Last year, Marvel‘s summer annuals shared a common theme, “Acts of Evil!,” in which heroes squared off against villains they wouldn’t otherwise have normally faced. Beyond the theme, though, those annuals didn’t really have anything to do with each other. This year’s summer annuals appear to be more connected, though, as Marvel has announced Infinite Destinies as the theme that will run through eight annuals over four months. Each of the annuals will feature a hero encountering a new character imbued with the powers of an infinity stone.
The first two Infinite Destinies annuals will star Iron Man and Captain America, respectively, as well as newer Marvel U characters Quantum and Overtime. The Iron Man Annual will be written by Jed MacKay and illustrated by Ibraim Roberson, while the Captain America Annual will come from the creative team of Gerry Duggan and Marco Castiello.
Other forthcoming annuals will star Thor, both Spider-Men, Black Cat, The Avengers, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Newer characters to be featured include the recently-introduced Amulet, who made his first appearance in The Magnificent Ms. Marvel a few weeks ago, and Star, the Captain Marvel villain currently headlining her own miniseries as she attempts to learn to control the reality stone embedded in her body. Creative teams for those other annuals have yet to be announced.
It’s only been a little over a year since Marvel’s last big infinity stones-centric storyline, Infinity Wars, wrapped up, so bringing them back to the forefront already feels really fast. The stones are a fairly understandable entry point for new readers, though, given the role they played in third phase of Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Hopefully these annuals will serve as decent one-shots that can be handed to newbies and hook them into wanting to come back for more.
The full list of Infinite Destinies annuals is below. Look for the Iron Man Annual and Captain America Annual to hit stores in June.
