Marvel's Infinity Panel Recap

The panel began with moderator Nick Lowe introducing the panelists: Steve Wacker, Sam Humphries, Axel Alonso, Frank Tieri, Nick Spencer, Charles Soule, Rick Remender, Mike McKone, and Zeb Wells.

Lowe showed off some covers and early pages from the series, saying it was “the biggest story we’ve done that spans the universe. It’s a story so big that it spills into the Avengers and New Avengers books. Jonathan [Hickman] plans everything. He’s got it planned down to the panel and to the page, in a way that only Jonathan can really write.”

Soule touched on Thunderbolts, “The dynamic of the book starting with issue #14 is that they’re trading missions with each other.” He said they’re basically helping each other accomplish their missions by playing with interesting team-ups and see how crazy things can get.

New writer of Nova Zeb Wells chimed in on his book. “It’s fun to write a character who’s still figuring out to be a superhero, much how I’m still figuring out how to be an adult.” Issue #9 will feature some crossover with Infinity, as Sam comes face-to-face with Thanos, who Wells said isn’t such a huge fan of Novas as per his past relationship with Richard Ryder.

“By the end of issue #6 you’re going to see the team in a very different place,” Spencer said of Secret Avengers. He also said that guest-writer Ed Brisson, who will be writing a couple of issues around Infinity, is “absolutely destroying it.”

Inhuman was next up, and Alonso related how last year at Comic-Con they were saying to keep our eyes on Guardians of the Galaxy because they’d be huge players in the Marvel Universe in the year to come, and that they are saying the same thing about Inhuman this year. “There’s going to be some exciting stuff to explore in not only who they are, but how long they existed.”

Remender touched on the “Ragnarok Now” arc of Uncanny Avengers, which led to the announcement of Steve McNiven joining the series. “What’s happening in this arc is going to be a culmination of everything we’ve seen in the Marvel Universe up to this point. This is a big story that revolves around Red Skull, the Apocalypse Twins, and Kang. The heroes are going to start paying for what they’ve done in losses of life.”

Lowe brought up Avengers: Endless Wartime, the new OGN by Warren Ellis and Mike McKone. “There was a fair bit of planning involved, but it wasn’t too much different from working [on a monthly book],” said McKone.

Tieri pitched his Infinity tie-in as “Ocean’s 11 with Iron Man villains. It’s more Reservoir Dogs or Ocean’s 11 than your typical comic book fare. Like all good heist movies, something goes terribly wrong, something unexpected, and it all hits the fan from there.”

Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. He often wonders whatever happened to Billy's RadBug.

Wrestling Wrap Up: Night of Champions Recap

For those of you who don't follow me on Twitter or haven't checked around for news since last week's Wrap Up, Jerry Lawler's on the mend and has managed to miraculously recover from the massive heart attack he had live on RAW last Monday. The CT scan showed no sign of brain damage, which is amazing considering that Jerry was down and dead for 15 to 20 minutes backstage before the EMTs could revive him. But Lawler's up and about, making bad jokes and touting out touts to his fans. If you ask me, that last part wouldn't normally go hand-in-hand with a positive prognosis, but I'll take it. Last Tuesday, we all knew Lawler would live, but we still didn't know if he'd wind up having serious, lingering mental issues. Now, everthing's come about-face and we can all breathe easier. Until the next time something horrific happens live on RAW. Which will happen. Someday. We just don't know when. But WE WILL HAVE SEX IN YOUR CAR! IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN!

With Lawler out (which he was for the past couple weeks anyhow due to storyline reasons) we actually got some awesome fill-in help from JBL at Night of Champions, and from JBL and Jim Ross on RAW last night. What a foil-wrapped treat! Yes, it was strange to hear Cole immediately assume his old role as a babyface announcer, but after all the good will that got heaped upon him last week after RAW, it's probably a good idea not to have him saddle back up on the heel horse right away. Or at all, if you ask me. Yes, I know my whole "GDYC" shtick actually started back when Cole was a good-guy announcer, way before he turned heel, but I stated a while back that heel-Cole had driven us all to such extreme madness that we'd gladly welcome back plain old sucky down-the-middle Cole. We had to know things could get way worse before we could accept things being medium-awful. It's reverse spoiling.

Now, JBL wasn't back in top form, but he was still good enough to liven things up. He was for the heels, so Cole had to default to being a face anyhow. And not all of their give-and-take banter was gold, but my favorite part of JBL is that when he doesn't want to talk about something (usually something off-point from the match they're watching) or doesn't have an opinion on a trivial matter, he'll just bash Cole outright for bringing up such an absurd topic to begin with. If he doesn't want to talk about something, he won't engage at all. And much in the way he used to when he and Cole called matches on Smackdown, he constantly called Cole out on the fact that, to fill time, Cole repeats and reiterates the obvious in a very "If you're just tuning in" sort of way.

That being said, I was very thankful, due to Cole's immediate change in style, that Jim Ross could announce on RAW last night without Cole being a dips*** Jim Ross-hater. Because, I don't know about you, but I felt that was always the worst part of heel Cole. It made me extra Deathstroke-y.

It was a good thing that JBL and JR were out for RAW last night too because...it was a bit of a snoozer. Nothing new was introduced into the mix at Night of Champions, either in the Cena/Punk world or the Del Rio/Sheamus world, so last night was all about keeping the stories going and moving onto the next PPV. Yes, there was "controversy" that stemmed out of the Punk/Cena match at NOC, but when you just get down to it, Cena's still chasing Punk's title and they'll face each other again in a month. The leg on the bottom rope thing last night was a way for Cena to get a questionable ref call fall on his side of the playing field. The funny thing about the end of the Night of Champions match though was...we all just naturally assumed Cena was doing a crappy-looking German suplex pin. That his shoulders were on the mat because there was no way that he'd be able to do that move without it looking like total garbage.

Exhibit Q: Just look at Cena selling the crossface What's he thinking about here? A DIY kitchen cabinet project? Is he trying to reorganize his Netflix queue in his head? Because if he is, tell him to watch Up in the Air already!

Most of the finesse moves Cena tries to pull off look like ass. So why wouldn't a German off the top rope be any different? So yeah, I thought he'd won. Yes, it was odd for the match to have ended without a standard finisher, or finish that we'd seen before, but I never thought that Cena's inability to bridge his Franken-neck would actually become part of the storyline. Plus, Punk vs. Daniel Bryan at Money in the Bank also ended unconventionally and with a move that neither man had done on WWE TV before. And in a similar fashion, it was a belly-to-back suplex off the top rope. But, in all may weary years, I've never seen a ref actually reverse his own decision, realizing that both guys had shoulders on the mat.

More from Punk vs. Cena at Night of Champions, plus Randy Orton's a grouch, on page 2...