C2E2: Cup O’ Joe

Marvel’s Cup O’ Joe panel took place Saturday evening at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo , where Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada and friends announced creative teams for “Punisher” and “Daredevil” and a new creator-owned book before answering fan questions.

In addition to Quesada, C.B. Cebulski, Matt Fraction, Brian Michael Bendis, and Jeph Loeb appeared on stage. As the panel began late due to the previous running long, Bendis and Loeb threw candy into the crowd to kill time.

Quesada began by remarking that this is his first Cup O’ Joe since giving up his Editor-in-Chief role. After introductions, Quesada had Cebulski say a few words about their Marvel Architects banner and announce the artists involved. They are:

* John Romita Jr.
* Mike Deodato
* Stuart Immonen
* Salvador Larroca
* Humberto Ramos
* Mark Bagley

Another banner, “Big Shots,” focuses on the new series “Moon Knight” by Bendis and Alex Maleev and “Punisher,” for which the creative team had not yet been announced. Quesada then announced “Punisher” team is Greg Rucka and Mark Checchetto. The team for “Daredevil” will be Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and Marcos Martin. Waid then joined the panel.

Waid said the challenge of the series is that it’s been consistently great. “It’s going to stay gritty, and street level, but, with all due respect to the last ten years, it would be nice to finish an issue without feeling like I need a stiff drink,” Waid said. There will be a bit more of the “superhero swashbuckler” angle than has been seen recently, Waid said.

Bendis will launch a new title, soon, as well. July will see Bendis and Bagley launch “Brilliant” on the Icon imprint, and this will be Bagley’s first creator-owned book. It’s about college geniuses “trying to see who can crack the code of superpowers first,” but it is not a superhero book, he said.

Quesada then opened the floor to questions.

The first question was about applying for internships at Marvel. Quesada said they “are backlogged,” so college students should “apply sooner rather than later because it may be a few years before you get the call.” For prospective interns not based in New York and/or willing to travel, Quesada recommended Marvel West as another option.

“Runaways” came up next, as a fan asked whether they might show up in “Moon Knight,” as that hero is also based in LA. “I’m not going to touch the Runaways for a while, because I don’t want to infect them with my grossness and my Moon Knight-ness,” Bendis said.

A younger fan asked whether an in-costume Deadpool would appear in a film soon. Quesada said, “I’ll be honest—I don’t know. Fox controls the X-Men movies, and even the new X-Men movie, I haven’t seen it.”

Another fan asked about where certain parts of the “Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions” game fit into continuity, which Quesada again saying, “I don’t know.” Then, “From now on, instead of saying ‘I don’t know,’ I’m going to start making stuff up.”

Matt Fraction and Mark Waid respond to an unfortunate slip of the tongue.

At this point, Quesada dramatically grabbed his head and said, “My Spider-sense is tingling.” The lights dimmed and footage from the new Ultimate Spider-Man animated series played. The cartoon debuts in 2012 on DXD. Loeb said the footage is “what we refer to as an animated test—we hope the show will look even better than that.” Paul Dini wrote the series pilot. “One of the challenges when I came over to Marvel Animation, I sat down with Joe Quesada and said, what is it we can do to bring the Marvel Comics excitement to Marvel Animation?” Their plans involved bringing in Man of Action Studio—Joe Kelly, Joe Casey, Steven T. Seagle, and company—as well as Bendis, Stuart Immonen, Ed McGuinnes, Paolo Rivera, Humberto Ramos, and “a young artist we have a lot of love for, Joe Quesada.” The artists were asked “how you see Peter, how you see MJ,” and these were considered in the design.

A fan asked about a direct-to-DVD X-Men or Spider-Man cartoon. Loeb said there is another “Thor: Tales of Asgard” cartoon on the way from Lionsgate, but Marvel is considering its options after their partnership runs out, now that Disney has an interest. “Probably next year there will be a very interesting list of properties we can talk about,” Loeb said, also citing the Marvel anime series coming up from Madhouse Studios, beginning “Iron Man” (inspired by Warren Ellis) and “Wolverine” followed by “X-Men” and “Blade.” Each series will run 12 parts.

Asked about following up Marvel’s Year of Women with “a year focused on the big three,” Fraction noted that recent solicitations featured ten books with female creators. Cebulski said Hope of the X-Men is a character to watch.

A fan asked whether Uncle Ben or Gwen Stacy would be returning. Quesada immediately said “Nope,” but then joked, “read ‘Fear Itself.'” Bendis said “Uncle Ben is the All-Father.”

There was a question about subscriptions, which often arrive late, and the possibility of offering digital downloads to keep “that Wednesday feeling.” Quesada noted that, while the subscription department was outside his purview, “the digital domain is changing by the hour—look, it changed again,” and that Marvel is constantly exploring its options.

The same fan asked about an animated “Thor” show, with Loeb saying he believed she was talking about “Tales of Asgard.” He added, “I will say that I had nothing to do with your books being late,” to which Bendis quipped, “unless she ordered your books.”

“Ultimate X” #4 is at the printer, Loeb said, but page #3 went without lettering—Marvel is looking at the best way to get the dialogue that should have been included to fans. Also, Tim Sale has scripts for “Captain America: White,” and “if you see J. Scott Campbell, tell him to stop drawing calendars and draw Spider-Man, we’ll be good.”

“The consequences if your books are late is, you get to be head of TV,” Quesada joked.

Jeph Loeb and Brian Michael Bendis

Cebulski said that there would not be a price decrease for $3.99 titles, as Marvel is keen to be able to keep up the quality of stories and hold onto creators, but that price point for new series and miniseries would always be taken under consideration. Most miniseries will be $2.99.

Talking about death in comics and its potential for cheapening it in light of Manager of Sales David Gabriel once remarking that a character would be killed every other month, Quesada noted that it was all subjective but that creators were always challenged to have a significant story reason for killing heroes and villains. The fan had cited Nightcrawler’s death as an example “meaningless” deaths, but confessed he hadn’t read Marvel comics in more than a year.

