To the surprise of no-one, the most recent trailer for The Dark Knight Rises has broken the record for the number of views within the 24 hour period following its release. According to ICv2, the trailer was viewed a staggering 12.5 million times in the day after it went live on Apple’s site, over 2 million more times than the previous record holder, Marvel’s Avengers. Of course, there’s no way of telling how many of those views came from people trying to make out what Bane was actually saying underneath that mask of his, but still: Consider the battle for 2012 superhero movie supremacy fully on.

After what seems like an impressive amount of prodding, leaks and rumors, DC Comics seems to have finally confirmed the idea of a Watchmen 2 this weekend with the wording of a cease-and-desist letter sent to Bleeding Cool following the site’s posting of what appeared to be development art from the project by JG Jones and Andy and Joe Kubert. The art, since removed in compliance with DC’s request, showed Jones’ take on the Comedian, with the Kuberts taking on Nite-Owl (The site’s Rich Johnston also announced that Amanda Conner would be drawing a Silk Spectre project, but didn’t have any original art connected to that particular project); in response, DC’s SVP of Business and Legal Affairs Amy Jenkins sent a letter that said that the site could not have posted the artwork “without the breach of a confidentiality obligation,” as much an admission of the project’s existence as we’re likely to get before DC makes its official announcement.

According to Johnston, there will be four mini-series in the first wave of this project, which means one is still out there, unnamed (Rorschach? Dr. Manhattan? Ozymandias?); the writer most recently connected with the project – apparently codenamed “Panic Room” at the publisher, which is spectacular – is Darwyn Cooke, and I have to admit that I’d love to see Cooke channel his inner Ditko with a Rorschach mini…

It’s the new Dark Knight Rises trailer. Merry early Christmas, everyone.

If DC’s Justice League Beyond going digital first before seeing print in next year’s ongoing Batman Beyond series made you hopeful that the publisher was considering a push towards more digital debuts, EVP Sales, Marketing and Business Development John Rood has some bad news for you on the latest edition of the Word Balloon podcast:

I think you’ll see us still experimenting, but I don’t think that any time soon digital first will expand greatly as a tool in our toolbox, you know? It’s something we’re experimenting with, but it’s not something that’s going to take a greater share of voice in the coming months. I don’t expect bigger ticket items, in terms of the effort to edit and create them, and then the effort to sell and pay for them, to be digital first any time soon.

There goes my dream of a digital-first Grant Morrison-written World of Krypton mini-series, I guess…

Jim Lee has designed a t-shirt for Free Comic Book Day 2012 — and, well here’s what it’ll look like (except picture it with sleeves and stuff):

The image comes courtesy of The Source, and as you can see, it’s the main seven members of The New 52′s Justice League, in all of their revamped splendor. The shirt will be solicited in January 2012′s Previews catalog, with proceeds supporting the Free Comic Book Day effort. This time around, Free Comic Book Day hits on May 5, 2012 — the day after Avengers debuts in theaters.

As noted by DC, the piece is an homage to José Luis García-López — check the original work after the jump.

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With, it seems, the New 52 reclaiming the classic DC properties, many have been wondering what kind of future the Vertigo imprint had to look forward to. Yesterday’s solicitations might have answered that question with the revelation that March 2012 will see the launch of four new ongoing titles, the biggest push the imprint has seen in recent memory. Both Selwyn Seyfu Hinds and Denys Cowan’s Dominique Laveau: Voodoo Child and Paul Cornell and Ryan Kelly’s Saucer Country have had previews in recent anthology oneshots, and Fairest is a known quantity by the fact that it’s a Fables spin-off (That said, a Bill Willingham/Phil Jiminez pairing for the launch story seems like a strong first-foot-forward), but Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard’s The New Deadwardians remains an enticing mystery for now.

Vertigo titles hardly race up the DM charts, but recent ongoing launches like The Unwritten, American Vampire and Sweet Tooth have been both acclaimed and had some buzz about them, seemingly leading a critical renaissance for the line. It’ll be interesting to see how these new books turn out, and whether Vertigo becomes the place for DC’s new ideas, while the DCU is the sales engine where old ideas are kept fresh through relaunches and revamps.

Announced today on DC’s official publicity blog The Source and quickly buried by the flurry of March 2012 solicitation information, the Tiny Titans creative team of Art Baltazar and Franco are teaming up for a new series titled Superman Family Adventures, starting next year. There isn’t a known start date yet for the series, but it’s being previewed in the “DC Nation 2012 Free Comic Book Day Super Sampler,” coming to shops on May 5. Says DC of the book: “The series will be starring (you guessed it!) the whole Superman gang – Superman, Supergirl, Superboy, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Lex Luthor, Bizarro, General Zod and … Fuzzy the Krypto Mouse!”

If you were wondering when Jim Lee would need a fill-in artist on Justice League, your answer arrived today, via The Source: March’s Justice League #7, the first issue to take place in the present day of The New 52. Relieving a guy like Jim Lee takes a high-profile artist, and they got one: Top 10‘s Gene Ha, who will be illustrating issue #7 and #8, with Lee coming back with #9. Issue #7 also happens to host the first installment of the previously announced “The Curse of Shazam” back-ups by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank; Frank talked to Newsarama about that here.

