You may remember that memorable panel in Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye #3 where an old-school Hawkeye head covered a naked Clint Barton’s private area:

Well, now you can recreate that scene yourself — sort of — with a t-shirt from We Love Fine:

It’s part of a three-shirt collection from the site, celebrating the critically acclaimed and Eisner-nominated cult favorite series. The line is curated by Fraction himself, and the shirts go above and beyond your average wearable tie-in and celebrate Hawkguy’s bro-filled nuances. Plus, Fraction is donating his curation commission to Futures Without Violence, which works to prevent violence against women and children.

With the future-gazing Wolverine and the X-Men #29 freshly on sale, series writer Jason Aaron is set for Wednesday’s Marvel “Next Big Thing” conference call with the comic book press. We’ll be on the line and updating live, so keep hitting refresh for the latest details. Here’s an album with lots of new art from the series.

Call starting now — on the line, Aaron and Marvel senior editor Nick Lowe, talking “The Hellfire Saga.”

“It certainly is something that’s been building for quite a while,” Aaron says of the story. “The Hellfire Club kids first popped up in Schism. I think this is what their story has been building towards this whole time.” Aaron says “Hellfire Saga” involves more characters than he’s written in a single story in his career. “I’d say it’s the biggest, craziest arc we’ve done in Wolverine and the X-Men, and if you’ve read Wolverine and the X-Men, you know that’s saying something.”

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Despite online reports citing a Marvel subscription newsletter, a representative from the publisher tells Newsarama that ongoing series Avengers Assemble is not cancelled.

Various sources including The Beat and Bleeding Cool passed along word Tuesday of an email to Marvel subscribers stating that the Kelly Sue DeConnick-written title was ending, and that subscriptions would roll over to the main Avengers book.

Last week, DeConnick talked to iFanboy about an Avengers Assemble tie-in to Infinity, starting in August.

Update: Marvel’s subscription service has sent out an email clarifying the situation:

Whoops! Has Kang been messing with the timestream or have we just been getting confused?

The Avengers keep on assembling! Avengers Assemble is not ending, it’s carrying on its merry way, and its loyal subscribers will stay right where they are.

Marvel Universe Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will also be keeping on track.

We’re so sorry about the confusion! Avengers forever!

Sincerely,

Your friends at Marvel

Next year’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier adds Steve Rogers’ long-time partner The Falcon to the mix, as played by Anthony Mackie. On-set photos of Mackie in uniform surfaced today courtesy of Lainey Gossip via WENN, showing a much more basic military look for Sam Wilson than his usual superhero attire. While it seems unlikely that we’ll see Falcon in the full red-and-white feathered attire in the movie, it’s also distinctly possible that what he’s sporting in the pictures here isn’t necessarily his “final” look. Though it could be. Hey, it’s still early!

A fuller look at Mackie, who co-stars in current Michael Bay release Pain & Gain, follows after the jump. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, directed by sitcom vets Joe and Anthony Russo and starring Chris Evans as Captain America and Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier, is scheduled for release on April 4, 2014.

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Iron Man 3 has been getting all the Marvel movie attention lately, but Fox’s The Wolverine is less than three months away, with a release date of July 26. On Wednesday, a minute-long sizzle reel of footage (some new, some seen in previous trailers) surfaced online, first seen at last month’s CinemaCon. Here it is:

And in further Hugh Jackman-as-Wolverine news, X-Men: Days of Future Past director Bryan Singer tweeted a picture of Jackman in character — his back, at least — on the set of the 2014 film, great news for fans of Logan in brown leather jackets.

CBR’s Robot 6 has confirmed Twitter rumblings that ComicsAlliance, one of the most prominent North American comic book blogs, has been shut down by parent company AOL.

The news comes after Friday reports that the company closed down news site AOL Music, and long-running music blog Spinner, which had been owned by AOL since 1999. Original ComicsAlliance editor-in-chief and current Wired culture and entertainment editor Laura Hudson tweeted, “For the record: It wasn’t performance-related. The traffic on the site was better than ever.”

