News Roundup – May 1, 2011

Although it should come as no surprise, Action Comics #900 got quite a bit of Press. Unfortunately very little had to do with the main story and most of it came from those that wanted to comment on the David S. Goyer story in the back of the book that had Superman renounce his US citizenship after interfering in Iran. Even though Superman explains that this is so the U.S. can avoid being held responsible for his actions and for he himself to take a more worldly view of his job as Superman, many have chosen to use this as an opportunity to turn it into a political argument. Action Comics #900 is getting a second printing. 

Rob Williams, who has a number of projects at Marvel, has signed an exclusive deal with Marvel Comics. He has the upcoming Ghost Rider series, and The Iron Age.

Writer Peter Milligan stated recently that even though John Constantine is returning to the DCU it will not interfere with the Hellblazer Vertigo book. I’ll be honest, that was all I wanted to hear. DC, feel free to do what you want with your watered-down version, and thank you for letting me continue to enjoy the one I’ve loved for years.

Joe Quesada is doing more Spider-Man! Alright, calm down, he’s not writing any more Spider-Man. (Thank Goodness!) Instead Quesada is illustrating a variant for the Death of Spider-Man finale. The rather sad image finds Peter and Ultimate Uncle Ben walking towards a white light together. Wow. Maybe they are really killing him off!

Greg Rucka and Rich Burchett have an upcoming webcomic coming in July called Lady Sabre and the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether. It’s a steampunk kind of story with pirates and airships. Sounds like fun. I’ll keep my eye out for it.

The first novel based on The Walking Dead from horror novelist Jay Bonansinga will feature The Governor, arguably the greatest villain thus far in that series’ run. That might be worth a look.

Brian Michael Bendis is scipting Marvel Comics’ MMO online game that preliminary reports state will be "free-to-play." Players will be able to play as various Marvel characters throughout different eras of Marvel Comics. I am assuming that the "free-to-play" aspect of the game means there will not be a monthly fee to play the game. Not a lot of details were available yet, so we’ll wait until launch time to see what we are really getting.

Greg Capullo was offering a print at the Boston Comic Con of Batman & Robin. We know that Capullo is going to be on one of the Batman books in the near future, but we do not know which. The print sketch is of the Dick Grayson Batman and Damian Robin. Could he be the new artist on Batman & Robin? I don’t know, but this sketch is pretty awesome!

Actress Antje Traue has been cast as Faora, a Kryptonian villainess, in the upcoming Superman reboot called Man of Steel.

Chris Evans recently noted that Captain America will be wearing a different costume in Avengers than he is in the Captain America film coming out in July. I’m assuming it will either be more towards the classic version of the costume or even geared towards the Ultimate version of the character. I guess we will have to wait and see. The Avengers filming is already underway!

And that’s it for this week Heathens! See you next time!