WIZARDWORLD'S X-PANEL

[MattBrady]

by Lucas Siegel

Wizard World Chicago was engulfed in the flames of the Phoenix during the X-Men panel Sunday. E-I-C Joe Quesada emceed as usual, backed by Publisher Dan Buckley, talent liaison C.B. Cebulski, creators Chris Claremont, John Layman, Sean McKeever, John Romita Jr., Rob Rodi, Joss Whedon, Mark Millar, John Cassaday, and X-Editor Mike Marts.

The panel started with the obligatory slide show, with several highlights. Newcomer and Marvel “Young Gun” Olivier Coipel’s fill in artwork on Uncanny X-Men was shown, drawing positive reactions from the crowd. The Dreamwave supported X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover book received applause, even after being shown at two previous panels (Marvel Universe and Cup o’ Joe). Joe Q thanked the fans for giving New X-Men (formerly New Mutants) the push it has needed to be a successful title. Several solo books featuring Marvel’s Merry Mutants were shown, including: Sabretooth, Gambit, Jubilee, Madrox, Mystique, Nightcrawler, and Rogue. Next, Astonishing X-Men came up, drawing the largest applause of the panel, with covers of the next few issues, including a cover still depicting Beast in big blue furry form, contrary to current Internet rumors and speculations. Quesada mentioned how aptly named Astonishing X-Men was, and the fans cheered their agreement.

The big news was the second to last slide section, with The Return of the Phoenix. The slide announced that with the 25th anniversary of the Phoenix, she will be back in her own mini-series starting February of ‘05. Greg Pak, whose first published Marvel work will be the upcoming Warlock, will be writing, with current cover artist extraordinaire Greg Land providing covers and interiors. The art shown featured Jean Grey as Phoenix.

Wolverine, by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr., brought up the rear in the slide show from the House of Ideas. Romita Jr.’s art drew several oohs and ahs from the crowd, especially an incredible few panels depicting Wolverine vs. a school of sharks. Why? According to the panel, every good Wolverine story needs a shark fight!

The panel was then opened to questions. Questions ranged from Serenity related questions for Joss Whedon (to which Joss said smilingly, “This is an X-Men panel”) to “What super power would you have?” for the panel. Joe Quesada, when asked that question, replied that he’d like “the power to turn anything into wood,” which drew laughs from the panel and crowd alike. John Romita Jr. chimed in with, “That’s a loaded answer.” Other powers that were wished for included “To be two places at once,” from Cassaday and “To be invisible,” from McKeever.

Millar, along with support from editors Marts and Quesada, will be pushing Wolverine into more of a shared universe. He has Romita Jr. drawing everyone from the Marvel U he can think of, and assures the fans that if something happens in Wolverine, it will be reflected in the rest of the universe. Joe Q says that in ‘05, the Marvel Universe will move more into being a collective than being separate worlds for each team and hero.

When the panel was asked for their reaction to Wolverine being an Avenger, Chris Claremont was notably surprised, physically pushing away his microphone and throwing his arms up in a shocked gesture, which suggested the Uncanny X-Men and Excalibur scribe was not aware of the news.

Other quick bits from the panel include Layman saying Gambit will not be blind in his series: “Assuming he gets better in the X-Men, [my story] takes place after [the blindness]. If he never gets better, it takes place before.” Millar confirmed only that he’s talked with David Goyer about working on a Deadpool movie, but that it is in development hell right now. Millar also said if the Deadpool movie doesn’t work out, then Goyer and himself would be happy to do another movie instead. Fan favorite and former Exile Nocturne will be showing up in core X-Books next month. Finally, Joss Whedon says it is his “fantasy” to both direct the 3rd X-Men movie and to continue beyond his initial 12 issues, although he did express some mild concern with keeping up, noting jokingly that he doesn’t want to be another Ultimates, which drew quite the hilarious reaction from Millar.

A light-hearted panel, full of jokes, friendly jeers, and even the occasional hug, gives hope to X-fans for the coming year.

[Aaron Weisbrod]

Originally posted by MattBrady
by Lucas Siegel

...Chris Claremont was notably surprised, physically pushing away his microphone and throwing his arms up in a shocked gesture, which suggested the Uncanny X-Men and Excalibur scribe was not aware of the news.

Seriously?!?

I mean... he was joking... right?

He had to be joking...

