[UPDATE 3] WW: CHICAGO - MIKE TURNER @ MARVEL/MORE HOUSE of M

[MattBrady]

While much of the subject of Saturday morning's House of M: Before & After panel was covered in Newsarama's House of M: Decimation interview with Marvel's editors, there were more details on any number of subjects mentioned during the hour-long program.

[Update 3]: The major announcement of the panel was the signing of artist Michael Turner to a work-for-hire deal for a 6-issue project and covers.

There has been some confusion over the issue of exclusive contracts over the weekend at Marvel panels which have been reported different ways by different sources.

Joe Madureira's new Marvel deal was initially not referred to as an exclusive (on Friday) and Saturday Marvel clarified that it is.

On Saturday Turner's deal was initially referred to at the panel as an exclusive, though it was later clarified it technically is not.

And according to our coverage partners CBR, at Saturday's Ultimate Universe - The Gold Standard panel, while mentioning his new project, Marvel also apparently just plain forgot to mention that Leinil Yu has signed an exclusive deal.

Newsarama will seek further clarification on all these matters as soon as we're able.

The 6-issue project Turner will first work on at Marvel was not named.

Marvel, who this weekend has been putting on small performance pieces to make their major announcements didn’t disappoint in revealing the Turner signing.

During the panel’s Q&A period, Quesada called on a “fan” in the audience, and asked him to stand as he could only see his hand. The “fan” stood and was revealed as Jeph Loeb. Loeb said he was really excited about Friday’s Joe Madureira announcement but asked, “What about that guy Mike Turner?”, saying he really liked his art and wouldn’t it be cool if Marvel could do something with him.

Quesada responded that it would be great, but it’s a matter of how busy Turner is with Aspen, which was Turner’s cue to come up to the stage from behind Quesada.

Quesada reacted saying if only he had a contract with him for Turner to sign, and cast member/Marvel Managing Editor David Bogart stood up from the second row and yelled “Hold on, I have one” and gave the contract to Quesada.

Turner then signed the contract in front of the audience. Asked by Quesada what he wanted to work on, Turner whispered in Quesada’s ear and the Editor-in-Chief responded, “Oh, that sounds good”.

And scene…

Quesada took a moment after the exchange to laugh, saying, “Boy, this stuff just keeps getting dumber and dumber. "

The panel featured Marvel’s usual mix of images and Q&A, and pros on stage included X-Men editor Mike Marts, CB Cebulski, Avengers’ Associate Editor Andy Schmidt, Quesada, Brian Bendis, writers Craig Kyle, John Layman, Tony Bedard, and eventually Paul Jenkins.

Speaking of Jenkins, Ramon Bachs will be the artist for the Jenkins-written Generation M limited series, with Stuart Immonen on covers.

According to Quesada, Generation M will be a tour of the mutant world post-HoM, to which writer Paul Jenkins, added, “It’s a reexamination of many familiar Marvel mutant characters.”

Jenkins said in a sense it’s a series of vignettes that allows him to take a look at individual characters that have gone through extraordinary circumstances and see where they are in their lives.

Asked by a fan early in the Q&A if the Marvel Universe will be rebooting post-House of M, Quesada unequivocally said “no”, adding, “At Marvel, we don’t have a Crisis”.

Mike Marts revealed November’s Uncanny X-Men #466 begins a three-issue story arc called, “End of Grey’s”, referring to Jean and apparently anyone related to her.

Upcoming New X-Men co-writer Craig Kyle said he grew up reading and loving the original New Mutants and wants to bring New X-Men back to that style. He described that as “kids with powers thrust into the adult world, fighting battles before they are really ready for it, but somehow enduring and pulling together.”

Bendis said the post-HoM New Avengers arc (#16-21) will show how HoM affected both classic and current Avengers members, and that the villain for the arc is on the level with Korvac or Galactus.

”Trust me, it’s not easy to come up with that kind of Marvel villain after everything we seen, but after years of beating our heads against the wall we think we got one that stand up with classic villains,” he said.

