Marvel’s David Gabriel was at ComicsPRO to deliver some new announcements from the publisher, including the Queen in Black and X-Men Outback miniseries and a one-shot featuring Kevin Smith’s Jay & Silent Bob.
Queen in Black, by writer Al Ewing and artist Iban Coello, follows the events of Ewing’s Venom and the new Knull series (see “Knull to Go Solo”), with a conflict between Hela, the new Queen in Black, fighting against Knull in a battle that will force all of the Marvel Universe to choose sides. The five-issue series will feature Spider-Man, Venom, Mary Jane, Eddie Brock, and Dylan Brock, and new series will tie in to the core series. Queen in Black will be previewed in one of Marvel’s Comic Giveaway Day titles (see “PRHPS Reveals 2026 Not-Free-Comic-Book-Day Titles”), and the first issue will be released on July 7, 2026, with a main cover by Ryan Stegman and variants by Peach Momoko, Pat Gleason, J. Scott Campbell, Coello, Skottie Young, JeeHyung Lee, Chip Zdarsky, and John Romita, Jr.
In addition to the open-to-order variants, Marvel will offer True Believers blind bags that will contain exclusive variants that are not available for regular orders, including a design variant by Stegman, a swimsuit variant by David Nakayama, a Jeff and Knull variant by Gurihiru an alternate webhead foil cover by Gleason, a variant by Artgerm, variants by Artgerm, Lee, and Momoko without trade dress, an alternate homage variant by Stegman, a Marvel Rivals variant by Netease Games, an all-black blank variant, two connecting variants by David Marquez, and surprise rare hand-drawn sketch covers by different contributors.
Jay and Silent Bob will enter the Marvel Universe for real in a one-shot written by Kevin Smith, the creator of the duo and the portrayer of Silent Bob. Jay & Silent Bob: Jays of Future Past #1, with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli, will feature the X-Men, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and other Marvel heroes working together to keep the pair out of trouble. The one-shot will be released on June 10 with a main cover by Marco Checchetto and a variant by Jim Mahfood.
X-Men Outback is a retro series that is set in the X-Men’s brief Outback Era, a period in the late 1980s when writer Chris Claremont sent the characters out to the Australian wilderness. The new five-issue miniseries by writer Steve Orlando and artist Stephen Segovia returns to that time, with most of the public thinking that Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, Colossus, Dazzler, Havok, Psylocke and Longshot were dead and digs deeper into the story. The first issue will be released on June 24 with a cover by Russell Dauterman.
Marvel also set a four-issue Wolverine miniseries during this period (see “Claremont Fills in ‘Uncanny X-Men’ Plot Hole in ‘Wolverine: Deep Cut’”)
Click Gallery below for covers!
Source: ICv2
