At most major cons, former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada hosts a massive panel called Cup O’ Joe where almost anything can be talked about. The company’s chief creative officer basically uses this time to talk about all things Marvel with the fans, but he also reveals some of the biggest announcements as well. This year was no different as Quesada was joined by an all-star line up including Brian Michael Bendis, Dan Slott, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Gerry Duggan, Sam Humphries, Marvel publisher Dan Buckley, editor-in-chief Axel Alonso, senior vice president of publishing Tom Brevoort, executive editor Mike Marts, editor Jordan D. White, and senior vice president of creative & creator development C.B. Cebulski.

The panel started with the out of this world announcement of ‘The Black Vortex’, an upcoming crossover bringing together the Guardians of the Galaxy and the X-Men once again. In this tale, Humphries will introduce us to an item known as the Black Vortex that has the ability to unlock the cosmic potential within anyone in a similar fashion as Norrin Radd becoming the Silver Surfer or Jean Grey becoming Dark Phoenix, so all of the X-Men and all of the Guardians are tapped to ensure that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Encompassing titles such as ‘Legendary Star-Lord’, ’Guardians of the Galaxy’, ‘Captain Marvel’, ‘Nova’, ‘All-New X-Men’, and ‘Cyclops’, the story blasts off in February 2015.

Staying in space, the panel moved on to a galaxy far, far away as Quesada announced another new ‘Star Wars’ title from the House of Ideas set for an April 2015 release titled ‘Star Wars: Kanan – The Last Padawan’. Spinning out of the new animated series ‘Star Wars Rebels’ on Disney XD, the series written by ‘Young Justice’, ‘Spectacular Spider-Man’, and ‘Gargoyles’ producer Greg Weisman featuring art from Pepe Larraz will bridge the gap between ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ and ‘Star Wars Rebels’ by finally revealing how Freddie Prinze Jr.’s Kanan Jarrus survived Order 66 and went on to become a Jedi Master to Ezra on the upcoming show.

The next announcement brings us back to Earth and back to World War II as Agent Peggy Carter stars in the five-issue mini-series ‘Operation S.I.N.’ from Kathryn Immonen and Rich Ellis. Before she takes center stage on ABC’s ‘Agent Carter’, she’ll be tackling a mission in January 2015 with Howard Stark and Woodrow McCord, the old school “man on the wall” from ‘Original Sin’ that protected the Earth from invaders before Nick Fury (and now Bucky Barnes) came along.

And before getting to the fan Q&A portion of the event, a special video from Young Adult writer James Patterson revealed that his ‘Maximum Ride’ novel series about young human/avian hybrid heroes would be adapted into a five-issue Marvel Comics series by Marguerite Bennett and Alex Sanchez called ‘Max Ride: First Flight’. Along with this announcement came a beautiful cover by Bennett’s ‘Angela: Asgard’s Assassin’ collaborator Stephanie Hans, which you can see below with the ‘Star Wars: Kanan’ and ‘Operation S.I.N.’ covers below:

Finally, before everyone went their separate ways, Quesada had one last surprise for everyone, though it didn’t exactly work out the way that he planned. After showing off some of his artwork earlier in the panel for his ‘Star Wars’ #1 variant cover, he wanted to show the crowd some concept art that he created for the upcoming Marvel/Netflix series ‘Daredevil’. However, the higher ups wouldn’t allow him to do so and he just said that the poster would be available at the Marvel booth later in the day. Although, Marvel.com gave us all a look at the con exclusive poster that’s reminiscent of John Romita Jr.’s portrayal of the Man Without Fear, so you can check it out below before we go into more detail about the ‘Daredevil’ panel that occurred later in the weekend in another article:

What do you think about all these new and exciting developments in the Marvel Universe as told to us by Joe Quesada? Which ones are you most excited for? Let us know in the comment section.