Today, while on a press conference call, Marvel Comics announced that Uncanny Avengers #6 would be the first issue for new on-going artist Daniel Acuña. Editor Tom Brevoort and writer Rick Remender were on hand to break the news and give fans an idea of what they can look forward to.
Uncanny Avengers launched this past October with celebrated artist John Cassaday returning to interiors after a long absence. Issue #4 will be Cassaday’s last issue (As previously announced, Olivier Coipel will be the artist on issue #5), staying involved with the title as the cover artist, as evidenced by the cover of Uncanny Avengers #6 to the right. Remender commented, “When you see what we put John through in Uncanny Avengers #3 and #4…I don’t know that John will ever recover from what we’re making him draw in those two issues. As I was writing it, I felt sorry for him.” The addition of Acuña was welcome, as Brevoort described him as a “world class talent” and artist that’s about to break into being huge. You can get a sense of this from the preview pages shown below.
Acuña’s first issue, Uncanny Avengers #6 ships in March and kicks off the next story arc Ragnarok Now and was described by Brevoort as “an offbeat issue..It works as an overture to the Ragnarok Now storyline. The entire issue takes place in the past, around the 11th century, involving an encounter a Young Thor had with a Young Apocalypse.” Remender went on futher to explain that he’s been collaborating with Thor: The God of Thunder writer Jason Aaron about the depiction of Young Thor, who was first introduced in Thor: God of Thunder #1 by Aaron. Remender revealed that Thor’s axe, first seen in Thor: God of Thunder will play a large role in this story.
As to how and how Apocalypse is having an encounter with Thor in the 11th century, Remender was mum on the details for fear of spoiling the story. He did that this ties into the plot that’s beginning to unfold in the pages of Uncanny Avengers, first with Red Skull, then leading into Apocalypse and the time traveling villain, Kang. Taking the same attention to past storylines and details as he has in the past, Remender has worked to make the teaming up of Kang and Apocalypse something that Remender added “This is an opportunity to ramp up and shine a light on three of the very best villains in comics. The threat they’re up against when you add these together starts to become pretty insurmountable.”
Uncanny Avengers #6 ships in March. Check out a preview of the issue and our first sample of Acuña on the title:
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And a regular schedule will be had for all to enjoy.
Wow so awesome
“Originally posted by Axel Alonso
You will not — repeat not — see a creative team of a Marvel NOW! series kicked to the curb off after the fourth, fifth or even seventeenth issue.”
Oops.
Acuna > Cassaday, though. And at a regular schedule, too. Improvement!
Does not look like he was kicked to the curb, JC most likely made the decision.
Did you copy and save that quote when it came out, in preparation?
Be honest now … 🙂
He wasn’t fired, he just couldn’t keep up with the demanding schedule.
I love JC’s work and is one of the main reasons I wanted to read this flagship book but he’s not an artist who is gonna produce peak detail works as he did with Astonishing X-Men, Planetary…etc, and he’s also a great cover artist. I personally don’t mind the delays as there dbl shipping too much and there are plenty of other great comix those hiatus’s give me time to catch up with. Definitely his decision and bet he could keep up with the schedule but doesn’t want to rush and put out art he knows he can do better on, lets not forget he does solid covers consistently for Dynamites Shadow, The Spider, Green Hornet and now Masks, which are all stellar covers.
I can’t say I didn’t see this coming.
Mr. Bait meet Senor Switch. I think everybody knew from the start that Cassaday’s tenure would be limited.
So if we all knew Cassaday’s tenure would be limited, how exactly is it a bait and switch?
@kenochalek
In the sense that Marvel purposefully withheld that information when to officially announce it ahead of time would dampen enthusiasm for their product launch. That doesn’t mean that consumers with a familiarity with their business tactics might not expect it to happen anyway.
I was worried that was Evan from the Jean Grey School on the cover of Issue #6. I’m relieved that Breevort pointed out that it’s Apocalypse, and it looks like he’s about to be eviscerated by a viking God.
Sad to see Cassaday leave but Acunas art looks better than ever. I’ve been waiting a long time for him to get a high profile opportunity like this, he deserves it. And the story sounds great, I can’t wait.
I’ve been a bit so-so with Acuna’s art. Dug his covers but his interior stuff didn’t really do it for me. However, those previews look more refined and I’m definitely interested to see where he goes with Remender’s stories.
In my opinion, Cassady hasn’t been good since the days on Astonishing X-Men and the later issues of Planetary. So this news of Daniel Acuna taking over is great for me.
Great! I love Acuna. Can’t wait to read his issues.
No surprise with Cassaday leaving. On the other hand, Acuna’s pages look great, so I’m there.
I am Jack’s Complete Lack of Surprise.
So maybe I won’t drop this now.
