storm is a member of both the Inhumans and the Avengers.
- Spider-Man still has two solo titles while also being a member of at least one Avengers team and a presence in most if not all of the other Spider-books.