All New Marvel NOW! Preview plus Deadpool in Avenging Spider-Man #12

My boy Wade Wilson the Merc with a Mouth gets another shot at a team-up as Deadpool teams with Spider-Man in a 2-parter beginning in next week's Avenging Spider-Man #12!

Written by Robot Chicken's Kevin Shinik, and illustrated by Aaron Kuder, the story will see Deadpool and Spidey take on the Hypno-Hustler and HIGH SCHOOL - and you can check out a Preview here:

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Meanwhile, back in Marvel NOW! world, a new raft of teasers have been released...

I couldn't anticipate what 'Wanted' and 'Survive' are gonna be, but it's been rumored that The Punisher will be joining a team after his regular book ends, and the upcoming Punisher: War Zone mini-series--where 'ol Frank'll be targeting the Avengers--could set this up; and I think whatever 'Killers' turns out to be will be The Punisher's new book.

The 'Lightning' book is to be long-term Deadpool writer Daniel Way's first post-Merc with a Mouth project. I know it's a team book, Way has form with the Thunderbolts from his run on Deadpool, it's been stated that Cable is going to have a big role in the Marvel NOW! universe, and my guess would be that with their 'Justice, Like Lightning' tagline, and the integration between the X-books and the rest of the Marvel Universe that Marvel NOW! will be bringing, Way will be relaunching the Thunderbolts and bringing Wade Wilson's pal Cable in as new leader.

The covers for Marvel NOW! Avengers #1 have now been released, and you can check out some of Jerome Opena's pencils here:

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You can also find an interview with Uncanny Avengers writer Rick Remender talking about that book here, and you'll find tons more Marvel NOW! stuff at my Facebook Fanpage! Excelsior!

What If Venom possessed Deadpool?

As many of you are aware, I'm gunning to land a gig working on Deadpool, I've written some Deadpool Team-Up pitches and am trying to get Marvel to solicit a pitch from me by sending them published work. One of the Team-Up pitches I wrote was for Deadpool/Venom, which may or may not be nixed because of the 'What If Venom possessed Deadpool?' back-up series running through 4 issues of December's What If? So having written my own idea of a DP/Venom yarn, I was intrigued to see what the What If? story would be like...

Written by Rick Remender and illustrated by Shawn Moll & Mark Irwin, the story kicks off in the back of What If?: Iron Man - Demon in the Armor. In what looks set to somehow be a decades-spanning saga, The 'Boy George' Watcher of Earth 615.9 (who specializes in ropey reworkings of lyrics and mottos) introduces the tale in 1985: where we find Deadpool taking on one of the biggest cases of his career. He's hired by Galactus to off The Beyonder! ...But things are never gonna be straightforward with Deadpool.

What follows is the beginning of a Joe Kelly-influenced old-skool Deadpool tale in which Wade heads to a nightclub to take out the god-on-Earth Beyonder, but--taken with The Beyonder's charms and in awe of his '80s jheri curls--winds up becoming his new best bud.

Joining him--and Billy Ocean--on the party trail in The Beyonder's flying limo, everything's swell for Wade and his new '80s bud's--'til black costume Spider-Man shows up: blaming Beyondey for trapping him in the alien symbiote.

I won't give too much more away, but by the end of this first chapter, Wade's in the symbiote and we're off to the '90s as the story continues in What If?s Wolverine: Father and Spider-Man: Grim Hunt before concluding in What If?: Dark Reign. The story looks like it's gonna be a fun ride, and for those of you not picking up the What If? books, it's gonna be collected in a Venom/Deadpool one-shot in Feb.

If this story nixes my Deadpool/Venom Team-Up, I've got plenty more stories where it came from. As many of you know, as Marvel won't read unsolicited pitches, my main focus at the moment is my character Cabra Cini: Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman as she has similar sensibilities to Deadpool and--aside from the fact that I love writing her and have big plans for Cabra--her stuff showcases to Marvel that I could write Wade. Speaking of Cabra, her profile's about to be raised, as her debut story will be appearing in full color in Visionary Comics Digital's FREE Digital Visions #4 online soon.

You can join the Cabra Cini Facebook Group here to check out a Preview, and stay tuned for more news here!