Marvel held another "Next Big Thing" press conference dealing with the outcomes from UNCANNY AVENGERS #14 and the deaths that resulted. How this will affect the team and title as well as what we can expect was discussed.

On bringing Steve McNiven into this arc: Rick says he brings a sense of grandeur. "You know his presence means something big is happening." Given the scope of the Ragnarok Now! story, Steve's presence means "something big and epic is happening througout the Marvel Universe."

On Kang's recruitment drive: Kang's plot is something they have plans for in a big spectacular way. We've seen him manipulating history in different points in time. Kang is so powerful but he's tethered to his sense of honor. He wants to be a conquerer but will do it with honor rather than just cheat by using time travel. How much of his plan is going according to plan? He'll become a more central focus in the story.

Tom Brevort on Rick's plan for the deaths in issue 14: Tom said the deaths in issue 14 were shocking because they were originally solicited for issue 12. Fans got 40 extra pages with the characters! Why just Kang when you can have others like Doom 2099, Spider-Girl, Iron Man 2020 and another version of Elizabeth Braddock? It's not difficult to see that Remender has been setting things up since the first issue. Brevoort feels bad for Wonder Man because no one cared about his death. "Where are the Simon Williams fans? Speak out!"

What's happening with the team as a result of the deaths: Brevoort jokes the series will end with issue 19 because they'll run out of characters. Or they'll ask (X-Men editor) Nick Lowe if they can have more characters.

Rick on the future of the team: He wanted to show some sense of unity after AvX. The more he got into the story, he saw that trust hadn't been earned and didn't feel natural. It became apparent to continue to shatter and break things. Between Civil War, Schism and AvX - events where heroes fight heroes, there hasn't been much of a look at the fact that we have heroes fighting heroes. In 14, they continue to not trust each other. Logan's history in X-Force is brought up, Havok was ignored by Cap, even though he was put in charge. Everyone is behaving in character but because of the threat of the Apocalypse Twins and Kang, they still continue and there will be big consequences to deal with. Will they be able to

Issue 18.Now: The conclusion to Ragnarok Now is "pretty shocking," according to Remender. In the Planet X story, there will be a mutant homeworld in space. What is going on on this planet? Mutants may be getting everything they thought they wanted without having asked for it. There will be no humans except for Wasp. They'll continue to break into factions and have strife. We'll also see the story from the point of the last human on the planet.

Brevoort says the good news for Havok and Wasp fans is they make it to issue 18 in some way. But what happens to them after that..? Things will not be getting better. Issue 14 is the "feel good" issue.

As the series moves forward, how much of a focus will be on Kang trying to bring together all these characters together from different timelines?

Rick says we still don't know what was going on in issue 12 when the twins appeared in Kang's throne room. They laugh at him over their victory but we don't really know what that victory is yet. That will be addressed in a couple issues down the road. Why did Kang go to these futures to get "helpers"? "If you count the number of timelines and then go back to some of the things Immortus told Captain America in an earlier issue, you'll be able to start to piece together some of the clues." We're still in the second act of the story and we'll still have to circle back to the Red Skull with Xavier's powers and his S-Men. What have the S-Men been doing?

What about the flash-forward from issue 4 showing the state of several characters in their future. How close are these to happening?

Rick says there are a lot of things at play. There is time travel involved and alternate futures. "Who knows what you were seeing?"

From the covers, we see Wasp. What will her role be?

Rick says Wasp is a character that was the leader of the Avengers when he was a kid. In his mind, she'll always have that role of leadership. That's something he thinks, whether she's conscious of it, she's still doing in a natural way. She's going to be placed in an interesting position as the only human on Planet X. Does Magneto still hold a grudge from SECRET WARS #6?

Will there be time for the team to get back together and try to deal with what happened in 14?

Rick says there's a lot still going on. The team's reaction is still coming. He doesn't want to give too much away. The deaths will be revealed to other cast members at certain points and won't help with the moral. The deaths don't play a whole lot into their motives, because, at this point, stopping the twins is what they're all about. They'll discover that their failure to work together and trust each other lead to the misunderstanding. Rogue has been sinking into a deep depression since the death of Xavier and blames Scarlet Witch. Rogue had a sort of selective memory followed the chain of events back to Scarlet Witch. She wanted to avoid another M-Day. The lack of trust is what keeps the team split.

It seems the storyline goes back to UNCANNY X-FORCE, what's the big over-arching plan?

Rick says he can't reveal where it's leading to. It's all earth-shattering and they're very happy with it. In the third year of X-FORCE, some of the seeds of ideas with the twins were laid out. The ideas were completely re-worked and changed.

Brevoort points out that this isn't just a continuation from Rick's X-FORCE stories. These are not those same story ideas he had. "Had Rick done another year of X-FORCE, these would not have been the stories he would have told. For one thing, I wouldn't have let him kill Scarlet Witch in X-FORCE." They would have gone down different paths.

Will we see more of Captain America's emotional state after the events of Dimension Z?

