BALTIMORE COMIC CON '07: MONDO MARVEL PANEL

[MattBrady]

by Vaneta Rogers

The Mondo Marvel panel at Baltimore Comic Con was conducted by Marvel editors Tom Brevoort and C.B. Cebulski, as well as Marvel exclusive artist Barry Kitson. The panel started the panel by taking questions from the audience.

The first question was, will there be more female heroines in lead roles in comics, and will there be more White tiger?

Brevoort: Yes, there will be more books with female leads. With White Tiger, he said Marvel's not sure what they're doing. "We're definitely going to pick her up again," he said. "We have to figure out where."

Will there be more Fairy Tales stories by Cebulski? Cebulski: Spider-Man Fairy Tales finishes up this week. Next is Avengers Fairy Tales. Brevoort joked that there are plans to do Punisher Fairy Tales.

Another fan asked if Loners will become an ongoing? Cebulski: It's still a mini, although the team will appear in a 10-page story in the Marvel Holiday Special. "Hopefully there will be some news on Loners soon," he said.

Will we see the real Elektra anywhere? Brevoort: "That's a good question. You'll have to wait awhile until Secret Invasion." He added that fans will see the Skrull Elektra body in Illuminati #5. "It's all coming, but not for a little while yet."

Asked about whether Secret Invasion will be able to redeem Tony Stark? Brevoort:
Iron Man's a more interesting character right now. "I think what has always made Iron Man a unique character is that he'll do whatever it takes to get that job done and make that stuff happen," he said, adding a promise that fans will not find out in Secret Invasion that Stark was a Skrull. "That would be an enormous cheat," he said. "So I'll tell you right up front now, he's not a Skrull."

A fan asked about Young Avengers. Brevoort said that fans who want an ongoing series that picks up where the first volume left off are "going to have to continue to wait I'm afraid."

But he and Cebulski announced that there will be a five issue mini-series in January that will focus on the Young Avengers, with each issue done by a different writer and ocusing on a different one or two characters. The writers will be:

Ed Brubaker - Patriot in #1.
Brian Reed - Hulkling meeting Captain Mar-vell in #2.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa - Wiccan and Speed in #3.
Paul Cornell - The Vision in issue #4.
"We haven't said who's doing the fifth issue. So there will be more Young Avengers stuff on the way."

Will She-Hulk continue pursuing legal avenues against Tony Stark, or has that now been dropped as a storyline? Brevoort: "It's rendered moot when it comes to her," he said, explaining that it doesn't mean the idea of Tony Stark being sued has been dropped. "I have a feeling that if it will be followed up anywhere it would be Avengers: The Initiative, because that's a title Dan [Slott] also writes."

A fan asked if Wolverine is indestructible. Cebulski: Marc Guggenheim will be addressing the healing factor in his upcoming issues of Wolverine.

Brevoort asked Barry Kitson how he likes working with Matt Fraction on The Order and what he thinks of the scripts he gets from the writer. "The fun thing about Matt is he rewrites his scripts even after I draw them," he laughed, adding that he tries to guess which pages Fraction might change so he won't have to draw them. He said the scripts are "pretty detailed, but he's been incredibly good to work with. He's very open to anything I want to throw in."

Kitson laughed, "My claim to fame is that it was my idea to put the jetpack on the bear in issue #1."

A fan asked if he knew the team in the first issue would be fired and there would be a whole new team introduced in the second issue. Kitson said it wasn't really a surprise to him because they said, "we need you to design six new characters," so he knew they would end up being the team. But he said the team that was in the first issue wasn't going away. "Although they get sacked, they don't just disappear," he said. He also said this was the "first entirely new team with no back-connection to Marvel characters that Marvel has done for a long time, so that was part of the fun of doing it."

A fan asked about The Falcon and whether there would be anything special about him for his 40th anniversary in 2009. Brevoort: It's still a little early for to think about 2009 - "We're still thinking about 2008. Now that you've just reminded me that the Falcon will have an anniversary, yeah there probably will be plans."

