Marvel

Marvel just sent out another one of its mystery teaser campaigns, with the above graphic and the tag "Coming in November 2011." Of late the FF has of course been renamed and renumbered Fantastic Force, in the wake of Johnny Storm's death. However, there had been some speculation that Marvel wouldn't pass up the opportunity to publish FANTASTIC FOUR #600 in what would have been the original numbering. Since two issues are shipping in October, the timing is right. Or it could be the return of Johnny, aka the Human Torch.

A new Cup O' Joe with Marvel's Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada reveals many things, including more about the origin of MIles Morales, and the fact that Quesada has been commissioned by the actual President of the United States for a piece of art. But it also contains an explanation of what has vexed many of late: Marvel's spoilerific PR in major media. For instance the story of the new dark-skinned Spider-Man broke on Tuesday inUSA Today, spoiling the story with its ubiquity before the issue in question came out. However, says Quesada, there really isn't any other way to do it:

There have been about 42 multigabillion reactions in the media to the new multi-culti-ultimate Spider-Man, and we're not going to link to all of them, but here are the three best that have crossed our desk today. Perhaps we'll update this post if more good ones come in. • As you can see Stephen Colbert weighed in last night with some funny, funny jokes. Colbert is an avowed comics fan with many crossovers in his resume already, including having Joe Quesada on as a guest, and guesting himself in an issue of Spider-man.

All of you folks who have been crying about diversity in comics had better be all over this! Marvel has revealed that the new Ultimate Spider-Man will be Hispanic/African-American teenager Miles Morales. A USA Today story broke the news and reveals that yes, Donald Glover's campaign to play Spider-Man was an influence on writer Brian Michael Bendis, although only as an indication that previous discussions about relaunching Spider-Man as a non-white character were on the right track.

Spinning out of a Facebook discussion, cartoonist and educator Steve Bissette is making a case for a boycott of Marvel over how shabbily they have treated Jack Kirby and his heirs:

A sad day for those who hoped, perhaps against hope, that Jack "The King' Kirby's heirs would get some of the money their father's creations have made over the years. Characters including Captain America (created in the '40s with Joe Simon), The Hulk, Iron Man and Thor-- you know, if they called next year's potential biggest-movie-of-all-time THE AVENEGRS "JACK KIRBY'S AVENGERS" they would not be far from the mark. Deadline has analysis, seeing it as a big setback for lawyer Marc Toberoff, who has won many unlikely IP cases against giant studios in the past:

This post has been edited to add actual content, now that the panel has finished!

Saturday brought a boatload of news from DC, which isn't surprising, given the number of comics panels they held.

Normally, a lot of teaser ads are well planned and nice to look at, but not really worthy of much thought or memory. These really caught my eye, due to the great design. These are worthy of framing, and I hope Marvel will make them available either as freebies at conventions, or (better yet) via their print store.

Well, the second full day of Comic-Con is coming to an end, and there's been lots of amazing stuff announced! I've diligently sat deep in Stately Beat Manor, watching the news feeds, so you don't have to! Read on!

Since Uncanny X-Men just got renumbered - oh, I'm sorry, "ended" and "restarted" - today's X-Men panel was pretty sure to bring interesting news. It's been pretty clear for the last few weeks that Marvel's big push this convention was probably going to be X-Men, which makes sense, since the line has been losing visibility for years, overtaken by the various Avengers. And now, with a successful new X-Men movie under their belt, the time must have looked right. So what's up?

Star Wars Ruined Comic-Con!