Marvel's Avengers: Shattered Heroes - NYCC Panel Recap
In the aftermath of Fear Itself, Marvel’s Avengers are about to be shattered, and after their seven years of bad luck are over, it’s up to them to put the pieces back together. Marvel kicked off one of their first big panels of New York Comic Con by talking about Avengers: Shattered Heroes, moderated by Director of Communications Arune Singh. Panelists included writers Christos Gage, Matt Fraction, Cullen Bunn, and Kieron Gillen, as well as Editors Tom Brevoort, Lauren Sankovitch, C.B. Cebulski, and Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso.
Matt Fraction, Cullen Bunn, Kieron Gillen, Lauren Sankovitch, and Axel Alonso at NYCC 2011
After introducing the panelists, Singh talked about Fear Itself, reminding the audience that the event book actually shipped on time. And, believe me, this is actually a pretty big turnaround for the industry. Asked about issue seven, Fraction joked, “I haven’t read it yet, I’m very excited,” to laughter from the audience. More seriously, he teased that, “All hell breaks loose.”
“Every one of these is different, and the difference is always the creators working on them,” said Brevoort when asked what it was like working on the book, continuing that he loved working with Fraction and artist Stuart Immonen.
Next up was the aftermath issues 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3, which focus on Captain America, Thor and Iron Man respectively, and how those characters react to the end of Fear Itself. Not much new info here, but if you didn't hear, the issues will fill in the emotional beats Fraction purposely kept out of the more action-packed Fear Itself #7. If you’re not convinced on these issues, Fraction plugged that in 7.3, “Iron Man eats a sandwich.”
Fear Itself: The Fearless #4
Then it was on to Fear Itself: The Fearless, which provides the official aftermath of the event, specifically what happens to the mystical hammers the villains had in the main series. “There’s different reasons Valkyrie and Sin want to collect these hammers,” said Bunn. “And it puts them at odds, and at odds with the rest of the Marvel Universe.”
Brevoort mentioned that Battle Scars--another aftermath series--came about when a plot line in The Fearless got too big to contain in just those issues, so they’re launching it as its own series, from the same writing team. “It’s about a guy coming back from the wars of Fear Itself, and finds his entire life has been blown up,” said Fraction. “We wanted to get away from treating this like a Lego-verse.”
The Defenders #2
The next title was the previously announced The Defenders by Matt Fraction and Terry Dodson. A few pages were shown off, and it looks great. The authors showed off how Hulk seems to spend a lot of time abusing Dr. Strange’s manservant Wong. “They discover they’re defending us from this impossible threat,” said Fraction. “It’s everything we know about the Marvel Universe in the first book, including a cameo in the first issue. I can’t even say it. It’s a big story--a long range story. A mystery.”
“It’s very different in its style than Avengers,” said Brevoort. “It’s chock full of secrets, and intrigue, and very big ideas.”
Then it was over to another big title: “Avengers X-Sanction is the first step that will take us in a journey in 2012,” said Brevoort. “The central idea is that Cable is back, he has returned from the time stream and he has twenty-four hours to take out the Avengers… It’s really a story about a father trying to protect his daughter.”
And then, some big news that got applause from the crowd: X-Men character Storm is joining The Avengers. “Storm will be a regular feature in Avengers with #19,” said Brevoort.
Then the next announcement involved what will happen to the new team on Secret Avengers after Warren Ellis leaves the title. The answer? Rick Remender, the fan favorite writer of X-Force and other titles. The new team has Hawkeye leading Captain Britain, Beast, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Valkyrie and new artist Gabriel Hardman. “As people who are reading Venom and X-Force know, “Remender is a madman,” said Brevoort. “He just vomits up idea after idea in a fruit salad of crazy.” We’ll have a full interview about this tomorrow.
Moving to Avengers Academy, the big news was that The Runaways will be crossing over in March, which also drew loud applause from the audience. We’ll have a full interview with writer Christos Gage on this tomorrow, but at the panel, Gage talked about how as the title moves to the West Coast, they’ll be more interaction with the rest of the Marvel U – including X-23 joining the team early next year. “This is fun, but very intimidating with me, because I love the Runaways,” said Gage. David LaFuente will be doing covers, a nice shout out to the original Runaways series.
Avengers Academy #27
Concerning Captain America #6, Alan Davis is the new ongoing artist, who is taking over for Steve McNiven, and Ed Brubaker will continue as writer. Cap will deal with some of the fallout of Fear Itself. “We’ll see what we can do to put him through the crucible,” said Brevoort.
After a brief, non-spoilery plug for The Mighy Tanarus--the guy taking over from Thor after Fear Itself--the talk turned to Invincible Iron Man, which will be celebrating its fiftieth issue from Matt Fraction and Salvador Larrocca. The arc out of Fear Itself is called “Demon,” which deals with Tony getting “soused” during Fear Itself, and featured the return of The Mandarin. Zeke Stane, with The Mandarin, has been re-imagining every classic Iron Man villain, and pitting each against Tony around the world. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but things get worse for Tony Stark,” said Fraction.
Then a fan dressed as Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel was called onstage to read Fear Itself #7. Fun times!
While she sat on stage reading, Singh plugged Journey Into Mystery (one of our favorite currently running series from Marvel). Gillen, the writer of the title, chatted about how Loki was a great character to write, because he can be anywhere at any time.
The next announcement was that in March, the original Thunderbolts will be fighting writer Jeff Parker’s new Thunderbolts. Again, full interview with Parker tomorrow, but the current, time-traveling Thunderbolts will end up in 1997, and Mark Bagley--the original artist for Thunderbolts--will create covers.
Then it was time for questions! Here’s the highlights:
- Asked whether Fraction would make Iron Man’s Rogue’s Gallery better, the writer Quipped, “Worse, much worse. Blander! More forgettable!”
- As a cool bonus to a younger kid who asked a question, the panel welcomed him on stage to read Fear Itself #7, and gave him a secretly signed, polybagged copy of the death of Johnny Storm issue of Fantastic Four.
- “The short answer is yes,” said Brevoort when asked if Norman Osborn and the upcoming Ultron storyline will collide.
- There are “big plans” for Guardians of the Galaxy, according to Brevoort. He said that there will probably be something by next Summer.
- Eric O’Grady Ant Man and Nick Fury will also be featured in Defenders. Fraction plugged that in the first issue, Namor discovers a T-Rex skeleton on the bottom of the ocean, with Ant-Man’s skeleton in his mouth. The other characters want to discover what’s going on and, “Ant Man’s like, no, I don’t want to figure this out! Spoiler: Ant-Man dies six million years ago,” said Fraction.
And that’s all we’ve got! Head back here tomorrow for interviews about most of these announcements, and we’ll see you back on MTV Geek for plenty more from NYCC.
Related Posts:
Marvel's Scarlet Spider Swings Back To Comics With Chris Yost and Ryan Stegman - NYCC 2011 Interview
--
