Written by Kyle Wagner
Over the years, Joe Quesada’s Cup O’ Joe panel has become a highlight at cons, as famous for fans pulling no punches when face-to-face with Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief as for Quesada’s willingness to match fans’ snark with some good ol' fashioned New York City attitude of his own. While the panel typically contains some of the bigger Marvel announcements of the season, which is ostensibly why it draws such a big crowd, the unmitigated fan interaction rarely disappoints. This year was no exception.
The biggest news was the announcement of Takio, a new all-ages creator-owned series from Powers creators Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Oeming. Due in February 2011, Takio will be released in graphic novel format by Marvel’s Icon imprint. The series will focus on a pair of siblings, ages 7 and 13, who come from a multi-ethnic, adoptive household. Bendis said that one of the main reasons that he and Oeming wanted to do an all-ages book is that they are both coming off of darker projects and felt the need to change the pace a bit. Coupled with the success of Bendis’s other recent creator-owned project, Scarlet, they felt that now was the time to pull the trigger on Takio. Powers will be on hiatus while Takio is in production, and both titles will continue on an alternating schedule.
Speaking of Scarlet, the other big announcement involving Bendis to come out of the Cup O’ Joe panel was a new Moon Knight series being launched with Alex Maleev. Bendis promised that Scarlet would continue uninterrupted, which is made easier to believe due to the fact that it is already a bimonthly book. The book is being billed as a “reimagination of the character from the ground up” that will reestablish his place in the Marvel Universe.
A distinctly New York moment came when the first teaser image for Marvel’s partnership with ESPN appeared on the screen – the crowd lustily booed an image of a LeBron James comic. It probably didn’t help that the image that James, who spurned the local Knicks in free agency this summer, was superimposed onto a classic cover from Spider-Man, the quintessential New York superhero. It turned out to be a teaser for an NBA Preview issue, featuring Marvel royalty John Romita Sr. Quesada pitched the project as “marrying superhero iconography with NBA iconography,” which actually sounds pretty cool. Other images included Kobe Bryant holding a fully assembled Infinity Gauntlet – the five Infinity Gems signifying Bryant winning his fifth championship ring this June. The issue is due to be release October 22.
The last bit of nonsense was the announcement of “The Wacker Audition,” a serialized account of Spider-Man editor Steve Wacker’s audition for the new Spider-Man Broadway musical, “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark.” Wacker, who has helmed the hectic, thrice-monthly “Brand New Day” schedule of Amazing Spider-Man, apparently graduated with a degree in theatre, and his singing, dancing audition will be posted to Marvel.com over the next few weeks.
And then it was time for questions. After a few mostly polite questions, a young woman posed a question about Rogue’s apparent relationship with the Sentry, which quickly turned from public dressing down of the editorial department. After being interrupted while trying to answer, Quesada gave what amounted to a stern “You got spunk; I hate spunk” and continued to explain that Marvel puts out 80 titles a month with a relatively small editorial staff, and that occasionally things will slip past. Tom Brevoort, also present, added that in his opinion, there was more than enough time in both characters histories for the connection to happen, and Jeph Loeb suggested that, in line with the new practice of awarding Marvel “No Prizes” for coming up with convoluted ways that continuity gaffs could fit into continuity, perhaps her flippant remark that both characters would have to be “cheating whores” was in fact the simplest answer. Bendis concluded by saying that Rogue also slept with Layla Miller, a young female character whom the fan had previously thanked Bendis for creating.
The other big answer from the panel came from Jeph Loeb, who reiterated that someday, somehow, Captain America: White would, in fact, be released. While the title has become a running joke in the comics community, the popularity of Loeb and artist Tim Sale’s “color” line at Marvel is unquestioned, and Jeph added that once Cap White is complete, if Sale wants to continue the line, there is specific character already in line for the color treatment, though he couldn’t confirm which.
Other notable Marvel news from the week included that the next arc of Fantastic Four, “3,” would feature a significant death in the Marvel Universe; Jason Aaron and Ron Garney will release an Ultimate Captain America miniseries in January; the Thanos Imperative arc in the cosmic sector of the Marvel U is apparently bigger than we realized, and signifies the end of Abnett and Lanning’s run; Kathryn Immonen and Phil Noto have a Wolverine & Jubilee miniseries due in January; the next X-Men arc will begin to assimilate the X-Men into the greater Marvel Universe with a team-up with Spider-Man, another hero who recently had been sequestered in his own corner of the Universe following One More Day; Sara Pichelli will join the creative team of Ultimate Spider-Man with issue 150 and will alternate arcs with current artist David LaFuente; and finally, Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos will release an Alias miniseries in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Kyle Wagner is a comic book geek. He's been gaming long enough to know how to cheat at NES Track & Field and that CLVVRCEK is the password for the last level in Sega Genesis' Jurassic Park, but these days he can tell you more about Luke Cage's home life than Solid Snake's last mission.