With the entire Marvel (and Ultimate) Universe currently confined to Battleworld for Secret Wars, it's natural for readers to wonder what will happen when it comes to an end. Marvel's not planning to stick to Battleworld forever, right? This isn't the new status quo, is it?

Nope.

Marvel made it official today that, as suspected, a brand New Marvel Universe will be created from the wake of Secret Wars. But that's not the only big development. After Secret Wars ends (issue 2 of 8 was released last week), Marvel will pick up events eight months into the new universe's existence.

That's right, kids: It's the dreaded time-jump.

"In the same way that events jumped forward in time eight months in Avengers and New Avengers during the lead-up to Secret Wars, so too when we enter the new Marvel Universe, eight months will have passed for all of the characters as well," Marvel's senior vice president and executive editor Tom Brevoort explained to Marvel.com. The idea is to give Marvel's creatives the chance to "drop into exciting new situations and status quos on the fly."

Whatever happens in Secret Wars, there will be no cosmic reset button. "The Marvel Universe can never go back to what we once knew," says the article announcing the time-jump on Marvel.com.

But there's a much bigger question on readers' minds. What happens to all of the new characters and teams and situations on Battleworld once Secret Wars ends? We expect to see a merging of the Marvel and Ultimate universes, with a combination of characters from both. But what about the multitude of new characters or those displaced in time who were never a part of either universe to begin with?

Marvel made it official: some aspects of Battleworld will survive beyond Secret Wars and join the New Marvel Universe. So far, confirmed to survive into the New Marvel Universe are the Maestro, aka the evil future Hulk from Future Imperfect, the female heroes of A-Force, Battleworld's rebooted Weirdworld, and Shiklah's new team from Mrs. Deadpool & the Howling Commandos.

Marvel also said that "a mysterious team of survivors from dead universes and even Battleworld itself promise to stick around past the tumult and excitement to come."

Interesting.

Back on Free Comic Book Day, readers were treated to a sneak peek at what appears to be the new Avengers lineup: Captain America (Falcon), Thor (Jane Foster), Iron Man, Vision, Ms. Marvel, Nova and most conspicuously, the Miles Morales version of Spider-Man.

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