Marvel's G.O.D.S. sees Jonathan Hickman redefine magic in the Marvel Universe

For all that the Marvel brand identifies itself as being the world outside your window, the Marvel Universe is far stranger — a collision of different dimensions, science gone wrong, and magic beyond imagination. That truth is at the heart of Jonathan Hickman’s next major work for Marvel: a new series with AXE: Judgement Day artist Valerio Schiti called G.O.D.S.

“When I came back to Marvel a few years ago, I wrote two series bibles. The first was House of X and the other one was G.O.D.S.,” Hickman said in a statement about the project. “To say that I’m excited to finally be able to share this story with everyone is a massive understatement. G.O.D.S. takes place in its own special corner of the Marvel Universe — in the cracks that lie at the intersection of science and magic — and revisits some characters and concepts that we’ve reimagined for a more modern, continuity-driven audience.”

The series, teased at last year’s Comic-Con International and again at New York Comic Con, centers around Wyn — described by Marvel as “a mysterious player in a war that exists outside of the orders we know” — whose meeting with Doctor Strange reveals that the rules of Marvel magic are very different from what everyone currently believes… and might in fact be rooted in a conflict that exists beyond reality as anyone in the Marvel Universe understands it.

Series artist Valero Schiti said, “When I was given a chance to work with Jonathan on a new project, I accepted right away. Then I discovered that we would be reimagining gods in the Marvel Universe: how they work, what they do, and how they interact with each other and humanity. It’s the kind of project that makes you weak in the knees when you think about it. Luckily, Jonathan has the gift to make even the most complex stories surprisingly simple and understandable. His pitch inspired me almost immediately. The core of the story is so perfect and clear that it swept away my anxiety and turned it into a burst of creativity.”

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Valerio Schiti on this for the last year, and watching him bring this to life has been a total joy,” Hickman added. “G.O.D.S. is my favorite kind of Marvel comic: one that feels like something old, but pushes the Marvel Universe in an exciting new direction.”

To accompany the announcement, Marvel released both a teaser trailer for the project, as well as a number of teaser images — most of which center around Doctor Strange’s meeting with a man who must by Wyn.

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Wyn is just one of a cast of new characters appearing in the series. Marvel has released a guide to those newcomers:

• Wyn is described by the publisher as "a powerful magic expert who’s operated in secret for thousands of years and is now forced to come out of the shadows."
• Aiko Maki, meanwhile, is "a high-ranking agent brutally loyal to the ways of science and willing to do anything to keep the building blocks of creation in balance."
• Wyn has a partner called Dmitri the Science Boy, "Wyn’s reckless partner who has a secret mission of his own to discover the dark truth of his past," according to Marvel.
• If there's a Science Boy, it only makes sense that there's a Magic Girl, so Mia the Magic Girl is described as "a young sorcerer struggling to achieve her full potential."
• Finally, there's Cubisk Core, whom Marvel calls "a mysterious being of pure corruption seeking to shatter the existing systems."

The Marvel gods (and others) who make up G.O.D.S. cast

The project was teased in May’s Free Comic Book Day: Avengers/X-Men #1, and will receive a second preview across the Marvel line in August with a series of G.O.D.S. variant covers appearing on nine issues throughout the month, each one introducing a new character that will appear in the series. Those issues will also include a one-page story written by Hickman featuring those characters. The full list of issues getting G.O.D.S. variant covers looks like this:

• Doctor Strange #6, variant cover by Ema Lupacchino, released August 2
• Fantastic Four #10, variant cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli, released August 2
• Moon Knight #26, variant cover by Salvador Larroca, released August 2
• Scarlet Witch #7, variant cover by Lucas Wereneck, released August 2
• Guardians of the Galaxy #5, variant cover by Todd Gauck, released August 9
• Uncanny Avengers #1, variant cover by Greg Land, released August 16
• Amazing Spider-Man #32, variant cover by Adam Hubert, released August 23
• Immortal Thor #1, variant cover by Bryan Hitch, released August 23
• Venom #24, variant cover by Jan Bazaldua, released August 23

A gallery of covers released ahead of time by Marvel can be seen below.

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Additionally, Marvel teases, "some of the cast of G.O.D.S. will attend mutantkind’s biggest night and witness the beginning of the Fall of X in July’s X-Men: Hellfire Gala #1." Consider this the full court hype for the new series, if nothing else.

Expect more information (such as the series' length) about G.O.D.S. to be released in the coming months, as it gets closer to launch.

Will this someday be among our best Marvel Comics stories recommendations? We'll see.