WW Philly: Marvel: Your Universe

[CBR News]

Marvel's Your Universe panel took place Sunday afternoon at Wizard World Philly and was a relaxed affair, with Tom Brevoort asking and answering questions from the crowd and Dan Slott leading everyone in a game of Marvel hangman.

http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16641

[spidermangorilla]

I think that some of the best stuff that has ever come out of marvel was their cosmic stories. If anything, its for the art. They can't go with the same of buildings and cars atmosphere. Its new aliens, technology and situations that they can be free to be as creative as they want. Annihilation was fantastic. What needs to be clarified is where does the Kree and the Shi'ar stand today. Perhaps they should go to war on each other. Perhaps they should change the Galactus character and have his hunger settled for a while. Silver Surfer should take on a position in the Marvel Universe. Meaning he should make a clearer stance what he is against and what he is for and why. This will give him enemies as well as friends. Maybe he should defend the Shi'ar from the Kree and become their Saviour or something like that. Or introduce a new threat. Nova is one of the best books out today.

As for "Brand New Day" I am very against it. Its poor writing. 1st they kill Gwen, then MJ's baby vanishes and they never talk about it again. Now they get rid of MJ. All in an attempt to not age the character. The truth is he is not 16 anymore. If readers want that then read Ultimate. If they want to go that direction start a new book in a new universe. That's sort of what they did but its still in our universe which is all wrong. Hence the confusion. Besides, one thing is clear to me: they cannot let Mephisto win. If they continue this rout then he does. Honestly, Kill Aunt May. she's a boring character. Bring back the baby and find a more respectful way for MJ and the baby to leave the comic. Perhaps she can't live on the run with a baby, Anyway, I will continue to avoid Spider-man, simply because the stories today I already read in 1997. More or less.

I've very cool with late books like Astonishing X-men and Ultimates. The quality is great and its worth the wait. I wish Ultimate Spider-man was 12 issues a year again because those books were FANTASTIC. I think people are too impatient. The only thing that needs to be done on Marvel's part is a little line (like the one at the beginning of Red Sonja/Spider-man) saying when the book takes place. That's what they did back in the day, and that's what they should do now. Marvel should really have a continuity web site kept by them, to make it official, rather then leaving it to fans to figure out what order they should read WWH or Secret Invasion. What I cannot tolerate is books that never come out and stories not finished. Ultimate Hulk/Wolverine is a great example.

I love the Ultimate titles. Its cool to read some other stories outside of the Marvel Continuity. What I don't like about them is the rush to Ultimatize all of their characters. At first they were patient and the books were awesome, then it was a new character every other book. Cable/Iron First/Moon Knight are all just dipping into the Marvel Universe for some direction. I say keep up the Ultimate Universe but slow it down back to the way it was when Millar/ and Kurbert were doing it. Those stories were patient and Amazing.

I think letter pages suck. I never read them.

Lastly, Marvel Crossover Events. The best thing about Marvel events are also the worst thing. That is, every time they make a crossover people don't know what to read. If they do it in the Civil War manner then you get one main story, which makes sense, but the other stories help a lot. In Civil War the main 7 books was not enough story to feel like you knew what was happening. Spider-Man and Avengers became a necessary read, Even then it wasn't enough. So people are stuck with not knowing what to buy and/or buying it all to get the whole story which may not be there. It would defiantly be a better story if it was a 15 part book. But that can't work, its too long.
So they tried WWH. Less books but many of them were repetition and you only really needed WWH/Frontline. The rest didn't add to the story. Even Frontline was kind of weak.
So I do like their new Secret Invasion Approach. The only tie-in books are the ones that couldn't sell as miniseries. All the rest are Mini-series. This is ok, but everyone knows you don't have to read the miniseries. It won;t add to the main plot. Right Now Mighty Avengers/ New Avengers don't so much add to the main plot as they set up back story. So you only need to read Secret Invasion to understand. That kind of sucks because its cool and I want more things that add to the story directly.
I suggest doing crossovers kind of like they use to or more in the Civil War/Annihilation way. Annihilation had 26 books, no more and it was clear what they were doing with no extra crossovers thus making three sweet hardcovers. Then they screwed it all up with Annihilation Conquest. Nova had a trade with issues #1-3 which are not included in the Hardcover Annihilation book. Thus, fans need to buy Nova vol 1 tpb and Annihilation book 2 to get the whole story of Nova, repeating issues 4-7 in their collection.
With Civil War it should have had 5 miniseries and the main book. Spider-Man, Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-men, and an Iron Man vs Cap book. No confusion clear and set. House of M tried but all the extra books didn't add to the story.

I like what Marvel is doing. They just need to be clearer on what there doing. Not the depth of stories but something like: Thor: Secret Invasion will be 4 issues and it takes place between issues 5 and 6 of Secret Invasion. Or Brubaker's Captain America has an open ended contact. I hate that they keep adding books to their events that usually suck because they were not in the original plans.

Thats my thoughts. I hope someone from Marvel understands.