Marvel is riding a wave of popularity from Secret Invasion into Dark Reign. In addition, this year marks Marvel’s 70th Anniversary. Find out what is next for all of your favorite characters from the “House of Ideas.”

War of Kings

This storyline is the follow-up to Annihilation and will be the big cosmic event for this year. The Skrull invasion of Earth took many prisoners and left the Universe in ruins. Now, three rulers will claim the galaxy as theirs but only one can claim the throne! Black Bolt and Vulcan have made their intentions clear but who is the mysterious figure waiting in the shadows to destroy them both? From the pages of the X-MEN and SECRET INVASION comes WAR OF KINGS! War of Kings will stretch across the entire cosmic segment of the Marvel Universe. Some of the tie-in limited series planned will spotlight Gladiator, Lilandra and Blastaar. Nova, Galactus, the Starjammers and the Silver Surfer will also appear. War of Kings begins in March.

X-Men

They have found a new home, but now many of the X-Men‘s oldest adversaries are set to return and destroy all they have built! The Wolverine storyline “Old Man Logan” will conclude in it’s own one-shot finale. The next big storyline is a crossover between X-Force and Cable called “Messiah War.” It is the next chapter in the story of Hope, the Messiah Baby. It has been repeatedly mentioned that Hope has red hair and green eyes. This storyline will also feature the return of STRYFE! Young X-Men is being canceled, but will be replaced with NEW MUTANTS. The old team is reunited by an adversary for a very specific purpose. Over in the main X-Titles, Cyclops and Emma Frost’s relationship will suffer stress due to the secrets both of them are keeping. Wolverine will be renamed Dark Wolverine, beginning with issue #75. The book will tie into Dark Reign and feature Daken. X-Force: Sex and Violence will be a three-issue limited series featuring Domino and Wolverine. The next arc in Uncanny will deal with the Sisterhood of Evil Mutants. There will be a limited series titled Wolverine: Weapon X which will see the files form the Weapon X project fall into the hands of a weapons contractor and will feature the return of Maverick. The big announcement in the world of X-Men is the return of Chris Claremont. Claremont will write a sequel to GeNext. GeNext will be another 5 issue mini-series. In addition, he will write a new X-book called X-Men: Forever, which will pick up after X-Men #1-3. The series will be about how the X-Men’s world has changed, will feature new adversaries and allies and will appear biweekly. Also, Nightcrawler will have a big story in the future, Magneto and Psylocke will return and redheads are about to complicate Cyclops’ life.

Dark Reign

Norman Osborn & his Cabal of Evil hold the Marvel Universe in their grasp as a new era has been ushered in. This is their day, this is their DARK REIGN. Dark Reign is the new status quo for the Marvel Universe following Secret Invasion. Announced at Comic Con were a series of new mini series that tie-in to the main story. these include Dark Reign: Fantastic Four and Dark Reign: The Hood. The Avengers and the Dark Avengers will throw down in New Avengers #50. The White Queen’s role in Dark Reign will be explored in the X-Men Annual. The Scarlet Witch will return in Mighty Avengers #23. And Amazing Spider-Man will b e pulled into Dark Reign with a storyline focusing on Harry Osborn called “American Son.” Finally, Elektra return in Dark Reign: Elektra, which starts this month.

In addition, Marvel announced their special 70th Anniversary project, THE MARVELS PROJECT. The origin of super heroes in the Marvel Universe by Ed Brubaker an Steve Epting, beginning in June 2009!

It looks to be an exciting time to be a citizen of the Marvel Universe.