Someone... anyone... please tell me he was joking...

Flabbergasted,
Aaron Weisbrod

[JK Parkin]

Great article! That Siegel kid is going places.

[Jimmy_Helter]

Chris Claremont was notably surprised, physically pushing away his microphone and throwing his arms up in a shocked gesture, which suggested the Uncanny X-Men and Excalibur scribe was not aware of the news.

I know I had a similar reaction. I wonder if he was a little PO'd by that *secret.* I say that, because I'm thinking that he's about as wild about the idea of Wolverine in the Avengers as, say, 95% of this message board.

[Amoebas]

I'm not into the X-books, but I do enjoy the FF, so could somebody please tell me what the heck "dreamwave" is?

[Hypestyle]

Claremont knows.. he's faking.. how could he "not" know? I think the gesture was more symbolic than anything..

[Joe Henderson]

What's this supposed to say?

"Fan favorite and former ExileUltimates, which drew quite the hilarious reaction from Millar."

[TPoole138]

Originally posted by Hypestyle
Claremont knows.. he's faking.. how could he "not" know? I think the gesture was more symbolic than anything..

Well...judging from how bad his writing has been over the last few years I wouldn’t be surprised if senility has set in.

[Kerouac]

Originally posted by Jimmy_Helter
I know I had a similar reaction. I wonder if he was a little PO'd by that *secret.* I say that, because I'm thinking that he's about as wild about the idea of Wolverine in the Avengers as, say, 95% of this message board.

Yeah, I think a lot of people aren't happy with Wolverine being an Avenger. But a big portion of those people are going to buy the book anyway, so nothing's going to change.

It's just like whenever anyone brought up the general dislike of Austen's Uncanny run and Quesada could drag out the sales numbers that suggest the fans didn't mind his writing at all.

If you buy a book you don't like, you have no grounds for complaint (keep in mind, I'm not suggesting that you would; I don't know you, I'm just making a general observation on the topic).

Matt

[spyflip]

Dreamwave Productions is a canadian base comic company started by Pat Lee, they doing alot of the Transformer stuff. He is doing some kind of mini for Marvel staring the FF and X-men

[LucasSiegel]

Originally posted by Joe Henderson
What's this supposed to say?

"Fan favorite and former ExileUltimates, which drew quite the hilarious reaction from Millar."

oops...guess when you're moderating and whatnot some things get lost in the fray, here's the original cut:

Fan favorite and former Exile Nocturne will be showing up in core X-Books next month. Finally, Joss Whedon says it is his “fantasy” to both direct the 3rd X-Men movie and to continue beyond his initial 12 issues, although he did express some mild concern with keeping up, noting jokingly that he doesn’t want to be another Ultimates, which drew quite the hilarious reaction from Millar.

And JK, thanks for the kind words

[cyclopsfan]

Originally posted by ArmyMonkey
oops...guess when you're moderating and whatnot some things get lost in the fray, here's the original cut:



And JK, thanks for the kind words

cool article AM!!

[Joe Henderson]

Originally posted by ArmyMonkey
oops...guess when you're moderating and whatnot some things get lost in the fray, here's the original cut:



And JK, thanks for the kind words

Awesome. Thanks!

[xpositive]

Originally posted by MattBrady He has Romita Jr. drawing everyone from the Marvel U he can think of, and assures the fans that if something happens in Wolverine, it will be reflected in the rest of the universe. Joe Q says that in ‘05, the Marvel Universe will move more into being a collective than being separate worlds for each team and hero.

I guess the Jemas days are truly behind us then. Can't say I'm all that thrilled about Phoenix (though I really liked Morrison's idea of a Phoenix Corp.) or the hundred solo titles, but you throw enough shit to the wall and something’s gonna stick. It seems to be that it will be difficult following that promise of a more continuity-oriented approach while running all those X-Men solo projects. Sure, Bishop can be an X-Man AND be a cop on the side for fun. Wolverine can be on six teams at once. Why not?

As for the Uncanny artist, do we really gotta put up with this? Why is it that this title has gone through so many fill in art? Larocca finally became semi-permanent, but Austen’s crappy writing ruined it. I'm sure this rookie guy will be fine, but there has been some really bad art (The Draco anyone?) in the past few years. We expect that out of a lesser book such as New X, but not Uncanny.

