Scott Kurtz is best known for PvP, but I’ve quite enjoyed his new side project, co written with Aaron Williams..

“Truth, Justin, and the American Way” is a new hero comic with deep, deep roots in classics like Spider-Man and TV shows like Family Ties. Sound weird? It kind of is.

Justin is the ‘average guy’ who skips out of work early to help plan his wedding with his fiance and then go on to his bachelor party.  It gets kinda messed up when some weirdo Russian switches Justin’s change of clothes with an alien supersuit.  Suddenly he can lift an entire keg of beer with one hand!
The entire concept front to back seems to be molded toward being an 80s sitcom more than anything else. And since thats where his roots are, thats just fine. The book has jokes, and its pretty funny. Its actually really refreshing if you’re like me and rarely pick up a comic that doesn’t feature one epic ‘serious’ struggle after another. I gotta browse the indie-rack more often.

The real star of this book is the pen of Guiseppe Ferrario, who turns in honestly some of the most impressive comic art I’ve seen in years.  Every character is oozing with life and personality, and though the images are as static as any comic page, its not too hard to imagine the entire affair being animated.  I’ll likely be buying every book this guy pencils from now on.
The books been out for 2 weeks, but I read on Kurtz blog that the first printing has sold out, so if your comic shop doesn’t have any left, you’re out of luck until they do a second run. Luckily, you can read the entire book cover to cover online for free!  I can’t wait to see more, myself.

“NO… HUMANS… IN… STORMBRINGER…”

So says writer Simon Furman.  The Dream Team that brough us “War Within” “Worlds Collide” and now “Beast Wars” will check out what the heck is happening on Cybertron while “Infiltration” is progressing on Earth.

Newsarama has 5 pages of the book,  which sees Jetfire and the Technobots returning to Cybertron after it apparently was abandoned a long, long time ago.  Furman also confirms Thunderwing (pictured) is in fact the ‘big bad’ for this story, and that he’s been slightly re-imagined so his Pretender origins aren’t so hokey.  Frankly, I was amazed Simon Furman made a lot of the hokier G1, Armada, and Energon concepts so interesting with his writing, so if he’s going to re-write the rules here, I’ll trust him.

War is approaching…

Starting tomorrow the Marvel Universe is going to war. Marvel has been kind enough to post a video to bring everyone up to date (without giving much of anything away) and give us a tease of what is to come.

From their site:

Civil War #1 is less than one week away. You will need to decide: whose side are you on? Are you ready? Marvel wants to make sure you have all of the facts and have been exposed to all of the events leading up to this monumental event. Check out this video prequel that catches everyone up on the events of the last two years. Events that have haunted the heroes. Events that have turned the tide of public opinion. Events that have rocked the Marvel Universe to its core, leaving it vulnerable… to war!

While its future in games and movies is still in limbo with no official announcements, Marvel has disclosed some news about the Halo Graphic Novel.

A 16-page, full-color Halo Preview comic will arrive in stores May 31st available for only $.99. A full color Halo poster showcasing the Phil Hale cover of the graphic novel will be in stores 6/28.

Nice!
The 128 page hardcover book will hit comic shops on July 12, 2006.
In other news, Halo 2 matchmaking has been updated.

Justice League animation writer Dwayne McDuffie has penned the story for the brand new Justice League Heroes video game. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Zatanna, Martian Manhunter, and Green Lantern are confirmed playable, though the promise of unlockable characters might double that. Come on Hawk Girl!
Also check out a Teaser trailer from TeamXbox.

The screen shots make it look like a total knock-off of X-Men Legends, but considering how well those games did, thats not bad. Snowblind Studio is developing, and they’ve got a fairly good track record on action-RPGs. JLH is coming to the Xbox, PS2, and PSP this fall.

Devil’s Due Publishing has announced a new 3 issue series being written by Larry Hama. It will delve into the origin of GI Joe itself and how the team came to form.

From the Announcement:

Chicago, IL – April 5, 2006 – This June, Devil’s Due launches the G.I. JOE franchise into the stratosphere with G.I. JOE: DECLASSIFIED #1 (of 3) (Cover A – APR063088 E, Cover B – APR063089 E). The writer that started it all, Larry Hama (G.I. JOE, Wolverine), returns to the fold this June to tell the unbelievable story of how the G.I.JOE team became the elite fighting force that they are today, in an all-new three issue limited series from DDP. In the vein of the popular SNAKE-EYES: DECLASSIFIED limited series, get the untold stories of the very beginning of the G.I. JOE saga in the 48pg, three issue, bi- monthly series illustrated by up and coming artist Pat Quinn, with a cover A by Francis Manapul (Witchblade, Tomb Raider, Necromancer), all three cover A’s will connect for one large image, and card stock vintage cover B by Tim Seeley. G.I. JOE is under license from the Hasbro Properties Group, the intellectual property development arm of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS).

This isn’t really a news item, but just something I noticed that I thought I would share with everyone else.

I have many items in my shopping cart on Amazon.com, mostly just waiting to be bought or there to keep an eye on. When I sign into Amazon.com, the interface notifies me of any price changes. When I logged in yesterday, I received the following message:

Important Message
Please note that the price of Transformers, Vol. 12: Matrix Quest has increased from $11.02 to $16.95 since you placed it in your Shopping Cart. Items in your cart will always reflect the most recent price displayed on their product detail pages.

For those not aware, Transformers: Matrix Quest is one of many trade paperbacks that reprint parts of the original Marvel Transformers Comic book run of 80 issues (plus headmaster mini-series). In this series a Decepticon named Thunderwing attained the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. In Transformers canon, that is pretty much all this character is known for. Consider that his 15 minutes of fame. Recently, a new series was announced by IDW that will most likely make its debut sometime in the summer. Stormbringer, it seems, will feature a return of Thunderwing to the front of Transformers comics. I think it is because of this that Matrix Quest has risen in price most likely because of the additional demand from people looking for background on the character.

The kicker, though, is that the same day I received an email in my inbox from Amazon.com with a recommendation for me. It was for Matrix Quest on the same day the price rose.

The conspiracy theorist in me arises again.

As at least one person commented, the first issue felt like a toy commercial. #2 & #3 solved that problem.
Spoilers follow.
[Read the rest of this entry…]