AudioShocker

So I went to Wizard World Philadelphia today. It was my second convention experience in my 21 plus years of being a fanatic comic book fan. It was my first time going to a comic book convention panel, and I chose Cup O Joe to pop my panel cherry.

It was a glorified press conference with fans instead of press outlets asking the questions. Of course, I took notes on the best news tidbits just for you:

• Fred Van Lente and Kev Walker will be the creative team behind Marvel Zombies 3, debuting in September. This mini series will see the Marvel Zombies cross into Marvel 616 continuity proper (though 616 Black Panther, with the new Fantastic Four in tow, already crossed over with the Galactus infused zombies last year). This mini series will see the reveal of Florida’s Initiative team.
• Ed Brubaker is gearing up to introduce Lady Bullseye in the Daredevil series. The preview slide that Marvel showed looked like a cross between Bullseye, Elektra, and Typhoid Mary.
• An adept fan asked what was coming up for Black Panther (a favorite of this blogger). Joe Quesada explained that T’Challa is under the guide of editor Axel Alonso and fans can be sure that the character will be involved in every crossover / Marvel line event possible. Joe then went on to refer to Alonso as a “whore” before he mentioned that BET’s Black Panther animated series will feature a great deal of content from Reginald Hudlin’s first story arc of Black Panther.
• Musing on One More Day, Joe explained that something happened on the Wedding Day of Peter and Mary Jane that caused the current Mephisto influenced reality where Spider-Man currently exists. The “how” will all be revealed over the course of Brand New Day. And yes, Peter and Aunt May still lived in Avengers Tower. Mary Jane, however, may have not been there with them (the answer was vague).
• Hulk (the Jeph Loeb relaunch series) will have an incredible pair of artists doing a tag-team job after the first story arc. Hulk #7-9 will be drawn by Art Adams and Frank Cho working together on alternating scenes. That is just wonderful, according to me. I would have bought this week’s King Size Hulk if only it wasn’t stuffed with reprints and marked up to $4.99. Hopefully the Adams and Cho issues will only run $2.99.
• Another adept fan asked about the Crew. Tom Brevoort said there are no plans for the Crew to return as a unit, though Rhodey is in Avengers: The Initiative and Junta is in Last Defenders.
• The panel took a turn towards the nasty when a fan asked if Aunt May still hooked up with Jarvis, a character recently revealed to be a Skrull in Secret Invasion. This led to Tom Brevoort cracking jokes about Aunt May missing her period. Joe Q got in on the fun when he said, “Skrull or no Skrull, Aunt May has her needs.” That’s a classic quote right there.

The AudioShocker got to act as newsmaker when we finally asked about Senator Kooning, the only regularly appearing black character in Iron Man that just happens to have a last name that’s one letter off (and sounds exactly like) a racial slur. Joe Q looked like a dear in the headlights and Tom Brevoort did his best impression of a Bush White House spokesperson, saying that Jack Kooning was named after a historical figure. That must be one of the most obscure historical figures around because I’ve never seen a single word about this “historical” figure. Suffice to say, I’m unconvinced but I appreciated the candid response.

All in all, the panel was fun. I stayed around afterwards to thank Tom B for answering my question even though it was a tough one. I also asked one more final query about the fate of the Falcon, who has been rumored (in the most vague sense) to kick the bucket in the near future. According to Tom Brevoort, don’t expect the Falcon to go anywhere anytime soon. Thanks, Tom. Now I can rest easy.