Dragons, dragons everywhere! The She-Dragon has returned–looking ten different kinds of creepy–and finds herself facing off against a revived Savage Dragon who may be suffering from acute amnesia–or may have Emperor Kurr’s memories restored to him. All the while, there are bad guys trying to use Dragon’s blood to turn some of their B- and C-listers into Dragon-baddie hybrids, and a dark, ominous dragon calling some of the other ones names. (more…)

Karl Kerschl has posted up an awesome sketch this weekend of that fiercest of X-Men, Wolverine, and with this image — forgive the pun — you better believe he tore up from the floor up:

Kerschl quipped that this image is probably of Logan frustrated that he lost his keys, but I say if that would mean we could see this guy take on Wolverine more often, I’d probably toss those keys down the sewer drain myself. What do you think, Rama readers?

Muscles, long flowing hair, a European vibe — I’m not talking about Thor, I’m talking about Fabio!

But Colleen Doran reports that the two could have very easily become synonymous, as she posted some images from a now-decommissioned animated series the European model green-lit. Considering the series’ logline — “with power comes responsibility” — sounds fairly similar to a well-known Webhead, part of me is kind of glad this thing is in development hell. What say you?

Comics Alliance has a particularly fascinating post up, going back to the days of yore — 1990, that is.

In those glory days of million-selling comics, House of Ideas architect Stan Lee also did some video interviews with “Comic Book Greats” — and in this case, the interview is with Rob Liefeld.

What’s so fascinating for me is to see Liefeld really at the beginning of his career. For frame of reference, in this video, Rob Liefeld is 23 — which is both cool and a bit intimidating, as that’s exactly how old I am right now. Listening to him discuss how he broke into the industry — at age 19, no less — is a good story, even as breaking into the industry is tougher than ever.

If you click the Youtube link up above, there are additional parts to this interview — watching Rob draw “Cross” — one of the early names for Cable, if I recall correctly — is additionally cool. Do you think Rob knew how popular that character would become? And listening to him talk about style, about working with editors, well, it’s definitely something you should see. Check it out, let us know what you think!

Well, considering that new books are coming out tomorrow, if you HAVEN’T read Mighty Avengers #30 yet, and don’t want to be spoiled, just move along, nothing to see here.

Seriously, nothing to see here. Just keep reading. We’ll wait.

Okay, ready to have some high-falutin’ comics discussion? Then SPOILERS ON and read away…

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Just when you thought it was safe to go out into the comic shop…

Deadpool editor Axel Alonso has released a teaser image for the upcoming event, the Deadpool Corps! And yes, kids, they will have an oath, and they likely will be scarier than even a pack of your zombified loved ones.

According to the Deadpool Bugle, the event will come together March 2010, featuring Deadpool, Lady Deadpool, Kid Deadpool, Headpool, and Dogpool. UPDATE: Alonso has put a few more images up, including Major Deadpool, the Deadpool Kid, and a group shot with Lady Deadpool partially unmasked…

DC Comics have long been full of dark and evil gods, constantly making trouble for our heroes and heroines. But as bad as Darkseid, Ares and their ilk might be, you know the comic book gods that really scare me?

The ones some of DC writers seem to worship.

Now, the existence of a secret cult that meets in the basement of 1700 Broadway on the nights of full moons, their identities hidden even from one another by ritual cloaks and hoods, to chant in a secret, blasphemous language and bow before a profane, obscene stone idol of a hideous monster-god is just a theory of mine.

I have no actual proof of it, other than the suggestion that surely there must be some reason so many writers have begun their new series or new story arcs with a blood sacrifice, as if it were part of a ritual beseeching some entity for success.

It’s 2003, and Judd Winick and Geoff Johns are about to launch new volumes of The Outsiders and Teen Titans respectively. Their storyline kicks off in a special miniseries in which several characters are killed.

It’s 2005, and the pair—joined by Greg Rucka—are about to set the DC Universe on a course towards Infinite Crisis, and they kick it all off in a special one-shot in which they kill Blue Beetle II.

In 2008, Winick gets ready to relaunch a new Titans title, and he does so by slaughtering a half-dozen minor characters.

That same year, the Grant Morrison-written Final Crisis opens with the deaths of Orion and Martian Manhunter.

