In “Age of Ultron,” a story currently being published by Marvel Comics, the Avengers and their allies are on the ropes against their archenemy Ultron, an artificial intelligence who has taken over the world. The story concludes in June and will feature a special guest star: the angel Angela, a character created by the writer Neil Gaiman and the artist Todd McFarlane for “Spawn,” published by Image Comics.

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Angela’s path from Image to Marvel was fraught with lawsuits that began in 2002 regarding ownership of a handful of characters that appeared in a 1992 “Spawn” story written by Mr. Gaiman. A federal jury in 2002 found that Mr. Gaiman and Mr. McFarlane jointly held the copyright on several characters, including Angela. In 2012, Mr. McFarlane and Mr. Gaiman reached a confidential settlement regarding royalties owed to Mr. Gaiman for the characters he helped create. Now that Angela has had her day in court, her next stop is the Marvel Universe.

Preparing the way for Angela’s arrival has “been in the works for quite some time,” said Joe Quesada, chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment. “We were looking for a good entry point to tease our fans and to let them know she was going to be a major player,” he said. “Age of Ultron,” an event storyline that involves many of Marvel’s top heroes, seemed like the perfect spot. With so many big stories spoiled by the media (with the willing cooperation of the comic book companies) lately, Axel Alonso, the editor in chief of Marvel Comics, insisted the revelation of Angela’s participation did not count as a spoiler. Her presence is a bonus, “like the post-credit scenes in one of our Marvel studio movies,” Mr. Alonso said. The character’s appearance in “Age of Ultron” is designed to whet the appetite of fans.

Angela’s next stop will be in issue No. 5 of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” written by Brian Michael Bendis, one of Marvel’s most popular writers, and Mr. Gaiman. (It will be a busy comic book year for Mr. Gaiman. A new “Sandman” story, published by DC Comics, is scheduled for November. Mr. Gaiman was not available for comment.) The spotlight on “Guardians of the Galaxy,” a team of cosmic heroes who are scheduled to headline a feature film in 2014, is intentional. “Marvel is really putting a huge concerted effort to show the cosmic universe and how it ties to the regular universe,” Mr. Alonso said. “It’s called the Marvel universe for a reason.”

The appearance of Angela in a Marvel comic was kept under wraps for a remarkably long time. “With anything that is this big, I’m glad we kept it in house as long as we did,” Mr. Quesada said. Marvel had reason to fear a leak. On bleedingcool.com, a Web site devoted to comic book news and gossip, Rich Johnston, who operates the site, cleverly teased the reveal in a six-sentence post on Monday. If you write down the first letter of each sentence, you’ll get A-N-G-E-L-A.