Got a late start today and friend and fellow Comic Widows writer Anthony came along for the ride this time. The main thrust of the trip today was to attend the Avengers panel, so after showing the press room to Ant, trying to do some writing and helping myself to one of their kindly offered Cokes, I was off to Avengers-land. In attendance: king of the Annihilation pimps Bill Rosemann, the gracious Molly Lazer, Jim McCann, CB Cebulski of Loners (applause) fame and of course, Bendis (who was late).
The panel began with (what else?) a slide show. We got to see House of M: Avengers again. They said that libraries and bookstores had requested more House of M because it were so popular(!). They pushed Avengers/Transformers really hard. It made me wonder if they were worried about this one, or just really proud of it. It’s got the pre-Civil War Captain America in it, now there’s a selling point.
Then we dived into Skrull territory. With the dead Electra being revealed as a Skrull in the most recent issue of New Avengers, the vibe has been – who can we trust? Who is a Skrull and who isn’t? Bendis pointed out that this has been going on for almost three years at least, referencing the “shadowy figure on page two of New Avengers #1.” Hmmm, I had always thought that was Nick Fury, but maybe it was the Skrull double of Nick Fury?? Nevertheless, Bendis said the Skrull story will come to a head early next year.
Next slide was about appearances of Tigra, Machine Man and Sleepwalker in upcoming issues of Ms. Marvel. The cover shown looked like a ‘catfight’ between Carol and Tigra. I’m glad my buddy Ray wasn’t there today. ;-)
The talk returned to Skrulls. Bendis put forth the idea that this was a great opportunity to get more for your money with your comics. You could re-read all the books from the last few years, play detective and look for clues as to who is and who isn’t a Skrull. What is out of character behavior because of a change of attitude, and what is a change because of Skrulliness? The Skrulls have always attacked with rayguns and spaceships, why should they when they are shapechangers and could just infiltrate us? This is especially viable with the state of the world today with terrorism and all that. Who can you trust?
Next up for me was the Marv Wolfman panel, which wasn’t really a panel at all, but just himself with a slideshow. He talked his career from fanzines to Warren to Marvel to DC and today. He of course spotlighted Tomb of Dracula, New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths. When the slides were done he went to the room for questions.
Regarding Crisis Marv said he hated continuity. Continuity ties the hands of good writers with the stories of bad writers. Interesting. This was merely the first of many astonishing statements from Mr. Wolfman. He doesn’t read any series he’s written after he’s left that book. He never saw Deathstroke as a villain. He didn’t want to kill the Barry Allen Flash, that was forced on him. He thinks we are in the ‘real Golden Age’ now because we have so many truly talented people in the industry today. What about your generation and before, Marv? Told ya, astonishing.
Wolfman discussed his creation of the current version of Lex Luthor. He grew up in the 1950s where Luthor in his prison grays would escape every other issue, and thought the super-suit was a mistake, as Luthor would never be Superman’s equal physically. He surmised Luthor’s greatest weapon was his brain, so he should use it to conceive crimes he could never be convicted of. Also, jealousy not vanity would be why Lex hates Superman. Better idea, better motivation. He also praised Michael Rosenbaum for his portrayal of Luthor on "Smallville."
Marv talked of Dick Grayson and how he preferred Robin as the responsible leader of the Teen Titans rather than the jerky pun-spouting brat who was Batman’s partner. He said when the Bat-editors wanted Robin back he suggested they create a new one. They loved it, and came up with Jason Todd and Marv made Dick Grayson Nightwing. He didn’t care, as long as he got to keep Grayson.
He briefly discussed new projects like a new Superman series, and he just finished the script for the new animated Teen Titans movie. All in all, a pretty enjoyable if surprising panel of one. By that time, Anthony and I were hungry and beat. After a stop at Philly’s Hard Rock we were done.
I had a lot of fun and really wore myself out. I was stunned by the amount of folks who knew me, both from Comic Widows and especially Avengers Forever. I have to say that comparatively this was a smaller con than most Wizards I’ve been to. Perhaps New York and the Heroes Con in Charlotte are taking a bite out of Wizard’s reign?
No comments:
Post a Comment