After the initial image for "Axis" leaked out of Diamond's Las Vegas retailer conference, Marvel Comics followed up with a subway ad for this weekend's Special Edition NYC convention. And while we knew the series was written by Rick Remender, the promos featured Jim Cheung art and it would include some of Marvel's heaviest-hitting bad guys, details were fairly spare.

Now, Remender has spoken with USA Today about the series, revealing more specifics on the villain-driven story, one which centers around the "most irredeemable of all Marvel Comics supervillains," the Red Skull. This marks the first appearance of the character sine he was imbued with the late Professor X's telepathic powers in the first arc of Remender's "Uncanny Avengers," along with those of Onslaught, the entity once responsible for creating a an entire other reality.

Kicking off in October, the 9-issue series will feature a number of crossovers, including "Iron Man," "Loki: Agent of Asgard," "Magneto" and Remender's "Captain America" and "Uncanny Avengers." According to series editor Tom Brevoort, the comic is "kind of a Michael Bay movie. It's big and spectacular and has a ton of full-out bombast... a story with a whole lot of heart that focuses on these characters' interpersonal relationships."

For Remender, "Axis" is the culmination of the work he's been doing since merging characters from Earth's Mightiest Heroes corner of the Marvel U with some of its biggest mutants in "Uncanny Avengers." "It's a nice cathartic chapter in the history of the Avengers and X-Men at the worst moment in their lives," he said. "Writing it, there were a couple of moments where I banged on my desk and said, 'Yes! Yay, nerd!' and I got excited for it."

"Axis," featuring Captain America, Storm, Thor, Luke Cage, Deadpool, Medusa, Red Skull, Loki, Doctor Doom, Hobgoblin, Enchantress and more, debuts in October. Check back with CBR over the weekend and next week for more on the event series, who's illustrating it and its tie-ins.