Next Big Cosmic Event:The Thanos Imperative

[NightBeetle]

One name ignites terror across galaxies. One name fans the flames of fear throughout the universe. Thanos, the Mad Titan. And he's back.
Space scribes Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning add fuel to the fire of upcoming cosmic event The Thanos Imperative with a special one-shot, THE THANOS IMPERATIVE: IGNITION, this May.


"As readers will soon see in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #24 & #25, Thanos is back, so that's the biggest deal of all," says Abnett of the upcoming epic. "There isn't a cosmic bad guy as bad as Thanos, so in simple terms this is everyone versus him-but with a twist! This time, you have the good guys on one side [and] Magus and his Dark Gods on the other with Thanos standing directly in the middle!"Lanning states that "if you're new to the cosmic books, don't worry!" The duo has you covered with this opening salvo.


"THE THANOS IMPERATIVE: IGNITION is a great place to jump aboard and you won't need any prior knowledge," he notes of the one-shot. "But if you're a devoted reader, there are rich seams of pay-off to enjoy. The threat of the Fault, a huge rip in time and space left by the War of Kings, is something we've been exploring in the Realm of Kings stories thatrun into The Thanos Imperative. This is the moment where Magus, a very serious bad guy in his own right, takes control of it and galactic disaster follows! This epic story forms a climax to many of the tales we've been spinning in the cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe for the last three years."

Thanos first reared his mutant head in 1973's IRON MAN #55 and soon became one of the most popular villains in the Marvel Universe. Time and space still sport the scars from his insatiable quest for Death, but there's even more than that to make him worthy of this new cosmic event.
"It's not so much his power level because, let's face it, in a universe where beings like Galactus are kicking around, there's no shortage of cosmic power," notes Abnett. "No, with Thanos, it's his malice, his intellect, his guile. He's dangerous. He's treacherous. He's the Mad Titan, but his insanity is concealed under a mask of terrible logic and brilliance. He's so twisted, that sometimes it's hard to tell which side he's on. This is one of those times. Does the Marvel Universe need him to survive, or is he just too dangerous?"


The writing team claims that readers will also witness the involvement of many of their favorite space characters beginning with IGNITION and expanding out into the entire event."Nova is going to be front and center in this, along with the Guardians of the Galaxy, especially Star-Lord, but they're going to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of Quasar and the Silver Surfer," Lanning reveals. "We're talking serious, heavyweight cosmic heroes. Add to that some fabulous cameos from the cosmic side of things, and some great characters on the villain side such as Magus."In all, THE THANOS IMPERATIVE: IGNITION sets the tone for the raucous events to come, and Abnett and Lanning promise that all the action, adventure and surprises for which they've become known will be present.


"This is going to be big, serious, epic stuff," promises Lanning. "Huge space action and vast, galaxy changing events. But we're not going to forget the human scale of things either. All the big stuff is just too big without a human focus to ground it, so the fortunes and relationships of our characters are going to matter as much. Friendships, loyalties, betrayals.
"Oh, and this is probably the biggest and most serious cosmic epic we're ever going to produce, but there's still going to be an opportunity for a gag or two. Rocket Raccoon's in it, after all."

LINK

 

[Lucien]

Bring it on!

It seems strange to me seeing Thanos back in his old duds after going throughout all of Annihilation without them.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

This should be interesting.

 

[Themanofbat]

I feel like I should have gotten into GotG early on, but I never cared for the 70's team, and wasn't too keen to get into the new one... but with appearances by former Micronauts, and hearing such good things about the book, maybe I should get it in trades...

Opinions?

 

[Lucien]

I feel like I should have gotten into GotG early on, but I never cared for the 70's team, and wasn't too keen to get into the new one... but with appearances by former Micronauts, and hearing such good things about the book, maybe I should get it in trades...

Opinions?

Abso-freakin-lutely!

 

[Brainiac 8]

It's one of the best books by Marvel, so yes, get the trades.


This sounds awesome. Magus, Nova front and center, GotG, Rocket Raccoon, Magus, the Fault.

Man I cannot wait for this.

edit: Can't wait to see how Drax reacts to Thanos return, and why would Thanos leave Death, whom he finally was accepted by?

 

[Morg]

edit: Can't wait to see how Drax reacts to Thanos return, and why would Thanos leave Death, whom he finally was accepted by?

Thanos hates putting out the trash and such

 

[Brainiac 8]

Maybe Death didn't put out as often as Thanos liked.

 

[deathshead2]

Cool Thanos is back, and Jim Starlin didn't even have to write it.

 

[Dread]

I actually liked Thanos going into the sunset with Death in ANNIHILATION, but I suppose with Magus, a big cosmic baddie from the 90's, back in a big way, it was inevitable than Thanos would return. Especially since, as an Eternal, he's all but unkillable (at least by removing his heart). I think it could be awesome, if done well.

And I think it's time Nova got another win. Abnett & Lanning have tried to rely on new stars for every event, but it would be cool if this one got back to basics.