Bendis said Avengers fans shouldn’t necessarily look for appearances by characters like Wonder Man, Yellowjacket and the Wasp in the pages of New Avengers. But he added that as a result of HoM, some of these characters will be revitalized in the sense of “knowing who they are and what kind of heroes they want to be”, specifically naming Carol Danvers as a character going through this.

Exiles writer Tony Bedard said that title the HoM storyline is a great platform for the upcoming Exiles “Words Tour” story arc to start out from. But when the team visit the HoM reality, they run into a major new villain for the series, Proteus, the reality-altering villain from Uncanny X-Men.

Because he can bend reality, Bedard thinks he’s the perfect villain for the reality-hopping team and their run in kicks off “Worlds Tour”.

Asked what the status of Hawkeye will be post-HoM and whether or not he will “go back” to being dead, Bendis cleverly replied, “Alive is alive”, a play on Quesada’s infamous “Dead is dead” comment, to which Quesada replied with sarcastic humor, “Oh, that’s nice.”

Asked about any connections between House of M and Astonishing X-Men, Quesada said the first, current run of the series takes place before those events, but due to Joss Whedon being such a stickler for continuity, fans can expect to see him address it when he and John Cassaday return to the series for their 2nd year.

Asked whether the Beast will return to his more familiar form post-HoM, Marts opened up the subject to a poll of the audience, asking which form they liked best, his human form, his more “Ape-like” form, or his current “Cat” form?

The “Ape” form won the approval of the audience. Quesada then asked, “In that vein, who wants to see Peter Parker single again?” (referring to another area of post-HoM fan speculation and a question from earlier in the panel).

Receiving a rather mild smattering of applause, Bendis chimed in with “Who wants to see Peter have an affair with Norman Osborn?”, which got a much healthier ovation.

Asked again (as they have at every panel this year) whether there will be any resolution of the Magneto/Xorn/Excalibur controversy, Marts said Bendis will clear it up some in House of M #7. Quesada responded to this saying, "Yeah, that revelation will for sure crack the Internet in half”, perhaps this weekend’s first reference to San Diego’s go-to panel joke.

Regarding the possible return of Longshot, Quesada said, “I don’t know, aren’t we coming up on the 20th anniversary of his first appearance”, to which Marts replied, “Yeah, wouldn’t it be great if one of the writers on this stage (Bendis, Bedard, Layman, Kyle, Jenkins, perhaps even Cebulski?) was handling a Longshot project,” strongly implying that indeed, one of them was working on something.

Asked a similar question about Cloak & Dagger, Quesada said there was no immediate plans but he wouldn’t be surprised to see something eventually.

Mike Marts said John Layman and Aaron Lopresti are working on a project together, but didn’t name it.

Bendis said some characters will remember the events of HoM and some won’t, creating a very intense situation for those who do.

Finally, an announcement regarding Jae Lee’s next Marvel project will be coming shortly.

[Check out Newsarama’s continually updated 2005 WW: CHICAGO News Index for all the con coverage from Newsarama and CBR].

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you in part by Tokyopop's Takuhai Online

[adamcasey]

That X-Factor image looks sweet.

That X-factor jazz looks tight!

Who is that? Madrox, Rhane and Strong Guy are obvious, as is Siryn, presumably

The other two appear to be M (more certain) and...? Rictor? Any ideas?

[magik76]

Wow, very nice New X-men cover. The more I think of it, the more I realise that the team that they have picked is one that I am very interested in. Especially the girls.

AM very excited about X-factor too. When is it due to start again?

[magik76]

Yep, M and Rictor.

[daredevil_666]

Those images look awesome, but I'm kind of skeptical at the announcement of Turner doing stuff for Marvel. I'm a Turner fan (yes, I said it) but I woluld REALLY prefer that he work on his Aspen stuff and get caught up with Soulfire before he goes jumping to other companies.

[Lex]

*deleting post*

[ColourMan]

Why, Michael? Why?

My favourite artist at my most-hated publisher....at least he's still doing his Aspen projects.

[Pyromaniac975]

I'm sure that Mike will take care of his duties to Soulfire DD, but come on, I am so excited to see him work with Marvel characters!

[Punchy]

X-factor looks sweet, and that Wolverine/Sentinel Image is cool.

