Marvel

Chris Claremont reveals what might have been in X-Factor #1. Read on to discover Alan Moore's involvement!

The awesome new process blog Comic Tools has weekly posts on process that make it worth a look for anyone, but this post on Hawkeye's bad archery is also a blast. The original post at Wired has Jeremy Renner's form as a complete fail, and even a dummy can see that Merida's (from Pixar's upcoming BRAVE) form is way better than Hawkeye's.

Cursing the basketball gods because your bracket is broken? Searching for a tournament bracket which better suits your knowledge base? We present a multitude of 2012 non-sports tournaments, from popular culture, food, and corporate America!

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.