Marvel 70th Anniversary Celebration with Joe Quesada, Chris Claremont, Greg Pak, Klaus Janson & Fred Van Lente
> at Barnes & Noble, Upper East Side, NYC, 08.11.09
Writers and artists are always at the comic shows, available for autographs and answers to our geeky questions, but it's rare that I can tear myself away from rifling through the comic bins to brave the lines. Fortunately, five Marvel men - Janson, Claremont, Pak, Van Lente and Quesada - set up shop at B&N for an hour to entertain our probing questions in the name of Marvel's 70th anniversary.
Mighty Marvel Men: Janson, Claremont, Pak, Van Lente (hidden), Quesada
After hearing questions about comic-based movies, Claremont's X-Men Forever, and the making of Magneto Testament, I decided to play a little hardball. "Everyone knows that time in the comic universe is different from that of our real universe," I began. "Lack of aging in characters such as Wolverine, Thor and Scarlet Witch can be explained away, but what about Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Scott Summers and others? How would you explain the slow aging or lack thereof in certain characters?"
"Well, we won't have a Marvel Crisis," Quesada deadpanned, referring to DC's mid-80s hero-housecleaning series Crisis on Infinite Earths. Writers and editors have had some issues with Peter Parker and Tony Stark, Quesada explained. But they find ways to keep the characters young. For example, a writer wanted to give Parker and MJ a kid. Now, the kid couldn't stay the same age forever, and in turn neither could Parker or MJ. By not having kids, Parker can stay in his 20's. As for Cap, well, he did fight in WWII and lay frozen for years, but was defrosted, um, yesterday!
And once again, I suspend my disbelief in the name of being a True Believer.
Quesada went on to explain his take on the differences between the Marvel and DC universes. Marvel's characters are easy to relate to because they are human first, super-powered beings second. Superman's alter ego is Clark Kent, and Batman's way to interact with normal people is through Bruce Wayne. It's the opposite with Spider-Man; he's Peter Parker first, and then Spidey when he dons his costume.
All in all, I'd say the panel went extremely well. A lot of fans purchased the Marvel 70th Anniversary trade paperback and stuck around for autographs. But I wondered how much the good people of B&N knew their audience. Seeing that most of the attendees were adults or at least teens, having dudes decked out in cheap-looking super-hero costumes to accost customers at the entrance seemed a little misguided.
Sure beats doing kids' birthday parties!
"Hey, lady," Spidey called out to a middle-aged lady entering the store, "you like comics? We're having ..."
"Maybe next year!" she replied, fleeing in the opposite direction. Spidey didn't even shrug.
Even I felt a little uncomfortable having to get through two costumed freaks in order to get to the panel. Iron Man and Spidey held court at the entrance to the store, and weren't going anywhere for the time being. The would-be heroes posed for camera-phone shots and kicks in general. Spidey even spoke in a voice remarkably similar to that of Dan Gilvezan (who voiced Spidey in 80s cartoon "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends").
Closer to the event room, though, lurked an even more frightful figure: The Incredible Hulk! Hobbling around in a busted-up, rubber costume less realistic than what you would have found in a dime-store thirty years ago, he looked scary, but not in a good way. Even Lou Ferrigno would have cringed. But I guess it all added a bit of nostalgic fun to the evening.
RRRAARRRGHH!! Hulk pee! Outdated costume ruined! (cue sad piano music from the 70s TV show)
Know what would be even more fun? If they published the books on time! Or kept the cover prices down! Ok, enough complaining! Back to obsessing ... : )
