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.)

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The preview pages of The Mighty Avengers can now be viewed online, thanks to ¡Universo Marvel! There’s 7 pages total, counting the splash page as the 2 pages it will be in print. Clicky, clicky for the preview.

So… Just asking, who else finds Wonder Man’s old red-trenchcoat duds a little odd looking in the current day?

Somehow, the news slipped under our radars here at Powet.tv, but the ever-classic Nightmare Before Christmas is being re-released in theaters on October 20th, 2006 – almost exactly 13 years after its original release date.

For those of you who haven’t seen the film yet, you need to get out more. Starting on October 20th! For those of you that have, then you already know what kind of wonder you’re in store for, and you’ll only regret it if you miss this the chance to see this gem in theaters again. (Or, for the first time, depending on what you were doing in 1993.)

In related news, Disney rounded up an eclectic assortment of talent to cover songs from the original soundtrack for a two-disc “special edition” re-release. Contributors include Fall Out Boy on “What’s This?”, Panic! at the Disco on “This is Halloween”, Marilyn Manson also (?) doing “This is Halloween”, She Wants Revenge on “Kidnap the Sandy Claws”, and Fiona Apple on “Sally’s Song”. Disc One will indeed be the original soundtrack untouched, but the second disc isn’t ALL covers of songs that seem questionably fit to be covered – It also includes Elfman’s demo versions of “Making Christmas” and “Oogie Boogie’s Song”. All in all, it’s still a lot of music in one package, even if the premise is somewhat dubious.

So, whatever it is you make of the soundtrack re-release, by all means, do NOT forget the movie. Remember – October 20th. In 3-D. BE THERE.

There’s a lot of sites out there with transcripts (or approximations thereof) of the DC Nation panel, and the vast majority of it seems to be rehashing old knowledge and witty banter.  That said, there were at least a couple nuggets of knowledge worth gnawing on:

• New (?) Terra shows up in Supergirl #12 (issue to be drawn by Amanda Conner), and this will be the Terra on the Titans East team coming up in Teen Titans, which will be led by Deathstroke.
• A Terra miniseries is still coming, but after that Supergirl appearance
• Cassandra Cain (the recent Batgirl) will also be on Teen Titans East
• A General Zod more like the one from Superman II will be showing up somewhere, sometime
• Brave & The Bold will be a team-up book, with issue #1 starring Batman & Green Lantern, #2 with Supergirl, Green Lantern, Batman, & Blue Beetle, #3 will have all of them, plus a backup with Lobo & Adam Strange
• All 3 heroes in space in 52 will not be returning… so based on the previous bit, it seems that Adam Strange will probably still (unsurprisingly) remain in space
• The upcoming 5 issue extension of Manhunter will lead into an upcoming Wonder Woman story
• Diana Prince will show up in 52, somewhere, sometime
• Ambush Bug will be in issue #24 of 52, as will Checkmate, Suicide Squad, and Martian Manhunter
• There will be a Nightwing annual in early ’07
• Is Roy Harper becoming the Red Arrow, a la Kingdom Come?  “Not really.”
• Seven Soldiers will be coming out next month, they tell us yet again
• Meltzer is writing 14 issues of JLA total, including issue #0
• Despite the fact that we’re getting an All-Star Batgirl, and despite the fact that there’s nowhere to get Barry Allen stories, there are no plans for an All-Star Flash book

Sources: ComicBookResources, Comic News International, Newsarama

Hero Squared #3
Written by Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis, art by Joe Abraham

The setup so far: Milo’s self in an alternate universe is Captain Valor. But in this universe, Milo’s just a lazy, immature ass. Too bad Captain Valor’s universe got DESTROYED by Caliginous, his arch-enemy, because now he’s stuck here with Milo. In this universe, up until recently, Milo was dating Stephie. That is, until he hooked up with the Stephie from Captain Valor’s universe… who just so happens to be the super-villainess Caliginous. Got it?

All of last issue was spent in a therapist meeting for Milo, who dragged Captain Valor along for the ride. It was thoroughly entertaining, and while there isn’t always a lot that happened in each issue, it’s always rife with the classic “Bwa-ha-ha”-larity and meaningful characterization that Giffen and DeMatteis are so beloved for.

So, if you like the Super Buddies, or the recent Defenders mini they did, then this is the book you need to be reading. You’ll probably have to shakedown your comic shop guy if you want to buy one though, because I know my guy only orders two – one for me, and one for the other guy that reads it.

Of course, if you didn’t like their previous work, then I can’t really recommend this to you. It’s clearly too much for your fragile mind to handle. Go read something dark and gloomy instead, like the newspaper.