We also now know who is going to be drawing Ann Nocenti’s Green Arrow, thanks once again to The Source: Harvey Tolibao, seen recently over at Marvel on Heroes for Hire and Silver Surfer. That also starts in March, with Green Arrow #7.

Black-and-white preview pages from both projects are after the jump.

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Something that’s pretty much died out in recent years – recent decades, really, as video and then DVD and blu-ray made movies available for audiences to rewatch at home – has been the comic book adaptation. Comic fans of a certain age probably share my fond memories of comics based on movies like Alien, Blade Runner and even the Star Trek and Star Wars adaptations. So, imagine my surprise when, while re-reading old Legion of Super-Heroes issues the other night, I saw this in one of the publishorial columns:

And then, a month later:

Now, this comic clearly didn’t happen. But why? I reached out to Marv Wolfman, who sadly didn’t remember what happened to the project. Part of me cynically thinks “Maybe someone at DC realized how weird a Lethal Weapon comic would have been for 1980s DC,” but presumably if it got far enough to have a creative team attached, that has already been addressed. So, internet! If anyone out there knows more about this never-seen project, get in touch! The world wants to know what it missed.

In the latest DC New 52 creative shakeup, Paul Jenkins, currently the writer of Batman: The Dark Knight and DCU Presents‘ first six issues, will be taking over Stormwatch in March 2012 – but only for two issues.

Writing issues 7 and 8, as announced on DC’s The Source blog, Jenkins will be telling the story of inter-dimensional raiders coming to steal Earth’s gravity. Sounds like a “heavy” tale (I’m so sorry). On the blog, editor Pat McCallum said of the story:

“The Stormwatch crew can’t ever catch a break — no simple threats like bloodthirsty monsters or world-dominating supervillains to stop, it’s always some mind-cracking knot that Apollo, Midnighter and the rest of the crew have to untie,” says editor Pat McCallum. “This time out, Stormwatch have to solve the puzzle of dimension-stepping gravity miners, creatures so alien they’re not even technically alive. The last stand of humanity or, as Stormwatch calls it, ‘Monday.’”

No word on who will be writing the series with issue #9. Current series writer Paul Cornell announced he is off the book after issue #6 and won’t be returning on his Twitter account. He is staying on his other DC New 52 title, Demon Knights, however.

What does Fables creator Bill Willingham think of the similarities between his series and the ABC show Once Upon A Time? Well, he interviewed himself over at CBR to explain:

Is “Once Upon a Time” (which we should now refer to as “Once” for brevity) a rip off of “Fables?”

My best guess, based upon the scanty evidence, is probably not.

Is “Once” influenced and at least in part inspired by “Fables?”

Despite superficial similarities, “Fables” creator Bill Willingham firmly believes any similarities “Once Upon A Time” has to his comic is simply a result of working form the same source material

My best guess, based upon the same scanty evidence is, yes, it probably is, but perhaps not on more than a “this is the type of thing that’s in the air these days” level.

He goes on to elaborate on the crossover between the concepts for the show and the series, and their similarities, before explaining that what he’s trying to do is “a call to arms — or more accurately, a call to disarm”:

As grateful as I am to discover so many loyal “Fables” readers, willing to man the barricades, to help protect a story they love; as much as it moves me to realize I’ve been part in creating something that clearly moves you, affecting your lives in ways only a good story, well-told can, I think it’s time to lay off. Perhaps it’s time to quit rising up in public venues to accuse these folks of Grand Theft “Fables,” even if you still think it’s so.

I’m quite enjoying Once Upon A Time, in part because I just enjoy seeing Jennifer Morrison’s attempt at being a badass private eye/bounty hunter on a weekly basis; I also love Fables, so I’m glad to see Willingham being so calm about similiarities between the two.

If you’re hoping to see the six minute “prologue” for The Dark Knight Rises that’s accompanying Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol in theaters December 16th, you’d better hope that your local theater has the right IMAX set-up. Warner Bros. is only releasing the preview scenes to theaters with specific equipment, leaving a lot of fans destined for disappointment. The full list of the theaters that will get the prologue is under the jump. Everyone else: I feel your pain; there’s no theater near me, either. (more…)

To those wondering if the New 52 would mean that DC was likely to start placing less emphasis on collecting pre-relaunch material… This doesn’t look too hopeful:

DC Comics has cancelled orders for SUPERGIRL: GOOD LOOKING CORPSE TP (SEP110193). This title will not be resolicited.

For those without exceptionally good memories for the titles of Supergirl collections, Good Looking Corpse was going to collect #60-67 of the last run, AKA the Nick Spencer/James Peaty/Kelly Sue DeConnick-written issues. The collection was supposed to ship next week, making this cancellation particularly last-minute.

This news follows other recent trade cancellations from DC, including final volumes of JSA All-Stars and REBELS. Also recently canceled, a second collection of the most recent Spirit title, and Thunder Agents Chronicles volume 1. Clearly, this isn’t a good time to want some lesser-known titles from DC’s collection department.

