Mark this as the first Marvel NOW! comic that didn’t get a teaser image before its announcement, but EW has gotten word on the latest relaunched title: Secret Avengers. The comic launches in February of 2013 and will feature Luke Ross drawing the series with Nick Spencer as the writer.
“S.H.I.E.L.D. has decided that they want their own Avengers team,” says Nick Spencer, “But Avengers are loose cannons: They’re independent operators, they don’t have security clearance, they have a history of becoming bad guys.”
So the twist on the comic is memory implant technology: “Nobody on this team actually knows that they’re on this team.”
Specific keywords activate the members of the team when it’s time for a mission and the same word wipes their memory when it’s over. “It’s a very different kind of book,” says Spencer, “A covert ops, black ops spy book.”
The members of the team are Hawkeye, Black Widow, Nick Fury JR, Mockingbird, Taskmaster, a new Iron Patriot, and with the Hulk serving as an ‘on call member.’
Writer Nick Spencer also teased that Bucky Barnes the Winter Soldier won’t be a member of the team, but he will have a huge role in the series. He also makes sure that readers know that anyone in the Marvel Universe could get a call from the memory implants and be a member of the team, guaranteeing a rotating roster from all over the Marvel U.
Fans will also notice the reference to this summer’s The Avengers on the cover for the first issue, seen below.
