Theres a fair number of Marvel fans and a fair number of Transformer fans around here. Both should be pleased to hear this: The long rumored crossover book between the Avengers and Transformers is a reality.

Comics Continuum reports:
“Stuart Moore and Tyler Kirkham are the creative team for the Transformers/Avengers crossover between IDW Publishing and Marvel. Look for more on that book soon here in The Continuum.”

Direct and to the point. No word on whether this is a “team-up” or a “versus” or what. This is of course, not the first time Transformers have found their way into the Marvel Universe. The original comic series was published by Marvel, and issue #3 guest starred Spider-Man.

Thanks to Shiv’kala for the tip.

The New York Comic-Con reached the end of its first day, and there’s been a flurry of newsbits, largely focusing on World War Hulk for Marvel, and Countdown for DC. Here’s the rundown:

MARVEL:

• World War Hulk will bring us a number of minis including World War Hulk (this being the main series)…
• World War Hulk: X-Men, written by Cristos Gage, art by Andrea DiVito – In it, the Hulk hunts for Professor X, despite (because of?) the fact that Xavier wasn’t there at the meeting where they decided to boot the Hulk to space.
• World War Hulk: Frontline – This will be very much like Civil War: Frontline, only I imagine the quality-of-storytelling gap between the two won’t be nearly so vast this time around. Again, it will be written by Paul Jenkins with an army of artists at hand.
• World War Hulk: Gamma Corps & World War Hulk: Young Avengers are also announced, but lacking details.
• The new Thor series will launch in July of this year. JMS is still on as writer, with Oliver Coipel on art.
• As has been announced previously, a New Warriors book will be coming out, starting in June. Writer will be Kevin Grevioux, art by Paco Medina.
• MarvelousNews.com has images up of Spider Man 3 movie figures, Fantastic Four 2 movie figures, Spider-Man 3 Minimates, Marvel Zombies Minimates, Marvel Legends Icons Wave 2, and the Hasbro Marvel Legends Wave 3. Not pictured are the previously announced X-Men III Colossus, WWII Captain America, WWII Bucky, and a Hydra Soldier.

DC:

• There’s really only 5 big points to hit on from the DC panel from today, and they can all be capsulated in image form. Images mirrored from Newsarama’s coverage.

I went by my local comic shop on Wednesday to pick up the final issue of Civil War and the new Immortal Iron Fist and to my surprise, I found DC Minimates! While I didn’t pick any up on this trip, I did manage to score a free poster showing some of the upcoming figures and when they are expected to be released. Start hunting DC and Minimate fans!

• There’s minimal to report at the moment – just lots of room to speculate – but Warner has hired Kiernan and Michele Mulroney (who and who?) to write a script for a Justice League movie. I wonder, if they actually get those Wonder Woman and Flash movies out the door, are the leads (like Brandon Routh and Christian Bale) going to be up for parts in it? I’d imagine the budget couldn’t allow for it, but it’s fun to think about. Ooh, but if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll get Giffen, Dematteis, & Maguire’s Detriot League! (Dare to dream, friends, dare to dream.)
• In case you missed that animated Invincible Iron Man movie, you have a chance to see it for free on Cartoon Network on Saturday, March 3rd.
• Again we turn to Cartoon Network, which will be premeiring the second Hellboy animated feature, Hellboy: Blood & Iron on Saturday, March 10th. I missed the first one, but hopefully I’ll be a little more on-the-ball for this one.

Year Zero, the new album from Nine Inch Nails has a teaser trailer.

Yeah, that spooked me too.

The viral marketing campaign to get the word out on this has gone above and beyond youtube videos or strategicly placed lite brites. Following tour dates in Portugal and Spain, NIN concertgoers have been finding USB flash drives left in bathroom stalls containing new songs from the album. Some of these drives contain files of static that when analyzed through a spectrogram reveal images or phone numbers leading to clips of more songs or bizarre 911 calls. Its a good thing NIN fans are so willing to dissect every bit of info they get because I doubt other artists would live up to this scrutiny.

