Last month, Marvel dropped another one of its cryptic teases online: a tweet with artwork from prominent illustrator Alex Ross that paired new and old versions of classic superheroes like Captain America, The Hulk, and Ms. Marvel. While the comics giant didn’t elaborate on just what Generations was, it was a safe bet that it was, well, comics related.
ABC News has the scoop from its corporate brethren, and it’s just as you probably suspected: a new title that pairs up original and contemporary heroes is launching this summer. In addition to featuring Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson’s Sentinels of Liberty, Generations will bring together Odinson and Jane Foster’s Thors, a young and older Jean Grey, and many more. Generations is kind of a mentorship program, Marvel editor in chief Axel Alonso tells ABC News: “We are looking to honor the legacy of the entire universe, so we are taking the iconic legacy heroes and pairing them with the new class. It very much indicates where we are going in the future with all of these characters and what we’ve been planning for some time for the universe.”
And Alonso says Generations isn’t setting up in some discrete corner of the Marvel comics universe: “These stories do happen, they really count. They really matter. This isn’t some alternate reality story or some time-travel story.” X-23 and Logan did make a great onscreen team recently, but they didn’t have the kind of bad blood that currently exists between Steve and Sam, so these team-ups could get quite explosive. Generations will run from July through September, and here’s a complete list of the pairings and writers.
Iron Man (Tony Stark and Riri Williams): written by Brian Michael Bendis
Spider-Man (Peter Parker and Miles Morales): written by Brian Michael Bendis
Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers and Kamala Khan): written by G. Willow Wilson
Thor (Odinson and Jane Foster): written by Jason Aaron
Hawkeye (Clint Barton and Kate Bishop): written by Kelly Thompson
Hulk (Bruce Banner and Amadeus Cho): written by Greg Pak
Jean Grey (young and older): written by Dennis Hopeless
Wolverine (Logan and X-23): written by Tom Taylor
Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers): written by Margie Stohl
Captain America (Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson): written by Nick Spencer