The “Secret Warriors” series has been expanded from 27 issues to 28, and there are plans for the characters after the series ends. Unless, as Bendis joked, “they’ll all be killed as part of David Gabriel’s mandated bimonthly death count.”

A fan asked about the status of “Black Panther, Man Without Fear” in light of the new “Daredevil” series. “That’s a good question,” Waid said. Cebulski said that will be answered at Sunday’s Next Big Thing panel, “but a certain weather-controlling X-Man factors in a big way.”

The “Death of Spider-Man” in the Ultimate Universe will resonate throughout the year, with “one whopper after the next, one big ultimate shocker after the next,” Bendis said.

Saying he is being misquoted online, Bendis clarified that “I’m not touching the Runaways, I didn’t say no one’s touching the Runaways.” His tone did not suggest that there are in fact plans afoot with other creators.

The panel concluded with footage of the “Thor and Loki: Blood Brothers” animated feature.-by Shaun Manning,

C2E2: Fear Itself Panel

Marvel’s “Fear Itself” panel focusing on the upcoming event miniseries by Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen, as well as tie-in titles at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo saw the announcement of a new “Ghost Rider” title and “Fear Itself: The Deep.” On hand for the panel were Mike Pasciullo, C.B. Cebulski, Fred Van Lente, Matt Fraction, Brian Michael Bendis, and Nick Spencer.

As the introductions began, a cartoon of Cebulski drinking from a pitcher appeared on the screen. “I was doing a lot of that last night,” Cebulski remarked, with Pasciullo chiming in that “that’s root beer.” A young fan yelled, “Yay, I love root beer!” to everyone’s amusement.

“The story of ‘Fear Itself’ is pretty simple: the Red Skull discovers that Odin may not be the All-Father,” Fraction said, which leads Skull to resurrect an ancient deity, leading to a worldwide war. “It is a capital-E event. The whole story will be told in the main series, you will not be penalized for not reading 72 books a week,” he said. And, “when it is done, you will not believe they let one guy get away with it all.”

Complimenting his artists, Fraction said, “I am incredibly fortunate to have my name on something that looks this good.”

Fraction said that Thor and Captain America are in the series and joked, “Marvel went to the trouble of creating two movies to help promote our book.”

The Iron Man tie-in issue, written by Fraction, will see what happens when a man of science is confronted with a miracle—”it’s a horrific, destructive miracle, but it can only be described as a miracle.”

The “Thor” ongoing will not tie into “Fear Itself,” but Kieron Gillen’s “Journey Into Mystery” will.

Bendis then spoke on “Avengers” #13, which ties into the event. “This is the biggest roster change since I came onto the book,” Bendis said. He added that there will be “a surprising wartime romance” and “a huge change to the Avengers itself—coming in to do a couple issues is Chris Bachalo.” This is because “what Johnny [Romita] has to draw is huge.”

“By the end of it, you’ll be ready to kill me,” Bendis concluded.

Spencer’s “Secret Avengers” will focus on how “Fear Itself” impacts Beast, Valkyrie, and Black Widow. “We’re going to look at the human perspective and how it’s affecting these characters individually.” The writer’s “Iron Man 2.0” will also tie in with #5.

Van Lente is co-writing “Alpha Flight” with Greg Pak, which will feature the original team “who are back and not dead” and tie into “Fear Itself.”

Cebulski announced “Fear Itself: The Deep” by Cullen Bunn and Lee Gerbett, which will feature Namor, Doctor Strange, “and a couple heroes we don’t want to reveal yet.”

The creative team “Hell on Wheels” was then announced as Rob Williams and Matt Clark, though the series will actually be called “Ghost Rider” and launch with a 0.1 issue in June.

Cebulski then opened the floor to questions.

Fraction said the series will see “bad guys turning good, bad guys turning worse, and villains realizing they’ve wasted their lives” in response to what looks like the end of the world, answering a lengthy fan query.

A fan spoke about getting her comics via subscriptions and how readers who only get ongoing series would be affected. Bendis said that the stories would still be “a thing onto itself” and fans who only read “Avengers” or “Iron Man” would still be able to enjoy the issues in context. Fraction added that, much like “Secret Invasion,” reading all of the major series would give a bigger picture but reading only certain books would still tell a complete story.

Pasciullo mentioned that Howard the Duck will appear in “Fear Itself: Fearsome Four,” which excited fans.

There are no plans for “Runaways” at present, Cebulski said.

A fan asked “how someone like me can meet Stan Lee.” “We can’t advocate stalking,” Pasciullo said, adding that Lee usually appears at San Diego’s Comic-Con International. He also posts regularly on Twitter about his upcoming appearances, Cebulski added.

Fraction said that “Fear Itself” “resonates like ‘Civil War'” but “it feels bigger to me.” “It is a worldwide catastrophe, whereas ‘Civil War’ seemed to take place in a 4×4 block of Manhattan until the end.”

The Avengers will be the team most affected by the event, while “Cap and Thor” will be the characters most changed, Fraction said. As to which Captain America he means, Fraction said, “Yes.”

Fraction added that part of the story is “about the legacy of Cap, and the meaning of Cap, and Steve and Bucky and what they mean to each other.”

The Hulk will “very much” be a part of “Fear Itself,” Fraction said, while Bendis added that there will be a storyline coming after the event about the quest for the new Sorcerer Supreme. “Doctor Voodoo’s brother is pretty pissed off and he has the ability to enter anybody’s body and mess up the team,” Bendis said.

Fraction said ‘Fear Itself” stemmed from a discussion with editor Tom Brevoort about doing a Captain America/Thor story in time for the movies, which led him to discuss the possibilities with Ed Brubaker.

