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MARVEL X-MEN PANEL – CHICAGO WIZARD WORLD By Bruce MacIntosh Most of the editors and Marvel staff were stuck in New York because of the airline pilot's strike, so the Marvel X-Men panel consisted of three: Joe Quesada, C.B. Cebulski, and Scottie Young. Joe Q. started by assuring the packed Marshall Rogers room at Chicago Wizard World on Friday by promising that it is going to be a "big year coming up for X-Men."
C.B. brought up the current event, the 17-part "Endangered Species" series, which continues as 8-page backups in the four main "X" series. "Beast is trying to ensure that mutants do not become an endangered species.
Quesada also reminded us of the big announcement from two weeks earlier at the San Diego Comicon, that Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi will be taking over Astonishing X-Men soon. He assured fans that "we're going to keep the same feel" as when Joss Whedon and John Cassaday were doing the book.
The big topic of the panel was the upcoming "Messiah Complex" event, which Quesada promised "will shake up the entire Marvel Universe. " He said the "backup stories of Endangered Species will lead up to this story arc [of Messiah Complex]. I think you'll know where Messiah Complex is headed" by the time Endangered Species wraps up. " Naturally, Cebulski stressed "But I can't tell you yet" of specifics of the plot of Messiah Complex, because that would give away the story and conclusion of Endangered Species. He did later say, "Cable is a character who is going to be on the rise" in those stories.
Messiah Complex will launching with the one-shot, with Marc Silvestri art and Ed Brubaker story.
Another new mini series will be X-Men: Emperor, which involves Vulcan, Rachel Summers and Havok, who are still out in space.
Wolverine is another new series with writer Marc Guggenheim, art by Howard Chaykin, "Howard will be bringing his unique style to a story Marc has been waiting to do for a long time now."
Quesada then featured questions from the audience
Why did they get rid of all the mutants, save 198 individuals. Joe Quesada recounted that back "in 2000, there were three major things wrong with the Marvel Universe" which he wanted to correct. The first item involved the X-Men. "The core of X-Men was that they were special, a minority." This uniqueness was "lost the more the franchise became successful." He lamented that, "everywhere you turned, there were more mutants than humans." So what Wanda did is by eliminating all but 198 mutants made the mutant race a "ticking clock". Bringing the numbers of mutants down made each character special again. "That is very important to getting the X-Men back to where they were in the beginning."
Quesada assured the audience that bringing this sense of urgency will personalize the mutant stories: "They aren't going to be foiling bank robberies. They are going to be dealing with problems within the [mutant] family." Cebulski added: "We always considered the X-Men a family, now were going to think of them as an army."
Here are some other tidbits Quesada and Cebulski dropped in response to questions from the audience:
"Astonishing X-Mendoes take place in continuity" even though the publishing schedule is sporadic.
Skottie Young detailed the New X-Men series. It deals with the "senior class" even though there are younger students at the school. Another reason that ES is going to affect New X-Men, is because there are no more new mutants being born – and they'll have to be dealing with that. It will consistently be introducing new characters, because new kids will step up to a leadership role.
Plans for exiles: Chris Claremont is doing a great job, said C.B. Issue 100 begins a new arc, and there will be an Exiles - Excalibur cross-over.
It hasn't been established that running into the collective actually took away Magneto's powers. He will appear soon.
JQ: "You'll see the occasional Marc Silvestri project here and there – we have plans for his next project, but it's way too soon to announce it."
Paul Cornell is taking over the New Excaliber. JQ: "He is really a magnificent writer." "He told me that it was the book that he always wanted to write at Marvel. CB: " There are some plans for a change in the lineup – it depends on what happens in MESSIAH COMPLEX."
Juggernaut's reformation may not last. "I'm not saying it is going to happen." But you have to watch out for that when villains turn into heroes and vice versa.
Is Storm's return going to last? The thing about Storm's marriage to Black Panther was never meant to keep her out of the X-Men." They still have commitments to teams. Joe Q.: "You might find a Storm who is conflicted, but I don't think you are going to see less of her."
The other two things that Joe wanted to change, back when he started as EIC of Marvel: 1) Bring back the "edginess and unfamiliarity" with the characters, "darn pesky marriage of Peter and Mary Jane. I wish we could remove it." You can't divorce them, or kill her – because "then Peter's a widower, and that makes him [appear] even older than he was." The appeal was him dealing with teen angst and that he was single. "Being married takes spider-man out of so many stories that he could be a part of."
He did cite that Black Panther and Storm is a different situation. "I think that is one case where it adds dimension" to their story." This is partly because Storm is one of many supporting characters.
He stressed that that didn't mean that he wouldn't some day kill off a char (MJ?) "if I could find the right way to do it."
"Part of what makes Spider-Man so interesting is not the Spider-Man adventure. It is the soap opera." But now those stories are out of the toy box, due to his marriage.
C.B. brought it back to the X-Men by citing that they have gotten so much response from the love triangle with Peter, M.J. and Kitty Pryde. This proves that the soap opera element of the Spider-Man story is more appealing to readers, and it was unfortunate they got married and took away those possible.
Citing Captain America, he did assure one audience member, "we do plan on keeping some people dead." But he did not say for how long.
Not necessarily in regards to the topic of the death of a character, C.B. said, "I think [Editor] Axel Alonzo is going to leave a imprint on the X-Men line."
Is Nightcrawler going to play a bigger role in the X-Men comics? Joe Q. jokingly said, "Nah, that's it." CB said, "NC is definitely a char we discussed, because we want to bring him back into an important part of the line."
Will Electra being a Skrull in the New Avengers affect what is happening in Messiah Complex? "Maybe" "What that means, is that we don't know anything" about it.
Plans to do an animated DVD? "Not that I know of." (Because that is part of Marvel West Coast.)
Was it ever explained why the 198 mutuants still had their powers: "Not yet."
Axel likes the character Deadpool, so if he ever shakes free from his own book then he'd deal with that in an X-book. But there are no plans now, because he is in his own book. We'll also "be seeing a little more of Bishop coming up soon," according to C.B. Cebuski.
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