Marvel at San Diego Comic Con 2010

[NightBeetle]

CCI: Mondo Marvel Panel

CBR's live coverage of Comic-Con International in San Diego continues with the Mondo Marvel panel. On hand for the panel are Marvel SVP - Creator and Content Development C.B. Cebulski; Arune Singh, Manager of Sales Communications; and writers Jeph Loeb, Brian Michael Bendis, Jim McCann, Dan Abnett, and Andy Lanning, and editors Mark Paniccia, Tom Brennan, and Michael Horwitz.

Cebulski began the panel by announcing several series: "Loki" for October by Roberto Sacasa; "Captain America and the Korvac Saga" by Ben McCool; "Captain America: Hail Hydra" in January; "Captain America: Fighting Avengers/ongoing," an all ages series retelling his origin and new series; and Mark Waid returning to Captain America with "Captain America: Man Out of Time."


"After Captain America's defrosted, how does he react to the world?" Singh
Then, two new Ultimate series came up, lead by "Ultimate Thor" in October by Jonathan Hickman and Carlos Pacheco. "It's patented Hickman madness," Paniccia said.

"Ultimate Doom" launches in December, by Brian Michael Bendis, completing his "Ultimate Enemy" trilogy.

Next up was "Strange Tales II" for next year, and Abnett and Landing on "Iron Man/Thor," launching in November. "It's a great opportunity to pair up characters who are the epitome of mystical legendry and the character who is the epitome of technology," Abnett said.
"And we will be introducing Iron Raccoon," Lanning joked.

"Who is the new Man without Fear?" Apparently, it's Nova, as the teaser image and panelists made no attempt to hide.

"Power Man and Iron Fist" launches in January by Fred Van Lente and Wellinton Alves, which will feature the new Power Man in the role.

Cebulski then introduced "Rocket Raccoon and Groot" in January, featuring a cover by Mike Mignola and written by Abnett and Lanning. Lanning said he couldn't say much about the series without revealing details of the "Thanos Imperative," but would say "Groot will refer to himself as Groot, and Rocket will fire some unfeasibly large cannons.

The prize for good questions at this panel will be "Pieces of Groot," with a certificate of authenticity. Yes, these are simply sticks.
Cebulski then opened the floor to questions.

Asked whether "Secret Avengers" takes place before or after "Thanos Imperative," Abnett said, "They're sort of side by side—[Nova] is commuting between one event and another."

Abnett said that he enjoys using some of the more obscure cosmic characters, especially in a team setting. He would not directly answer the question about which heroes in particular he'd like to work with next, with Lanning concurring. Lanning added, though, "who would have thought only a couple years ago that we'd have a 'Rocket Raccoon and Groot' miniseries?"

Next question, will Sentry stay dead? "He's always dead in my book," Bendis said.

The origin will of Nowhere will be revealed "the first chance we get to tell it," Abnett said.


As to whether "Guardians of the Galaxy" will relaunch after "Thanos Imperative," Lanning said, "They're like Ross and Rachel at the moment—they're taking a break." Plus, he added, if there was a new series that would confirm they survive, which he's not eager to do in the midst of the cosmic event.

"Shadowland" and the "Power Man and Iron Fist" miniseries will "give a good indication of where [Iron Fist] is going," Singh said when asked about a solo "Iron Fist" relaunch.

Michael Horwitz said he's excited about editing the upcoming 'Daughters of the Shadow" miniseries, when the panel was asked which characters surprised them with their popularity or deserved more attention. McCann said, "I'm just happy Mockingbird is back."



Cebulski offered Cloak and Dagger, while Bendis suggested Killraven would be moving into current modern continuity.
Asked about more "Nextwave," Cebulski said, "Warren knows our door's open whenever he wants to return to these characters."


After praising Tom DeFalco, Brennan confirmed that "Spider-Girl: The End" will be Mayday Parker's swansong for a while, as Araña becomes Spider-Girl in the new series. "You never know, though, she keeps coming back."

Loeb said there would be a huge announcement Friday at 8:15 pm regarding Marvel and anime, and first scenes from the Iron Man Anime will be shown.

One fan was upset about Red Hulk, "I followed that book for two years and I have no idea what happened!" he said. "Did you mean for it to go down like that?" "Yes, that was what we intended," Loeb said, adding that the creators always try to tell the best stories they can.
“I understand Galactus has to eat planets all the time, but why?” Abnett spun an answer about Galactus being a necessary force in the universe, but ended with, “I don't know where this is coming from, I'm just making it up.”


