By Ben Morse
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Saturday
Cup O' Joe
Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada brought Saturday to a raucous close at
Wizard World Philadelphia with his convention staple, Cup O' Joe! C.B. Cebulski, Fred Van Lente and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort joined Joe Q to announce the following…
-The long-rumored Marvel adaptation of Stephen King's classic work "The Stand" will become a reality starting this fall with CAPTAIN TRIPPS, the inaugural limited series bringing the story to comics by writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Mike Perkins, with King supervising. More info
here
-Quesada next revealed that Van Lente and artist Kev Walker would be bringing some familiar nastiness to the Marvel Universe in September in MARVEL ZOMBIES 3. Van Lente confirmed that this series would indeed see the Zombies journey to the reality of the Marvel heroes we all know and love!
-Also in September, the Man Without Fear gets a new foe with ties to a deadly rival as
Lady Bullseye debuts in the pages of DAREDEVIL. More info
here
And with that, Quesada turned things over to the fans, and their questions of the panel led to more revelations…
-Van Lente promised that the Florida Initiative team would debut in MARVEL ZOMBIES 3, prompting Brevoort to note that he kept a running chart of the Initiative groups in his office and 27 had appeared or would be soon.
-Quesada answered a fan's question about the future of AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL by saying recent sales had been strong and the series will continue on for the foreseeable future.
-Fielding another query from the crowd, Quesada guaranteed the ongoing presidential campaign by Stephen Colbert within the Marvel Universe would see a resolutuon.
-Brevoort confirmed that the characters appearing in THE TWELVE would be integrated into the Marvel Universe following that series' conclusion.
-Finally, Brevoort said a new regular writer for THUNDERBOLTS following the end of Warren Ellis' run on the book and Christos Gage's fill-in arc has been selected, but declined to give the name.
Secret Invasion
Fans packed the room on Saturday morning at Wizard World Philadelphia to hear Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada along with C.B. Cebulski, Brian Reed, Dan Slott, Fred Van Lente, Greg Pak and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort dish the latest dirt about the biggest event of the year, Secret Invasion! They were rewarded for their attendance with the following announcements…
-The panel saw the premiere of Gabrielle Dell'Otto's cover to SECRET INVASION #6, featuring the classic
Avengers trinity of
Iron Man,
Thor and Captain America—the new model—reunited at last!
-Writer Christos Gage and artist Sean Chen will take command of IRON MAN: DIRECTOR OF
S.H.I.E.L.D. later this summer for a Secret Invasion tie-in arc starring War Machine.
-Artist Doug Braithwaite has signed an exclusive contract with Marvel and will debut on the SECRET INVASION: THOR limited series written by Matt Fraction coming this summer.
After the official slideshow ended, Quesada opened the floor to fan questions, which yielded, among other responses, the following exciting newsbits…
-Reed previewed that upcoming issues of MS. MARVEL will feature
Carol Danvers as the sole super hero in New York City during the opening salvo of the Skrull attack.
-Brevoort promised that upcoming issues MIGHTY AVENGERS will reveal when the
Skrulls replaced
Elektra while NEW AVENGERS would explore previously unknown Skrull involvement in the House of M and how that would impact the
Scarlet Witch. The fates of missing characters such as
Black Bolt and
Hank Pym will also be addressed in both titles as will the Hood's stance during Secret Invasion.
-The long-awaited SPIDER-WOMAN ongoing
series by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev will launch following the conclusion of Secret Invasion, though Brevoort would not comment on
Jessica Drew's fate or involvement in the book.
-Van Lente revealed that the newly-formed God Squad currently featured in INCREDIBLE HERCULES has a traitor in its midst while his co-writer on that series, Pak, teased that the next arc, entitled "Love & War," would be drawn by Clayton Henry and involve a war between the Amazons and Atlanteans with
Hercules and
Amadeus Cho on opposing sides.
-Quesada and Brevoort both alluded to a possible project starring Dr. Strange as being in the works, but noted that nothing official had been decided upon.
-Slott reiterated from previous panels that a new Skrull Kill Krew would debut shortly in AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE.
-Pak addressed a fan's misconception by confirming SKAAR: SON OF HULK would be an ongoing series.
-Finally, the panel wrapped with endorsements by Slott for fans to read GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and from Cebulski to check out CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND
MI: 13.
