SDCC '11: Cup 'o Joe Panel

Jeph Loeb seemed to be the star of this year’s Cup ‘o Joe panel at Comic Con on Saturday, but that didn’t keep Joe Quesada from running down the list of exciting new books heading our way in the coming months from Marvel.

Quesada opened with a teaser featuring pictures of a couple dozen Marvel characters with the words Point One in the middle. While it seemed to be announcement for the next batch of Point One titles (this was the initiative that Marvel began earlier this year to bring new readers onto books through easy to follow one-shots), this was actually a teaser for a 64-page comic book that acts as a precursor to the big event of 2012.

We moved onto Loeb’s big announcement: Cable Reborn. Loeb and frequent collaborator Ed McGuiness are teaming up to work on a new Cable series this December. When asked by a fan if Deadpool was going to be guest-starring at some point in the series, Loeb responded “Ed McGuiness is drawing it.” Of course, long time fans of the Merc with the Mouth will recall that McGuiness drew some of the characters wackiest adventures.

While I have not been sucked into a lot of what Loeb has done at Marvel, I have enjoyed the placement of Red Hulk in the Marvel Universe. I expect that Loeb will bring Cable to an unprecedented prominence to the Marvel U by featuring stories in which many of the heavy hitters from across the line will guest star.

Vice President of Publishing Sales David Gabriel discussed Marvel’s Season One graphic novels, which were announced last week. Each book will be a hardcover graphic novel featuring a reintroduction to several of Marvel’s biggest characters and teams (much like DC’s Superman: Earth One). These are being published in time to celebrate Marvel’s 50^th Anniversary.

While I prefer Season One to Earth One, these books don’t seem to have a title that feels right to me (but that is a minor quibble). Beginning in February and each month thereafter, these books will cover the origins of Fantastic Four (by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and David Marquez),  X-Men (by Dennis Hopeless and Jamie McKelvie), Daredevil (by Antony Johnston and Wellinton Alves),  and Spider-Man (by Cullen Bunn and Neil Edwards).

We also got a short preview of Marvel’s upcoming Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon which looked, well, amazing. We open with J. Jonah Jameson (voiced perfectly by J.K. Simmons) going on one of his tirades. This was followed up by tons of action with a voice-over by Drake Bell as Spider-Man—Bell seems perfectly cast as a 16-year old Peter Parker. Joe Quesada made sure to mention that the show would absolutely feel like a Marvel production because of the number of industry folks involved with the show. Ultimate Spider-Man will air on Disney XD this Fall.

Lastly, when a fan asked which character were going to be the ones to follow in the next year, the panel said Hope, Cable, Scarlet Witch, Moon Knight, Ultimate Spider-Man, Hawkeye, and Red She Hulk.

As usual, my interested is piqued to the rim.

Fantastic Four: Season One interiors by David Marquez.

Spider-Man: Season One cover by Neil Edwards.

Daredevil: Season One interiors by Wellinton Alves.