2020 brings in brand new era of comics across franchises with historic books making way for something new
New Year is a chance to start afresh, to try something new. In 2020, the comic book industry is embracing that idea wholeheartedly, with enough new #1s and shifts in creative teams, to start the new decade with a bang.
In 2015, Marvel Comics made headlines with their triumphant return to writing new ‘Star Wars’ comics, with ‘Star Wars’ #1 selling over a million copies.
With over 75 issues, including annuals, the 'Star Wars' comic series covered the untold stories of the events between ‘A New Hope’ and ‘The Empire Strikes Back'. The new series will start with a new #1 for 2020. Written by Charles Soule and drawn by Jesus Saiz, this new run of ‘Star Wars’ comics will cover the events between ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Return of the Jedi'.
Marvel Comics also saw the end of a prestigious run on ‘Thor' by Jason Aaron, who took over the book in 2012 and crafted a historic tale of the God of Thunder. Aaron closed out his run with the ‘King Thor' mini-series.
Aaron’s run may prove to be one of the most memorable runs on Thor after Walter Simonson’s, having introduced the world to the female Thor (Jane Fostor), crafted the major Marvel Comics crossover 'War of Realms', and built up the Thor mythology across not one, but three separate timelines.
The new series will be drawn by Nick Klein and written by Donny Cates, who has been making his own major additions to Marvel mythology across multiple comics. It will continue off of Jason Aaron’s establishment of Thor as Asgard’s newest All-Father.
Over at DC, we’re about to see the end of Scott Snyder/Jim Cheung run on ‘Justice League’, which rewrote the origins of the DC Multiverse in a major way. The 'Doom War' event took the Justice League’s fight with the Injustice Society to a cosmic level. More notably, January sees the end of Tom King on ‘Batman'.
Tom King has been writing the series for 85 issues. He has crafted a years-long tale that almost saw the much-publicised wedding of Catwoman to Batman, the Flashpoint-era Thomas Wayne Batman, and the recent ‘City of Bane’ event. He will continue telling his story in the limited ‘Batman and Catwoman’ series, but James Tynion IV, Tony Daniels and Danny Miki will take over the main ‘Batman’ series. Their story is set to tie ‘Batman’ into larger DC events.
IDW is also introducing a franchise to a brand new era in 2020.
January 8 will see the release of ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ #101. In 2014, ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ was revamped by co-creator Kevin Eastman. For 100 issues, and various included specials, micro-series, spinoffs and more, Eastman has crafted an elaborate new universe for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The reins for the series are now being handed over to Sophie Campbell, who will write and illustrate the comic. The series will even have a new female turtle on the team — mutated ninja warrior Jennika, who wears a yellow mask and wields wrist claws as her weapon of choice.
2020 will also kick off the ‘2020’ Marvel event with ‘Iron Man 2020'. Marvel’s 2020 timeline was introduced in 1984, as an alternate future, and featured Tony Stark’s cousin Arno Stark as the Iron Man of 2020. With the current year actually catching up to that timeline, Arno Stark will, indeed, bear the Iron Man armour and idenity. He is set to feature in a series written by Dan Slott and Christos Gage, with art by Pete Woods. This will lead to a large 2020 event revolving around Arno and Tony Stark, the latter of whom has gone mysteriously missing.
It’s a good year for new stories, and new directions in comics, that hopefully brings in new eras just as memorable as the ones they’re leaving behind.