Let’s just call this the greatest rumor of the day, shall we?

Thanks to a new trademark filed November 7th by Hasbro at the United States Patent & Trademark Office we know that there maybe an attempt to bring back the “Rom: The Spaceknight” toyline.

In many ways, a revival of Rom would cement Hasbro’s move from purely a toy company to a transmedia IP machine; after all, the Rom toy flopped dramatically upon release in the late 1970s, but the character lived a surprisingly successful life as a comic book character thanks to Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema (and later, Steve Ditko)’s Marvel Comic. That book lasted 75 issues, and added the “Spaceknight” mythology to the Marvel Universe which is still being used today (Jim Starlin’s Spaceknights mini is being reprinted as we speak).

This isn’t the first time that Hasbro has tried to revive Rom; in addition to the November 7 filing (There’s also a filing from a day earlier, also by Hasbro), it looks like there were multiple filings made by the company regarding the character in 2008 that went nowhere. As someone who adored the old Marvel series, I can only hope that things go differently this time around.

Chad Nevett comes up with an order in which to read all of the Avengers vs. X-Men issues:

It may surprise you to learn that it wasn’t too difficult. Parts of the order are strictly judgement calls and some issues could be switched around with no real impact on anything, because they’re so self-contained. An example of this are the intial tie-in arcs of Avengers Academy and X-Men Legacy where they both fall within the same timeframe, but could be read in any order really. I’ll try to explain myself as I go and, maybe, update when necessary (aka when someone points out a factual error that makes my order impossible… though, in some cases, those are unavoidable). My biggest criteria for order is that events show in Avengers vs. X-Men trump all tie-ins with AVX: VS trumping all other tie-ins. So, events seen in Avengers vs. X-Men and tie-ins will always have Avengers vs. X-Men as the first comic to show those events with the others following. I think that makes sense.

I didn’t read every issue of the event, so I’ll just assume that he’s correct in his ordering. What strikes me as I read through the order and summary of each issue is how exhausting the whole thing is, when taken as a whole. You start looking at the shape of the entire event and thinking, “What was the point of the dual outer-space arcs in Avengers and Secret Avengers again…?” and wondering whether all of the “And then the Phoenix Five hunted the Avengers” issues are maybe a little too much. It’s a strange thing, looking at the entire event from a distance like this; things that didn’t necessarily seem so obvious in the midst of things start to become clear…

Bleeding Cool is reporting that, following the two-week delay for Uncanny Avengers #2, the third issue of the series is also getting moved in the schedule to January 16 – A four week delay from its original on-sale date of December 19. The move leaves December entirely devoid of an issue of Uncanny Avengers, and would seem to suggest that the book will be released every six weeks moving forward, instead of monthly, at least with the current creative team.

Expect Uncanny Avengers #4 to either receive a creative team or release date change sooner rather than later. It’s currently scheduled to be released January 30, which seems amazingly unlikely given what’s happened so far.

Hail and farewell, Hellblazer; with that title’s sad demise in February, Fables becomes the longest-continuously running, un-renumbered title at DC Comics with 126 issues, oddly enough, despite having only launched in the year 2002. In fact, Fables will actually be the longest continuous, un-renumbered run of any book at either of the Big Two; at Marvel, Journey Into Mystery, Dark Avengers and X-Factor all have higher issue numbers, but each one has been relaunched and renumbered at some point to get there (The current run of X-Factor launched with #1 in 2005 and was renumbered with #200; the current Journey Into Mystery launched as a Thor reboot with #1 in 2007, renumbering with #600 in 2009 and being retitled in 2011; and Dark Avengers started life as New Thunderbolts #1 in 2005, getting retitled and renumbered with Thunderbolts #100 in 2006, and then retitled as Dark Avengers with #175, earlier this year).

The longest-running, continuously-numbered title at any of the Big Four publishers come March? Somewhat surreally for those of us who remember it launching, it’ll be Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, which should be soliciting #228 for March with the next round of solicitations.

What is the best ongoing comic book series being published today? According to a quick poll on iFanboy, the answer is Saga, and… Well, that’s a pretty good choice, isn’t it? What’s kind of nice about the poll results is that, of the six books listed, two of them are creator-owned (Jonathan Hickman’s The Manhattan Projects being the other). Sure, two of them are also Batman books, but, hey; Batman’s doing pretty well over at DC these days, I guess?

