Marvel Previews - Next weeks comics just for you!

Lot and lots of previews today courtesy of Marvel & CBR. Click the links below to be taken to the preview of your choice.

• Avengers: The Initiative #31
• Black Widow & The Marvel Girls #2
• Captain America Reborn: Who Will Wield The Shield?
• Criminal: The Sinners #3
• Dark Avengers: Ares #3
• Doctor Voodoo: The Origin Of Jericho Drumm
• Ender's Game: Command School #4
• Ender's Shadow: Command School #4
• Fall Of The Hulks: Gamma
• Fantastic Four #574
• Guardians Of The Galaxy #21
• Incredible Hercules #139
• Iron Man Vs. Whiplash #2
• Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #58
• New Avengers #60
• New Mutants #8
• Powers #2
• Punisher #12
• Secret Warriors #11
• Spider-Woman #4
• Thor #605
• Uncanny X-Men #519
• What If? Astonishing X-Men
• What If? Spider-Man: House Of M
• Wolverine Origins #43
• X-Men Forever #14
• X-Men Legacy #231

FREE Marvel Comics! - 12/14/09

Want some free comics? I know I always do! Click away folks!

DARK REIGN: MISTER NEGATIVE #1
GENEXT: UNITED #1
MS. MARVEL #39 (2006)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #602
ULTIMATE X-MEN #88

Find out what next week's five free digital comics will be below!

WHAT IF? #33 (1977)
X-FACTOR #46 (2005)
X-MEN/SPIDER-MAN #1
DEADPOOL #7 (2008)
PUNISHER #6 (2008)

Marvel Previews - Comics on sale 4th November

Click the links below to be taken to the preview of your choice.

• Assault On New Olympus Prologue
• Astonishing X-Men #32
• Black Widow: Deadly Origin #1
• Captain America: Reborn #4
• Deadpool Team-Up #899
• Deathlok #1
• Doctor Voodoo: Avenger Of The Supernatural #2
• Ghost Riders: Heaven's On Fire #4
• House Of M: Masters Of Evil #4
• Iron Man & The Armor Wars #4
• Nova #31
• Psylocke #1
• Starr The Slayer #3
• The Marvelous Land Of Oz #1
• The Torch #3
• Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #4
• X-Men Origins: Iceman
• X-Men Vs. Agents Of Atlas #2

My thoughts on Marvel being Disney's bitch

So I go away for the weekend and come back today to the crazy news that Disney have bought Marvel for $4 Billion (or £2.5 billion). I'm shocked, where the fuck did that come from?

Just when comics sort of start getting a bit of mainstream cred this happens. I'm sure most of you guys reading this in your teens or over can relate to what I'm about to say; I mean as a 25 year old man it can be quite hard owning up to people that you read comics. Most of the time you sort of get the reactions like; "Comic books?!?! But they're for kids! Ha, Ha , Ha" or some such bullshit. Am I right? But lately with much help from hugely successful films such as Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and many other comic book movie adaptions , the huge sales of the Watchmen graphic novel, this year and last, and the fact that most big book stores now have their own graphic novel section, people are starting to realise what we have known all along, comics aren't just for kids, or sci-fi fans or geeks or nerds or whatever else the "simpler" minded people think, but that is a different topic for conversation altogether. My point is; comic books were starting to be realised by a larger audience as a serious artistic and entertainment medium for ALL ages, not just kids, and I think this buy out may tarnish Marvel's image as a serious artistic outlet. I mean Disney gave the world Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers, High School Musical and countless other monstrosities that they chuck down peoples throats on every bit of advertising space available, rotting kids brains and imagination in the process.

I just hope that Disney stick to their side of things and leave the actual running of Marvel to the Marvel guys. Marvel comics has always been my fav comic publisher, I really really hope this doesn't mean the Disney boys will start fucking with comic titles, like canceling more books that are not selling as well as their other better known titles or who knows what else could happen!? Disney can stick Spider-Man or Iron man on as many kids pyjamas in the Disney store as they want, just leave the story telling to the guys who have made Marvel the biggest comics publisher in the world. They obviously know how to create and sell great comics (most of the time).

That's all really. Mickey just better stay the fuck out of the way or the Hulk will rip him a new one!... or perhaps not, but maybe the fans will start buying less Marvel books, I know I already am because Marvel let shit writers like Loeb do whatever he wants and then they increase comic prices, make every other book a tie in to an "event" ... and... and.. well you get the picture. Is this another mistake on a long recent list by Marvel?

But who knows, I could be totally wrong and this could be amazing for Marvel and maybe Disney will throw loads of money into the company to make them bigger and better than ever before! Lets hope so.

That's how I feel right now. What about you guys? Please hit me back, I'd love to know your thoughts.

