>IMPERIAL, a four-issue event series by visionary writer Jonathan Hickman and superstar artists Iban Coello and Federico Vicentini, is reshaping the Marvel cosmos and ushering in a new era of galactic storytelling, starting with five IMPERIAL WAR one-shots! Today, fans can learn about the last of these one-shots, IMPERIAL WAR: IMPERIAL GUARDIANS, hitting stands in October.

>IMPERIAL WAR: IMPERIAL GUARDIANS #1 will be written by Dan Abnett, the influential storyteller behind Marvel space epics like ANNIHILATION and WAR OF KINGS (2009) and drawn by Cory Smith, the acclaimed artist known for his work on NOVA (2015) and more recently, FANTASTIC FOUR (2022). Co-written by Hickman, all five IMPERIAL WAR one-shots represent key chapters of the overall IMPERIAL narrative and lay the foundation for upcoming series launching in this burgeoning cosmic landscape. In IMPERIAL GUARDIANS, CAPTAIN MARVEL, GAMORA, and DARKHAWK and more assemble as a new space-faring super team to take on the many threats emerging from the conflict raging across the stars—beginning with a dark conspiracy at the heart of the SKRULL Empire!

>As the events of IMPERIAL explode in fatal fashion, the Super-Skrull finds himself at the center of a seditious scheme with consequences that will be felt by the entire cosmos! But he’s not the only superpower looking for answers—an unlikely team is on the hunt to avert disaster before galactic order is lost for good!

"It's great to be back telling cosmic stories as part of the IMPERIAL event," Abnett shared. "My time spent with Nova and the Guardians back in the day was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in comics, and Jonathan’s orchestrating exactly the kind of epic-SF-scale, character-driven and drama-packed epic I love to sink my teeth into. This is quite some ride, and the Galaxy—and the Guardians—won’t be the same again! I’d say it’s the best jumping-on point for Marvel Cosmic since the original ANNIHILATION."

>Check out the IMPERIAL WAR: IMPERIAL GUARDIANS #1 cover by Francesco Mortarino and stay tuned for more Imperial announcements later this month at San Diego Comic-Con!

SOURCE:https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/imperial-war-imperial-guardians-galaxy-greatest-heroes-assemble-october-2025

>>149354879 (OP)
so Captain Marvel, Darkhawk, Gamora, Hulkling and Cosmic Ghost Rider?

>>149354879 (OP)
>>149354882
Carol or Phyla? They have similar silhouettes now.

>Dan Abnett
HOLY SHIT WHAT THE F-
>C*r*l D*nv*rs
Great, comic is already fucked and the most artificial fanbase on this board is going to act annoying over this

>>149354960
Carol, Phyla doesn't have a jacket
Also, it looks like we have that new Darkhawk from the Kyle Higgins book rather than Chris Powell.

>>149354882
>I’d say it’s the best jumping-on point for Marvel Cosmic since the original ANNIHILATION.
Marvel is paying the big buck to get other writers to shill for this event

>>149354879 (OP)
Fuck yeah Carol
Is she going to be leading the Avengers and Guardians at the same time though?

>>149354994
Phyla ditched her jacket?

>>149354879 (OP)
>Cosmic Ghost Rider
We're still doing this?

>>149354933
I think that's Amadeus, not Hulkling

>>149355048
While running a school.

>>149355055
Every other member of Ewing's GOTG did when Hickman started Imprie,l so we can guess Phyla also ditched the jacket.

>>149354879 (OP)
>Carol and Darkhawk
Nice.

>>149355058
wonder if it's the girl Cosmic Ghost Rider that was set up at the end of the last Cosmic Ghost Rider book that no one read

>>149354879 (OP)
Too many Earthlings.

>>149355092

>>149355852
poor Genis
Did Wong just really hate him, or was it some weird editorial mandate about how Carol had to have the Nega Bands and no other character could have that gimmick?

>>149355917
No she's a Genis fan that's why she brought him in

>>149356039
As someone to job to the OC villain and then die, Were everyone else in the book shits on him, including Rick?

>>149356098
As the inciting incident where Carol's motivation for the whole book is to save him because she cares about him

>>149355105
NEAT

>>149354879 (OP)
cosmic Marvel has been fucked for a while now

>>149354994
She does though? It wouldn't make sense for Danvers to be removed from Earth to be on a space team anyway

>>149357524
The emblem on the shirt looks like Carol's emblem though. Also didnt make sense for Hickman to remove Crystal and Luna from the Kree and then didnt use them at all during his Fantastic Four and Incursion runs but Hickman gonna Hickman.

>>149354879 (OP)
Is that my boy Chris?

>>149357988
It's the same emblem but the sleeves look like Carol's

>>149356159
>he got fridged
lmao

>>149355852
cool

>>149354879 (OP)
I'm up for anything that has my boy Darkhawk but otehr than that I'm not really feeling this.

>>149358302
design more looks like the new guy, but he doesn't make sense since he doesn't even know the origin of Darkhawk, and Chris was shown to be alive at the end of that DarkHawk mini

Why does it feel like this event doesn’t matter? It’s supposed to be the framework for Marvel cosmic in the coming future, but it doesn’t really seem to matter. I imagine, at most, we’ll get a few new X-men in space books and maybe a new gotg run out of this

>>149359052
So it matters as much as Anihilation did then?
Remember, we only got Nova and GOTG ongoings out of that event, which fundamentally alteredthe Marvel Cosmic line for two decades

best girl spin-off solo relaunch approaching!

