LUCIDMEDIA

Lucid Comics – February 25th

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Wednesday, 25 February 2009 15:37

In the News

Previews names March gems

With the end of February in sight, thoughts are naturally turning to… spring, but also the March edition of Previews as well, and Diamond last week released a preview of Previews where the comic shop’s catalogue revealed its gems of March. Here’s what Previews highlights above all others, although some of them will be in stores sooner rather than other:

Dark Horse Comics’ Rapture #1 – “After warring for a century, Earth's greatest champions and villains suddenly disappear, leaving the planet devastated. Like a rapture, the Powers are gone and humanity is left behind to pick up the pieces. Amongst this wreckage, two lovers, Evelyn and Gil, find themselves separated by a continent and will do anything to find each other again. But when a strange being named "The Word" turns Evelyn into a champion with an angelic spear, she finds the force of her love for Gil clashing with her newfound power. Love and destiny collide in what will become the worst break-up-ever.” (May 20th, 2009)

DC Comics/Vertigo’s Absolute Death HC – “From the pages of Newbery Medal winner Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comes the young, pale, perky, fan-favorite character Death in a new Absolute Edition collecting her solo adventures! Featuring the miniseries Death: The High Cost of Living #1-3 in which Death befriends a teenager and helps a 250-year old homeless woman find her missing heart. Also included is the Death: The Time of Your Life 3-issue miniseries featuring the story of a rising star in the music world wrestling with revealing her true sexual orientation just as her lover is lured into Death's imminent realm. And enjoy a plethora of extras including the Death Talks About Life AIDS pamphlet, stories from Vertigo: Winter’s Edge #2 and The Sandman: Endless Nights, the short story "The Wheel" from the 9-11 tribute book, Sandman #8 and #20 and extras from the Death Gallery one-shot along with an intro from Amanda Palmer, the lead singer of the hit musical group The Dresden Dolls! It's all combined right here for the first time in one volume. This Absolute Edition slipcased hardcover is also the perfect companion for The Absolute Sandman and ideal for fans of Gaiman's sprawling, intimate comics work!” (October 28th, 2009)

Marvel Comics’ New Mutants #1 – “During the 80's, as it passed through various creators hands, NEW MUTANTS gained a reputation as being one of the most interesting, challenging books on the shelves. This summer writer Zeb Wells and artist Diogenes Neves (X-Men: World’s Apart) will set out to recapture that glory. But they will not have to do it themselves. The original New Mutants team of Karma, Cannonball, Danielle Moonstar, and Sunspot—as well as a few later recruits like Magik—will also be on the scene to help. (May 2009)

BOOM ushers in new age of digital comics

L.A.-based publisher BOOM! Studios touted the release of Hexed this month, the first comic book to be delivered through Android Mobile Operating System for mobile platforms like the iPhone and iPod Touch. Hexed #1 premiered on February 6th in the Android Marketplace and within 48 hours of its release it had been downloaded over 10,000 times, issue #2 came out February 11th. Hexed is written by Michael Alan Nelson, of Fall of Cthulhu fame and features art by newcomers Emma Rios and Cris Peter. The four-issue limited series follows the occult thief Luci Jennifer Inagcio Das Neves, or Lucifer for short, as she takes a new job that will expose her to the macabre underbelly of the city, and a secret that she'd rather nobody know. "This is another great first for BOOM! Studios and there is no better comic to do this with than Hexed," said Marketing and Sales Director Chip Mosher. "Praised by all quarters, Hexed is the type of book that will bring new readers to comics and BOOM! will always be the most aggressive company around in doing whatever it takes to get more people reading more comics."

Top Cow solicitations for May

Image associate Top Cow released a list of books from their studio that fans can look for this coming May. The big one is Fusion, another book named one of Previews gems, which features a crossover between Top Cow crossover Cyberforce and Marvel super-team the Mighty Avengers. Also look for the Top Cow Crossover Set while includes a number of Top Cow/Marvel crossovers of the past like Witchblade/Punisher, Cyberforce/X-Men, and Magdalena/Daredevil and with Witchblade/Devi as a bonus book. Here’s the full list of books coming from Top Cow this May.