"Those of you who are wondering where the mustache goes, I could answer that," Loeb joked, "but I'll throw this back to you: when the Thing goes back to Ben Grimm, why does he have a full head of hair?"


Asked about another crossover between Marvel and DC, Cebulski said, "Go to a DC panel tomorrow, tell them Marvel said yes, what's your answer?"


When a fan asked about organizing various character appearances and events, Bendis talked about their editorial retreats. "We don't write in a vacuum," he said. "If Spider-Man's going to be trapped under a mattress for several months, that's going to have to be reflected somewhere."


Bendis added that micro-continuity has never fully matched up, including in classic comics, but the writers do take the big picture into account.


The same fan was upset that the final four issues of "The Twelve" haven't been released, despite promises from Joe Quesada and Joe Michael Straczynski. "You should ask Joe Michael Straczynski that question," Loeb said. "You should ask him."

Asked about divvying up Avengers teams, Bendis said that he always knew there would be a Cap, Thor, and Iron Man series, and the others spun from there. Then, "you make yourself Luke Cage and say, who would I want on my team?"


Next came the lightning round of questions, though as things would happen the name didn't fit.


When will Spider-Man and MJ get back together? "Read 'One Moment in Time,'" Singh said, which begins this week in "Amazing" #638


Lanning asked, "Who would be interested in a 'Cosmic Avengers' book?" Lots of applause.


Will there still be an ongoing cosmic title after "Thanos Imperative?" "Stay tuned," McCann said.


When asked about the character, Bendis said "you will see [Rom] Space Knight show up in a future Avengers story."

Future plans for Squirrel Girl? "Ask Dan Slott," Singh said. "He loves talking about her."


"Illuminati will show up in Avengers #7," Bendis said, "they will be outed to the world for doing something even worse than they did last time."


Will more horror characterscome back? Several: "Yes."


"Satana will be showing up in the upcoming 'Women of Marvel' digital miniseries," Horwitz said.


Loeb said "Captain America: White" should be finished in time for the movie, and he and the artist recognize that there have been delays.

[Dread]

So much Thor and Captain America material. You'd think they have movies coming out.

[venom892]

I figure we can put all the panels,news and announcements in one thread.

Mondo Marvel Panel- http://www.newsarama.com/comics/sdcc...el-100722.html

Mondo Marvel pic gallery- http://www.newsarama.com/php/multime...m.php?gid=2244

Loki Mini by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa- http://www.newsarama.com/comics/loki...sa-100713.html

Captain America and the Korvac Saga mini series- http://www.newsarama.com/comics/korv...ca-100713.html

Captain America:Hail Hydra mini- http://www.newsarama.com/comics/capt...ra-100714.html

New Cap ongoing:The Fighting Avenger- http://www.newsarama.com/comics/capt...er-100714.html

Can you tell A Captain America Movie is coming out next year?

[venom892]

Damn Just after I stated my Thread.

[runawayboulder]

Mark Waid doing Cap again and Abnett and Landing doing a Thor/Iron Man book stands out for me. Especially the latter. I've got a better idea, put them on Thor AND Iron Man!

[kguillou]

I dont get marvel sometimes. The minute i read new "Power Man and Ironfist" series, i nearly jumped for joy only to find out "Powerman" isn't even Luke Cage but some cheap replacement. WTF MARVEL? Just give us a freakin Luke and Danny team-up instead of this bs for gods sake!

[Dread]

To be fair, they have Fred Van Lente writing it, who's one half of the INCREDIBLE HERCULES team, which ALSO had the premise of teaming an old hero with a new character. Remember how everyone hated Cho about 2-3 years ago? Now we all want him to get a movie. So I'd say it is a bit short sighted to automatically rush to judgment about this.

Luke Cage is busy with NEW AVENGERS and THUNDERBOLTS right now; he barely has time to do tag team adventures with Rand. Besides, as Van Lente said in an exclusive CBR interview, Cage will show up from time to time, much like he did in IMMORTAL IRON FIST. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=27368

I also might add that despite the amount of popularity Cage has gained from NEW AVENGERS, he still can't sell a comic by himself. His latest mini is falling down the Top 100-200 list like a stone. Iron Fist, at the very least, supported his own series for 27 issues. With more and more comics dying before they see a 12th issue, that's quite a lot.