(I am surprised that Waid and Samnee’s Daredevil didn’t make it on there, but Hawkeye and Wolverine and the X-Men are pretty good standard bearers for the House of Ideas, let’s be honest).

There’re reasons they call him “King,” you know. The Review All The Things data Tumblr has put together a graph tracking Jack Kirby’s comic output across his career:

For the curious amongst you, it notes that at his peak, Kirby produced an amazing 1,246 published comics art pages in a single year.

(Data from Ray Owens, methodology explained here.)

Elfquest is going to the big screen, according to Variety. Wendy and Richard Pini’s comic book series kicked off in 1978, and has the unique distinction of having been published at one time by both Marvel Comics and DC Comics.

The tribe of elves will be brought to the big screen by Stephanie Thorpe and Paula Rhodes, who made a short film based on the series already entitled Elfquest: A Fan Imagining. Check it out below and see if you’ll like their interpretation.

It’s not even released until tomorrow, but Boom! Studios’ Freelancers #1 is already sold out. According to the press release that’s just landed in my inbox:

FREELANCERS, the newest original series from BOOM! Studios, features a main story by writer Ian Brill (DARKWING DUCK) and newcomer artist Joshua Covey (THE AVENGEFULS) and a special backup story by co-creators Matt Gagnon (BOOM! Editor-in-Chief ) and Felipe Smith (MBQ, PEEPO CHOO). The full debut issue of this series carries a cover price of only one dollar. FREELANCERS #1 second print will be available for order from Diamond Comic Distributors the second week of November.

Freelancers is the series created by Felipe Smith about two women raised in a Kung-Fu Orphanage who’ve become bounty hunters in Los Angeles; if you see it in your stores tomorrow, pick it up; it’s only a dollar, after all.

So, can we take this as confirmation of the Locke & Key movie rumors, then…? From producer/screenwriter Roberto Orci’s Twitter:

(Via.)

It’s US Presidential Election tomorrow, which is all the excuse I need to revisit DCU Decisions, the surreal mini-series by Bill Willingham, Judd Winick, Howard Porter and Rick Leonardi that accompanied the 2008 election and revealed the political leanings of the pre-New 52 DC Universe. Some would say that forcing your characters to state their preferences for either the Republicans or Democrats is a bad decision, potentially limiting their fanbase and pushing fictional creations invented to be universally appealing and outside of such real world things as party politics, and those some would probably be right. But, nonetheless, Decisions was published, revealing that Lois Lane and Wonder Woman were Republicans, Firestorm and Batman were Democrats, and Superman likes to keep his political preference to himself.

I guess it’s a good thing that we didn’t see a New 52 Decisions this year, but I’ll admit that I do kind of miss the random off-kilter quality of the thing, as well-intentioned and awkwardly-executed as it may have been.

(All of Decisions – Never collected as a trade, I think? – is available digitally.)

A thought occurred, while reading Jim Mroczkowski’s latest iFanboy column, and finding this section:

If other media are drawing in new customers, it doesn’t seem to have been a game changer so far. Sales have not been on a rocket to the moon since Marvel’s The Avengers came out. I have yet to see another human being on earth reading a comic book in public.

It’s depressing, sure, but how many people do you generally see reading in public these days? Or, perhaps I should say, not reading a smartphone, laptop or some other electronic device? For all we know, maybe they’re all on ComiXology or Madefire or something similar…

If you’ve been tempted to try some of the Monkeybrain titles but haven’t taken the dive just yet, wait a couple of days. Chris Roberson explains why:

Over the decades, countless comic creators have given us excitement and inspiration, entertained and educated us. And we need to give back.

For most of the history of American comic books, the only income that creators received were the page rates for the work they did. Writers, artists, letterers, and colorists would be paid a flat rate for the pages they turned in, without any royalties for sales or equity for their creations. If a comic were to be reprinted, the creators would not receive any additional payment, nor would they be compensated if characters and concepts from their work were used elsewhere, whether in other comics, in other media, or in merchandising. And since the overwhelming majority of comic creators were freelance employees, there were no pensions or retirement funds for them to look forward to.

In more recent decades, comic book publishers have instituted new policies for comic creators. Some began to offer royalties and bonus incentives for creators, so that if their work sold well or was reprinted, they would participate in those profits. Some publishers instituted creator equity deals, so that if a creator’s concepts and characters were to generate profits in other media, the creator would reap some of the benefit. But few if any of these policies have been made retroactive, and as much as later generations of creators have benefited from the improved financial arrangements, generations of creators who came before them have not.

