Neil Gaiman will be writing issue #5 of the newly relaunched Guardians of the Galaxy comics series this summer, Marvel have confirmed to
The New York Times. Gaiman and Todd MacFarlanes (creator of Spawn) character Angela will feature at the end of the Marvel Event Age of Ultron and then enter Guardians of the Galaxy for a special one-off issue co-written by Brian Michael Bendis and Neil Gaiman. Angela is a heavenly bounty hunter and featured in several Spawn comics written by Gaiman in the early '90s. After a protracted legal battle over who owned the character, both Gaiman and MacFarlane were credited as co-creators in a court ruling from 2002. By hiring a high-profile writer like Gaiman, the move is a conscious push by Marvel to put the Guardians in the spotlight well in advance of their debut feature film next year. Axel Alonso, the Editor-in-Chief at Marvel, said: Marvel is really putting a huge concerted effort to show the cosmic universe and how it ties to the regular universe, Mr. Alonso said. Its called the Marvel universe for a reason. The issue will mark Gaimans return to comics after a 4 year break. His last comics work was Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? with DC Comics. Gaiman will continue his comics output this year by returning to his critically acclaimed, bestselling Vertigo series Sandman by writing a prequel telling the story of how Dream wound up in the glass cage in the first book. JH Williams III is confirmed as the artist for the mini-series.
Guardians of the Galaxy #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven will be released Wednesday 27 March. The Guardians of the Galaxy movie is scheduled for release on 1 August 2014.