This weekend, Multiversity will be attending their very first comic convention as a site. Brandon and myself will be flying down from Anchorage, Alaska to take in the festivities and to do some interviews. It should be an amazing time and filled with rubbing elbows with some of the best in the business. I mean come on, look at this guest list...it's a who's who of comic creators.

Mike Allred, Laura Allred, Brian Azzarello, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Kurt Busiek, Jo Chen, Colleen Coover, Farel Dalrymple, Matt Fraction, Kieron Gillen, Pia Guerra, Brandon Graham, David Hahn, Phil Hester, Geoff Johns, Joe Kelly, Matt Kindt, Scott Kurtz, John Layman, Jeff Lemire, Corey Lewis, Steve Lieber, Rob Liefeld, Kevin Maguire, Alex Maleev, Sean Murphy, Ryan Ottley, Jeff Parker, Jason Pearson, Joe Quesada, Darick Robertson, James Robinson, Jim Rugg, Andy Runton, Tim Sale, Dave Stewart, Ben Templesmith, Jill Thompson, Jhonen Vasquez, Mark Waid, J.H. Williams III, G. Willow Wilson (AND MORE!)

We'll be sitting down with some of our favorites, including Allred, Bendis, John Layman, Patrick Gleason, Murphy, and others to talk current works and more. Our interviews will be filmed and posted up next week, and we'll be hopefully posting updates as soon as we get them from the con (we'll be emailing like crazy from the panels, assuredly). Well, that is if we aren't having an awesome overload and geeking out from cool sketches and fantastic conversations.

If you're at the con, feel free to stop by and talk to us (we're the guys from these videos - minus David Petersen). Maybe you'll make it on to one of our podcasts. See you in Seattle everyone!

Batman #700 is coming this June, and we knew DC would do something big for the cover of that milestone issue. Given that he's been putting together all of their most premium covers lately, it's unsurprising that they announced that David Finch would be illustrating that cover. It is perhaps a bit surprising how damn awesome it is, giving us a Batman that is steeped in all of the things that define him: darkness, mystery and Gotham City. The only complaint perhaps is his ridiculously ripped right arm, but all in all it's a pretty awesome cover.

Another week, another round-up! Welcome to From The Editor's Desk, in which I provide you a nice collective round-up of all the things we did this week. Well, at least since the previous round-up. It was a pretty busy week for us, so I'm more than pleased to have a nice concise way to bring it all together for your viewing pleasure. So as you wind down your weekend, enjoy this nice little round-up.

Stay tuned, as next week will most likely explode. Brandon and David are going to ECCC this weekend, so keep your eyes open for them. They'll be watching you.

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In one of my older Multiversity 101 posts, I looked at using comic books as a literacy aid. In it, I spoke with a number of people affiliated with the movement including filmmaker Todd Kent. Kent was in the process of creating a documentary called Comic Book Literacy, in which he spoke to creators like Paul Dini, Scott McCloud, and Art Spiegelman about the merits of comic books in the school system.

I have the documentary itself, and I'll be putting up a review of it next week. Soon enough you'll have a chance to see it yourself as it will be premiering at C2E2 in Chicago in April. Check out the press release after the jump, but this is a very worthy cause and a very interesting documentary. Don't miss it, and make sure to check out the trailer above.

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With Matt Fraction taking over Thor with issue #611, many had wondered who the artist would be. After early rumors of John Romita Jr. were squashed, the truth is now out: Ultimate Iron Man 2 and Ender's Game artist Pasqual Ferry will be taking over art duties on the same issue.

This addition leaves me with a bit of mixed emotions. While I really enjoy aspects of Ferry's art, he has a tendency to be repetitive on his character models and his backgrounds occasionally lack definition. With this title already featuring many Asgardians who have a tendency to look like each other as well as epic locations, both of those negatives seem to work together poorly. I'll definitely be reading and I think he could do a good job, I'm just wondering if these potential negatives will rear their ugly head on the series.

