Post by Cory W. on May 18, 2006 16:52:33 GMT -5
Today's a very special release, everyone. It's the official launch of the Alternate Branch! Some time ago, I announced that I'd be willing to experiment with the revival of a branch dedicated entirely to parallel universes - original and established - if I received a large enough response from writers and readers interested in seeing such stories.
And believe it or not, I actually received somewhere around twelve proposals within the first week of that announcement! Unfortunately, some of those proposals had to be turned down, and others have yet to have been brought to fruition. However, we still have a solid collection of new concepts to kick us off. Everyone give a round of applause to Ben Wolfert, Mark Walsh, Gregg Epstein, and Daniel Ingram for all of their hard work in bringing the Alternate Branch to you in full force this week!
*****
In The Name of Science #1 - The X-Men stumble across a sickening conspiracy that has taken one of their own! But not even the X-Men are prepared for what they find! For long, mankind has used science as a way of learning and understanding - but sometimes the boundaries of morality are pushed and the question has to be asked, "do the ends ever justify the means?" Set in a timeline divergent of canon Marvel, it's the return of "In The Name of Science," written by Daniel Ingram!
Read it at: m2k.rlk7.com/itns/ITNS01.html
Marvel Fantasy #1 - The epic tale of swords, sorcery, and Marvel characters begins now! Much in the vein of canon Marvel's 1602 series, Marvel Fantasy takes place in a medieval fashioned world with recreations of Marvel heroes and villains meets, except with a twist - elements from the popular Final Fantasy series! Written by Ben Wolfert!
Read it at: m2k.rlk7.com/marvelfantasy/MF01.html
New Universe #1 - You heard it right - The New Universe is revisited here at Marvel 2000's very own Alternate Branch! Everyone from Ken Connell, the super-hero known as Starbrand, to Jack Magniconte and Kickers, Inc. are back, but what has changed since the New Universe's original incarnation? Written by Gregg Epstein!
Read it at: m2k.rlk7.com/newuniverse/NU01.html
SHIELD: Extermination Force #1 - In a post World War II world, mutants are emerging at alarming rates - and they're destroying everything in their path! It's up to a band of SHIELD's deadliest killers to track down and exterminate each and every mutant before their destructive powers can do anymore harm, and if they can't it could quite possibly mean the end of existence as humanity knows it! Written by Mark Walsh!
Read it at: m2k.rlk7.com/sef/SEF01.html
Venom #6 - What...?! Eric Faynberg's FINALLY releasing another issue of Venom?! You know it has to be an alternate universe when that guy's got something for us to sink our teeth into! When a young woman and her husband are murdered, one homicide detective with the New York Police Department makes a connection between their deaths and the deaths of so many others - and that connection is Eddie Brock! Written by Eric Faynberg.
Read it at: m2k.rlk7.com/venom/V06.html
*****
Oh, and Eric Faynberg! Hah. I just thought that I'd surprise all of you with that last one. Eric Faynberg's returned to M2K with his fan favorite series, Venom! This issue was actually meant to be released with the last announcement, but there were some delays in editing and HTMLing, and welp, here it is now.
Now, I want to talk a little bit more about the Alternate Branch a little bit more. We have two fantastic anthology titles for this sucker...
First, we have the return of "Brent Lambert Presents" - a writer's challenge where Brent Lambert himself gives you a set of obscure characters and three issues to write a story that doesn't suck! There's a lot of liberties you can take with continuity in this challenge, but two rules are very specific - the only established characters that you can use are the ones that Brent gives you and your story has to be three issues long. When agreeing to take on the challenge, Brent will purposely give you characters he knows that you don't have very much experience writing (if any at all), and he'll make it a point to choose a set of characters that have virtually no connection with each other.
As you may be able to tell, the challenge here is forcing a writer to write characters he's never written before and make connections between these characters that have never been established! This title is actively accepting challenges, so e-mail both myself and Brent Lambert at colove007@aol.com and dirty_south04@yahoo.com (respectively) if you're interested in seeing if you, a fanfic writer, can write outside of your norm and think outside the box - preferably without sucking in the process!
Second, we have more of a traditional anthology title for those of you who like a little bit more freedom in your "outside of the box" writing. Along with the Alternate Branch, Marvel 2000 is debuting its brand new "What If...?" anthology! While the branch's former "Alternate Unlimited" series had an impressive collection of alternate world tales, Mike Exner and I agreed that it was best to go in a new direction with the branch's main anthology title. This series is also regularly and actively pursuing new tales.
And just incase anyone is wondering, yes - "What If...?" will be accepting stories that deviate from both canon Marvel Universe and Marvel 2000 continuity! Whether you want to write "What if Captain America had died in Avengers: Disassembled?" or "What if Professor Xavier hadn't been assassinated at M2K?" is fine by us!
Finally, I'd just like to note that all of the former titles in the Alternate Branch such as "Alternate Unlimited" and "Umbra Team X" have been archived in the branch. Titles that have had an effect on M2K's continuity, such as "2099: World of Tomorrow" and "X-Men 2099." Some of these titles will even be accepting proposals! However, titles such as "Brimstone" and "Tekken" will be assimilated into Alternate Unlimited and Marvel 2000 will not be accepting proposals for any series that's non-Marvel based.
With all of that said and done, I hope everyone swings by Marvel 2000's brand new Alternate Branch to see what we have to offer! The branch will be accepting proposals from here on out, but at this moment due to the large amount of mutant related titles and proposals that we've been receiving, only non-mutant based proposals are likely be accepted. However, if someone wanted to write about the human resistance set in the Age of Apocalypse, we'd be more then willing to give the proposal a gander!
