What surprises await us after the jump?
This past weekend at the Baltimore Comic Con, a rather momentous occasion for comic fans took place. This event was the Diamond Comic Distributors Retailers Summit, in which the primary distributor for comics in America puts together the equivalent of network televisions upfronts, giving advertisers and retailers country wide an opportunity to see what exactly they’ll be seeing from the main publishers in the coming months.
What does that mean for us, the average Joe fan? Well, it turns out it means there are some really cool events coming our way, and some real head scratchers. See after the jump for more.
Siege: Siege, in many ways, is the event comic that every fan of the Marvel Universe has been waiting for since Brian Michael Bendis effectively took over creative control of company wide events. It began with Avengers: Disassembled, led to House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion, and Dark Reign, and it will end with Siege. This title promises to bring together the holy trinity of the Marvel Universe for the first time in a decade, as Norman Osborn’s desire to sack Asgard draws the attention of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the collected heroes of the MU. It’s Osborn, the Cabal, and H.A.M.M.E.R. versus the collected Avengers, and it promises to be an incredible ride.
Given that it is such a promising storyline and has so much building into it, you know it would be at the very least entertaining. However, reteaming Bendis with his House of M partner Oliver Coipel (recently of Thor) was a master stroke, as Coipel captures this type of event with as much power and care as any artist out there. This is the culmination of a decade of storytelling by Marvel Comics, and you better believe it will be all anyone is talking about upon release.
Of course, if it ends up being that Newsarama is correct in their theory that Mephisto really is the dark man behind Osborn, this will be an even bigger event than originally imagined. All of Dark Reign wrapping up in concert with the actions from One More Day. Crazy.
Other Avengers note: Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung (the team supreme from Young Avengers) are pairing up once again for a mini titled Avengers: Children’s Crusade, which finds the Young Avengers finally confronting the Scarlet Witch. Awesomeness will assuredly ensue, delays are expected.
X-Men: Second Coming: We finally have it – the third and final piece to the Messiah trilogy, as this event that will take place in the pages of X-Men Legacy, Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, and New Mutants brings Hope (the only mutant to be born since House of M) and Cable back to the present and directly into the sights of Bastion (villan extraordinaire and basically the ultimate Sentinel). This series is still a bit mysterious, but the cover by David Finch is quite exciting, as is the promise of pairing the gifts of talented writers like Mike Carey, Matt Fraction, Zeb Wells, Craig Kyle, and Chris Yost. Very few details right now, but we’ll pass them on as we get them.
Jeph Loeb Extravaganzas: With his recent work being received with derision and (occasionally) outright hatred, it is very hard to get excited about new projects from the once beloved mind of Jeph Loeb. Whether it is his work with the Red Hulk, Ultimatum (once described by a reviewer as “murder porn” – not us), Onslaught Reborn (pairing Loeb with Liefeld no less), Ultimates 3, or Captain America: White (a title which never came to pass but was the best of his work because it basically didn’t exist), Loeb has earned a place as one of the most reviled creators today.
Yet, given the creators he is working with and the concepts behind them, we’re allowing ourselves an extremely tentative level of excitement about his upcoming work in the Ultimate Comics universe. Up first he has a collaboration with Frank Cho titled New Ultimates, a bi-monthly series in which the stories of the Ultimate Comics universe’s “ultimate” superhero team are told. How it will pair with Mark Millar’s work with the Ultimates is unknown, nor can we tell which title will 
be more ultimate.
The latter series, titled Ultimate X, ties up loose ends from Ultimatum (of which I’m sure there are many) and pairs Loeb with Art Adams. Early thoughts are that it will deal with the mutant population in the Ultimate Comics universe, however, Loeb insists that this is not the only intent of the series. Time will tell on that, but from this reader, here’s hoping no one is eaten in this series.
Dark Tower: The Gunslinger: As a fan of this series, it was exciting to hear that Marvel renewed their contract with Stephen King to keep producing more Dark Tower materials. This title has been a uniformly good one, and to hear that they are bringing back the team of Peter David, Robin Furth, and Richard Isanove (sadly, no Jae Lee) for one more run means that we can expect more stellar retellings of Roland Deschain’s adventures across Mid-World.
Expect more awesome from this series in 2010.
DoomWar: To me, this series sounds a bit on the ridiculous side and a little non-sensical, but it is pretty big news. In February, 2010 (right when all characters involved with this story are busy with Siege), the Black Panther creative team (Jonathan Maberry, Will Conrad and Ken Lashley) will bring war to Dr. Doom in the form of T’Challa, the new Black Panther, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and…Deadpool (because it is required for ‘Pool to be in everything now). While Maberry himself insists that this series has been building since Civil War and Dark Reign and that it ties into earlier issues of the Black Panther series (which will be on hiatus during this), it seems a bit fishy to me.
Where exactly does this series fit into continuity, with Doom being heavily involved with Siege at the exact same time? We’ll see if Maberry can pull this off, but I’m definitely looking at this series with a watchful eye to see if it will be a money grab or a legitimately well designed mini-series. Only time will tell.
Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard: 2010 is a big year for David Petersen’s beloved creation from Archaia Press. Not only are we getting a new mini-series from Petersen (Mouse Guard: The Black Axe), but Petersen is giving free reign to a number of other creators to expand on the mythology of his universe in a series (that will be released alternately with The Black Axe) called Mouse Guard: Legend of the Guard. Creators will include Mark Smylie, Jeremy Bastian, and many more, and as a rule, more Mouse Guard is never a bad thing. If you’re a fan of this wonderful series, this is great news indeed.
First Wave: What can you possibly say that is remotely negative about 100 Bullets co-creator Brian Azzarello reviving old DC pulp properties like Doc Savage and The Spirit? DC is giving Azzarello and entirely separate universe to play with, one in which Doc Savage is effectively the Superman of that world, and it all kicks off with a Doc Savage/Batman one-shot coming in 2010. It will be illustrated by Phil Noto.
Upon completion of that, there will be a six-issue prestige format mini-series written by Azzarello and drawn by Rags Morales called First Wave in which they effectively create this new universe. This is an extremely exciting thought, and I have to admit, I cannot wait for it to be released. The only way this announcement could get any better is if they announced that once First Wave is over, that Darwyn Cooke will be taking over The Spirit once again. Cross your fingers, comic fans.
The Whedonverse: Not a lot of info came from this panel, as Joss Whedon was not present, but Georges Jeanty, Jo Chen, and Scott Allie did drop a few interesting tidbits. Buffy Season 8 sounds as if it will run until around issue 40, at which point they will take a break, put together a few mini’s, and have season 9 start up in time for 2011 and Dark Horse Comics 25th anniversary. Not only that, but Allie did note one interesting Firefly/Serenity tidbit: a Shepherd Book mini is forthcoming as a writer has been found, but they are still eagerly looking for an artist for the series. Once they find that person, they will have Ron Glass (Shepherd Book himself) announce it.
Very exciting news for an avid Browncoat such as myself.
