With Ironheart having recently completed a 12-issue run, many fans wondered what would be next for Eve L. Ewing at Marvel. The Chicago-based writer mentioned on Twitter that she had a new project coming from the publisher, and now Marvel has released details of the project. Outlawed is a one-shot due out in March of 2020. Written by Ewing and illustrated by Kim Jacinto, the one-shot sees the young heroes of the Marvel Universe facing the aftermath of a tragic event, a situation that finds some of the heroes in opposition to a government crackdown on their activity.
In an interview with The AV Club, Ewing described the questions she’s addressing with the story:
To me, this story isn’t just about young people being in conflict with the government, but much bigger questions about what we ask of young people, how they’re expected to be independent sometimes and subservient other times. Every era of history brings new challenges, and young people today are coming of age… yet we often don’t recognize their wisdom and their insights. It’s like we get above a certain age and lose all empathy. I just wanted to explore that tension, and them being superheroes really ups the stakes because they’re literally out there saving lives every day, but aren’t seen as full people or full citizens. AND, at the same time, maybe the law is a good idea? Maybe it really is for everyone’s protection? It’s intentionally kind of morally ambiguous.”
With the ending of Jim Zub and Stephen Cummings‘s excellent Champions run, the team of teenage heroes was left without a home. Outlawed looks to be picking up those characters and taking them in a new direction. Editor Alanna Smith described to The AV Club the scope of Outlawed and its ramifications for the Marvel Universe:
“We’re bringing the next generation of heroes to the forefront in a major way and swinging for the fences in terms of story, stakes and scale. OUTLAWED introduces an ongoing status quo that will be reflected in books across the line—almost every active character who’s under 21 (and even a few who are older) will be affected by the decisions made in OUTLAWED, and they won’t all agree on whether the new world order is good or bad. But there are real, serious consequences now for those who go against the ruling passed down in OUTLAWED, and it’ll interfere with their lives in a way they’ve never experienced, leading to some really interesting stories.”
The setup for Outlawed sounds very similar to 2006’s Civil War, in which the young superhero team The New Warriors, imagined for the series as reality TV stars, inadvertently caused a disaster in Stamford, Connecticut that led to the deaths of over 600 people.
Ewing’s comments sound like Outlawed will have plenty of real-world relevance. Young people like Greta Thunberg and the survivors of the Parkland school shooting have become vocal leaders for change in the world while still being dismissed by some due to their age.
Check out the cover by Pepe Larraz, as well as a handful of interior preview pages, below. Outlawed #1 is due out in comic shops and digitally in March of 2020.
Civil war redone. The reason I stopped reading marvel comics in the first place. Still it sold well and it could sell well again. Marketing over writing once again.
I don’t see it as a Civil War redo. There are some similarities, but the real topic behind Civil War I was how the superhuman community was supposed to be kept under control, while this seems more like “Should kids be risking their lives out there” in a world where, from a civilian perspective, superhumans seem to just brawl it out for the fun of it.
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