X-Men Senior Editor Nick Lowe hosted this year's X-Men panel at New York Comic-Con, which featured a number of big announcements for the "X" family of books. Panellists included writers Peter David, Gerry Duggan, Dennis Hopeless, Marjorie Liu, Brian Wood, Charles Soule, Simon Spurrier, and editors Jeanine Schaefer, Jordan White and Daniel Ketchum.

[Major Spoiler warning concerning the future of X-23 after the jump.]

The panel began with a look at upcoming storylines and already-announced launches, starting with Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinesss's Amazing X-Men, which starts next month and brings Nightcrawler back from the dead.

“Every story is an event,” said Lowe of the new title. “Jason and Ed are in for the long haul. … (Ed) is so excited, he often tells me this is the book he's been waiting to draw his whole life. He is the biggest Nightcrawler fan in the world.”

Brian Wood talked about adding Monet to his X-Men roster – someone he wanted on the team from the start. “I think Monet was on my original list when we were talking last summer… Pairing her off with Jubilee makes her a lot of fun. Wisecracks. Attitude.”

Lowe confirmed that X-23 is joining All-New X-Men – a fact already hinted at by the release of an upcoming cover. “Nick doesn't mind spoiling the ending of Avengers Arena with that cover,” noted Avengers Arena writer Dennis Hopeless.

 

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Uncanny X-Men “will be the first place you go to look” to see the fallout of the events of Infinity and the forthcoming Inhumanity book on Marvel's mutants. The two X-Force teams will come to blows in a story called Vendetta in Uncanny X-Force #16-17 and Cable and X-Force #18-19. “We'll be doing a big crossover where Cable kicks the sh*t out of those impostors,” said Cable and X-Force writer Hopeless. The story not only pits Cable against Bishop, but also brings back the villain Stryfe.

Though not an X-Men book, the panel also covered the recently unveiled She-Hulk title by Charles Soule and Javier Pulido, with covers by the great Kevin Wada. “I have another gig besides writing comics; I've been an attorney for a really long time and I still practice law," said Soule. "I'm going to take experiences that I've had... and apply them to She-Hulk's life." She-Hulk will take on cases that take her to every corner of the Marvel Universe, and Soule emphasized that he hopes it'll be a fun book. "She's fun, she's funny, she likes to do fun things."

The panel next moved on to announcements, revealing some of the titles hinted at in the one-word teasers for All-New Marvel Now. The first was “Sinners”, with the creative team of Charles Soule and Carlos Barberi. This turns out to be one Soule's current titles, Thunderbolts, but with a new team member; Ghost Rider. “He fits the tone of the book,” said Soule. The character joins in issue #20, with a story called “No Mercy” that will presumably have repercussions for the Thunderbolts character Mercy. “Maybe there's more than one meaning to it,” Soule noted.

The 'Wrath' teaser was revealed as the next arc of Savage Wolverine, the book that allows writer-artists to bring their own visions to the character. Richard Isanove will follow Phil Jimenez on the title with issue #14 in January, and a story set in the Dustbowl in the 1930s Prohibition era.

The 'Trial' and 'Judgment' teasers were confirmed as referring to a “Trial of Jean Grey” story that will cross over between two of Brian Michael Bendis's books next year – issues #22-24 of All-New X-Men, with art by Stuart Immonen, and issues #11-13 of Guardians of the Galaxy, with art by Sara Pichelli.

“When the rest of the universe learns that there's a Jean Grey on Earth again, that's not good news to a lot of broccoli people or friends of broccoli people,” said Lowe, referring to the scenes in the original 'Dark Phoenix Saga' when the Phoenix destroyed a planet of broccoli people. The story will see Jean taken to Chandilar by the Shi'ar to stand trial, and the Guardians of the Galaxy fighting to get her back. And yes, Lowe confirmed, this means that “the All-New X-Men will be sticking around after 'Battle of the Atom.'” The covers shown also revealed they're getting spiffy new costumes courtesy of Stuart Immonen.

 

All New X-Men 22 Marvel
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The final teaser revealed at the panel was 'Corporate', with the creative team of Peter David and Carmine Di Gandomenico. As many had suspected, this was a new X-Factor title – indeed, an All-New X-Factor title – involving a corporate owned mutant super team that includes Quicksilver, Polaris and Gambit, and three other team members he wasn't yet able to reveal. David said he's especially excited to write Gambit, having never written the character before.

David said he was inspired to write the new book by both the ubiquity of corporations and the specific example of Google, which he notes is involved in everything from space travel to curing cancer. In the Marvel Universe that role is filled by Serval Industries, a search engine company with a humanitarian agenda that now includes superheroics. “I thought about it and thought why wouldn't a corporation get into superheroes?” said David. “That hasn't really happened, at least not off the top of my head.”

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