Fans got the chance to read the brand new A-Force #1 last week but Marvel has already announced a brand new creative team for the series. Writer Kelly Thompson (Gem and the Holograms) is joining artist Ben Caldwell (Prez) to take over the series from writers G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel), Marguerite Bennett (Angela: Queen of Hel), and Jorge Molina (A-Force.)
The news broke over at Marvel.com, which featured a few sketches from Caldwell. The publisher announced that the new story follows a dragon that comes to disturb a small town, causing She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Medusa, Dazzler, Nico Minoru, and Singularity to keep the peace. Also, Dazzler has a secret that she is keeping the rest of the team, Marvel teased that her secret might affect the plot of the issue.
With the setup out of the way, Thompson teases that she is able to hit the ground running with her A-Force team in the comic; For A-FORCE’s second arc, with Ben Caldwell coming on as artist, we just leaned into everything that was already so exciting about the book—the huge power sets, the natural comedy, and the great team dynamic—which is at once both fun and full of friction. Ben excels at everything but I’m particularly a fan of his character work and the movement he brings to a story; it’s so expressive and fun and I just wanted to give him as much room as possible so he can do what he does best.
Caldwell divulged some notes behind his process; The most exciting design work, for me, is really selling the individual personalities of these characters. And of course the first step in doing that is to consider how their visual designs help to sell this. As well as avoiding the interchangeable-body-type phenomena that is so popular. In terms of costume design, of course I’m generally just following orders.
Thompson also explained some of the ways that the comic is tied to Secret Wars even after the crossover has ended; In a way, since Singularity came from Battleworld, this book will always be tied to Secret Wars, and we do have a couple really cool—new!—Secret Wars characters showing up in arc two, but we don’t want to live in the past or make readers who perhaps didn’t read Secret Wars feel unwelcome, so the goal is definitely to let the book stand on its own with ease.
The publisher revealed the new take on A-Force is coming later this year but did not include issue numbers or any further information — stay tuned to The Beat as the story develops.
Fantastic news – I just love Ben Caldwell’s artwork!
Kelley Thompson on writing duties is not a surprise. If memory serves, she’s been listed as co-writer with G. Willow Wilson in the solicits starting with ish 3 or so. She’s a good fit, though — She’s a proven writer of a killer ensemble book in Jem & the Holograms.
Ben Caldwell does come as a surprise. I guess this dims the prospects of a Prez follow-up to round out the proposed 12 issues, but sales figures seem to have done that job on their own, sadly. Still, if this keeps him drawing (and in a much higher-profile gig!), good on him! Nice to see Marvel recognizing his chops.
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