There has been unconfirmed rumblings of DC producing Watchmen prequels — without Alan Moore’s involvement — for a while now. Bleeding Cool today added more fuel to the speculative fire by reporting that Andy Kubert, most recently seen as the artist of DC event Flashpoint, will be illustrating one of four prequel miniseries. This information comes “quite conclusively from a reliable source at DC Comics,” Rich Johnston says.

Other creators cited by Johnston as involved: Darwyn Cooke, J. Michael Straczynski, J.G. Jones, original Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons and Watchmen colorist, John Higgins. Furthermore, Bleeding Cool hints that Andy might not be the only Kubert involved — keep in mind that brother Adam has been a strictly Marvel guy as of late, so that either means a change in his status or Joe Kubert’s in the mix.

Before this can happen — if it does indeed happen —  Kubert’s drawing Action Comics #5 and #6, starting this coming January.

Seeing this tweet from Brian Michael Bendis yesterday -

- made me think about how the landscape of comics has really changed over the last few years. Timeliness of books, with the one-two punch of digital release dates and greater competition for marketshare, has become far much more important than it used to be, to the point where high-profile launches like Uncanny X-Men, Incredible Hulk and Action Comics have multiple artists working on the book as early as the second issue to ensure ship dates, and the idea of a “regular” artist who draws every page of every issue in a series (Hell, in a particular story-arc) seems to be becoming more and more of a thing of the past; look at the artistic musical chairs going on in the New 52 books from DC, for example. (more…)

After seeing that more than 5,000 people voted in a poll about whether or not Spider-Man should have stayed married – a retcon that happened four years ago now – I started wondering: Why don’t people care about Superman’s marriage?

I mean, Superman got forcibly divorced from Lois just a few months ago with nary a peep, or not the kind of reaction that would have 5,000 people voicing their opinions four years later, at least. Is it that no-one cares about Superman, period? Not that many people liked his marriage to Lois in the first place? Or is there something particularly objectionable about the way that the Spider-Man marriage was undone that keeps the fires burning for that particular subject?

(For my part, while I think that the idea that Peter Parker being married limits interest or potential in the character is ridiculous, I also think that Amazing Spider-Man has been so much more enjoyable since Brand New Day, with the book’s renewed focus on its supporting cast and a tone more similar to “classic” Spidey stories than what the book had featured for almost a decade up to that point, that I find myself not that bothered by the undoing of the marriage; the book’s better – to me – as a result of all of the changes that happened at that time, so I’m happy.)

DC is continuing to sell lots and lots of copies of Geoff Johns and Jim Lee’s Justice League #1, the Aug. 31-released comic that kicked off their “The New 52″ relaunch. The publisher announced today via The Source that the issue is getting a fifth printing (a first for The New 52 and a relatively rare feat in general these days), showing up at comic book shops just a bit after the new year — Jan. 4, 2012.

Justice League #1 netted a reported 186,000 units in first-day Diamond sales, and is now well over the 200k mark in combined sales. The next issue, Justice League #4, is scheduled for release on Dec. 21.

James Robinson tweets the truly depressing news that The Shade may end before its time, if sales on the mini don’t improve:

If sales don’t improve it may be cancelled before the 12 issues are done.

Truly depressing, of course, for two reasons:

1. It means that DC is joining Marvel in the “finishing mini-series before their limited run is done” school of thought (Mind you, DC have a history of this; The Great Ten and, years ago, Slash Maraud were canceled early).
2. The Shade is a great book with a fantastic art line-up. Future issues are slated to have work by Jill Thompson, Darwyn Cooke, Javier Pulido and Frazer Irving, and when you factor in current artist Cully Hamner, that’s pretty much an unbeatable line-up of talent right there.

DC told CBR that there were no plans to pull the series earlier, but it’d be nice to see numbers rise on this series to ensure that doesn’t come up as a hypothetical again anytime soon.

Congratulations to DC Comics, which has been named as one of America’s Hottest Brands by Advertising Age:

In a move fraught with risk, Time Warner’s DC Comics reworked nearly every character under its supervision in an effort to make popular heroes and heroines more appealing to a broader audience. This fall, DC canceled all its continuing series — including decades-old titles “Action Comics” and “Detective Comics” — and restarted them from a new “Issue No. 1″ or launched something different altogether. DC has also made certain that a digital comic is available the same day its print counterpart hits the retail racks.

The piece is shorter on accolades than you may expect, noting that the DC relaunch was likely prompted by Marvel’s success, and ending by asking whether the initial sales success is sustainable in the long term. But nonetheless, this is another PR coup for the publisher, topping off what’s been an impressive second half of 2011. It’s all downhill from here, probably…

Looking over Marc Olivier Frisch’s comments on the second month sales of DC’s New 52, I noticed that sales increased on Wonder Woman, Batwoman, Catwoman and Supergirl, all of which are in the top 40 (Wonder Woman and Batwoman are both in the top 20, in fact), and it made me think about the fact that Marvel’s only two female-led solo books have just been canceled for low sales. The success of these DC female-led books stands in sharp contrast to the fates of their Marvel equivalent, which made me wonder: Why? (more…)