After an odd bell noise peeled through the room—which has happened at a number of panels so far—Fraction recoiled, joking, “Did I just have a stroke? I’m tasting pennies, is that weird?”

Fraction said that not every book would be about a literal fear—”Wolverine’s afraid of badgers!” but fear will be a theme. “What does it mean for Captain America if no one believes in America?”

Asked about event fatigue, Cebulski said that their events are story-driven first, and that after giving the characters some time to build individually, “and what that built toward was ‘Fear Itself.'” Fraction added that it’s “lousy events that people are tired of.”

“I’d be hard pressed to find anyone at this convention who doesn’t want cool shit to happen in their comics,” Bendis added. “And this is really cool.”

A fan suggested that wiping Tony Stark’s memory was a “quick fix” to the character’s conflicts, but Fraction explained that he felt doing so made Tony’s situation worse. “Cap doesn’t say, ‘oh, you don’t remember, so it’s okay—you scalawag!” Fraction said, and “he doesn’t remember who he’s slept with, so Pepper’s pissed off at him, Maria Hill has left the book—if it read as an easy fix, I blew it.”

Speaking about Iron Man’s previous experiences with gods like Thor, Fraction said that while working on the “Iron Man 2” film, he discussed with producer Kevin Feige that “we’ve got to come up with a Thor story so, when Iron Man and Thor are sitting on the couch together, it’s not like pickles and peanut butter.” In “Fear Itself,” though, “he has to sit down and think about this.”

After a lengthy question about possible Marvel/DC crossovers, Pasciullo said “there are many past DC/Marvel crossovers that can be read over and over again.” Bendis recounted “the time I embarrassed myself trying to get DC to do a Batman/Daredevil crossover” at a Chicago Wizard convention.

Part of the Odin concept takes into account the inconsistencies in Norse mythology. “Maybe it’s because we don’t know the whole story.”

Bendis said, “Thor fans: I’ve seen the movie, and it is awesome.”

He also confirmed that “both Avengers and New Avengers will have severe roster changes.”

A fan asked, “is Thor really a momma’s boy or a daddy’s boy,” referring to his duality on Earth and Asgard. “Odin literally asks him that question in the first issue,” Fraction said, “Are you a god or are you a man?’

A fan complained that the 25th anniversary of Spider-Ham only got “a cameo and a lousy graphic novel.” Bendis said, “It’s almost like he’s a one-note joke,” with Fraction adding, “I’m sorry, if I had a tumbleweed I would have just rolled it across the stage.” The fan persisted, which led Bendis to joke, “Look, most of us are Jewish—we don’t like him!”

There was a question about Disney “inserting themselves” into Marvel’s operations since the buyout. Cebulski and the panel confirmed that there was “none of this.” “If you look at it from the perspective of Disney, they were acquiring a successful company—the last thing you want to do is change it.” He added that, “as passionate as comic book fans are, Disney fans are worse—we had people coming up to us saying, ‘you better not put Spider-Man in that parade!'”

Fraction said “I want this book to have a seven-month sales cycle rather than a seven-day sales cycle; when you hear about issue 3—and you will hear about issue 3—I want those guys in Red Lantern t-shirts who maybe didn’t read issues 1 and 2 to go back and pick those up.”

Spencer clarified that he is only writing “Secret Avengers” for #12.1 and the “Fear Itself” issues. “When you hear who’s coming next, you will forget I was ever on this book.”

A fan asked when Iron Fist would go back to the green suit, because “the white suit is soft.” Bendis said some of the other editors and writers didn’t like the white costume, but said that Immonen had designed it and he’s come to love it. “But the white costume gets dirty really quickly.”-by Shaun Manning,

ECCC: Marvel’s Next Big Thing

On Sunday at Emerald City Comicon, Marvel Comics held their traditional “Next Big Thing” panel, bringing together Senior VP of Creator & Content Development, C.B. Cebulski, writer Brian Michael Bendis, writer Paul Tobin (“Spider-Girl”), editor Lauren Sankovitch (“Avengers”), writer Jeff Parker (“Hulk”) and writer Nick Spencer (“Iron Man 2.0”). Cebulski kicked things off by announcing that Spencer, who has previously written for DC and Image, is Marvel’s newest exclusive writer. Spencer described writing for Marvel as “a long-time dream” but made a point of assuring fans of “T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents” and Morning Glories” that he is still involved in his creator owned work as well as the DC Comics series he launched last year. Other writer news included Cebulski’s confirmation with a simple “yes” to a question about whether Garth Ennis would be returning to Marvel in the future. He did not, however, elaborate on this further.

From there, the panel transformed into a Q&A session, serving as an opportunity for fans to ask “anything and everything [they] ever wanted to know about Marvel or anyone on the panel.” But, like Saturday’s DC Universe panel, many of the questions had to do with the futures of readers’ favorite characters, which the panelists generally declined to answer, or were about Marvel films, though, as Cebulski explained several times, the panelists “really don’t know too much about what goes on with the studios.” He could only assure one fan, eager for more “Hulk” films, “success breeds sequels.”

Many of the questions dealt with Marvel’s popular “Ultimate” line of comics. One reader wanted to know if Marvel planned to keep “Ultimate Avengers” running; Bendis fielded this question, responding, “this is probably going to be the biggest year the Ultimate universe has seen since its inception…and ‘Ultimate Avengers’ is going to be a big part of that.” He went on to promise fans, “you’re going to be happy.” Another fan wanted to know when readers might see new “Ultimate X” issues. Cebulski explained that artist Arthur Adams, has “a very detailed, meticulous style” as well as a new baby which has “slowed him down.” But, Cebulski assured the crowd, “you’re going to see more ‘Ultimate X’ coming out very soon.”

