Despite Infinity wrapping up last week, the single biggest release from Marvel was probably Uncanny Avengers #14. That issue not only welcomed artist Steve McNiven to the series, it put the Avengers Unity Squad to the test in a big way. And surprisingly, they failed. Miserably. Several key team members died violently, including Rogue, Scarlet Witch, and Wonder Man. It seems the X-Men and Avengers haven't learned how to work together after all.

Rogue delivers a killing blow in Uncanny Avengers #14.

Rogue is vaporized by Grim Reaper in Uncanny Avengers #14.

The deaths of Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man in Uncanny Avengers #14.

Uncanny Avengers #18.NOW cover

Uncanny Avengers #18.NOW variant cover

But this team won't have any time to sit back and lick their wounds. "Ragnarok Now" will rage on for the next several months, leading to more major developments and the start of a big new storyline with March's Uncanny Avengers #18.NOW.Marvel held one of their "Next Big Thing" press calls today to discuss the fallout of issue #14 and what's coming next for Havok and his diminished Unity Squad. Remender was in attendance, along with Executive Editor Tom Brevoort and Editor Daniel Ketchum.To start things off, Remender talked about the appeal of working with McNiven for the first time. "Obviously with Steve, there's a grandeur. The dude is insanely talented, just as Daniel Acuna before him and John Cassaday before him. We've just had a slew - a string - of great artists. And I think there's something about Steve where you know his presence means that something big and epic is happening across the Marvel Universe. He's one of those guys who the inherent value in his work - the storytelling, the craftsmanship, the dynamicism, and the attention in his illustration - he's one of those guys who hits every single criterion for superstar. And now having been fortunate enough to work with him, I can see why."The talk shifted towards the early pages of issue #14, which saw Kang recruit a number of allies from various alternate universes and future realities, including Doom 2099, Iron Man 2020, Earth-X Spider-Girl, and Ahab, to form his Chronos Corps. Remender said, "The Kang story that's sort of been percolating as a B-story going back to issue #5 at this point is obviously something that we have plans for in a big, spectacular way. The question with a story like this is, when you have someone like Kang in the background and you've seen him, in various pieces and moments of history, manipulate things and change history... how much of this is the Apocalypse Twins getting one over on Kang, and how much is Kang getting exactly what he wants? That's a question I hear more and more as I talk to readers, and it's the one we were really hoping people would be asking.Remender continued, "Kang is such an amazing character, and he's really powerful given what he can do. The only thing he's tethered to is his sense of honor and sense of wanting to be a conqueror, but wanting to do it with honor. Not just to change time and cheat." He revealed that Kang will become much more of a central focus for the series in the aftermath of "Ragnarok Now."Moving onto the big deaths from issue #14, Brevoort talked about his and Ketchum's initial reactions to Remender's plans. "Rick, as is obvious, thinks big, and big is never quite enough. There's always more bigness to be added to the mountain of big that is there. That goes back to the Kang answer as well. Why have just Kang when you can have Kang, and Iron Man, and Stryfe, and Doom 2099, and a crazy version of Betsy Braddock from another timeline? Why would you stop? So when you're painting on a canvas that's that big, the stakes and the drama and the jeopardy is writ that large. Things like this issue are bound to happen. That having been said, I think if you go back and look with fresh eyes all the way back to Uncanny Avengers #1, it's not difficult to see that this trajectory was there and seeded and set up from the very first pages of the first issue we did."When asked what the Unity Squad will do to move forward from this tragedy, Brevoort joked that the series will have to be canceled with issue #19 due to a lack of surviving team members. Remender said, "The one thing when I picked up the threads of AvX and the way I pitched this is that I wanted to show some unity and togetherness and no longer squabbling and being petulant like children, but getting together like heroes and working as one in order to create a better world for all of us. But the more I got into the story, the more I realized that that had not been earned... It just didn't feel natural to me. And so as I was restructuring my outlines and Tom and I were working with Dan and going over and over and over it, it became more and more apparent to me that my instinct was to shatter and break."Remender continued, "Between Civil War and Schism and AvX and all of these various big events we've had with heroes fighting heroes, we haven't really seen a big, true 'Shazam!' in terms of ramifications for this behavior. It's so unheroic for them to be fighting each other instead of finding a way to say, 'Hey, aren't we all people trying to find an ethical way towards happiness?' What I ended up coming to, and I think we're starting to see the payout for in issue #14, is that they continue to be distrustful and they continue to not like each other and continue to not work with one another. Logan's history in X-Force has come to light. Captain America has shattered the team, ignoring Havok, the guy he put in charge. Everybody is behaving in character, but I tried to structure the story in a way so as to give them reasons to keep behaving the way they have been behaving. With the promise here that, this time, because of what's going on in the background and with the Apocalypse Twins and Kang and his forces and Immortus - all of these things and this giant, evil wave of bad luck is crashing down on them. At this moment, if they continue to behave in this petulant fashion, there are going to be giant consequences."Incidentally, Remender and Brevoort acknowledged the discrepancies between the solicitations for Uncanny Avengers and what actually transpired in each issue. For example, the solicitation for issue #12 promised two characters deaths, which obviously were postponed until issue #14. These changes were the result of this process of revaluation and reorganization that Remender talked about.The press call was geared as much towards what comes after "Ragnarok Now" as the events of issue #14, and Remender offered some teases of what to expect from Uncanny Avengers #18.NOW and the next storyline, "Planet X." "The conclusion of 'Ragnarok Now' is pretty shocking, I think. What we have going into the 'Planet X' of it all is that there's some form of a mutant homeworld established in space. That's the big 'Shazam!' that I don't think we're able to promote this without giving away that much. As for what is going on on this planet, I think this is going to be an examination of what happens when the mutants get everything they think they wanted, even if they didn't put it together. Seeing them in this utopia where there are no humans, except for Wasp, they begin to break into factions, and they continue to have problems and strife. It turns out that the problem is a human problem, and it's one they'll have whether they're on Earth or not.Remender continued, "We're going to examine the ramifications, particularly with Magneto, in getting everything you think you wanted. And we're going to tell that story through the eyes of one of the last humans on the planet, who is Wasp. And obviously Havok will be playing a big role." Remender later hinted that Red Skull and his S-Men will be returning to the forefront of the book, and that we'll see how the cryptic flash-forward sequence from issue #4 factors into his larger saga.Brevoort teased that issue #14 is far from the darkest this series will get in the months ahead. "Without being unrelentingly depressing, things do not get a lot better after issue #14. Issue #14 is probably the uppest issue. It's the feel-good issue."

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