By Todd Allen

As you might have guessed, there wasn’t a lot of new news at the Avengers Vs. X-Men panel.  Nobody wants to spoil the ending.  There’s definitely an epilogue in the form of the Consequences mini-series, which will also point the way to what comes next.  (The next Event?  Marvel Now relaunches?  I’m not sure what they meant by that.)

In fact, the only thing I took as news was that the Consequences mini-series will be structured a bit like the Schism mini-series for X-Men and have a different artist each issue.

What actually happened at the panel?  Let me pull some tangential quotes from Marvel’s own liveblogging to show what was being discussed.

The Phoenix Five (with a new member, not Namor) will be joining Alliance this fall, with their own take on the story.

So AVX will be entering the world of Marvel’s Facebook game (a really entertaining facebook game, as it happens).

New line of Avengers VS X-Men hats coming this fall!
Highly anticipated haberdashery, surely.
Moving on to the topic of Marvel Now:
“Get a great writer, put them with a great artist, and have them tell a story that will be appealing to old fans and bring in new fans.” – Axel
“THIS IS NOT A REBOOT. This all takes place within the Marvel Universe. We do not open a portal, or go back in time. This is all in the Universe post AvX.” – Axel
I think we’re going to hear very nearly those exact phrases many times between now and the actual relaunch.
“Friends go into a comic shop and want to buy a book, but it is just so daunting. Now you can tell your friends to download the AR app, point their phone at a comic, and they get a recap.” – Joe
The recap page will still be there for those who don’t have the app or a smart phone.” – Arune
Honest question: has anyone seen someone do that in a comic shop lately?  It seems like it takes a lot more effort to pull out your phone, open the app and point the phone at the comic than it does to just pick it up and open the cover.  If everything’s bagged, maybe.  If they find the continuity or choices daunting, I’m not clear how putting the recap page that’s already there onto a phone is going to change anything.
I just tried holding my phone over Thor and Captain America, with no results, so maybe this isn’t fully implemented yet.
They did seem to be pushing the digital download codes quite a bit, too.  The free downloads and AR seem to be frequently used as justifications for the $3.99 price point.
Other than that, same old, same old.
I think we’ll get some new announcements tomorrow at the Spider-Man Panel

1 COMMENT

  1. They certainly don’t want to spoil the ending, no. Let’s recap:

    1. All (presumably) the Avengers reboots have been announced,, while the X-books remain shrouded in mystery.
    2. Alonso (per CBR) said “one team will deal with the question of new leadership.” And Cap has already been mentioned as Avengers leader post-AvX.
    3. They’ve polled the audience of several panels on whether Cyclops should die.

    Now, any actual death talk may be a red herring, but I won’t exactly be surprised if Bendis’s Kid Cyclops will replace rather than hang out with Old Man Cyclops.

  2. “I just tried holding my phone over Thor and Captain America, with no results, so maybe this isn’t fully implemented yet.”

    Considering that the AR features aren’t on that book, you’re right. It’s not implemented yet.

  3. So, Marvel is saying, business as usual …
    no reboot just a lot of re-titling and re-numbering.

    If Marvel makes more money from this it’s going to be by sticking retailers with a lot of unsold #1 issues at $3.99 each.

    House of ideas my @ss!

  4. “It seems like it takes a lot more effort to pull out your phone, open the app and point the phone at the comic than it does to just pick it up and open the cover.”

    Yes, good point. So far I’ve seen absolutely nothing on Marvel’s AR that made me think the option is worthwhile.

    Though it’s kind of funny to see clips of Bendis putting on airs as if he actually takes time to think about what he writes anymore.