SDCC 2011: Marvel Cup O'Joe

Here we go! It's time for my annual wrap up of the Marvel Cup O'Joe panel at Comic-Con. I don't know anything about comics, so this may not make any sense. The panel features Joe Quesada--Chief Creative Officer, Axel Alonso--Editor in Chief, Jeph Loeb--VP of television, David Gabriel, Arune Singh, and CB Cebulski, a man who looks so much like Guillermo Del Toro that I actually wrote down "Guillermo Del Toro" before they announced the panel members.

Their first announcement was the November 2011 arrival of Point 1 Issue 1, a 64 page oneshot that will be "the Rosetta Stone" of 2012, setting up the biggest stories and teasing the major event next year. Since finishing the Hulk, Ed McGuinness and Jeph Loeb have been looking for a new project to do together. Apparently when Loeb first arrived at Marvel, he spent three years working on a book called Cable. Now he and McGuinness have reteamed for Cable Reborn. It is a big story with ramifications throughout the Marvel Universe. Loeb sees Cable as "Captain America of the XMen." They are also starting a series called "Season 1." In March they'll release Fantsastic 4 in February, Daredevil in March, XMen in April, and Spiderman in May. Although the series was originally conceived for a digital format, they will be released as single oversize hardcover, just like other publishers have done, but theirs are going to be awesome, or so they say. It will be oriented toward a more mainstream audience that knows the characters through the movies and will have all the information they need to get caught up to speed in one volume. Since they are now Disney's bitches, they will release a John Carter of Mars prequel comic in October and a comic based on the TV show Castle in September. I'm sure none of you can wait for that Castle book. Stellar. The Ultimate Spiderman animated show is coming nest year. Drake Bell voices Spiderman and is the first Spiderman cartoon produced by Marvel using Marvel artists.

That's it for the announcements (mostly), so let's move on to the Q&A session. There is a live action Hulk in the works; will they be rererecasting the Hulk?They don't know yet, but it will be set very early, before everyone knows all about the Hul, and will focus on the relationship between Bruce and Betty. Someone asked why the original Wolverine series was so short and had three #1's. but no one knew what the hell that guy was talking about, so he didn't get an answer. Since one dude loved the Annihilators and the way it used Rocket Raccoon as a "back up," he wants to know if the have any plans to use lesser known characters as "back ups?" (Does anyone know what this means? Did they call Rocket Raccoon if the Annihilators phones went to voicemail or something?) There are plans for lesser characters all thought Marvel. The best way to resurrect cool characters is to put them in good stories. There's and Avengers book coming in Spetember that will answer the question, and a follow up to fear itself that will speak directly to that one dude. Maybe Rocket Raccoon could be an Xman. How does Shield tie into Marvel continuity? No one on the panel knows, but Jonathan shows up at creative summits with little notebooks filled with an entire mapper of the Marvel Universe, so it probably does. Some dude went up to the mike and just kissed Joe's ass and gave Captain America spoilers, so I'm not recapping his question. What's coming up for Deadpool? They are coming up on Deadpool 50 and will be introducing an Evil Deadpool character, made up of Deadpool's lost body part that have coagulated together into a whole that lacks any conscience. There may be crossovers on Marvel TV shows, but they don't really have many TV shows yet, so those will be in the future. If mutants come back what will Hope's role be? The CHildrens Crusade, Fear Itself, and The XMen wind up at the same time. It is no coincidence that Hope has red hair and green eyes. All eyes will be on Xmen in 2012 and Hope will be a big part of that. Are there any plans for an Xmen show? Marvel Anime will be debuting Ironman, Wolverine, Xmen, and Blade. Scott Porter will be playing Cyclops and douchebag extraordinaire Milo Ventimaglia will be Wolverine. Will Shield Agent Coulsen transition from the movies into the comic books? Just wait another ten minutes, kid. They haven't made any attempts to "test" Disney by releasing intentionally shocking information, but Deadpool Max is on the shelves, and Disney hasn't objected to that. If you liked Dark Avengers stay tuned to New Avengers. I like Puncher Max, are there any new Max titles coming out? Nick Fury Max will be coming out. They like Max titles, but it has to be a good fit with the character. There will probably never be a Spiderman Max. Anything new on the horizon for the Runaways? There are plans for individual characters to pop up, especially Nico and Moly, but they don't have any ideas for the whole group, because they aren't running away from anything anymore. Since Marvel has the Punisher rights back, are there any plans for a new movie. No immediate plans, but they are looking for the right project, maybe television? Will there be any movies featuring more diverse characters than all those white guys? (this question got a huge cheer) They have to deal with the icons first, or the "diverse" characters will fail. (Really, Quesada?) Anyway, the XMen are really diverse. (Especially the main featured ones like Wolverine, Deadpool, Xavier, Cyclops, Jean, Emma Frost, Beast, Rogue… oh, wait. Sorry, that answer kind of pissed me off.)

At this point, Quesada pretends he has some secret, stolen video that he isn't supposed to show us. It is Agent Coulsen discussing some debrief mission for "the Consultant" (Thor). Then it cuts off, and there's Agent Coulsen (Clark Gregg) and some Shield Agents pretending to arrest him. Gregg explains how he got a tiny part in Iron Man that got bigger in Iron Man 2, and then bigger in Thor, and bigger still in The Avengers. He will also be voicing Agent Coulson in the Ultimate Spiderman cartoon in a storyline that sees Spiderman (and a couple unnamed superheroes) going undercover in a high school; Coulson will go undercover as the principal. There are also two shorts featuring Agent Coulson, one of which will be on the Thor BluRay.

In the near future, you should keep your eyes on Cable, Hope and the Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Captain, Thor, Moonlight, Hawkeye, Red She Hulk, and Ultimate Spiderman. Plus whatever other character gets good.