There are far too many stories of well-respected, talented writers and artists who created successful and beloved comics in previous decades, and who now are living in reduced means—unable to afford health care, unable to find paying work, some even homeless. At the same time, characters created and co-created by many of these same creators have gone on to appear in major motion pictures, on television, and in toy aisles.

The American comic book industry was built on selling morality tales to young readers, stories of men and women who fought for justice and stood up for what was right. And the writers, artists, and others who created those stories deserve better than they have received.

Thankfully, they have the Hero Initiative in their corner.

For more than a decade, the Hero Initiative has provided a safety net for comic book veterans who need assistance, whether in the form of financial support, emergency medical aid, or an avenue back to paying work. In that time, the Hero Initiative has granted more than $500,000 to over 50 comic book veterans. But as a not-for-profit corporation, the Hero Initiative relies on donations and contributions to continue its work.

Throughout the month of November, Monkeybrain Comics will be donating all of its income to the Hero Initiative. Our creators will still receive their cut of the profits, but the portion of each sale that we retain as publisher’s profits will be donated in its entirety to the Hero Initiative.

As we in the United States prepare to celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving, please consider giving thanks to the veteran creators who have given us so much over the years by donating to the Hero Initiative. And we encourage other publishers to join us in supporting the Hero Initiative through direct donations. Unless and until creator royalties and equity participation policies are made retroactive, charities like the Hero Initiative are the only support many veteran creators have available to them.

Sincerely,
Chris Roberson
Monkeybrain Comics

If you have been checking out the Monkeybrain books through ComiXology, you’ll know how good they are across the board. If you haven’t, I suggest that you wait until Thursday and try out Edison Rex, Amelia Cole and The Unknown World and Bandette first, although you can’t really go wrong with any of them. There’s even a couple of new titles being launched tomorrow: Brandon Seifert, and Michael Montenat’s Spirit of The Law and Zach Smith and Rich Ellis’ The Stars Below, previews of which are below. Seriously, this is a great think Chris, Alison and Monkeybrain are doing, and I hope they everyone tries out some new comics and helps the Hero Initiative as a result.

It’s apparently all change for Marvel’s new A+X series, with the previously announced creative line-ups shifting around according to the latest shipping updates from the publisher: Kaare Andrews’ Beast and Spider-Man story originally solicited for #2 will now appear in #4, with its slot in #2 now being taken by the Chris Bachalo and Rogue story originally announced for #3. The now-empty slot in #3 will be filled by Jason Aaron and Pasqual Ferry’s Storm and Black Panther story solicited for #4, now bumped by the delayed Kaare Andrews story. Got that? I hope so, because I’m not planning on going through it again. Meanwhile, Marvel has also revealed that the hilariously vague solicit for the second story in #4 (“Your other two favorite characters fight your favorite villain”) actually refers to a Captain America/Quentin Quire team-up, so there’s that.

How central to the first Superman story is the man part of the character’s name…? Darren Reid looks at the gender politics of the Superman story from Action Comics #1 (The original, 1938 version):

Contemporary stereotypes do indeed abound throughout Action Comics #1 but the victimhood of the women featured therein is associated not necessarily with weakness, but oppression. Such a distinction is important because it suggests that Siegel and Shuster recognised that the place reserved for women in society was not necessarily the result of weakness on their part but the willingness of men to oppress and abuse them. At the very least, this association –particularly in the context of the domestic violence depicted in this story– suggests that women deserved protection from men who might otherwise use them for their own selfish, destructive ends.

Few of the male characters in this issue, Superman aside, are represented in positive terms with most instead depicted as thoroughly villainous in nature (1938: 12-14). Although superheroes tend to be associated with super villains, in this story men in general fulfil the corrupted, oppressive role that these larger-than-life characters would eventually come to embody and exaggerate. In contrast, the women in this tale tend to be victims not necessarily of the stereotypical weaknesses this story references but of the men who seek to dominate their lives and affairs.

It’s telling, perhaps, that the villainous man who tries to force Lois to dance with him is called “Butch.” I’d snark about subtlety, but I don’t think I’d noticed any of this before…

(Via.)

This is great: Geeks of Doom compares the economics of being Peter Parker and being Bruce Wayne:

The full thing – including how many years it would take both heroes to earn as much money as their movies have taken at the box office – can be seen here.

