Hey Guys. Here is this week’s installment of The Impact.
Marvel Announces Marvel Unlimited at SXSW. New Digital Comics, Project Gamma with Blair Butler, and more
Marvel made some major announcements as all was revealed about those cryptic teasers this week at SXSW. First up Marvel announced it would be rebranding it’s Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited service. The newly dubbed Marvel Unlimited is now available on iOs and is essentially Marvel’s answer to Spotify. It will give subscribers access to the same shifting library of approximately 13,000 digital comics. A subscription to the newly improved service costs approximately $10-per-month or $60 for a full year.
Marvel is also offering seven hundred issues issue number ones FOR FREE!!! That’s right free, including every number one issue from Marvel Now! and every major series they’ve published. But you only have until March 12th to take advantage of this offer so start downloading now.
Also announced was a new expansion of Infinite Comics. They will release a new chapter every week for a year The first thirteen chapter story will start in July,Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted, written by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour with art by Paco Diaz and tie-in to The Wolverine movie.
Project Gamma is a new program that will play audio as readers progress through a digital comic story. The music will not loop and adapt for the individual reader. Check out the sizzle reel below.
Also announced was Earth’s Mightiest Show, a new internet show hosted by Blair Butler which will look at all aspects of the Marvel Universe
I think all of these initiatives are very smart as Marvel is continuing to push fans to get involved, making comic reading and fandom more interactive.
Snyder Announces Batman: Zero Year.
Courtesy of the AP. Starting this June Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo will be going back to tell the early part of Batman’s career in the “New 52.” Batman: Year Zero will be an 11 issue storyline that will detail Batman’s earliest adventures. Year One fans don’t worry though Snyder says they will leave that untouched.
“It’s not ‘let’s redo the origin.’ It’s time for a new story showing how Batman became who he is in the New 52. We tried to preserve as much of Batman’s history as we could and keep what we could of this history intact. It’s ‘The Zero Year,’ the one that no one has told the story of before. We see how Bruce became the Batman, built the cave, faced off with his first super villain … It’s time for a new story showing how Batman became who he is in The New 52. It builds up the mythology.”
Batman: Zero Year kicks off this June with Batman #21.
One thing we did learn in the conversation Lee and Snyder held with USA TODAY is that criminally under used artist Dustin Nguyen will be illustrating the back-up stories which will also be written by Snyder. In theinterview Snyder talked about the pressure of writing the Last Son of Krypton,
“The way to approach a character as iconic as him is you just come at it from a standpoint of what you love the most about the character, and then write a story that explores that, tear it down and build it back up.”
We will get our first look at the series on Free Comic Book Day with the first full issue of Superman Unchained hitting stores June 12th.
Chris Sprouse Pulls Out of Adventures of Superman.
Courtesy of USA TODAY. Due to the controversy surrounding Orson Scott Card writing Superman in the all new digital anthology series Adventures of Superman artist Chris Sprouse has left the project.
Controversy erupted when it was announced that the Ender’s Game author would be writing the Man of Steel due to his anti-gay opinions on same-sex marriage. Petitions were started and several retailers refused to carry the printed version of the issue. In the statement released last Tuesday Sprouse said,
“It took a lot of thought to come to this conclusion, but I’ve decided to step back as the artist on this story,” “The media surrounding this story reached the point where it took away from the actual work, and that’s something I wasn’t comfortable with. My relationship with DC Comics remains as strong as ever and I look forward to my next project with them.”
To the relief of many fans, myself included, this was very welcome news. To meet the digital April 29th release date DC is pushing up the story by writer Jeff Parker and artist Chris Samnee, as well as a tale by Jeff Lemire and one by writer Justin Jordan and artist Riley Rossmo.
Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson returns this June as an ongoing series. While talking with MTV Geek Busiek talked about what fans can expect when the superhero anthology series comes back.
we’ll be exploring the people of the city and the superhero genre, as before, and seeing what kind of stories we can tell that you just can’t get anywhere else, stories ranging from a day in the life of a sorcerer’s assistant to the ongoing relationship between Samaritan and Winged Victory, and more. We have plans to visit other planets, to reveal more about Astro City’s past, to explore the life of super-powered people who never chose to become heroes or villains, and lots more. I even intend to finally get to my talking gorilla story, and the one about the group of former kid sidekicks who get an old crime-mobile from the 40s working and head out on a road trip as they try to figure out what to do with their adult careers.
So in some ways it’s “more of the same,” but since we never really did repeat ourselves, what that means is new cool ideas you haven’t seen in comics before. Told through stories that range from slice-of-life to cosmic epics, and everything in-between.
Busiek also revealed that while the series will be published by DC it will remain creator owned. Brent Anderson will return on art and Alex Ross will be back on covers and character designs. Be sure to check it out this June.
Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel’s X-Men Delayed Until May.
The new Brian Wood, Olivier Coipel X-Men comic featuring an all female cast including Storm, Jubilee, Psylocke, Rogue, Rachel Summers and Kitty Pride, release date has been pushed back to a May 29th release date.Wood did post about the delay explaining that there was a death in the family of some working on the book.
“Obviously this is a very personal matter. Pushing the launch back is the best option out of all that was discussed. An uninterrupted creative run is better than random fill-ins, and in a couple months when we’re past it no one will remember the delays and the work will be forever.”
If this keeps the book on schedule I am all for a delay now as opposed to after the first issue comes out.
Comixology’s Submit Now Open for Independent Creators.
Great news for independent comic creators, you can now submit your creator owned comics to Comixology. To submit it requires a user account and specific digital files. After the comic is approved it will be formatted for panel-by-panel reading. A price point will then be decided on by the creator and Comixology. Profits will be split 50/50 “after subtracting any standard fees charged by the payment processors,” with said fees currently listed as running between 8-30 percent, depending on whether the content is sold directly through ComiXology’s site or through Apple’s iOS devices, which take an additional cut.”
This is a huge opportunity to spotlight comic creators and I can’t wait to see what new talent will be discovered.
Valiant’s “Harbringer War” Goes 8-Bit.
As part of their first crossover, “The Harbringer War” Valiant has enlisted Storm City Entertainment to create a 8-bit style sidescroller for iOs and Android. The game will follow Bloodshot as he battles his way out of Las Vegas. I have to admit this is pretty cool move by Valiant. Valiant will also be supporting the game with covers of their titles done in an 8-bit style. The comic book minis-series, Harbinger Wars which is written by Joshua Dysart and Duane Swierczynski with art by Clayton Henry kicks off on April 3.
The Impact’s Quick Hits
–IGN debuted the trailer for the new Deadpool video game.
-Marvel announced the premiere date for it’s two new animated series. Avengers Assemble which debuts July 7
and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H hits the air on August 11.
-Bryan Singer confirmed that Halle Berry would be returning as Storm in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
-And of course this week we got the brand new Iron Man 3 trailer which looks fantastic.
Well that wraps things up for this week. I will see you all here this time next week for an all-new installment of The Impact.
Matt Todd
matthew@comicimpact.com