If you like what you’ve read so far (c’mon, how can you not?) totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

Weather willing, this afternoon at 5:30pm in Central Park, on North Meadow #2, the DC Bullets softball team squares off against the Marvel Comics team.  Though the two squads play in different softball leagues, the annual summer showdown is obviously a season highlight on both sides.  In that spirit, here’s a team photo of the DC Comics Bullets taken earlier this season.

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Over the course of the last week and a half or so, the Big Two direct market publishers released their solicitations for the books they plan on publishing in October.

I responded in my customary fashion—publicly expressing my excitement over the cover art and stories that look most appealing, shaking my head sadly at the number of Deadpool books, demonstrating how hard a time I have accepting change by still expressing shock at $4 comic books and generally starting to decide what I will be buying and what I won’t be buying at the comic shop in three months time.

Then I realized that the solicitations offer a pretty good, monthly snapshot of the state of the two companies, where they are right now, how they compare to one another.

So I went back through the solicits (posted on the main site here and here) with a fine-tooth comb (metaphorically…as a Bald-American, I own no combs) and made hash marks in various categories to compile some arbitrary, maybe meaningless to you statistics.

As an English major with a minor in Batman continuity, math isn’t my strong point, so I wouldn’t be surprised if many, many mistakes were made, not only in addition, but also in simple counting. So, um, keep that in mind.

Also keep in mind that I tried to concentrate on DC and Marvel’s serial, superhero comic book lines, ignoring the reprints, collections and various imprints, so this is more a measure of a part of each publisher’s output for a single month than the full range of it.

So after the jump, fun—or “fun”—with numbers!
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Image’s Shuddertown #5, scheduled to debut October 27, has been “canceled indefinitely,” according to series writer Nick Spencer.

Spencer broke the news on his Twitter: “Okay, let’s get the bad news out of the way: solicit for Shuddertown #5 is canceled indefinitely due to circumstances beyond our control. The book will be back down the road, albeit somewhat differently, to give you the ending you deserve. Sorry, completely out of our hands. The 4th Issue (and last of the arc) drops on August 4th. Then a beautiful oversized hardcover in September. Then a new chapter…”

The title, with art by Adam Geen, started in March. Read more about it in Chris Arrant’s interview with Spencer here.

Well, how about that. Somehow, the Thor Comic-Con footage has leaked online in a big way, spreading through the web like veritable fire called down by Surtur himself. It’s just over five minutes, and pretty much everyone that’s seen it has unanimously agreed that it’s awesome. It’ll also probably disappear very quickly. Check it here (if you still can) on ComicBookMovie.com.

Over on MSN today, there was a special report about a family that was packing up due to them losing their house and in the midst of doing so found some old comics in the basement. Now they weren’t just random Age of Apocalypse issues or even some classic Gardner Fox/Murphy Anderson goodies. Nope, they found the grand-daddy of them all: Action Comics #1.

Now, the family wishes to remain anonymous but contacted Stephen Fischer of ComicConnect to verify it’s authenticity, as well as put it up for auction (where the lowball would be about $250,000). Obviously more than enough to keep them in their home, which had been in the family for more than fifty years.

Talk about a Godsend.

Find out more about Global Freezing here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

Edi Gathegi, who portrayed one of the evil vampires, Laurent, in the Twilight Saga franchise is joining X-Men: First Class as Darwin. Real name Armando Munoz, he has the power of “reactive evolution,” which allows him to adapt to any situation or environment. Sort of like, should he be sucked into the vacuum of space, he doesn’t need oxygen. Or if it’s incredibly dark, he gains night vision and so on.

I think this is interesting that they’re putting in a somewhat new mutant in the movie when this film is supposed to concentrate on the early adventures of the X-team, but I guess I should have guess considering Fox’s cavalier attitude towards x-continuity.

So readers and x-fans, what do you think of the new addition?

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds is the first installment of the series in 10 years, and scheduled to hit Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in spring 2011. Naturally, there’s been a lot of speculation as to which Marvel Comics and Capcom characters will be included in the game, and thanks to preview videos and what’s been demoed, we already know a few, including Captain America, Deadpool and Wolverine on the Marvel side, plus Ryu, Chun-Li and Morrigan on the Capcom side.

But it looks like a reader of French Web site PS3Gen may have cracked the code, quite literally, allegedly viewing the source code of Capcom’s Japanese site to find what could be a complete roster of playable characters for the game. (View a translated version of the page here, plus enjoy fun phrasings such as, “When the official channels are silent or too slow, some fans redouble their imagination to get their hands on what they want.”) Here’s what they’ve got: Read the rest of this entry »

It doesn’t hit comic book stores until October, but Top Cow’s Crosshair has already been optioned as a feature film courtesy of Mandeville Films.