Surely there must be some reason for all this blood, and since it is the blood of fictional comic book characters, I can only imagine it’s a very peculiar, quasi-religious reason.

It can’t possibly be a creative or dramatic reason, because it’s been done so often in such a short span of time, and despite their occasional shortcomings, all of these men—even Judd Winick, whose work I like the very least—are talented, and have certainly read enough comic books to know that seeing a character get killed barely moves the needle of fan interest, let alone excitement.

These same writers have also been simultaneously restoring dead characters to life during that same time, even undoing some of the most “sacred” comic book deaths, like that of Jason Todd and Barry Allen, further making the act of death meaningless within the context of their fictional universe.

So they must worship an evil god that feeds on the imaginary blood of fictional characters—It’s the only thing that makes any sense.

I haven’t mentioned James Robinson yet.

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Todd Klein has posted on his blog that letterer Joe Rosen has passed away.

Rosen, who was 88, started his career at Harvey Comics, and had credits stretching back all the way to 1948. His most influential credits include the Frank Miller run on Daredevil (shown above), as well as the Spider-Man/Superman crossover.

The Comics Reporter had this to say about Rosen:

Rosen’s work managed to combine a certain hushed quality with routine clarity and even, one could say, a muscularity achieved through the crowded precision of the kerning. He enabled Miller’s unique voice in a way that was quite unique, and the work would have been slightly but I think perceptibly different without him. The long-time letterer’s work continues to be seen through Marvel’s increasingly aggressive reprint programs.

It’s a shame, as a lot of readers — indeed, even a lot of folks in the industry — will snub letterers, not even realizing that lettering is the glue that holds the whole she-bang together. Mark Evanier has a nice article up about the value of good lettering — check it out.

The race is on again, as Jon Favreau will not be assembling the Avengers on-screen.

The Iron Man director spoke with MTV about his decision, confirming that Marvel will have to find another director to take on the group franchise, as he says he has really focused his energies on Iron Man.

“It’s going to be hard, because I was so involved in creating the world of Iron Man and Iron Man is very much a tech-based hero, and then with ‘Avengers’ you’re going to be introducing some supernatural aspects because of Thor,” Favreau told MTV. “How you mix the two of those works very well in the comic books, but it’s going to take a lot of thoughtfulness to make that all work and not blow the reality that we’ve created.”

That said, Iron Fans, Favreau will be involved in the Avengers film as an executive producer, which presumably will give him a decent amount of say in terms of maintaining Tony Stark’s characterization and well-being in the event additional Iron Man and Avengers films came out.

So what say you, Avengers fans? Are you disappointed? Is this good news? Who do you feel should helm the Avengers franchise?

After returning from the sunny Midwest for a little R&R with the rest of Team Pepose, I’ve had some interesting stories popping up in my Inbox — especially with some news honoring one of the architects of the House of Ideas.

And lo, there came… STAN LEE DAY! The Hero Initiative has posted a copy of the actual citation given to Stan from the city of Los Angeles, where the creator of Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Fing Fang Foom was honored with his very own holiday!

I don’t know about you guys, but the idea of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors even thinking about “the development of flawed, complex and naturalistic superhero personalities into what had previously been largely a childish and simplistic universal of one-dimensional characters” in an official capacity kind of makes me laugh a little. Congratulations, Stan!

Last week, Paul O’Brien and Marc-Oliver Frisch posted their monthly analysis of Marvel Comics and DC Comics sales figures, assembled from ICv2.com’s numbers, at Publisher Weekly’s The Beat.

I always read these with great interest, in large part because they give me the best idea of how single issues of comics seem to be selling—at least in relation to one another—in a format someone as numbers-averse as me can I understand.

God only knows how accurate the numbers themselves actually are, as Marvel and DC don’t share their exact figures (and, of course, why would any business open up their ledgers to consumers? I wouldn’t mind knowing how much it costs to print an issue of New Avengers, or what Brian Michael Bendis’ page rate is, and how much Marvel might profit off of each, but hell, it’s not like it’s any of my business).

Anyway, this particular round of analysis, addressing August sales, was particular interesting to me, as it revealed how certain books I was rather curious about were did or were doing in the Direct Market.

After the jump, some random thoughts I had while reading through the data, for your edification/entertainment/time-wasting/ignoring.

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I love snark, I love comics, and I love online social networking programs. So basically this is the Fluffernutter sandwich of the Internet for me.

