Marvel announces Generations, but what is it?

It’s hard to tell exactly what Generations is, though the tease released today by Marvel Comics is definitely intriguing.

Generations and a Secret Empire

There’s already one big Marvel Comics event planned for this year, and that’d be Secret Empire. The crossover event will see the majority of the Marvel Universe teaming up to battle Hydra, and presumably, bringing the “Steve Rogers agent of Hydra” arc to a head.

So that’s one thing. And it’s a pretty freaking big thing too, in more ways than one. Remember that we saw a vision of the future not too long ago, one that had Miles Morales actually killing the original Cap. So there’s plenty there for fans to look forward to.

But if that’s Marvel’s big story for the year, then what’s Generations?

Announced today, Generations has only one little hint released as to its makeup, which is the image that you see above. Clearly a piece done by the great Alex Ross, the image shows generations (hence the name) of superheroes. The classic, iconic versions of the characters are in the back, while the Marvel NOW versions are in the foreground.

But what does that mean? Will the Marvel heroes of the modern age be facing off against their forebears? And, if that’s the case, then how are the original versions back? Some of them are quite dead after all, so that’d be tough. Then again though, this is Marvel we’re talking about.

Right now, this is all we have to go on, though history tells us we should expect more in short order. Marvel loves to tease, and if Generations is their big late-Summer event series, then there’ll be plenty to hint at for many a press release to come.

Stay tuned true believers.