Late this summer, Archie Comics introduced the Life with Archie magazine, which I glowingly referred to as “the weirdest comic to come along in years,” due to its Dilton-exploring-the-Archie-parallel-universes subplot.

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NOTE: UPDATED: Link in, iTunes link forthcoming. Thanks for the patience! GROWING PAINS!

Radio is in my blood. My grandfather Lawrence McDonald was a broadcaster for WGN Radio in Chicago, IL, in the mid 20th Century. I have listened to old reel-to-reel tapes of him calling boxing matches, and it is extremely cool.

Before Newsarama became a full-time gig, some of you may have heard me on FearlessRadio.com‘s “Play or Die.” The show started as a video game-focused show, then spilled out into other “Geek Culture.”

Eventually, we took the show off on our own with Shotgun Reviews as “Shots in the Dark.” The Podcast became a Vodcast, and we had a lot of fun doing it.

Then I moved to New York, one of the other members of the team got a job in the gaming industry, and it was just impossible to hang on. Since then, I’ve been aching to do more radio and get it out to the world.

Albert Ching, staff writer at Newsarama, also comes from Radio. Turns out, so does Alan Kistler, Newsarama columnist and author of the awesome Agent of S.T.Y.L.E. pieces here at Blog@. So we said to each other, well, we all want to do this, so why not just do it?

And here we are. Presenting the pilot episode of Newsarama Radio.

Why call it Newsarama Radio, you ask? Well, while this episode is only being presented in a downloadable podcast, we have big plans. Soon you’ll see a dedicated page, and we’ll be streaming the show LIVE. That means call-ins, that means interviews where you can get involved, that means you being able to tell us how utterly stupid our opinions are, right there in real time!

Newsarama Radio Episode 1: ULTIMATE UNIVERSE

(Click to listen, right-click to download!)

In the first episode of Newsarama Radio, we take a look at some hot news topics, from the Hulk TV show to the Green Lantern Trailer, and the strange case of the Deadpool cancellation process.

After a kick-ass song from our homey MC Lars: “Geeked Out” (which is also serving as our temporary theme song. Thanks, Lars!) we launch into our big topic for the week: The Ultimate Universe.

Hear an idea be born when we talk about the history of the Ultimate Universe, how viable it is (or isn’t?) in today’s market, and postulate a theory on what the upcoming “Death of Spider-Man” storyline could actually mean.

So listen in, and tell us what you think, what YOU want out of a Newsarama Radio show below, and then… wait a couple weeks! Of course we started this thing off right before the holiday, so our next episode won’t be recorded until next week. Have no fear, that just means it’ll be twice the awesome (but not twice the length, that would be ridiculous).

Second verse, same as the first: Comic-Con International: San Diego 2011 registration has closed once again, due to overloaded servers of Epic, the registration company contracted by the event. The same thing happened three weeks ago when they originally tried to open it up. As has become abundantly clear and is worth repeating again: Comic-Con is really popular.

Here’s the latest, rather contrite, word from their website:

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED!

Once more, unfortunately, there have been issues with Comic-Con registration. So we have again decided to close it down.

We are well aware that many people have taken time from work, school or other activities and others woke up very early. There really is no way to convey our level of regret for this turn of events.

We are currently researching our registration options.

Unlike last time, we don’t even have a date as to when to expect more information on when registration might open up again. So keep reading for updates. And feel free to speculate on what “registration options” might work — an outlet like Ticketmaster? — in the comments.

The Golden Age of Canadian Comics: The Torontoist‘s Historicist feature this week is dedicated to the brief flowering of the Canadian comic book industry in the 1940s, as economic factors associated with the war shut off the importation of U.S. super-comics after they had already created demand. It’s quite an interesting read.

Sex won’t sell her: “Tough, new age Spider-Girl is no sexed up super-hero”

Who looks better in green, Ryan Reynolds or Seth Rogen?: The occasion of a new trailer for next year’s Green Hornet gave some superhero movie fans the chance to compare it with the recently released trailer for next year’s Green Lantern. Cinema Blend says “New Green Hornet Trailer Stakes A Claim As The Best Upcoming Green Superhero Movie,” and at Movie Line, Christopher Rosen writes, “The easy joke over the last eighteen months was that audiences wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the Seth Rogen-led version of The Green Hornet and Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern. Well, this week, an easy distinction revealed itself: The Green Hornet doesn’t look like death warmed over.” Ouch.