Year Zero has been described by NIN Mastermind Trent Reznor as a concept album and a “soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist” about anything from the future, politics, to the end of the world. Naturally, Reznor mentions Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad production as an influence. Those less educated with Public Enemy’s work might think Nine Inch Nails is making a rap record, but he’s actually referring to the mechanical and static nature of loops and samples. The first single, “Survivalism” is already being played on many radio stations and will be added to many more today. Dial up your local rock station and request it.

The breakout release on the download circuit this week has to go to Playstation Network’s “fl0w”

Fl0w comes from Jenova Chen, the lead behind the highly creative PC game Cloud. It looks like a mash up between Katamari Damacy and Geometry Wars. You control a small organism in a vast expanse of water, and can gobble up those smaller than you, but avoid anything bigger. Naturally, with everything you eat, your microscopic character grows and you’ll be able to take on larger organisms.

Wii Virtual Console gets one of my all time favorites this week with Donkey Kong Country. I mentioned to fellow Powet Army solider Phil Bond that this game is every bit as good as Super Mario World, and I stand by that. Going in for a few levels of Co-op and then beating that giant beaver, all the platforming fun came rushing back. This was truly a special game that resides somewhere between the retro cool of the NES days and the less favorably remembered 32-bit revolution. Back when this came out, the Playstation and Saturn hype machines were getting ready to roar, then Rare and Nintendo dropped a Super NES game that looked better than anything on a CD based system! Sure it wasn’t 3D, but 3D was pretty much a disaster until Mario 64 came along, so this remains one of the great 2D games from the days when 2D was starting to fade.

Xbox Live is taking the shaft 2 weeks in a row now. Wednesday used to be the day to grab new Live Arcade games, but the most notable release to Marketplace recently has been the Borat dashboard theme and picture pack (I’ve taken Azamat as my avatar!). Team 17 hopes to have Worms ready soon, but have been frustrated by Microsoft’s constant delays. THQ announced they’re releasing in a box, much to our surprise. Tetris Evolution better be budget priced, because theres no reason that the world’s most popular puzzle game wouldn’t fit Live Arcade’s standards. An even though I own many other versions of Tetris (in arms reach, I have no less than 5 copies ready to go), I’ll probably buy this Xbox 360 version too.

The Brave & The Bold
written by Mark Waid, art by George Perez

The name might sound more like the title of a soap opera than a comic book, but those that know, know that “The Brave & The Bold” is a proud, longstanding DC tradition. Similar to Marvel’s “Marvel Team-Up” (which has a name that’s a bit more to the point), the book will feature a pairing of DC characters, working together to do superheroic things. The plot is going to spin larger and larger, bringing in new people to help out in some areas, and leaving other people to work on others, but the starting point is a mystery that Hal Jordan needs help to solve – so he turns to Earth’s greatest detective. Something about him finding a corpse in orbit, I think. I can’t remember now.

With the DC-tastic Mark Waid on writing, and the legendary George Perez on art, this book is a must buy for any one that has even a passing interest in superheroes. I’m not as dedicated a fan of DC as I am of Marvel, but I fully anticipate this being one of the best books in a while, based on the skills of the creative team alone. If they can even live up to half their proven potential, this book should be a must-buy every single month.

Newsarama just broke the news that Rich Johnston’s Lying In The Gutters has been talking about for weeks now: After we reach issue #52 of DC’s wallet-devouring “52” series, the new book “Countdown” takes over and counts down back to Zero. Or to One. I’m not sure, but going to Zero would give them another even 52, and my feeble mind likes symmetry.

Regardless, you can see the mirrored image from May Previews right at the beginning of the post. And as far as the writing team, it looks like Paul Dini’s heading up the writing staff, with Keith Giffen still chained to the table to provide page breakdowns. The books start arriving in stores on May 9th, at which point DC will no doubt celebrate by using money for toilet paper and setting their most loyal fanboys on fire.