WIZARD WORLD L.A.: MONDO MARVEL PANEL

LOS ANGELES -- Dwayne McDuffie, most recently a producer on Cartoon Network's Justice League Unlimited, will be teaming with Scott Kolins on Beyond, a six-issue cosmic mini-series from Marvel Comics.

"It involves several Marvel character you wouldn't expect to see together, including Gravity, and puts them off world in a cosmic situation," Marvel editor-in-chief said Friday during the Mondo Marvel panel at Wizard World Los Angeles, where the book was announced.

"Enemies become allies and they must work together to get back home," editor Tom Brevoort said.

In other news from the panel:

* Artist Tommy Lee Edwards is exclusive with Marvel and will be working on Bulletpoints with J. Michael Straczynski. (See art above.)

* Writer Greg Pak said that Giant-Size Hulk #1 will be the first time readers since Bruce Banner on the alien planet.

* Quesada on Civil War's accessibility: "You do not need a road map, you do not need counseling."

* Quesada said that "if" there is an Alpha Flight series, Mark Millar will be involved.

* Marc Silvestri said he's looking forward to working with Brian Michael Bendis for his project as part of the recent Top Cow/Marvel deal. "He's on my very short list of writers to work with," Silvestri said.

Details about the project are coming, but Silvestri did say that it will involve "a lot of characters."

* Quesada reiterated that Spider-Man's new costume is not permanent. "It's part of the story," he said.

* A question about Thor's return led Quesada to note that Frog Thor will be returning. "But that's another convention," he said.

* Writer C.B. Cebulski said that the third issue of X-Men: Fairy Tales will feature a Dark Phoenix Saga via Grimm's Fairy Tales. It will be drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz.

* Cebulski said he has a project with Marvel-exclusive Skottie Young in the summer.

* Quesada said he won't tinker with Brian K. Vaughan's approach to Runaways, which doesn't include a lot of interaction with other heroes in the Marvel Universe. "They're in their own kind of world almost," Quesada said. "We don't tell Brian where he needs to go."

* The ending for Annihilation has been planned, Quesada said, but books and stories that spin out of it are still formulating. He said a "Kree-centric" book is likely.

* Quesada said he hasn't even thought about who will follow Joss Whedon and John Cassaday on Astonishing X-Men.

* Legal issues prevent Marvel from using Malibu characters Quesada said. The issue was addressed most recently when an issue of New Avengers would have ended with the Avengers facing off against Ultraverse characters.

* Editor Nick Lowe said that the second Ultimate Iron Man mini-series will launch in late 2006/early 2007.

* Brian Michael Bendis will team with Frank Cho on a team book after Civil War.

* Lowe said that former mutant such as Dani Moonstar and Jubilee will continue to pop up in the mutant books.

* Quesada said that Bryan Singer's run of Ultimate X-Men issues was being worked on, but they have not been scheduled yet.

* The Fantastic Four: A Deathy in the Family story will be self-contained.