News Roundup – April 24, 2011

Perhaps the death of the Ultimate Universe has been greatly exaggerated. Sometime after the “Death of Spider-Man” there will be a new Spider-Man in the Ultimate Universe with a new costume. Marvel made the announcement and I kind of like the look, further separating the Ultimate and regular continuity. It is unknown at this time if this will be a new character in the costume or if perhaps Peter is getting a new identity. (It does seem like everyone knows his secret in the Ultimate line.) I think if it is a new character or Peter working for SHIELD under the witness protection program, that they should name him Miguel O’Hara as a nod to Spider-Man 2099. I’m just saying….

It looks like after Haunt #18 artist Greg Capullo will be leaving that title and move on to Gotham City for a stint on one of the Batman books. Rumors recently were bounced around that the artist was either moving to Batman or to illustrate a Wolverine book for Marvel. Capullo confirmed a move to Batman. I wonder which book he’ll land on? I’m guessing either the main Batman title or Batman: The Dark Knight to give David Finch a chance to catch up. I guess we’ll see!

Neal Adams seems to be making quite a comeback. In addition to his Batman Odyssey and his Dark Horse Presents work, the artist will be making his way back to the Avengers as well. Adams is working on the New Avengers 16.1 issue that will see the return of Norman Osborn to the Avengers books. That should be interesting. Look for it in September or October.

The big rumor going around is that John Constantine, originally thought to be exempt from the move of old DC characters out of the Vertigo lineup, is now on his way back to the DCU proper. Though the cover is obscured (something DC has been doing quite a bit lately) in Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search For Swamp Thing, the character standing in front of Superman in shadows seems to be reflecting light off of him. Many believe this is from Constantine reflecting lighting a cigarette off of the Man of Steel. What this might mean for the Hellblazer series remains to be seen.

Starting in July, Matt Wagner returns to write more Zorro stories in Zorro Rides Again! The writer will be teaming with artist Esteve Pols, currently illustrating the Lone Ranger/Zorro crossover.

With issue seven of Jennifer’s Blood, British writer Al Ewing will be taking over the writing duties from Garth Ennis. First with Crossed and now with Jennifer’s Blood, it appears Ennis is now creating little franchises for various publishers. Ewing has written 2000AD and Judge Dredd.

Alan Moore gave an interview recently and noted that for the time being after issue #8 of Dodgem Logic the magazine will be going on hiatus. Moore funded the magazine himself and the writer states at the moment they are not breaking even. It is a fun, crazy little magazine with all manners of interesting articles, photographs, comics, and anything else you can imagine popping up throughout. It is a shame because I appreciated what Moore was doing with it. There were no paid advertisements. Everything was geared towards the magazine totally. I’ll be picking up the issues I missed.

New posters for the upcoming Green Lantern film look at not just Hal Jordan, but some of the other GL Corps too. The Tomar-Re one rocks. They really did a good job on his character design.

Warner Bros announced the voice cast for Batman: Year One coming out this fall. Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) will be voicing James Gordon, Ben McKenzie will be Bruce/Batman, Katee Sachkoff (Battlestar Galactica) will play Sarah Essen, and Eliza Dusku (Dollhouse, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will voice Catwoman. (I would have loved her to physically play the character in The Dark Knight Rises, but Mr. Nolan did not return my calls.) Images were released for the film. Looks very faithful to the comic.

It was noted recently that following the Avengers movie, Marvel is moving forward with another Thor film and a sequel to Captain America set in modern day. The studio also hopes to have a Black Widow, Hawkeye, and SHIELD film in the works following the Avengers movie as well. Personally I think they would be smarter to do a single SHIELD film featuring Fury, Hawkeye, and Black Widow. I guess it depends how big Avengers ultimate is.

That does it for this week kids. I’m going to overdose on chocolate. Cheers.

-SJD