The AXIS will be nine-issue Marvel series that will be released this October. The march to Axis begins in this September with Captain America, Loki: Agent of Asgard, Magneto, and Uncanny Avengers series that will build up to the AXIS story.
The comic books, written by Rick Remender, will feature art by Adam Kubert, Leinil Yu, Terry Dodson, and Jim Cheung. Marvel will release two and sometimes even three issues per month. Issue #2 will hit stores a week after issue #1.
In the AXIS series, Remender will reincarnate Red Skull, the ultimate Captain America arch enemy, but Red Skull will have unbeatable superpowers.
“What’s more interesting than evil personified with the power of Charles Xavier?” Remender said during a live blog chat on Marvel, on Mon. June 16, 2014.
“The thing that was important to me coming out of AvX was that the Unity Squad could not solve their rifts right away, they had to earn it. They finally come together at the worst possible moment in their lives and it’s a birth too late,” Remender said.
In the story, the Avengers and the X-Men will need to unite against the threat of the Red Skull. The AXIS will “touch every corner of the Marvel Universe,” according to Remender.
Fans should expect to see all Marvel heroes, villains, and those with supernormal abilities.
“The March to Axis builds out of Uncanny Avengers, Captain America, Loki: Agent of Asgard and Magneto, two hero books and two ‘villain’ books.
“We’ve been planting seeds for the last couple years. A lot of the Apocalypse Twins’ motivation comes from the ‘Red Onslaught,’” Remender said. He also had to wait sometime for the Red Skull to build up in the background since his character couldn’t get formed overnight.
The coming together of all the characters, however, means that there will be big changes for many of them, including Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man. The audience will learn the background story between Stark and Red Skull.
Audience will also discover that Red Skull was unable to physically stand up to Iron Man or Thor, but with Xavier’s powers he will become a very real threat to everyone.
New characters like Venom who is part of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” group will also make an appearance in the new series. Genesis, Deadpool, Rogue, Scarlet Witch, Storm, Wolverine, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler will also have parts in the story. Spider-Man’s big role will kick off in the second act and he will again have a large responsibility.
“The Hulk has one of the craziest things happening in Axis out of anybody,” Remender said.
Nova, The Vision are both loved by the writer who interwove them into the series.
“Axis is structured in such a way where it’s really three different events with three different high concepts every three issues,” Remender said.
In the first act, Red Skull will rise powerful, and audience will see his invasion of Genosha, which is a symbolic location since it was the homeland of the mutant nation that is now destroyed. Red Skull will install reeducation camps there and begin his plotting.
“No two characters have more reasons to be natural rivals than the Red Skull and Magneto,” Remender said. Magneto, who has an important villain role in the story, will have his own series starting in September.
In a poll during the simulcast, a third of the participants chose Unity Squad (Avengers and X-Men) as the possible contender to defeat Red Skull. Magneto got a quarter of the votes, as did the X-Men separately. The Avengers alone got 11 percent and Loki the rest.
Saying that the Red Skull has no grey side and no mercy, Remender noted that it was a challenge to come up with a motive. “What does he want to do? What he’s always wanted: He wants to dominate,” Remender said.
Remender will take Xavier’s brain in the first “Uncanny Avengers” arc and gain Onslaught’s power. There will also be many pairings of veteran Marvel characters who don’t get much time to interact. Heroes will be confronting villains that they typically don’t get to fight with.
“Doctor Doom and Wasp have some big beef in Axis based on old issues. There are unexpected grudge matches you may have wanted to see,” Remender said.
But despite the in-fighting of the rivals and some old grudges, there will be friendship between the heroes as well. Interactions between Deadpoool, Carnage, Sabretooth, Titania, and Absorbing Man will all transpire in the AXIS.
“If you have been reading Captain America, Uncanny Avengers or even Uncanny X-Force, there are pay-offs here, but there are also pay-offs for the Avengers, the X-Men, the Inhumans and Spider-Man. It’s a Marvel event,” Remender said.
To read the full live blog, click here.
