Avengers: Twilight #6

History

The seeds of Avengers: Twilight were planted as far back as 2016, when editor Tom Brevoort — then discussing why Marvel lacked a future storyline comparable to Dark Knight Returns — sketched the bare bones of a plot overnight; then-editors-in-chief Axel Alonso and David Gabriel contributed input before the project was formally developed. It was not until 2019 that writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Daniel Acuña were brought aboard, and the series was repeatedly pushed back over the following years because, as Brevoort explained, its disconnection from main Marvel continuity made it easy to schedule around more time-sensitive monthly releases. When it finally launched in January 2024 as a six-issue limited series — with Alex Ross painting every main cover and Frank Miller contributing a homage variant to issue #1 — the roughly eight-year gestation made it one of the most deliberately developed projects in recent Marvel history. Daniel Acuña served as both penciller and colorist throughout, giving the book an unusually unified visual voice, while Joe Caramagna lettered and Tom Brevoort edited the completed series.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Avengers: Twilight #6, titled 'Book Six: The World Is Watching,' was written by Chip Zdarsky, illustrated and colored by Daniel Acuña, lettered by Joe Caramagna, and edited by Tom Brevoort; it was published by Marvel Comics on May 29, 2024 (cover-dated July 2024).
• The issue marks the first appearance of the Earth-24331 version of Loki, who is revealed to have secretly engineered the distress signal that summoned Thor to aid the Avengers — a deliberate callback to Loki's role as the inadvertent catalyst for the Avengers' formation in Avengers #1 (1963).
• Both Tony Stark/Iron Man and Bruce Banner/Hulk die within this issue on Earth-24331; a closing epilogue shows Thor arranging for the two to spend their afterlife in Valhalla.
• The climactic set-piece pits a Red Skull-controlled Hulk against Thor in a continent-spanning battle; the Hulk's defeat and death — Thor placing Mjolnir on Banner as he is submerged — was cited by multiple reviewers as the issue's most indelible visual moment.
• The Red Skull (Johann Shmidt), who had been operating under the alias 'Kyle Jarvis' throughout the series, is killed in this finale, ending his fascist coup of the United States government on Earth-24331.
• The issue closes with James Stark (son of Tony Stark and Janet Van Dyne in this reality), Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), and Ramona Jones (Hawkeye) beginning to rebuild Avengers Mansion, implying a future successor team on Earth-24331.
• Marvel marketed the series explicitly as its answer to Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns; Frank Miller himself drew a variant cover for issue #1, and Declan Shalvey produced additional lightning-bolt homage variants for subsequent issues including #6.
• A collected trade paperback edition of the complete Avengers: Twilight series was solicited for release on August 27, 2024, per Popverse's reporting at the time of the final issue's publication.

Cast · 15 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Avengers: Twilight

★

#1 1st appearance — James Stark

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#3 1st appearance — Ramona Jones

Variants (3)