>>149359110
Based

>>149359110
Doesn’t she always have like 6 books going?

>>149354879 (OP)
Cosmic Marvel and DC are so boring. They suck the fun right out of the vacuum of space.

>>149357524
IIRC, that Phyla is from another universe, but did she ever run in to Moondragon?

>>149359327
She's leading the Avengers is the headmaster of Avengers Academy and she's leading the Guardians now too apparently

>>149359587
Moondragon got jealous that another Moondragon moved into her universe, and she got to be a hero and be happy with her wife

So she got angry and allowed the Dragon of the Moon to take root in her again.
And joined an offshoot West Coast Guardians team knowing they would inevitably clash

They fought and the alt Mondragon felt bad for her and absorbed her counterpart and the Dragon of the Moon because she is just that nice, essentially becoming one person

And altPhyla got mad because Heather just invited another person into their marriage without asking her

>>149357524
It also doesn't make sense for Hulk to be out in space considering the events of his solo book, yet here we are. Note that just because Carol is in this issue doens't mean she'll be on the relaunched GotG that will inevitably come after this.

>>149354879 (OP)
So no Star-Lord, Rocket, Groot, or Drax? Gamora is the only OG Guardian on this team? Kind of strange.

>>149359996
It's pretty strange to me how alternate universe Phyla is still around. As you said, they merged 616 Moondragon with alt Moondragon, why don't they do the same with 616 Phyla?

>>149360182
616 Phyla has been dead ever since she accidentally saved Thanos and started Thanos Imperative

>>149360112
They're called the Imperial Guardians, so I think it's just another team using almost the same name like Dark Avengers
I expect the movie 5 to come back together at some point in this.

>>149354879 (OP)
>Cosmic Ghost Rider
Enough of this dude.

>>149359052
Anyone who actually cares about events is waiting for The Maker's big return in the nu-Ultimate universe. That's something that's actually been built up.
Most comic events aren't foreshadowed very well. You learn they're going to happen when you see the solicit.

>the more things change, the more they stay the same
just reshape my nuts faggots

>>149360299
I guess I'm still just shocked at how cosmic Marvel went from being so wildly popular to what it is today. Like, how did interest from Marvel die in it so hard that not even GotG3 could help?

Imperial #2 preview

>>149360405

>>149360421

>>149360405
Cosmic Invasion has sold me on the concept of Nova having flowing hair under that bucket helm.

>>149360438

>>149360112
Star-lord is one of the leads of the main book so probably won't appear in a tie-in. Drax is dead after the last GOTG run, which was a complete flop, and no writer knows what to do with Groot these days.

>>149360452

>>149360467

>>149360450
I wish he would shave the beard. It makes him look really old

>>149355917
Started reading Genis because of the nostalgia mini PAD did a bit before he died and fuck me it's depressing knowing how much he gets shat on in the future

>>149360241
So? This is comics, since when has being dead been an obstacle to anything? Especially in cosmic books, those guy and come back even more often than Earth-based heroes.

>>149361477
Meant to say "those guys die and come back even more often than Earth-based heroes."

>>149361477
Just kinda hard to merge with 616 Phyla if she's dead. Even harder when alt Phyla hasn't starred in a book since Ewing's GotG ended

>>149361477
She hasn’t been in the MCU and isn’t anyone’s pet character right now, so I wouldn’t hold my breath

>>149361577
Wasn't she in the last GotG movie?

The little Asian girl with white hair?

>>149359052
I think we'll get a Shi'ar book, a new GotG book, a Black Panther book, and a Sakaar book. Possibly a Nova book too unless he's just part of the new GotG.

>>149361769
She has no speaking lines and did nothing worth remembering. You’re dreaming if you think that’s enough MCU for her to come back

>>149361577
She's going to be in Cosmic Invasion

>>149354985
Carolseethers like you are more annoying because at least the Carolfags largely stay in their containment board but you retards shit up everywhere else

>>149363140
>That little pic of side boobs
Old comic book artists knew what's up.

>>149354985
this guy is right

>>149361409
PAD left him on a good note both times, and Marvel just couldn't help but mess it up for no reason.

>>149359996
That sounds horrible and overly complicated. Is this a rights issue where alt-universe Phyla counts as a different character?

>>149366038
No it was just Ewing being a continuity autist, both Duggan and Cates used both alt-universe versions as basically 616 Moon Dragon and Phyla when that wasn't the case so Ewing was being weird and fixing the mistakes of previous writers

>>149366254
I would have just sent the interlopers back home and had Phyla do a job for Oblivion, but I'm a simple man not fit to make big comic writer money.

Happy to see Nova again even if for the nth time its only in a teambook where he isnt allowed to do anything. I hope the political galactric intrigue actually goes galactic cause I dont want supposedly galactic changing events to end up entirely contained between 5 people in a single room while the rest of the universe couldnt care less.
>>149363326
Phyla of all people being there gives me hope Adam might be too but they very likely will just add the rest of the GOTG alongside some more Avengers/x-men

>>149366038
I think it's an editor holding tight to "Dead means dead" thing

I don't think time displaced Namorita has shown up since Thanos Imperative

>>149366562
She was going to show up in 2020 in that New Warriors book, but that got cancelled due to everyone on the internet mocking it.