I’ve been privy to lots of awesome things while at Marvel, not the least of which is being able to sit in on our editorial summits. These summits are 3-day meetings that happen every 4-6 months in which a number of Marvel Comics writers fly into NYC and, along with the entire comics editorial staff, hash out the future of Marvel Comics. We had our most recent summit just a few weeks ago.

At the summits, stories are pitched, events are created (and destroyed), crossovers are brainstormed and it’s just a totally cool idea-fest. I’ve been at a number of these retreats, but never really done any reports from them—simply because there’s so much top-secret stuff that I don’t want to spoil anything. But I’m looking at this in a different light and picking a few things I learned at this summit which I can talk about.

1. Rick Remender is an amazing writer, but also a heck of an artist. About 10 years ago, Rick was working for Marvel, inking Avengers comics with penciler Kieron Dwyer. Since then, Rick’s worked on dozens, maybe hundreds of comics at the House of Ideas as a writer. I sat near Rick during the summit and noticed him occasionally sketching in his notebook. (An old moleskin he was given as a gift by our Distinguished Competition some years ago, which he now uses to capture all his crazy-cool Marvel ideas. Take that, friendly foes!) Because Rick’s super cool, he let me snag a photo of some pages that didn’t have top secret stuff on ‘em:
   
   
    
2. No story is safe. Anyone coming into the room for the Marvel summit with a story or an idea has an equal chance of wowing everyone or having their ideas turned inside out. In a room with so many amazing and experienced creative folks, any idea can—and will spark a conversation. Watching a story bounce around, incorporate new ideas and angles and start turning into what we’ll read in the next few months or years is really cool.
    
3.  Wolverine & the X-Men writer Jason Aaron gets tattooed by Cable & X-Force writer Dennis Hopeless's wife Jessie. Jason and I were talking about our latest tattoos and how we each get most, if not all, of our work done by the same artists. Jason’s artist just happens to be amazingly talented and also married to a great comic book writer. Next time I’m down Kansas City way, I’m getting tattooed and I’m gonna eat some BBQ!
    
4. Jonathan Hickman has plans. That’s not really news, but I’m tellin’ ya—Jonathan Hickman has plans.
    
5. 2013 is the 50^th Anniversary of the X-Men and we are going to celebrate it in style.
    
6. Brian Michael Bendis has some secret stuff in the works for Age of Ultron. So secret that I don’t even know all the details. And that’s crazy exciting for me since everything’s always spoiled for me months ahead of time. 

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--By Ryan Penagos aka Agent M

Follow me on Twitter - @AgentM