Marvel started plugging one of its Summer events, Generations, in February with just an image of legacy and current characters painted by Alex Ross. We got an inkling of an idea of what the event might be about via an Amazon listing, but not much. Here's a snippet of that description:
Today, that heroic legacy lives on in the next generation of heroes – and it will be put to the test as the Marvel Universe's greatest champions unite and charge headlong into tomorrow!
Well… Okay. Guess that reinforces what the original image showed. Today that site that fanboys turn to for all Marvel news, ABC News (owned by Disney, as is Marvel), shed an itty bitty more light on the event.
The event will run from July through September (assuming no delays) and according to Marvel head honcho Axel Alonso, is not a dream or fakeout:
"These stories do happen, they really count. They really matter. This isn't some alternate reality story or some time-travel story"
The stories focus on 10 pairings of legacy and current heroes, each written by a different writer (artists have not been revealed):
- Iron Man (Tony Stark and Riri Williams) – written by Brian Michael Bendis
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker and Miles Morales) – Brian Michael Bendis
- Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers and Kamala Khan) – G. Willow Wilson
- Thor (Odinson and Jane Foster) – Jason Aaron
- Hawkeye (Clint Barton and Kate Bishop) – Kelly Thompson
- Hulk (Bruce Banner and Amadeus Cho) – Greg Pak
- Jean Grey (young and older) – Dennis Hopeless
- Wolverine (Logan and X-23) – Tom Taylor
- Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers) – Margie Stohl
- Captain America (Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson) – Nick Spencer
Generations Thor promo art by Oliver Coipel
It's not clear what format this event will take.
Currently Tony Stark is in a coma, and Banner, Logan, and older Jean Grey are dead. Not only will Logan be back (for this event), from the Ross painting it looks like a young (yellow and blue costume) Wolverine. The promo image of Thor Odinson also looks like the classic Thor, including Mjolnir?! Then there's Mar-Vell…
So if it isn't time-travel or alternate reality, how do these characters return? Alonso wouldn't tell:
"How did we do this is part of the fun" … "Right now, Rogers isn't much of a good guy. Why would Sam want to team up with him? Banner's dead! Logan's dead! These are questions that demand to be seen. What I will tell you is we have an ingenious device [to bring them back]."
Alonso also said that the stories tell us how these characters will move into the future. Although he said the stories count, he also talked about the returning characters:
"There's that old cliche, 'absences makes the heart grow fonder,'" … "You don't take these characters off the board with the intention to keep them off the board forever. One of the tropes of our medium is characters get a second wind. They die and come back. That's part of the beauty of what we do."
EDIT: Yes Tim the Editor, it looks like we can update Wolverine's status this Summer.