Part of Top Cow’s latest “Pilot Season” initiative, Crosshair certainly sounds like the kind of high-concept plot ideal for a movie: a former CIA assassin discovers he’s been brainwashed to kill the president, unless he discovers (and reverses) the trigger in 48 hours. Out October 6, it’s written by Jeff Katz (who co-wrote Booster Gold with Geoff Johns for DC Comics) with art by Allan Jefferson. Top Cow founder Marc Silvestri is credited as creator and co-writer.

Mandeville produced 2009’s Sandra Bullock/Ryan Reynolds romantic comedy The Proposal, and last year optioned Top Cow’s Alibi, so they’re no strangers to the publisher. The deal was put together, of course, at last weekend’s Comic-Con International: San Diego. Full press release after the jump.

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Speculation, activate! For those who haven’t checked out the Avengers animated trailer on the Mothership, take a peek. But what interests me a little bit is taking a look at the small-screen cast:

For those keeping score at home, that’s Hawkeye, the Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man and Thor — all of whom will be in the Avengers movie. But then you’ve also got some additional characters, like Giant-Man, the Wasp and the Black Panther.

What interests me is this: Considering that this show is likely one that’s meant to springboard off the 2012 movie, is it likely that we might see some of these other characters in the film version? Not seen in this image, but seen in the trailer, is also the Black Widow and Nick Fury (albeit Nick Fury Classic, not Ultimate Samuel L. Jackson Nick Fury). The cartoon is slated to come out this fall. Speculators, sound off!

Longtime readers of Best Shots know I absolutely adore the work of criminally underrated artist David LaFuente. But now that I’ve seen his cover for Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #16, I have even more respect for the man. Check this out:

Spider-Man, pining in a park with all the loving couples. But what’s that to his far right? Your eyes aren’t deceiving you — that’s a happy homosexual couple, moving in for a kiss. Is this a first for Marvel Comics, putting a gay kiss on a cover? For the Big Two in general? Am I wrong? I’m sure it’ll cause some hubbub among some readers, but I gotta say, just looking at the way the world works these days, it feels a little overdue. Either which way, good for LaFuente for drawing it, and good for Marvel for printing it! Rama readers, let’s start discussing this book!

What? Say it ain’t so!

Early reports from bystanders are saying that firefighters are responding to a fire in or around the Times Square branch of Midtown Comics, one of the retailers of note in New York City.

Initial statements from those close on the scene say that they believe there was a grease fire from one of the restaurants below Midtown. These reports have also stated that the fire currently does not seem catastrophic to the comics institution, although with so many flammable objects in the store, that could change.

Obviously, take all this with a grain of salt, as this stuff is still breaking. More news to come as it arrives…

UPDATE: Here’s the official statement from Midtown Comics, seen on their Twitter feed:

Everything is OK! The place below us had a flame up. All the comics are safe and we are open! Of all the days to catch fire it had to be WED

Glad to see that the store is taking this in good stride. More news to come if we get it!

[Image via ThorParker, who has been snapping pics on the scene, and an extra hat tip for Brendan McGuirk for additional reporting]

By Alan Kistler

When the mutant called Cable first showed up, he was a soldier approaching middle age who sported a bionic eye and a cyborg arm who quickly revealed he was from the future. Not long after this, Scott Summers AKA Cyclops, the first X-Man, suffered the tragedy of watching his son Nathan get infected with the techno-organic virus (called “T-O”), a disease that would painfully alter the child into a biological machine. A member of the Askani Clan, a sisterhood that existed 2000 years in the future, offered to take the child to her time where advanced technology could treat his condition. Cyclops reluctantly agreed and sent his son to the Askani in the far future. It was later explained that this boy had grown up to become the man called Cable, who was not a cyborg but was still suffering from the T-O virus and had to constantly use his incredible mental abilities to keep it from spreading beyond his left arm and eye.

Nathan Christopher Charles Summers AKA Nathan Dayspring Askani’Son AKA Cable was raised in a dark future ruled by the near-immortal mutant terrorist Apocalypse. Told he was the “Chosen One” meant to defeat Apocalypse, Nathan used time travel to prevent this future from happening, hoping to kill the villain in the past when he was younger and weaker. In the present day, Cable formed the original X-Force team before later leaving to pursue his own agenda, occasionally working alongside the X-Men teams.

