Neil Gaiman Returns to Marvel Comics… and Brings ANGELA With Him?!

It all starts at the end of Age of Ultron in June, and obviously the details are slight, but Neil Gaiman is coming back to write comics for Marvel, and bringing his character Angela with him. Then Angela will show up in Guardians of the Galaxy #5, co-written by Brian Michael Bendis and Neil Gaiman.

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Savvy readers of recent comic book history will know that Gaiman created Angela for Todd McFarlane’s Spawn series in 1992, and then spent many of the years since in court over ownership and royalties. Last year, they settled, and Gaiman was granted co-ownership of both Angela and Medieval Spawn. So how this works out legally, I have no idea, but presumably, it’s with Todd McFarlane’s seal of approval.

Neil Gaiman

From the post in the New York Times (fancy!), there’s this:

Preparing the way for Angela’s arrival has “been in the works for quite some time,” said Joe Quesada, the 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 which involves many of Marvel’s top heroes, seemed like the perfect venue. 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 for more.

Vaguely ironic that they’re talking about the media spoiling stories when talking to the media about a story that will be out in June, but there you are.

This would be the point where I’d add some commentary or analysis, but to be completely honest, I have no idea what to make of this. I’ve heard of Angela through the court stories, but I can’t imagine there’s any kind of clamoring about her return, and showing up in the Marvel Universe is just weird. In fact, that seems to be the major selling point on this: it’s weird. That and Neil Gaiman can move a lot of units.


Comments

  1. WTF?

  2. Angela Landsbury or GTFO.

  3. Tacky

  4. To paraphrase much funnier people than me, “The dream of the ’90s is alive in cooomics!”

  5. Cool belt, bro

  6. Is this early April’s fool? ‘Cause that what this sounds like…

  7. So much for that super-secret surprise ending that only a handful of people know about — unless of course that’s a different super secret surprise that only a few . . . anyway.

    As a Gaiman fan, I read the early Angela stories when they came out, but they never struck me as among his best stuff. Don’t really remember anything about them actually. Still, between this and the Sandman prequel, the idea of Gaiman writing comics more regularly again is encouraging. If they give Anegla a series written by Gaiman, I’d give it a try. Now how about getting his and Moore’s Mircleman back into print . . .?

  8. This thing is not needed.

  9. Create buzz.. accomplished.

  10. “This is not meant to be a spoiler” Translation: Angela will be the red head that no one notices standing behind Miracleman when he shows up at the end of Age of Ultron.

    • Is it still true that only 8 people know what the last few pages of the last issue of Age of Ultron will be?

      If Miracleman shows up the internet is going to break in half.

    • I think at this point, they’ve had the rights for so long that people won’t even be that stoked when he finally shows up. I had even kind of forgot they had him.

    • The character of Marvelman/Miracleman never was the compelling aspect of either Moore’s or Gaiman’s run. So if his reappearance in the Marvel Universe means I can finally buy a “Marvelman” omnibus, great! Otherwise, I really couldn’t care less unless someone like Jason Aaron, Rick Remender, or Garth Ennis is given the character and allowed to do whatever they want with him. Otherwise it would be like the neutered version of Constantine showing up in the New 52.

      That or it’ll actually turn out to be Cerebus.

    • OK, now I want to see Cerebus tag along with Rocket & Groot on their next adventure, especially if they can run afoul of Lord Julius . . .

  11. I personally believe this is the breakthrough comics needed. By adding Angel to the Marvel U, the appeal to non-comic readers to get into comics will be too strong. Moreso than rebooting every book to a new reader friendly #1. One and a half year old 52 and Marvel NOW(ish) be damned. Look at Angela. Look at her! What else is there? What else could be more appealing to a non-comic reader? How will Angela survive physical battle with so little armor? Guardians of the Galaxy #5 (not #1) will not have these answers, but it will be in hands across the world. Forget baseball season in June. Angela. Angela. ANGELA! They will roar. The masses will be satiated. It is now a comic book world.

