WIZARD WORLD TEXAS: JOE QUESADA PANEL

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada said that the upcoming Punisher movie is influenced heavily by "Welcome Back Frank" story arc.

"It's an amazing homage to Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon and Tim Bradstreet," Quesada said on Friday during his panel at Wizard World Texas. "They even took Garth to the set and watch them blow up cars."

Quesada said there is increased synergy between the publishing divison and Marvel Studios.

He was asked which comics film is his favorite.

"I think X-Men 2 is my favorite," Quesada said. "I'm not a huge X-Men fan' I've always been a Daredevil fan. I've enjoyed all the Marvel movies. But with X-Men 2, I think they took all that stuff and made an intelligent, cohesive, fun, rock-n-roll movie.

"I'm actually, in a perverse way, looking forward to Man-Thing. I've seen the screenplay, and it's a cool movie. It's a summer horror flick, I think it's gonna be a lot of fun.

"For me, though, in my mind's eye, I'm just waiting for the Iron Man adventure movie, because quite frankly visually that's just about the coolest movie ever."

Quesada also noted that the idea behind the Fantastic Four movie is "spectacular." "I think it's going to make Marvel fans very happy," he said.

In other news from the panel:

* There are plans for both Doctor Strange and Black Widow in 2004. Creative teams are to be announced.

* Quesada said that the quarterly shipping of Secret War, the five-part mini-series by Brian Michael Bendis and Gabriele Dell'Otto, is "a bit of marketing experiment on our part."

* The new writer of New X-Men? "You will find out soon enough," Quesada said.

* Quesada said he is on board to write NYX through #6. "I would like to go further, but it takes a lot of time, so we'll see," he said.

* Priest will be writing a Captain America/Falcon project.

* Quesada said the X-Men books are in for a shakeup. "They are going to be radically different than what they are now," he said. "We have lots of twists and turns in the spring of 2004."

* Details of Alan Davis' next Marvel project will be announced soon. "Who knows, maybe we can coax Alan into writing something for us, too," Quesada said.

* Plans are for the Ultimate Peter Parker never to leave high school.

* Look for more Marvel titles to go back to their original numbering, a la Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four. "With stuff like Avengers, we can see it happening," he said. "On the books where it's applicable, you will absolutely be seeing it."

* Kevin Smith has been in touch regarding finishing up the Spider-Man/Black Cat mini-series. Quesada said Terry Dodson, recently announced as artist of a new Spidey title with Mark Millar, will have first crack at finishing the story. "If he can't, then we'll have to find someone stylistically in the same vein," Quesada said.

* Quesada said he couldn't provide any insight into the recent downscaling of the Epic imprint. "It's like the trade paperback division," he said. "Epic operated out of its own office, so there's not much I can tell you about what's going on in Epic."