By Odeisel

Marvel T&A began with the announcement that everyone in attendance would be receiving attendee only variants of Avengers Prime with Thor, Iron Man and Captain America on the cover with Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort and Senior Executive Editor, Axel Alonso, the principals of the Marvel T&A panel, which comprised of a few short reveals and leaks and mainly questions and answers from the crowd.

The dynamic duo announced the coming of Astonishing Captain America wby Andy Diggle and Adi Granov which will take place out of continuity with Steve Rogers as Captain America. The series will take place in the modern era. Astonishing X-Men will return with issue 36 without longtime creator Warren Ellis.

Brevoort discussed the upcoming “Three” arc in Fantastic Four, again confirming that the arc will conclude with the death of one of its members. The final issue of the arc will be sold in a sealed “death bag” similar to the Death of Superman issue. Brevoort noted that the sealed bag may stall off internet leaks for “about five minutes.”

In January, Iron Man will resume its original 500 numbers in January. Mat and Salvadore will kick off the next year of stories. Will be a big issue.  The Avengers could possibly renumber at some point probably with issue 600. The count would include New Avengers and The Avengers, but not Secret Avengers, Dark Avengers or Mighty Avengers. If there’s one thing we like to do it’s get your money.

A fan mentioned competitor DC announcing a line wide price cut in their comics from $3.99 to $2.99. The editors explained that DC’s announcement comes with fine print, including a contraction of story pages from 22 to 20. The success of Marvel’s digital initiative has enabled them to set a $2.99 price point for their new books with no page reduction. There will also be a contraction in certain line books. Some titles many be going more than monthly in the vein of Amazing Spider-man.  Some of the bigger titles may accelerate publishing like The Mighty Thor and Captain America.

One fan facetiously asked for more Deadpool. The crowd applauded when asked whether they like Deadpool. Axel fully acknowledged Marvel’s “pimping” of the character.

Will X-Men movies move with the Avengers franchise when Fox contract runs out? Tom replied that he’s not in the film division and not equipped to answer. “As long as Fox has rights they’ll make X-Men films. When rights revert he’s sure Marvel will make X- Men films. Axel, the X-Men line editor jokingly chimed in, “We don’t want any stinky X- Men films, we have enough stinky X-Men comics.”

“Will we see Runaways come back soon?” In the long term we are waiting for the right team and a more conducive market

–Tom Brevoort. Not hard to launch a good book. Hard to write one that will stick around. We love runaways

“Any word when Havoc will return from space? “-Axel We want to do it right. Nick Lowe wants to bring them back. Want to see what’s next.

“Is there going to be a consistent artist on Secret Warriors? Is the current 27 issue a reduction from the originally proposed 60-issue run?”

Tom –I hope so. Sometimes things get in the way that mess things up but issues still have to get published. Alessandro Vitti is the regular artist. In terms of plan seems like it was retracted but it didn’t. There was an enormous chart of concentric circles showing all the teams and Hydra and connecting to Leviathan

Axel –Like a unabomber’s notebook. When he actually sat down to figure the stuff out it looked like 27-28 issues. We didn’t jump issues, it has actually been planned out this way since the beginning. We didn’t know we were going do the list issue. The story he proposed, once you decipher the crazy Byzantine graphs did boil down like that (27 issues).

“Is there going to be anything going on with the Luke and Jessica baby?”

Tom-We’ll be seeing much more of Danielle, especially in New Avengers #7. They are going to realize that they need someone that can take care of the baby and they are going to have to hire a nanny. Rest on the Avengers panel tomorrow. Will reveal who the nanny will be.

“Anything with Nextwave?”

-Tom-Warren[Ellis] will revisit it when he’s ready and when the time is right. Nick Lowe and Warren talk about it all the time. It was Warren working with Stuart Immomen. Warren is waiting for him to have a gap in work so they can maybe do a one shot.

“Is there any chance the Silver Surfer would get his own series again?”

Tom-We talked a lot about this doing another series and there may be some stuff coming up in the next few months regarding the Surfer. It’s premature to talk about before the next two months. Surfer is popping up other places as well.

“Is there one comic in particular coming that is a must buy?”

-Axel Uncanny X- Force in progress right now lays down something big. At the end of this arc there is one character you will not look at the same way. There is something laid down that is subtle but lays groundwork.  X-Men curse of the mutants.  It’s laying the framework of a united vampire nation.

-Tom-Fraction and Ferry’s The Mighty Thor. Asgard being on Earth will begin to cause problems for the rest of the Marvel Universe.

“Is bringing Dracula back going to bring back the supernatural heroes of Marvel?”

-Axel. We took a long time to plan this stuff. Right now my focus is on the vampire universe and what it means and how it’s structured and what the next moves might be. After Curse of the Mutants it will be likely that they span out over the Marvel Universe.