Broken Frontier

“Are all these people in line for the same thing we are?”

In my last installment, I mentioned that modern Comic-Con panels tend to be kind of light on the facts, especially as regards the big publishing houses’ plans and events for the coming year. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of news. So, let’s have some of that news, shall we? In fact, we’ll do that first before launching into some of the usual drivel from me.

Marvel Resurrects Elvis – you heard it here first…

This is culled from various Saturday panels, including a particularly entertaining Cup ‘O’ Joe panel moderated by Joe Quesada.

As mentioned yesterday, Marvel folks keep hinting strongly that Black Panther is going to play an integral part in the Marvel U following the events in House of M. Team-ups announced included Luke Cage and the X-Men, with promises that the Luke Cage team-up would be structured in a buddy cop format. And as for that X-Men crossover? They’re tight-lipped. Except for the gleeful announcement that Storm will be nude, that is. Lots of hooting in the crowd for that one. Really, crowd. Really. I’m just sayin’.

For you Fantastic Four lovers out there, two new limited series are on the horizon. Like with X-Men, the FF are getting a 6-part The End story. Meanwhile, and cross your fingers for this one, the Four are heading to Japan with Iron Man for a Zeb Wells-penned story titled Big in Japan. Featuring some totally cute (dare I say yummy?) and totally appropriate artwork for a manga-influenced Tokyo romp, expect at the very least some big huge monster fights.

Spider-Man. Oh, poor Spidey. If you could have heard the way your writers were slagging the name of your big 2005 event… well, you would probably join in. Flashing a slide of the webhead in a parody of Leonardo’s Universal Man, Quesada announced Spider-Man: The Other. Later at a panel focusing exclusively on The Other, writers Peter David, Reggie Hudlin, and J. Michael Straczynski all expressed regret and made a few jokes about the title, which no one feels is really appropriate.

Since yes, this is a panel focusing on something big coming up in the future, we’re back to not getting to know too many things, but here’s the skinny:

No one will die in this upcoming crossover. (Most likely because Bendis and Winick are hogging the Bring-Back-From-the-Dead Stick, but still…) The storyline is going to concern itself with that bit that surfaces every now and then in Straczynski stories about heroes as animal totems. Remember that business a few years ago about Ezekial and the spider totem? Something having to do with that, but expanded upon. From the tone of the hints, it seems likely that whatever the event is, it’s going to spell some kind of new torment or loss for Peter, one that all three writers promise is going to continue long after the crossover concludes and which will directly affect other bits of Spidey’s world, including what happens with him over in New Avengers.

As to the nature of that loss, Hudlin mentioned that the end of the story will feature something really violent that’s going to cost Peter a vital organ. On my way out of the panel ominous rumors were buzzing from fans speculating that the man under the mask might not be Peter following the story. You know… the Other. Figuring big into this is the announcement of another confusingly-titled Spider-Man comic book, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which is slated to be an ongoing.

Other quick Marvel stuff

David Finch will be leaving New Avengers next year to be the regular penciller for the re-launch of Moon Knight. Marvel Team-Up #14 will feature Invincible, from the Image comic book. Nick Fury’s Howling Commandoes heads into X-Files territory. Kinda. Only imagine that Mulder and Scully are super-powered monsters run by Nick Fury. Joss Whedon and John Cassaday are confirmed to be onboard for X-Men through at least #25. She-Hulk returns with #1 in October. Big event. New #1. A few months later, She-Hulk will have another big event, as it rapidly turns 100 and jumps back to the old numbering scheme. I will give a nice shiny nickel to the first person who can justify this publishing move without using the word “money” in the explanation.

Okay, on to the DC stuff:

No.

Wait.

I know. I said something about Elvis earlier, didn’t I? And then I never mentioned it again. Kind of frustrating, huh? Welcome to my weekend.

At the end of the Cup O’Joe panel, Quesada promised a big announcement. As the Q&A
wound down, Quesada mentioned that they’ve lately been getting a lot of feedback about famous folk who aren’t comic writers by trade coming in to take a spin on a major Marvel property. At which point a slide with one giant word comes up on the screen: KING.

Some guys behind me took this to be a reference to Peter Jackson, whose King Kong film was going to be giving a presentation later that day. Seems unlikely.