Most recently helmed by editor-in-chief Joe Hughes and senior editors Caleb Goellner and Andy Khouri, ComicsAlliance started in 2009, and is a nominee in this year’s Eisner Awards for “Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism.” The site distinguished itself with humor pieces, Chris Sims and Matt Wilson’s “War Rocket Ajax” podcast, and influential critical essays, like Hudson’s “The Big Sexy Problem with Superheroines and Their ‘Liberated Sexuality.’”

Comedian (and sometimes comic book writer) Patton Oswalt is guest-starring on NBC’s Parks and Recreation this Thursday, playing a concerned citizen invoking a filibuster rule to stop a city council vote. His filibuster, detailing his character’s take on 2015′s Star Wars: Episode VII, takes an interesting turn — like, X-23 versus Robot Chewbacca interesting — and the show has released the unedited take of Oswalt’s nearly nine-minute improvisation. Hit the jump to see it in full.

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If you’ve seen the recut trailers that reconceptualize The Shining as a romantic comedy or Mrs. Doubtfire as a horror movie, then you might think the following video is along those lines. But, no — it’s an actual promotional spot that evidently aired on ABC Family this past weekend, offering a very different interpretation of the first entry in Christopher Nolan’s Bat-trilogy, Batman Begins:

DC’s 2013 WonderCon slate starts Friday afternoon in Anaheim with an “All Access” panel, featuring Ann Nocenti, Scott Snyder, James Robinson, Matt Kindt and DC digital’s Jim Chadwick.

Things start with Scott Snyder, talking about his upcoming “Zero Year” arc on Batman. “When the New 52 started, we tried to keep a lot of Batman’s history intact,” the writer says. “A lot of it is intact, but we realized a lot of the things from Year One couldn’t stand,” due to issues like Selina Kyle’s origin being different.

Synder says “Zero Year” is “nothing like Year One, since trying to do a better version of that story would be impossible. Snyder says he thinks it’s the best thing the current team has done on Batman, and that readers haven’t seen the character’s origin done like this before.

As for Superman Unchained, Snyder says that he’s, “Excited to see what you guys think. It’s meant to be a classic Superman story, but done in a new way.

The four-page poster fold-out in the first issue by series artist (and DC co-publisher Jim Lee) is “one of my favorite compositions I’ve ever seen,” Snyder says, showing Superman from different angles where he’s heroic in appearing both powerful and vulnerable. “It speaks to what our book is about, in a lot of ways.”

For his Vertigo slate, Snyder says the upcoming The Wake with Sean Murphy is very different from anything he’s done before, and thanks the fans for continuing to stay enthused about American Vampire during its hiatus.

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After a bit of a layoff, Marvel’s “Next Big Thing” conference calls with the comic book press are back, this time focusing on the latest with recently launched Marvel NOW! series Nova — and based on the images released to press, it looks like artist Paco Medina is joining the book. This page will be continually updated, so keep refreshing for updates!

The call hasn’t officially started yet, but Zeb Wells is on the line, so it looks like he’s joining Nova — possibly as a co-writer with Jeph Loeb?

Loeb is on the line, so we are officially starting, and with news: July’s Nova #6 brings a new creative team of Zeb Wells and Paco Medina.

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This year’s PaleyFest kicks off Friday night, with a panel celebrating the highest-rated drama in cable television history: The Walking Dead.

Held at the usual PaleyFest venue of the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, the panel consisted of actors Andrew Lincoln (Rick), Danai Gurira (Michonne), Laurie Holden (Andrea), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Norman Reedus (Daryl), Scott Wilson (Hershel) and Emily Kinney (Beth), plus executive producers Gale Anne Hurd, Dave Alpert, Greg Nicotero and comic book series creator Robert Kirkman; with Talking Dead‘s Chris Hardwick moderating.

The event opened with a look at the first few minutes of this Sunday’s episode — which contains a big Carl moment — plus an extended behind-the-scenes featurette. “Carl is one of my favorite aspects of the comics and the show,” Kirkman said, adding that an important element of both is showing how people grow and change over time; “Characters stepping up and doing different things.”

Kirkman discussed the many differences between the comic book and TV show, saying that as part of the writers’ room, he would be bored if the show was exactly like the Image series; giving him the ability to say, “Hey, this thing I wrote six years ago sucked, let’s do something better.” Kirkman said that the process of working with Charlie Adlard on the comic book really hasn’t changed in recent years, despite the rise of the TV show.

