Update: Judgment Day at Marvel is coming in 2022.
Marvel Comics is seemingly corroborating Newsarama’s speculation that its big 2022 event is a royal rumble between the Avengers, the X-Men, and the Eternals (see below).
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Monday afternoon the publisher released a simple teaser with the words “Judgment Day Is Coming” along with logos/symbols for all three of the Marvel super-teams, along with “Summer 2022.”
Previously Marvel revealed March 9’s Eternals #10 by Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribić lead into “the biggest Marvel Comics storyline of 2022” pitting the Avengers versus the Eternals and before that it revealed one of its Free Comic Book Days titles in May – the Avengers/X-Men one-shot – will lay the groundwork or a 2022 event that “drastically alters” the relationship between mutantkind and the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
As we speculated, it appears those Avengers-Eternals and X-Men-Avengers events are one and the same.
Marvel’s Timeless #1 (opens in new tab) one-shot that sets up much of its 2022 plans goes on sale Wednesday, December 29 and will likely feature more information about Judgment Day.
Original story follows…
Every year, Marvel has a big summer event that’s the centerpiece of its publishing plans – and this year, it all begins when the Eternals pick a fight with the Avengers.
The just-revealed Eternals #10 by Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribić coming March 9 will be the “lead-in to the biggest Marvel Comics storyline of 2022” according to the publisher, pitting the Eternals against the Avengers.
In this upcoming issue, the Eternals will make a pilgrimage to the remains of the body of the dead Celestial, Progenitor. It’s a pilgrimage the group has made for centuries, but now the body doubles as the home of the Avengers – and has for the past few years as part of the new Avengers Mountain base.
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According to Marvel, however, this pilgrimage will also be “breaking and entering” into the base to recover something – hopefully without the Avengers catching on.
You don’t have to read comics that long to realize that the Avengers will probably catch on, leading to a hero vs. hero battle which Marvel superheroes are especially known for.
The Eternals and the Avengers have gone at it before, but it’s their just-revealed first battle in prehistoric times as seen in the recent Eternals: Celestia #1 (opens in new tab) (also written by Gillen) that seems to be the key to this new story. In that special, Ajak and Makkari of the Eternals have a knock-down, drag-out with the original Avengers – the Avengers of 1,000,000 BCE as Marvel calls them, while in contemporary times they visit the Progenitor site and discover the Avengers had co-opted one of their sacred sites as their base.
“If the gods are angry with us, I now know why,” says Ajak in Eternals: Celestia #1. “The blasphemous maggot Avengers burrowing through the corpses of the divine, for a start.”
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“A million years ago, I made a mistake,” she continued. “I let the Avengers live.”
You might also recall Marvel just recently announced an Avengers/X-Men one-shot in May 2022 for Free Comic Book Day that, according to the publisher will lay the groundwork for a 2022 Marvel Universe event that “drastically alters” the relationship between mutantkind and the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
It seems Marvel is building towards a war on multiple fronts in 2022 – an Avengers vs. X-Men vs. Eternals, if you will. Maybe even all the major Marvel super-teams will join in on a battle royale.
Look for more on Marvel’s big 2022 storyline, and March 9’s Eternals #10, here at Newsarama.
Eternals #10 looks like it’s leading into an upcoming Marvel event. Take a look at the most impactful Marvel events of all time.