Posted in: Comics | Tagged: cb cebulski, Comics, dan slott, eccc, marvel

ECCC: Marvel's Next Big Thing – NFL Superpro, Hobgoblin And The Street Poet Gamma Ray

Published Sun, 01 Apr 2012 20:00:46 -0500

Last updated Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:44:21 -0500

Judd Morse writes from ECCC for Bleeding Cool;

NFL Superpro, Hobgoblin, and The Street Poet Gamma Ray. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a Marvel Q&A panel.

Hosted by C.B. Cebulski, the Marvel's Next Big Thing was made up of Jeff Parker, Dan Slott, Chris Yost, Sam Humphriess, Rick Remender, and Greg Rucka. The panel dispensed with any type of display and devoted the entire segment to Q&A. A lot of which seemed to devolve into weird sidebars and hypotheticals. But here's what I managed to glean from the whole affair.

Dan Slott has a thing for NFL Superpro. That's about as in-depth as I can get.

Cebulski said that the only thing keeping Marvel from doing a Howard the Duck and/or Damage Control series is that the company hasn't got the right pitch from the right creators (meaning, I take it, that they're open to the idea).

Rucka would've prefered that Wolverine's Origin hadn't been revealed years ago.

The Man-Thing graphic novel by Kevin Nowlan is slated to come out in October as a hardcover.

Someone asked if Marvel or the creators had any plans to do non-superhero related work for the company (the same guy asked a similiar question at the DC panel on Saturday). Remender had the best response: "I've been doing [non-superhero work] for 14 years. Thanks for reading." The rest of the panel agreed that while yes, they've all done non-superhero comic book work over the years, Marvel is a superhero comic book publisher, so don't expect them to deviate too far.

"I'd love to do a Devil Dinosaur book someday," said Humphries.

Cebulski was vague on the details, but said to expect news on Marvelman very soon.

Yost said there are big things in store for season two of the Avengers animated series (which kicks off tonight, I believe). Yost said to expect new villains, team-ups, new cosmic threats, and Skrulls. And something secret. "But not an invasion."

Someone suggested that Marvel bring back Marvel Fanfare. The panel was really enthusiastic about the idea, and started barking off their favorite pairings.

Cebulski ran through a quick list of "Missing in Action" projects, and gave updates on a few:

Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas–still stalled out indefinitely

Captain America: White–actively being worked on

Daredevil: Target–check with Kevin Smith on that one

Wolverine and the X-Men season 2–probably never gonna happen

Astonishing Captain America–actively being worked on

A couple audience members asked about various film projects, Cebulski said he only knew as much as the fans did. "I read Bleeding Cool and CBR just like the rest of you guys." If that's not a semi-official endorsment, I don't know what is.

Slott alleged that writer Peter David had lifted the Street Poet Gamma Ray's rap from a lowly intern. He asked the audience to be sure to bring it up during the next panel Peter David participates in.

Someone asked if death in comics has been done to… err, death. Slott gave an emphatic "absolutely not." He said that death in comics have kind of been overhyped thanks to the power of the internet, but that major deaths and ressurections have always been a huge part of comic books, and probably will continue to be so.

Cebulski plugged AvX: Versus. Yost quipped that he'd pitched a prose version of the same thing, where characters try to resolve their differences by talking things out, but that Marvel wasn't interested.

Slott said that there's a very big Phil York Hobgoblin story in the works, and said that it would deliver a big "status quo change" to the character.

Someone asked what all the villains will be doing during AvX. One of the panel said they'll all be at Friday's now that they can finally get a table. Cebulski said the villains will definitely be addressed at some point during AvX.

And toward the end, the panel weighed in on who would win in a fight between the Juggernaut and the Blob. Their answer? The reader.