So we were all wrong. I speculated a crossover with Star Wars on Battleworld, Matt Jackson (director of the terrific Love in the Time of Monsters) suggested the creative team of the promised Peter Parker/Mary Jane reunion, and Sam Park of Monsterverse Comics (and many other cool projects) suggested to me that Joss Whedon was going to write something for Marvel COMICS again.

Nope.

Instead, Marvel announced through USA Today instead of The View that newly exclusive (and excellent) writer G. Willow Wilson will create A-Force with Marguerite Bennett and artist Jorge Molina. (The promotional art at right is drawn by Jim Cheung.)

Apparently Marvel got bumped from The View today, but the news could not be contained that the women of the Marvel Universe would be front and center in this new team book.

Despite the presence and promise of every superheroine in the Marvel Universe in this art, Wilson says the book will focus on a core team of She-Hulk, Dazzler, Medusa, Nico Minoru, and a new character named Singularity. (She must be the one standing to the right of She-Hulk.)

I don't know why I think it's so cool to have former Runaway Nico be in so high profile a book. And she was featured in Avengers Arena. So ... excellent.

One character conspicuously absent from the image is Wilson's own Ms. Marvel -- so let's hope that Marvel still has big plans for Kamala Khan.

UPDATE: Here's the text of the official Marvel press release:

Marvel Comics is excited to announce the new group of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes taking over an all-new era with Marvel Comics’ A-Force co-written by G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel) and Marguerite K. Bennett (Angela: Asgard’s Assassin, Max Ride: First Flight) with artwork by Jorge Molina (X-Men).

This May, beginning in Marvel’s Secret Wars, the Avengers are no more!

Within the Warzones! of Secret Wars, a brand new team will lead the way. A-Force Assemble! Marvel Comics reimagines the Marvel Universe in one of the largest shake-ups to the Avengers mythos.

So who are the Marvel powerhouses taking center stage? “She-Hulk, Dazzler, Medusa, Nico Minoru and other fan favorites, will take charge,” says series co-writer G. Willow Wilson. “We've purposefully assembled a team composed of different characters from disparate parts of the Marvel U, with very different power sets, identities and ideologies.”

And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroines found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, A-Force was born—to fight the foes no single Super Hero could withstand! Their glory will never been denied! Heed the call, A-Force Assemble!

Derek McCaw