The following contains major spoilers for Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals #1, on sale July 9 from Marvel Comics.
Marvel Comics’ hottest summer special has just been weaponized against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
In a new preview for Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals #1 from Marvel Comics, Earth’s Mightiest heroes are disgusted to find themselves the subject of a lurid, «Super Swimsuit Spectacular» skin mag. Worse still, none of the images inside its pages are even real. Instead, every image of these scantily clad Avengers was made through the use of generative artificial intelligence, and all as part of a plot to diminish the public respect that Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have fought so hard to earn.
Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals #1
- Written by TIM SEELEY & TONY FLEECS
- Art by MAHMUD ASRAR, NICK BRADSHAW, AARON KUDER, DAVID MARQUEZ, RON LIM, NIC KLEIN, MIRKA ANDOLFO, LUCIANO VECCHIO, MARGUERITE SAUVAGE, JOSHUA CASSARA, and RYUSEI YAMADA
- Letters by VC’s TRAVIS LANHAM
- Main cover art by ADAM HUGHES
- Variant covers by LUCAS WERNECK, MARK BROOKS, PABLO VILLALOBOS, RUSSELL DAUTERMAN, TAURIN CLARKE, TERRY DODSON, IVAN TAO, SHANNON MAER, J. SCOTT CAMPBELL, and GREG HORN
Marvel Comics has a long history of publishing special edition one-shots featuring fans’ favorite characters in their skimpiest summer outfits. The first of these came in the form of 1991’s Marvel Illustrated: The Swimsuit Issue, which was published largely as a riff on the iconic Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Over the next four years, the concept was revisited, leading to the publication of four issues of the Marvel Swimsuit Special, which continued the trend of giving fans a collection of pin-ups of their favorite Marvel Comics characters.
First seen in the pages of 1974’s Captain America #180 by Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema, Roxxon Oil (now Roxxon Energy Corporation) is one of the biggest and most well-known companies in the Marvel Universe. A massive fuel conglomerate, Roxxon has long been effectively too big to fail, no matter how many corporate fiascoes they find themselves at the center of. This coupled with the many nefarious forces who have held seats within the company has led Roxxon to also be at the heart of some of the most dastardly plots in Marvel history.
In recent years, Roxxon, and more specifically their longtime CEO Dario Agger, has gone to great lengths to strike down none other than the God of Thunder himself — Thor. Dario’s long-standing hatred for Thor drove him to align himself with the likes of the Asgardian Enchantress Amora, who helped warp reality itself to knock Thor down a few pegs. Not only did Dario command his very own corporate-sponsored God of Thunder, but he very nearly stripped the real Thor of his entire legacy, all before being ultimately struck down for what might be the very last time by Skurge the Executioner.
Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals #1 goes on sale July 9 from Marvel Comics.
Marvel
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