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MARVEL– CIVIL WAR and REMEMBRANCE. Millar and Hitch on Fantastic Four in 2008. Chicago Wizard World – Saturday, August 11, 2007. By Bruce MacIntosh Marvel's big announcement for the convention season finally happened today at Wizard World Chicago. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch will be the new creators on the Fantastic Four! Mark has written ten issues, while Hitch has already drawn over four issues of the title, and their run will star in early 2008.
The announcement was made with a one-minute "animated" short film, which will undoubtedly be up on Marvel.com soon. Millar stressed that he and Hitch have been working on the idea for almost five years, and they will be taking over the book with Issue #556. The tone and approach of the book will be very different than their work on The Ultimates. Mark also said that Bryan's work has "evolved" on this new book. "The stuff he has done on FF is incredible."
This project will last for at least a year. "I was really hesitant to give up Ultimate Fantastic Four," but he is very excited about this project because of the science fiction aspects that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby brought to the book originally. He even spoke to Stan and got his advice for the book.
The other announcement is 1985, written by Mark Millar, with art by Tommy Lee Edwards. The concept is what happens to the world when all the superheroes are off world to battle in the Secret Wars, "and there's no one around to protect us."
Joe Quesada and Jim McCann were also on hand to back up Millar (who accepted the coveted Stan Lee award on Friday night). The trio also paid their respects to Civil War, last year's biggest comic event.
They started by opening the floor up to questions. Here are a few highlights.
For anyone who laments Black Goliath's death in Civil War, there is hope: His nephew is in World War Hulk.
They had planned on killing Captain America from the very early planning stages of Civil War. The only question was whether to do it in Civil War, or his own magazine. They revealed that Planet Hulk and World War Hulk was originally planned as the big summer event for 2006, and the concept of Civil War only came up at the tail end of their three-day planning event. "It really re-invigorated the room," said McCann. They then realized that the Hulk event would follow nicely from the Civil War events.
Mark revealed that the original Millar/Hitch "Civil War" story as they conceived it, was to involve the X-Men. Then (back in 2003) Mark heard that JMS was going to be leaving Fantastic Four, so they shifted their focus to that idea.
Millar stressed that "Tom Brevoort really is the unsung hero of Civil War" because of his coordination and planning of the event. Quesada added that"the person who had the hardest time was Paul Jenkins," in writing Civil War: Frontline, and coordinating the title with the Civil War events that crossed over into other titles.
How were the characters for each side chosen? It definitely wasn't random – they spent days discussing who would square off against whom. Someone asked how the idea came up to start the Civil War by the destruction of Stamford, Connecticut. Mark Millar said that there had been discussion about something on the scale of an entire state, or as small as the "last straw" of one person being killed. At the time, Millar asked, "Who's a good exploding guy?" and he was told that Nitro was the best candidate.
What contributions did Joss Whedon make?
Millar: "We were just having these discussions, and the bloody Buffy guy just appeared." That was the joke, but it was revealed that Joss resolved the discussion about how to conclude the story with the big fight.
When asked about Luke Cage's growth as a character, Joe Q. said, "Brian [Bendis] has the biggest man-crush on Luke Cage."
The has been no decision whether they will issue the hardcover version of Civil War, and when that might happen.
The shield that Quesada gave to Stephen Colbert was actually taken from Tom Brevoort's office (without warning him). It originally belonged to the late Mark Grunwald, whose widow later wrote a nice letter giving her blessing for the donation to Colbert. Quesada did tell the TV host that he may have to come and get it back if Marvel ever decides to bring Captain America back in some form. "Anything's possible in the Marvel Universe," said Quesada.
Although the "Initiative" banner will be coming off the top of the books soon, McCann stressed that "it doesn't mean that the Initiative is going away." The 50-state Initiative and registration will continue to affect events in the Marvel Universe.
Believe it or not, Mark Millar hasn't seen the Animated (Ultimates) Avengers movies, so he couldn't comment on what he thought of how his book was handled in the adaptation. (He has a copy, but the disk won't play on his Scottish DVD player.)
Captain America will not be canceled, in spite of the title character's demise.
The highlight of Civil War, said all the panel, was not only the revitalization of sales, but also the heightened quality of the work from all the writers, such as J. Michael Straczynski and Ed Brubaker.
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