(Top) Jeff Parker and C.B. Cebulski interact with the audience
(Bottom) Paul Tobin answers a question while Nick Spencer looks onBendis also excitedly related to fans his experience working on the first season of the “Ultimate Spider-Man” cartoon. With a pilot by Paul Dini, and several episodes written by himself, Bendis described the first season, due to air on Disney XD later this year, as “funny” and “breaking all the rules.” “It’s much more akin to ’30 Rock’ or ‘Arrested Development’ than any other superhero show.” In response to a fan request to see Rocket Raccoon in the future, Bendis replied, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Rocket Raccoon turned up in the ‘Ultimate Spiderman’ cartoon — that’s the level of nerdiness that we’re at.”

As for the fate of other fan favorite characters, Cebulski confirmed plans to bring back popular X-Men villain Omega Red while assuring another fan that there are “big plans for the X-Men in 2012 and ‘X-Factor’ is going to play a big role.” He later added, “The end of this year and next year are going to be big” in terms of the X-Men.

When asked what character fans should keep an eye on in 2011, Bendis replied without hesitation, “Moon Knight.” Others listed were Hope from “X-Men,” Ultimate Spider-Man and Dani Moonstar, with Tobin adding, “M.O.D.O.K. — always M.O.D.O.K..” Cebulski assured a fan that Marvel has “interesting things” planned for Venom, saying, “there’s a new person the symbiote is attached to and there’s some cool things planned.” Additionally, Cebulski said fans can look forward to “all things Thor and Captain America” because of Marvel’s “Fear Itself” event. He assured one Thor fan that “Fear Itself” revolves heavily around all things Asgardian,” adding, “Wait and see. There’s some cool things in store, but I don’t want to give too much away.” Bendis quickly added, “And you’re gonna love the movie!”

To a question about how artists looking to work for Marvel should go about it, Cebulski said that he looks for talent at art schools, conventions, Facebook and has even “hired someone from Twitter.” “The best thing you can do,” he said, “is brand yourself. The more exposure you get for yourself, the better your chance that we’ll find you.”

In terms of the future of distribution, the panelists were excited about the possibilities to be explored with digital comics and to discuss ways in which, as Bendis said, “the language of comics” might change as a result. Spencer was passionate about the possibilities, explaining “the page has changed now. We can break out of the panel grid, but still make it sequential storytelling.” He seemed intrigued by the prospects of “breaking the rules” with digital comics. Bendis mentioned a signing he did recently in which he was “literally signing digital comics.” But for readers who prefer comics in book form, he said of digital, “It’s not going to replace the books, we love the books. And as long as there’s enough people buying the books, we’ll make the books.” Cebulski added that Marvel is committed to keeping both retailers and readers of physical books, and those who like digital comics, equally happy.

ECCC: Marvel’s Pint O’ C.B. Panel

C.B. Cebulski welcomed the Emerald City Comicon audience to what he called the “Marvel Panel Part 2, where we open this up as a Marvel Q and A.” He explained that Joe Quesada, “The Chief Creative Officer of Marvel World Wide Inc started this so that you could pick our brains about Marvel. We’re here to talk about what you want to talk about. It’s your time to shine.”

With this mission statement clearly in place he let the writers on the panel introduce themselves:

“I’m Ed Brubaker. I write ‘Captain America,’ I’m just wrapping up my work on ‘Secret Avengers’ and some other things that I can’t talk about,” said the writer. He informed the audience that, starting with the next issue of “Captain America” he will be writing a full 30 pages for each issue, so there will be no more back up stories. He hinted at some great storylines in #616 (the 70th anniversary issue) and doing “something experimental with the form, that we can play with” in all of those extra pages.

“At Icon” he added, “Sean and I are just wrapping up the ‘Incognito’ series ‘Bad Influences’ and in June will start ‘Criminal: The Last of the Innocents.'”

Next up was Associate Editor Lauren Sankovitch. “Currently I’m working on ‘Avengers,’ ‘Secret Avengers,’ ‘Children’s Crusade,’ ‘Captain America,’ ‘FF,’ ‘Secret Warriors’ and various other things.”

Brian Michael Bendis introduced his work for Marvel like ‘Avengers’ and ‘New Avengers’ and the news that “Moon Knight” will be starting in May. “For Icon I co-created ‘Powers,’ ‘Scarlet’ and ‘Takio'” and promised “a big Icon announcement in two weeks.” Bendis then thanked the audience for supporting his work.

Matt Fraction introduced himself as the writer of books like “Avengers”, “Invincible Iron Man”, “Thor” and said that he is currently “architecting the shit out of ‘Fear Itself,’ which destroys everything you know and love.”

Up last was Jonathan Hickman, the writer of “FF” (previously “Fantastic Four”), “Secret Warriors” and “S.H.I.E.L.D.” With the introductions out of the way, C.B. Cebulski opened the floor up to the audience, asking “What’s on your minds?”

The first question was a thought-provoking one. “With Death being thrown around, is there any line you won’t cross?”

Matt Fraction answered first with a quick fire, “Killing babies.” Bendis chucklingly added that “Millar will throw babies out of windows.” Hickman continued, “I draw the line at infanticide. But really, the story is never about the death, it’s about life about how the hero escapes death. You know Indiana Jones isn’t going to die with the big boulder in the first four minutes of the film, but it’s about the cliff hanger.”

Fraction joked “I’m gonna kill John [Hickman] and see if he gets out of that,” which elicited a fair amount of laughter.

An audience member yelled, “Why don’t you make Peter Parker hook up with Flash Thomspon?”

Bendis fired back that, “It already happened, it was off panel.”

As to the question of bringing back Nightcrawler, Matt Fraction said, “it’s on the table. I can’t tell you how sad the room was when we realized that we were going to have to do this.”

“Nightcrawler’s death has been special. There is someone out there who sends a postcard to Marvel every day. They have a tail and messages like ‘Bring me back,'” said Cebluski. These have gone all the way up, from writers to editors to Editor-in-Chief.” The suggestion was made that when Nightcrawler comes back “We should print these.” And Bendis sarcastically added, “Yeah, you should encourage this behavior!”

