Wizard World Los Angeles Report

I received an email from an X-fan who attended the X-Men Panel at Wizard World yesterday and spoke the writers and editors in attendance, and has a bit of information for Rachel fans on the status of the Starjammers:

The only news on Rachel & the Starjammers from the X-Panel was that their story continues in the Divided We Stand limited series.

A Havok fan asked the panel a question about what was next for the Starjammers, and the way Jim McCann (Marvel's marketing director) answered the question made it seem like Havok may appear in both issues of Divided We Stand.

Matt Fraction was announced as the new co-writer of Uncanny X-Men, and he may be better suited to write Rachel than Brubaker. Fraction said he liked the Paul Smith/JR, Jr era Uncanny and characters like Magma that Brubaker doesn't like.

The panel was asked about Selene returning, and there wasn't a clear answer, but both Marc Guggenheim (Young X-Men) and Yost & Kyle (X-Force) said they might be using her. Since Wolverine nearly killed Rachel the last time an X-Man tried to kill Selene, X-Force facing off against her would be interesting.

A couple other things (not to get anyone in trouble for revealing this):

- Rachel, Alex and Lorna will return to X-books, eventually.

- Rachel & the Starjammers' story will likely continue in Uncanny X-Men.

- No Annihilation or Guardians of the Galaxy tie-in with the Starjammers are planned.

No idea when Rachel will return to Uncanny. It seems to be going in a completely different direction with the relocation to San Francisco. (The Uncanny X-Men will be based out of San Francisco starting in #500, which is the location where the X-Men were when Rachel faced off against the Beyonder).

Uncanny X-Men will have a new rotating penciling team of Terry Dobson (hurray!) and Greg Land (boo!). Dobson told Newarama that there are plans to do more than 12 issues a year, maybe 14, although both pencilers are known for being late...


Update:

Today at the Mondo Marvel Panel at WWLA, a question was asked about the Imperial Guard:

Q: Will we see the Imperial Guard on Earth?

McCann said that they'll be involved, somehow, in a Secret Invasion tie-in.

This could be in the X-Men Secret Invasion tie-in. Yesterday at the Secret Invasion Panel, McCann said that there would be an X-Men Secret Invasion tie-in but "but they're not going to announce anything specifically yet."

Tom Brevoort, the editor for Secret Invasion, talked a little about the X-Men's involvement in Secret Invasion to IGN last month, and mentioned that there would be a tie-in to avoid disrupting anything going on in the individual titles.

Although that is unlikely to be resolution readers have been hoping for, it is at least a positive sign...