Marvel is prepping a number of very promising new and revamped titles for the Marvel NOW! relaunch this fall. One of the most promising so far is also the series that will kick off the relaunch -- Uncanny Avengers . Not only does this series find Rick Remender crafting an all new team comprised of both X-Men and Avengers, it also marks the long-awaited return of artist John Cassaday to the comics scene. Marvel held one of their Next Big Thing press calls today to discuss the impending launch, and both Remender and Senior Editor Tom Brevoort were on hand to speak at length about the series.

The call started off on a slightly down note, with Remender complaining about a lack of sleep because "issue #5 of this thing is killing me." Brevoort also revealed that the expected ship date for issue #1 is now October 10th rather than the 3rd in order to accommodate a delay on the final issue of Avengers vs. X-Men.Luckily, the tone of the call quickly picked up from there. The duo spoke about the nature of the new team and what brings them together in a post-AvX landscape. Remender said, "The origin of this team is unlike most groups, where somebody is consciously picking people. It's more of a chaos factor... Their first adventure is actually the reason they come together. It's all happenstance. Cap is actively trying to do something to mend the fences and to build a bridge between the mutant community and the Avengers. And then, of course, things don't go as planned, and the Red Skull makes everything very terrible for everybody. Chaos ensues, and by the end of the chaos we start to see a good reason or two why this team should exist and why they do exist."From there, Remender elaborated on the various team members. Regarding Wolverine, he said, "The events of AvX and the end of the current arc of Uncanny X-Force do things to Wolverine. He's still Wolverine, but obviously there are going to be some character developments and changes abased on the events he has endured. So it's interesting to play with him in the state that he's in." Regarding Scarlet Witch, he said, "Wanda's obviously on that redemption arc. And here's somebody who was really one of the first mutants to join the Avengers and has been an Avenger forever. She's not necessarily in a situation where she can get the prominence or respect she's owed -- because of her father and her inclusion in the Brotherhood, but more importantly, because she went crazy and zapped the powers away from millions of mutants. So she's got a really interesting struggle and dilemma she's up against here."Remender then noted that the recent actions by Cyclops in AvX play a large role in why his brother Havok is chosen for the team. "As we've said, Alex is going to take a leadership role. Talk about a promotion... He's basically being promoted to a position that he doesn't want and is incredibly huge -- to run an Avengers team is a pretty big deal." With Rogue, he described her as "surly" and "regressed" because of the fallout of AvX, even going so far as to call her "more Wolverine than Wolverine." "Each one of the characters has a very solid reason for being here and a character arc that we have planned out."Brevoort then pointed out, "The six characters we've shown on that cover and talked about up till now are not the only characters that will be in the Uncanny Avengers book and on that team. There are two or three characters who will be showing up as we get into later issues who are pretty crucial to the crew and where they go and what they do, but whom we're not quite ready to reveal just yet."Brevoort also discussed what sets Marvel NOW! apart from previous, post-event revamps like Dark Reign. "It's a more broad initiative than that. It's really as much about the creators and their vision as it is about what's going on in the Marvel Universe. It's about new guys in new places and working on new characters and new books and bringing a new excitement to what's going on. So really, it's about a global refresh of the publishing line as much as it is or more than it is about what's going on within the Marvel Universe. That having been said, Uncanny Avengers is the kickoff book. It's new front to back. It didn't exist before we made it up 5, 6, 7, 8 months ago. It's a direct outgrowth of AvX. You'll be able to have readers go fairly seamlessly from AvX #12 the week before to Uncanny Avengers #1 a week later and see immediate connective tissue between the two. It underscores the fact that this is the same Marvel Universe and the same bunch of characters we've been following the adventures of all along." Brevoort also said that there would be far less separation between the Avengers and X-Men franchises going forward.On one hand, Brevoort noted that the Uncanny Avengers are officially an Avengers team rather than an X-Men one and will be operating out of Avengers Mansion. However, Remender described their mission as one very intertwined with Professor Xavier's original goals. "This is really why Xavier sent the X-Men out in costumes in the first place. He did this to make a statement to show people that mutants are just the same as everyone else. They're just as heroic, but better. They're out here in costumes, risking their lives to save the world... This is really stepping back into that in a big, public way that's never been done before... They have a PR unit. These guys are going to have to do things they're not comfortable with to help maintain an image and status quo that is conducive to helping people stop being afraid of mutants."Remender expressed a certain amount of relief at being able to shift focus from darker books like Punisher, Uncanny X-Force, and Secret Avengers to a series like this. "Not having to follow the black ops thing where they're covert and in the shadows -- as much fun as that was, and I did manage to start to find my way through that and make it feel important -- this is the same magnitude of threats you saw with Apocalypse in X-Force and especially some of the stuff coming up especially with the Descendants in Secret Avengers. And even bigger. But this is very public, and everything they do is under a magnifying glass... The tone of that is completely different, which is a lot of fun. And it's a lot of fun to write the dynamic, when you see who the final cast is and how they interact and live together in the Avengers Mansion. It kind of is this amazing reality TV show." Brevoort elaborated, "It's everything Rick did in his Uncanny X-Force run, where the characters have to make difficult choices and then live with the fallout of them, except that it's all public. And that adds another wrinkle."The talk then shifted to Red Skull and the threat he poses to the team. Brevoort said, "In a modern day context, the Red Skull has an anti-mutant agenda. That's really just an extension of who and what this guy was coming out of Nazi Germany... The Skull is sort of using that philosophy in a modern day context, and he's got a jonesing to take the mutants off the board. There's not as many of them but they're still the boogeyman he can get behind and sow hatred and fear and dissent and build his power base. He's gathered a group of followers, all of whom had bad experiences in their lives and backgrounds involving mutants, and all of whom have been amped up and modified and genetically rejiggered to be his own version of the X-Men. But they're an X-Men that are pretty much preaching the opposite side -- that humans and mutants cannot live together and that this is a race war that mankind is going to lose unless everybody lines up behind him."Brevoort also confirmed that Red Skull will be "a running presence throughout the book and be a big deal again in the world of Marvel NOW!" Remender said, "That was one of the goals from the beginning -- to not just make Red Skull relevant, but make him the threat he deserves to be. And that spreads across the Marvel Universe." Remender hinted at the possibility of shared elements between this series and Kieron Gillen's upcoming Iron Man book. "We're all talking. We're all doing our best to incorporate these things in a way where we can see the effects of one book bleeding into the other. The shared continuity is a big deal. To that end, some of the plans we have for Red Skull are going to be pretty earth shattering. He's going to be reestablished as one of the premier guys you don't want to see show up."For most of the call, Remender and Brevoort noted their desire to avoid getting into story specifics for fear of spoiling the outcome of Avengers vs. X-Men. That made any attempts to discuss the potential involvement of characters like Magneto and Professor X difficult. However, the two made an unexpected decision late in the call to reveal the other two major villains who will be plaguing the team alongside Red Skull. Remender said, "It's Kang and Apocalypse. I'm taking a lot of the stuff I was building in Uncanny X-Force leading out of Final Execution, and it's going to segueway over to this world. Wolverine ran that unit, and he's the head of dealing with Apocalypse and Apocalypse-related threats. That's going to carry over into Uncanny Avengers. We are mixing that soup, where Red Skull, Kang, and Apocalypse are going to play to a grand, huge story that I'm wildly excited about."

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