Marvel Infinity Live Interactive Chat – Recap!


Do you love Marvel Cosmic?

Well, it was made perfectly clear to me today during the Marvel Infinity Live Interactive Chat, that the head honchos over at Marvel certainly do.

Space is the place, man… -Axel Alonso

And while you can get an instant replay of that live session (by clicking on the link above), your time may be better spent reading my recap, here.

Like anything based solely on technology, they had a few technical difficulties. Nothing too major, in fact, nothing “crashed”, but still getting all the players set up on the stage took a bit longer than expected.

If you do take a look at the “Replay”, be sure to look for Tom Brevoort’s creepy statement, “This is Daddy coming home.” – followed by the reactions. There were plenty of amusing avatar image swaps to keep you distracted as well…Oh, and while likely 100’s of people were in attendance asking questions, only a few slipped through the moderator’s keen filter.

I was pleased that some of my statements made it up, but a bit sad that some of my questions were not bubbled to the surface. This was mostly a Live [highly controlled] Q&A between Marvel employees, with some onlookers.

Overall, though, it was actually quite amusing watching them deal with issues in real time in front of their “live internet audience”. Once they were up and running, it was a roller coaster of information – some FANTASTIC information, but it is buried.

Background

But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s set a foundation for this post…

Who?

The Marvel folks “in the room” included:

What?

This was a live interactive chat with the folks listed above and any interested Marvel fan (or Troll) in the audience. The format was simple:

  1. Go to Chat Website
  2. Login with Twitter or Facebook (other options available as well)
  3. Ask Questions
  4. Questions get posted/answered as the moderator sees fit

Where?

On the Internet. Link is above, but here it is again: Marvel Infinity Live Interactive Chat – I noticed advertisement for it yesterday via Twitter. So if you are interested in these types of things, be sure to follow @Marvel.

When?

It was today – April 2nd, 2013 at 2PM Eastern.

Why?

Great Question! It was to announce, tease and excite fans about Marvel’s “Biggest Event of 2013”: Infinity

Here is a snippet from yesterday’s official release:

The Biggest Heroes. The Biggest Threats. The Biggest Sacrifices. This is Marvel’s Infinity.”

The Event

The following information is based directly on what you will find in the transcript for this live interactive chat…just much more succinct and with a lot less searching.

Free Comic Book Day

Aside from today’s trickle of information straight from the creators, the real teasing begins on Free Comic Book Day. This is when the first real writing and art hits the stands…for FREE. In actuality, you pay with your patience. Because if it is as awesome as they say, waiting until August 2013 will be painful.

The Pitch

Guys, Infinity is the biggest comic book event of the year, bringing together Earth’s Mightiest Heroes against not just the biggest threat they’ve ever faced, but the biggest threats they’ve ever faced.” – Ben J. Morse

Q&A

Here are some of the more interesting Questions and Answers. I will put names by each so you can see where the info is coming from:

UltimateKidNova: “What can you tell us about the story?”

Jonathan Hickman: “It’s big. Roughly 18 issues worth of story if you include the AV and NA tie-ins.”
Axel Alonso: “‘Infinity’ delivers on our promise that it’s called the Marvel “Universe” for a reason. No series has narrowed the gap between Earthbound and cosmic heroes more than this.”
Tom Brevoort: “It’s a battle waged on two fronts, as the Avengers head off into space to deal with a looming cosmic threat, only to have Thanos strike at an undefended Earth during their absence.”

“Where did the idea for Infinity come from, and how was the creative team put together?”

TB: “The central idea was Jonathan’s, it was a pitch for a big summer story to run in the AVENGERS titles, that grew and expanded out from there. In terms of the artists, we wanted to get the best and biggest guys we could, and guys that Jonathan was comfortable working with. That translated into Jim Cheung, whom everybody loves, Jerome Opena, who launched AVENGERS so well, and Dustin Weaver, whose SHIELD and AVENGERS work really found a rhythm with Jonathan.”
AA: “‘Infinity’ grew out of ideas that Jonathan presented to us in the editorial summit. it evolved over the course of 2-3 summits to be what it is.”

“To follow up on that, Jonathan, when did you first know Infinity was an idea you wanted to move toward given the direction of your Avengers run?”

JH: “It really just seemed like a natural fit. I was already going to do ‘AVENGERS UNIVERSE’ in the Avengers books, but the secondary elements all kind of organically came together. We probably got a little lucky that it all fit together so nicely, but that’s fine. I’ll take good fortune every day of the week.”

“Building on that, you guys mentioned Infinity will be spilling over into Avengers and New Avengers, both also written by Jonathan. What can we expect to see there and are there other places where Infinity will make its presence known?”

