By LTZ
Overheard in the crowd before NYCC’s All-New X-Men panel: “This one’s all about X-Men? Ugh.”
Attending the panel were Senior Editor Nick Lowe, Editors Jeanine Schaefer and Daniel Ketchum, Uncanny Avengers writer Rick Remender, Cable and X-Force writer Dennis Hopeless, X-Factor writer Peter David, Wolverine and the X-Men writer Jason Aaron, Astonishing X-Men writer Marjorie Liu, Deadpool co-writer Gerry Duggan, X-Men: Legacy writer Si Spurrier, and Director of Communications Arune Singh.
The panel breezily ran through the entire X-line for early 2013.
Lowe said All-New X-Men, by Brian Bendis and Stuart Immonen, had been “in the works for a few years,” and that after the first six biweekly issues, David Marquez would be drawing the next arc.
Aaron on Wolverine and the X-Men: “If you’ve read the latest issue, you may hate me… keep reading.” He also teased future developments, to be drawn by series artists Nick Bradshaw and Ramon Perez: “Storm shows up, and Wolverine fights Frankenstein.”
Remender spoiled the ending of Uncanny Avengers #1, and added: “The Red Skull thing is not going to be solved anytime soon… [it will be] intermingled with Apocalypse stuff… and Kang. ”
Dennis Hopeless on Cable and X-Force: “All of the cool big stuff from 90s X-Force, wrapping it around a ‘one last score’ weird mutant crime story” where Cable wants to retire. “Weird” became the operative word of the panel, with nearly ever book being described as “weird,” “crazy,” or both. Lowe added that Hope Summers would feature in CaXF “in a big way.”
Remender on Uncanny X-Force, which ends with #35 in December: “I don’t think you should buy [the X-Force relaunches] and only remember mine.” He and Lowe gave departing color artist Dean White a shout out, before hyping a cliffhanger on #34, of which Lowe said: “Rick is one of the grossest men in comics.”
Lowe described Sam Humphries and Ron Garney’s January Uncanny X-Force relaunch as being Psylocke focused, and noted that special attention will be paid to the presence of Storm, whose aversion to killing will presumably chafe against the rest of the team. Lowe also named Bishop as the series’ villain, and said it was pitched as “if David Lynch directed a James Bond movie.
A hungover Spurrier hyped X-Men: Legacy briefly, saying it will feature “really creepy, heavy, family-drama-y stuff” as the late Professor X’s son, Legion, seeks his place in the Marvel Universe. Wolverine and the X-Men’s cast will be early guest stars.
Schaefer talked about Frank Cho turning in a “50-page manifesto” for Savage Wolverine, and said that it would be very inspires by pulp stories, but that the ending of the initial story “is gonna change something sort of fundamental in the Marvel Universe.”
Duggan on Deadpool, who will be hunting down zombie presidents in his new book, starting with FDR: “You can’t have the Avengers fight a Guy in a wheelchair.”
David said that X-Factor #245 will contain a major surprise that “under normal circumstances, would have three to four months of teasing.” He said #250 would kick off the Hell on Earth War, something he began teasing fifteen years ago, and that by its end, “virtually every character in the Marvel Universe is going to be gunning for X-Factor.”
Astonishing X-Men receives a new artist in Gabriel Hernandez Walta, and Liu described the upcoming Warbird-centered arc as “the secret chapter” of the character’s life.
Pasqual Ferry will be drawing Gambit in January, and Ketchum teased “a lot of shirtless Remy LeBeau” in upcoming issues, to cheers from the crowd.
Hercules – lover of Wolverine in an alternate universe – will be featuring in an upcoming issue of X-Treme X-Men, and Schaefer also promised “not-alternate-universe guest stars” besides.
Fans then queued up for questions and answers, the most concretely teasing of which was a “stay tuned” to the possibility of a Cable/Deadpool team-up.
“Hercules – lover of Wolverine in an alternate universe ”
W…T…F?
Soooo glad I no longer read any Marvel comics. What complete shite…
What’s the problem with alternate versions of Wolverine and Hercules being lovers?
All this “new” X-Men stuff – yet not ONE book adheres to the original core concept of what the X-Men is. Now it’s all black op teams, alt versions and men killing. Sad.
If you’d never heard of the X-Men, you’d think that’s what it was.
Uncanny X-men was my favorite comic book and they’ve cancelled it twice in as many years despite still selling well. Infact, it was Marvel’s #2 selling book last month, I believe.
Marvel has spent years trying to bury the X-Men below the Avengers books. Some people diss the 90s X-books, but atleast you knew who the characters were and they had plots and everything.
My guess, this Marvel Now thing will be a disaster. Just my prediction.
@Marilyn Merlot: You got a problem with someone not liking that pairing? He’s entitled to his opinion. You must be the type to see other’s opinions as a “Problem”, don’t you? Grow up, and stop being a “Trendie”.
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