WONDER CON: MONDO MARVEL

SAN FRANCISCO -- A new First Class series for the X-Men and a Dark Reign mini-series were the main announcements of Marvel Comics' Mondo Marvel panel on Saturday.

Following are highlights:

Panelists included Mark Paniccia, Axel Alonso, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Rick Remender, Joe Casey and Ron Lim.

* Brubaker talked about the Marvels Project, his project with Steve Epting that debuts in June. "It's The Right Stuff for the Marvel Universe," he said, adding that it is a "very espionage-flavored take on the early days of Marvel heroes.

* Fraction 12-part series.

* waging a P.R. campaign against. "Frank likes killing people. " Give Frank a nice armory. He's going to be killing people in fun ways.

* Casey is writing a three-issue series about a new villain with an old name: Dark Reign: Zodiac.

"It's probably the harshest thing I've written in quite a while," Casey said. "The story starts out with the torture and murder of a hundred H.A.M.M.E.R. agents."

Casey said the series is the other side of the super-villain equation when super-villains take over and the world and you're not part of the clique. He added that the book will have ties to the old Zodiach -- "In the first issue, you'll see all their heads in a sack," he said.

The art is by Nathan Fox.

* All-New, All-Different X-Men First Class is a new series that takes place during the John Byrne/Chris Claremont era and will be written by Scott Gray. Paniccia said the series "will dance between the raindrops" of continuity.

Agents of Atlas #5 pits the Agents against The Avengers.

* Ron Lim is drawing a five-issue run of Skaar: Son of Hulk.

* Joe Kelly is writing an Amazing Spider-Man arc that will bring in elements of Dark Reign.

* A special #600 will drop major clues to who the Red Hulk is. The final reveal -- likely in 2010 -- will be toward the end of writer Jeph Loeb's run.

The direction of What Ifs? will continue to be event-driven. "They seem to sell better," Paniccia said.

A Captain America/Iron Man crossover? "One is dead and the other is lobotomizing himself so it probably would not be a dynamic event," Fraction said.

* The Incredible Hercules has been approved "for quite some time," Paniccia said.

* Alonso said he wasn't at liberty to say who will be taking over Runaways.

* Fraction said there is no editorial influence from the film world into the Iron Man comics. He said the movie has helped people understand the character. "The book is different, but hopefully it's still accessible."

* There will be a Skaar story that ties into War of Kings.

* The Warbound characters will play a role in the Planet Skaar Prologue and beyond, Paniccia said.