Recent Marvel news

There's probably more to cover here, but I've got a few pieces of news I've heard recently that I want to weigh in on.

X-Treme X-Men and Age of Apocalypse cancelled

I am more sad about this than I would have thought. I liked both books well enough as their runs went on but, more importantly, they were different. The X-Men corner of the Marvel Universe is pretty vast but so many books feature the same few mutants. That doesn't make those books bad or anything but you expect a certain tone from them. Both of these books featured almost entirely new and different casts, bar Dazzler. The plots were interesting enough in each book to keep people reading (though presumably not enough) and the characters developed pretty nicely throughout each series. I hope that this kind of cancellation doesn't scare Marvel off from developing books with characters they have to make us like. Hopefully it won't (and given the other piece of news I'm going to write about, I have a feeling maybe it won't make a huge impact just yet) but it has to be a concern for comic readers. I'm not saying you should read a book you don't necessarily love just because it's different and you should support new ventures. I'm mostly saying that I'm sad about this particular venture ending and I hope it doesn't have lasting repercussions on the Universe as a whole.
However, the cancellation comes at an interesting time. Both books will end in April (THAT'S THIS MONTH) following the completion of the X-Termination event spanning X-Treme X-Men, Age of Apocalypse, Astonishing X-Men (not cancelled) and the two-issue X-Termination. A lot of events kind of peter out because you know that, by the end, most things will remain the same. I'm not necessarily complaining; a major upheaval in the Marvel Universe would either be upsetting or would feel like it was asking to be thrown away (like, most recently, with Flashpoint in the DC Universe, which featured several months of a universe different to the normal one that everyone knew would be reset with the New 52). You know at the end of Fear Itself that Captain America will go back to his own book, unless someone else replaced Cap or something (which is a possibility we saw around Civil War, but it's not one that's used particularly often). However, with these cancellations, we're suddenly looking at an event that won't end with the titles being restored to what they were. Anything horrible that happens in the Age of Apocalypse universe doesn't have to be reset as the event comes to an end. Any of the characters from AoA or from X-Treme X-Men could potentially die. TECHNICALLY anything could happen to the Astonishing X-Men crew, but I'm not betting on it (unless something happens to Karma or Northstar, the only characters with the team right now who aren't with eight other teams, if I'm remembering who's in that book correctly). Even in their cancellations, these books are interesting.

Avengers AI announced
The loss of two X-books brings us the addition of one new Avengers book in the form of Avengers AI. It's set to spin out of Age of Ultron and has to do with the Vision's possible new role in life (who was just seen in Age of Ultron 3 ripped in half and taking Avenger-bribes). It will focus on a lot of heroes who may not have the most pleasant experiences with humanity, including the new Vision, Ultron's son Victor Mancha, a new character Alexis, and a Doombot that's been held by the Avengers. There are also two humans on the team; Hank Pym, the man responsible for Ultron, and Monica Chang, a SHIELD agent currently starring as the head of SHIELD in the Ultimate Universe but previously unseen in the 616. Sam Humphries (who writes the book Monica stars in over in the Ultimate Universe as well as the new Uncanny X-Force) will write the book, which will deal with the idea of the singularity; the point when machines are intelligent enough to create/rebuild themselves. That's always been the key to Ultron. Pym and Tony Stark have always been worried that he'll eventually reach the point where he can improve on himself so much that he'll destroy mankind (is that day happening RIGHT NOW, in Age of Ultron? Probably not, but SOMETHING's happening, right?). It's a pretty common science fiction theme and, especially in our world with the growing popularity of machines and AI, it's becoming a more and more intriguing question.
I'm not totally sold on the book just yet, but I do think there are ways this book can go that are incredibly intriguing. This is also coming right on the heels of Remender's run on Secret Avengers which ended with the Descendants (ever-improving AI that intended to reshape all of humanity to act more like them) being destroyed by the Human Torch (an android) and Hank Pym and the Secret Avengers. The idea is there, pretty recently too, and we know it works (even without the Secret Avengers run, we know it works because science fiction continues to exist and we've all seen Terminator). Personally, I've always loved the Vision. Marvel has a longstanding tradition of creating characters who are outsiders. Peter Parker is kind of the go-to example for that but, in truth, there may be no one more set apart than the Vision. It's always been a point of contention with him and it seems as if that has only amplified recently. We'll have to wait until July to see how this book shapes up but it certainly has the possibility to go quite a ways in the Marvel Universe.