[kguillou]

I mean i guess its not fair to pre-judge it, its just damn, i feel like a Luke Cage/Iron-Fist book is a no-brainer. Now that both of those characters have a raise in profile it would seem like the natural thing to do. Would it be a top-seller? Probably not, but i bet it would have much better chances than a book with this "new" power man.

[Dread]

Possibly. But look at the other side of the coin. Introducing ANY new character in Marvel (or DC) is damn near impossible. Both companies have created a market in which any book not deemed "important" doesn't sell and dies quickly. New character books are considered the least important, especially because once they die, the character is often in limbo for years. YOUNG ALLIES is a team book starring all mostly new characters from the last 4 years or so, and it's debut was right around cancellation level. Marvel did everything but dump free copies of AGENTS OF ATLAS from the sky and no one bought it (and they're a collection of old characters). Fred Van Lente is someone whose profile has gone up a bit due to INCREDIBLE HERCULES and work on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. If he had an idea for a new character, there was absolutely no way he was going to sell alone. Not even a Bendis book about an old character like SPIDER-WOMAN lasts. They probably see this as a good chance to intro a new character and relaunch Iron Fist, after he's had enough of a rest to build demand.

[Tron Bonne]

Cebulski then introduced "Rocket Raccoon and Groot" in January, featuring a cover by Mike Mignola and written by Abnett and Lanning. Lanning said he couldn't say much about the series without revealing details of the "Thanos Imperative," but would say "Groot will refer to himself as Groot, and Rocket will fire some unfeasibly large cannons.

As to whether "Guardians of the Galaxy" will relaunch after "Thanos Imperative," Lanning said, "They're like Ross and Rachel at the moment—they're taking a break." Plus, he added, if there was a new series that would confirm they survive, which he's not eager to do in the midst of the cosmic event.

"Power Man and Iron Fist" launches in January by Fred Van Lente and Wellinton Alves

which will feature the new Power Man in the role

I think Hickman on a Thor title sounds interesting, but it's an Ultimate title, so I won't bothered. Waid writing a new Cap story should be good. Hopefully, we get a little more info on the cosmic line later, though I'm saddened that GOTG will be taking 'a break'.

[Dread]

It is interesting that GOTG is the one mentioned in the break, considering that it usually outsold NOVA on average for the last year or so, albeit not by very much. Granted, NOVA had been around a year longer by that point. Considering Groot and Rocket Raccoon are the only two who are confirmed to survive THANOS IMPERATIVE, it could be possible that many of the Guardians croak there. Or, of course, the theory that NOVA & GOTG get merged into one title is true, but Marvel would rather keep that quiet for the next 3 months.

[bored]

Mignola doing the cover for "RR and Groot" is pretty sweet. Hell, those two getting a mini is pretty sweet. The unwillingness to say if if "GOTG" is going to come back, that annoys me. Also, Jeph Loeb is annoying.

[Dread]

Originally Posted by bored

Mignola doing the cover for "RR and Groot" is pretty sweet. Hell, those two getting a mini is pretty sweet. The unwillingness to say if if "GOTG" is going to come back, that annoys me. Also, Jeph Loeb is annoying.

I found his answer to why if Red Hulk is Thunderbolt Ross, then where does the mustache go extraordinary in it's obnoxiousness. His retort was, in so many words, "Ben Grimm goes from rock form to human sometimes, and he always has hair in human form". Really, dude? That's the best you got? That's the sort of wisdom you'll use to boss around people who want to do a TV show?

He also snarked about not understanding why making the Hulk Red sold so well. Yeah, I don't get it either. At least if I ever wrote a comic, I wouldn't crack wise about what morons my fans must be for buying it when I was clearly half-***ing it. But then again, I haven't worked for TV, so I still have some pride and shame left.

He made Bendis look like good cop, at least from the transcript of the panel.

[Alastor]

I really dislike Loeb.

And I really hate Arana becoming Spider-Girl. Its pointless, and if the idea is to get May fans on board, I don't see it working.

[TheCorpulent1]

Merged this with the Mondo Marvel Panel thread so we can keep all the Comic-Con news in one place.

[TheCorpulent1]

Abnett and Lanning on anything = , but especially Thor/Iron Man.

I'm all over that new Cap series by Waid. I love Mark Waid.