How ridiculous is it that every news site is running with “Brian K. Vaughan” headlines, when it’s the entire creative team leaving the book? I’d buck the trend, but I get limited space in that title bar. Sorry Adrian Alphona!

Yes, that’s right, Brian K. Vaughan AND artist Adrian Alphona are leaving the book with issue #24, leaving them with only 5 more issues to share with us. Read Vaughan’s own words HERE, from his site. To sum up, here’s a small excerpt:

“This was entirely my idea. While Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina have planned endings, I’ve always said that I hoped Runaways would last forever, long after I left the series. I never wanted Runaways to become a vanity book that was dependent on its original creators’ involvement; I wanted our kids to be able to eventually run away from us, and find new life apart from their ‘parents.’

“I can say with a great deal of confidence that these next five issues are the pinnacle of the series, and Adrian and I decided that the best thing for the Runaways would be to hand them off to new creators on this high note, rather than risk overstaying our welcome until we ran ourselves–and the book–into the ground.”

We won’t find out who the new team is until next week, but I don’t think anyone’s expecting to hear names that can outperform the series’ original creators.

Sadly, this comes not too long before Y: The Last Man will be ending (at issue 60, as he’d always intended). So what will Vaughan be doing with his free time?

Maybe more work on books like the new one he’s got coming out, called Pride of Baghdad. If you haven’t heard of it, you need to pay better attention. As the NY Times article/interview reiterates, the book will be arriving in stores on September 13th, and it provides the story of a group of lions that “escape a zoo in Iraq during an American bombing raid.” Sounds almost cute at first blush, but if you read the articles, it becomes clear that it’s nothing of the sort. I have no doubt it will be at least as deep, meaningful, and impacting as his previous work, if not moreso. More info available in his Newsarama interview.

Toronto’s Comic Book Expo started on Friday and runs through today, but already there’s been a decent amount of news handed out. Of course the biggest news, hands down, is the story of the new Alpha Flight book, to be titled Omega Flight.

Newsarama posted the image on the right of the new team. Who are they? Here we go, from left to right – Talisman (daughter of original Alpha Flight’s Shaman), one of the Spider-Women (based on story appearances in Ms. Marvel, it may be Julia Carpenter, but based on physical appearances, it looks more like Mattie Franklin), Guardian (long time Alpha Flighter), USAgent (Captain America is confirmed as not being on the team), and Beta Ray Bill (unless Thor’s been taking some Mutant Growth Hormone).

The book is to be written by Michael Avon Oeming, and drawn by Scott Kolins. Read a full interview of the two creators on Silver Bullet Comics.

And a brief rundown of the other news that’s been delivered –

• Geoff Johns will be writing an All-Star Batgirl book with JG Jones on art. Because, apparently, Batman’s female knockoff is DC’s next biggest star after the big 3.
• Dan Slott “will be doing something other than She-Hulk next year”. I think they meant ‘in addition to’, and not ‘other than’. Otherwise that breaks my big giant heart.
• Geoff Johns (again?) is writing Action Comics issues with Richard Donner (original Superman movie director). They’ve completed two issues, and their fourth issue will be done in 3-D. Does that mean it’ll come with the glasses? Who knows.
• Despite the fact that he wasn’t in the earlier image, The Sentry is reported to be a member of The Mighty Avengers.

That’s the high points, but if you want more of the little details, you can read the main articles from Newsarama here & here, and the one at Comics Continuum here.

Like the lower price-point game consoles you can get at Gamestop, Star Trek (the original series) is getting refurbished.

You can read the entire article here, at StarTrek.com (from yesterday), but the rundown is that the original episodes are going to be re-mastered, namely in the special effects department, but also in the music. Among the things to be re-done are the show’s opening, backgrounds from on-planet moments, exterior shots of the vessel, and viewscreen shots. Expect a lotta CGI work to go down.

Oddly, instead of heading directly to DVD, it’s going to air on TV first, with the first episode dropping on September 16th. Didn’t anybody tell these guys all the cool kids are on DVD sets? And besides, what channel is it going to be on? All news reports are telling me to check my local listings, but my local listings don’t go out that far. Will it be on CBS? UPN? I’m assuming it won’t be on G4 or SpikeTV. Or at least, it won’t be for a good 10 years.

Interestingly, there was a fan doing work on this already, who put in a bid for this project. Obviously, without the vast resources of a visual effects company, he couldn’t compete, but on the upside, a clip of what he made is available on YouTube. You can find it under the title Trek Refurbished.

It’s an interesting look at what we might be seeing when this hits. His site can be found at TrekEnhanced.com, where the most interesting draw right now is his talk about this new development, where he discusses his bid, and how he actually pitched this three years ago in 2003.