MEGACON: JOE QUESADA PANEL

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada defended the company's recent push for variant covers on Friday during the first of his two panels at MegaCon.

"We're being very judicious," Quesada said. "I'm not a great fan of them, but I'm a business man. Fans are saying they want these and if somebody says they want these and they'll pay the money, we owe it to ourselves and the retailers. When retailers say they want these, we should meet the demand."

In other notes from the panel:

* On The Sentry being in New Avengers: "The time is right now for The Sentry. He sort of takes the position of Thor in the group as the powerhouse. It will be interesting to see what kind of powerhouse he becomes."

* Quesada said an "internal" question had to be answered regarding the Wha... Huh? one-shot.

"The book pokes fun at everybody," Quesada said. "Everybody outside of Marvel was shown the scripts."

* On the new Iron Man series: "We had to put the genie back in the bottle. It doesn't alter the origin that much. It sort of refreshes the origin."

* Quesada said that it won't be necessary to overuse Spider-Man and Wolverine as sales magnets as much because the Marvel titles are showing their own strength.

* Quesada said original graphic novels don't fit Marvel's fiscal philosophies.

* Events in the Spider-Man books will reflect a more intertwined Marvel Universe, Quesada said.

* Asked if there were more projects involving Doctor Doom and if Robert Kirkman will be having new projects, Quesada said yes to both.

* Quesada said that recent research by Marvel indicates that if kids don't read comics when they're 8 to 10 years old, it's unlikely they'll be interested if they see their first comic at age 12.

"We have to reach 10-year-old kids," Quesada said. "If we do that, we will have a huge influx of new readers coming in the next four or five years."

* Asked if Young Avengers is Marvel's answer to Teen Titans, Quesada said that the only similarity between the books is that they feature teenage heroes. He noted that the Young Avengers' roster will expand, even by the second issue.

* There will be Thor-related material because the character returns in a new book.

* Quesada said the biggest surprise lately has been the response to the Arana character. "To this day, my phone has not stopped ringing from the mainstream press asking about the character," he said.

* Quesada said he wants to see how the X-23 trade paperback does before determining if there will be more X-23 comics.

* Quesada on The House of M: "It's going to have huge ramifications. It's really going to change a lot of stuff."

* Quesada said that while Black Panther in the past has been a "reactionary" title, events in the new Black Panther title will impact the rest of the Marvel Universe and that the Black Panther will be interacting with other black characters.

* A Son of Satan title would be "impossible" in today's marketplace, Quesada said, but it's possible the character might be used again.