To help celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, Marvel will publish a line of graphic novels featuring current creators retelling classic superhero tales. Called Season One, the initiative marks the company's first entry in recent history into original graphic novels.

"We're hoping to introduce folks who have never read any of these characters to these characters in this format, and also provide an interesting and illuminating story for people who have read a lot of Fantastic Four and Daredevil," Tom Brevoort, Marvel's senior vice president of publishing, tells USA Today. "If you want to dip your toe in the water and find out the essence of what Marvel is all about, here is a nice place for you to start in big, sizable, meaty chunks."

The first wave will feature: Fantastic Four: Season One, by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and David Marquez, due in February; X-Men: Season One, by Dennis Hopeless and Jamie McKelvie, in March; Daredevil: Season One, by Antony Johnston and Wellinton Alves, in April; and Spider-Man: Season One, by Cullen Bunn and Neil Edwards, in May. A second wave will debut soon afterward.

Season One isn't a relaunch or an Ultimate Universe-like initiative -- ""Everything you know about them, everything that's existed for the last 50 years still exists and is still there," Brevoort says -- but neither is it a mere retelling of the characters' origins. "These are individually new stories," he says, "even though they've got bits and pieces of old and formative origin stuff in and around them, as well."

Visit USA Today to see a preview of Fantastic Four: Season One.