Marvel’s Next Big Things: ‘Black Panther,’ ‘Villains for Hire’ and ‘The Twelve’ [Comic-Con]

Axel Alonso, EiC of Marvel Comics, David Gabriel, Senior Vice President of Sales, Stephen Wacker, editor of Amazing Spider-Man, Jonathan Hickman, writer of FF, Greg Pak, writer of Alpha Flight, Daniel Way (Deadpool), Nick Spencer (Iron Man 2.0), Jim McCann (Return of the Dapper Men), and Marvel Director of Communications Arune Singh helmed the "Marvel: Next Big Thing" panel at San Diego Comic-con 2011. In addition to running down the list of Marvel's already-announced upcoming series, the panel informed the audience about a brand new slate of books for the fall: Black Panther, Villains for Hire, and new issues of The Twelve. Get the details on the new series after the jump.

On The Twelve: After a long delay J Michael Straczynski and Chris Weston's The Twelve is back. JMS has handed in all of his scripts, and Weston is currently at work on the series. The Twelve #9 arrives in February. Marvel debuted the covers for #9 and #11, which feature painted art by current Daredevil artist Paolo Rivera. Eagle-eyed readers will note that Rivera completed these covers in 2008. The latest issue of The Twelve had a cover date of December 2008.

On Villains for Hire: Heroes for Hire is switching gears in November and becoming Villains for Hire. Misty Knight is hiring villains to get the job done, and nobody's entirely happy about it. Why is Misty Knight hiring villains? What is her big mission? Why aren't heroes good enough? Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning team with artist Renato Arlem to answer these burning questions.

Check out a few pages from the title:

On Black Panther #525: This November, T'Challa, the former Black Panther, ex-Man Without Fear, and current Most Dangerous Man Alive, is gaining a new enemy in the Kingpin, and he's bringing The Hand, Lady Bullseye, and Typhoid Mary with him. Regular series writer David Liss and new series artist Shawn Martinbrough will chronicle the conflict.