After he seemingly killed Apocalypse (though the villain would resurface later), Cable’s T-O virus seemed to enter a state of remission and his full power as the world’s most powerful telepath and telekinetic finally surfaced, inspiring him to take a new path in life. After becoming an enemy of several governments and losing his power for a short time, Cable was eventually entrusted by Cyclops to be the guardian of Hope, a mutant child fated to be the key to the race’s future. Recently, while helping time-lost friends get safely back home, Cable was forced to allow the T-O virus to overwhelm his body and then seemingly died in an explosion, leaving only his left arm behind. But those infected by the virus have been able to regenerate themselves from body parts before, so who knows if he’s really gone?

And if that all seems complicated, I deliberately left out and glossed over several details in order to keep your head from spinning.

But for now, while folks are still chatting away about his life and his death, let’s take a look at the many looks Cable has sported over the years. I warn you though, don’t blame me for some of the outfits you’re about to see. Unlike many heroes and anti-heroes in the Marvel universe, Cable doesn’t have a costume so much as a look that he’ll sport for a while. Because of this and because of how frequently he’s altered his looks, these images are in rough but not exact chronological order and this is definitely not a complete list.

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The most important thing that happened at Comic-Con International?: Someone who does a hell of Stan Lee impression dressed up like Stan Lee, Stan Lee-ed about in front of a camera and six-minutes of gold followed. It gets great around the three-minute mark, where Fake Stan Lee starts interacting with other cosplayers. You can see a little bit more of Fake Stan Lee at fakestanlee.com. (Via Journalista)

The second most important thing?: Dean Trippe, Chris Burnham and Tracie Mauk contributed sketches of Arsenal and dead cats to David Walkin’s Arsenal-with-a-dead-cat sketchbook.

If no one dies under mysterious circumstances, it’s not a very good curse: “Mark Ruffalo Is The Incredible Hulk. Is This Role Cursed?”

“It’s just constantly raising expectations for myself…to the point where, inevitably, I must surely collapse under my own mass and become some sort of creative black hole”: That’s Alan Moore talking to the New York Times for a somewhat lengthy feature about the CD release of the spoken word version of his essay Unearthing, which is about his friend and fellow comics creator Steve Moore .

“Then, as a creative person who works with dark liquid all the time —in ink— something organically grew out of that”: Political cartoonist Steve Breen discusses his cartoons about the BP oil spill, the ones that he colored with actual oil spilled during the environmental disaster,  with Michael Cavna of the Washington Post.

“I’m still on the fence regarding Silver Age Flash. I can see its potential”: After a not terribly generous review of Flash: Rebirth, Richard Cook decided to go back and look at the original Silver Age Flash stories to see if he could see what apparent Barry Allen fans (like Rebirth writer Geoff Johns) see in the character. His ultimate assessment of the Flash’s first appearance in 1956’s Showcase #4 finds the character hardly compelling, although I’m not sure I see the value in attempting to interact with a book that’s more of a cultural event/milestone within the history of a particular genre of comics. In other words, of course Spider-Man is a much more dynamic and compelling character than Barry Allen—he was created eight years later, and in some ways as a response to the Silver Age Flash and the DC Comics heroes that returned right after him. Anyway, interesting reading.

Not that the one thing has anything to do with the other, of course: Check out this headline Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds found. Coincidence, or…well, probably a coincidence.

Boneyard v.7
Written & Illustrated by Richard Moore
Published by NBM

The publishing world of comics won’t be quite as fun any more, as Richard Moore’s Boneyard concludes with its seventh collected edition.  Yeah, he could one day return, but for now, this supernatural comedic adventure serial is closing up shop, leaving its creator more time to pursue other projects that percolate in his mind.

Here’s Boneyard’s big picture: Michael Paris inherits a graveyard from his grandfather, and in this graveyard he discovers a classic sitcom-worthy collection of spooks and ghouls, including a lewd demon, a wolfman mechanic, a fishy temptress and one very cute, very deadly and very caring vampire named Abbey.  Over the previous six books, Michael and Abbey have grown toward one another, but always find themselves interrupted by … perhaps the devil himself trying to take over the graveyard.

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Fans of Spider-Girl — that’s the alternate future, May Parker, “MC2″ Spider-Girl — are uniquely passionate. Devoted. Loyal. All of that. It’s why the book has been saved from cancellation some six hundred or so times. But, as you can expect, most are not too happy over the news that Anya Corazon, the former Araña, will be starring in a new Spider-Girl series starting in November from writer Paul Tobin and artist Clayton Henry. (Read more about that here.)

Take for instance, this missive from “VENOM,” co-moderator of an unofficial Spider-Girl message board that serves as grand central station for May’s intense fanbase, reportedly sent to Marvel as an explanation for why he’ll no longer be reading their comics:

“I can almost understand giving Arana (lame character, IMO) the “Spider-Girl” name to give her some publicity, but to do it at the expense of Tom DeFalco and Co’s “Spider-Girl” and her fans is a real travesty. Not only does Arana say in the most recent ASM (which I’m ashamed to have picked up) that the Spider-Girl name is “corny” and “makes you want to puke,” now we have to accept the fact that this (THIS?!), is the “new” Spider-Girl?”

