NEW YORK COMIC CON: DARK REIGN PANEL

NEW YORK -- Marvel Comics staged a panel at New York Comic Con on Friday devoted to Dark Reign.

Following are highlights:

* The new creative team on Fantastic Four will be Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham. Eaglesham is now exclusive to Marvel and will also has a Spider-Man project slated.

* A Dark Reign: Young Avengers mini-series will be by Paul Cornell and Mark Brooks.

Just like the Dark Avengers, the Young Avengers will be dark, "cracked" versions of characters. The Young Avengers line-up will include The Melter, The Enchantress, The Executioner, Big Zero, Coat of Arms and Egghead.

Here's how Cornell describes the characters, according to Marvel:

The Melter: "A kid who can melt anything with a gesture, the leader of the team but is very unsure of himself and his powers."

The Enchantress: "His girlfriend, sort of, who claims she's from Asgard but who can't handle Asgardian speech patterns and is frighteningly offhand with her magic."

The Executioner: "An urban vigilante who kills the scum of the streets, exactly, exactly, exactly like the Punisher."

Big Zero: "A white power skinhead girl who can grow to giant size or shrink to microscopic and is raising an army in the Microverse to topple the federal government."

Coat of Arms: "A cutting edge artist with a surreal coat who put the team together to participate in 'scenes' like foiling a bank raid of battling another hero team."

The Egghead: "Their cracked android, who wants to examine the human condition intimately, with livers in his hands, and shares Big Zero's mattress."

* Dark Reign: The Hood will be a May-launching mini-series by Jeff Parker and Kyle Hotz. Dormammu, recently revealed as the demon from whom the Hood gained his powers, will be part of the story.

* Lethal Legion will be written by Frank Tieri. Other tie-ins will feature Anti-Venom, Mr. Negative and the Zodiac.