Update: This article was updated on 3/31/2015 with Siege.



Marvel's massive Secret Wars event is kicking off in May, and it looks like it''s going to impact all corners of the Marvel Universe. The publisher is busy announcing new mini-series and ongoing books that will spin out of Secret Wars. As previously revealed , these new projects will fall under one of three brandings - Last Days, Battleworld and War Zones - depending on when they take place and how they fit into the larger framework of Secret Wars.

House of M

Siege

Red Skull

Spider-Island

Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders

Hail Hydra

Civil War

We've put this article together to summarize all of Marvel's announcements in one place, including what these comics are about, who's working on them, and when they're scheduled to debut. Keep checking back as we update with more announcements and details about what's coming from Marvel this summer.Dennis Hopeless & Kris AnkaJuly 2015WarzonesHouse of M is another Secret Wars series originally teased last fall. Hero Complex revealed this book, which will take a similar approach to Hopeless' Inferno series and showcase a world where the House of M reality never ended. As in the original mini-series, Magneto and his children rule over a vast mutant empire. The only difference is that this empire is now just one of many Battleworld domains. There's no word yet whether the recent revelation that Magneto isn't the father of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch will factor into this series."The original House of M is about the Avengers waking up in and then bringing down this Magneto dream world. Secrets were revealed, the family was torn apart and Wanda depowered most of the mutants on Earth. Our story is a different thing altogether," Hopeless told Hero Complex. "This House of M is alive and well. Magneto, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have the kind of complicated relationships you’d expect amongst members of a ruling family but their world isn’t crumbling around them (at least not at first). They drive each other nuts for all the normal reasons."Kieron Gillen, Felipe Andrade, & Various ArtistsJuly 2015WarzonesSiege is the latest Marvel event to be revisited during Secret Wars, though apart from the name and the cover dress, this new series appears to share little with the original. Marvel.com revealed this new book from writer Kieron Gillen and artist Felipe Andrade (who will be joined by various guest artists like James Stokoe). Gillen compared the cast of characters to the Night's Watch from Game of Thrones, as it focuses on a ragtag band of soldiers tasked with defending the Shield barrier from the evils that lay south of the barrier. Gillen also promised that Siege is a "spiritual sequel" to his short-lived S.W.O.R.D. comic. The cast includes many familiar faces from the writer's past work, including Agent Brand from S.W.O.R.D., Miss America Chavez and Kate Bishop from Young Avengers, Leah from Journey Into Mystery, Illyana from Uncanny X-Men, and a group of Baron Sinister's clones called "The Endless Summer."“The Shield’s purpose is to stop everything that’s south of that point going north of that point,” Gillen told Marvel.com. “It’s because everything south of the Shield is entirely ungovernable. They don’t pay taxes. They jaywalk. They want to eat you. Being deposited on the Shield is a punishment for a mixture of people who are entirely too battle-hungry or entirely too heroic. It’s deliberately a Sisyphean task, for reasons that I can’t really go into yet. As the series tagline says, ‘They can't ever win—they can’t afford to lose.’"He also teased, “Oh yeah—the Shield’s also sentient, but we’ll get to that eventually.”Joshua Williamson & Luca PizzariJuly 2015BattleworldEven the Red Skull will be getting his own book during Secret Wars. But as revealed by Newsarama , this project is more about the legacy of this fascist villain than anything. The three-issue mini- series takes place after Skull has been exiled across the Shield and into the wastelands of Battleworld. Though believed dead, rumors of Red Skull's return have galvanized his followers and inspired a new wave of resistance against Battleworld's leaders. This series follows a Thunderbolts-esque team of villains (including Magneto, Lady Deathstrike, Winter Soldier and Electro) tasked with finding Skull's body and proving that the villain is indeed gone.“Essentially it’s a team of villains… and past villains with nothing left to lose,” Williamson told Newsarama. “Going over the Shield is a death sentence. This team was chosen because the mission has to be off the books. No one can know that Red Skull could actually be alive. This team could keep it quiet… if they survive. The Red Skull’s legend needs to be buried… and this is the best team to do it. If you need to go kill a villain… who better than a bunch of villains?”Williamson wouldn't reveal exactly which universe this version of Red Skull hails from. “The Red Skull’s identity is part of the mystery of the book, so I can’t say just yet. He’s still one of the most evil bastards in the Marvel Universe. Still someone to hate. A master manipulator with a black heart,”Christos Gage, Tom DeFalco, Paco Diaz & Ron FrenzJuly 2015Warzones Comic Vine revealed this Secret Wars tie-in, which actually offers a double dose of Spider-Man. Writer Christos Gage and artist Paco Diaz will tackle the main story in each issue, set in a Battleworld domain where the Spider-Queen's takeover of Manhattan in the original Spider-Island crossover was never thwarted. With most of Marvel's heroes infected by the spider virus and controlled by the Queen, Agent Venom leads a small resistance group. The members of this group are heroes that have already been transformed and are immune to the virus (Cap-Wolf, Lizard Hulk, etc.)Gage told Comic Vine, "When Nick [Lowe] approached me about doing this one. I know what some of the other Secret Wars stories are about, and the common thread they have is a lack of limits. You can go nuts and let your imagination run wild. It reminded me of the old-school WHAT IF? tales. Accordingly, it was pretty logical to start from a place where the good guys lost and the Queen runs Spider-Island...but as for where it goes from there, I just threw off the shackles."Meanwhile, writer Tom DeFalco and artist Ron Frenz will tackle the backup stories, which continue the saga of Mayday Parker as the MC2 universe becomes a part of Battleworld. This storyline features the same version of May fans have come to love over the years, and it picks up where Spider-Verse left off with her family.Al Ewing & Alan DavisJuly 2015WarzonesAl Ewing's Mighty Avengers saga will take a very different turn during Secret Wars. Blastr revealed this new two-issue series, which will see former Captain Britain and the MI:13 star Faiza Hussain reclaim the mantle of Captain Britain (which she previously held during Age of Ultron). Her team includes She-Hulk, White Tiger, Kid Rescue and Hobie Brown. These Defenders will fight to keep the peace as one Battleworld domain forcibly annexes another.Ewing teased, "We're set on the border between two smaller principalities -- I don't know if we're even on the map, unless there's been an update recently. On the one hand, we have the fascist futuropolis of Mondo City, originally invented by Jeff Parker, which is an analogue for a certain sci-fi mega-city I've written about in the past, one that British comic readers -- and fans of cool, cult sci-fi movies -- will be very familiar with. It's ruled over by the Bosses, who are judge, jury and executioner. Toughest of them all is Boss Cage, aging but still undefeatable clone of Luke Cage's grandson Danny."He continued, "On the other hand, we've got Yinsen City, from an alternate world I made up in Iron Man: Fatal Frontier, where Ho Yinsen survived the origin of Iron Man instead of Tony Stark, and used his own medical tech to create the Rescue Armor. His influence turned Marvel-Earth into a utopia of peace and plenty, peacefully colonizing space. As you can imagine, when Mondo City decides it wants some of that peace and plenty for itself -- all in the name of the law, or course -- the kind and generous people of the Yinsenverse are going to have trouble standing in their way. Or are they?"Rick Remender & Roland BoschiJuly 2015Warzones Comicbook.com revealed that Rick Remender's Captain America saga will take a new form during Secret Wars. Remender will reunite with Winter Soldier: The Bitter March collaborator Roland Boschi for a series set in a Battleworld domain where Hydra has ruled America for centuries. Nomad is the "fish out of water" protagonist navigating this tricky realm, and he'll be battling Hydra-ized versions of Marvel heroes like Venom and the Avengers."We’ve always seen Hydra's attempts at world domination foiled, so this story gives us an opportunity to dig into a world where Hydra was not only never stopped but had insinuated itself into the American system and took over the country hundreds of years ago," Remender told the site. "In this world, we'll see a New York City where Hydra was like the Freemasons of history. Hydra is now the American Dream."As for why Remender chose to focus on Ian Zola rather than Steve Rogers or Sam Wilson, he said, "What’s cool about Ian is that he drifted from one dimension to the next in the main Captain America series, and now he's drifting into this dimension. It kind of gives meaning to the name 'Nomad,' because he really is drifting from one place to another. That's what made him the right choice for the story.Charles Soule & Leinil YuJuly 2015Warzones