Will there be more Spider-Ham? Brevoort: Not any plans now.

What will happen to the Annihilation characters once Conquest is done? Will there be more of them? Brevoort: Nova has four issues that tie into Conquest, but after that, he's "getting propelled to a whole new area of space that nobody else in the Marvel Universe has been to yet." Brevoort said the character would find a Russian cosmonaut dog that was launched into space years ago with a "celestial head that has been turned into a city."

He added that Starlord, Quasar and "all those guys" will be tying into Conquest for now, obviously, but after that -- "there's plans for stuff," if sales are good and "all goes well."

Will there be plans for The Hulk around movie time? Cebulski: There will be some plans announced soon.

Will there be more Ultimate Misty Knight? Cebulski: The best bet would be the Warren Ellis Ultimate Iron Man/Ultimate Hulk crossover story because he created Misty Knight, "so she may show up in there." Brevoort: She's available, so while there are no specific plans that he knows of, Brian Michael Bendis may have plans.

At this point, Brevoort suggested to Cebulski that he call Bendis to find out for sure if he had any plans for Ultimate Misty Knight. Cebulski called and left a message, apologizing for calling so early on a Saturday morning.

Will the X-Men: Messiah Complex story make the X-Men titles more cohesive? Brevoort: Yes. It will definitely make the titles more cohesive and will set them up for what comes after that. "It's the first time we've done a crossover in a long time so it feels like a novelty," he said, adding that Marvel "used to do them all the time" in the X-Men universe.

A fan asked about Chesterquest. Cebulski recapped what he has been reporting on Newsarama about how he's traveling, looking for new pencilers for interiors and covers, with guaranteed work for 12 pencilers with Marvel. He said the winners will be announced at New York Comic Con, with a gallery of their work and a party for all the winners. He suggested that those interested go to http://www.chesterquest.blogspot.com and look for updates on Newsarama.com.

Will there be another Baron Zemo mini-series? Brevoort: No plans. When he next appears, "we'll pick him up in the place where he was" when the last story ended.

Will there ever be more Ultimate Hulk/Ultimate Wolverine? Brevoort: The scripts are in for Issue #3 and Issue #4, "but we won't be publishing it until all the scripts are in. "

Will the current Ant-Man, Eric O'Grady, be seen elsewhere in the Marvel Universe now that his series is ending? Brevoort: He's moving into Avengers: The Initiative.

A fan asked the panel to settle a debate: "Jessica Jones' baby is a Skrull, right?" Brevoort: "We never said that... Wait and see."

Will there be more New Universal? Brevoort: It's not canceled, but just on hiatus.
"Warren's gotten behind on some stuff." What's the timeframe on the return? Cebulski: Next year.

Will there be work from Michael Turner? How is his health? Brevoort: "Mike's back." His health is getting better. He'll be doing the next three issues of Soulfire, then after that will begin work on a Marvel project. Cebulski: "Given some changes in the Ultimate Universe, the Ultimate Wolverine project may not be happening, but we do have another Michael Turner project. Look for an announcement soon."

Will there be more work from Clayton Crain soon? Brevoort (to Cebulski): "Can we say?" Cebulski: "I don't think so." Brevoort: After February, there will be a project from Clayton Crain, but it can't be announced yet. "He's hard at work on it already."

Why was there no Dr. Strange in the Mystic Arcana story? Cebulski: Obviously, he was in use in places like World War Hulk and New Avengers. Marvel wanted to focus on lesser known magical characters. "There is a larger story," Cebulski added. "There will be a new announcement soon about more in the Marvel magic universe."

How can you have Captain America ongoing with no Captain America? Brevoort: "So far so good." Will we see him again? Brevoort: Yes. "On a lot of tombstones. "He's dead. Steve Rogers is dead. As for what that means for the Cap book, yeah, we're going to continue publishing it."

