News Roundup – July 7, 2012

The biggest news of the past week is that Marvel is doing its own huge Relaunch. Unlike DC’s New 52, Marvel’s Relaunch entitled Marvel NOW! (seriously? Who thinks of these names? New 52? Marvel Now? Ugh.) will see a brand new series debut with a #1 issue once every week from October to February, giving us at least twenty "new" titles. Although we know that Marvel is doing this as major jump on points for readers post AVX, in many cases the publisher will be shooting to make some these titles come out twice a month. (Avengers will definitely be coming out twice a month.)

Only a handful of actual titles have been announced thus far, but the flagship book will be Uncanny Avengers by Rick Remender and John Cassaday (out in October). The main villain of the book will be a newly resurrected Red Skull, except this one has the consciousness of the Red Skull circa 1944, and as a result is not the Red Skull readers know in the modern era. (Something to do with another villain “recording” the Red Skull during that time period and bringing him back.)

Jonathan Hickman will be writing the Avengers (out in December) with Jerome Opena drawing the initial arc. Brian Michael Bendis is writing All-New X-Men which is a time-travel story where the original X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Ice-Man, and Angel) are transported to the modern Marvel U and come to dislike their modern day counterparts. This will allow Marvel to bring back Jean Grey without actually resurrecting her. Stuart Immonen is illustrating the book and it will be coming out in November. Finally, we know that New Avengers will relaunch (again!) in January from writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Steve Epting.

Marvel has been quite vocal in explaining how this is not like what DC did with the new 52. For one they claim it is a relaunch and not a reboot. (To be fair, I’d say only half of DC is a reboot, the rest continued over from pre-new 52.) Of course, I think All-New X-Men, being a time-travel book, will allow many changes to modern versions of characters such as Cyclops, but we will have to wait and see if that is true or not.

I expect more announcements at San Diego Comic Con, and I would not be surprised if a year after relaunching Daredevil, Captain America, Thor and others that Marvel relaunches the lot of them again. What Uncanny Avengers means for Secret Avengers remains to be seen. It should be interesting to see what Marvel does during those five months.

Chew writer John Layman and artist Jason Fabok will be taking over Detective Comics starting in October with issue #13. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me. Fabok recently provided the art on the Batman Annual #1 and I think his style will be great for Detective. Layman gave an interview with CBR about the assignment and states he really wants to center on Batman as a Detective in the series.

Even though writer/artist Tony Daniel is leaving Detective Comics, the creator will serve a two-issue stint on Justice League for writer Geoff Johns starting with issue #13. I am assuming this is to give Jim Lee a break. 

Writer Ann Nocenti, currently on Green Arrow, will be taking over Catwoman starting with issue #0. There is no word on who the permanent artist will be on the book. I for one will be glad to see a new writer give this book a shot, as I have not really liked the current incarnation of the title.

Top Cow is bringing back Cyberforce in the most unconventional way. First, they are using the fund-raising site Kickstarter to make the project happen. This would then become the most high profile Kickstarter comic book project thus far that is using a pre-existing franchise as opposed to a new concept. Second, if the project gets funded, all five issues will be free for everyone, both in print and digitally. That actually sounds pretty cool as far as I am concerned. The LA Times talked to Marc Silvestri about it. The project has not gone live…yet.

Speaking of Kickstarter, Secret Six team of Gail Simone and Jim Califiore are expected to be doing a new project called Leaving Megalopolis and will be placing it on Kickstarter. If DC were smart, they would reunite this team on another series together. Still, anything new by these two is welcomed as far as I am concerned. I will let you know when or if either of these Kickstarters go live.

Writer Marc Andreyko and artist Robson Rocha will be bringing back Black Lightning and Blue Devil in a five-issue DC Comics Presents arc. This is exactly what I was hoping the DC Comics Presents book would do, focusing on the lesser-known DC characters. I hope it is a good arc.

Although final numbers for the Amazing Spider-Man are not in yet, the film is doing so well that Sony has already announced it will be the first of a new trilogy of films. In others words there will be more Spider-Man movies. I think I am quite ok with that.

Finally, with Comic Con around the corner, the folks that do the hilarious “How it Should Have Ended” animated shorts provided IGN one for SDCC. I have it here for you my lovely Heathens! Enjoy!