I’m reporting live from the Marvel NOW panel at C2E2! Keep refreshing that browser for frequent updates!
As with their other panels, the room is packed and the crowd is in good spirits. Unlike the other panels, MTV is here filming. If you see my fat ass on tv, I don’t want to hear about it.
Arune Singh, Tom Brevoort, and Ellie Pyle are here again, along with talent coordinator CB Cebulski, editor Lauren Sankovitch, Uncanny Avengers writer Rick Remender, Iron Man and Young Avengers writer Kieron Gillen, Secret Avengers writer Nick Spencer, editor Jordan White, and writer Charles Soule are on stage.
First (unintentional) announcement: Charles Souse is the new writer of Thunderbolts!
Remender talks Uncanny Avengers and the aforementioned Horsemen of Death (Sentry, Banshee, Daken, and Grim Reaper).
Sankovitch and Spencer are talking Secret Avengers. Spencer calls it a “dream project,” saying he loves the black ops spy stuff and the chance to work with S.H.I.E.L.D.
LOTS of love for Kieron Gillen and Young Avengers. His accent is awesome! Issue #7 begins “a backpacking trip across infinite dimensions.” Whoa.
Some more talk about Avengers AI. They can’t really say anything without spoiling Age of Ultron.
Avengers Arena gets a mention. Issue #14 begins the final story of the first season. Dennis Hopless and Kevin Walker…love it.
Zeb Wells and Paco Medina take over Nova with issue #6.
The bare minimum is said about Neil Gaiman and Angela coming to the Marvel Universe. Guardians of the Galaxy #6 start Gaiman’s co-writing gig.
Thanos Rising is really dark. Moving on.
Nice dig at DC for putting out a reprint on FCBD. Prelude to Infinity begins with Marvel’s FCBD issue. Jerome Opena and Dustin Weaver are joining Jim Cheung as artists of the main series.
Nick Spencer is co-writing the Avengers prelude issues with Jonathan Hickman.
Brevoort referred to Hickman’s SHIELD series as “late, lamented.” Sorry, folks.
Brevoort: while the Avengers are busy dealing with the Builders in space, Thanos is looking for something on Earth.
Something about New Avengers…Lots of drama, lots of secrets, lots of conflict. You know the drill.
Thunderbolts ties into Infinity beginning with issue #14, by the new creative team of Charles Soule and Jefte Palo. The reason for this particular team to stick together is that the members are helping each other with problems that they can’t handle themselves.
Q & A Time!
There IS a plan to finally finish Hickman’s SHIELD. Hooray!
Q: plans for Quasar? A: nothing specific, but they’ll get around to him again before too long.
Q: anything specific to look forward to with Thor or Doctor Doom? A: read Thor: God of Thunder, dummy! Look for another announcement at the Next Big Thing panel tomorrow. As for Doom, keep an eye on upcoming issues of New Avengers.
Q: what’s up with Rogue and Scarlet Witch? Remender: they won’t be friends any time soon. Rogue views House of M as the start of a domino chain that led to the death of Professor X.
Q: does the return of the Sentry mean the return of the Void? A: who knows? There seemed to be some confusion about the Void. Apparently a piece of it is in Cyclops’ mind? Not even I remember that!
Q: can someone just jump on with Infinity or do they need to read the entire build up? A: of course, their answer is “yes, but…” just like with anything else.
Dude is upset that Luke Cage’s death in Age of Ultron happened off panel as opposed to everybody else’s. Brevoort agrees to disagree. Am I the only one here that doesn’t think anything in Age of Ultron will matter? They just killed Hank Pym and then announced he was starring in a new title!
Brevoort just declared that Cannonball is the first Southerner to join the Avengers! I’m fact checking that, Buddy!
Q: any chance Cassie Lang will return? A: no, sorry!
Q: does Marvel hate Peter Parker (One More Day, Superior Spidey, etc.)? A: no, DAN SLOTT hates Peter Parker. (Kidding!) Of course they don’t, keep reading, crybaby! (I may be adding a little flavor to these answers…)
Somebody who’s never seen the Internet asked if Phil Coulson was alive or dead in the Marvel cinematic universe. Of course, he is appearing in the upcoming Agents of SHIELD tv pilot.
This lunatic wants Dexter in the Marvel Universe. Segue into talk of the upcoming mini-series By the original author.
Q: background info on Guardians other than Star Lord for new readers? A: check out the free Guardians of the Galaxy Infinite comics availabel digitally right now!
Q: any chance of revisiting the story line where Gambit and Sunfire were Horsemen of Apokalypse? A: no for Gambit, “kind of” for Sunfire. There have been so many Horsemen, and most of them are free and clear at this point.
Q: Infinity Gems? A: They blew up, dude! Except for that pesky Time Gem. I wonder…
Final Question! If Thanos is back, will we see Adam Warlock? Brevoort: “no comment?” You’re welcome, Ora McWilliams!!!
That’s it! We’ve done our last panel for today. We be back with a Day Two wrap up with photos later tonight!
Noooooo SHIELD! What happened?!
Doom as a new avenger would make me add it back to my pull (only to stop it three issues later I’m sure… Joe has to be sick of my love hate avengers ordeal)
Really ballsy of Marvel to dog DC for the FCBD reprint when they did the same thing last year AND are triple-dipping by reprinting part of it at the end of AGE OF ULTRON.
Great point!
Wait so Luke Cage isn’t dead? Marvel has no effing clue what its doing and the same ol, same ol with Bendis. But DC is taking the piss and trying to suck so bad it really is happy in distant second place, readers will just happily let Marvel’s usual smoke & mirrors fly.
To be fair, he was only dead in the “everything gets reset by time travel” sense…