EW: Marvel NOW initiative starts in October

In advance of Comic-Con International in San Diego, Entertainment Weekly is reporting on Marvel Comics’ post-”Avengers vs. X-Men” plans.

Jean Grey will return – sort of – in “All-New X-Men,” a time-travel story by Brian Michael Bendis that features the five original teenage X-Men jumping through time to the present.

Jonathan Hickman moves from “Fantastic Four” to a twice-monthly “Avengers” series.  Meanwhile, writer Rick Remender has been handed the reins of what EW is calling the “flagship” book of the new era, “Uncanny Avengers,” which mixes Avengers and X-Men characters.

Marvel’s Editor in Chief Axel Alonso said the Marvel NOW initiative will roll out over several months as creators finish their runs and begin new ones.

“I feel that it’s a much more humane approach for retailers and fans to tell them: ‘Look. In the months of October through February, every week you can go into a comic book store and find a few new jumping-on points for the Marvel Universe, a place you’re going to like visiting. Or revisiting,” Alonso told EW.

- Matt Price