  12. Weird sure is the word for this announcement. There’s clearly more to the story here, but at least it’s an actual announcement with content and statements, and not a cryptic silhouette or one word teaser image (“HEAVENLY” or something) with a date, right?

  13. so does this mean now that they settled, there will finally be a Spawn Vol 2 that has her issue in it? Now if McFarlane can only settle with Dave Sim, might be a full Spawn series some day

    • I kinda doubt Mcfarlane is okay with Angela moving to Marvel. I’ll believe it when I see him drawing the new 5th Spiderman series.

  14. Definitely not as exciting as the new Sandman story coming out, but it could good, who knows? Stranger things have happened.

  15. This Angela thing has to be a beard for Marvel to get people excited about Neil Gaiman without spoiling the Miracleman reveal, right?

  16. I don’t have any prior affinity for the character, but I kind of hope Quesada’s redesign of Angela involves something more sensible (or appropriate to however they’re characterizing her) than a thong bikini. Marvel’s gotten a lot better about responsible representations of female characters lately, it’d a real shame to re-embrace some of the most egregiously sexist designs of the 90s.

    • Agreed. I had the action figure. Quite the set of, er… weapons she had there. She certainly needs to be brought into the present.

    • As much as I’d normally agree with you, I’d almost like to see them double down on the 90s crazy over-sexualization and bring it into full-on parody (like it’s not already.)

      But yes, something more sensible would be nice.

    • @ Ken – So like what? Pants? Should she have pants?

    • @Grandturk: Haha, I honestly don’t know anything about the character except that she’s some kind of warrior-angel dedicated to hunting demons, so take this with as few grains of salt as you’d like. But if Marvel is sticking to the “warrior-angel-demon-hunter” premise for the character, I can’t think of too many warriors or hunters of other varieties that would choose a thong bikini for battle/hunting.

  17. As a spawn fan I don’t like thisl

    • But we all know why she was killed and why McFarlane has insisted since that she will never return, so I think its a cool thing. Angela was a cool character, and we will see how she is changed. Might even remind some folks about Spawn. Plus, its Gaimen, and that’s something to he excited over too. I wonder how much heaven will play a part.

  18. I’m more confused now than I was before I clicked on the article.

    Who needs this?

    Seems like a strange move for Gaiman. We’re still getting more Sandman, right? RIGHT?!

  19. This is much more important than the Marvel/Miracle Man announcement they made a few years ago that went absolutely nowhere. Anyone think Gaiman is just doing this to piss McFarlane off?

  20. I can hardly wait until ten years from now when legal issues keep this issue from being reprinted.

  21. At least Marvel probably won’t fire Neil Gaiman and replace him with Rob Leifeld.

  22. “not like this…”–every fan asking for more strong female characters from Marvel

    i kid, but seriously, this sounds like such an odd fit for the marvel u. Bringing all that 90s stuff back that i barely remember.

  23. If neilhimself is attached, I’m in. I have yet to read something he’s written that I didn’t like.

  24. This is just a theory, but I think this is a total red herring to throw off the fact that Marvel Man (Miracleman) is coming to the Marvel Universe at the end of Age of Ultron. It’s a clever ploy by Marvel to throw us off the scent. There’s no WAY they would every spoil the end of Age of Ultron after building it up so much. I just don’t buy it.

    • I think you might be right. “Angela” might be code for Marvel Man (another character Gaiman has/had an ownership stake in). He probably shows up in Age of Ultron 10, then gets featured in greater detail in the GotG issue by Bendis and Gaiman. Maybe a Marvel Man series by Gaiman? Any A-list artists unaccounted for this summer?

    • What’s McNiven up to these days?

    • I don’t know. Do you guys really think Marvel would go to these lengths in false advertising? Because it sounds pretty definite that it is Angela coming in on Age of Ultron according to Quesada.

    • Who knows. It would be pretty awesome if this was in fact their plan.

    • That would make much more sense and it also explains why there’s been no response from McFarlane.

