Marvel at the News Roundup

Holy Hannah, there is a crapload of Marvel news overflowing the news sites from all the info blabbed at Baltimore’s Retailer Summit. Let me cut straight to the talking points, most linked to full-length articles of their own. There are some serious whoppers (Thor! Whedon! Mary-Jane’s tombstone! Last of the Mohicans?) in here, all the way to the end, so please please please read through, at least until you reach Marvel’s Guiding Light crossover. (Am I kidding? You’re dying to know, aren’t you. Because I’m probably not. Read on after the jump.)

• Joss Whedon & artist Michael Ryan to take over Runaways, after Brian K. Vaughan & Adrian Alphona’s departure, starting with issue #25. I’d make a joke about hoping Whedon can handle two books better than he handles one, but he’s almost done with Astonishing, so maybe he’ll be back to the mighty workload of one again. (Just kidding! Mostly!)
• The Loners (also called Excelsior) will be spinning off from Runaways into their own book, to be written by C.B. Cebulski, with art by Karl Moline. It’s the book that… someone demanded.
• JMS will be writing the new Thor book. He wrote a screenplay for the character, even though they already have a writer doing that, just because he really wanted to. His job is clearly his hobby. Nice.
• Next February, Spidey dons the black suit once again! I freaking love that suit.
• Spinning out of (and drastically milking) the success of Annihilation, Nova will get his own ongoing series (with Dan Abnett, the writer of Nova’s mini-series/Annihlation lead-in), plus there’ll be two ‘Heralds’ one-shots (each dealing with different pairings of former Galactus heralds), and lastly, Super-Skrull and Quasar will each get a mini. Go dead guys!
• The image we saw previously of Spidey hugging Mary-Jane’s headstone comes from Kaare Andrews’s “Spider-Man: Reign” upcoming, which takes place 35 years in the future. So that settles THAT image.
• Marvel’s MAX line will be releasing at least 5 new books in the coming months: Hellstorm: Son of Satan; Foolkiller; Zombie; Wisdom; & Haunt of Horror: H.P. Lovecraft – The MAX sampler promoting these series (think DC’s Brave New World, only a mite bit darker) will be available for purchase on 10/4/06. Follow the link for artist, writer, and summary info for each, as well as a cover shot. Follow the Zombie link and scroll to the end for the article & images about that book. Looks like good zombie times. (Redundant as that may be.)
• Sean McKeever will be writing a Spider-Man Family ongoing which, like the previous two specials, will contain a “full-length story by McKeever each time, as well as reprinted back issues and a short back-up story.” Finally, another Spider-Man book!
• Next summer’s ‘event’ (which will be much less widespread than Civil War) will be World War Hulk, where Hulk – gasp – returns to earth – ungasp – and it will continue to be written by Greg Pak, but art will be done by John Romita Jr.
• Alan Davis – artist/writer extraordinaire – will be returning to a creation he did for Marvel in years past (one which I’ve never heard of, but looks to have some pretty unique characters) called Clan Destine. I’m excited.
• Marvel Illustrated will be a line of “classic novels presented in comic’s form”, and the first book to get this treatment will be Last Of The Mohicans. Is this book in the public domain? Because if it is, SCORE on the cost-cutting, Marvel. (Except you still have to pay someone to script it I suppose. And then there’s the art. Nevermind.)
• The Dabel Brothers have partnered with Marvel for publishing and distribution. It’s an interesting focus by Marvel on things other than superheroes, as the Dabel Brothers have been publishing comics based on material such as Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series.
• And OH MY GOD, I was NOT kidding about GUIDING LIGHT. An 8 page backup (written by Jim McCann and drawn by Alex Chung) will be in what will undoubtably be some of the books that I pick up (like the Masked Marvel nonsense a couple months back). As Comic Book Resources relates – “The story finds some of Marvel’s greatest heroes and villains descending on the fictional town of Springfield to see if a new character there is friend or foe and will tie into events happening in an upcoming episode of Guiding Light.” God only knows how the story will play out, but if you must know, the REAL WORLD instigator responsible (and therefore blameable) for this is the fact that the show’s costume designer designed Storm’s wedding dress for her wedding to Black Pather. Now, I’m not on the up-and-up when it comes to the fashion world, but this seems a step down from Vera Wang’s dress when Cyclops and Jean Grey married, as I’ve actually heard of Vera Wang. (Technically speaking, I suppose I HAVE heard of Guiding Light too, but I’d say that’s measureably different.) All around, this sounds like sheer, unbridled insanity, and I can’t help but watch my mind boggle as it tries to grasp the logic of this interaction.