Just announced at New York Comic-Con '14, at Marvel's traditional "Cup O' Joe" panel, is a new space-based event scheduled for February 2015.

The Black Vortex is a comic event that will unite the Guardians of the Galaxy and the X-Men, along with other superheroes-in-space like Nova, Captain Marvel and more. They'll be going toe-to-toe against the likes of Thane, Mr. Knife and the Brood. The prize? The titular vortex, the latest MacGuffin in the long history of immeasurably powerful objects in comic books.

The Black Vortex, as writer Sam Humphries tells Entertainment Weekly, has the power to unlock an individual's maximum potential.

"So if you play guitar," said Humphries, "The Black Vortex can unlock the potential within you to play like Jimmy Paige, and Jimmy Hendrix,  and George Harrison all at the same time." He likens it to the transformations that magnified and uplifted Norrin Radd and Jean Grey, into the Silver Surfer and the Dark Phoenix, respectively. The writer hints that some characters will be permanently changed by the Vortex, which has "the power to tear the universe apart" in the wrong hands.

Humphries is serving as the crossover event's lead writer, overseeing the efforts of scribes and writers that include Brian Michael Bendis, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Gerry Duggan, Ed McGuinness and more. The event is book-ended by two issues by Humphries and McGuinness called Guardians of the Galaxy/X-Men: The Black Vortex Alpha and ...Omega. The former drops in February, the latter in April, and in between will take place in the pages of Guardians of the Galaxy, All-New X-Men, Nova, Captain Marvel and The Legendary Star-Lord.

The story spins out of a recent crossover between the two superhero teams called "The Trial of Jean Grey." A key component of The Black Vortex will be a romance that began in the "Trial" storyline between X-Man Kitty Pryde and the Guardian's Peter Quill (Star-Lord).