Tag: Marvel

Marvel has updated its iOS app with a bunch of new features -- however, the App store tells me that you will have to restore all your purchases after the upgrade. The new features sounds worth it, however. What could go wrong? To entice you, Marvel is running a big sale on stuff like SCHISM, ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN, and other recent releases. That's a nice way to get people up to speed with the current goings-on for future print or digital purchases.

Bon Alimagno is leaving Marvel to take a job with software company The Apollo Group. At Marvel Alimagno worked closely with Senior Vice President, Business Affairs & Talent Management David Bogart on freelancer scheduling and handling. He was formerly the editor at Harris Comics, overseeing the adventures of Vampirella.

We're not sure if this Russian Avengers teaser was ever found to be "official" or not, but it doesn't matter, because artist Kevin Bolk has given it a gender swap, with the male characters showing the kind of twisting butt-and-face pose that is usually reserved for The Black Widow. It's called Avengers Booty Ass-emble :

Marvel is going through some odd times, of late. Cancellations, accelerations, and a complete focus on the bottom line seem to be the order of the day. Axel Alonso and Tom Brevoort have been talking.

Welcome to month two of Bizarro World! This was quite a busy month for Marvel, with the "Fear Itself" crossover continuing, the relaunch of INCREDIBLE HULK, and the first issue of new title WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN. But once again, the big story in October was the continued success of the DCU relaunch. DC's lead over Marvel in September may have been narrow, but in October it was massive. Helped by hefty re-orders on virtually the entire September DCU line, DC led Marvel by 42% to 29% in dollars and a remarkable 51% to 30% in units. That market share is partly due to massive reorders on DC's September line. It seems reasonable to assume that this won't be a regular event, and that the gap won't be quite so large in future. But the possibility that Marvel might have to readjust to life as the number two publisher cannot be ruled out. Not that it's doom and gloom by any means. DC's sales are up, but not at Marvel's expense. If the DC relaunch has brought new readers into stores, or old readers back, then in theory Marvel should be able to take advantage of that too. On the other hand, it also makes it rather harder for Marvel to argue that its books are losing sales because it's a tough market. DC has just proved that declining sales are not inevitable. Thanks as always to ICV2.com for permission to use these figures.

One of the major -- if not THE major -- reasons that Disney purchased Marvel two years ago for $4 billion was that the House of Ideas supplied a ready-made audience of material aimed at boys under 18 -- the one quadrant Disney has always had the toughest time reaching. Disney does princesses and Pooh great, but they had to create a whole cable network that could be specifically branded for boys -- Disney XD, which already airs various Marvel cartoons. So this look at just how Disney has used the Marvel universe by Mike Gold is quite interesting as he points out that Marvel TV shows in development at Disney include the Hulk, AKA Jessica Jones (ALIAS), Cloak and Dagger, and a possible Miley Cyrus vehicle based on Mockingbird:

Marvel's culling continues, with both GHOST RIDER and BLACK PANTHER reaching their final issues.

The Avengers plus Loki and Nick Fury. These look pretty nice. Even with the typography elements taking center stage in the design, ScarJo continues to exhibits awesome mastery of the butt-and-face first pose, while Mark Ruffalo as the Halk does not look like Zoolander, which is a big improvement. Sad that none of the guys are turned so we can see their butt. Especially Thor and Captain America.

A brief follow-up to yesterday's story about Marvel ending PUNISHER MAX and X-23. As word spread, writer Jason Aaron issued a Twitter clarification that the book was not canceled, but the story was ending: Aaron had mentioned in interviews over the summer that he felt his story was drawing to a close.

Rather than putting out all its solicitation information at once, Marvel prefers to parcel it out to various sites, so info on February's releases is drifting out here and there...and among them, more cancellations.

Here's another lost comic: a Killraven mini series by the dynamic duo of Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld. Although FIVE issues were finished, it has never been printed and doesn't look that will change any time soon. In 2007 Kirkman told CBR all about the series:

Since the olden days of the Marvel Bullpen, it has been tradition to draft an army of freelancers to do an overnight rush to get a book out on time. This week, the week-early release of HULK #2 on comiXology due to a computer error gave everyone who managed to snag a copy before it was withdrawn a chance to peruse the credits and they were a wonderful tribute to this Bronze Age tradition: