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Marvel Comics is known for its universe-wide events, but in the latter half of 2022 into Summer 2023, the publisher seems to be focusing more on smaller, more self-contained events that impact different corners of the Marvel Universe. At least, that's the way it looks judging by the timeline of upcoming comic events Marvel released during New York Comic Con 2022.
With no less than six crossovers planned between now and summer 2023, Marvel's got a full slate of stories coming up, focusing on the Avengers, the X-Men, Spider-Man, Venom and the Symbiotes, Captain America, and more - and that's not counting anything it has yet to reveal.
So where do the next six Marvel crossover stories take place, who stars in them, and what are they about? We've got everything you need to know to dig into the top Marvel Comics stories coming in 2022 and 2023.
Avengers Assemble
Writer Jason Aaron has been leading Marvel's Avengers franchise since 2018 as the writer of the main Avengers title and several spin-offs, including the current Multiverse-based Avengers Forever spin-off, and the tie-ins based on the prehistoric Avengers 1,000,000 BC.
Now, all three of those teams, the main team, the Avengers Forever team, and the prehistoric Avengers are all coming together for Aaron's final Avengers story, titled 'Avengers Assemble,' which is being billed as the biggest Avengers story ever told, bringing in "every Avenger ever," according to Marvel's promotional materials.
What kind of threat is big enough to require dozens if not hundreds of Avengers from across time and space to come together as one? Well, it's a two-fold problem.
The devilish villain Mephisto has banded together with versions of himself from across the Multiverse as the so-called 'Council of Red,' while Doctor Doom has assembled a team of villains from different realities as a new incarnation of the Masters of Evil.
The story kicks off in November's Avengers Assemble Alpha one-shot, and continues in the main Avengers title, the Avengers Forever spin-off, and more yet to be announced.
Spider-Man/X-Men: Dark Web
Starting in December (after a November prelude issue in Venom #14), Dark Web is a crossover story that brings together Spider-Man and the X-Men along with a host of their supporting characters as they take on Madelyne Pryor/Goblin Queen and Ben Reilly/Chasm, a pair of villains with deep-seated history with both Spidey and the mutants, but who are teaming up for the first time.
Spider-Man and the X-Men have teamed up plenty of times in the past, but 'Dark Web' is a little different, because the two villains, Goblin Queen and Chasm, are both clones of heroes who are involved - Jean Grey and Peter Parker, respectively - so they share an agenda, if not a history.
Dark Web officially kicks off with a December one-shot and runs through Amazing Spider-Man, Venom, and several tie-in titles starring Norman Osborn as the Gold Goblin, one starring Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, and a team-up title for Mary Jane Watson and Black Cat.
Two spin-off titles will also come out of the end of Dark Web, a Red Goblin title starring Norman Osborn's grandson, and a title starring the new villain Hallow's Eve who will debut during the event.
X-Men: Sins of Sinister
Speaking of the X-Men, come January they'll have serious problems of their own with the onset of Sins of Sinister, an X-Men line crossover that pays homage to the original 1995 Age of Apocalypse saga by flashing forward ten years to a future timeline ruled by Mister Sinister, in a world remade in his image.
The whole premise is similar to the concept of Age of Apocalypse, in which Apocalypse became the ruler of a timeline in which the original X-Men never existed. But rather than happening by accident, Sins of Sinister seems to be taking place due to purposeful machinations by Sinister to create a world where he's the ruler.
Like most of Marvel's other upcoming event stories, Sins of Sinister begins with a pair of December prelude issues in Immortal X-Men #9 and #10, then the full event kicks off in January with a one-shot titled Sins of Sinister #1 along with three tie-in limited series which will take the place of three core X-Men titles.
Those limited series, each consisting of three issues, include Immoral X-Men (replacing Immortal X-Men), Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants (replacing X-Men Red), and Nightcrawlers (replacing Legion of X) - all of which take the core concepts of their main titles and twist them into something that fits into Sinister's bizarre reality.
Sins of Sinister then runs until April, wrapping with a one-shot titled Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1.
Captain America: Cold War
There are two Captain Americas in the Marvel Universe right now, Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson, each with their own ongoing titles, their own adventures, and even their own shields.
But in Spring of 2023, both titles will come together for the crossover Cold War, which ties into recent events in Steve Rogers' title, Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty, as well as Sam Wilson's title, Captain America: Symbol of Truth.
In Symbol of Truth, Sam has been dealing with a complex political situation in Africa while working alongside Ian Rogers, Steve Rogers' adopted son from the villain Arnim Zola's artificial reality known as Dimension Z.
And in Sentinel of Liberty, Steve Rogers has been facing down a secret criminal organization known as the Outer Circle that has ties to his past - and who will seemingly welcome Winter Soldier into their ranks as a villain leading up to Cold War.
Summer of Symbiotes
Looking a little further ahead to summer 2023, Marvel is planning to put a spotlight on Venom's corner of the Marvel Universe with an event titled Summer of Symbiotes with the weirdly hilarious tagline "Sun's out, tongues out."
Aside from the understanding that it'll involve Venom, Carnage, and more symbiotes (and their respective titles), the biggest thing we know about the story is that it'll supposedly include new stories and titles - and even potentially new symbiotes.
As for what those might be, we're guessing the upcoming Red Goblin title, in which Norman Osborn's grandson Normie Osborn gets his own Red Goblin symbiote, is part of the Summer of Symbiotes. But other than that, we'll have to wait and see.
Fall of X
Finally, following December's Dark Web event and January's Sins of Sinister Event, the X-Men will be involved in a third big story on Marvel's timeline - Fall of X, coming in Summer 2023.
We don't know what Fall of X is just yet, but the name seems to indicate that it'll mark the next era of the X-Men franchise, going by the naming convention that started with the House of X/Powers of X limited series which launched the current Krakoa status quo,
First, there was Dawn of X in 2020, then Reign of X in 2021, and of course the current Destiny of X era in 2022 - so it looks like the next phase may be Fall of X, which will kick off sometime around the 2023 Hellfire Gala event.
The name Fall of X also calls to mind the classic '80s crossover Fall of the Mutants, which marked the start of a radical new status quo for the X-Men, so the title Fall of X could indicate a similar shift for the X-Men line - perhaps even the end of the Krakoa era.
As always, we'll keep you posted witup-to-the-minutete coverage and news of Marvel's events line-up for 2022 and 2023 as it arrives.
Time will tell which of these crossovers could earn a place among the best Marvel Comics events of all time.