Sankovitch joked that when another character died, a fan sent Marvel a cake requesting their revival, which worked. “He’s back… so people like cake,” she brightly suggested.

Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker and Lauren Sankovitch address the audience. (Photo by Michael Harring)

Fraction nervously asked about poisoned cake, but Sankovitch fired back “That’s why we give it to the interns!” to much laughter.

It wasn’t long before the topic of continuity came up. A fan asked, “Where is the sense of timeline? Back in the day, things made sense. Now it doesn’t make sense.”

“Here’s the Joe [Quesada] answer,” Bendis offered, and noted that the audience might not like it. “That’s one of those things the fans remember as better than it was, but there were a lot of other things that didn’t match up. You’ve just got to go with it.” Bendis continued by using the example of Wolverine. “Yes, the day he’s in my book, he’s posessed by the Eye of Agamato, but it is not on the same day he’s in hell. Even if you buy the books at the same time, it is not happening at the same time.”

Fraction added that he had worked out how long would it take Wolverine to fly from East to West in the Blackbird, it would be about two hours. He added, “I had to put that in my head so that I could understand that.”

“You know that movie ‘Up in the Air?'” asked a smiling Bendis. “I wanted Clooney to go to the [frequent flyer] club and the only other guy that’s there is Logan.”

Jonathan Hickman quietly said he “created a timeline to find out when things would happen” when he first began working at Marvel and concluded “there is no proportional, divisible amount that you can come up with a solid, constructable timeline that you can create in the Marvel Universe.” His colleagues chuckled and responded, “Of course you did.”

“Never confuse publishing schedules with continuity (to quote Bendis),” Brubaker warned. Fraction backed him up asking, “What war did the Punisher fight in? If it is Vietnam, are people really afraid of a 63 year-old man.”

When the next questioner began his question with the words “Agents of Atlas…” C.B. Cebulski leapt in, finishing the thought for him with, “Why did you cancel it?”

“Actually if you read ‘Fear Itself: The Homefront,’ you will see the ‘Agents of Atlas.’ They’re still around,” answered Sankovitch. “And they’ve got a flying saucer.”

Another questioner said “I asked this last year and it’s really stupid, but would anyone be open to using Mr. Fixit?” C.B. Cebulski was quick to point out that Mr. Fixit had already been used in either the second or third volume of the Loeb “Hulk” collection.

Asked about whether Marvel has an official policy regarding thought balloons, Cebulski advised the questioner to “Read one of Ed [Brubaker]’s books and it’s there,” positing that the way that narrative captions and speech bubbles are currently being used “is basicaly the same as a thought balloon. It’s a tool that we still use, but in a different way.”

“I used them in ‘Mighty Avengers’ to think about the language and see why they went away…” Bendis added. Citing Wolverine again as an example, “We remembered them at their worst… There’s a twenty line word balloon over his head while he’s slicing something. It grinds the action down to nothing, so we got rid of this. But I had them be almost like subtitles, like in ‘Annie Hall’ where you know what they’re thinking while they talk, but I found that it cluttered up the page.”

An amused Bendis laughs with the crowd. (Photo by Michael Harring)

When the audience member suggested the trend was somehow associated with a need to make comic books more similar to movies, Brubaker disagreed. “We do still have narration, more than you would get in a movie” and chalked it up to personal taste. “When I was working with Bryan Hitch, he doesn’t like to use sound effects except for stuff happening off-panel.” To which C.B. Cebulski added, “Or like Frank Quitely, where the sound effects are really integrated into the art.”

Cebulski brought the discussion back to the original question, saying “[Mark] Waid on ‘Impulse’ was my favorite use of thought ballooons. There’s a place for it.” Bendis reminisced, “On ‘Mighty Avengers,’ I thought I might end it with an all thought balloon issue.” but that he had to stop using thought balloons because of the “Secret Invasion” event.

Asked for examples of good and bad death in comics, Cebulski was quick off the mark, congratulating Ed Brubaker for his work on the death of Captain America. “Ed explored his story organically, said Cebulski. “We told Ed to bring him back, but he didn’t know when he would. He had to go where the story was going.”

Brubaker began to offer a bad example of death in comic books “Oh yeah, the death of Superma-” but stopped short of saying the character’s name to much laughter adding, “I probably shouldn’t talk about bad examples, eh?”

“You know what the best was? The death of Elektra,” said Bendis. “There was no marketing, no event, it just happened.”

Brubaker sheepishly added, “There’s no bad way to do it, really.”

Next a fan asked about the changing art teams on “Ultimate Spider-Man.” “You had Mark Bagley. Why did you switch to the other guy? I see Stuart [Immonen], and I see Mark and I see this guy who… I don’t want to say sucks, but I don’t like him.”

“I was lucky enough to have that run wtih Mark Bagley,” replied Bendis, “but he was originally scheduled to be off the book by issue #6… From #6 to #111 I got him to stay. Then Stuart [Immonen]… Stuart is one of my all-time favorite artists. He showed that he was about to hit his peak of awesomeoness, and I knew we needed him on ‘Avengers,’ so we moved him on to that.”

“David LaFuente is amazing; a Spanish, Manga-influenced artist. Where else do you find that?” continued Bendis. “The only downside is that he’s not able to do a monthly. I have a wide berth of things that I like on comics. I just adore the work that he did and I saw the comments, but people have comments on everyone.” He reminisced about reading the letter columns in old copies of the “Fantastic Four” which were “filled with hate mail for Jack Kirby, even calling him lazy for only working on three monthly comics!”

When a fan asked how Marvel could kill the Sentry, essentially the Marvel version of Superman, Bendis saracstically replied, “Superman wouldn’t last two minutes in the Marvel Universe” to much laughter from the audience.