The next fan asked, to the laugh of the audience, so when is Steve Rogers coming back? Brevoort: "Dead. Steve Rogers is dead. Dead."

Will there be ongoings anytime soon from Jeff Parker and Christos Gage? Brevoort: X-Men First Class an ongoing now from Jeff Parker, and with Gage, "t's just that the opportunity hasn't come."

Will there be a Dr. Strange ongoing? Brevoort: No plans. "He'll be seen elsewhere," including the New Avengers Annual in January. Sales of the Brian K. Vaughan mini-series "were only so-so," so they're not sure Dr. Strange could support an ongoing right now, but will be using him a lot.

When does the Breakworld story in Astonishing take place? Brevoort: There's going to be an Issue #23 and #24, and once it's all finished up, it will be easier to tell when it fits.

Will there be more of Magik from New X-Men? Cebulski: There's a one-shot coming out next summer addressing Magik, Ilyanna, Colossus and Wolverine.

Is Marvel doing a weekly series? Is Amazing going weekly? Brevoort: Not weekly, but will it will come out (after One More Day) three times a month. He explained that Marvel is calling the writers on Amazing Spider-Man "The Spidey Braintrust" and named a few writers, including Dan Slott, Marc Guggenheim, Bob Gale and Zeb Wells. He also said there will be a variety of artists working on the book, but each on a story at a time with just one artist, naming Chris Bachalo, Phil Jimenez, Salvador Larroca, Steve McNiven and John Romita Jr. He said the issues were starting in December.

Cebulski joked: "As Tom likes to say, we don't do our books weekly, we do them strongly."

Brevoort added: "We don't count down, we count up."

Brevoort further explained that the new writers for Amazing "all got together in December last year to block out a year of Spider-Man stories." He said there will be a larger story, but that there will also be smaller stories within that larger story that different writers will be telling. He said that at first, one artist will work with one writer, but after that, the artist may work with a different writer -- they will not always be the exact same combination of creative teams.

What is the future of the Avengers after World War Hulk? Brevoort: "It's very much like where it is now. It's going to be building up the paranoia and stress of the Skrull invasion. He mentioned the Hood's going to be putting together his power base and fighting, and of course the Avengers title will be affected by Secret Invasion.

Another fan asked about whether Steve Rogers is really dead. Brevoort: "They threw his body in the ocean ... Namor's watching it right now ... Every six months they poke it with a stick ... He's dead!"

Will Thor be joining the Avengers? Brevoort: In Issue #3 of Thor, "that will give you the first inkling of where Thor will sit in the Marvel Universe. I can tell you for sure he'll be part of Secret Invasion."

Will things get better for Spider-Man? Brevoort: The title "Brand New Day" (the title of the storyline following One More Day) will speak to the character as well as the storyline. Things will still be chaotic but it won't be quite as bleak as it has been for the last year.

Why did Cap have to die? Brevoort: It was an opportunity to tell new stories about Cap. "In some ways, he's more beloved now than when he was alive," he said. Now Marvel can tell stories about what role he played in the Marvel Universe.

Will there be more Icon series and more Book of Lost Souls? Cebulski: "JMS has plans for more Book of Lost Souls, but his plate's full right now." He mentioned that he has several comics he's writing plus movie work.

Brevoort: "Icon books are the easiest for people to put aside." Cebulski: There is supposed to be a Kick-Ass project from Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. from Icon as well as more project coming from other creators that will be "announced soon."

Are there more plans for the 2099 universe? Brevoort: Spider-Man 2099 has been appearing in Exiles. As for other characters, "it's possible. At the moment there's not a plan, but it's a place that could be revisited."

Will Shang-Chi get a mini-series? And can Adam Warren do it? Cebulski: Adam Warren has an open door to work at Marvel. There are currently no plans for a Shang-Chi mini-series.

Is the Marvel What-If? series still continuing? Brevoort: There are five or six What If? stories coming at the end of this year and that will likely continue in November and December in every year.

More Marvel Zombies? Brevoort: Marvel Zombies 2 is coming out very soon.