Hex out.

Rant about the 40 Thieves... uh, I mean Marvel.

There was news at SDCC about the X-Men line of books and the potential return of millions of mutants.

When I first heard this news I was excited about the prospect of mutantkind returning. I hated the “no more mutants” idea (how comes most of the X-Men kept their powers? Fucking stupid!) and thought that there must have been a better way to strip down the mutant population (as I agree it was getting out of hand).

Anyway, when I was reading the October solicitation for the X-Men books I came across the following:

X-FORCE/NEW MUTANTS: NECROSHA ONE-SHOT # 1 The Story: Death has come to the X-Men. The one true Black Queen has returned, and she wants nothing less than every soul of mutantkind...dead or alive. And everyone that's ever crossed Selene is going to pay. The dead rise, familiar faces haunt mutants across the world, and Selene takes her final steps into becoming a god. It all begins here in a full-length X-FORCE extravaganza, and continues in the pages of next month’s issue of X-FORCE…but the shockwaves of this terrifying event will be felt in NEW MUTANTS and X-MEN: LEGACY as well, and those reverberations begin here in two all-new bonus tales.

Now when I read 'The dead rise, familiar faces haunt mutants across the world,' I couldn’t believe it. What a rip off of Blackest Night! If millions of mutants return as zombies I will not be happy. Mutants need to be back where they belong in the Marvel U as the next step in human evolution, imo this was one of the best ideas in the Marvel U and an idea that really set Marvel apart from DC.

First Marvel copy the extra features idea of DC for $3.99 books (which I admit I’m happy about but still), now they copy Blackest Night, what the fuck is next Marvel? You going to have your own version of Wednesday Comics too but charge us $4.99 per issue instead. You used to be the “House of Ideas” so WTF has happened. Stop stealing other company’s ideas and get back some balls.

What do you guys think? Agree or disagree?

SDCC News Round Up Part 2

On to Marvel's News now - (DC news in previous post)

Dark Reign

· Dark Reign The List: Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis and Marco Djurdjevi. "This is a huge Clint Barton issue," McCann says.
· Dark Reign the List: X-Men by Fraction and Alan Davis focuses on Namor.
· Dark Reign The List: Wolverine, written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Esad Ribic. “It's got Fantomex on the cover, and Marvel Boy is involved.” Aaron says it plays with a lot of themes from Grant Morrison's New X-Men, and also the brand new Weapon XVI. "Plus, there's zombies, did I mention that?" "It's the craziest thing I've ever written," Aaron says, adding that he gets to play with characters he's wanted to use for a while
· Dark Reign The List: Secret Warriors is by Jonathan Hickman and Ed McGuinness, with Nick Fury on the cover.
· Dark Reign The List: Spider-Man is written by Dan Slow, drawn by Adam Kubert.
· The Tony/Iron Patriot fight is coming," Fraction says. Invincible Iron Man #19. He says Norman Osborn will be at his most "tricked out," with "Tony in the Mark I prototype" at near the end of his current mind-deletion process.
· Is a Dark Avengers/New Avengers fight coming up? "Yes," Quesada said, while McCann again brought up Dark Reign The List: Avengers.
· Dark Reign will be finished by the end of this year.

Animation

-Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes moves to Nicktoons with a fall lineup of 26-episodes, some that have not been seen in the U.S.
-Iron Man Armored Adventures will also be on Nicktoon. Villains include Ultimo, Ghost, the Controller, Living Laser, and MODOK.
-Angel will become Archangel on Wolverine and the X-Men
-Planet Hulk will make a direct to DVD movie in February
-A Wolverine anime project announced.
-Anime Iron Man also announced. To be set in Japan.
-Work is being done on X-Men and Blade anime projects.
-Thor: Tales of Asgard arrives in 2011.

X-Men

-X-Force #50 wraps up the future and present storylines and sets the stage for things to come in the next year.
-Starting September, Daniel Acuna is the ongoing artist for X-Men Legacy.
-Magneto will be back soon
-Wolverine will battle Skaar in the pages of Wolverine Origins later this year
-Necrosha, a cross over event involving X-Force, New Mutants and X-Men: Legacy arrives in October 2009 and will see 16 million mutants brought back.
-X-Men Noir: Mark of Cain by Fred Van Lente and Denis Calero announced.

Spider-Man

-Marvel Digital Comics will begin offering in continuity Spider-Man tales starting November 9. Look for stories to flow between the print and digital comics. New stories will arrive every other Monday. The first few issues are inspired by Marvels with Bob Gale as writer.
-The up –coming arc “Who was Ben Reilly” will give Marvel a chance to tell some Ben Reilly stories without bringing him back.

