This weekend at WonderCon 2011, Marvel revealed that Warren Ellis will be taking over as the writer of Secret Avengers. Ellis will join the title with Secret Avengers #16, following a three-issue Fear Itself tie-in arc by Nick Spencer and Scot Eaton.

Marvel says that Ellis will be taking the title in a new direction from that started last year by Ed Brubaker, in a number of  self-contained single issues, which hark back to his acclaimed Global Frequency title.

Ellis himself says that:

“When Ed first told me about [SECRET AVENGERS], he described it as the Marvel Universe’s fusion of G.I. Joe and my own Global Frequency,” the writer shares. “So, when the book was offered to me, I thought it would be fun to take it right back to Global Frequency, which was told as 12 self-contained single issues. I like the idea of there being a few books out there that don’t require you to commit to buying another five issues to find out how the story ends.”

“In Warren’s run, each issue will be a high octane adventure hyper-compressed into a single installment,” echoes Marvel Senior VP of Publishing and SECRET AVENGERS editor Tom Brevoort. “We’re essentially giving you the 20 most exciting minutes of the movie and catching you up with the intricacies of the plot on the fly.”

“This was Ed’s idea,” says Brevoort. “He reached out to Warren to gauge interest then told me that I should speak to him.”

Marvel says that issue #16 will feature that the artwork of Jamie McKelvie, then each subsequent issue will be illustrated by another artist. However, Ellis promises fans that he will keep the cast of characters established by Ed Brubaker:

“I’ll only be using a few of them in each story, with Steve Rogers as the anchor of every issue,” he explains. “With self-contained single issues, a large cast gets in the way of itself pretty quickly. So the first one is just Steve, Black Widow, Moon Knight and Henry McCoy [aka The Beast]. The second is Steve, Sharon Carter, War Machine and Valkyrie.”

Ellis says that the team’s mission statement and their place in the larger landscape of the Marvel Universe is:

“right on the front page [of] my first issue: RUN THE MISSION / DON’T GET SEEN / SAVE THE WORLD. As far as I’m concerned, SECRET AVENGERS is what it says on the tin, [and that’s] the people who avenge the crimes that no-one ever found out about.”

B&W preview pages for Secret Avengers #1, by Jamie McKelvie:

Related posts:

1. Warren Ellis Talks About Writing Technique
2. Secret Avengers #2 Sells Out and Returns with Second Printing!
3. Preview: Your First Look at Secret Avengers #6!
4. Your First Look at Secret Avengers #3!
5. Fear Itself Brings Nick Spencer To The Secret Avengers!