Source: Marvel.com
The Marvel Creative Summit in New York City is underway, with Joe Quesada, Brian Michael Bendis, Jeph Loeb, Allan Heinberg, Greg Pak, Dan Slott, Matt Fraction and the full Marvel editorial team all in attendance! Keep checking back on this page for continuous updates on what’s going on inside the big meeting and what it means for the Marvel Universe!
Day 2: Tuesday, December 18
Next Update (coming soon!): Skrull-apalooza! Brian Michael Bendis on Secret Invasion!
1:45 PM—Summit Site
Everyone in the room got a top secret view of – darn, of course we can’t say. Just got the kibosh dropped on me…let me just say this: come January, the Internet will be the exclusive place to see something Marvel-related you’ve never seen before. Something that caused the entire room to burst out in applause! (For real!) We’ll keep you posted on Marvel.com.
Lunch Break—Summit Site
As everyone loaded up on stuffed chicken breast and cheeseburgers, the whole creative nerve center focused on…YOU, potentially! If you sent in a photo to the Marvel Costume Contest held on Marvel.com not too long ago – you may very well have been on the screensaver randomly showing off some of your awesome costumes! From Incredible Hulks to spectacular Spider-Men to just about every version of Iron Man’s armor, the contest might be long over, but all of your efforts did not go unnoticed! In fact, as some of the biggest names in the mortal Marvel Universe lunched, they also sat awestruck as the elaborate costumes filled the screen.
11:15 AM—Summit Site
Right off the bat, the assemblage addressed the jade giant in the room, with HULK writer Jeph Loeb speaking about the twists and turns of the upcoming red phase for the normally green gargantuan and, suffice it to say, surprises abound! As for the rest of the morning, discussion broke out about the super-secret next phases of the sprawling “X-Men: Messiah CompleX” saga and how the story will play out across the mutant world and Marvel Universe as a whole. In that moment, as all of the top Marvel minds eloquently expounded on potential twists and turns and outcomes, you begin to understand the power of these Creative Summits.
10:00 AM—Summit Site
So other than hearing about the numbers and looking at lists and pie charts (mmmmmm, pie…) – what exactly happens at a Creative Summit? Here’s the setting: A huge room with tables arranged in a giant square. In the front of the room, a giant chart hangs – broken up by Marvel publishing groups (Marvel Universe Heroes, Ultimate Universe, X-Men and Spider-Man) and then by months (January 2008 – July 2009). Editor-in-Chief, Joe Quesada, and President/Publisher Dan Buckley sit side by side. To their left moving around the circle (ok, square) is Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, C.B. Cebulski, Dan Slott, Executive Editor Tom Brevoort, Brian Michael Bendis, a slew of Marvel editors, Greg Pak, more Marvel editorial staff – hello Ralph Macchio – and then Jeph Loeb, Allan Heinberg and more editors and staff than you can shake a Donald Blake walking stick at! So, you can imagine the ideas whirling around the room – and whirl they did…
9:25 AM—Summit Site (Somewhere in Manhattan)
The House of Ideas goes off campus! Sunlight fought to break through the skyscrapers of Manhattan in the wee hours of the morning (well, like 9 a.m. – wee hours for this crew) and the day began with a State of the Marvel Union address by the President of Marvel’s Publishing division, Dan Buckley. The good news? Marvel’s kicking butt in the world of publishing. Absolutely romping. The bad news? No more complementary bagels left… Those responsible were then soundly beaten. Well, no not really… (The beatings come later.)
Day 1: Monday, December 17
1:00 PM—Inside the House of Ideas
Marvel’s multi-day Creative Summit kicked off in the heart of the House of Ideas, the aptly named Hulk Room, the largest conference room—of course—in the building, where each editorial team presented video slideshows of upcoming plans and storylines for the assembled group. The Panic Room—Mark Paniccia’s office—kicked things off with a polished presentation of where the Hulk and some of his friends and enemies will evolve in 2008. Who was there enjoying quality pizza and soft drinks? Jeph Loeb, Brian Michael Bendis, Dan Slott, Greg Pak and C.B. Cebulski, not to mention Summit rookies Allan Heinberg and Matt Fraction as well as the entire Marvel editorial staff led by Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada.
