Hi Guys, I hope you’re all have a great, (hopefully three day) weekend. This was a shockingly light week in terms of breaking news. This was more of a week of elaborating news with Marvel confirming and elaborating on the teasers they released last week. But first some very good news regarding one of the best writers in comics Peter David.

Peter David Update.

This week Peter David gave his fans an update on his official website. David suffered a stroke while vacationing in Florida over the holidays and was undergoing an in-patient rehabilitation.

First of all, I want to thank my lovely wife for filling in so far. She’s done a terrific job.

Second, I think it is amazing to see the outpouring of support and good wishes for my recovery. I never expected anything like this to happen to me. Who would? Nevertheless, I’m down here in Jacksonville at a hospital that specializes in putting people like me back together again. Every day is filled with all types of physical therapy dedicated to enabling the right side of my body to converse with the left side once more. I have no idea what to expect of my physical abilities the day I walk out of here (or get wheeled out of here) in mid-February. But I am certainly hoping for the best.

Saturday and Sunday are generally very quiet days. Gives me time to work and to reflect upon everything I’m dealing with. This is unlike anything I have ever had to handle in my life. There are days that I really don’t want to think about what I have to face. But I feel like it’s my job to keep as positive an attitude going as is humanly possible. I owe that to my family and friends.

Thank you for all your support.

Everyone at Comic Impact wishes Peter David a swift recovery.

Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel Officially on All-Female led X-Men.

Marvel confirmed this week that Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel would be launching an all-female cast X-book, entitled X-Men. The comic which is launching this April will feature a line up which includes Storm, Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Rachel Grey, Psylocke and Jubilee.  While talking to USA Today Wood elaborated on why we should have an all female led cast

“I feel like as far as the X-Men go, the women are the X-Men. Cyclops and Wolverine are big names, but taken as a whole, the women kind of rule the franchise. If you look at the entire world as a whole, it’s the females that really dominate and are the most interesting and cool to look at. When you have a great artist drawing them, they look so amazing and always have.”

This is a very smart move by Marvel. The female X-Men are incredibly popular. By calling the book X-Men and putting such a high-profile team on the book will guarantee a few more eyes on the book than would have checked it out if they had called it X-Women (it’s sad and not something I think is right, but it’s true).  With this adding to the already impressive All-New X-Men, Wolverine and the X-Men, the upcoming Uncanny X-Men and Uncanny X-Force (mohawk Storm) this is an amazing time to be an X-Fan.

Jason Aaron and Simone Bianchi On Thanos Rising.

Also announced this week was a new mini-series focusing on the origin of the Mad Titan and The Avengersend credit scene stealer,  Thanos. Thanos Rising will be written by Jason Aaron with art by Simone Bianchi. In a press release from Marvel Aaron spoke about his take for the mini-series.

“This is without a doubt one of the creepiest stories I’ve ever gotten to write for Marvel. It’s the origin of an outer space serial killer, the story of the universe’s weirdest romance and a grand cosmic tragedy, all wrapped up in one. This is me taking five issues to really dig into the head of a space-faring world conqueror, mass murderer and hopeless romantic. I love writing stories with villains as the main character, and this book is about Thanos all the way.”

Jason Aaron has been killing it on Thor: God of Thunder so he clearly has a grip on writing cosmic and a knack for writing the most compelling villains in comics. Thanos Rising launches this April.

Is Captain America Doomed?

Marvel released it’s April solicitations the for which we learned that in Captain America #6 “Steve Rogers is dead–long live Captain Zola,” Spoilers BEWARE!!!. If you read Captain America this week you saw Captain America has been infected with Armin Zola’s consciousness. While talking with Newsarama Rick Remender spoke about where this leaves Cap and it’s similarities to another possessed hero with an arachnid theme.

“Not only is he dealing with being stranded in this foreign environment, with the health and care of a child on his shoulders, he’s now looking down the barrel at a Zola infection that will be trying to take over his mind. It serves a very different purpose than what Dan’s doing in Spider-Man. Because of the differences in the execution, and the differences in what it ends up doing to Steve, and it didn’t seem like a concern. It’s very different.”

iFanboy’s Ron Richards Joins Image Comics as Director of Business Development.

iFanboy.com founder Ron Richards has joined Image Comics as their new Director of Business Development, in that role Richards will be focusing on new strategies for the publishing line, including both print to digital products.

“The opportunity to work at Image Comics, the source of such talented people creating amazing comics, is truly an honor,” said Richards. “By melding together my knowledge of the comic book industry with years of business and technology experience, I hope to contribute and continue the tremendous success they’ve had and help propel Image to even greater heights.”

Congratulations to Mr. Richards.

First Official Pic from Kick-Ass 2.

This week Entertainment Weekly revealed the first official picture from Kick-Ass 2. Featuring Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars and Aaron Taylor Johnson as Kick-Ass. Previously released images were mainly courtesy of director Jeff Wadlow’s Twitter feed. Kick-Ass 2 hits theaters on June 28, 2013

First Look at Iron Man 3 Assemblers Action Figures.

Check out these awesome pictures of the newest Iron Man 3 Assemblers Action Figures. The pictures, by Vesa Lehtimäki were released Friday on USAToday.com . Keep your eyes out for them they should be in stores starting on February 11th. Iron Man 3 hits theaters May 3rd.

1966 Batmobile Auctioned Off For  $4.6 Million.

A few weeks ago I wrote that the Batmobile from the 1966 TV series would be auctioned off at Barrett-Jackson auction house in Scottsdale, Arizona. The George Barris designed iconic car was sold this weekend for a whopping sum of $4.6 million. This ties the record for most paid for a TV/film car which was set when the Aston Martin DB5 driven by Sean Connery in Goldfinger was sold in 2010.

Well there you have it, I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend and I will see you all here next week for an all-new installment of The Impact.

Matt Todd
matthew@comicimpact.com