Marvel

Brian Wood used to be known as a Vertigo writer. Axel Alonso used to be known as a Vertigo editor. When Wood's time at Vertigo ended, did you think Brian and Axel might have a chat? Maybe.

Being announced at Wondercon right now: what's going on with Avengers Academy and the Avengers Vs. X-Men Event.

Spinning out of the Spider-Man panel at Wondercon, we have two announcements: the next Spidey arc (and villain) and a Punisher mini-series that's a bit different from the monthly.

Steve Gerber died in 2008. Four years later, his final Man-Thing story is coming out. Doubtless, this would have gotten a sardonic retort from Gerber, so let's all pause a moment and let you imagine it. Felt good imagining that, didn't it?

While Marvel's corporate policies don't allow for too much investment in their print business, they have been really ramping up the digital side of things. Why? Rob Salkowitz looks at the meta side of the new online comics line and AR experiments in terms of how it positions the company:

DC's Captain Marvel may be gone, but Marvel's is coming back, as per the above teaser. Details will be revealed at the Tom Brevoort panel at WonderCon on the 15th.

Marvel's SXSW panel has started and Twitter is going berserk. (Remember, Twitter was launched at SXSW.) There's also a reporting from CNET who seem to have gotten a heads up, even if the reporter doesn't seem to be aware Jack Kirby and Jerry Robinson are dead (or that the Joker isn't a Marvel character).

It was quietly announced to retailers yesterday that Marvel will be changing the all their $2.99 titles to the "self-cover" format, starting in April. "Self-cover" meaning that the paper of the cover is the same as the paper of the internal pages. Truth be told, this sounds like a bigger change than it is.

Following on what seems to have been a successful run with the Ultimate line, starting in June, Marvel will include a digital download code with ALL its books selling for $3.99. Marvel's moving ahead in this regard is interesting, since DC's John Rood has indicated that redemption of their combo packs has been "astonishingly low." In contrast David Gabriel says Marvel's program has been a big success.

As first noted in the comics blogosphere by Graeme McMillan, Marvel's proposed KISS KISS BANG BANG and ROUTE 666 Crossgen revivals have been shelved indefinitely. Word came via Tom Brevoort's rolling press conference, i.e. Formspring. Graeme wrote:

Based on this teaser, one infers that there is a X-men wedding to come in this June's ASTONISHING by Marjorie Liu and Mike Perkins, which has already been hyped as a much talked about issue. So who will tie the knot? We're not up on current X-Men mythology and can't hazard a guess but popular internet speculation is guessing Northstar and Kyle will tie the knot, making this the first blow for marriage equality in the Marvel U. Another gay couple, Hulkling and Wiccan, just kissed, perhaps paving the way.

Marvel is releasing more covers for their epic fisticuffs battle, and here's AVENGERS #27 , written by Brian Michael Bendis with art and cover by Walt Simonson. In this issue, as the battle rages...an Avenger betrays the team!