"The events of Dimension Z will definitely be building up and playing a role in CAPTAIN AMERICA, UNCANNY AVENGERSand other things I have planned. Dimension Z can be blamed for the the team splitting up, because of Cap's emotional state coming out of there."

Will the series continue to stand separate from the other big events in the Marvel Universe?

Brevoort says that because this is a big 18-issue story, it didn't make sense for the series to pause for the team to deal with other threats. Issue 5 started this big story. The story is still taking place in the Marvel Universe. As for how and where it sits with everything else, Tom says he's not saying. Until the story is done, he doesn't want people reading any books and feeling less of a sense of disbelief. He mentions Cap fighting Nuke in his title and if UNCANNY happened after, you know he'll survive one outcome, etc.

With the Apocalypse Twins getting a bigger role, will we see Warren or Evan loop back in?

Rick says, without wanting to spoil things, the story will come back to Evan. Warren might be involved. When and how, he will not give away.

UNCANNY AVENGERS #18 is on sale December 18.

Why is it everything this man touches have to be linked to UXF? We get it Rick it was the best work you ever did maybe if you thought less about linking everything with it you could write something great again, Instead of your by the numbers doom and gloom.

That cover is awesome

I love how much Remender talks about the team and their dynamic and relationship, it's what makes his team books special and distinct. I hope he has a long run on this title because I've enjoyed every issue immensely.

Ugh....could who ever has always been pushing to dress Janet up as Yellojacket at Marvel get fired already?

I'm really hoping somebody does something with Warren. Aside from his pop-ups here and there, nobody has actually gone into what's happened to him since the life seed brought him back and gave him IMO, some much needed additional powers. What I don't get is why Logan had Warren locked up alongside Evan? Anybody could use Evan but what would the twins use Warren for?

Why does Havok look like Megaman in the variant cover?

Remender will ALWAYS find a way to let us down. For every one of successes there was 5 failures to go with it. Let's be fair to him though. His UXF run had great pieces to it but, there was some stuff in there that wasn't good at all. Seriously! This is the man who thought Franken-Castle was a good idea!!! Come on!!! He cray cray. Rick has a lot of positive one note stuff going on in his writing. But, as a whole, he's.... total weak sauce. I'm sticking with Bendis and Hickman 9 times out 10.

I actually like this new Wasp outfit more than the other new one. I still don't see the point in changing her look, but I like the nod to Yellowjacket's look.

Thank you I was the only one that thought that. I liked the costume that Acuña dessigned for Janet in Uncanny Avengers. But this one is something that made me remember Yellowjacket, and I doubt that janet would be wearing something like that. Why they couldn't leave that costume to Janet?

This is the book, you can just feel it; when people look back at what was cool and epic about 2013, this will be the story that they remember, not some stupid X-men crossover, not some year and a half long Avengers event with no characterization; it'll be this one self contained book. You guys'll see.

"Brevoort feels bad for Wonder Man because no one cared about his death. "Where are the Simon Williams fans? Speak out!"

I care! :(

Damn, i might have to check this out because of Mags and his brotherhood on the covers.

@oldnightcrawler: This book and probably Infinity. People will look back on BOTA on how it started off good then quickly lost steam halfway through

I care about Simon's death. I knew someone was going to die, but I prayed that it wouldn't be him...Same goes for Wanda. They're both some of my favorite superheroes. I really loved the moment they had, though, just before they died. As a long-time fan of Simon and Wanda as a couple, I was really happy to see them in love again. I have to say, Uncanny Avengers is definately near top of my favorite series list.

Looks like this book got better. Too bad I dropped it after #7.

The only person I'm actually sad about dieing was Rogue. Never been a fan of Scarlet Witch or Wonder Man so their deaths don't effect me as much as Rogue's.

haven't read any of this series since issue 1 but how long do you think this book will last before they cancel or reboot it?

@tomchu: Yo i was just about to ask that myself, he looks more like "Bad Artwork" Mega Man

well i'd already read some reviews that Talked about both he when, the who and the how of Wanda and Rogue's death's But they didn't even mentioned that anything happened to Wonder Man, so can ask how he died? and who killed him?

@v_scarlotte_rose: Same

@v_scarlotte_rose said:

Me too. Though he's die so many times now, it's pretty easy to imagine him coming back soon enough.

Wanda used ALL of his energy for a hex, so he didn't really "die", just vanished.

Unfortunately, Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man were the only characters I actually liked in this series, so now I'll have to drop it until they return :/

"Issue 14 is the "feel good" issue."

I just don't understand the people running this company. It's like someone took a look at every one of my beliefs about characters, respect, fans, emotional attachment, and the purpose of fiction, and then put a guy who held diametrically opposed ones in charge of all the characters and worlds I cared about.

I imagine the folks here who said this arc would be remembered are right.

For myself? It's the arc that made Remender dead to me.

Omg they killed Wonder Man!

