Marvel

Wow, two crotchgates in one day. It seems that Andrew Garfield, who will appear as Spider-Man in the new film which opens on July 3rd, had to learn the hard way that superhero costumes aren't that practical in real life. It turns out that obliging certain natural functions was not that easy in his Spidey suit.

Speak of the devil! Only hours ago we were making jokes about Chris Ware joining the Cirque du Soleil and now there is nows of an actual Cirque du Soleil comic! Sadly it is not from Ware—we can just imagine his version of Limber 12-year-old Chinese Acrobats Stories—instead, it's from Marvel, in a custom comic that ties in with the Vegas spectacle Kà which you will be able to get at this year's Comic-Con.

If you click the link, you will get to see Cyclops wearing a thong.

It's only gossip for now but we can but hope:

Yes yes, more side-news about the gay marriage between Northstar and KJ. But this time it also acts as a reflection on Marvel's current publishing policy.

The crossover season is now firmly underway, with the first proper month of AVENGERS VS X-MEN, and its assorted tie-ins, which are doing pretty well. There's also the Omega Effect crossover between AVENGING SPIDER-MAN, DAREDEVIL and PUNISHER, all of which see big gains as a result. Further down the chart, Mark Millar launches another creator-owned book, SECRET SERVICE, through the Icon imprint; and the all-ages titles get another relaunch. As you might expect, April was a good month for Marvel in terms of their market share. They led DC by 39% to 34% in units, and 35% to 30% in dollars. Thanks as always to ICV2.com for permission to use these figures.

Marvel wants you to try their digital comics so badly, they'll even pay you to do so. Their current deal is buy a Spider-Man digital comic and they'll mail you a $5 coupon for some print comics. There are a couple catches to this, but Marvel's offering you a free comic if you play your cards right.

In which Peter Parker and Miles Morales have a bit of a meet-up.

It's been a while since we checked in on Disney Publishing and their impending move. Since then a lot has happened. As we recall from our own time at Disney, they have an entire department that does nothing but move people around, and this switch sounds like it was put in place just to give them something to do. Basically, as reported by Publishers Weekly, Disney is swapping its East and West Coast publishing houses, moving 100 people from White Plains and the NY office to Glendale, and 50 Disney Press people back to New York. Wha--? The moves will roll out from now until September 30th.

In recent weeks, we've been seeing the exclusivity monster poke it's head up on the digital platform. Marvel's exclusive with Comixology. Valiant is exclusive with Comixology. DC might as well be exclusive with Comixology. But, for the most part, there appears to be a catch: the digital exclusives seem to be just for the monthly editions. Single issues if you prefer.

People have been asking why, when Peter and MJ's marriage had to end for story reasons, Northstar getting married is okay. Editor Tom Brevoort answered this on his Formspring:

We know this post will anger comics industry journalists, but after Disney's success getting PR for their gay-themed comic onThe View, it seems Turner/WB is getting in on the synergy action too. We just received a tip from a Turner PR person for this story on the HLN (Headline News) site.