Not sure about that Nova thing. CBR, of course, didn't have the promo image they referred to.

Looking forward to Rocket Raccoon and Groot. As great as GotG is, it hasn't had the opportunity to focus on Rocket and Groot's friendship as much as Giffen did in the Star-Lord mini.

"Pieces of Groot" has to be the most awesome random junk given away at a convention ever.

Cosmic Avengers looks like it's happening after all.

[iloveclones]

Originally Posted by Dread

I found his answer to why if Red Hulk is Thunderbolt Ross, then where does the mustache go extraordinary in it's obnoxiousness. His retort was, in so many words, "Ben Grimm goes from rock form to human sometimes, and he always has hair in human form". Really, dude? That's the best you got? That's the sort of wisdom you'll use to boss around people who want to do a TV show?

He also snarked about not understanding why making the Hulk Red sold so well. Yeah, I don't get it either. At least if I ever wrote a comic, I wouldn't crack wise about what morons my fans must be for buying it when I was clearly half-***ing it. But then again, I haven't worked for TV, so I still have some pride and shame left.

He made Bendis look like good cop, at least from the transcript of the panel.

To be fair, that's the kind of fan-boy nitpickiness that sucks all the fun out of comics. (Of course, that same fanboy obssessiveness is what drives things like Comicon) I mean, it's a crappy story that's went on for about 10 years too long, and "where his moustache goes" is, like, #117 on what is wrong there. It's like going to see All about Steve, and saying that you didn't like the outfit that Steve was wearing.

Here's the real answer (that the questioner was probably really asking): "Because then there wouldn't be a mystery about Who Red Hulk is."

He can't actually say that. Because when you make a mystery, it's supposed to be clever (it wasn't) and make people want to know the answer (they long ago lost interest). And the clever ones put the answer right in front of your face (That's why The Sixth Sense worked for so many people.) What he did, hiding the moustache, and having a General Ross LMD(?) is the exact opposite of being clever. It's plastering over a defect in the mystery. No-one is going to get up in front of a panel and say that they didn't construct the bestest mystery ever.

Loeb's best days are CLEARLY behind him. His work is so painful, that there's really no need to obssess over these little things.

[iloveclones]

Originally Posted by iloveclones

To be fair, that's the kind of fan-boy nitpickiness that sucks all the fun out of comics. (Of course, that same fanboy obssessiveness is what drives things like Comicon)

I actually retract that part while standing behind the rest of what I posted. After reading through it again...mainly because I wanted to find out more about the awesome-sounding Groot souvenirs....I realized that he may not have been actually ansswering a person. Just manufacturing a controversy all on his own. Now, that is douchy.

[Drz]

Originally Posted by Tron Bonne

I think Hickman on a Thor title sounds interesting, but it's an Ultimate title, so I won't bothered.

It's irrelevant whenever it has the word Ultimate or Astonishing in the name. Outside the costume for Thor. This is a prequel and its set on Asgard.

[iloveclones]

When asked about the character, Bendis said "you will see [Rom] Space Knight show up in a future Avengers story."

Please don't let Bendis write Rom. I don't think I can take a cyborg talking like a gibbering teenager.

"Illuminati will show up in Avengers #7," Bendis said, "they will be outed to the world for doing something even worse than they did last time."

As always, it would be great if Bendis came up with whatever this idea is, and gave it to someone capable of executing it. (If the "worse" thing is, they decided to play a prank on Pete and dress up like Mephisto and........Maybe two birds with one stone)

[TheCorpulent1]

Wow, clonesy, this is like a negativity overload for you. You sound... well, like me.

I like it.

[iloveclones]

No more Mr. Nice Clones!!!


*****!




.......I wasn't really directing that at anyone .........

[TheCorpulent1]

I'm surprised the Illuminati is still together. It's probably down to just Tony, Reed, and Strange, though. Black Bolt's dead, Xavier was off soul-searching last I saw, and Namor hates everyone who doesn't wear an X somewhere on their costume now.

[iloveclones]

I don't think they're "together". (Man, that's just aching to be made fun of.) I think the story is the repercussions of something they did when they were together.

[TheCorpulent1]

Oh, that'd make a lot more sense. I didn't think of that. The phrasing makes it sound like it's something they've just done recently.

So what the hell could they have done that's worse than shooting Banner into space, prompting a psychopathic Hulk to return and devastate half of New York? Resurrect Hitler just for kicks?