Hulk

-There will be a Red She-Hulk.
-World War Hulks. Plural, coming in December 2009 and a major character in the Hulk universe will die.
-Loeb and John Romita Jr. will be teaming for Gamma, that serves as a lead in to the World War Hulks series.
-Incredible Hercules is not ending
-In Hulk issues #14 - #17 someone will find out who the Red Hulk is (but will the readers?)
-Deadpool will show up in the Hulk title as well as Spider-Man.

Other news

· More What Ifs? are on the way
· “Marvel has purchased the rights to Marvelman/ Miracleman,” Quesada said. “It is arguably the J.D. Salinger of comic book characters. Arguably one of the most important comic book characters in decades.”- NEWSARAMA
· Black Widow by Paul Cornell and Tom Raney gets a four-issue mini-series in November
· Captain America/Black Panther by Reggie Hudlin and Denys Cowan announced for 2010. This will be a four-issue mini called Flags of Our Fathers set during WWII

So I think that covers most of it. Let me know if you think I missed anything worth mentioning and what stories mentioned above you’re looking forward to in the coming months

Adios

SDCC - News Round Up

So San Diego Comic Con has been and gone and there was quite a bit of news. With the help of Newsarama and Major Spoilers I’ve tried to provide you with the essential list of all the major news announced by the big two at the Con. DC First:

JLA

- New team will feature: Mon-El (in a new costume with a Superman “S” on it), Dick Grayson Batman, Donna Troy and Hal Jordan. The other characters are a “mystery,” says Robinson.
One of them “mystery” members is Congorilla, Robinson pointed out.

Flash

-Geoff Johns is working on Blackest Night: The Flash, which arrives in December. Look for the dead Rogues to return from the dead

-Johns announced that he’ll be writing The Flash ongoing monthly after Blackest Night: The Flash.

-Sterling Gates will be writing Kid Flash

Green Lantern

-Green Lantern: Rebirth Absolute Edition announced, but DiDio said that book will have to sell well before a Sinestro War Absolute Edition was ever considered

Batman

-The Joker will return to deal with Harley Quinn in Gotham City Sirens
-The Question back up story in Detective Comics will increase to 10 pages beginning in issue #858.
-The Question will also move to the front of the book for a time, while the Kate Kane stories move to the backup story. When Williams returns to the art, Batwoman moves back to the front. -Azreal will be an ongoing title
-Batman Beyond stories are returning.
-The Robin/Super Boy/Kid Flash reunion will occur in Adventure Comics
-Tony Daniel is coming back to Batman for “a bunch of issues”

Superman

-Captain Atom will play a part in Codename Patriot. Look for Hunt for Reactron as a Supergirl;/Action Comics crossover in October. It will be written by Sterling Gates and Greg Rucka.
-Superman #700 will be titled Mon-el: Man of Valor and will be a darker character with a new costume.
-The Adventure Comics co-feature will star the Legions Starman, Lightning Lad, Polar Boy, and Sun Boy
-Starman has a new task that will play out in Adventure Comics, and not Blackest Night
As will Superboy Prime (in issues #4 and #5)
-Origin stories will be the focus in the Supergirl Annual (origin of Superwoman), Superman Annual (history of Daxam), and in a Secret Files issue.

JSA

-JSA All-Stars is a new monthly to be written by Sturges with art by Freddie Williams. .
-The All-Stars series will feature more of the younger members of the team.
-Jerry Ordway, James Robinson, Freddie Williams and more are teaming for the JSA 80-Page Giant arriving in November.

Animation

-Superman/Batman: Public Enemies hits stores on September 29th
-Kevin Conroy returns as Batman as does Clancy Brown for Lex Luthor
-A Jonah Hex short – written by Joe Lansdale – would be among the initial series of animation shorts.

Other news

-J. Michael Straczynski is taking over The Brave and the Bold. The first arc will feature Batman and Dial H-for-Hero

-The Doom Patrol: Keith Giffen taking over writing with artist Matthew Clark. “We’re back to the original team,” DiDio says.
-Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis/Kevin Maguire team will be reuinted with Metal Men backups in Doom Patrol.
-The new Red Tornado series will introduce the rest of the “red” family. (Red Torpedo, Red Volcano, and one more “red.”)
-T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents are coming to the DC Universe. “These are going to be characters interacting with the DC Universe,” DiDio said, comparing it to the recent handling of the Red Circle and Milestone characters. T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents will be in other series first before spinning out into their own books.
-Scott Ian on Lobo. Two issues starting in November, drawn by Sam Kieth.
-Deathstroke: The Terminator,” is new leader of the Titans
-Ambush Bug: Year None #6 is on its way

See part 2 for Marvel New Round Up.