Tom Brevoort started things off by stating that the fans were the most important part of The Avengers. Then he introduced the panel.
Jonathan Hickman (Avengers), Al Ewing (Mighty Avengers), Dennis Hopeless (Avengers Arena), Ales Kot and Nick Spencer (Secret Avengers) and editor Lauren Sankovitch.
Tom then proceeded to show slides of covers for upcoming issues of Avengers related comics. He also pointed out that rather than using the Point One motif futures issues will be Point Now.
New Avengers features Simone Bianchi art and is an Infinity tie-in.
Mighty Avengers – “it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.”
Avenger Arena – The final cover is an ominous remix the cover of the first issue.
Secret Avengers – Kot feels as though it’s the closest he’s come to a modern Steranko.
Captain America – Nuke returns when Cap is at his lowers. It’s a face of between two super soldiers from two different eras.
Thor – The Accursed storyline ups the ante on that title, with character from nine realms banding together.
Avenger #24 is now 24.Now.
From there Brevoort revealed the stories behind some of the teasers that Marvel has released recently.
Mindbubble is a reference to an upcoming Captain America arc about Weapon Minus graduate Doctor Mind Bubble, the benevolent assassin.
Extinction refers to Avengers AI #8.Now where robots are taking everyone over.
Frenemies refers to Secret Avengers #1. It’s described as Michael Bay meets Arrested Development. Kot describes it as close to what Hawkeye feels like. The team consists of Black Widow, Spider-woman, Hawkeye, Fury Jr and Agent Coulson. Plus a secret member. It’s by Kot and Walsh.
Global refers to Avengers World by Spencer, Hickman and Casellis. It’s a post-Infinity book that features the team coming back to Marvel Earth and figuring out their place.
Descent by Hopeless and Walker is Avengers Undercover. It’s a follow up to Avenger Arena, where the survivors, traumatized by evens in Arena, go undercover with the Masters of Evil.
Trust is Loki Agent of Asgars by Ewing and Garbett. And it’s promised that everything you hear about the book will be a lie.
Atonement is Black Widow #1 by Edmondson and Noto. The tagline is “Agent. Avenger. Assassin.”
Then onto the Q&A section of the panel.
When an attendee asked about the future of the Hood in Hickman’s Avengers, Hickman said no. But Brevoort said that Hood may show up elsewhere and to wait and see.
Doom will show up in New Avengers and New Avengers #11 will be a game changer.
Hickman will get back to finishing up his Shield miniseries and Ex Nihilio’s less than heroic actions will be resolved.
Brevoort shared that it’s inevitable that with all of the new Inhumans, Inhumans and Mutants will beef.
While Hickman doesn’t plan on being on Avengers as long as Bendis was on it, he wants to stick around. Hopeless has two versions of his story in his head; a long version and a short version. Ewing has about 14 issues of Mighty Avengers plotted.
Shang Chi will be showing up in Secret Avengers.
Spidey will stay an Avenger until he gets fired.
Avengers will go down to monthly following Infinity.
Jessica Jones will pop up in the Mighty Avengers, specifically #4.
Avengers Wold will see spotlight on some of the les prominent Avengers, like Manifold and Hyperion.
Some members of Thunderbolts will be showing up at some point.
Hickman does not have plans for any other New Universe characters to come into Avengers. But maybe.
Luke Cage will play the back in Mighty Avengers. He’s the man with the plan in that book.
Angela will continue being a part of Guardians of Galaxy. She’s a hute part of Marvel’s future plans. This time next year she’ll be huge.
Marvel has no plans for Leather Boy.
There are no plans on using Venon in Avengers stuff.
At one point during the Q&A session, Hickman remarked that he hoped the person dressed as Bane made it to the mic because he wanted to know if he sounded like Bane. Sure enough, when Bane got the mic he asked his question in Bane’s voice. Bane was the hit of the panel.
Retired Nick Fury will be back in action in the next couple of months.