That’s strange: Comic Book Movie hears that the next Batman film will be based on the 1990 Legends of the Dark Knight story arc “Prey” by Doug Moench, Paul Gulacy and Terry Austin. That would make the villains Catwoman and Professor Hugo Strange, the latter of whom seems so unlikely an antagonist for a Batman movie—little name recognition, not terribly colorful, doesn’t make for good toys—that he would actually be something of an inspired choice. If a Moench-written Batman comic does end up being the basis of a film, that’s great news for the folio artists—Moench writes the best sound effects.

Come on DC—Paul Pope doing Jack Kirby characters is always a good idea: Comics Reporter has some links to Pope-drawn images from a Kamandi pitch. (Of course, he went on to do Batman: Year 100, so maybe the fact that this comic never came to be was for the best)

Transformers: the IDW Collection v.1

Written by Eric Holmes, Shane McCarthy & Simon Furman

Illustrated by Alex Milne, Marcelo Matere, Casey Coller, Robby Musso, Nick Roche, MD Bright & E.J. Su

Colored by Josh Perez, Zac Atkinson, Mark Bristow, Gabe Eltaeb, Joana Lafuente, Josh Burchman, John Raunch, Liam Shallo, Rob Ruffalo, Aaron Meyers, Simon Bork, Mark Englert, Sunder Raj & Kevin Senft

Lettered by Chris Mowry, Robbie Robbins, Neil Uyetake, Sulaco Studios & Tom B. Long

Published by IDW

I am not, by nature, a nostalgist.  The things that you once loved, particularly that you loved as a child, rarely hold that same gleaming splendor to the jaded adult eye.  And that’s fine – it’s not hard to find bits of entertainment that thrill a reader of my age.  Consequently, recent reboots (via comics, film or other formats) of childhood favorites haven’t really registered with me.  As much as I loved G.I. Joe or Masters of the Universe as a kid, I honestly don’t pay the slightest attention to revival attempts (and no, I haven’t seen the Joe movie).

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Some evil just seems to be unkillable.

Norman Osborn was a corrupt scientist and corporate executive for years. When he learned his partner Mendel Stromm was working on a strength-enhancement formula, he had the man sent to jail for embezzling and then stole the work, testing it on human subjects. The formula gave superhuman strength, but also mutated the subject into a scaled, goblin-like creature. Osborn continued working on the formula and one night while mixing it together, the solution turned green and exploded, sending him into a coma. When he awoke, he had superhuman strength, stamina, resiliency and increased intelligence. But with this intelligence came a new persona, a Norman Osborn who was truly insane and would stop at nothing to achieve power and dominion over others.

Osborn decided to begin a criminal empire and used his advance technology to outfit new super-villains to aid him in this. He had some victories, but many of his operations were thwarted by the new hero Spider-Man, who was unaware that there was a mastermind behind many of the crimes he was stopping. After sending various agents to take down Spider-Man and seeing that they all failed, Osborn decided to do it himself. He created various new weapons, a techno-suit and a mask that emulated the goblin-like forms that his old test subjects had mutated into. As the Green Goblin, he attempted to assume the place of New York’s most powerful gang leader on several occasions and became Spider-Man’s most persistent enemy, more so after he discovered the wall-crawler’s secret identity and became obsessed that the young hero either join him or die. At times, the Goblin persona would seem to be go away, leaving only the original Norman Osborn who, though corrupt, was not nearly as dangerous. But eventually the Green Goblin and his insanity always returned.

For a time, Osborn was believed dead and other people stepped into the role of the Green Goblin, most notably Osborn’s son Harry who had become Peter’s close friend and roommate. The original Hobgoblin began his career by stealing some of Osborn’s Goblin technology, inspiring a new branch of this evil legacy. Then Osborn came back and since then he has been a thorn in the sides of many good people, both as a public figure and as his grinning alter ego. But the villain helped cause his own defeat by forcing Earth’s heroes to unite against him and was once again imprisoned.

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In today’s shocking news, Darren Aronofsky, who has been all but confirmed by Fox as the director of the next Wolverine movie, has been, wait for it, confirmed by Fox as the director of the next Wolverine movie, which, as we already know, is titled The Wolverine.

It’s part of a two year deal with Twentieth Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures. Courtesy Deadline.com, the press release follows after the jump.