The Invincible Super-Blog’s very own Chris Simms has posted even more of these superhero Facebook statuses over on Comics Alliance. It’s almost impossible for me to pick a favorite — they’re all equally brilliant. (But Daredevil and Spider-Man might be a little more brilliant.)

Marvel has a music video up, featuring the Spider-Woman motion comic by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. The song, called “Watch Your Step,” is by Dan Phillips with Anna Abbey and the Marvel Music Group.

I’ll be honest, I hadn’t heard of the Marvel Music Group before, but this song does start to grow on you after awhile — and the amount of personalization for this song was really cool. What do you think?

Family Guy’s eighth season premiered last night with one of its Brian/Stewie “Road To…” special musical episodes. In this case, the geek-favorite show might be even more inviting to comics fans, as the title was “Road to the Multiverse” and featured the pair visiting a variety of different worlds. On each, they experienced that universe’s version of the Griffin family.
My first thought was that the Family Guy multiverse is not entirely dissimilar to the one that we saw in Final Crisis. Random, identifiable sight gags that separate the universes in Family Guy aren’t unlike the ones used by Grant Morrison, who had “The Watchmen Superman,” “The Black Superman” and “The Vampire Superman” rounding out the Supermen of 52 worlds who appeared at the end of Final Crisis. In Family Guy, we’re treated to a world where dogs are in charge, a world where everyone has two heads and “The Robot Chicken Universe,” where Stewie taunts the inhabitants, “How does it feel to be on a real network for about thirty seconds?” before leaving.
While the dog-controlled universe (where Stewie the dog and Brian the human have already been on this trip before, and so they know what to do and how to resolve the episode) was good for a couple of chuckles, the world I wish they had visited—which unfortunately the show’s writers have apparently been denied access—is one where Family Guy is still funny.

So I’m a little slow on the draw for this particular post — I’ve been meaning to write something about it, and other news got in the way — but I was interested to see Tom Brevoort talk about something that’s been on the minds of a lot of Avengers fans: will the classic lineup return?

We’ll use any and all of the classic Avengers characters as the situation demands it, of course, but those folks who are hoping for a full-blown reversal of the last ten years and a complete return to the Avengers of a decade ago are sadly in for a disappointment. And the reason for this should be obvious: in the last decade, AVENGERS has become the leading franchise in comics, and that’s in large part due to the alterations we made in the basic formula. I love the classic Avengers as much as the next person-and I edited them for a good, long time-but there are clearly so many more readers who are interested in the team and the book since we turned over the apple cart that there really isn’t any good reason to go back, other than nostalgia.

I’ll be honest, I was really sad to read this — even though I completely understand his point. It took me awhile to figure it out, but once I did, it was crystal clear: as someone who has been reading comics for the past decade and a half, I’ve always liked the Avengers more as an idea than in execution. (The one time that hasn’t been the case was the brief Geoff Johns run on the book — and even then, I didn’t really dig the book until he teamed up with Oliver Coipel for the Red Zone arc.) Because despite the archetypes being used in this book — which really do rival the Big Seven JLA in a lot of ways — a lot of times the book felt jumbled. Cramped. Suffocated by continuity and story arcs that just felt inconsequential.

In response to that, Marvel decided to do their own take on the Justice League model — ie, assemble their most popular characters for a team. Now, as someone who has been reading the current Avengers books, they aren’t series that leap off the shelves and mug me for my hard-earned dollars — for me, the tone doesn’t quite float my boat, even despite Brian Michael Bendis’ talents with Luke Cage and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man. (Which I adore.) But for a lot of people, it makes sense — it’s Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Wolverine teaming up, it sets the tone for crossovers for the rest of the Marvel Universe, and they dig Brian Michael Bendis’ dialogue, and that’s enough for them. It’s SOMETHING in the Avengers’ favor, when for so long it was hampered by continuity and Z-list characters. (Gilgamesh, I’m looking at you!)

But the question I have it this: when Hollywood — and thus, the general non-comics-reading public — see the Avengers, they will see something closer to the classic mold, with Cap, Iron Man, Thor, The Black Widow, The Hulk, and maybe Hawkeye or Ant-Man or the Wasp in the mix as well. Will Marvel rework the Avengers to fit that mold, as they gave Spidey his black costume back when Spider-Man 3 hit theatres? Or is the classic lineup now more Mark Millar’s domain, with the Ultimate Avengers? In Marvel’s defense, one could easily say that if you want your classic Avengers, look no further than that.

