UPDATED: Chicago 09 - MONDO MARVEL Panel

The line stretched around a few corners for the Mondo Marvel Panel on Saturday at Wizard's Chicago Comic-con.  The gathering, rivaled only by the line on the wall opposite preparing for a Twilight panel, seemed to be in good spirits on what had been a sweltering day in the city and, more importantly, on the con floor.  Fan discussion has turned on a variety of Marvel topics lately, but seemingly none more than all things Dark Reign.
 
Jim McCann hosted a group that included editor Mark Pannica, writer Dan Slott, associate editor Lauren Sankovitch, writer Jason Aaron, writer Craig Kyle, writer Chris Yost, and writer Sean McKeever.  A slide appeared to promote a new Mysterio arc in Amazing by Slott and Marcus Martine.  Paul Tobin will be writing Spider-Man: Secret Wars, which is a retelling of events from that mini through the eyes of Spidey.

Jeff Parker will be taking Thunderbolts in November with issue #138.  McCann promised a lot of crazy reveals, plus Norman vs. Songbird and the original Thunderbolts.  There will also be a Hercules event called Assault on New Olympus; it will involve Hercules, Amadeus, Spider-Man, a host of other guest stars, and the Agents of Atlas, with Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente on writing. The Agents of Atlas ongoing will become a backup in Incredible Hercules still written by Jeff Parker, while they simultaneously have a mini-series running.

McCann said that in Dark Reign: New Avengers The List, Ronin will go through “a hell of a lot.”  There will also be huge events spinning out of New Avengers Annual; the Dark Avengers Annual will center on Noh-Varr.  McCann then promoed the “Eisner-Award winning Invincible Iron Man”, discussing the “Stark Disassembled” arc.  He noted that Matt Fraction pitched all the way up through this story when he pitched the book originally.

After getting a big reaction to mentioning War of Kings, Jim McCann showed a slide for Realm of Kings, the next chapter in Marvel's Cosmic saga.   Abnett and Lanning will be writing two one-shots, plus Inhumans and Imperial Guard minis, and those will tie in with Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy.  “DnA,” McCann noted dryly, “do not sleep.”

Kyle and Yost discussed X-Force, particularly “Necrosha”.  It’s the Selene-driven event wherein the Black Queen brings back some familiar characters.

McCann welcomed McKeever back to Marvel, with him and Sankovich joking that they found him under art supplies.  McKeever will be writing the Bucky mini, featuring the young female Bucky from Heroes Reborn.  “This is a story about her trying to find her role and her place in the Marvel Universe,” McKeever said.  McKeever then referenced the Newsarama preview of the issue (linked above) for curious fans.

Jason Aaorn then chimed in on his Dark Reign: The List one-shot, which includes Fantomex, Noh-Varr, Wolverine and more.  He realized quickly that he could write a whole series with Fantomex and Noh-Varr just talking.  Plus, he points out, there will be zombies “just for the hell of it.”

After some joking about what Slott is and isn’t allowed to say, he went on to discuss Amazing Spider-Man.  There will be a storyline they call “The Gauntlet”; Spider-Man will be facing an escalating series of threats leading to something big.  Dark Reign: The List Spider-Man will featuring Norman finally fighting Spider-Man.  Slott drew great applause by revealing that all of the active Avengers team will be involved in a “big, epic huge thing “; he also emphasized, “Mighty Avengers issue 30, page 10, keep your eyes out for it.”

X-Men Forever will be coming out twice a month.  Issue #5 contains a huge reveal, followed by an issue with art by Paul Smith and Terry Austin (and another appearance by that art duo in #10).

At that point, McCann opened the floor for questions.  Some Q&A Highlights included:

The first fan question referred to the Marvelman rights, asking for specifics on reprint rights.  “Marvel has done right by Mick,” McCann explained.  But he did say, “No, I can’t tell you.”

A question was raised about the Silver Surfer having more to do, and McCann allowed, “Maaaybe.”

McCann would not confirm anything about the X-Men in space returning to Earth.

One fan directed a question to Dan Slott, asking for one thing, no matter “how mundane”, that he could tell them.  He allowed that with Loki’s presence, you could expect a “hammer-wielding” hero to show up.

World War Hulks will feature all of the various Hulks fighting each other, with “ramifications for two of the three She-Hulks.”

Dan Slott will be touching on the “Reckoning War” story again, explaining that he’s had an idea for years.

Who would win between Blob and Juggernaut?  “Ben and Jerry’s!”  Slott chimed in with “Squirrel Girl.”

Pannica answered a fan’s question about getting into writing by emphasizing the difficulty of the whole enterprise.  Dan Slott pushed the notion of “do your own comic and make it brilliant” to get attention.  The fan was then allowed to promo his film short, “Small Town Heroes” appearing on FreshFilms.com on the 28th.