The Big News From the Weekend
Posted in Comics by MichaelBy Michael Climek
For those who do not know there were two Conventions this weekend. Yes, two. There was the Wizard World Philadelphia Convention, as you can see by our previous postings. And there was also the Heroes Convention in Charlotte NC.
This does not happen often, and truthfully one could guess that both shows suffered for it by spreading people thin. If one had to point fingers, it appears Heroes Scheduled first, and then Wizard (of the comics’ magazine fame) blatantly scheduled the same weekend anyway.
What happened essentially was that both companies realized they could not cover both conventions effectively, so Marvel concentrated most of it’s panel and announcement efforts on
DC of course focused more heavily on Charlotte, sending EIC Dan Didio, and Jann Jones. Marvel represented with Peter David and
Though both companies are holding back big news for the mother of all conventions
So are a lot of other people apparently. In fact quite a few people have condensed the news down into lists of links. Here are the main and very detailed lists. If you are a more casual reader Heidi’s over at The Beat is probably the best for you, if you’re ubber hard core and read all details about anything ever then we suggest the Newsarama list.
Wizard (on Philly)
Now that you know where to find those, we can also give you our condensed version where put the big stuff in terms that you the reader can easily digest without having to attend lots of panels and read waaaay to much about comic books like we do.
We will give things to you after the Jump (due to Spoilers)
1) Brian Michael Bendis has renewed his exclusive with Marvel. We were at this panel and it resounded with cheers of approval. We are a bit more cynical, and thought ‘Well Duh!’ as Bendis says very often that he no desire to write DC characters (they’ve been done to death according to Bendis) so honestly, where else was he going to go?
2) Peter David will take over writing chores on She-Hulk. If you are anything like us you secretly read She-Hulk but don’t brag about the fact. Peter David has been the definitive writing voice on The Hulk for over 20 years. In fact the first comic we remember reading ever was a Peter David issue of The Hulk (#334). But to the best of our knowledge Mr. David has never taken a crack at Hulk’s green cousin of the female persuasion. We support this choice are excited about it.
3) Mary Jane is going to bite it. EIC at Marvel Joey Q. has long said he wants to get rid of Mary Jane because having Spiderman married to a supermodel makes him less relatable. Well remember when we all thought she would bite it during Civil War? She’s going to now in the ‘One More Day’ storyline. Hasn’t been officially announced but you’d have to be blind not see the hints.
4) Terry Moore of Strangers in Paradise fame will be taking over writing duties on Spiderman Loves Mary Jane. That book is surprisingly entertaining and he’s a good choice to fill McKeever’s shoes.
5) Dwayne McDuffie will be taking over writing JLA after Brad Meltzer’s run.
6) Amazing Spiderman will begin coming out 3 times a month. The other two Spider books Friendly Neighborhood and Sensational Spiderman are being cancelled and Amazing is coming out 3 times a month. No news on quite how that will work is yet known.
7) Though it didn’t happen at a convention DC Comics has purchased a Flex Comix a Japanese operation that is committed to new forms of distribution for product particularly distribution through cell phones. This sounds silly now but this will be huge in a few years and DC is getting ahead of Marvel on this. Read about it here and here. DC is planning for the future and you should pay attention.
And finally the news that fills our Fanboy hearts with glee of epic proportions, Mark Waid will be returning to writing duties on The Flash! The new re-launch of The Flash has gone over extremely poorly and DC is canceling the current series at issue 13 (out today) and returning to the old numbering system from the previous series starting at issue #231. Remember at the NY Comic Con in February when Dan DiDio slipped and let us all know that The Flash in the Countdown Teaser image was Barry Allen and was Jason Todd? Remember when we reported a few weeks ago that the current Flash Bart Allen was probably going to die. It’s all coming true folks. Connect the dots. We won’t know for sure till the issue is in our hands today, but it appears that Barry Allen, who died heroically saving the universe in Crisis on Infinite Earths, will be returning from the dead today. Wow.
If you know us here at Foot2Mouth, you know we are bigger DC’ fans than Marvel fans and we wish we had been there to hear Dan DiDio make his big announcement about The Flash. We can only imagine the cheers of ubber joy at the news that scribe Mark Waid is returning to the scarlet speedster. We would also have been embarrassingly screaming with glee. The only other thing that could get that excited in an announcement about Grant Morrison writing stories about the Keith Giffen era of the JLA (Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, and Elongated Man in the hands of the man who re-built the JLA from it’s late 90’s slump of terror?! Huzzah!) But that is a pipe dream folks, and admittedly it’s a bit more obscure that we usually like to get on this news blog. Our apologies.
So that is what happened this weekend. There is lots more small stuff. But that covers the big bits. The thing to really watch is the Flex Comix purchase. In two years time it might be normal for you to read your new DC Comics on your brand new iPhone.