On a similar note, Kirkman said that he doesn’t think characters from The Walking Dead video game will ever make it onto the show, because he likes the ideas of some characters being unique to each world — like Daryl in the TV show — to help make each experience different.

Speaking of Daryl, the always-popular Reedus elicited loud cheers from the crowd every time he spoke, especially when praising the work of Michael Rooker as Merle and discussing a romantic possibility between Daryl and Carol. “I like these two damaged people gravitating towards each other… if it happens, it happens.”

Other highlights: Hardwick explaining the concept of memes to Lincoln; Kinney saying that not knowing when an actor’s role will be killed off is usable for a performance, since it mirrors the position of the characters; Wilson saying filming the scene where Hershel loses his leg was “really a wonderful day;” Holden saying that Andrea is like a friend whose taste in men you can’t understand; and Lincoln joking that reading the comic was beneficial to his performance, “Up until [Kirkman] chopped off my hand and I stopped reading.”

In case you weren’t among the devoted couple thousand in the building, the entire panel is streaming online via Hulu:

Earlier this week, Marvel announced a “Secret Origin” arc for Iron Man starting in May; written by series regular Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Dale Eaglesham and apparently featuring a baby Tony Stark. The story was the subject of Marvel’s latest “Next Big Thing” on Friday, with Gillen detailing the story for the comic book press.

“The Secret Origin of Tony Stark” will encompass “about 11 or 12 issues,” according to Gillen, starting with May’s Iron Man #9. It focuses on both Iron Man in the present day — which is about 75 percent of the story — as well as flashbacks to Howard and Maria Stark, Tony’s parents, and their “Stark Seven” of both familiar characters (like Dum Dum Dugan) and new ones. Much of the arc is set in Nevada, due to it housing both Las Vegas and Area 51.

“This is big,” Gillen said. “By issue #10, Tony’s conception of everything will have changed. I saw what Dan Slott’s been up to these past few months, and I said, ‘I want a piece of that.’ This will be interesting in terms of response. It’s not going to be minor.”

A full report of the call follows after the jump.

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First, Ryan Stegman pays homage to… himself, specifically Superior Spider-Man #1, on the cover to Scarlet Spider #16:

Then, there’s the cover to Cable and X-Force #7 by Salvador Larroca, which nicely captures the current wave of Cyclopsmania:

(Full Marvel April 2013 solicitations are here, our monthly analysis is here.)

Marvel’s “Next Big Thing” conference call, featuring writer Brian Michael Bendis talking Guardians of the Galaxy, is slated to start a 4 p.m. eastern. Keep refreshing this page; it’ll be updated continuously with the latest. To check out covers from the series, head over here.

Opening the call, Bendis describes Guardians of the Galaxy as the beginning of a “whole new chapter” of Marvel NOW!, and, in his opinion, a surprising one. “For fans who have been yelling and screaming about how awesome this corner of the Marvel Universe, here’s a brand-new #1, the most reader-friendly place to have them without taking away what makes them special in the first place,” he said.

Bendis says even now when you say the words “Guardians of the Galaxy movie” aloud, you can’t believe that it’s actually happening. The comic book series will show a butterfly effects of recent Marvel events — some obvious, like Secret Invasion, and some not so obvious — that the Guardians will deal with directly. “You’re going to see these characters face off with some gigantic villains and concepts,” Bendis says. “To alien civilizations, Earth is this place where the Phoenix Force goes and does not destroy the Earth. Galactus shows up and he doesn’t eat it. The Earth is the scariest place. What happens when Earth joins the cosmic civilization?”

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The latest “Marvel NOW! Next Big Thing” conference call with the comic book press is scheduled to discuss the February-debuting Fearless Defenders, a team headlined by Valkyrie, Misty Knight and Dani Moonstar; from the creative team of writer Cullen Bunn and artist Will Sliney. Things are scheduled to get started around 4 p.m. eastern — keep refreshing, as this page will be updated continuously with the latest news. New colored pages from #1, and covers from April’s #3, are available for your perusal here.

“This is a book that is unapologetically a superhero actionfest,” Bunn says to open the call. The writer is joined on the line by Sliney, series editors Tom Brevoort and Ellie Pyle and Marvel marketing’s James Viscardi.