At this point, Brian Michael Bendis called back. Cebulski held the phone up to the microphone so fans could hear Bendis' voice saying: "No!"

Cebulski said, "so no plans for Misty Knight at this time, I guess." Then after holding it up to his ear and thanking Bendis, Cebulski added, "He says "Jessica Jones is better."

Cebulski then announced that Runaways will be available as an audio book that will compile the first season of the series that was done by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphonso. "I believe it will be available as an mp3 on Marvel.com."

As a final question, a fan asked if Hulk will ever get to kill Iron Man and just "rip his head off." Cebulski suggested that the fan read Warren Ellis' Ultimate Hulk/Ultimate Iron Man story. "Maybe."

Brevoort then announced that the Iron Man movie footage that was seen at San Diego Comic-Con will be aired on television this week as part of a teaser trailer. "It looks phenomenal. I think it will be debuting during 'The Hills' on MTV," he said. The crowd groaned and laughed. "But it will be eventually shown on good shows too," he laughed.

[Salieri]

Jeez, people, will you please let it go? Ste eve is DEAD. Dead, dead, deaditty DEAD! No come-backs! No returns! He. is. GONE. for. GOOD.

And, Brevoort is right, I certainly like him more now that he's gone...

[LazarusMan]

Thank goodness there's more Young Avengers, in any form coming home.

I'm still upset to hear Mike Carey is leaving Adjectiveless, but I can't wait for everything else going on with the Marvel universe, especially Invasion and Aftersmash. Come on give me more skrulls baby.

I personally love Captain America and the way it's playing out. I do hope there's a new Cap at some point, but the way it works is doing just fine by me. I think everybody is more interested in Cap a lot more that he's dead. I remember an old interview with Mark Waid talking about how he kind of came off as someone's grandpa and how he wasn't very interesting to read because he never really grew. This was before he took over the book in the mid-90s, but look at us now. No one can stop talking about Cap. It's frickin amazing. But let it go. He's dead. There will be a new Cap but I pray it's not Steve Rogers.

[President Kang]

Secret Invasion, eh? Damn, I was still holding out for Skrullpocalypse Now.

[magik2381]

RUNAWAYS AUDIO BOOK?!

Hellz yeah!

[btjs]

Where does it say clearly that Mike Carey is leaving adjectiveless? He better have a core book goddamnit.

Secret Skrullvasion would've been too camp. This event title is fine.

Love the idea of Mar-Vell meeting Teddy. I will feel majorly gypped if we do not see Teddy, Xavin, Noh-Varr, Mar-Vell, Phyla, and maybe even poor dead Genis during Secret Invasion.

[magik2381]

Originally Posted by btjs

Where does it say clearly that Mike Carey is leaving adjectiveless? He better have a core book goddamnit.

Secret Skrullvasion would've been too camp. This event title is fine.

Love the idea of Mar-Vell meeting Teddy. I will feel majorly gypped if we do not see Teddy, Xavin, Noh-Varr, Mar-Vell, Phyla, and maybe even poor dead Genis during Secret Invasion.

Rumor is Adjectiveless is getting the can.

[LazarusMan]

Originally Posted by magik2381

Rumor is Adjectiveless is getting the can.

See I heard it was all part of the big X-Men revamp. I didn't hear getting canceled, as that would be a major shock to my x-men system. I just think they'll put someone on to give it a sales bump with name recognition.

Which sucks seeing as how great Carey made it.

[Nobody]

Audio Book? Really?

[zati1]

Originally Posted by btjs

Where does it say clearly that Mike Carey is leaving adjectiveless? He better have a core book goddamnit.

I took this, from Carey's interview with Newsarama (on the homepage), as pretty solid clarification that he'd no longer be on X-Men (which is a shame):

RAMA: Will you be involved with any of the new X-titles being launched?