Matt Fraction was asked what “Fear Itself” is actually about. “The Red Skull discovers that Odin isn’t the All Father. She frees him and is transformed into a deity for it,” said the writer. The rest of the panel took comedic issue at this uncharacteristic news item in the Q and A session and chuckled at Fraction’s choice.

A very obvious question from one gentleman was, “Are there any creators interested in taking a crack at ‘Miracle Man?'” “All of us!” replied the panel in unison, moving quickly on.

Ed Brubaker answers questions. (Photo by Michael Harring)

“What about the villains?” asked the next audience member. “You broke up H.A.M.M.E.R., but I was excited to see where Norman Osborn was going.”

Cebulski reminded him there was currently an ‘Osborn’ series before Bendis chimed in on H.A.M.M.E.R. “This newest series of the ‘Avengers’ has him in jail, but that, doesn’t mean he’s gone,” said Bendis. “His followers are still there… in ‘Dark Reign,’ he was everywhere, we got to a zenith with it. Now you’ve got to chill with it and then see what’s going on.”

Matt Fraction commented that “the ending was a stunner.”

The questioner continued “Did anyone every decide what H.A.M.M.E.R. stands for?” eliciting catcalls and laughter from the crowd.

A straight-faced Bendis answered, “I totally forgot to do that.” Brubaker quipped, “Hair… apples… monkey… monkey…” trailing off into laughter.

Asked why there were less stories centered around new characters, Brubaker explained that the choice was financial. “The market doesn’t support [new characters].” Hickman added, “We’d love to though…”

On the other hand, Bendis advised “Take a look at what is going on in the creator-owned world,” where he suggested more risks are being taken.

“I’ve done nothing but [work with new characters] for years, but even if you look at ‘Secret Warriors,’ as soon as I started the book I knew that it wasn’t going to last… With that little bit of rope we started that new book “S.H.I.E.L.D.” with Tony Stark’s dad and Reed Richard’s dad.”

“Finally, dads!” Fraction fired back.

“Sometimes it just takes a while for these new characters to ease into prominence. So be patient,” Bendis said.

Noting some of the changes to Peter Parker’s character, a fan asked if there would be more of the scientist Parker in his future. “We saw that in ‘Iron Man,’ so yes, that’s going to happen more and more,” Fraction said. Brubaker added that the lab he works at would also be cropping up more often in the Marvel Universe.

Up next was a popular question with the audience: “Are you going to introduce any gay, lesbian or transgender characters?”

Fraction noted that there was a gay character in ‘Iron Man’ #502, trailing off as he questioningly added, “and in X-Men…?” Brubaker noted that J.M. DeMatteis made Captain America’s best friend gay and that “Children’s Crusade” features gay characters who will be absorbed into the rest of the Marvel Universe.

“I would love to see some transgender characters,” continued the questioner. Fraction countered by saying, “I’d love to see some transgender writers… there’s really only so much I can do.”

The next fan asked about the decision-making process when planning an event. He wanted to know how heroes were chosen, and how the effects of an event would ripple through the rest of the Marvel U. Cebulski was clear that “It happens in the room and is dissemenated to the writers.” He added that it’s “a very orgainic process and there’s a lot of communication.”

Panel moderator C.B. Cebulski. (Photo by Michael Harring)

“There may be some characters that have a larger role, but we’re always thinking, ‘So how does this affect my character, how can we best get into the story, and make sure it is a worthwhile event for the readers,'” added Sankovitch.

“It is a teamwork kind of atmosphere,” Hickman said. “We send art back and forth, see what we’re working on for the next few months.”

The final question was a loaded one, implying that comic books aren’t as successful as film or video games because of the way they’re released on a monthly basis, episodically, “and then you wait for the trade to come out. Don’t you think that is why you don’t have the big events that other mediums have?”

“There are original graphic novels,” said Bendis, and Cebulski noted the mediums are different. “Video games have years of hype.”

The questioner responded, “But the [monthly event] issue comes out, and you can’t get new comic fans to buy it without buying all the others.”

“This way it hits on all fronts,” Bendis explained.

“It’s a completely different medium, “Said Brubaker. “For example, ‘The Bourne Identity’ book came out years before the films. You aren’t talking about that.”

“Ultimately, we sell apples not oranges.” countered Cebulski. With that defining comment on the medium, the panel was out of time and the animated audience filed out.

ECCC: Marvel’s “The Architects” Panel

Earlier this year, Marvel Comics labeled a group of its top-tier creators as “The Architects;” this included Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman and Jason Aaron. These individuals were given this unique moniker by the publisher as they were “the writers and artists telling the most exciting and impactful stories that rock the Marvel Universe to its very core every month.”

On Saturday at the 2011 Emerald City Comicon, these Architects appeared at a packed panel to discuss their plans for the Marvel U. The only creator from the group that wasn’t able to attend was Jason Aaron, but a panelist drew a picture of the writer so his 2D presence could be felt. Joining this “brain trust” for Marvel were Editor Lauren Sankovitch and SVP Creator & Content Development C.B. Cebulski, who served as a moderator (when the ebullient writers allowed him the chance to speak).

After an introduction of all the panelists, attendees quickly lined up behind a microphone on the floor to ask questions of the group. The first fan to speak indicated that he was a huge fan of “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man” artists David Lafuente and Sara Pichelli, and wanted to know where he could see more of their work when original “Ultimate Spider-Man” artist Mark Bagley takes over art chores during the “Death of Spider-Man” arc.

“Both of them are brilliant,” Bendis responded. “I think Sara Pichelli is the find of the year. Me and Sara have a very, very large project coming out in the fall, and we’re hard at work at it right now.

“David Lafuente and I will be doing some annuals and specials coming up over the next year or two. David is an amazing artist; he just isn’t — right now — a monthly artist with the style he does. I want him on special projects so he shines like he did on that first annual he drew.”

