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Marvel Comics is in the middle of an armageddon, and it's on a strict timetable.

Popverse has learned from sources familiar with the situation that the publisher has quietly had to shift its creative team for the current event series Avengers: Armageddon, after issues came up leading to concern that the series could be delayed. Series artists Delio Diaz and Frank Alpizar have been instructed to skip drawing August's Avengers: Armageddon #3, and to attempt to catch up on deadlines by beginning September's Avengers: Armageddon #4 early.

In the gap, semi-retired interior comics artist Ario Anindito has been lured out of a two-year hiatus from drawing comic pages to help get Avengers: Armageddon back on track and is now furiously drawing Avengers: Armageddon #3. As part of this, Anindito was offered a gig doing a variant cover for the issue, which shows off a new Iron Man armor he is designing as part of this last-minute assignment.

News of the Avengers: Armageddon artistic change appears to have first bubbled up quietly on a Marvel.com article on July 17, where it begins to list Ario as the new (and sole) artist on Avengers: Armageddon #3. That information is mirrored on the website of Marvel's distributor Penguin Random House.

Related: Avengers Armageddon reading order (Updated July 2026)

Anindito has also been asked (and agreed to) help the 5-issue series get to the finish line by joining as one of the artists on the October finale, Avengers: Armageddon #5. After that, Anindito is said to be working on a creator-owned series, called Bobo the Origin. 

Avengers: Armageddon #3 (of 5) goes on sale on August 19.

Spoilers, but the Marvel Comics Universe is being disassembled, "broken," and "dramatically transformed" ahead of the upcoming Avengers movie & comic.