Mark Waid’s Big Summer: ‘History of the Marvel Universe’, ‘Invisible Woman’

It looks like Mark Waid will be involved in not just one, but two high profile Marvel comics this summer.

History of the Marvel Universe was one of the titles announced at this year’s C2E2. All we knew then was that it would be six issue series by Waid, Javier Rodriguez, and Alvaro Lopez. Marvel also offered a glimpse of some artwork from the series.

Now, the publisher has provided the first issue cover by Steve McNiven, along with an update that sheds some further light on what the whole project is about. One of their key quotes promises that History of the Marvel Universe “will reveal secrets and shocking revelations while connecting every thread in the entire universe from past to present.”

In Waid’s own words,

“We’ve seen Marvel histories and Marvel encyclopedias and Marvel handbooks, and I love that stuff. I absorb them like Galactus absorbs planets. This is not that. There’s information here, but there’s also a story. The Marvel Universe is a living thing. It is its own story, and we’re trying to approach it with some degree of heart to find the heart in that story so it doesn’t read like 120 pages of Wikipedia.”

All of this comes on the heels of more Waid news: Sue Storm (aka The Invisible Woman) will be getting her very first solo series also debuting in July. Artist Mattia De Iulis will illustrate the project. Executive editor Tom Breevort says,

“In over fifty years, she’s never had her own title (or maybe she did and you just didn’t see it). Waid and De Iulis will be delving into what Sue Richards does—and even who she is—on her own time, apart from her famous family! It’s sure to surprise some—as will a few of the gestures-players who’ll be passing through the story!”

Here’s a look at the first issue cover by Adam Hughes:

Will you be checking out both of these books? What kind of stories do you hope Waid delivers? Leave us a comment!