CBR is reporting LIVE from Marvel Comics’ “Next Big Thing” panel at New York Comic Con 2022.
Set to reveal future stories, titles and more, the panel’s list of guests includes Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski, Executive Spider-Man Editor Nick Lowe, X-Men Editor Lauren Amaro, Gerry Duggan (Dark Web: X-Men), Ed Jed MacKay (Moon Knight, Strange) and Zeb Wells (Amazing Spider-Man, Dark Web).
Guests are filing in and filling up the room, waiting for the panel to begin at 4:00 pm EST.
The room is filled with less than five minutes until the panel begins.
The panelists are walking onstage, the lights dim, as Lowe shouts, “Hello, New York Comic Con,” kicking off and welcoming everyone to the panel.
After Lowe introduced the panelists, Lowe had the whole crowd exclaim, “Avengers Assemble,” as the cover art for Avengers Assemble: Alpha #1, a one-shot kicking off a new event to serve as the capstone of writer Jason Aaron’s Avengers run. “It’s an emormous amount of characters to keep track of,” Cebulski said, talking on how it is one of the biggest Avengers event ever.
Cover artwork for Avengers #63 and Avengers Forever #12, serving as parts 2 and 3 of the event, respectively, followed by Avengers #64 and Avengers Forever #13.
The conversation then shifted to the upcoming Spider-Man/X-Men/Venom Crossover, Dark Web, with a trailer for the event shown exclusively to the attending audience. The trailer gave glimpses of Spidey teaming up with the X-Men and fighting Chasm/Ben Reilly, along with new characters, the Goblin Queen, Venom and more.
Wells talks about how the Goblin Queen and Chasm “do some scheming” and unite as the villains of the event, which was teased back during the Spider/Venom Free Comic Book Day one-shot earlier in 2022. Artwork pages for the event were shown, one showing Venom in his classic look compared to his current title, Lowe pointing it out and saying that “something weird” is going on with the character. He also brought up how the event brings Marvel readers back to elements from the iconic Inferno storyline.
Duggan spoke on Dark Web: X-Men, speaking about how the X-Men team was decided for him. Artwork was shown of Spider-Man with the X-Men in Limbo, sporting his Oscorp Suit created with Norman Osborn. The panel went through how the event ties into Amazing Spider-Man and Venom. Lowe promised that Venom writer Al Ewing “delivers” serious beats for his series and the event during Dark Web.
Next discussed for Dark Web was Dark Web: Mary Jane & Black Cat #1 by MacKay, the second title with the duo after last year’s “Beyond” tie-in, which Lowe said was one of their most successful issues last year. MacKay said that the two will be forced together again, teasing that “the ladies loot Limbo.” Artwork for the issue was displayed, showing Black Cat swinging through the city.
Dark Web: Ms. Marvel was the following title discussed, another miniseries tie-in to Dark Web. The reason for Kamala Khan’s involvement, Lowe said, was her being an intern at Oscorp in ASM.
Speaking of Oscorp, cover artwork was shown for Gold Goblin, a new series featuring a new identity and suit for Norman Osborn, instead of his villainous Green Goblin persona. Cebulski asked Lowe if the series will impact the Osborn family, leading to the reveal of a Red Goblin series by writer Alex Paknadel with art by stormbreaker artist Jan Bazaldua.
The next title revealed was a Hallows Eve miniseries, exploring a new character of the same name who will be introduced in Dark Web. Created by Wells and Ed McGuinness, Lowe said she is already a “well-established character.” The title is written by Erica Schulz with art by Michael Dowling.
The panel then shifted to X-Men entirely, with Duggan teasing that the story told in X-Men #16 will see things start to get “sinister.” Artwork shown of the panel’s new arc shows Mr. Sinister, a massive temple, Cyclops taking a haymaker, and more. Also displayed was cover artwork for X-Men #17 and #18.
“Well, we got something else to talk about here,” Lowe said, making a point to bring up Mr. Sinister again. A new series was then announced, The Sins of Sinister, with a teaser trailer shown for the series to the crowd.
Leinil Francis Yu will write the series with artist Jesus Aburtov. Amaro teased that Sinister has still been working in the shadows on his plans, and that the series will deal with what happens when Sinister “gets what he wants.” The title launches in Jan. 2023 and its events will stretch across X-Men series shown on the board, including X-Men: Red, Legion of X and Immortal X-Men. The titles then shifted as the panel revealed that the titles will be renamed Storm & The Brotherhood of Mutants, Nightcrawlers and Immoral X-Men.
Amaro talked about Storm & The Brotherhood of Mutants and how Storm will be leading the Arraki mutants after Arrako was destroyed. Al Ewing will write the series, which begins in Feb. 2023. Nightcrawlers will be written by Si Spurrierand and features a cover showing a Nightcrawler/X-23 hybrid, Amaro teasing genetic experiments are in store for readers. Immoral X-Men is written by Kieron Gillen and will also release in Feburary.
After the full release slate for Sins of Sinster was shown, MacKay spoke on the next Timeless one-shot, saying that Kang the Conqueror will be traveling across “cataclysmic events” set for the future of the Marvel Universe. Uncolored artwork was shown to the panel’s attendees.
The panel then “borrowed” how Marvel Studios will release a slate of titles on a timeline to announce future project phases. Marvel Comics’ 2022-2023 timeline includes Avengers Assemble beginning in Nov. 2022, Dark Web Dec. 2022, Sins of Sinister Jan. 2023 and Captain America: Cold War in Spring 2023. Cold War was discussed earlier at NYCC at another Marvel panel.
The final two events on the timeline announced were the Summer of Symbiotes, an event with Venom, Carnage, Red Goblin and more in the works, and Fall of X, both events arriving in Summer 2023. “This is huge,” Lowe said, speaking about Fall of X. The panel mentioned that there will be another Hellfire Gala before the event and hinted at how dark the X-Men’s future may be in Fall of X.
“The X-Men have been winning for a really long time,” Duggan said of the summer X-Men event, continuing, “How long did you think the bad guys were going to take it?”
Also shown was a broken shield of the Guardians of the Galaxy logo made of wood, with the panel bringing up how the team’s member Groot is made of wood, teasing an ominous future for the hero. With a release window of Spring 2023, the image was accompanied by the caption, “How do you rebuild a family?”
After many excited reactions from the attending fans about each event revealed on the timeline, the panel opened to fan questions.
After one fan question asked about Miss Minutes possibly having her first full comic book appearance in the future, a character introduced in Loki, Cebulski teased that readers may see more of Miss Minutes in Marvel Comics down the line.
More fan questions were asked, and one prompted the panel to share some of their best memories of Stan Lee and their interactions with the late Marvel legend.
Another fan asked about the new Fantastic Four series coming up, and if the panel could share anything about the title. Lowe said that it’s a very “back to basics” approach for the team in the series.
The following fan asked a Spider-Man-related question, specifically wondering where both Kaine and May “Mayday” Parker may show up in the future, if they do. Lowe was tight-lipped on while answering, not sharing much on May and saying that Kaine will likely not be seen in 2023.
The next fan asked about the new Invincible Iron Man series written by Duggan, who said that Tony will be writing his own autobiography in the series as a way of traveling back through and revisiting Iron Man history. He also mentioned that the hero will be dealing with a new threat close to both the Iron Man and Tony Stark aspects of Tony’s character.
After fan questions wrapped, the panel ended.