Marvel

Via their Facebook page, the upcoming Spider-Man reboot movie posted some stills. Surely Jim Carrey is very excited now over this still of Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, as well as Captain Stacy and Peter Parker in action. Is it just us or has this Spidey reboot hype kind of gotten lost in the Batman/Avengers shuffle?

Merry Christmas. I'll be watching some basketball today. The NBA has long tried to be to Christmas what the NFL is to Thanksgiving, and this year the league is even launching the season on Christmas. (If you don't know, don't ask. There was a work stoppage and it was ugly.) You may not realize it, but there's a smidgeon of crossover between comics and the NBA. Bill Jemas was fairly high up in the league offices YEARS before he joined Marvel. Remember the NBA Hoops trading cards that the league owned? That was Bill. Which led to Fleer. Which led to Marvel. Current Marvel EIC Axel Alonso has been speaking of basketball in his interviews of late. Marvel also did a neat cross-promotion with the NBA, ESPN and Wired last year, making up mock comic book covers merging Marvel characters with the various teams. Comics Alliance has an archive of it.

Hachette's Marvel catalog for May - August 2012 is out and we find a few interesting tidbits that might give us a clue to what Marvel's up to next. The big question is what's up with Henry Pym?

We've had a Hobbit trailer. We've had Dark Knight Rises trailers. We've had John Carter trailers. But Craig Ferguson's favorite geek-to-film adaption is getting the short shrift. Behold: the new trailer for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (Ghost Rider 2, if you prefer).

Thor, Iron Man and Cap are shown doing what they do best in these new stills released today.

Don MacPherson gathers the evidence "for".

Marvel is expanding its new reader-friendly line of graphic novels with some strong creative teams and some characters who seem to be ripe for Hollywood development.

Fresh off his success with his self-published SACRIFICE -- already sold out and a second printing on the way -- Sam Humphries has a gig writing JOHN CARTER: THE GODS OF MARS for Marvel, an all-ages five-issue miniseries which is apparently based on the second Mars novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The art is by Ramon Perez, fresh off TALE OF SAND, his Jim Henson adaptation for Archaia. This is a team we can get behind! The cover is by Julian Totino Tedesco   "Gods of Mars is going to be a blast -- tons of action and intrigue in a fantastic environment,” said Humphries. “From Landridge and Andrade to Edgar Rice Burroughs himself, there's an impressive foundation of awesome John Carter stories to build on. Combined with Marvel having the most exciting comics going on right now, and most talented editors in the industry – I can't wait to get myself to Mars."

Deadly Women are at it in this well-designed cover by Frank Cho.

Over on their "Mystery Project Liveblog," Marvel has announced the new team on Astonish X-Men. Taking over with issue #48 in March are Marjorie Liu and Mike Perkins.

Not too long ago, we presented for your amusement several videos recapping the rather appalling events of AVENGERS #200, in which Ms. Marvel was kidnapped, drugged and forcibly impregnated, and after giving birth to a reincarnation of her rapist, went off with him in a happy daze. The writers on the story are listed as Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, Bob Layton and George Pérez but it's been noted that in the years since, no one has actually taken credit for coming up with the story. It's like that one round of blanks in the firing squad -- every man can believe he is the innocent one. Now over on his blog, Jim Shooter has come out and confirmed that he's wiped the entire incident from his memory:

DEFENDERS #2 (NOV110487) Written by MATT FRACTION Pencils & Cover by TERRY DODSON Inks by RACHEL DODSON Colors by SONIA OBACK FOC – 12/12/11, ON SALE 1/4/12