Joe Casey & Nick Dragotta’s ‘Vengeance’ Looks at a New Generation of Marvel Villains

Following a couple of weeks of cryptic teaser images, Marvel Comics confirmed this week the coming of Vengeance, a six-issue miniseries written by Joe Casey with artwork by Nick Dragotta. Billed as an exploration of evil in the Marvel Universe from the point of view of a younger generation of villains, Vengeance #1 goes on sale in July.In a live blogging session, Joe Casey indicated that Vengeance will depict a new generation of villains trying to reconcile the legacy of evil in the Marvel Universe, where bad guys like Magneto have routinely switched to good, or vice versa. "That's confusing to a young terrorist," he said. Vengeance will also deal with the implications of one character assuming the mantle of another, especially when someone out in the world may be seeking vengeance upon anyone who happens to wear that mantle.

The first eight pages of Vengeance #1 will take readers to the Sixth Dimension, Hitler's Germany, an "insane nightclub" and a homeless shelter. Classic Marvel villains will appear in Vengeance alongside a cast of new characters, which apparently include a new Miss America whose evilness is made plain by her visible thong straps. Also present will be Stacy X, a mutant prostitute created by Joe Casey many years ago. In typically bombastic fashion, the writer suggested that Stacy X won't be the only one of his creations to make an appearance in Vengeance. "Those two or three people who have followed my Marvel work will say, 'wow, I can't believe he had the balls to bring that character back!"

Crucially, the theme of Vengeance is the motivation behind villainy, which in the Marvel Universe has usually been as strong as that behind heroism. And of course, the title invokes memories of the classic late 1980s Avengers storyline "Acts of Vengeance," which editor Nick Brennan confirmed was not a coincidence.

Featuring covers by Gabrielle Dell'Otto, Vengeance begins in July.