TB: “Both AVENGERS and NEW AVENGERS will be doing full-fledged tie-ins throughout the duration of INFINITY. So that’s six issues of AVENGERS, #18-23, and four issues of NEW AVENGERS, #9-12. On top of that, there’ll be an assortment of tie-ins in other titles across the Marvel line, books as diverse as SCARLET SPIDER and THUNDERBOLTS and WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN and CAPTAIN MARVEL. Not to mention many of the other AVENGERS books.”
AA: “Do yourself a favor and don’t miss out on ‘Thanos Rising.’ It’s everything you need to know about him, but were too intimidated to ask. And once you’ve read Infinity #1, you’ll be searching for it.”

“Ok, so we know the Avengers and Thanos are front in center in Infinity, but who else will be involved in this story?”

TB: “Out in space, the threat that’s headed this way is the Builders, the oldest race in the universe, whom we’ve seeded in earlier issues of AVENGERS. They’re tearing their way through the great civilizations of the universe, so expect to see the Kree, the Skrulls, the Shi’ar, etc… Thanos himself has five new key lieutenants, the Cull Obsidian, who are like the five fingers on his massive hand. He points, they do. Each one is a fascinating new character in their own right.”
JH: “On Earth: The Illuminati are big. The Inhumans have a big coming out party. In Space: All your favorites. The return of the Skrull Empire. The Imperial Guard. The Kree. The Shi’ar. The Second Annhilation Wave. The Brood. The Spartax. And then there are the bad guys. Which Tom is talking about.”
TB: “And as we’ve mentioned elsewhere, there’s a big role for the Inhumans to play in all of this, given the fact that their civilization strattles the line between being space-born and native to Earth.”

“Ok guys, I want to move into fan Q&A momentarily, but before we do…the Builders. A great new addition to the Marvel Universe via Jonathan’s first arc of Avengers and they are very important to Infinity. What do people need to know about them going in?”

JH: “You don’t need to know anything. We’ll set it up for you. But, if you have been reading, you know that they are one of the oldest races in the Universe and they’ve been up to shenanigans for millions of years…and it’s finally coming home to roost.”
TB: “They’re the oldest race in the universe, they seeded life and tended it like a garden over the millennia, creating several cosmic systems to manage its growth. The Garden, comprised of Ex Nihilo, Abyss and Aleph, from AVENGERS #1-3, was one of their systems. The tip of the iceberg.”

Teasing at the Plot

The following points are what I found most interesting from the chat session. Once again, I will put names by each so you can see where the info is coming from:

Jonathan Hickman: Yes. Where we leave the Inhumans — and Black Bolt, especially — at the end of Infinity is really exciting.

Tom Brevoort: We’ll see involvement on teh part of the Guardians and Nova.

Axel Alonso: If “Inifinity” were a movie, it would be too expensive to make.

JH: INFINITY is massive, but the aftermath is going to be something else.

TB: Thanos wants what Thanos wants. You can decide at the end of teh day whether he’s hero or villain. But the smart money is probably on villain…

JH: If you want to know how Thanos will generally be handled in the MU from here on out, read the THANOS RISING mini.

TB: The Illuminati are all over INFINITY, they and their activities play a massive role.

TB: Medusa will be in INFINITY, but it’s too early to determine whether there’ll be a full-on FF tie-in story.

TB: Yes, plenty of plans for the Surfer!

I am particularly excited about this! See:

JH: The X-Men will be in Infinity. You’ll see them. Remember that Beast is Illuminati and that’s a big, natural ‘in’ there.

TB: Smasher will be all over INFINITY. She’s got the connection to the Imperial Guard, so she’ll be crucial!

TB: There’ll definitely be more tie-ins than there are for AGE OF ULTRON. It’ll be more in line with FEAR ITSELF or something of that size in terms of tie-in issues.

TB: Six issues over four months, between August and November. So one in Aug, two in Sept and Oct, one in Nov.

Feedback

Here are a few questions that you can answer for yourself (feel free to use the comments here). You can see how the Marvel folks and audience answered…so what do you think?

Do you have a favorite classic Thanos story?

This was a fan question from loudnesswar.

Tom Brevoort: “Probably those two Annuals from the 70s, AVENGERS and TWO-IN-ONE.”
Axel Alonso: “The Two-In-One Annual and “Thanos Rising.”
Jonathan Hickman: “Mine would be Death of Captain Marvel I guess. Tangential, but still…”

Which characters are you most excited to see in Infinity?

This was a poll question the audience was asked

Here are the results:

Thanos Rules Infinity

I am a huge Marvel Cosmic Fan. It is THE thing in comics that started my habit all those years ago. Thanos has always been my favorite. In recent years I have taken on the moniker “thanosrules“, which can be found various places on the internet. Interestingly enough, when I went to create a Marvel account, “thanosrules” was taken – so I had a decision to make – and I chose to stick with theme. I chose “thanosrulesinfinity”. Seems appropriate – I keep lucking out – this year and the next few appear to be pretty Cosmic. Happily. Cosmic.

Here’s to ruling infinity!