When MARVELS SNAPSHOTS begins in March, fans will get to see Marvel’s greatest characters from the Golden Age to today, in new legendary tales told through the eyes of ordinary people! As curator of this landmark series, Kurt Busiek has handpicked the creative teams for each standalone, double-sized issue and he’s put together an amazing assemblage of talent to tackle April’s issues focusing on Captain America and the X-Men.

First up, Eisner nominated writer Mark Russell will revisit Jack Kirby’s classic Madbomb storyline from his 1970s run on CAPTAIN AMERICA.

“Some people, when they call, you gotta pick up the phone. And Kurt Busiek is one of those people,” says Russell. “I was pretty instantly sold on the project once he started describing it to me— stories about the human cost of these famous conflicts in the Marvel Universe. I truly enjoyed working on this with him.”

Known for his work on books like Second Coming and Wonder Twins, Russell says MARVELS SNAPSHOT: CAPTAIN AMERICA will focus on “the Madbomb’s impact in the South Bronx, a community which had already been effectively abandoned by the rest of the nation, that community’s struggle for survival, and of the search for heroes of its own.” He will be joined by acclaimed artist Ramón Pérez(ALL-NEW HAWKEYE).
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This April, you’ll be able to see the work of acclaimed Japanese artist, Takashi Okazaki, on the cover of the brand new series, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT! Known for creating the hit manga series Afro Samurai, which went on to inspire both an anime series and an Emmy-nominated television film, Okazaki now brings his incredible talent to Marvel Comics.

Written by Taboo and Ben Jackendoff with art by Scot Eaton, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #1 will introduce an all-new Werewolf by Night, a young man who must deal with a family curse while trying to protect his community from a deadly threat. For this exciting new series, Okazaki captures the new hero’s internal struggle in beautiful detail with a special variant cover to mark his Marvel debut.

“I’ve wanted to bring Takashi to Marvel ever since we first met during production of Afro Samurai, and we’re thrilled he’s finally found some time in his schedule,” says Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski. “The way he illustrates characters to kinetically leap out of his art reminds me of so many of Marvel’s masters, and I knew he’d be perfect for covers here, as this Werewolf by Night image perfectly shows!”

“Takashi Okazaki is a master whose style and sense of design have a lot of fans at Marvel,” Editor Jake Thomas added. “We were so honored to have WEREWOLF BY NIGHT be his first work with Marvel, but it is sure to only be the beginning. His character work and evocation of mood is unparalleled, so it was a real thrill to have him help premiere our new Werewolf By Night. And what an incredible job he did!” See Okazaki’s cover below and howl along with the new Werewolf by Night when it hits store in April! For more information about the series, visit marvel.com.

Announced today in an exclusive interview with Comicbook.com, Taboo of The Black Eyed Peas will be co-writing a new Marvel comic series this April with Benjamin Jackendoff.

The pair previously worked together on a story for MARVEL COMICS 1000 that focused on Red Wolf and will now be teaming up with acclaimed comic artist Scott Eaton on WEREWOLF BY NIGHT. The series will introduce a brand-new Werewolf by Night character to the Marvel Universe in a story set in Arizona. The new Werewolf by Night will be a young man named Jake who will be dealing with the effects of a family curse while trying to protect his people. The events of the story will also be driven by the outcome of March’s OUTLAWED one-shot.

“We’re going through a Native lens because of my Native American heritage,” Taboo told Comicbook.com. “I always liked storytelling from a native perspective. Although I was born in the city of Los Angeles, recently I’ve been really connected to the Indian country or to native communities to be able to be a service and help native youth, inspire them, especially when it comes to health and wellness, and arts and music. So we built our partnership knowing that when we create, we create through a native lens…”

“I think Werewolf by Night is such an interesting character, a cool character. His mythology is really dope, and it was such an exciting opportunity to be able to revamp a new mythology and tie it into Native American storytelling,” Jackendoff added. “That’s really what got us excited because they were like, ‘All right, cool. We can take the Werewolf by Night brand and stay true to the genre of it all, the creatures, the monsters, the big stuff, all that, but tie it into Native American storytelling, into a Native American background and palette, but still make it a fun adventure story about a kid.’” For the full interview, visit Comicbook.com.

When EMPYRE #1 hits stores in April, it will be a culmination of decades worth of Marvel storytelling in an epic sci-fi tapestry that will delight both longtime comic fans and newcomers. Before the debut issue lands, two all-new essential one-shots will pave the way to this grand event: EMPYRE #0: AVENGERS and EMPYRE #0: FANTASTIC FOUR.

This pair of stories will be written by the architects of EMPYRE themselves, Al Ewing and Dan Slott with art by Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva. Fresh off their work on HOUSE OF X and POWERS OF X, these two superstar artists will once again complement eachother’s skills in mirroring stories.

In Ewing and Larraz’s EMPYRE #0: AVENGERS, old allies have returned and the Avengers are called to the new Green Area of the Moon to help face a terrible enemy. And in Slott and Silva’s EMPYRE #0: FANTASTIC FOUR, the Fantastic Four will witness the final conflict of the Kree/Skrull War and meet a long hidden Elder of the Universe… the mysterious Profiteer. Both one-shots will lay the cosmic groundwork for Marvel’s next incredible saga and feature first appearances of major new players in the Marvel Universe.

“EMPYRE starts with a bang – the Avengers and the Fantastic Four meeting a threat from two sides, with two different strategies – and these #0 issues will let set readers up to see how they got there,” says Ewing. “As the Avengers meet with old friends, and the Fantastic Four run into some brand new ones, both teams face some stark choices and a test of their character as a team. It’s the best way to get inside the heads of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four before the main action begins.” Check out the glorious connecting covers by iconic artist Jim Cheung below, and don’t miss the pivotal start to this legendary event this April in EMPYRE #0: AVENGERS and EMPYRE #0: FANTASTIC FOUR.

Last year, Marvel joined forces with Wacom, a company popular with artists for their state-of-the-art graphic tablets, to conduct a nationwide talent search throughout China. The results of this endeavor will be our upcoming Chinese New Year variant covers, the first of which can be seen below.

“It was a thrill for me to visit art schools and conventions around China last year as part of this massive talent search!” says Editor-in-Chief CB Cebulski. “We reviewed hundreds of submissions and these covers are by the artists whose unique visual styles we felt best captured the Marvel characters. We hope fans love them as much as we do as Marvel continues our global approach to discovering diverse artistic voices!”

First up, we have the talented artist Jie Yuan who takes over your favorite Spider-Man titles with three connecting covers, featuring a who’s who of your favorite Spider-Man characters from Miles Morales to Spider-Gwen to Peter Parker himself. Take a look at these awesome variant covers below and be on the lookout for more cover reveals from other artists who Marvel and Wacom found during this exciting creative initiative.

Today, Marvel released its special edition of THE PULL LIST, unveiling exclusive information for the hottest books coming to comic shops this April.

In this informative webinar, your trusty instructors Ryan “Agent M” Penagos and Tucker Markus announced a slew of new titles including HOW TO READ COMICS THE MARVEL WAY and GIANT-SIZE X-MEN: NIGHTCRAWLER.

Fans of Black Widow will also be happy to hear more about new titles BLACK WIDOW: WIDOW’S STING, TASKMASTER, and WIDOWMAKERS: RED GUARDIAN AND YELENA BELOVA. The Pull List also teased upcoming stories in your favorite ongoing titles such as Deadpool’s visit to Krakoa in DEADPOOL #6 and RUNAWAYS #32, which starts the build up to the series’ milestone 100th issue.