Age of Apocalypse

CNN revealed this mini-series, which will offer a new spin on Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's mega-popular Civil War mini-series. This time it's Charles Soule and Leinil Yu at the helm. Despite being a Secret Wars tie-in, it seems this project is also aimed at newcomers interested in the Civil War concept because of the upcoming Captain America: Civil War film.Soule told CNN, "If you look at the ideas that that story had, Iron Man thought superheroes should have to register with the government, and become something of a police force. Captain America thought that that was restricting the central freedoms of this country. It was a debate of security versus freedom. We're taking that basic idea and expanding it to a larger canvas. The Registration Act is all in the past at this point. It's more of a world drastically changed based on a superhero war, and it's a huge story and it's fun to be able to involve every Marvel character there is."He continued, "The idea is to take some of the events in the original storyline and spin them off into entirely new stories. Without spoiling, this deals with a world that has been ravaged for quite some time when we pick up the story. I felt the original Civil War explored those questions very well. If I was going to play in this sandbox, I wanted to ask my own questions."Fabian Nicieza and Gerardo SandovalJuly 2015WarzonesThe Age of Apocalypse returns for Secret Wars by original AoA writer Fabian Nicieza and Cable & X-Force artist. It's of special note that this is an alternate version of the Age of Apocalypse universe where all of the major characters are still alive -- allowing the creative team to make full use of the AoA cast."In many ways, the world I am writing is very different than the original, but in other ways it is exactly the same. I feel like I am getting a chance to have my cake and eat it too, regarding the positives of the original story world while still doing something very new," Nicieza said. Check out our interview with Nicieza for full details.

Head to page 2 for Marvel's Secret Wars tie-ins launching in June.