Marvel announced that the company is "joining forces" with Northrop Grumman, manufacturer of the Global Hawk surveillance drone and the fifth-largest arms manufacturer in the world.

The company has already released a comic book starring a new team of heroes who work for Northrop Grumman, called Northrop Grumman Elite Nexus, or N.G.E.N. You know, like "engine," as in the engine of the B-2 Spirit, a stealth bomber that Northrop manufactured for the US government and dropped bombs over Kosovo and the Middle East.

The comic is titled "Start Your N.G.E.N.S! Part 1," which means that there's at least one more part coming in this series, god help us, if not more. The first installment sees a pair of Northrop Grumman operatives teaming up with the cast of the Avengers, one of Marvel's hottest properties at the moment.

Twitter is not pleased. "Every Pakistani funeral we bomb, we'll give the survivors a free copy of Secret Empire!"

"It's like they missed the first 10 minutes of Iron Man 1."

"Did Northrop Grumman announce they're getting out of the weapons business? Because Stark Industries did that back in the Iron Man movie."

Update: Project cancelled, fauxpology issued:

The activation with Northrop Grumman at New York Comic Con was meant to focus on aerospace technology and exploration in a positive way. However, as the spirit of that intent has not come across, we will not be proceeding with this partnership including this weekend’s event programming. Marvel and Northrop Grumman continue to be committed to elevating, and introducing, STEM to a broad audience.

I think that says, "We're sorry that you ingrates just weren't able to understand the good work we were doing here."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.