A diverse group of retailers await entry into the exclusive event!
Friday morning, Marvel hosted an exclusive event for retailers, announcing and teasing a variety of titles and projects.
On the panel:
- Dan Buckley
- David Gabriel
- Alel Alonso
- Tom Brevoort
- Micke Marts
- C. B. Cebulski
- Nick Lowe
- Mark Paniccia
- Sana Amanat
- Janine Schafer
After all cellphones were extinguished, an Ant-Man trailer was screened. It opens with a voice over from Hank Pym, then switches to Times Square, as Ant-Man tries to escape via insect.
After that, the audience saw a teaser for The Guardians of the Galaxy cartoon, featuring Rocket blowing things up.
This was followed by the intro to “Marvel 75 Years: From Pulp to Pop”, a one-hour special which will air on ABC on November 4, in the Agents of SHIELD timeslot.
Then we watched the Avengers trailer, as the boys try to lift Thor’s hammer. Utlron crashes the party, Manhattan becomes Metropolis, Tony fights the Hulk a la World War Hulk, and Stark Industry lawyers commit hari kari in anticipation of the the $1 Trillion class action lawsuit soon to be filed. (Okay, I made up that last part. But after the Battle of Midtown, with an estimated $160 Billion in damages, Tony might want to build his next mansion on Deimos.)
There were no teasers for the Netflix properties, as Marvel will be announcing that later at another panel.
Next up: comics!
Spider-Man #1: 650,000 copies
Rocket Raccoon #1: 320,000 copies
Thor #1: “a record for any Thor title”
The new Thor is fairly long term, running through Secret Wars and beyond.
Axis #1 was discussed. Tom Brevoort explained that the immediate launch of an event after a previous event was dictated by the storyline, and how what was to be a smaller arc in the Avengers titles expanded into something involving the entire Marvel universe.
If you blinked, you missed the $500 boxed set of Marvel’s 75th anniversary. It actuaqlly sold out before it shipped from Diamond, so Marvel will be producing another similar set soon.
January sees the “return of the jedi” to Marvel Comics. Mark Waid will be among the numerous creators. Marvel teased an Alex Ross re-creation of the first cover, and there will be a triptych variant of the first issues, from Skottie Young. (In order: Princess Leia, Star Wars, Darth Vader)
Spider-Verse kicks into high gear with Amazing Spider-Man #9. Spider-Gwen will have an ongoing series, produced by Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez, and Rico Renzi. (Awesome cover!)
Inhumans are reaching their 50th anniversary, and Marvel will be diversifying an already diverse title, adding new, young characters.
The changes on “All-New Captain America” (Capt. Samerica?) will also run through Secret Wars.
“Superior Iron Man” was teased as a more narcissistic personality. (Dark Iron Man?)
Secret Wars (teased with a massive fustercluck slobberknocker cover of heroes fighting themselves) is scheduled to hit May 2015.
Marvel did not take questions from the audience, but did select a few via twitter, controlling what was advertised as “a no-holds barred Q&A”. Overall, the audience was pleased with what Marvel is publishing, and the panelists were approachable afterwards for additional questioning. (I was able to engage Axel Alonso over the dearth of beginning reader comics from Marvel.)
David Gabriel ended the presentation with two slides which were photographed. He had no further comment, but encouraged rampant speculation:
The End Is Four Ever
No More Mutants
My instant reaction?
Disney Studios is not happy with Fox.
(Myself, I would not be surprised if we Marvel fold the X-Men titles under the Avengers brand.)
“Fourever” meaning “at least several months, maybe even a year”.
This will really calm down those “Marvel to cancel FF and X-Men” rumors.
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