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How do you replicate the success of something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe? That's the question everyone has been asking, and one of the people who helped create the MCU is aiming to do it - but first, he needs a comic to base it on.

This week, a Kickstarter launched to fund a comic book event series called Ekos from Aspen Comics. Created based on unrealized ideas for a comic series by the late Michael Turner and former DC CCO Geoff Johns, Ekos brings together Turner's two big characters Fathom and Grace - with a new, male hero called Grell. Ekos brings together the various corners of Turner's world into a cohesive universe in much the same way 2012's The Avengers movie (and the '60s comic before it) brought together the disparate heroes of the Marvel U for one unified adventure.

The Ekos comic series has been gestating since the mid-00s with Turner originally slotted in to draw and co-write the series before his untimely death in 2008. In 2018, former Marvel Studios' founder/chairman David Maisel (riding high off the sale of Marvel to Disney in 2009), bought a 50% ownership stake in Aspen Comics and slowly began the work of reviving the idea, claiming that "new IP that can be as broadly successful as Marvel," according to an interview with NFTNow. With the passing of Turner and Johns no longer available for the project due to his commitments to his own Ghost Machine imprint at Image Comics, Aspen tapped longtime Fathom writer J.T. Krul and the company's art MVP Alex Konat to bring it to life.

Much in the same way David Maisel led Marvel Studios' risky gambit to stop licensing movies to Sony, Fox, and Warner Bros. and begin making their own (by asking for a $525 million dollar loan), Aspen Comics has asked fans via Kickstarter for $50,000 to fund the comic for which this all will be based on. 

The good news? Fans have already invested roughly 248% of what Ekos' set its goal at.

After the Ekos graphic novel is complete, Maisel says that work will begin on the animated adaptation - and according to the powerbroker, he has already secured theatrical distribution from "a major studio" for the film. 

But first, of course, the comic has to be made.

The Ekos graphic novel is scheduled to debut in February 2025.

Get into the vibrant world of comics with our guide to buying digital comics, how to make the most out of comic shops, our comprehensive guide to the upcoming comics, manga, and graphic novels you should be looking for, and everything you need to know about Free Comic Book Day and Local Comic Shop Day.