“The team will come together slowly over time,” Bunn says, with Valkyrie and Misty Knight as the “co-leads.” “I can not imagine more odd of a couple than Brunnhilde and Misty. They’re fun to write individually, but they’re so much fun to write when they’re interacting with each other. They bring a very interesting dynamic to this team.”

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Writer Peter David suffered a stroke while on vacation in Florida, according to his personal website. He announced the news on Sunday via the following notice:

We were on vacation in Florida when I lost control of the right side of my body. I cannot see properly and I cannot move my right arm or leg. We are currently getting the extent of the damage sorted out and will report as further details become clarified.

David is best known for his lengthy runs on The Incredible Hulk, Captain Marvel and X-Factor at Marvel; Young Justice, Supergirl and Aquaman at DC; the Spectacular Spider-Man story “The Death of Jean DeWolff;” creator-owned series including Fallen Angel; the Star Trek: New Frontier novel series and more. Currently, he’s writing X-Factor and the Castle: A Calm Before Storm miniseries for Marvel.

We’ll update when more details become available, and wish David the best in a full and speedy recovery.

Happy birthday, Stan Lee! It’s the comic book legend’s 90th birthday today, and the co-creator of Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, the Avengers and more is being celebrated around the Internet and beyond, with tributes pouring in from everyone including potential Guardians of the Galaxy Star-Lord frontrunner Zachary Levi to Batman writer Scott Snyder (and you saw the exchange between Lee and Dan Slott, right? Spoilers in link).

To celebrate the occasion, here’s a clip of Stan Lee talking his career in the 1988 documentary Comic Book Confidential. And did you know that Lee is apparently good friends (not to mention birthday buddies) with True Blood‘s Joe Manganiello? Well, there you go!

Following C2E2 2011, Brian Michael Bendis declared that he was “con retired.” Though he’s still a very busy guy — and recently welcomed a new addition the Bendis family — he’s returning to the convention scene as of July 2013, as he explained earlier today on Twitter:

alright! coming out of con retirement! I will be a guest of san diego comicon this year! see you there X, spidey, guardians & powers fans!

— BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (@BRIANMBENDIS) December 17, 2012

As he noted, he’s got a lot to talk about now, especially with the recent additions of All-New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy to his schedule. But given the mass media saturation of San Diego, some Powers TV news would certainly be appropriate, right? Feel free to speculate wildly through the holidays and beyond.

The final Marvel NOW! “Next Big Thing” press conference of the week is all about Nova, debuting in February from the creative team of Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness. We’ll be live on the line, asking questions and providing frequent updates, so keep hitting “refresh” on this page for the latest — things should start a little after 3 p.m. eastern. Interior art from Nova #1 is here.

“We sort of begin at the beginning,” Loeb says of Nova #1. “Ed and I are a huge Nova fans. Rich Rider fans, and the Nova Corps, and all of that amazing stuff that had been going on for decades.” Loeb called where Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning took the character “absolutely epic and heartbreaking.”

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The new Nick Fury and Agent Phil Coulson — both familiar to the audiences of Marvel Studios films — are at the head of the new volume of Secret Avengers, debuting in February 2013 from the creative team of writer Nick Spencer and artist Luke Ross. It’s the subject of the latest Marvel “Next Big Thing” conference call with the comic book press, and we’re on the line, covering it live — this page will be updated continuously, so keep hitting refresh. And for brand-new interior art from issue #1, head over here.

“In the Marvel Universe, there’s a new S.H.I.E.L.D. that’s been constituted under the watch of Daisy Johnson and Maria Hill,” Spencer says. “They’ve brought in a new field agent in Nick Fury, formerly known as Marcus Johnson, and a new advance man, Phil Coulson.” The new S.H.I.E.L.D. is putting together their own Avengers team, and re-employing the technology used in Secret War — “Which is to say, all of these new Avengers will be given memory implants so they have no knowledge of their involvement on the team,” which is the “work around” for having a team deal with such sensitive classified information.

“We’ve got a new Iron Patriot, obviously the Hulk, the Winter Soldier will be a big part of the book, although not on the team itself, as well as some other fan favorites like Mockingbird, and others I can’t talk about,” Spencer continues.

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