Knowing that event books rake in some serious loot for publishers, it wasn’t too much of a shocker when Marvel recently began teasing what’s likely its next big crossover event to be released in 2017, Secret Empire. Arriving hot on the heels of Civil War II, the series will seemingly spin out of the events of Captain America: Steve Rogers because, well, that’s very obviously his shield being displayed in each promo image.
Earlier this week, another teaser was released urging us to “Trust the Secret Empire.” Cryptic as that may be, we can’t help but think of the recent trailer hyping Captain America: Steve Rogers #7 & 8, which can be seen at the top. In it, it’s teased that Rogers has some plans of his own for Hydra that may contradict those of the Red Skull’s and Secret Empire may very well be where he makes his move.
The latest round of images are more telling than one would think. Making use of the words “amaze,” “avenge,” “champion,” “defend,” “guard,” and “X-cite,” our best guess is that Marvel is planning several spinoff books to complement the main Secret Empire story that will feature Spider-Man, the Avengers, the Champions, the Defenders, the Guardians of the Galaxy and the X-Men, respectively.
If indeed all those characters are utilized, that may clue us in as to how far reaching this story may be. Sure, many of this ilk tend to be wide sweeping, but some have been smaller in scope such as Shadowland. No matter how you slice it, Secret Empire has our full attention.