From the looks of things, it should see launch in June. I guess we'll find out then.

This morning, DC's The Source posted a preview of the upcoming issue of Batman. It is the finale of the Black Mask arc that came about in the wake of Battle for the Cowl, where a new Black Mask arrived in Gotham City to cause trouble for Dick. We've been teased a bit as to the identity of Black Mask, and all signs point to it being someone familiar. It definitely isn't the original Black Mask, though, as he was confirmed dead in the Catwoman Blackest Night tie-in.

Who wears the Black Mask? The true identity of Gotham City's new crimelord is finally revealed and that identity will surprise everybody – especially Batman! And after the final showdown between Black Mask and The Dark Knight, will things ever be the same for Kittyhawk and the Reaper?

So who do you think the Black Mask is? The book, written and drawn by Tony Daniel, comes out on the 17th.

So there you have it. The final two members of the initial team of Avengers Academy. On the left we have Finesse, a rather fiesty looking character, and on the right is Hazmat, who looks like she might have some relation to former Thunderbolt Radioactive Man. This rounds up our team with a nice 6 members, and we're set off to begin Avengers Academy in June, by Christos Gage and Mike McKone.

This is probably the last Avengers teaser we are going to see, and it rounds up the fourth of new Avengers on-goings: Avengers, New Avengers v2, Secret Avengers, and Avengers Academy. On top of that, we have several new series starting up (such as Hawkeye and Mockingbird) and an Avengers mini (Avengers Prime), all set to start in May and June.

So: what books will you be getting?

Back before Infinite Crisis, there was a tie-in to the ramp up to that event called Villains United. Written by Gail Simone and drawn by current Fantastic Four artist Dale Eaglesham, it featured a rag tag group of also-rans who refused to bow to the whims of one Lex Luthor. Luthor in turn tried to have them whacked, which surprisingly turned out to be one of the most enjoyable and epic battles in recent memory.

Flash forward to today. Another mini (this time actually called “Secret Six”) and an ongoing later, the book has turned into one of my favorite team books published by DC, and one that finds itself at the top of the stack each month. Here’s why.

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Hello again! It's that time of week again! What time of week? The Multiversity Comics podcast time of week! Episode 3 of Spoiler Alert (with Matt and Mocle) is now online for your enjoyment! Feel free to hop on iTunes and grab a personal copy, or listen below!

Also, we are still taking submissions for our mail bag! You can mail questions and suggestions to spoileralert@multiversitycomics.com and you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes by clicking here or by checking out the button on the side of the page! And don't forget to check mattlovescomics for the weekly mail bag posting, and feel free to join our forum if you have anything you want to say. Of course, you could just say anything in this post!

And remember: spoilers abound.

As the search for Captain America continues, it appears Marvel is closing in on their villainous lead. Everyone knew from the beginning that The First Avenger: Captain America's main villain would be the Red Skull, and now it looks like they are getting close to casting Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, Lord of the Rings) as Hitler's right hand man according to Heat Vision Blog.

While no Captain America has been cast, this is a great indicator for the quality of the film as Weaving is exceptional at villains and really feels right for the role. He's no stranger to genre films, and hopefully he's signed and it starts a domino effect of solid casting decisions for this film.

More as it comes, which should be soon as HVB suggested that it will all come together or fall apart over the next couple days

According to a report today from Forbes.com, comic fans have a little something to look forward to when the Apple iPad launches April 3rd. It seems that the iBookstore will include twenty different "top level" book categories, one of which is "Comics & Graphic Novels", which also includes sub-categories such as "Manga." What content will be in there is uncertain, but regardless this is exciting for those that were hoping that Apple would put a little focus on the world of comics.

We'll give you more as we get it about the iPad's comicking capabilities, but it's looking fairly positive for fans of the medium.