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Retroactive solicitation?: I’m not a retailer, so I’m just guessing here, but isn’t this the sort of information that you’d want to know before you place orders on what seems to be a minor, unimportant one-shot like Steel #1? It was solicited in mid-October, with a the name of a writer new to comics (but someone who apparently wrote for some British sci-fi shows) and an artist who is talented and has a resume, but isn’t someone with a huge, sell-the-book-all-by-himself following (That would be Steve Lyons and Sean Chen, respectively, although dccomics.com currently says Ed Benes is providing the art; I sure hope that’s a typo, since I pre-ordered it thinking Chen was drawing).  A month later, DC revealed the Steel comic is actually part one of a five-part story that will continue in Outsiders, Justice League of America, Superboy and a yet-to-be-named title. Such information would presumably affect the number of copies of Steel a store would want to have on hand, right?

Who are the Satyr Masters From Abyss?: Only Evan Dorkin knows. And the other cartoonists involved in the story. And everyone who reads Dorkin’s blog.

The Death of Thor: While the mainstream media seemed at least a little interested in the Ultimate Death of Ultimate Spider-man, it was another Marvel comic “death” that seemed to generate more thought and higher word counts online. As my fellow contributor David Pepose shared earlier in the week, Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee’s ongoing Thor comic (i.e. The Good Thor Comic) is going the way of Captain Britain and MI13, SWORD, and Atlas. What exactly that means has been a hot—well, warm—topic of conversation on the comics blogoshpere since.  At Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon offered “Five Quick Thoughts On The Cancellation of Marvel’s Thor: The Mighty Avenger” (including a call not to let the event become “fuel for one of comics’s cliche engines”). At The Beat, Heidi MacDonald asks “Who killed Thor The Mighty Avenger?” and answers with a (facetious?) accusation (The comment thread is well worth a sift through as well, by the way). And at iFanboy, Jason Wood uses asks “Can the Direct Market Support All Ages Material?”

Is Batton Lash’s Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of The Macabre the next comic book series to be adapted to the small screen?: The answer to that question may be up to a judge, jury and some actual lawyers to hammer that out, depending on how close this in-development supernatural lawyer drama ends up being to Lash’s series of the exact same premise.

Many deaths means many graves: Bully takes a typically amusing look at an off-to-the-side element of the Marvel Universe, this time focusing on all the different markers and monuments the X-Men have erected over Jean Grey, the X-lady who has died about as many times as I’ve had the flu.

Dear IDW, can Mike Sterling please write a Dungeons & Dragons one-shot or something?: Comics blogger and retailer Mike Sterling shares a conversation he had with employee Employee Aaron regarding the new, gelatinous cube-free D&D book.

The second appearance of Michael Bloomberg?: I’d have to consult a price guide to see exactly how many times NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has appeared in comics now, but he’s apparently teamed up with Spidey to, like, help fight unemployment or something.  No offense to artists Phil Jimenez and Todd Nauck, whose art I generally like, but I think I like Fred Chao’s Bloomberg from Johnny Hiro better.

A Sickness in the Family
Written by Denise Mina
Illustrated by Antonio Fuso
Lettered by Clem Robins
Published by DC/Vertigo

Vertigo’s crime line has, by and large, left me cold.  So it’s a welcome surprise to find that Denise Mina and Antonio Fuso’s A Sickness in the Family achieves a twisted and creepy level of satisfaction.  Mina wisely forgoes the predictably washed-up, pseudo-alcoholic private dick protagonist that burdens many of the Vertigo crime titles, introducing readers instead to the Usher family (Yes, Edgar Poe readers have reason to do a double take).  Mom and Dad, Gramma, and three young adult children, all living together under one roof – where family tensions have them at each others’ throats.

Mina spends enough time on the entire cast to let readers connect to them and understand them.  Excepting Amy, always angry and blaming, and perhaps Gramma, whose on the tableau is limited early, each Usher is given room to show their shallow side and their reasons for being disgusted with their kin.  Yet Mina also takes time to present a softer, more human side of each person, rounding them out into something close to fully realized persons.

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Written and created by Brian Andersen, art, colors and letters by the talented Celina Hernandez. For more So Super Duper go to:www.sosuperduper.com!

Publisher Quirk Books’ new DC Comics: The 75th Anniversary Poster Book offers two different reading experiences, to potentially two different audiences.

Firstly and foremost, it’s exactly what its title indicates, a “poster book.” It’s 14 inches high, 11 wide and, as the cover says in font nearly as bit as the title, it “includes 100 ready-to-frame covers,” the edges perforated to easily tear the over-sized reproductions of the covers out to sticky-tape to your dorm room or frame and hang in your library (or the room you keep all your long boxes in; whatever).

