Saturday at high noon Marvel Comics held their Mondo Marvel panel at Emerald City ComiCon. In attendance were Joe Quesada, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jeff Parker, Rick Remender, Paul Tobin, Joe Kelly and CB Cebulski.
The first question out of the gate was will Spider-Man and MJ ever be back together as a married couple? Joe Quesada fielded that one with a quick “No.” He elaborated that they worked too hard to get Peter where he is now. He can understand why readers want it back, but as cool as it may seem the marriage handcuffs the character. It’s problematic. It ages Peter Parker and makes him tough to write about. When Peter is happy and gets everything he wants the book gets very boring. Having to come up with way to get MJ and Peter at odds in their marriage made it unhealthy. He also acknowledged that the Spider-Man stories now may seem to retread old stories, but it’s new to the next generation of readers.
Heroic Age: Brian Michael Bendis is excited about the upcoming Avengers stories. Just because Avengers and the Marvel Heroes are back together doesn’t mean the world is a good place. It also doesn’t mean everyone is pals again and don’t have issues with each other.
The next fan asked about the Creative Process that Marvel employs. Quesada said that for him it starts before the writer summits. He feels the big crossovers need a break, the storytelling challenge is keeping the Marvel line exciting if you back away from them. Basically, he told the creators to take a look at their books and treat them like a self-contained story and tell the biggest possible stories. Eventually they will revisit big company-wide event.
Are the plans for Dan Slot at Marvel? Yes, stay tuned.
Rick Remender was asked about the thinking behind Frankencastle. The storyline was born out of the fact that he felt Frank should take a hit during Dark Reign. At the same time he came up with Monster Metropolis and it became an opportunity to connect Frank with the monsters and have fun.
Matt Fraction was asked about his plans for Thor. Spacey and Big was the words he used. And Jewish (He was kidding about that last one). He was iInterested in exploring the character’s duality as a god wearing a man suit and a man wearing a god suit. Things that he’s already planning to explore are the God-tree and the other Nine Worlds. Fraction is a big fan of the Lee/Kirby Thor. Expect his run to be a sci-fi/barbarian/metal/explosion meld.
The next question was one often asked, will the Disney/Marvel merger have any bearing on the movies and cartoonsas well as the comics? Quesada was very quick to say that from all indications, Marvel will continue to run as it has always run. They now have the ability to use the power of Disney, but the books and movies will be as they have been. Following that up, the price of books will not go down.
In regards to a charge from a fan that the Marvel U as a whole gone though some big downs, the panel replied that the stories are better when the characters get backed into a corner. In the Stan Lee days there was always some tension and apprehension between the characters meeting. Civil War brought that back, it was done on purpose to bring that back.
Moving on to a question about the current state of affairs in X-Men, Matt Fraction mostly repled that everyone should keep reading. The timeline of the X-Men books over the next couple of months follows the end of Nation X, then Second Coming, followed by an Heroic Age special. Second coming is a giant story, so many big things happen.
Bendis answered a questioned about New Avengers by reiterating that the current series wraps up in New Avengers Finale, which he says is an awesome, triple-sized wrap up to the first series. New Avengers #1 is stunning.
In the world of Spider-Man there is a story in the works that will fill in the blanks from the end of One More Day with what MJ asked Mephisto. That will happen this year. Asked if Gwen Stacy was ever coming back, Quesada revealed that it had long ago been talked during OMD. Joe Straczynski and Quesada had wanted to, but it was finally decided not to.
It was at this point that the panel revealed they were leaving nasty notes to the DC folks in the panel that was scheduled next.
Returning to Thor, a fan asked whatever happened to Thunderstrike? No plans for Thunderstrike.
Concerning his upcoming arc in the returning Avengers book, Bendis stated that Kang breaks the space-time continuum and we will Old Man Logan, Next Avengers and all kinds of alternate universes and characters.
One fan wanted to know when the Runaways were coming back. No plans right now, but Marvel is trying to find right time.
In response to an Agents of Atlas fan, Quesada said they are proud of the book, citing that as the main reason why they are publishing it.
An Iraq War vet asked about Captain America, specifically wanting to know why Quesada apologized for the controversy in Captain America #602. Quesada said to read the whole “apology” as he recognized that they made a mistake in naming a comic protest group as a real life group. They didn’t meant to. That’s what the apology was about. He thinks the claims of racisms and such are not warranted. The apology was taken wrong by the media. As a whole, Marvel would like to steer clear of political beliefs, except when the characters dictate it. He firmly believes that if you show one side, then you should show the other side as well.
Asked about the status of several teams, Quesada said we would see Young Avengers sooner rather than later, Loners is in the works and New Warriors is possible with a strong hint to wait for future announcements.
Ending with the Hulk family of books, Quesada said he is happy with the way they’ve developed the Hulk extended cast and that will play into future plans for the books. Also, no plans for a return of Mr. Fixit.