Cebulski quickly added, “In the meantime, not to give too much away, David Lafuente is working on something new and mutanty.”

The next question concerned a trend that’s been growing in the Pacific Northwest: real-life superheroes — everyday people dressing up as superheroes and fighting real crime. Several of these “heroes” were at the convention this weekend, and the fan at the microphone heard Bendis had the opportunity to meet one of the bigger celebrity heroes from Seattle, Phoenix Jones.

Bendis did confirm that there was a run-in… sort of. “It was just me and my daughter, and Phoenix Jones was standing there,” Bendis explained. “I was torn between really wanting to meet him and realizing that there’s a crazy person in a costume with weapons standing near my kid. So I just wanted to protect my kid and left.”

Attendees laughed and clapped at this reaction. Bendis continued, “I did meet the Portland real superheroes today, and the Seattle real superheroes are here, and if me and Ed don’t walk out of here creating a real-life superhero Civil War, then we haven’t done our job.”

More laughter ensued, while the next fan took his turn at the mic. He wanted to know more about the X-Men’s future plans. As the team has been through so much over the past year, he was wondering what new direction the X-books could possibly take.

Matt Fraction touched on the future of the X-Men franchise and “Fear Itself.” (Photo by Michael Harring)

Fraction smiled at this and replied, “Boy, 2012 is a great year to answer that question. We have a really big idea that ate up two and a half days of our lives recently. It’s the whole murder-marriage-death-birth cycle/saga, yet bigger and better and onwards and upwards.

“With all the [X-Men] storylines in the next twelve months, you’ll start to see that they’re all converging towards a single point. You’ll see… we’re getting there. Almost all the pieces are on the board.”

With that, the talk moved from mutants to monsters and magic. An attendee asked if readers could hope to see more monsters and Dr. Strange, especially with regard to the upcoming “Fear Itself” event.

Fraction answered that the odds of Dr. Strange appearing in the event were “very good,” and while he couldn’t promise monsters, he did say, “I think there’s a great Man-Thing story waiting to happen in all of this.”

Bendis also aimed to please the fan, and said that Dr. Strange “is a big part of ‘New Avengers’ and there’s been a lot of magic going on, particularly in the first arc. We’re going to return to that down the line.”

And if that wasn’t enough, Cebulski chimed in, “If you’re a fan of Monster Island, the current arc of ‘Astonishing X-Men’ by Daniel Way and Jason Pearson is called ‘Monsters,’ and that’s exactly where it takes place.”

The discussion then veered from monsters and the astral plane to the Milky Way and beyond, as the next questioner wanted to know about the status of Marvel’s Cosmic Universe. Sankovitch fielded this one and said, “Right now we have the ‘Annihilators’ miniseries out with a nice little back-up featuring Rocket Raccoon and Groot. Any fans out there?”

The audience applauded, with several fans shouting out “Rocket Raccoon!”

“There’s some pretty wild stuff coming up with the cosmic universe, though it may take a little more time to come out, but have no fear, there are some really big plans in the mix,” Sankovitch replied. “If you’ve been following ‘Fantastic Four,’ there’s many things that Jonathan [Hickman] has set in play. Some of them have come to fruition, and there are still many more surprises on the way… and some things in store for the Inhumans, so keep your eyes open”

“In the first arc of ‘Mighty Thor’ that starts in April — which is me, Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales and Laura Martin — Galactus comes to Asgard,” said Fraction. “So…Silver Surfer, Galactus, Thor and Asgardians!”

The cosmic query was followed by a fan asking if Iron Fist would return to the mystical side of kung fu, along the lines of the stories that Fraction and Brubaker wrote together. Fraction responded, “Read ‘Fear Itself’ #4 and stay tuned.”

On the topic of writing partnerships, a request was made of Brubaker to re-team with Greg Rucka and co-write another “Daredevil” story as they did in the past. Brubaker responded as if he were game: “That’d be awesome at some point. I just ran into him this morning. What do you want? I’m an architect. I can build it.”

This drew laughs from the audience, and the writer further explained, “The ‘Daredevil’ thing was really just because artist Michael [Lark] and I were doing it and I thought how cool it would be since Greg was off his DC exclusive — ‘Hey, let’s do a ‘Gotham Central’ reunion on ‘Daredevil.” So we did.”

Suddenly, Fraction grinned and looked over to Brubaker. “Hey, would it be a stupid idea to do a Hell’s Kitchen precinct-type book?”

“I would totally do that in a heartbeat,” Brubaker quickly replied.

Fraction looked to the audience and asked, “What do you say — ‘Hell’s Precinct?'” The crowd applauded loudly. Things went no further than this, but fans can always hope…

Jonathan Hickman answers a question as Bendis laughs. (Photo by Michael Harring)

Next was an attendee who brought up the fact that Hickman’s “Secret Warriors” would soon be ending. He wanted to know if there would be another book focusing on espionage and intrigue which would take its place.

While Hickman couldn’t think of any, Bendis did have an answer that attempted to satisfy: “In ‘New Avengers’ #10 that’s out this week, we see a big secret chapter in the history of Nick Fury — what Nick Fury was doing just before S.H.I.E.L.D. came and got him and put him in place. And he was Nazi-hunting, and he was putting together an Avengers Initiative. We’re going to meet with those Avengers, and you can see what they were doing that’s super-secret and how it affects the Avengers today. It’s awesome.”

After this, a fan wanted clarification on the impact of the mutant Hope to the X-Men’s universe and asked if the character would reverse what the Scarlet Witch had done and “power-up” depowered mutants.

“Well, she did reverse what the Scarlet Witch had done, she just didn’t reverse continuity,” Fraction explained. “The Scarlet Witch said, ‘No more mutants.’ Hope said, ‘Mutants.’ So now there are new mutants being born again. As for the old de-powered mutants coming back? Um, no. But there are mutant births again.”