As a comics critic and blogger as well as a comics reader, I suppose I’m a little bit more engaged with DC Comics covers than some potential consumers of this book, but even still, I was somewhat surprised by how many images from the book I was already quite familiar with, either from reading the books, reading about the books, or just seeing a blogger posting a funny image of a gorilla cover or Batman doing something goofy in order to make fun of it.

It does speak to the original power of many of the images included, and the pervasiveness of their influence—either because of the overall quality of the image itself, and/or to the association with the contents of the story lurking under it. Think Superman lifting a car over his head while that guy in the lower left-hand corner freaks out, or Batman flexing like a body builder while jumping in front of a lightning bolt, or The Joker with a camera, instructing the reader to “smile,” or Superman crying and cradling the body of Supergirl while the rest of the DC Universe assembles in the background like wallpaper.
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I think you hear Captain Stacy knocking, and I think he’s coming in: Comedian and actor Denis Leary is in negotiations to play George Stacy in the 2012 Marc Webb-directed Spider-Man film, according to a report Wednesday afternoon by The Hollywood Reporter.

George Stacy is Gwen Stacy’s father and a police captain, who died back in Amazing Spider-Man #90, saving a child during a fight between Spider-Man and Dr. Octopus. Gwen will be played in the new movie by Emma Stone, and The Social Network‘s Andrew Garfield stars as Peter Parker/Spider-Man.

Leary’s played a police officer before, in his short-lived 2001-2002 ABC sitcom The Job. And in case you don’t recognize the ancient reference in the opening sentence of this post, watch the video after the jump.
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The Green Woman
Written by Peter Straub & Michael Easton
Illustrated by John Bolton
Lettered by Todd Klein
Published by DC/Vertigo

Famed horror novelist Peter Straub makes his first foray into comics scripting in The Greem Woman, accompanied by writer and actor Michael Easton and acclaimed painter John Bolton.  The story involves the serial killer Fielding “Fee” Bandolier from Straub’s 1993 Bram Stoker-winning novel The Throat on a new killing spree. Hunting him every step of the way is psychic detective Bob Steele.

The Green Woman throws around several interesting ideas.  Unfortunately, few of them amount to very much – Bob Steele, named after a famed cowboy movie hero, struggles with the ideal of his name; planks from a cursed pirate ship make up parts of two buildings that play heavily into the book’s events; Fee flashes back to experiences in Vietnam while trying to control his compulsion to kill.

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Just one day after the initial Green Lantern trailer debuted, here’s the first clip for Cowboys & Aliens, scheduled for July 29, 2011, and starring Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde. Just two days go, the first teaser poster for the film was released. Big week!

Lest we forget: Cowboys & Aliens is also a comic book adaptation, based on a 2006 graphic novel co-written by Andrew Foley and our pal Fred Van Lente. And it’s directed by Iron Man and Iron Man 2′s Jon Favreau. So let us know what you think in the comments.

Earlier today, we posted a bunch of February 2011 solicitations straight from Diamond on the homepage, and buried among the thousands upon thousands of words of pictureless text was this, in Dynamite’s crop of upcoming comic descriptions:

BUCK ROGERS ANNUAL #1
(W) Matt Brady, Troy Brownfield (A) Carlos Rafael
(C) Carlos Rafael (75%), Stephen Segovia (25%)
What does Buck Rogers do on his birthday?  How about trying to stay alive!  When a signal from across the centuries leads Buck and Dr. Huer into a territory filled with vicious tribes and strange soldiers, it will take the best from both men to make it out in one piece.  But when Buck discovers the origin of the signal and the shocking message within, will what he learns about his own past make him lose all hope or give him the strength he needs to survive?
40pgs, FC    $4.99

That’s right, looks like former Newsarama head honcho Matt Brady, who stepped down from the site in July 2009, is making his comic book writing debut, co-writing with Newsarama columnist and Tales from Wonderland: The White Knight writer Troy Brownfield.

We’ll do our best to score an interview with the writing team. Fingers crossed!

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark looks like it just might be the best thing ever: Your mileage may vary of course, but check out Vogue‘s article on the ill-starred Broadway musical featuring our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and prepare for your jaw to drop and your mind to be blown by Annie Leibovitz’s photos. I have to say, as weird as some of those characters look, I think I like this Green Goblin better than the live-action film version.

