C2E2: Age of Ultron Panel Recap

Arune Singh introduced the panel: Tom Brevoort, Ellie Pyle, Rick Remender, and Brandon Peterson.

Brevoort started by summing up the general storyline so far, which recently released issue #6. This led to Remender discussing Uncanny Avengers #8AU, which he said will have “more people going to kill other people.” He continued, “The responsibility was to do something that furthered the regular story. It presented a lot of fun opportunities and getting to work with co-writer Gerry Duggan and the legendary Adam Kubert. It’s a lot of fun.”

“We did very few tie-ins, relatively,” said Brevoort on their tie-in philosophy this time around. “We really tried to keep it down to a small, manageable number, especially with the schedule of the main book.”

Peterson talked about his work leading to Age of Ultron #10, which he says is the best thing that he’s done for Marvel. He described the epic battle sequences of the book and that Marvel must have been looking for someone insane to draw it, which was him. Peterson said that Bendis will call an artist and find out what they want to draw and try to cater the script to what they like to draw, even if it changes his story plans.

“The thing I look for now is working with the right people. When you have a real fun creative atmosphere, you do good work. If you really want to draw Spider-Man but it’s a bad Spider-Man story, you’re not going to do your best work,” said Peterson. “As long as I’m engaged, I’m happy, and I’ve been pretty engaged with what I’ve been doing.”

Singh brought up the return of Neil Gaiman’s Angela and Brevoort said, “She’s coming into the Marvel Universe in Age of Ultron #10 and will immediately segue into Brian’s next story on Guardians of the Galaxy with issue #5.” Singh said that Gaiman hadn’t been at Marvel in about six years, and that this arc on Guardians would mark his return. It wasn’t clear whether or not he would stay on beyond the initial Angela arc.

Avengers #10A.I. will be written by Mark Waid and drawn by Andre Lime Araujo, which will be setting up Hank Pym for his future in the Marvel Universe. This led to discussion about new series Avengers A.I. “It’s the return of the Vision in a big way in the Marvel Universe.” Brevoort also said the cast would be Monica Chang, a Doombot, and Victor Mancha from Runaways, recently seen in Ultron #1AU.

Age of Ultron #10U.C. was brought up, but the panel couldn’t say who the creative team was or what “U.C.” means. However, a one word tease – outlined in purple – was “Hunger.” Galactus perhaps?

Marvel then showed an amusing stop-motion animation of the Avengers vs. Ultron that found the latter mid-battle and needing to upgrade his firmware.

In the fan Q&A, Brevoort said we’d see that there were a lot of events that have now changed following Hank Pym’s death, and that Age of Ultron #10A.I. would be the book to look to for answers to all of those Pym questions. Remender added that he was a huge fun of the character, and that he had stories he’d like to tell with him.

Brevoort also mentioned that there's no correlation between Age of Ultron and the upcoming Infinity.

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. After Man of Steel comes out, his life will lose all sense of direction and purpose.