  25. What I took from this article, “Neil Gaiman is writing an issue of GotG.”

    SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

  26. Spawn with a battleaxe and shield lolol.

  27. She should join the fearless defenders!

  28. I’m a fan of metal bras…so ok cool.

  29. Are people REALLY excited about this?

    I honestly feel like it would have been bigger news if Garfield was joining the Guardians of the Galaxy. (I mean, if we’re talking about characters that were really big news decades ago.)

  30. I like the theory that this reveal is just a cover for an eventual Miracleman reveal. Otherwise, this is a completely bizarre piece of news. I’m sure I’m not remembering the details but I don’t recall there being anything special about Angela. Plus Marvel already has similar characters like Gamora and Valkyrie.

    (I also had the Angela action figure.)

  31. Thing people forget/may not know: Bendis was writing Marvel/MiracleMan in HELLSPAWN, under the name Man O’Miracles many years ago. This was before the Copyright stuff hit the fan and they went in another direction with him, but I’ve been thinking about this since they revealed they MarvelMan purchase years ago.

    • Or well, checking the dates again, he was laying the seeds for the reveal of MiracleMan that Steve Niles ultimately did a few issues later.

  32. If this leads up to MiracleMan then great! But if not then why is this such a big deal? I mean apart from Gaiman coming back to Marvel this is just a minor character, granted from a different company, coming back into continuity. Either this is going to be the most brilliant tease in comic history or the biggest head scratcher.

  33. honestly who cares?

  34. Sooooo, this is probably a really stupid question but…who the fuck is Miracleman? I read a little about the legal battles but who is this character and why do people seem so excited about him?

    • Awesome! Thanks Conor.

    • OK I will try to explain this basicly Miracleman is Captain Marvel aka Shazam. In the late 1940s I think DC sued Fawcett Comics, the original publisher of Captain Marvel, saying he was too similar to Superman and DC won or it was to expensive for Fawcett to fight back I forget exactly but either way that was the end of Captain Marvel comics in the US for awhile. But Fawcett still liked the character so they took the idea to the UK made very minor changes and put out the comic called Marvelman. Marvel man really was just like Shazam except for a different costume and he said kimota instead of shazam to change into a superhero. Marvelman comics originally came out in the UK on the 50s but years later, early 80s I think Alan Moore brought the character back in a really brilliant run. Now when they wanted to print Alan Moore’s Marvelman in the US I guess they were afraid of legal problems from Marvel comes, I think, so they reprinted them over here as Miracleman.

      And I just realized ifanboy did a whole video episode about it so I really didn’t need to write all that, oh well.

    • @scotte: Haha thanks for a awesome summary!

    • After reading the entire Marvelman/Miracleman wiki… I think your question still stands: Who the fuck is Miracleman and why should I care he’s possibly in the Marvel U?

      Written by greats Moore and Gaiman… that’s awesome, obviously something I’ve missed… but that doesn’t say why its a good thing for the character to show up in the Marvel U.

  35. This is bizarre. The speculation that this is a cover for a Marvelman reemergence is interesting.

    I guess anything is possible because no one knows what the exact outcome of the Gaiman/McFarlane settlement was.

    I thought Angela was a cool character… when I was 13. At the very least, I’ll at least be interested to hear how this turns out.

    But, really, if Marvelman comes back I’ll only be interested if Gaiman can pick up the story where he left it 20-some years ago. I don’t see that happening unless Marvel has the rights to reprint all the Moore stuff that led up to Gaiman’s run. And after five years or so of having whatever rights they have to the “Miracleman”-only issues (as opposed to “Marvelman”), I would’ve thought they’d have reprinted that stuff long, long before now if they possibly could. Unless something has changed in the legal process.

    • I’ve been secretly hoping that Marvel has been holding off on Moore/Gaiman reprints until they actually do something new with the character, but, yeah, that could be unfounded optimism on my part . . .

  36. This is odd but I like Gaiman coming into the end of Age of Ultron with Angela but wonder why and if she’ll still exist in Spawns universe? They probably are doing the connected dots Miricleman/Gaiman connection, end of AofU story, I just don’t see where Angela fits in, but Gaimans inventive and like what Bendis has been doing in Marvel Now and think the two of them will come up with a memorable reason for any of this.