WIZARD WORLD LOS ANGELES: X-MEN PANEL

LOS ANGELES -- Marvel Comics continued its Wizard World Los Angeles programming on Saturday with a panel devoted to X-Men.

Below are live highlights:

* Marvel released the above images at the panel's start. Click on the thumbnails for larger images.

* Panelists include Christopher Yost, Craig Kyle, Matt Fraction, Aubrey Sitterson, Peter David and marketing's Jim McCann -- and a late arriving Marc Guggenheim.

* Sitterson said that X-Men: Legacy will pick up with what happened to Professor X after Messiah X.

* Dokken, the son of Wolverine, will return to Wolverine: Origins.

* Quicksilver will be featured in an X-Factor special. "Different people say they want different things to happen with him," he said. "Interestingly, everything happens in this one issue."

* David said there will be a Layla Miller one-shot picking up from Messiah CompleX. "We are going to show where she is, what's going on," he said, noting readers' perceptions of the character have changed since her introduction.

* Larry Stroman is returning as artist of X-Factor. David said She-Hulk will be appearing in a crossover.

The story will start in X-Factor, go to She-Hulk and return to X-Factor and will tie into Secret Invasion.

* Joining X-Factor will be Longshot and Darwin in #33.

* X-Men: Divided We Stand will be two one-shots. Two of the characters on the covers will be joining teams that McCann said will be "surprising."

* Greg Land is joining Uncanny X-Men #500 as artist and Matt Fraction will be co-writing with Ed Brubaker.

* Terry Dodson is now exclusive to Marvel and will alternate on Uncanny X-Men.

* Marvel showed Simone Bianchi's designs for his upcoming run on Astonishing X-Men with Warren Ellis.

* David on Siren: "The baby will be born." What happens as a result, David will not say, except there "will be developments that will light up the Internet like a Christmas tree."

* Fraction said Dazzler will be appear in Uncanny #501. "Dazzler as a mutant Madonna," he said.

* Fraction said he and Brubaker are co-plotting arcs and rotating writing.

* Kyle said there are more surprises in store in X-Force. The roster will expand to six by issue #7 or #8.

"The first two reveals are something but after two and three, you're gonna see how big and bad this story is gonna get," he said. "We're really trying to give you great moments throughout the book and give you as much story as we can."

* Guggenheim said the original title of Young X-Men was New Mutants. Instead of being "cadets," Guggenheim said this team will be the X-Men.

The first arc will be five issues, with a sixth-issue epilogue, and plant seeds for the next two years of story. "It's a book with a lot of surprises," he said. "I always say 'no assumptions.'"

* David said in the X-Factor/She-Hulk, X-Factor is looking for one person and She-Hulk is looking for another person, and the two people are travelling together.

* Havok will be featured in the Divided We Stand specials.

* David said bringing Darwin and Longshot to X-Factor was because "they're both really cool. It's as simple as that." He said the characters "will put people's teeth on edge."

* Sitterson on Dokken: "There's a lot more to that character than you've seen in Wolverine: Origins."

* Sitterson said that Cable is set in the future, but the book is "not set off to the side" in the mutant world.

* Asked about Kitty Pryde, McCann said that all Marvel said was that Piotr "lost" a love.

* Guggenheim said it's hard to talk about Young X-Men because of all the twists he has planned. He said he has plans for Blindfold that will make readers look at her in a completely different way.

* Guggenheim said that the New Brotherhood members in Young X-Men all have strong ties to X-Men canon, and one of them used to work for the Hellfire Club. "And that's probably all I should say," he said. "But you'll know by the end of the first issue."

* Kyle said Wither will be appearing in X-Force.

* Fraction said the second stage of Astonishing X-Men will flow more into continuity than the Joss Whedon/John Cassaday run.

* McCann said the Deadpool series will start late in the summer.

* Although Firestar retired, McCann said readers have not seen the last of her.

* McCann said there are plans for Northstar.