The questioner also asked if Scarlet Witch would be interacting with the X-Men universe soon, to which Fraction answered, “Yeah, that is happening in June in ‘Children’s Crusade,’ and it is absolutely worth the wait.”

Daredevil was the next topic on the docket, with a fan asking if Daredevil will ever join the “New Avengers.”

Bendis cryptically said, “That’s a very good question.” The writer then followed up by saying there would be a big announcement involving Moon Knight, Daredevil, and the Punisher at C2E2. Whether this announcement was one news item concerning all three characters or separate announcements regarding each individually was unclear.

The writer also assured the crowd that he was still working on “Daredevil: End of Days” with David Mack, Bill Sienkiewicz and Klaus Janson. He promised the book “will be happening sometime in our lives.”

Fraction jokingly added, “It’s not just a title, it’s a shipping date.”

Speaking of projects Bendis is working on, a reader who was somewhat new to comics wanted to know more about the writer’s upcoming “Moon Knight” series. Since he wasn’t extremely familiar with the character, he wanted to know what he could expect from the series. Bendis was happy to oblige with details.

“Alex [Maleev] and I are debuting a brand-new ‘Moon Knight’ series in May. The first issue is double-sized, and it’s beautiful. The storyline will involve Moon Knight reinventing himself. He’ll be setting up shop in L.A., using his Moon Knight stories to create a Xena-like… syndicated show, where he’s pretty much telling everyone his secrets under the guise of making a fortune off of it, and using that fortune to battle the new Kingpin of Los Angeles.

“What you’re going to see is that there’s been a large migration of criminals coming to the west coast, because… why on earth would you do anything in New York? There’s seven thousand superheroes there. Why on earth would you try to make a living as a crook there? So there’s a new Kingpin that will be unveiled.

“Also, Moon Knight will be reinventing his personality disorder, because now that he’s more a part of the Marvel Universe — he’s been an Avenger, a Secret Avenger and a West Coast Avenger — his personalities will take on that of Captain America, Spider-Man, and Wolverine, and he’ll be using their personalities to kind of become a one-man Avengers team and go out and drive criminals insane with his insaneness. And I’m very excited about the book… but if you really want to be entertained, go online and watch Moon Knight fans rip me a new a-hole.”

Jason Aaron, not exactly in attendance… (Photo by Michael Harring)

As Moon Knight was moving to L.A., another fan asked if he would be bumping into the Runaways team. Bendis replied, “Not right away, only because there’s some Runaways plans that I don’t want to get in the way of. I’m a huge Runaways fan, and I want them to sing their song. So once that’s all set up and established, that would be a lot of fun, because who doesn’t want little kids around a crazy person?”

One panelist who was neglected during all this was the two-dimensional drawing of Jason Aaron, so one fan took it upon himself to ask Aaron a question. The query turned out to be somewhat involved and lengthy, which prompted Fraction to ask, “Is anybody else getting scared?”

To assist the attendee, however, Fraction did try to call Jason Aaron with his cell phone. He didn’t reach the writer, but did receive a text message from him after a few minutes. Fraction announced that the text said the “Wolverine” writer was in the middle of a screening of “Rango.”

This moment of brevity was followed by a question regarding one of Fraction’s older series — “Dark X-Men.” A fan mentioned that Nate Grey (X-Man) was taken away at the end of the book’s story and hadn’t been seen since. They wanted to know if they could hope for another appearance from the character. Fraction told them to read “X-Men: Legacy.”

Another X-Universe devotee wanted to know what was in store for “X-Factor.” While writer Peter David wasn’t in attendance at the panel, Cebulski did his best to answer. He explained that David has been on the book for quite awhile, has done some crazy and great stories, and still has a lot more planned.

“Spider-Man is going to be coming into the book for a short period of time, so you’re going to see X-Factor playing a bigger role in the Marvel Universe,” Cebulski said. “I know Peter really tries to keep the book grounded in the real world and deal with real-life issues, and there are a couple things that we’ve been debating coming up in the book whether he can do them or not — it’s some pretty controversial stuff, but Marvel’s always been known to address real issues in the real world and we’re hoping that, with a writer of Peter’s caliber, he’s going to tell some very powerful stories that are going to be moving to a lot of different people.”

With the mention of Spider-Man appearing in “X-Factor,” the next fan to the mic had a good segue for his question: “Will you ever address how Spider-Man can be on so many teams in so many different books?” Without skipping a beat, Bendis jumped forth with a response. “I’ll tell you right now — it’s our big event for next year. We’re going to reveal that the clone saga never ended.”

The audience howled with laughter as the attendee that followed made a plea which seems to come with every comic convention – will the licensed character Rom ever be seen in a Marvel comic again?

It wasn’t just the questions that were colorful at this panel. (Photo by Michael Harring)

Bendis was the panelist who would also tackle this, albeit a bit more seriously than the previous inquiry. “I’ll tell you this: In ‘Avengers’ #12.1 drawn by Bryan Hitch — it’s almost double-sized for $2.99 coming out in April… Space Knight.” Fans looked at one another in a surprised fashion, but the architect wouldn’t expand on that answer.

The final question of the day was a cute one, and came from a young child who was no older than twelve. They wanted to know why Ed Brubaker killed Captain America “when every hero who dies just ends up coming back.”

The audience and panelists enjoyed the kid’s perspective. Fraction responded first in saying, “It’s because Ed Brubaker hates America.”

Bendis laughed and commented, “It’s like young Brubaker has traveled forward in time to talk to old Brubaker.”

Brubaker realized he couldn’t escape this fan without a response and said, “Why did we kill Captain America? I just couldn’t figure out what to do with him after ‘Civil War.'”

The child didn’t seem quite satisfied with any of the answers, but was still pleased with the attention his query received. Attendees to the panel, however, appeared very satisfied with this extremely entertaining chat with Marvel’s Architects as the panel concluded.