Guardians Of The Galaxy And Nova Make A Cosmic Comeback At Cup O’ Joe [NYCC 2012]

The launch of two new books saw the return of Marvel's cosmic titles at yesterday's Marvel Cup O' Joe panel at New York Comic-Con -- but we were told not to think of them as "cosmic" anymore. The panel led by Marvel chief creative officer Joe Quesada also featured many of Marvel's bigwigs, including editor-in-chief Axel Alonso, publisher Dan Buckley and Marvel TV head honcho Jeph Loeb, most of whom took the opportunity to deafen the crowd by shouting "NOW" into their microphones. Except Axel Alonso, who was much too considerate for that. Thank you, Axel. The audience likes you best.

Guardians of the Galaxy was the most enthusiastically received announcement of the panel. The series brings together the same cast that's expected to be in the in-development movie version of the team -- Star-Lord, Drax, Groot, Gamora and Rocket Raccoon -- plus a new member who is either Iron Man or someone in an Iron Man suit. The creative team is led by former Avengers architect Brian Michael Bendis and Civil War artist Steve McNiven.

The other new cosmic title is Nova, featuring a new man under the bucket helmet, Sam Alexander. The character has already appeared in Avengers vs X-Men, and is a much younger hero than his predecessor. Writer Jeph Loeb explained that he wanted to respect the Nova stories that had come before, which included the loss of previous Nova Richard Rider and the destruction of the Nova Corps. "This story is in a very Marvel way about how an ordinary kid has something very extraordinary happen to him," said Loeb. Art on the series comes from Ed McGuiness.

Asked if Rider would ever come back, Loeb said, "Loeb on Richard Rider. Anything is possible." Loeb also noted that he didn't want readers to look at titles like Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy happening in some separate "cosmic" family of books. "When you take a look at Nova you should look at hm with the same eye you look at Spider-Man, at Iron Man, at Hulk. ... It isn't the cosmic universe, it's the Marvel universe."

Both Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova will launch in February 2013.

One further title were announced at the panel. Punisher: Nightmare is a weekly five-issue series by Scott Gimple, a writer and producer on The Walking Dead TV show. Art comes from Matt Texeira, and the series focuses on a man going through an experience similar to Frank Castle's origin, and Frank trying to decide whether the man is a threat or an ally.

The Q&A for the panel sadly didn't produce much of interest, though two separate people asked if Runaways was coming back, which, guys, it really isn't. That answer didn't change between the first guy asking the question and the second guy five minutes later. The person who asked when we might see Amadeus Cho again got a better response, with Alonso revealing cryptically that we will see Cho in a book soon, but we won't know it's happening until we see it.