The 10 Biggest Stories From New York Comic Con

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In an attempt to capitalize further on the Avengers movie, Marvel is relaunching yet another new Secret Avengers title in February by writer Nick Spencer and artist Luke Ross. The book will be a combination of a SHIELD title and an Avengers title as movie favorites like the Black Widow, Hawkeye, Maria Hill, Phil Coulson, Winter Soldier, Hulk, and the newly-black Nick Fury will lead the way.

The book will focus on the covert missions of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes like Secret Avengers' earlier volumes, but it is also specifically designed to appeal to newer fans, especially with the inclusion of Hill and Coulson.

In January, Scott Gimple, one of the writers on The Walking Dead TV series, will be joined by artist Mark Texeira on a new Punisher miniseries, titled Punisher: Nightmare. The series will focus on a young man who comes back from war only to have his family killed by organized crime. The main hook here is whether this soldier will wind up as Frank Castle’s greatest ally or villain as this tale parallels his own.

The Punisher will also square off against a new villain named Nightmare, who has the ability to actually grow stronger the more he's injured. 

With a Guardians of the Galaxy movie coming out in 2014, you can expect Marvel to pimp out this property with the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the chest. So it should come as no surprise that the House of Ideas unveiled its plans for a new Guardians of the Galaxy ongoing comic series by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Steve McNiven for this March.

Bendis has a history of taking some of the company’s less popular concepts and turning them into full-blown bestsellers, and the thought is that he will do the same thing here. With a roster that will be identical to what we’re getting from the eventual movie, this book should act as a primer for fans to get accustomed to the world of the Guardians.

[via Comic Book Resources]

No two young comic book writers are better than Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire. Though DC’s New 52 has been a mixed bag at times, these two have turned each book they are on into pure pop magic. And at the Vertigo panel that was held on Friday, it was announced that both men would be debuting new series for the imprint in 2013.

Snyder revealed that he will be writing a series called The Wake with artist Sean Murphy. Not much about the book was discussed, but Snyder said it would be a sci-fi/horror blend dealing with oceanic myth.

Vertigo then announced that Lemire would be writing and illustrating Trillium, a love story that will connect two people separated by thousands of years. Both of these titles are very secretive as of now, but these are two of the best writers in comics, and it’s nearly impossible not to be excited about these projects.

Despite being killed off by Loki during The Avengers, it was revealed that Clark Gregg would again be playing Agent Coulson in ABC’s upcoming SHIELD live-action TV show. How he’ll be brought back is still a mystery, but anything is possible in the comic book world. Perhaps the show takes place before the movie or maybe the Coulson that was killed during the film was nothing more than a Life Model Decoy. All we know is that Coulson lives and he’ll be hitting the small screen when the show launches.

Starting in March of next year, writer Andy Diggle will take over Action Comics for the departing Grant Morrison. Artist Tony Daniel will join him, and the duo will be giving Superman a new black, red, and silver suit. No details have been revealed yet in terms of the story that Diggle will be telling, but from the looks of the teaser image that was released, it seems like Superman will be hanging around in an alien environment of some sort.

Perhaps Diggle’s take on the book will have something to do with Krypton. Again, we’re just grasping at straws here, but whatever unfolds, we’re hoping this new vision gives the Man of Steel the kick in the “S” that he needs.

DC is lagging behind Marvel in live-action movies, but the company’s string of animated direct-to-DVD films have been just as good, if not better than the feature films from the House of Ideas. In fact, if we may be so bold, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 was the best superhero film of the year, both live-action and animated. That’s why we loved hearing that more of these gems are on the way.

At Comic Con, it was announced that both Superman Unbound and Justice League: Flashpoint would be adapted in animated form. Unbound is an adaptation of Geoff Johns’ recent “Superman: Brainiac” storyline that ran in Action Comics a few years ago, while Flashpoint will be based on Johns’ recent crossover event of the same name.

No other details have been released for either film, but if you are familiar with the other animated movies then these should definitely pique your interest. If you haven’t checked them out yet, we sincerely hope that you do.

[via IGN]

This one had been rumored for a while, but it wasn’t until Comic Con that we knew for sure that writer Scott Snyder and artist Jim Lee would be teaming up for a new Superman title at DC. Nothing much is known about the series as of now, but we expect it will be more self-contained than the current Superman books and will explore the character of Clark Kent more.

Snyder’s Batman is right now the best superhero book on the market, and Jim Lee is always pumping out quality work, so we expect this series to appeal to both longtime fans of the Man of Steel and people that have never touched a Superman book before.

In an attempt to shake things up and drive up sales, writer Dan Slott revealed that in the upcoming Superior Spider-Man title, Peter Parker will no longer be the Wall Crawler. We don’t know who this new Spider-Man will be yet, but whoever it is will be a lot edgier and darker than the Web Slinger that we’re accustomed to.

We’ve been through all of this before, most recently with Bucky taking over the Captain America mantle and Dick Grayson becoming Batman for a bit. We don’t actually expect this change to last long, and we’re sure Peter Parker will be back sooner than later, especially with more Spider-Man movies on the way. But with Slott at the helm, we’re hoping for a solid Spidey story at the very least.

[via Newsarama]