WIZARD WORLD CHICAGO: AVENGERS PANEL

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Marvel Comics unveiled its New Avengers lineup -- sort of -- at its Avengers panel on Friday.

The cover to the first issue was shown, with seven characters in shadow. Identifiable were Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-Man and Wolverine. Another character was revealed to be The Sentry, and the other character wasn't identified.

Marvel publisher Dan Buckley told The Continuum that the image will be the lead image to Marvel's upcoming previews. "The Internet just broke," Buckley joked while unveiling the image.

Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis evoked Stan Lee's lineup change in Avengers #16 in describing the most recent shakeup.

"This book has always been about change and evolvement and new ideas and all throughout the history, it's been about big change," Bendis said. "It's like facing the modern world. We're gonna express that with some new characters and some new dynamics and some old dynamics. And what you see up on the screen is just a hint at what we can do. And execution is 95 percent of it, so you might be surprised by what you're going to see."

Bendis said he called Paul Jenkins, writer of The Sentry mini-series, to get approval for using the character.

"I said, 'He's a really fascinating character. Can I take him for a spin?'" Bendis said. "And he went, 'Yes, finally! I was waiting for someone to pick him up.' He is the most powerful hero in the Marvel Universe and is scared to leave his house. He's very, very interesting."

In regard to Spider-Woman, Bendis said that Jessica Drew was "the only cool" version of the character.

"She releases a pheromone that makes anyone in the room attracted to her. She doesn't know she's doing and they don't know that's what's happening," Bendis said. "And look at all those guys!"

Bendis also warned, "That's not the full team," in regard to the image and said that he has "87 classic villains" lined up, including the Masters of Evil, Wrecking Crew and U-Foes.

In other news from the Avengers panel:

* Bendis reiterated that Avengers #502 will have "a tragic, heroic and big death."

* Neal Adams is providing the cover to the double-sized Avengers Finale in early November.

"It's like what we call the last episode of M*A*S*H, where every character gets to have their moment and say a proper goodbye to the Avengers as we've known them," Bendis said. "Many, many big artists are doing a chapter, and it all comes together with a final chapter drawn by George Perez. It were very happy to have an Avengers tribute with Neil Adams on one end and George Perez on the other."

* Captain America and Iron Man relaunch in November with new No. 1 issues and respective creative teams of Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting and Warren Ellis and Adi Granov.

* Quesada said he has an open-ended relationship with Ellis for Iron Man. "If he would like to do the next 100 issues, that would be alright by me," he said.

* The New Thunderbolts will be by the same creative team of the Avengers/Thunderbolts: Fabian Nicieza, Kurt Busiek and Tom Grummett.

* Quesada described Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the mini-series by Joe Casey and Scott Kolins, as "the definitive look at how the Avengers assembled for the very, very first time." The eight-issue series will ship bi-weekly.

* Current Captain America writer Robert Kirkman and Kolins will move on to be the creative team on the new Marvel Team-Up title.

* Quesada said Young Avengers, by Allan Heinberg and Jimmy Cheung, remains his top new title.

* Buckley said he wasn't sure if the new She-Hulk series would be collected in a trade paperback or the digest format.

* Bendis said that there is news about Jessica Jones in other media coming by the end of the year. The character will be in the first issue of Young Avengers.

* Quesada said the Ant-Man mini-series written by Daniel Way will probably be released next year.

* C.B. Cebulski said there are plans for the New Warriors next year.