Marvel

Some set pics of Hugh Jackman from WOLVERINE II, currently known as THE WOLVERINE, which is set in Japan. From these photos, we can assume that in the story, Jackman's Wolverine character will have a period of extreme self doubt, which evolves into self neglect, from which he will be rescued by a period of intense study of Zen Buddhist philosophy and Japanese fighting techniques.

As sometimes happens, I walk into a comics shop and discover something I didn't know I needed! Here's an example...

Marvel have made a change to their solicitations, revealing that issue #17 of Wolverine & The X-Men is going to be a showcase issue for Doop.

There's been some concern over Marvel's sales in the last six months or so. "But AVX is frickin' huge," you say. And it is. But that might be masking Marvel's inability to sell comics that aren't part of a crossover/Event. Marvel's Next event is the pseudo-relaunch of Marvel NOW! and nobody's quite sure what to make of that just yet. Last week, Brian Hibbs penned a column expressing concerns about Marvel NOW!'s viability and the poor general state of Marvel's and non-Event top list and mid-list. I think it's time to compare some of the numbers on this.

More teasers for Marvel NOW! Suggesting Rick Remender and John Romita Jr will be in charge of Captain America, and Si Spurrier and Tan Eng Huat on what may be a new X-Men title.

Stately Beat Manor approves of David Aja art. Click for larger images. HAWKEYE #2, written by Matt Fraction with art and cover by Aja, goes on sale September 5.

by Paul O'Brien

The AVENGERS VS X-MEN crossover continued to dominate Marvel's schedule in June, but the month also saw another high profile release - the SPIDER-MEN miniseries, in which the original Spider-Man meets the new Ultimate Universe version of the character. The Icon imprint also launches a HIT-GIRL miniseries. And other than that, it's a pretty quiet month for new releases, as often tends to be the case in the height of major crossovers. Despite the sales boost from the summer crossover, it was a very close month in terms of market share in the North American direct market, with DC leading Marvel in unit terms by 38.2% to 37.8%, but Marvel leading in retail share by 33.8% to 33.0%. Effectively a tie, then. DC's performance can be attributed in large part to all four BEFORE WATCHMEN titles landing in the top 10 with estimated sales of over 100K each.

Thor has found a villain and he's the king of the elves! What is this mysterious Avengers spin-off that Disney is kicking around? And what's this about a Prometheus SEQUEL?

With the new surprise in this week's issue of Avengers Vs X-Men now revealed, I offer a look at Black Panther's history, and why Marvel chose to go in this direction with him

Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu are the creative team for what is probably going to be Marvel's new Incredible Hulk series. Anyone betting we'll see 'Fantastic' appear tomorrow?

Does the first issue of Matt Fraction and David Aja's new Hawkeye series... sigh.... hit the target?

Oz-o-phile Eric Shanower has created this nice variant cover for the first issue of Marvel's ROAD TO OZ adaptation, which he's also writing. The insides are drawn by Skottie Young, so it's win all around. You may recall that this is the first proper sequel to THE WIZARD OF OZ, written by L. Frank Baum, and finds Dorothy returning to Oz and confronting rising tensions with rising third world countries and issues of gender and identity. And I'm not even kidding.