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This August's Avengers/Hulk one-shot from Marvel on Free Comic Book Day will be setting up "new things for 2022" at Marvel - including a seemingly new multiversal organization, and a being called Avenger Prime.
"In a land beyond time, a shining tower stands, deploying its operatives across the Multiverse to hold against the encroaching darkness!" reads Marvel's description of FCBD's Avengers/Hulk one-shot. "Who is the mysterious Avenger Prime, and how will his advent impact on the past, the present, and the very future of the mighty Avengers?"
Although they share a name, Marvel's description appears to imply this isn't the Avenger Prime who appeared in Al Ewing's Mighty Avengers run - since we know who they were.
In their sole appearance in 2014's Mighty Avengers #14, Avenger Prime was a Voltron-like merging of the Mighty Avengers team created to battle a similarly Voltron-ed Deathwalker Prime (made up, of course, of Deathwalkers). Following Avenger Prime winning, the being was disassembled back into the individual heroes.
FCBD 2021's Avengers/Hulk lead story will be written by longtime Avengers writer Jason Aaron, with Marvel Stormbreakers artist Iban Coello (Venom) joining him.
Over on Jason Aaron's blog, the writer describes Avengers/Hulk as one of several imminent storylines that are building to something major for Marvel in 2022 - beginning with the just-announced 'World War She-Hulk.'
"['World War She-Hulk'] was the first Avengers arc I wrote in 2021, in this new year so full of promise. But it represents a shift to a darker tone for the series, as I begin to tie together some of the book's ongoing threads," Aaron writes.
"The entire arc is actually already written, and I've moved on to the gargantuan issue #50, which is bursting with all sorts of explosions and epic madness that will set up some new things for 2022. The Free Comic Book Day Avengers issue will be a big piece of that as well."
Both of Marvel's Free Comic Book Day 2021 stories - Avengers/Hulk and Spider-Man/Venom - will contain two stories. While Aaron and Coello are already confirmed for the Avengers story in Avengers/Hulk, the creative teams for Hulk story, and the entirety of Spider-Man/Venom has not been specified. Marvel has said Chip Zdarsky and Greg Smallwood are both working on something for these one-shots, but haven't gone into detail on what.
"These exciting tales will provide perfect entry points for new readers to the thrilling ongoing sagas of the Avengers, Spider-Man, Venom, and the Hulk and give comic fans their first glimpse at the exciting new eras for their favorite characters," Marvel states in a press release. "These issues will shape the Marvel Universe as we know it with direct connections to the year’s biggest upcoming storylines."
Make sure you've read all the best Avengers stories of all time.
[Editor's note: This story has been updated with the two Free Comic Book Day 2021 covers, and the involvement of Zdarsky and Smallwood in these projects.]