MC: I will be involved with one of the books that is kind of a solo book—I say ‘kind of’ because although it will follow the fortunes of one particular character, the book will bring in longstanding characters from the X-Universe in significant ways so when you look at the whole thing it will look like less of a solo book and more like a loose team-up book which will resolve a lot of important stuff presented in Messiah Complex.

[LazarusMan]

Here's something I'd like to see:

Give Mike Carey X-Men 2099 and see how damn good he makes that book too. I would love to see more 2099 stuff.

AND BRING BACK BEN REILLY. Just for laughs you know? He could be one of the Scarlet Spiders in Initiative.

[Omega Flyer]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

But he and Cebulski announced that there will be a five issue mini-series in January that will focus on the Young Avengers, with each issue done by a different writer and ocusing on a different one or two characters. The writers will be:

Ed Brubaker - Patriot in #1.
Brian Reed - Hulkling meeting Captain Mar-vell in #2.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa - Wiccan and Speed in #3.
Paul Cornell - The Vision in issue #4.
"We haven't said who's doing the fifth issue. So there will be more Young Avengers stuff on the way."

Nice.

Brevoort asked Barry Kitson how he likes working with Matt Fraction on The Order and what he thinks of the scripts he gets from the writer. "The fun thing about Matt is he rewrites his scripts even after I draw them," he laughed, adding that he tries to guess which pages Fraction might change so he won't have to draw them. He said the scripts are "pretty detailed, but he's been incredibly good to work with. He's very open to anything I want to throw in."

Kitson laughed, "My claim to fame is that it was my idea to put the jetpack on the bear in issue #1."

A fan asked if he knew the team in the first issue would be fired and there would be a whole new team introduced in the second issue. Kitson said it wasn't really a surprise to him because they said, "we need you to design six new characters," so he knew they would end up being the team. But he said the team that was in the first issue wasn't going away. "Although they get sacked, they don't just disappear," he said. He also said this was the "first entirely new team with no back-connection to Marvel characters that Marvel has done for a long time, so that was part of the fun of doing it."

More people need to buy this great book, and Salieri this disproves some of your gripes too, so there

A fan asked about The Falcon and whether there would be anything special about him for his 40th anniversary in 2009. Brevoort: It's still a little early for to think about 2009 - "We're still thinking about 2008. Now that you've just reminded me that the Falcon will have an anniversary, yeah there probably will be plans."

Renaming Captain America: Falcon and Friends

What will happen to the Annihilation characters once Conquest is done? Will there be more of them? Brevoort: Nova has four issues that tie into Conquest, but after that, he's "getting propelled to a whole new area of space that nobody else in the Marvel Universe has been to yet." Brevoort said the character would find a Russian cosmonaut dog that was launched into space years ago with a "celestial head that has been turned into a city."

He added that Starlord, Quasar and "all those guys" will be tying into Conquest for now, obviously, but after that -- "there's plans for stuff," if sales are good and "all goes well."

Looking forward to anything cosmic at this point.

Will the current Ant-Man, Eric O'Grady, be seen elsewhere in the Marvel Universe now that his series is ending? Brevoort: He's moving into Avengers: The Initiative.

Just like Slott to pick up the cancelled character. This should please the Eric fans

How can you have Captain America ongoing with no Captain America? Brevoort: "So far so good." Will we see him again? Brevoort: Yes. "On a lot of tombstones. "He's dead. Steve Rogers is dead. As for what that means for the Cap book, yeah, we're going to continue publishing it."

As Falcon and Friends

Will there be ongoings anytime soon from Jeff Parker and Christos Gage? Brevoort: X-Men First Class an ongoing now from Jeff Parker, and with Gage, "t's just that the opportunity hasn't come."

Make the opportunity come!

Cebulski joked: "As Tom likes to say, we don't do our books weekly, we do them strongly."

Brevoort added: "We don't count down, we count up."

Ha?

Why did Cap have to die? Brevoort: It was an opportunity to tell new stories about Cap. "In some ways, he's more beloved now than when he was alive," he said. Now Marvel can tell stories about what role he played in the Marvel Universe.