The popular theory is that this means one Stephen King might be writing a comic book for Marvel. With Ender-tastic Orson Scott Card penning Ultimate Iron Man, there was some mild geeking on the Con floor about what horror-based Marvel properties might get the Stephen King treatment.

Now keep in mind that Quesada never said Stephen King. Personally, this doesn’t seem like it would be big enough news to merit such a big presentation. Besides, as mentioned, Brian Michael Bendis and Judd Winnick have both been waving that Bring-Back-from-the-Dead stick around willy-nilly. I say Bendis was screwing around with that stick one day and he accidentally revived Elvis.

I mean, yeah, right? Makes sense. Elvis was the true King. Meanwhile, Bendis is leaving Daredevil and Quesada said no one on a panel that included nearly everyone but Bendis would be taking that one over. Clearly he meant Elvis is going to be writing Daredevil. And, I mean to say, didn’t we see that coming?

You heard it here first. Elvis. I’m calling it now.

DC stuff

As the entire comics community was saddened by the loss of iconic pioneer Will Eisner, there were a lot of big announcements about The Spirit, including news of a movie, a Batman/Spirit crossover penned by Jeph Loeb, and finally, a Spirit ongoing series slated for early 2006.

DC stunned a lot of folks two years ago by announcing Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely would be taking over chores on Superman. Realizing that teaming Morrison and Quitely occasionally results in household pets in killing machine devices wrecking bloody havoc, DC editorial seems to have decided that that peculiar brand of total awesomeness needed careful shepherding before being unleashed on Big Blue. This coming November will finally see the debut of All-Star Superman. Cross thy fingers. Cross them tightly.

Busy, busy Jimmy Palmiotti will be taking over for Geoff Johns when Johns leaves The Flash.

In big, big news, DC steals another star and adds him to their exclusive roster. Mark Waid becomes an exclusive DC writer and will be the man in charge of The Brave and the Bold and Legion of Superheroes. Waid will join Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison in enjoying some undefined editorial control over the goings-on at DC.

Look for OMACs everywhere, even at the end of Infinite Crisis.

And then, I suppose, it would be remiss of me to go on without mentioning Superman Returns.

Nah.

Let’s talk about standing in line, first. I’ve been at Comic-Con in some capacity for the past three years, and each year, the experience seems to be getting closer and closer to spending a weekend at Disneyland. You get up early, you completely fail to eat a good breakfast, you experience that amazing moment of revelation when you’re sitting on the shuttle and realize if you’d just sucked it up and walked those fifteen blocks from the hotel you’d be there already, and then you spend the rest of the day in some kind of line. Then you buy some stuff. Then you stand in line for food. Then more lines for the popular rides that you might not actually get to ride before the park closes.

Saturday at Comic-Con this year was a shocking madhouse of people. Way more than the con could actually support, it turns out. We’re talking real crush of humanity packed in tightly stuff. Nerds, geeks, enthusiasts, and the like, all pushing and prodding and trying to get even the tiniest little peek at these tantalizing bits of nerdaciousness. That was just the line to get on the escalator. I’m not kidding. So many people.

And all of you were standing in line ahead of me for Superman Returns. And you looked like you’d been there for a while. And barely any of you were in flirty anime girl costumes to at least take the sting off.

So I didn’t get to see Bryan Singer speak or see the footage. So I was forced to roll up the sleeves and be a real journalist and talk to the hardcore guys in the Superman outfits I ran into on the floor about what they thought of the footage. I’m happy to report that the handful of dudes who didn’t think I was playing some kind of hoax and pretending to be a journalist said they were surprised at how much they liked what they saw. So in what’s sure to be nominated for the lamest bit of reporting anyone did at this convention, I’m happy to reveal that some dudes think Superman Returns looked pretty sweet. I can further add that one dude also said the suit photographed way better on film than it did in that one still that’s been all over the internet.

There. How’s that for some news? Don’t look forward to too much news from the final part of this little series. But do look forward to some interesting human interest pieces (little girl dressed as Elektra – so cute!). Those, unlike the beer I tried to obtain later that night or stupid Harry Potter at Costco this morning, will not require you to stand in a ridiculous line. That’s how much I love you. That much.