Turner eh? That's a another Big-name Marvel has got, I'd like to see his Spider-man, MK with Loeb perhaps? (Preferably some other writer).

Marvel has got the best of the news from Chicago so far, I hope DC give us some concrete details and some Images we haven't seen already, I want to know who the B&B artist is!

[OcCaM]

Damn it Marvel, I was perfectly content to get Exiles as the only Xmen book I'm enjoying for fun, and Astonishing Xmen because it has beautiful artwork. (Sorry folks, but I just read the first trade and it was a horrible story. Dialogue was nice though!)

Anyway, now Marvel's got me interested in Brubaker's Xmen mini and David's X-factor! Curses! That translates to about 7 trades or one every other month! Sigh

Ah well...

[Velocity]

new x-men.....rocks!


carry on.

[Groovie Mann]

I hope X-Factor doens't interfer with Sooks Seven Soldiers work.

Oh wait... thats the reason Zatannas been delayed for 2-3 weeks. I worry about issue 4 already. Still, nice X-Factor cover.

Turner should be on anything besides X-Men and Hulk. I've sene pin-ups for those characters and honestly... neither Wolverine or Hulk should look man pretty. Hopefully Spider-Man.

[HeX111]

What I wouldnt give to see a guy like Turner take a shot at the X-Men. Kinda like having Silvestri back for the "Here Comes Tomorrow" storyline.

Joe Mad and Michael Turner in 1 day for Marvel. Looks like they are finally going to bring in some artists for their incredible writing stable to work with.

[coreybean]

This whole Marvel versus DC thing is really starting to drag this site down. I honestly enjoy to seeing what other fans have to say, but around here they only seem to say one of two things. It makes everyone look so petty and childish. If it weren't for the fact that we all know better, I would guess it was all a bunch of elementary kids registered here.

I am really looking foward to X-Factor!

[Dave Fury]

Joe Mad, Loeb, and now Turner? DC is getting it's head handed to them.

[HeX111]

Marvel has definatly been brining the noise this weekend at WW:C... between seeing Joe Mad and Turner on books... and having all of my money next year going to the Wildstorm books at DC, my wallet is going to be getting smaller and smaller.

[Derek Ruiz]

Marvel deal not effective till 2007

http://www.comicbookresources.com/ne...em.cgi?id=5717

[BrotherI]

I'd love to say that Turner is a big loss for DC, but I'd rather Marvel fans be pissed off at the fact he can't keep to ANY schedule of ANY kind. I know he had health problems and everything, but perhaps thats a good enough reason to stop drawing anyway. This "exclusive" is a pointless announcement. Why give credibility to an artist whose women look identical, and his books never ship on time? Oh well.

[lewzzer1]

Originally posted by Dave Fury
Joe Mad, Loeb, and now Turner? DC is getting it's head handed to them.

ya think? even who DC just signed exclusivly? i'd trade Turner for the Kuberts anyday, so i'd say DC "wins" that battle of recently signed exclusive artists...and i'd rather read waid then loeb, so i'll side with DC on that one, but congrats to Marvel, they had to do something to take away DC's exclusive ass kicking lately.

[Velocity]

Originally posted by BrotherI
I'd love to say that Turner is a big loss for DC, but I'd rather Marvel fans be pissed off at the fact he can't keep to ANY schedule of ANY kind. I know he had health problems and everything, but perhaps thats a good enough reason to stop drawing anyway. This "exclusive" is a pointless announcement. Why give credibility to an artist whose women look identical, and his books never ship on time? Oh well.

lets see you do better.

[Crusader]

That pic of Wolvie giving a Sentinel a lobotomy is sweet.

[innocentboy]

this is interesting news indeed.

man, this weekend is awsome.

news after news after news

[HeX111]

THe X-Factor book looks as though it is something that could have very naturally sprung from what Morrison did a while back on X-Men... the same way Madrox was also seemingly a natural progression of Morrison's X-Men....

[DrCool976]

Meh.

I say that as a Marvel zombie.

Not a big fan of the Image era Lee/Silvestri holdover clones like Turner.

His DC stuff didn't appeal to me and I doubt his Marvel stuff will either.