C2E2 2018: Marvel’s The Next Big Thing Panel With Cebulski, Brevoort, White, Aaron, Duggan, Soule & Young

New Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski opened with an exuberant love letter to Chicago and C2E2. His panelists included executive editor Tom Brevoort, new X-Men editor Jordan D. White, writer of Thor and the upcoming run of Avengers Jason Aaron, Deadpool writer Gerry Duggan, “Man Who Killed Wolverine” Charles Soule, and Variant Cover legend and upcoming Deadpool writer Skottie Young.

Jason Aaron spoke about how writing Jane Foster’s story as Thor has been very special for him. His mother is apparently still not talking to him after issue #705. After God of Thunder and the Jane-era Thor comics, Thor will relaunch in what Aaron considers the third chapter of his Thor saga. The new Thor #1 features a story about King Thor from God of Thunder, art from Mike del Mundo, and a backupstory with art by Christian Ward of Black Bolt.

Avengers #1 features the only Avengers team at the moment and Aaron said that he wants this book to feel like THE Avengers book, with every arc worthy of event status. Aaron and Ed McGuinness will open the book with the Avengers facing down the final host of Dark Celestials. The book will ship roughly every six months and, as a result, it will feature several supporting artists including Paco Medina, Sara Piccelli, and David Marquez on the second arc.

The Immortal Hulk releases this June from Al Ewing and Joe Bennett. This series sees Bruce Banner realizing that the Hulk will not let either of them die and determining that he needs to use his curse to do some good in the world. The Hulk is the monster who hunts monsters, but he’s about to discover that he wasn’t the only one who came back.

Astonishing X-Men has been dealing with the return of Professor X, now X after swapping places with Fantomex. As much as it has been cause for celebration, X is not the same person he was before and he’s very unsettling for Soule’s team, including favorites like Psylocke, Bishop, and Rogue. Every issue of Astonishing features a different artist with scripts designed to take full advantage of their particular talents and they’ll be telling the story of X, the core story that Soule has been telling, through issue #12.

The Hunt For Wolverine #1 opens the “Hunt For Wolverine” event, that sees the X-Men searching for the body of their fallen comrade after it goes missing from the seemingly unbreakable adamantium statue it was left in at the end of “Death of Wolverine”. Soule says that he feels that, while it will satisfy those looking for excitement, it’s got a fantastic emotional core as the X-Men react to

Daredevil has been following the “Mayor Fisk” storyline but issue #600 saw Wilson Fisk taken out and Matt Murdock promoted to mayor just as New York comes under siege. “Mayor Murdock” will see Matt trying his best to hold the city together.

Infinity Countdown: Daredevil #1 will explore how Turk Barrett got his hands on an infinity stone. Check it out from Gerry Duggan and Chris Sprouse.

Infinity Countdown #2 will see the return of Mecha-Galactus as the Guardians of the Galaxy fight to secure the Power Stone. Gerry Duggan will write the issue with Aaron Kuder, Mike Hawthorne, and Mike Deodato Jr. as an artistic team.

The Despicable Deadpool is the last act of Duggan’s Deadpool run. Duggan admitted that he was initially against “Secret Empire” because he had thrown in with Captain America, but once he realized the potential of Deadpool losing everything he’s ever wanted he loved it. Duggan has always said that since you can’t hurt Deadpool physically you have to hurt him emotionally and this is how you do that. The series builds towards Despicable Deadpool #300, which returns to the mind museum. Jordan White says that a frequent question is what won’t they let us do with Deadpool. The beginning of Deadpool #300 used to be the answer. Keep an eye out for the special variant cover featuring 300 different Deadpools.

Passing the torch to Skottie Young and Nic Klein, Deadpool #1 sees Wade going back to basics and focusing on his job as a merc with a mouth again. He’s trying to rebrand and drum up business and he needs something big to put him back on the map and, sure enough, it arrives from space. Beware the cosplay that the final pages of Deadpool #2 will spawn.

Asked if Wolverine and Old Man Logan will coexist, Charles Soule assured fans that, though there are many Wolverines, “there are plans for all of them”.

The panelists decided to hold the cards pertaining to the return of the Ultimate Universe close to the chest.

Asked about what will happen to the O5 X-Men, White pointed to “Extermination”. C.B. Cebulski also confirmed that both X-Men: Blue and X-Men: Gold will continue following the event.

Miles Morales will continue to appear in Champions, but there are plans for him, to be revealed after the end of the current run of Spider-Man.

Look for follow up on the Hulkling and Wiccan/Demiurge plotlines in the “mid-future”.
Cebulski couldn’t say much beyond a release date of January 2019, but he was thrilled to answer a question about the return of Conan to Marvel.