Matt Fraction to Write ‘Defenders,’ Jason Aaron Scripting ‘Hulk’ Relaunch

Today, in the last day of the San Diego Comic Con, Marvel released the post-Fear Itself plans for the Marvel Universe, which include a linewide initiative called "Battle Scars" similar to "Dark Reign" after Secret Invasion and "The Initiative" after Civil War. Chief amongst them are a new Defenders series written by Matt Fraction coming in December with art by his former Uncanny X-Men collaborator Terry Dodson, and a new Hulk series in October by writer Jason Aaron and artist Marc Silvestri to follow the conclusion of Greg Pak's run.Fraction's Defenders will continue to be in the self-consciously weird motif that previous incarnations of the team went for; in an interview with CBR, he stated that he was "getting restless," and that he's "looking to try and start new conversations. I'm going to dig around and find new and weird stuff to do. I'm looking for my new sound, whatever it is." The book will have a core cast of Doctor Strange, Namor, Red She-Hulk, the Silver Surfer and Fraction's return to the character of Iron Fist, who he wrote for sixteen issues (plus an annual and two specials) in the Immortal Iron Fist series. The series will feature these leads plus a number of as-yet-unknown helpers attempting to unravel a cosmic conspiracy uncovered while attempting to help the Hulk.

As for the Hulk himself, his new series scripted by Aaron will kick off with the arc "Hulk Asunder," in which the Hulk and his alter ego Bruce Banner have become two physically separate entities. The book will apparently feature the government asking the Hulk to take down Bruce Banner, implying that the latter will become some sort of enemy of the state post-Fear Itself. How this story will interact with Matt Fraction's Defenders is as-yet unknown.

Other announcements from today included The Fearless, a biweekly series written by Matt Fraction, Cullen Bunn and Chris Yost that focuses on the aftereffects of Fear Itself, and the fate of the hammers it introduced, and one-shots branded as "Shattered Heroes," which will focus on Captain America, Thor and Iron Man after the event and where they're going to go next.