One teaser is never enough. Marvel has released yet another puzzle piece teaser image for the upcoming Incoming! one-shot. The teaser joins one released just this morning, and another which came out yesterday afternoon. This one features a trio of characters, some of whom you might not expect to see spending friendly time together:
That’s Charles Xavier, Magneto, and Apocalypse, as all three have appeared in writer Jonathan Hickman‘s ongoing X-Men relaunch, House of X and Powers of X. Charles also appears to be holding a Krakoa plant, which have played a major role in Hickman’s storyline. The linework on this teaser is by Declan Shalvey, who has provided some stellar variant covers for later printings of HoX and PoX, while the colors are by Mat Lopes. The text of the teaser promises “a deadly alliance” between the three characters.
This one feels far afield of the previous two teasers, both of which appear to be centered around a murder mystery. We know that Charles and Magneto have already forged a partnership in House of X, and that it may even stretch all the way back to the beginnings of the X-Men. Given Moira X’s experiences with Apocalypse in her past lives it’s not hard to imagine she’d bring him into the fold at some point (or perhaps Charles does after the events of the most recent issue).
As for what this teaser means for Incoming!, it may be meant simply to illustrate the far-reaching scope of whatever’s going on in the Marvel U as presented by the one-shot. It feels like the X-Men at this point are occupying their own little world, more or less separated from the rest of the Marvel U save for a brief interaction between Cyclops and the Fantastic Four in House of X #1. By the time December rolls around, though, the “Dawn of X” titles will have launched, so perhaps one or more of those will cross over with whatever’s going on in Incoming!.
This teaser also makes me think that Incoming! will be something akin to the Countdown to Infinite Crisis or DC Universe: Rebirth one-shots—single-issue comics that have a through-line plot that dips into different areas of their shared universe, and that serve as setup for multiple future storylines. With at least one major story, an Annihilation follow-up, already being touted for 2020, will Incoming! have something to do with that? Or will that follow-up simply be one element presented and teased out in Incoming!?
All I know for sure is, this teaser is a corner piece of the puzzle, and that’s always what I start with when I’m putting together a jigsaw puzzle, so that’s exciting. It seems likely there’ll be more of these next week—be sure to keep an eye out for those and see if you can solve the puzzle along with us. The Marvel Comics Incoming! one-shot is due out in December.