I agree his book is great even with-out him and there's always out of continuity stuff if you need him that much.

[BanMan]

Not much I'm terribly excited about though Young Avengers does have my interest piqued. I also can't wait to hear more about their magic plans.

Also, the new Nova arc sounds like it'll be entertaining.

Brevoort said the character would find a Russian cosmonaut dog that was launched into space years ago with a "celestial head that has been turned into a city."

What's not to love about that?

[rwe1138]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

"They threw his body in the ocean ... Namor's watching it right now ... Every six months they poke it with a stick ... He's dead!"

Now that's funny.

[BubbaKanoosh]

Antman moving to The Initiative eh? Interesting..

[Omega Alpha]

Originally Posted by zati1

I took this, from Carey's interview with Newsarama (on the homepage), as pretty solid clarification that he'd no longer be on X-Men (which is a shame):

There is absolutely nothing on this interview that says he's off the book. It just says he's working on a new book, but nothing at all about him leaving X-men.

[LazarusMan]

Will the current Ant-Man, Eric O'Grady, be seen elsewhere in the Marvel Universe now that his series is ending? Brevoort: He's moving into Avengers: The Initiative.

Just like Slott to pick up the cancelled character. This should please the Eric fans


It does. It does very much. Now get Blade in there somehow and Prowler and we're in business baby. I love Dan Slott. He makes comics exciting. Ever since he started working on She-Hulk he's just made me more and more excited for Marvel stuff. Anybody else love issue #21? Sad to see him go but thank God he's staying on Initiative.

[Bevbos]

So, uh, Secret Invasion? This is the official name of Skrullocaust I assume?

[Flicker]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

Cebulski then announced that Runaways will be available as an audio book that will compile the first season of the series that was done by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphonso. "I believe it will be available as an mp3 on Marvel.com."

This sounds cool. Like a radio play.

[Driftwood]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

by Vaneta Rogers

Asked about whether Secret Invasion will be able to redeem Tony Stark? Brevoort:
Iron Man's a more interesting character right now. "I think what has always made Iron Man a unique character is that he'll do whatever it takes to get that job done and make that stuff happen," he said, adding a promise that fans will not find out in Secret Invasion that Stark was a Skrull. "That would be an enormous cheat," he said. "So I'll tell you right up front now, he's not a Skrull."

I bet Tony has been aware of the invasion all along and his actions over the past year was him trying to prepare for the upcoming war with the skrulls......just a thought.

[Uchiha_Prodigy]

Secret Invasion? Why do comanies insist on rehashing old storyarc titles? DC uses Infinite, Marvel uses War, Secret..ect..

[CaptainCanad]

Ed Brubaker - Patriot in #1.
Brian Reed - Hulkling meeting Captain Mar-vell in #2.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa - Wiccan and Speed in #3.
Paul Cornell - The Vision in issue #4.
"We haven't said who's doing the fifth issue. So there will be more Young Avengers stuff on the way."

1. Sold, sold, sold.
2. Sold.
3. Can't really comment on the writer.
4. That should be interesting.
5. So this would be a Kate/Cassie team-up, then.

Also, while I have no interest in these "Fairy Tales" projects, I would buy "Punisher Fairy Tales" in a heartbeat (so long as Matt Fraction was writing).

[GSHAG]

Originally Posted by LazarusMan

Just like Slott to pick up the cancelled character. This should please the Eric fans

it does. my favorite character on my favorite book. i need a new pair of pants.


so uh what exactly is secret invasion?

[NielsVanEekelen]

Will there be more of Magik from New X-Men? Cebulski: There's a one-shot coming out next summer addressing Magik, Ilyanna, Colossus and Wolverine.

YES! YES! YES!

(What, just a oneshot? And I wonder why Wolverine is in there. Aside from just that he's Wolverine.)

[md62]

Not much in the way of new news except Secret Invasion & the Young Avengers return. I like the line up of writers for YA.