The Ultimates 2 #12
Written by Mark Millar, art by Bryan Hitch

With all the excitement surrounding Millar’s other big book, it’s easy to forget the ever-sporadically scheduled Ultimates 2. After 23 issues and 5 years, Millar and Hitch’s run on The Ultimates finally comes to an end. What with its seemingly-random appearances on shelves at the comic shop, it’s easy to miss an issue, and with this one being the big finale (despite the big battle kind of being won last issue), I figure this is one that readers won’t want to miss.

And for those of you that are critical of the book, well hey, today’s a day for celebration for you too – The book’s over! Until the next volume anyway. So here’s hoping that Jeph Loeb and Joe Maduriera do enough to differentiate themselves from their predecessors, while still retaining the hard-hitting enjoyment and interesting characterizations that Millar and Hitch always brought to the table. (But maybe try to keep a tighter schedule though, eh guys?)

I’m going to go ahead and play with fire here. According to Dru, Warner Brothers doesn’t want this trailer online yet. I’ll just wait for them to shake the angry stick my way before I take it down, because I think this movie looks cool.

“300” is adapted from Frank Miller’s graphic novel of the same name, about the Spartan warriors who defended Greek democracy against Persia.

Today brings us a few bits of news on the X3 DVD release.

• The X3 DVD site has launched here.
• DVD to launch October 3rd
• Brett Ratner is working on a special edition to come out shortly after regular edition.
• Apparently Wal-mart will have an exclusive disc packed with the regular version that includes a 50 minute diary from Ratner on the making of the movie that Europe will be getting standard with their regular edition.

Marvel updated their site yesterday with a brand new Civil War trailer. It’s available HERE and it’s the perfect lead in for issue #4, which hits stands today. And while the idea of a video trailer existing for print media seems a bit off, the results remain badass.

Jon Favreau posted this somewhat crazed-looking image of him sitting with Peter Billingsley (Iron Man’s executive producer) at a table loaded with crazy huge guns onto his MySpace page. Obviously, this are at least related to the Iron Man movie, if not actual props. In fact, I kind of hope they are props, because man, who let them have all those giant guns?

Popcultureshock.com is the only place I saw it, so we’re mirroring it here: Preview pages for Civil War #4, pages 1 through 3. Er, and the cover. But I bet you could’ve figured that out without my help. Here’s a link to their previews page, and here’s our mirrored pages:

In related news, Christos Gage – who wrote the fantastic Deadshot mini for DC a couple years ago – will be writing an upcoming Civil War one-shot, Casualties of War: Iron Man/Captain America. As he describes it during his Newsarama interview, “This is the first time since it all started that they’ve met one on one, out of respect for their many years as friends and allies, to talk it out. We’ll reference incidents from Marvel history to show why each man feels as strongly as he does, and each will have to defend his position as he tries to convince the other to rethink his own.” It’s supposed to take place earlier in the series than issue 4. (Obviously.)

Gage’s previous work includes episodes of Law & Order: SVU and tomorrow’s new Union Jack mini, spinning out of his appearance in Captain America. Though the issue arrives in stores tomorrow, but SilverBulletComics got a preview copy and sicced their reviewers on it. Overall it seemed to get pretty good reviews, despite the scathing pair of two-bullet reviews. I’ll have to see for myself tomorrow if the magic he worked on Deadshot will hold up in the world of Marvel.

The Walking Dead #31
Written by Robert Kirkman, art by Charlie Adlard

It’s no mystery why Robert Kirkman’s star has risen so quickly. Just a little while ago, his only two books were this and Invincible, and if you’re new and your name’s only going to be on two things, you better be sure they’re of this kind of quality. Invincible’s a story for another week though, as tomorrow we’re getting a new issue of The Walking Dead.

The quick ‘n dirty setup – Rick is a cop (now, a former cop) who wakes up in a hospital, only to find that just about everyone’s been turned into zombies. He quickly fought his way to his wife and son, and joined up with a whole crew of survivors. Things are constantly going to hell in their little handbasket, and while they’re not losing people left and right any more, the stakes are still just as high.

Currently, Rick’s been captured by a small town of survivors that have set up a Colosseum-type environment where they have people fighting the zombies for sport. It’s really quite grisly, and Adlard’s black and white art is the perfect moodsetter every single time.

I just checked out the 5 page preview at PopCultureShock, and I’m more excited than ever to see what comes next. A 6 page preview would’ve been far less effective, I’m thinking. If you check it out, you’ll see what I mean. Anyway, I mostly checked it out to be sure, and now I can say it with confidence – Kirkman isn’t just writing a fantastic, well-crafted story, he’s also successfully bringing you up to speed within the first pages, and doing it all perfectly organically within the story.

Do yourself a favor – Get your shop to start setting you aside a copy of this book. It’s one of my absolute favorite comic books, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be enjoying it just as much as I am.

Episode 4 of PowetToys brings us a look at Marvel Legends Icons Captain America and Iron Man with twist of Civil War.