Guess I’m picking this back up when Acuna comes on. I dropped it after last issue probably because of Cassaday’s art. The roster is still a bit iffy to me. Don’t really care about half the members, but I do like Remender and Acuna is definitely an improvement over Cassaday. Plus, ties to Uncanny X-force doesn’t hurt.
I really didn’t want to be buying 3 Avengers books, so with Cassaday leaving, it will probably be all Hickman for me. JC was really the only reason I was getting Uncanny.
I liked what Cassaday was doing, but with delay after delay, I’m glad to see the flagship title get on a regular schedule. And the preview pages look like Acuna’s bring his best. I can’t wait to read this.
Round and round we go.
Oddly enough, I’d say both Cassaday and Acuna rank about the same on my imaginary list of artist preference, so I’m perfectly fine with this. What I’m more stirred up about is all those teases from Remender and Brevoort. Sounds like we have a helluva ride coming up. Pumped!
Ahhh…so sorry to see this happen. Cassaday is a gem whose light gets shaded all too frequently. Will go all
Hickman after this brief 4 issue opening.
Acuna is an outstanding artist. I loved his Black Widow and I look very much forward to see him working on an ongoing series. I hope the writer will come up with some great plots and interresting dialouges 🙂 Acuna will deliver…
Sad to see the Cassaday experiment fail so quickly, the fact that i find acuna massivly hit-or-miss just compounds things.
Fail? I’ve been really happy with the work in the 2 issues I’ve picked up so far. So he does a 4 issue arc and exits. Coipel and Acuna will have me coming back for me.
A little Cassiday is better than NO Cassiday
Well, ongoing artist, to delayed book, to off after four issues. anyone who wondered if JC could handle a monthly now knows that he can’t.
Sounds good to me. I love Acuna but he hasn’t been on anything I’ve wanted to read in a while. Now he is.
Marvel is copying DC again.
@WilliamKScurryJnr – well, what’s new? The very foundations of Marvel comics’ characters are a series of D.C. analogues.
Only nutjobs & permanently deluded “true-believers”, think otherwise.
You guys are crazy, they’ve both played off and borrowed ideas from one another for as long as they’ve been rivals. Out of curiosity, what exactly are they copying now? I love DC and Marvel and Marvels canon of great characters foundations are not a series of DC analogues. If you truly think what you just stated you are DC’s versions of deluded true believers. I love the history of both universes and would love to hear your examples of justification for these claims.
@JSAkid – my tongue was firmly in my cheek as I posted that comment. I have a lot of respect for what Marvel do & they certainly seem to be getting it right, NOW!
Wow. The first major book for Marvel NOW! and they have to quick;y find a replacement. Not a good sign.
It’s not really a sign of anything apart from Marvel wanting their flagship title to maintain a consistent schedule, and Cassaday most likely agreeing with them.
You have no idea how quickly they had to find a replacement. It’s a long time between the day creators turn in their pages and the moment the book hits the stands. You make it sound like Cassaday delivers the completed issues personally to your LCS by bicycle the moment he’s done drawing it.
Negativity is too damn high.
I didn’t really expect Cassaday to last, but I’m surprised he’s maxed out after just 4 issues. Oh well, maybe if this comes out more often I’ll get more excited about it. I enjoyed the first two issues but it’s hard to get excited about when its constantly delayed and meanwhile I’ve gotten like 3 issues of All New X-Men in about a month.
Got to hand it to the X-Men. They are a quick bunch.
Shocking news!
But I’d rather read all of my Animal Man by Travel Foreman, than the book be on time, you know what I mean.
Poor Marvel. They couldn’t double ship this book when they can’t even single ship it.
Reminder and Cassaday were what drew me to this book the most but look forward to his cover art and using Coipel as a fill in artist then Acuna isn’t a bummer, and the idea of bringing in Apocalypse and a personal favorite classic villain Kang in a story with Red Skull could get vey interesting. I love Acunas cover art and hope his interiors can live up to that fondness for me and everyone reading this book. Rotating him and Coipel wouldn’t be bad either and maybe Cassaday do an arc every now and then, but that’s probably not being realistic.
*Remender
Also, f@#k the dbl shipping, it doesn’t need to be dbl shipped when that many are at 3.99, I actually enjoy it more when it does come out after a short delay, once a month is perfect for books and a delay here n there is fine but 6months or something ridiculous is enough to make you forget the book ever came out to begin with.
I don’t think Uncanny Avengers is double shipping.
I think this is good news. Those preview pages look great.
It’s hard to describe, but something has felt very off to me with Cassaday’s art so far on Uncanny Avengers.
I don’t normally like Acuna – I remember some Spider-Man or Avengers he did that I really didn’t enjoy. But these new pages look OK.
I’m perfectly fine with having a different artist for each arc, especially if they’re on the level of Cassiday and Acuna.