Friday
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Executive Editor Tom Brevoort brought Friday afternoon's Spidey-centric panel featuring Dan Slott and C.B. Cebulski to order while waiting for Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada to return from a food run. In the interim, Brevoort and his Amazing Friends announced the following…
-A new female Kraven will debut this July
when writer Marc Guggenheim and artist Phil Jimenez return to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. More info
here.
-"New Ways to Die," the six-part AMAZING SPIDER-MAN story arc by Slott and the legendary John Romita Jr. kicking off in August and running through September will feature variant covers from both Alex Ross as well as Romita's father, John Romita Sr. The first chapter will also have a back-up story by writer Mark Waid, making his return to Marvel, and fresh off his work as a design consultant on "Iron Man," Adi Granov.
After Quesada joined the panel and the fan Q&A portion commenced, the following information came out amidst the hearty discussion…
-Quesada, Brevoort and Slott all vowed that unexplained questions spinning out of the gap between "One More Day" and "Brand New Day" such the return of
Harry Osborn and the disappearance of Peter Parker's organic webshooters will be addressed over the next year and a half, though no firm dates have been set.
-A key character from writer J. Michael Straczynski's five-year run on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN will return to the book in the future, possibly before the end of 2008.
-Slott has expressed ideas to his fellow Spidey Brain Trust members regarding
Carnage, but nothing has been set in stone as of yet.
-Brevoort made many Slott's day—as well as that of many fans—by announcing that current AMAZING SPIDER-MAN artist Marcos Martin has more Spider-Man work in his future.
Mondo Marvel
Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada kicked off Marvel's Wizard World Philadelphia 2008 in style midday on Friday with the show's inaugural panel featuring Dan Slott, Greg Pak, Brian Reed, Duane Swierczynski, C.B. Cebulski, Executive Editor Tom Brevoort and the late-arriving Fred Van Lente. Among the official announcements made…
-July will see the launch of "Manifest Destiny," the next phase of the
X-Men's evolution following the conclusion of "Divided We Stand." UNCANNY X-MEN #500, by the new series creative team of co-writers Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction along with artists Greg Land and Terry Dodson, kicks off the new direction across the line. More info
here.
-In other X-Men news, Mike Deodato will take over art chores for WOLVERINE: ORIGINS later this year just in time for the book to cross over with X-MEN: LEGACY.
-Next, the panel unveiled interior art by Paco Medina from the Daniel Way-written DEADPOOL ongoing series launching in September, as well as covers by Clayton Crain and Rob Liefeld.
-Greg Pak revealed that he will be penning MAGNETO: TESTAMENT, a limited series chronicling
Magneto's childhood in World War II-torn Europe—joining Pak will be artist Carmine Di Giandomenico. More info
here.
-Also coming later in the summer: KING SIZE CABLE SPECTACULAR, a one-shot written by regular CABLE writer Duane Swierczynski with art by Ken Lashley focusing on
Bishop's point of view.
-Finally, Quesada announced AGE OF THE SENTRY, a new project focusing on the
Sentry's untold past. More info
here.
As the Q&A portion of the panel unfolded, more tasty morsels of info spilled out...
-Brevoort received a phone call from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN editor Steve Wacker, who confirmed that "the new
Speedball designs are ready."
-Slott teased upcoming events in AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE as it prepares to cross into "Secret Invasion," including the possible appearance of a Slingers Super-Skrull, grunts on the front lines of the war, the new
3-D Man leading a new Skrull Kill Krew into action, an increased focus on Taskmaster and appearances from the Hawaii and New Mexico Initiative teams, the latter of which will feature an established Marvel character the writer promised would be a pleasant surprise.
-Additionally, Slott announced that co-writer Christos Gage would be working on an Initiative-related one-shot in the coming months with artist Steve Uy focusing on Komodo and
Hardball and introducing the Arizona Initiative team as well as the Nevada squad led by
Gravity.
-Brevoort confirmed that Allan Heinberg has begun preliminary work on a new project featuring the
Young Avengers.
-Cebulski informed a young fan that MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPER HEROES, a new ongoing all-ages title featuring various characters, will premiere in July.
-Pak promised that the
Warbound would be back in one of his titles, but would not reveal which.
-Finally, when asked to which quality Marvel titles they felt deserved more exposure, the panelists gave plugs to THE TWELVE, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' CRIMINAL series from Icon, and Pak's upcoming SKAAR: SON OF HULK.
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