How healthy is the New 52? Marc-Oliver Frisch crunches numbers for the answer:

As far as the boosts for the “zero” issues are concerned, the notable thing is that only 11 of the 45 current “New 52″ titles that were around six months ago display a sales increase in their six-month comparison, and out of those 11, three are titles that are about to be axed. So, while the overall figures of the DC Universe imprint keep suggesting a healthy market position for DC’s comic-book line, there is still a considerable underlying rot that keeps eating away at the line, and which is being masked by things like the release of Annuals for the better-selling titles, or the Before Watchmen books, or the replacement of lower-selling “New 52″ titles with new ones.

In other words: Yes, DC may have won the dollar and market share for last month, but that doesn’t mean that they should necessarily feel happy with the way things are going over there. When you look at some of the order estimates for the individual books, that really gets underscored: Fury of Firestorm only has 17,000 orders and is getting another relaunch with Dan Jurgens at the helm this month…?

Mike Romo has a really nice post up over at iFanboy about what keeps him returning to comics, even at his most disinterested:

There are lots of great reasons to be a comic book fan, and I find myself celebrating different reasons at different times. Sometimes I’ll be on a creator kick, especially new books start out with different teams, giving me the chance to explore new creators or return to the comfort of an old favorite. Other times it will be my taking a chance on a new character or returning to an old one after hearing that the book is “getting good again”. That’s the benefit (and, perhaps, curse) of being into comics–there are always good reasons to stay with them.

It’s very easy to be disillusioned with comics as an industry and business, and as a culture, for whatever reason – Marvel NOW!’s lead book being delayed with it’s second issue being one such reason for throwing your hands up about the industry, just to pick something announced today – but it’s always worth remembering that the comics that made you fall in love with the whole shebang in the first place are still around, and there are always new ones, somewhere, that’ll make you fall in love all over again.

This week sees the release of DC’s National Comics: Madame X, the latest and seemingly-final issue of the National Comics series of one-shots that was announced this May. With no National Comics issues solicited for November through January, it appears that the series of books put together by the West Coast division of DC Entertainment to retool obscure characters and provide them with pilot episodes in comic book form has quietly disappeared after publishing the four titles announced at launch.

It’s possible that National was always intended to be released in short waves, with breaks in between, and as such it’ll return at some point. But considering that the line/series has never broken the Top 100 in terms of sales, it’s even more likely that the plug has been quietly pulled on the experiment. If that’s the case, it’s a shame; I like the “pilot” format one-shot, and even moreso, like the chance to see non-marquee creators and characters get their day in the sun. If National Comics has gone away, I hope something similar comes up to replace it soon.

Rich Johnston points out that The Age of Ultron makes a surprise appearance in this week’s Marvel NOW! Point One, and in doing so, reminded me of this question: Now that we’re in Marvel NOW! territory, are we ever likely to see continuations for the Watcher storyline or the Coldmoon/Dragonfire short from the last Point One oneshot? I suspect that the Watcher one, at least, may be a moot point considering its writer (Ed Brubaker) has left Marvel for creator owned lands – See also Captain America’s flashforward to a seeming Martian invasion at the end of Captain America: Rebirth -  but the Coldmoon/Dragonfire thing seems like a particularly odd loose end to have dangling out there for so long…

Although, if nothing else, having three sections of Point One go unfinished for so long (Age of Ultron being the third) does give an automatic upgrade to the Marvel NOW! Point One special issue: At least we know where and when all those shorts are going to be continued.

Chris Arrant makes the case for ceasing ongoing monthly publication, and going to a series-of-mini-series format with comics, a la Hellboy:

For the Big Two it’s hard not to deliver comics month-in, month-out (especially when you actively employ a rotating menagerie of artists on a single book), but it creates a disjointed reading experience for those reading the single issues. Is it a deal-breaker for readers? Obviously not, but it has severely diminished the artistic continuity of books and minimized the importance of a single continuous artistic vision for comics. Instead we get three issues of Artist A, four issues of Artist B, and then a juicy one-off by Artist X. They’re all great in their own right, but imagine if the scheduling were there to allow Artist A, Artist B and Artist X their own space to deliver a larger vision.

That this comes in the wake of finding out that both Avengers and All-New X-Men have new artists within the first six issues of their Marvel NOW runs just makes this piece seem even more timely…