Remender is one of the best out there. I wish he was writing Uncanny Xmen. At least things happen in his books. I just hope I get Rogue back. Wonderman and Scarlet Witch can go

Daanng. I didn't know Janet had it like that!!

maybe, I guess I can't speak about Infinity, since the only parts I've read are where it crosses into New Illuminati and Mighty Avengers, though, I have enjoyed both of those books despite not knowing what's going on.

That's the thing about 47 part epics: how many people are going to read the whole thing?

No idea how anyone can consider Remender one of the best writers in the industry. He is terrible and has told the same story repeatedly over his Marvel career, Do people forget that Uncanny Avengers was supposed to be the flagship title of Marvel Now? and looked how that worked out its a middle of the road seller and will be rebooted with a new writer before it hits issue 25 and that goes the same with Rick's Captain America another book he has blown.

@oldnightcrawler: Ironically I didn't buy the tie-ins from New Avengers and Mighty Avengers. The good thing is that they recap what happened in previous issues at the beginning of the issue so in case you didn't read the other issues you wouldn't be left out.

yeah, that helps, I guess, but I still know I'm missing most of the story. I can judge New and Mighty Avengers, and I do like them, but I can't say if I really think Infinity's any good. And between liking both of those and Uncanny Avengers, both the main Avengers book and Infinity(/the upcoming Avengers' World) just feel superfluous. The first 13 issues of Avengers just felt completely unmemorable compared to the three books I've stuck with this far.

I mean, if I'm already reading 3 distinctly different, solid Avengers books -without having to commit to some huge crossover, why would I bother reading two or three more where I did?

They kind of blew their cover in saying Wonder Man died. I didn't think that was explicit at all! He said they wouldn't have any need for goodbyes and asked Wanda to "trust him" which was pretty vague. That, to me, indicates that he's the only one who will remain dead. He'll give some part of his power to Wanda so she can continue to live but not enough to sustain himself (Wanda already called him out on not having enough). When Wanda "died", her eyes were glowing with the same insignia Wonder Man's do. Plus, he already said that he returned from the dead to be with her and wouldn't accept being without her in this life.

The cover with Havok and Wasp looks like it came straight out of Gatchaman.

This is a compliment.

@oldnightcrawler: I definitely get what you're saying. I personally enjoyed Infinity though it had a slow start for me it progressively got better. It also helped that the writing was amazing as well. I'd say the first 13 issues were to have us get a little bit more familiar with the team instead of just jumping right into it from the beginning. It also fleshed some of the newer characters like Hyperion as well

I knew I saw that from somewhere. :)

Fans got 40 extra pages with the characters!

Wow! Yay us!

Um...I care and I am I am Pissed! lol

Oh gee, let's kill Simon..again...what is this number 5, 6 times he has died? I think Jean and Simon have the most resets in comic book history

But what happened to Rogue?! seriously....?! I thought it was a good thing she was an 'Avenger', guess not...

I see what you mean, but with the exception of maybe Hyperion, I never felt like any of the characters were fleshed out much at all. I mean, the team had a lot of my favorite characters, lots of characters I did want to read about (and many more), and I still never felt like I got enough character interaction to really care about any of them.

Except for the new characters (who I had no reason to care about to begin with, nor was I given any), everyone else felt completely interchangeable. Even after 13 issues.

I mean, if others are enjoying it, I'm glad; that's just why I didn't.

Man some crazy stuff is happening in Uncanny Avengers. I can't wait to see what else happens. Man I'm excited for this book.

Ive been reading comics since 89. I picked up a few trades like Dark Phoenix and Days of the Future Past but was a bit lost. Millar wrote my favorite run in the Ultimates, but NOTHING has compared to Remenders run on Uncanny X-force. What he's doing now is incredible, and only those whove read Uncanny X-Force now the true size of this epic story he's telling. It even goes into Secret Avengers. He's the man. Bendis, Millar, Hickman, and Morrison are masters of combing stories to make one long epic, but none have done what Remender is doing. He's combineing titles for an epic, and it seems it's only half done. He's a fucking master, and only those who have followed him since Uncanny X-Force and Secret Avengers understand the large scale of what he's doing. It's an opera and I'm glad to have been there since the beginning.

Remender started off the Uncanny Avengers pretty slowm,boring and in two words - it sucked.But with time the title build up the story to the point where I started to get excited whenever the book was coming out and this 14th issue was indeed a shocker but I don't feel like this is permanent at all.

Why did no-one feel said for Simon, maybe because it was so badly done like Chuck's death in AVsX that marvel had to tell us he was dead.

Honestly I didn't think Simon was dead, I though only Rogue and Wanda died. Still R.I.P Rogue, Wanda and Simon.

Is it just me or is their something distinctly Japanese about those character designs?

I love this book and issue 14 was so F N great I had to send a face book message at 3 am when I finished it.

I read all of infinity and I like Uncanny Avengers way more. I just wish one artist did all of it.

@oldnightcrawler: Yeah I noticed that as well but it was said that Avengers World would focus on the newer members of the Avengers like Cannonball, Sunspot, etc so that should hopefully solve that issue of them and a few other characters not having had a lot to do

Why do they change the costumes all the time?

Same here. It's neat.