Fusion: Cyberforce/Hunter-Killer/Avengers/Thunderbolts #1 Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning/ Tyler Kirkham/Sal Regla $2.99
The Darkness #77   Phil Hester/Michael Broussard/Ryan Winn $2.99
Witchblade #127 Ron Marz/Stjepan Sejic   $2.99
Broken Trinity TP Marz/Hester/Sejic/Lucas/Stelfreeze/Blake II $14.99
Witchblade Origins Vol 3 TP  Wohl/Z./Turner/Green/Pearson  $17.99
The Darkness #75 NYCC Var Cvr Phil Hester/Top Cow’s Finest $10.00
Dragon Prince #4 NYCC Var Cvr Ron Marz/Lee Moder/David Petersen $10.00
Berserker #0 NYCC Var Cvr  Rick Loverd/Jeremy Haun/Dale Keown $10.00
Top Cow Video Game Set Top Cow’s Finest $24.99

Comic 2 Film Report

Dark Knight crosses a billion

While not winning Oscar gold this past weekend, The Dark Knight still went into the history books by joining Titanic, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest as only the fourth film in history to make $1 billion at the box office. According to Variety, the studio placed the movie's combined domestic and international gross at $1,001,082,160 to date , or broken down it’s about $533 million in North America and $567 million overseas. Warner Bros. also reportedly noted that it's the largest 2-D digitally re-mastered IMAX release in the domestic market with $49.6 million and worldwide with $64.9 million. In other Dark Knight news, as you probably already heard, Heath Ledger won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and the trophy was accepted by his mother, father and sister.

Favreau: Blunt not Widow

While being interviewed by The Playlist, Iron Man director Jon Favreau confirmed that British actress Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) would not be playing super spy Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, in the upcoming Iron Man 2. Apparently, Fox exercised their option on the actress by casting her in the new adaptation of Gulliver’s Travels, making Blunt unavailable for IM2. It was rumoured that Scarlett Johansson was the next choice being eyed by producers, but Favreau had no comment. Iron Man 2 will be shooting later this year for a May 7th, 2010 release.

Disney giving us X-Men DVDs

After years of unavailability on a digital format, the 90s X-Men animated series that aired Saturday mornings on Fox Kids is being released in two DVD sets on April 28th. The series ran for 72 episodes and largely featured a team made of X-Men characters popular in the early 90s, including, Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue and Jubilee. It also redid such classic X-Men comic book storylines like “Days of Future Past,” “the Dark Phoenix Saga” and “the Legacy Virus.” Both collections have suggested retail prices of $23.98 US. Volume 1 is two disks at 368 minutes. The second is also two disks and times in at 391 minutes. The series originally aired on Fox Kids from 1992-1997.

First peek at Smallville’s Zatanna

The U.S. edition of TV Guide recently published a first look at actress/model Serinda Swan as DC’s resident sorcereress Zatanna in an upcoming episode of Smallville. “Our Zatanna is basically the same character everyone’s familiar with, only there’s a Smallville twist,” says executive producer Brian Peterson. “We’re catching her before she has control of her powers.”

Here’s TV Guide Online’s description of the episode: “Smallville has a fun new trick up its sleeve, and it involves the CW series' take of DC Comics trickstress Zatanna. TVGuide.com has learned that Serinda Swan has landed the guest-star role. Swan will appear in this season's 17th episode, ‘Hex,’ as Zatanna, a magician who grants birthday girl Chloe a wish. Having been through the wringer ever since Brainiac mind-boinked her and Doomsday crashed her wedding day, Chloe expresses a desire to lead the comparatively mild-mannered life of Lois Lane. Voilà! Chloe magically inhabits Lois' (and thus Erica Durance's) body for the bulk of the hour. Clark is also granted a wish.”