“6 superhero origins Hollywood got right (and 6 that Hollywood messed up)”: In the wake of the the release of the Green Lantern trailer (oh my God you guys, is that the real trailer for the real movie? Abin Sur looks just like a pink verison of J’onn  J’onnz from that live-action JLI-era Justice League pilot!), i09 compiles a coupla lists. I think they put Batman Begins in the wrong category, but whatever.

“33 Years of Spider-Girls and Spider-Women”: At the Techland blog, Douglas Wolk reviews the history of the many female versions of Spider-Man over the years. Does the latest one have the worst hair of them all?

Life in Low Resolution: Check out Steven Kraan’s three-panel video game comic strips at Top Shelf 2.0.

So you’ve seen the Entertainment Tonight teaser. Well, how about the real deal trailer?

io9 has posted a full-length version of the Green Lantern trailer (albeit with Spanish subtitles). Here we get to see Abin Sur, Sinestro, Kilowog… well, what do you think??

EDIT: Now without subtitles! Also, if/when that gets taken down from YouTube, here’s the official Apple link.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

…

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I know this sounds eerily familiar to what I said about Incredible Hercules shuffling off this mortal coil. Well, it seems like the most likely successor to this fantasy-gone-hilarious series — Thor: The Mighty Avenger — is ending at Issue #8.

Mighty Avenger? It was mighty entertaining. If you didn’t read the issue about Thor walking into a bar and beating the kidney pie out of Captain Britain, you missed out on one of the best single issues of the year.

Nate Cosby, who edited the book, sounded the dread alarm on Twitter this evening. Jeff Parker, meanwhile, will successfully (and jokingly) make you feel bad about not reading (and LOVING) this hilarious, hilarious book. Meanwhile, I will be out pouring a 40 for Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee, for a book that was taken from us much, much too soon…

Batman’s global franchising of his crime-busting, justice-pursuing operation kicks off in this week’s Batman Incorporated #1 by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette. Although you may want to start with Morrison, David Finch and Scott Williams’ Batman: The Return, the $5, 56-page one-shot serving as a bridge between the old status quo and the new one.

Batman Inc #1 is unfortunately going to be one of DC’s few $4, 22-page comics before they scrap their flirtation with that price point and format in favor of a $3, 20-page price point and format.

I guess Batman needed to raise a little extra money to help cover his incorporation costs…?

Best American Comics 2010: The annual anthology is required reading for comics fans and would-be comics fans—in the case of the latter, as a guide to the state of the medium and industry; in the case of the former, as fodder for arguing with your friends about. Series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden are joined by guest editor Neil Gaiman, and if he can bring a significant portion of his prose audience to the anthology this year, then this could be a pretty damn influential book. It’s a $23, 350-page hardcover (And if you don’t have the scratch yourself, be sure to bug your local library to order a copy!)

CBGB: This $15, 110-page collection of Boom’s anthology miniseries set in and inspired by the legendary rock club is a trade paperback, which makes this the CBGB TPB. Creators include Rob G and Chuck BB. And plenty of others, whose names don’t include letters that rhyme wth the title, like Ana Matronic, Kieron Gillen, Sam Humprhies, Dave Crosland, Kim Krizan and a Mr. Sheldon.

Dan Brereton: The Goddess & The Monster: Comics auteur Dan Brereton, responsible for The Nocturnals, Giantkiller, Thrillkiller and some of the most distinctive painted comics of the last few decades, gets a slick 145-page, $30 hardcover collecting his illustrations and other artwork. Given Brereton’s skills, I can’t imagine this would be anything other than gorgeous-looking.

The Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories: Prolific editor Craig Yoe and publisher IDW’s latest collaboration is a $35, 180-page hardcover collecting short Christmas comics. It should be pretty great, and I say that not simply because it has the word “great” right there in the title. No, I say it because of the list of creators whose work is included, like Walt Kelly, John Stanley and Dan Noonan. Put me down for one, Santa.

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For those left unsatisfied by Bluewater’s Lady Gaga comic (a lot of people, it seems), here’s some news for her sequential art-inclined Little Monsters: the ubiquitous pop star is returning to the medium through a one-page comic in December’s GQ magazine, illustrated by former Human Target artist Cliff Chiang.

Chiang blogged about it on his site, calling it “a really fun experience.” You can offer your leather-studded kisses in the sand when the issue goes on sale later this month.