SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2007
NEW YORK COMIC CON: CIVIL WAR: THE INITIATIVE PANEL
NEW YORK -- With the landscape of the Marvel Universe "changed forever" following the conclusion of Civil War, Marvel Comics staged its Civil War: The Initiative panel on Saturday at New York Comic Con with several announcements, including new titles and new exclusive creators.
Following are highlights:
* Avengers: The Initiative artist Stefano Caselli has signed an exclusive with Marvel.
* Who's in Avengers: The Initiative? "Everybody," writer Dan Slott, noting that pro-registration supports now "have a price to pay" by being drafted into the goverment's super-army.
* With the Black Panther and Storm joining the Fantastic Four, the Fantastic Four and Black Panther books will not go hand-in-hand, but there will be continuity and conferencing between respective writers Dwayne McDuffie and Reginald Hudlin.
* Nova editor Bill Rosemann pointed out that the newly premiered cover of Nova #3 pits Nova against Penance, his former New Warriors teammate Speedball.
Rosemann said that Nova returns to Earth in #2-3, unaware of what's happened to the New Warriors.
"He's essentially the Lone Ranger on space," Rosemann said. "He has all that power, but he also has all that responsibility."
* Talking about Ms. Marvel, Rosemann said, "She's out to be the best of the best and that means taking out the worst of the worst."
In become part of Tony Stark's Mighty Avengers, Rosemann said Ms. Marvel makes a deal so that she can access to S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and technology.
He added that the Julia Carpenter storyline would be resolved.
* Editor-in-chief Joe Quesada said, "There's definitely something brewing in New Avengers." The New and Mighty teams will square off.
* Omega Flight writer Michael Avon Oeming said that part of the appeal of the characters he's using is "they have pretty much a blank slate."
Oeming compared USAgent to rocker Ted Nugent. "Ted Nugent is a complete jerk, but underneath all that stuff he cares about people," Oeming said.
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* New titles will include New Warriors in June by Kevin Grevioux and Paco Medina; Sub-Mariner in June by Matt Cherness, Peter Johnson and Phil Brinones; Thor in July by J. Michael Straczynski and Olivier Coipel; and Champions in July by Matt Fraction and Barry Kitson.
Kitson is newly exclusive to Marvel. Quesada described the preview image as "Tony Stark and a bunch of guys in shadows."
* Slott said he and Fabian Nicieza are teaming on a Great Lake Initiative one-shot, which he coined "The Great Lakes Initiative/Deadpool Summer Fun Spectacular."
* Quesada said by the end of the first issue of Mighty Avengers, Ares will be the star of the group. Oeming noted he is working on another Ares solo project.
* Asked if stories would start including villains and less of heroes fighting heroes, Quesada said a "villain thing is brewing" but it might be two years away. He noted that, as is often the case during wars, a new underground of bad guys is forming.
* A "definitive" version of Mandarin is coming in Iron Man.
* Slott hinted that Gravity might return.
* Slott said "a mystery X-character" will appear in The Initiative #3.
* How other countries respond to The Initiative will be dealt with in the second issue.
Copyright © 2006, The Comics Continuum