[Talannon]

Originally posted by xpositive
As for the Uncanny artist, do we really gotta put up with this? Why is it that this title has gone through so many fill in art? Larocca finally became semi-permanent, but Austen’s crappy writing ruined it. I'm sure this rookie guy will be fine, but there has been some really bad art (The Draco anyone?) in the past few years. We expect that out of a lesser book such as New X, but not Uncanny.

Larocca is on X-Men, Coipel is doing fill-in on Uncanny because Alan Davis can't do 18 issues a year... They don't remove Larocca from his book as far as I know.

[Jeremy Shane]

Cool article.

Maybe Claremont doesn't spend as much time on the net as we do and really didn't know about the Wolverine thing. Maybe he feels the same was as most of the fans.

[xpositive]

Originally posted by Talannon
Larocca is on X-Men, Coipel is doing fill-in on Uncanny because Alan Davis can't do 18 issues a year... They don't remove Larocca from his book as far as I know.

Right, but Larcocca WAS on Uncanny. You have a point though, but I would just ask - Why the hell do we need 18 a year? I can't afford all these books running a year and a half in twelve months and having weeks like the one before last and this upcoming with eight X titles coming out. With the exception of Uncanny, they are all three dollars. For a few bucks more, I could get some crack. For a few less, a whore. Fortunately though, comics are both my crack and whore. It's one stop shopping.

[LucasSiegel]

Originally posted by Jeremy Shane
Cool article.

Maybe Claremont doesn't spend as much time on the net as we do and really didn't know about the Wolverine thing. Maybe he feels the same was as most of the fans.

yeah, he really did look incredibly surprised, and virtually the only things he said the rest of the time were cracks about Wolverine or someone joining the Avengers. Joe Q did at least say to wait until we see Wolvie in Avengers because it's not what we think. That phrase seems to come out of his mouth very often. Eh, oh well. I guess some things we just have to wait for.

[Mickey Mouth]

Still no official word from Marvel on whether the Bryan Singer-Dan Harris-Michael Dougherty Ultimate X-Men arc is still on? Seems strange that no one has asked the question and forced some sort of answer at one of these con panels.

[LucasSiegel]

Originally posted by Mickey Mouth
Still no official word from Marvel on whether the Bryan Singer-Dan Harris-Michael Dougherty Ultimate X-Men arc is still on? Seems strange that no one has asked the question and forced some sort of answer at one of these con panels.

Well, they just said that Singer is still planned on getting on the book, but they're having scheduling issues. Also, Vaughn's run is going a little longer than he initially planned. He has at least one more arc after his current one and probably two, so we'll see.

[VinnyPic]

Joe Q's not what you think has been very apt. When I thought Of Marvel, I used to think good comics....

And it hasnt been what i think for quite some time.

[Benjamin Ong]

Originally posted by Amoebas
I'm not into the X-books, but I do enjoy the FF, so could somebody please tell me what the heck "dreamwave" is?

Find out about Dreamwave and Marvel at the following link:
INSIDE THE MARVEL-DREAMWAVE DEAL
http://www.newsarama.com/forums/show...threadid=16513

[A-San]

Originally posted by ArmyMonkey
Well, they just said that Singer is still planned on getting on the book, but they're having scheduling issues. Also, Vaughn's run is going a little longer than he initially planned. He has at least one more arc after his current one and probably two, so we'll see.

I hope this is the case. Ultimate X-Men is my favorite Marvel book, and hope Vaughan stays on for a while longer.

[ruckus]

I'm seriously thinking about most of my Marvel stuff. I rejoined the bandwagon because of the Ultimate line and because of the new slant Morrison and Casey brought to the X-Men but, since they went back to status quo, I haven't been feeling the core titles except for Astonishing and Academy X.

The rest of the items mentioned on the panel don't really pique my interest:

X-Men/Fantastic Four - already been done when Kitty was stuck in "ghost" mode and, team-ups are really my cup of tea

Solo series - other than Wolverine (which I'll probably drop after Millar's run), I've never been into X-Solo's

But, I do hope Whedon and Vaughan stick around for awhile because, I really am enjoying their writing.

[Joe Henderson]

Originally posted by A-San
I hope this is the case. Ultimate X-Men is my favorite Marvel book, and hope Vaughan stays on for a while longer.

Seconded. I love Vaughan on Ultimate X-Men.