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.
Audio,
Wow, I can’t believe you’re still on this non-issue of Jack Kooning. And I think you misrepresent the responses at the panel a little bit–Joe Q didn’t look like a deer in headlights, he looked like a man who hadn’t the faintest idea what you were talking about, since absolutely nobody outside of yourself had ever commented to him about Kooning.
But just to try to put the matter to rest–though I know this is the Internet and doing this is only going to give it more attention–I asked the Knaufs to remind me once again about the historical figure after which they’d named Kooning. They replied:
A. The name Jack Kooning was inspired by the name of the artist Willem de Kooning (we like to name our characters after literary figures or artists);
B. We did not describe his race in the original script (we never do unless it’s relevant to the plot). Patrick Zircher chose to draw Kooning as an African American.
C. To describe Kooning as a “negative” character is to oversimplify him to the point of absurdity, given his backstory and the heroic sacrifice he makes to correct his errors in judgement. He is not evil, but jaded and misguided.
D. The linguistic gymnastics one has to go through to consider Kooning’s name a racial slur are are more revealing of the racist attitudes of the accuser than the accused.
So hopefully this covers it.
Tom B
Tom, first off, thanks for commenting. I know you’re a busy guy so I appreciate you taking the time to add your perspective (and your bevy of facts related to the situation). Before I respond to all your points, I should say that I made an error in word choice in my post above. When I said I was “unconvinced,” I really meant to say I was “unsatisfied” with the resolution offered at the panel.
A. Willem de Kooning was the only historical figure I could find that had that name. I totally get the “named after an artist” angle.
B. Your point is essentially the answer I’ve been looking for all along: “What was the genesis of this character?” Thanks for clarifying.
C. I don’t think it’s oversimplifying to call Kooning a negative character. I definitely agree that the character was turned around before his end (and for the record, I happen to have truly enjoyed Iron Man #26). But the majority of his time in Iron Man was spent as Tony’s chief political antagonist, seeking to give him a hard time at every turn. Am I not correct in saying that? To that end, I don’t think it’s a stretch to see most of Kooning’s actions as negative to the overall goals of the title character (hell, didn’t Kooning enable Mandarin to get involved with Extremis “research”?).
D. I don’t think the “linguistic gymnastics” are much of a stretch. It’s the equivalent of having the only recurring white character in Black Panther named “Steve Kracker” (something that online fans would certainly have a field day with).
Let me just sum everything by saying this: after your post here, I completely see how this happened. To me, the whole thing looks like an unfortunate confluence of circumstances. I’m unsatisfied that no one at Marvel caught (or was even aware of) the implications of Jack Kooning’s character before he went to print. Yeah, I know I’m taking something that’s fairly obscure (and irrelevant to the majority of comic book fans) and investing a lot of energy into it. But what I’ve been voicing for about the past year are genuine concerns I’ve had after becoming acquainted with the character of Senator Kooning and his portrayal in the pages of Iron Man.