For all of this and more (including our spiffy new message board which has garnered over 730 posts in just under three weeks), visit us at: m2k.rlk7.com.
- Cory Wiegel
Co-EiC of Marvel 2000
And believe it or not, I actually received somewhere around twelve proposals within the first week of that announcement! Unfortunately, some of those proposals had to be turned down, and others have yet to have been brought to fruition. However, we still have a solid collection of new concepts to kick us off. Everyone give a round of applause to Ben Wolfert, Mark Walsh, Gregg Epstein, and Daniel Ingram for all of their hard work in bringing the Alternate Branch to you in full force this week!
*****
In The Name of Science #1 - The X-Men stumble across a sickening conspiracy that has taken one of their own! But not even the X-Men are prepared for what they find! For long, mankind has used science as a way of learning and understanding - but sometimes the boundaries of morality are pushed and the question has to be asked, "do the ends ever justify the means?" Set in a timeline divergent of canon Marvel, it's the return of "In The Name of Science," written by Daniel Ingram!
Read it at: m2k.rlk7.com/itns/ITNS01.html
Marvel Fantasy #1 - The epic tale of swords, sorcery, and Marvel characters begins now! Much in the vein of canon Marvel's 1602 series, Marvel Fantasy takes place in a medieval fashioned world with recreations of Marvel heroes and villains meets, except with a twist - elements from the popular Final Fantasy series! Written by Ben Wolfert!
Read it at: m2k.rlk7.com/marvelfantasy/MF01.html
New Universe #1 - You heard it right - The New Universe is revisited here at Marvel 2000's very own Alternate Branch! Everyone from Ken Connell, the super-hero known as Starbrand, to Jack Magniconte and Kickers, Inc. are back, but what has changed since the New Universe's original incarnation? Written by Gregg Epstein!
Read it at: m2k.rlk7.com/newuniverse/NU01.html
SHIELD: Extermination Force #1 - In a post World War II world, mutants are emerging at alarming rates - and they're destroying everything in their path! It's up to a band of SHIELD's deadliest killers to track down and exterminate each and every mutant before their destructive powers can do anymore harm, and if they can't it could quite possibly mean the end of existence as humanity knows it! Written by Mark Walsh!
Read it at: m2k.rlk7.com/sef/SEF01.html
Venom #6 - What...?! Eric Faynberg's FINALLY releasing another issue of Venom?! You know it has to be an alternate universe when that guy's got something for us to sink our teeth into! When a young woman and her husband are murdered, one homicide detective with the New York Police Department makes a connection between their deaths and the deaths of so many others - and that connection is Eddie Brock! Written by Eric Faynberg.
Read it at: m2k.rlk7.com/venom/V06.html
*****
Oh, and Eric Faynberg! Hah. I just thought that I'd surprise all of you with that last one. Eric Faynberg's returned to M2K with his fan favorite series, Venom! This issue was actually meant to be released with the last announcement, but there were some delays in editing and HTMLing, and welp, here it is now.
Now, I want to talk a little bit more about the Alternate Branch a little bit more. We have two fantastic anthology titles for this sucker...
First, we have the return of "Brent Lambert Presents" - a writer's challenge where Brent Lambert himself gives you a set of obscure characters and three issues to write a story that doesn't suck! There's a lot of liberties you can take with continuity in this challenge, but two rules are very specific - the only established characters that you can use are the ones that Brent gives you and your story has to be three issues long. When agreeing to take on the challenge, Brent will purposely give you characters he knows that you don't have very much experience writing (if any at all), and he'll make it a point to choose a set of characters that have virtually no connection with each other.
As you may be able to tell, the challenge here is forcing a writer to write characters he's never written before and make connections between these characters that have never been established! This title is actively accepting challenges, so e-mail both myself and Brent Lambert at colove007@aol.com and dirty_south04@yahoo.com (respectively) if you're interested in seeing if you, a fanfic writer, can write outside of your norm and think outside the box - preferably without sucking in the process!
Second, we have more of a traditional anthology title for those of you who like a little bit more freedom in your "outside of the box" writing. Along with the Alternate Branch, Marvel 2000 is debuting its brand new "What If...?" anthology! While the branch's former "Alternate Unlimited" series had an impressive collection of alternate world tales, Mike Exner and I agreed that it was best to go in a new direction with the branch's main anthology title. This series is also regularly and actively pursuing new tales.
And just incase anyone is wondering, yes - "What If...?" will be accepting stories that deviate from both canon Marvel Universe and Marvel 2000 continuity! Whether you want to write "What if Captain America had died in Avengers: Disassembled?" or "What if Professor Xavier hadn't been assassinated at M2K?" is fine by us!
Finally, I'd just like to note that all of the former titles in the Alternate Branch such as "Alternate Unlimited" and "Umbra Team X" have been archived in the branch. Titles that have had an effect on M2K's continuity, such as "2099: World of Tomorrow" and "X-Men 2099." Some of these titles will even be accepting proposals! However, titles such as "Brimstone" and "Tekken" will be assimilated into Alternate Unlimited and Marvel 2000 will not be accepting proposals for any series that's non-Marvel based.
With all of that said and done, I hope everyone swings by Marvel 2000's brand new Alternate Branch to see what we have to offer! The branch will be accepting proposals from here on out, but at this moment due to the large amount of mutant related titles and proposals that we've been receiving, only non-mutant based proposals are likely be accepted. However, if someone wanted to write about the human resistance set in the Age of Apocalypse, we'd be more then willing to give the proposal a gander!
For all of this and more (including our spiffy new message board which has garnered over 730 posts in just under three weeks), visit us at: m2k.rlk7.com.
- Cory Wiegel
Co-EiC of Marvel 2000