Pete Woods has been a long time fan favorite artist, having put together a nice resume of work including work on Deadpool, Catwoman, and the recent Last Stand of New Krypton Superman story. With nothing lined up after that, Woods' fans pondered what was next for him.

Well, it looks like he's returning to an old haunt, as he and writer Marc Guggenheim will be working together as the new Action Comics team. Better yet they will now be joined by cover artist du jour David Finch, whose debut Action cover is above. While I think this all sounds like good news, let's see what resident Superfan Gil thinks later on.

Multiversity Comics as a whole are huge fans of The Luna Brothers' Image title The Sword. It's created some fantastic new characters, some high concept and thrilling moments, and has been uniformly quality since its launch. Now the series is wrapping up soon, and Image Comics announced today that the finale will be a double size, 40 page issue. Series co-creators Jonathan and Joshua Luna spoke with Newsarama about the upcoming finale, and promised some serious fireworks.

"Like GIRLS #24, we absolutely needed more pages to tell the final issue of The Sword," said artist Jonathan Luna. "We were trying to fit it all in 22 pages, but there's just so much to tell. We hope everyone enjoys more story!"

Writer Joshua Luna added: "This is the ending we've been keeping a secret and dying to reveal since this series' conception, so we cannot wait until readers get their hands on it."

That's great news for fans of The Sword, and if you haven't read it yet you have time to catch up before the sure to be shocking finale on May 12th. The first three volumes are out in trade, so get on that now!

Day 4 of the Avengers Academy teasers hits us with another new character: Fortress. This is perhaps the oddest character design we've seen yet, as he definitely looks rather robotic versus being some kind of kid (which begs the question: can't they just install training?). That and his hands are rather large when compared with the rest of his body. Newsarama speculates that this could possibly be an instructor due to the older look, but I imagine that, given that it's a new character, he'll probably be training with the rest of them.

Needless to say, the book is shaping up in an odd direction, but the nice thing about it is that it is clearly an all new thing for Avengers fans to get into, and will easily be the most accessible to new people. On this week's podcast, Mocle and I discuss the possibility of how the Academy will fit in with the rest of the universe (in regards specifically to the Initiative). It'll be interesting to see how it turns out, and certainly with Gage and McKone on the title, it won't be a terrible book by any shape of the imagination.

Avengers Academy hits in June. Will you be enlisting?

A day after the release of Red Robin #10, DC has announced the series' next writer to be Fabian Nicieza, beginning in July with issue #13. What does Nicieza have to say about his new duties?

“It feels great to be back on Red Robin for the first time! Having the opportunity to close out Tim Drake’s Robin series was bittersweet. He’s a character I’ve always wanted to write, but it was a tumultuous, dark time for him and I was writing the book knowing the series would end and evolve into Red Robin.

“I was reading Chris Yost’s first year on the series with jealous admiration in that he was doing a great job, getting to work with an excellent young artist in Marcus To and getting to move Tim through the darkness into a better place as a way of natural story evolution!

“To unexpectedly get the chance to come back at this time, with Tim Drake in a more positive place mentally, stepping into his own as a young adult and better prepared to develop his own distinctive approach to crimefighting — both in Gotham City and across the world — only means the hundreds of stories I’ve always wanted to tell with the character now number in the thousands!

“What lies ahead? Adventure, mystery, complex moral issues, an evolving rogue’s gallery specific to the character, romantic triangles (maybe quadrangles!), fun and humor all ripe for the picking! I can’t wait for readers to see this excellent character’s continuing development into something unique and special in the DC Universe!”

While normally not a fan of Nicieza's more "serious" ventures (Cable & Deadpool, of course, being something else entirely), I was at least satisfied with his ending arc for the original Robin ongoing. However, Nicieza will definitely need to step it up in order to follow Chris Yost's excellent year on the title, particularly in the field of character development (which Yost knocked the socks off of). Here's hoping Fabian's run on Red Robin starts out stronger than his Azrael did.

This information courtesy of The Source.