 

[SouLeSS]

Confirmed players:

Heroes:
Nova and the Nova Corps
Guardians of the Galaxy
Silver Surfer
Micronauts

Tweeners:
Thanos
Hiro-Kala

Villains:
The Magus
The Dark Gods
Universal Church of Truth
Fraternity of Raptors


Unconfirmed:
Beta Ray Bill
Galactus and his other heralds
Inhumans/Kree
Imperial Guard/Shi'ar
Oblivion

 

[NightBeetle]

Confirmed players:

Heroes:
Nova and the Nova Corps
Guardians of the Galaxy
Silver Surfer
Quasar
Micronauts

Fixed

 

[SouLeSS]

Oh and this guy is going to be the BIG BAD of it all

Spoiler

 

[PaleRider]

looking forward to this since Thanos is one of my favs. but man I hope they do it right. I loved what they did with him in Annihilation so I hope they don't ignore that.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Confirmed players:

Heroes:
Nova and the Nova Corps
Guardians of the Galaxy
Silver Surfer
Micronauts

Tweeners:
Thanos
Hiro-Kala

Villains:
The Magus
The Dark Gods
Universal Church of Truth
Fraternity of Raptors


Unconfirmed:
Beta Ray Bill
Galactus and his other heralds
Inhumans/Kree
Imperial Guard/Shi'ar
Oblivion

When was Hiro-Kala and the Micronauts confirmed? They never mentioned it in the article above. I'd love to see Hiro-Kala involved, but I didn't see that up there.

 

[SouLeSS]

In my mind mostly. Hiro-Kala has been in the sideslines of cosmic for a while, and the Realm of Kings : Son of Hulk issues so far make it seem like he'll be an important part of something upcoming, so meh.

Also, since Bug is technically one of the last Micronauts (Microns, whatever), they're already represented. ALso, last time they got into a scuffle with Thanos it ended with all but 1 microverse being destroyed. Seems like a pretty good reason to want revenge / come out of 'hiding'.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I love that we're getting Quasar and the Silver Surfer back in this. As great as the Guardians and Nova are, the cosmic landscape has felt a little awkward to me without the Silver Surfer for the last few years.

 

[NightBeetle]

NovaPrime:An Interview With Marvel Cosmic Editor Bill Rosemann!

With Realm of Kings heading towards its cosmic-smashing conclusion, the foundation for the next cosmic event are being put in place in Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy! It begins with a one-shot comic in May called The Thanos Imperative: Ignition!
Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy editor Bill Rosemann took some time from his insanely busy schedule to talk about the upcoming event! I'd like to thank Bill for his time and his answers!

As we head into The Thanos Imperative, can you give us an overview of what has led to this point and what the new event will be about?

Thanks to Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning being modern masters of cosmic adventure, you can count on The Thanos Imperative being the culmination of their three years' worth of stories, delivering nothing less than the fight of Life vs. Death itself.

From a publishing standpoint, how will the The Thanos Imperative be structured (a one-shot followed by a main series, a series of one-shots, etc.)?

More details will be announced soon, but all the fun kicks off with the Ignition one-shot in May.

How will the Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy titles fit into the event?

The events of Nova #36 and Guardians of the Galaxy #25 zoom directly into Ignition.

With the Magus from the Guardians series being involved, will we see the Sphinx from the recent Nova story arc being a factor in The Thanos Imperative?

What, Thanos and Magus aren't enough for you?

It sounds as if The Thanos Imperative will be pretty huge! How will the rest of the Marvel Universe, especially Earth, be affected by it and will other Marvel titles become involved?

While The Thanos Imperative will be a self-contained event, you will see interplay between the heroes of Earth and the champions of the cosmos.

 

[Themanofbat]

I thought that Marionnette & Acroyear were going to make appearances in the near future?

 

[Dread]

I love that we're getting Quasar and the Silver Surfer back in this. As great as the Guardians and Nova are, the cosmic landscape has felt a little awkward to me without the Silver Surfer for the last few years.

Not to me. Silver Surfer has no personality. Quasar's cool, though.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I'm the opposite. I like Silver Surfer (though probably not enough to support his own title again) but Quasar bores me to tears. He's okay as a guest star or secondary character (such as with Nova) but he's about as interesting as Phyla or Moon Dragon for me. Which is not much.

 

[Dread]

I still like Nova, Star-Lord and the new GOTG more than I like Quasar or Silver Surfer.

Although maybe not Adam Warlock. He's fine as a member of the GOTG, and as the Magus again he's been a hilarious villain. But as a star hero he's very boring, which was one of the problems of ANNIHILATION CONQUEST; he was a very generic male hero for that. In my mind, yanking the space area of Marvel away from the boring leads of the 90's like Surfer and Warlock has been one ingredient of their success.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

It's not about liking them. They're the anchors of Marvel's cosmic side. You know how it's a big deal that Cap, Thor, and Iron Man are reuniting to give us the Avengers again? Well, the Silver Surfer returning to the cosmic landscape makes me feel like it's whole again. He should always be around, doing something or other every now and then. The fact that he was slumming in Hulk and FF comics for a while made Marvel's cosmic side feel weird to me.

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

See, I'm all conflicted. I want das Surfer, because generally everybody has something to do with him in the universe. To have big, mega cosmic event without the main cosmic powered character IN the Marvel Universe is like throwing a Defenders party, and only Valkyrie shows up. =l

However, to include him means including Galactus, whom I'd like to be on the backburner for a while. I'm really much more enjoying civilizations IN the cosmos dealing with one another, rather than factions of them dealing with super cosmic entities for a change (Though Galactus in Annihilation was just brilliant), so I don't know if I'd really wanna see him or not. They might write him in as on a world hunt, and somehow gets involved.

However, I'm more curious of them explaining why Thanos is back in blue/gold, and not in black as Death's consort. (Maybe she cheated on him, and in his gried, committed reverse suicide)

 

[stingerman]

DnA Crank Things Up:
The Thanos Imperative: Ignition

http://cosmicbooknews.com/articles/dnat_int/

Sounds pretty awesome!