The Bum’s Rush #45

Yes, yes. I was supposed to write about my own comics this week. But with sooo much news coming out of the inaugural New York Comic-Con this past weekend I decided it was best just to focus on that, lest this episode careen wildly into the realm of “no one cares”! I will do a column about the comics I currently working on, sometime in the near future. Haha, you didn’t think I’d just forget did you? If you did, obviously you were mistaken, you poor wretch. Wait… what was I going to write about? Blast it all! On with the show. Welcome to…

Ultimate Quick Bits 4 – New York Comic-Con 2006 Edition

Warning! Nothing you read here in Quick Bits should be considered FACT until it actually happens. Which it might not. How do you know I’m not just making all this crap up? I could, you know. You’ve been warned!

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1. Allan Heinberg (writer of Young Avengers) and artist Terry Dodson have been officially confirmed as the creative team for a new Wonder Woman series starting this summer.
2. Chris Claremont may be off Uncanny X-Men but that doesn’t mean he’s done with everyone’s favorite mutants, as unfortunate as that may be. Claremont will be writing a new mini-series called Genext, a series that will follow the adventures of the X-Men if they had aged in real time from their first appearance in the 60’s. The book was the fans choice in the recent “Claremont’s Next X-Men Project” poll on Marvel’s website. Claremont will also be taking over Exiles with that books regular penciller, Paul Pelletier. Seriously, this guy has to have some dirt on Joey Q, nude pictures with horses or something.
3. Matt Wagner’s most popular and well-known franchise, Grendel, will turn 25 this year. In celebration of the anniversary a number of special projects are planned by Wagner and Dark Horse Comics including an Art of Grendel book, a new hardcover edition of Devil by the Deed and perhaps most importantly, a brand new graphic novel by Wagner himself featuring the original Grendel, Hunter Rose.
4. Also on the Grendel front, Wagner has confirmed that a movie deal has just been finalized with Warner Bros. The story will feature Christine Spar, the second person to assume the role of Grendel. Wagner believes that Spar is the most sympathetic of the characters to take on the Grendel persona and is the best character to begin a possible movie franchise with. If there were more Grendel movies Wagner believes that the next one would be a prequel telling Hunter Rose’s story. Wagner will serve as a creative consultant on the movie.
5. In June DC will be releasing Brave New World, an 80-page one-shot, priced at a dollar. The one-shot will serve as a bookend to Infinite Crisis and, like 52, will give a sense of the new direction of the DC Universe. Unlike their last 80-page, one dollar one-shot, Countdown to Infinite Crisis which told a single story, Brave New World will feature six separate vignettes that serve to introduce six brand new series that will launch in the months following the one-shot.
   The series are as follows:
          l    The All-New Atom – Ongoing series launching in July by Gail Simone and Trevor Scott. Dan Didio revealed that the title will be literal, so don’t expect to see Ray Palmer any time soon.
         l   Creeper – Six-issue mini-series launching in August by horror writer Steve Niles and artist Justiano.
         l   Martian Manhunter – Eight-issue mini-series launching in August by A.J. Lieberman and Al Barrionuevo, the former creative team on Gotham Knights.
         l   OMAC – Eight-issue mini-series launching in July by Bruce Jones and Renato Guedes.
         l   The Trials of Shazam! – Twelve-issue series launching in July by Judd Winick and former JLA and Flash artist, Howard Porter.
         l   Uncle Sam and The Freedom Fighters – Eight issue mini-series launching in August by the writing team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray and artist Daniel Acuna.
6. DC has confirmed that, starting in July, superstar artist Andy Kubert will be working on Batman with Grant Morrison. His brother Adam will be the regular artist on Action Comics, also starting in July, although no writer has yet been announced for that title.
7. Warner Bros. has announced that they are planning sequels to both Batman Begins and Superman Returns. Directors’ Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins) and Bryan Singer (Superman Returns) are expected to return for the sequels, though neither has officially signed on. I wouldn’t be too concerned about it though. Warner has hired Chris Nolan’s brother, John Nolan, to write the screenplay for the Batman sequel. They are also producing Singer’s pet project, a remake of Logan’s Run, most likely with an eye on him returning to the Superman franchise once that film wraps production. Both Christian Bale and Brandon Routh have sequel options in their original contracts.
8. A new ongoing Ghost Rider series will soon be released, picking up where Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain’s series leaves off. Daniel Way will be writing the series with art by Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira. Interestingly, Saltares and Texeira were the original art team on the Ghost Rider relaunch back in the 90’s.
9. Paul Smith will be the regular artist on She-Hulk starting with issue 8. Haha. Hahahaha. AHAHAHAHA! Ahem… I’m sure he’ll be able keep a regular monthly schedule… *snort*… bwahahahaha!