I don’t know for certain. I know that Brian Michael Bendis has done a lot to bring in the bajillion new readers to the Avengers books, which puts them higher up on the Top 300 comics lists month after month than they probably ever were. But, to play Devil’s Advocate, I also feel like comics writing has really ramped up its standards of quality in the past 10 years — taking more of a page from blockbuster cinema as opposed to soap opera — and I wonder if a classic Avengers lineup written under those conditions, with an Ed Brubaker or Matt Fraction playing up the archetypes’ potential, wouldn’t do well enough to make it worth Marvel’s while. What do you think? Are the New Avengers more archetypal than the Avengers Classic? If you wanted a return to the classic line, who do you think would be able to pull it off? Sound off!

Slashfilm has an interesting interview up with Lauren Shuler Donner, the producer who has backed the X-Men movies since the first film with Bryan Singer.

According to the post, Donner took a moment to dismiss rumors about X-Men: First Class being filmed anytime soon — despite a tweet from Tim Pocock, who played the Young Cyclops in the Wolverine film, who said the film would start shooting by March of next year — but said that the two properties that were being kicked around at this point were X-Men 4 as well as the New Mutants.

And I say, awesome.

Reuniting the X-Men — preferably without the increasingly manic cameos that I think diluted the second two films — would be a no-brainer cash-cow, considering how popular the franchise has become, and the fallout from the third film with Phoenix and Charles Xavier. Maybe we’d get to see a return of Cyclops, and Matt Fraction’s move to San Francisco?

The New Mutants, in a lot of ways, were the X-Men’s version of the Teen Titans. Cannonball, Sunspot, Moonstar, Wolfsbane, Karma, Warlock, Magik, and Cypher were the newest recruits of Charles Xavier’s School, and for me one of their most interesting elements was the fact that these kids became brothers-at-arms, training under Xavier, Magneto, and eventually Cable himself. If told with the same sort of heart that Singer gave the first film, this could be one hot property. Which would you rather see?

Marvel just posted an image, which looks like it will herald the return of Wendell Vaughn:

As the image above notes, Quasar’s return will be touched upon in November, in Realm of Kings, written by space maestros Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.

DnA killed off the wielder of the Quantum Bands a few years back in Annihilation, but he has since had some play in the pages of Nova.

Just when you thought the comicsphere could rest easy after the past few weeks — the heirs of Jack “King” Kirby have something to say.

The heirs of one of the architects of the House of Ideas have sent 45 notices of copyright termination to Marvel, Disney, Paramount, Sony, Fox, and Universal, the New York Times has reported.

There’s no word about what characters are involved with this — or if the rights being discussed are for comics, film, television, licensing, or all of the above — but considering Kirby has helped create characters ranging from the (original) X-Men to the Fantastic Four, it could be big. Any change-up would occur around 2014, which would be years after Paramount’s Avengers films, Sony’s Spider-Man 4, or Fox’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine sequel would hit theatres.

On the legal side of things, this is more or less bleeding edge copyright and intellectual property war being waged here. DC has seen similar issues with the Siegel estate’s legal dealings regarding the Superman franchise — and in this case, both the Siegels and the Kirbys have the same lawyer, Marc Toberoff. The phrase “work for hire” will almost certainly come into play here, as the creation of these characters in the early 1960s didn’t typically come with the most ironclad of creator contracts.

But what about that Disney deal? Will this spoil that? Not according to Disney reps, who told the NY Times, “the notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights seven to 10 years from now, and involve claims that were fully considered in the acquisition.” Stay tuned to Blog@ and the mothership for more info…

In honor of the longest-running soap opera’s final episode today, Marvel has rereleased a comic teaming up the Avengers with the cast of Guiding Light.

Jim McCann, who has some experience with soap opera having worked on One Life to Live, wrote this project in 2006, along with artist Udon. The book is free in its entirety on Marvel.com. What say you?

Unable to hit New York and ask for a tour of Marvel? Well, Slate’s got your back, as Marvel EiC Joe Quesada took them around for a look at the House of Ideas:

Pretty cool, eh? I kinda chuckled at the restroom signs in spite of myself.