How big is Marvel’s summer event storyline where Captain America breaks bad and leads a fascist takeover of the United States? Too big to be contained by the length of the series originally announced, apparently. Marvel has revealed that its controversial tentpole Secret Empire series will be extended by one more issue.
The news came via Marvel’s own website, which explained that the additional issue — referred to as No. 10, although it will actually be the 12th issue of the series, thanks to a No. 0 and unnumbered Free Comic Book Day issue — was necessary to allow “the cataclysmic story to wrap up as intended.”
This is actually the third year running where Marvel has initially underestimated how long its summer tentpole story would run; 2015’s Secret Wars jumped from nine to 10 issues after the series slipped off schedule, while 2016’s Civil War II was also bumped up by an issue following a similar publishing delay.
As yet, no delay has been announced for Secret Empire. According to Marvel, the series is still on track to complete its run in August, ahead of the upcoming Marvel Legacy relaunch of its superhero publishing line.