10. The New Avengers Annual, by Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel, will feature the wedding of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. But that’s not the news. A brand-new Super Adaptoid will show up to bust up the wedding and generally kick everyone’s ass. That’s not the news either. The news is that the new Super Adaptoid will actually be a Marvel character we’ve met before, though Bendis wouldn’t say exactly who. Looking at the preview art my guess is that it’s none other than Yelena Belova. What do you mean who’s Yelena Belova? She’s the replacement Black Widow that first appeared in the 1999 Black Widow mini-series from Marvel Knights. Hey, if it’s true it’s still a hell of a lot better than revealing that Ronin was Echo. Echo… come on, who the hell even cares? What was I talking about?
11. Doctor Strange will get yet another mini-series later this year, courtesy of writer Brian K. Vaughn and artist Marcos Martin (Batgirl: Year One and Breach).
12. Marvel’s Young Avengers series will be winding down in preparation for a relaunch early next year. In the meantime Marvel will publish a Runaways/Young Avengers crossover mini-series set during the Civil War event.
13. Amazing Fantasy is being cancelled with issue #20.
14. John Romita Jr. has been announced as the artist for the upcoming 7-issue Eternals mini-series, written by Neil Gaiman. The book will launch in June and each issue will be 40 pages in length.
15. Recently departed artist Seth Fisher’s next project was set to be Marvel’s Runaways/X-Men comic for Free Comic Book Day, written by Brian K. Vaughn. Marvel still plans to publish that book with Skottie Young taking on the art chores.
16. Simone Bianchi, recent artist on the Seven Soldiers: Shining Knight mini-series and several covers for different DC titles, has just signed an exclusive contract with Marvel.
17. Contrary to the recent declaration that spin-off’s from the Civil War event will be limited to the Civil War: Frontline series, Marvel announced the effects of the Civil War on the mutant population would be explored in a four-issue X-Men: Civil War mini-series.
18. Green Arrow Oliver Queen’s son, Connor Hawke, will soon get his own mini-series.
19. Todd Nauck has joined the list of artists working on DC’s 52 series.
20. Howard Chaykin, Leinil Francis Yu, Olivier Coipel, Adi Granov and Jimmy Cheung will draw an issue each of an upcoming five-issue New Avengers arc.
21. DC will produce a new Spawn/Batman crossover, written by Todd McFarlane and drawn by Greg Capullo. God-willing it will be better than the two previous crossovers featuring the characters, which were friggin’ awful.
22. Brian K. Vaughn revealed that his Wildstorm series, Ex Machina, will end with issue #50, closing with the end of Mayor Mitchell Hundred’s first term in office.
23. Following Mark Millar and Greg Land’s run, Mike Carey and Pascual Ferry will be the new regular creative team on Ultimate Fantastic Four. Carey previously worked on two excellent issues of Ultimate Fantastic Four that introduced the Ultimate version of the Mad Thinker and bridged the gap between Warren Ellis’ and Mark Millar’s runs. Carey also worked with Pascual Ferry on a two-issue Ultimate X-Men/Fantastic Four mini.
24. This summer Robert Kirkman will be working on a new series for Marvel with artist Phil Hester. Rumor has it the book will be Ant-Man.
25. Frank Cho’s next project will be a post-Civil War Marvel book with writer Brian Michael Bendis.
26. Garth Ennis’ next ongoing series will be Chronicles of Wormwood from Avatar Press. Avatar previously released Ennis’ 303 mini-series. Wormwood, drawn by Jacen Burrows, will star none other than the anti-Christ as he makes his way through a world on the brink of Armageddon. Avatar will release an 8-page, 99¢ preview of Wormwood in April and the ongoing series will launch sometime this summer. If you thought Ennis’ Preacher was blasphemous then just remember, at Avatar there are no rules, no guidelines and no accounting for good taste (they did publish Mark Millar’s appropriately title Unfunnies after all). It’s a fair bet that Ennis will be trying to piss off all the people he didn’t manage to offend with Preacher. Don’t get the wrong impression, I loved Preacher, it’s one of my favorite comics ever. But I’m sure there were tons of people who think I’ll be burning in hell just for reading that book. Personally I can’t wait to see what Wormwood will be like!
27. Speakeasy Comics have announced that they will be closing up shop as of yesterday (Feb. 27). The news was broken by Speakeasy’s “unofficial public relations”, Vito Delsante, who said that Speakeasy was shutting its doors and would not be publishing comics “for, at the very least, the rest of the year.” Speakeasy founder Adam Fortier clarified the situation explaining that a lack of funds, due to money owed that never appeared, led to the shut down. He also confirmed that Speakeasy would most likely not return, as he is no longer interested publishing comics. Fortier also said that Speakeasy will not be “leaving anyone out in the lurch, we’re not declaring bankruptcy, we’re not running away from debt, so that’s something, at least.” Speakeasy was the publisher of such comics as the hilarious Butternutsquash, the critically acclaimed Elk’s Run, Rich Johnston’s The Flying Friar and Spellgame, among others.
28. Who hasn’t seen this picture of Spiderman in a black costume from the third movie? You all have haven’t you? There’s been some debate as to whether the picture actually depicts a black version of the Spiderman duds or if it’s just the way the photo was shot, either in black and white or with a tint or whatever. Well, I can assure you that it is indeed a black costume. At least according to Marvel it is. In their weekly Marvel Pulse Newsletter email they touted the release of the photo, saying, “Spiderman is wearing a black suit!” So Venom’s definitely in then?

Whew! That’s it this week folks. Don’t forget that the Stumblebum Crew will be appearing in Austin this weekend at STAPLE, the independent media expo! Hope to see you there.

NEXT WEEK:  Reporting on our trip to the Staple Con!
 

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