Thursday, January 26, 2006
BLACK PANTHER/STORM NEWS CONFERENCE
Marvel Comics staged a telephone news conference on Thursday, centering on the upcoming wedding of Black Panther and Storm. Black Panther writer Reginald Hudlin and Storm writer Eric Jerome Dickey were featured.
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Below are highlights:
* The "Bride of the Panther" story arc kicks off in March and leads to "The Wedding" in Black Panther #18. The Storm mini-series will be set in the past and detail how the characters met. Alonso said it will show how they were meant to be together ultimately.
"We lay a foundation for why they love each other," Dickey said. "You want to write a story where at the end, the reader goes, 'Yeah, theyıre supposed to be together.'"
* Dickey said that Storm will acknowledge past continuity and "give a little bit more to her origin and her past." Storm will be 13 years old, and editor Axel Alonso said the events will take place after Ororo's time in Cairo.
* Dickey said he read Ororo: Before the Storm to make certain he kept in continuity.
* Dickey said moving from novels to comics was an "automatic" adjustment. "You know who you are writing for," he said.
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* Alonso said the story should have wide appeal. "A portion of all comics we produce are for outreach, but at the core we are looking at a universal story," he said.
* Marvelıs David Gabriel said that the Uncanny X-Men Annual #1, written by Chris Claremont, will detail the final preparations for the wedding.
* Hudlin: "You may think you know what's going to happen, but my goal is make you go, 'Swear to God, I can't believe they did that.'"
* Marvel's John Dokes said calls are out to designers for Storm's wedding dress.
* Gabriel said Marvel is looking to promote Storm and Black Panther at BEA (Book Expo America), and hopes to have Dickey at the Expo to sign copies of Storm #1.
* Hudlin said it's satisfying seeing the characters get together. "They have a lot in common," he said. "You feel like they are a great match."
* Hudlin, laughing, said there will be a bachelor party.
* Alonso said there will be an essential Civil War moment in the wedding issue, and that subsequent events will be "eye-popping" and entench the character even morseo into the Marvel Unverse.
* Hudlin likened the wedding to the Superman/Muhammed Ali cover. "Poor Scot (Eaton). His hand is going to fall off because we are going to load this thing with everybody," he siad.
Copyright © 2006, The Comics Continuum