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Major motion pictures these days are built to be franchises; it’s almost imperative that they have a sequel, or at least be open to one. And The Losers certainly leaves it wide open. Here, in a public forum, I’d like to appeal to cooler heads at Warner Brothers and say: Don’t make one.

Don’t get me wrong. The movie is terrific. It’s fun, funny, quirky and action-packed; it retains the tone and much of the best material from Andy Diggle and Jock’s Vertigo series. Still…it seems like nothing good can come from a second installment, in spite of a final twenty minutes of this film that essentially begs for one. But it’s a bit like Kill Bill. Now, there are those who really dug the second installment becuase it was basically all action, all the time. I’m not one of them. I felt like all the story that was worth telling happened in the first movie, and by the second you pretty much knew what was going to happen, and the process of watching it play out wasn’t so clever as to merit another two hours of my life. As it stands, the unresolved-but-it’s-obvious-where-all-this-is-going thing really works for the ending of The Losers, endowing a crazy summer revenge/action shoot-’em-up with an arthouse sensibility that there was really no way for it to come by honestly.

The sequel issue aside, The Losers had few flaws. Frankly, some of the shine might come off it when The Expendables–a similar concept, but with a stronger overall cast–hits theaters later in the summer, but for now it’s safe to say that Jeffrey Dean Morgan really proved himself as a strong action lead. Chris Evans–soon to be Captain America–did little to prove he can expand beyond the comfort zone he’s developed in a handful of mediocre previous appearances, but didn’t do anything to hurt the film either.  And while there were some good and bad moments for almost everyone in the cast, they all seemed irrelevant once you realize that in The Losers, Captain America and The Comedian went to war together.

The plot is a little bit like a hyper-violent episode of TNT’s Leverage (with all the stuntwork and con artistry that such a declaration implies, but without ever really establishing that some of the characters are capable of the computer work necessary later), which is odd because the movie is PG-13, so most of the violence is offscreen and much of it is played for laughs (in a sequence, the villain is being escorted down the beach by a beautiful woman carrying an umbrella. For almost the duration of her screen time, she’s never out of frame, as someone on this film really, really likes to point the camera at beautiful women and just leave it there for a while. When, however, she stumbles in her high heels on the beach sand and the umbrella shifts so that it’s not covering our villain for a moment, he blows her head off. It’s at this moment that she disappears off camera, never to be seen again, because the only way to get a PG-13 rating with as much violence as this film has, is to show almost nothing.

All in all, the movie’s worth watching. There’s no doubt there will be talk of a sequel, and while I hope they can resist the urge…well, let’s be honest–this one was so good that if they make one, I’ll go see it. And then probably kvetch after.

The Losers is available on DVD, Blu-ray and Video on Demand from Time Warner right now.

The DC Bullets steamrolled through Newsweek Monday evening by the lopsided final 32-4.  Now, I know what you’re thinking.  Way to run up the score.  So I did some calculating – for the game, the Bullet team batted .571, which is a good, but hardly otherworldly batting average.  The primary reason the score went so far in Bullets favor had more to do with Newsweek missing their primary pitcher and auditioning four different hurlers during the course of the game.

Those auditions did not go particularly well, as the Bullets drew an astounding 22 walks.  Every hitter in the Bullet line-up except second baseman Christine “CNap” Napolitano (ironically, the smallest strike zone on the team) (1-3, R, RBI) drew at least one walk.  Inveterate free-swinger, third baseman Mike Lorah, with no walks in sixty 2010 plate appearances coming into the game, drew three free passes, and during the third walk fouled off a 3-0 pitch that nearly hit him in the chin while trying to find a pitch to put in play.

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I hadn’t realized Nick Cave had turned into Ben Stiller’s character from Anchorman.

Joking aside, it was reported today by numerous affiliates that Nick Cave, former frontman for The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, as well as actor and acclaimed author, has been selected to write the script for James O’Barr’s The Crow film reboot. Now, I remember a few years ago, Stephen Norrington (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) was supposed to helm the gothic anti-hero, but nothing’s been heard from that camp in quite sometime.

Having Cave pen the script is, for lack of a better word, sublime, in my opinion.

Of course it’s hard to think of The Crow movies and not also associate the strange death of film star Brandon Lee. It’s been almost twenty years since the incident, and with two more than sub-par sequels, I think it’s time again to let this bird fly.