NYCC 2010 Round-Up

-Marvel announced the next character to get the “Astonishing” treatment, and that character is Captain America. Astonishing Captain America will be a five or six issue mini-series that will be written by Andy Diggle (Daredevil, Shadowland) and feature artwork by Adi Granov (Iron Man & Iron Man films). People have been wondering if this mini-series will take place in the film continuity, due to the similarities in the Captain America uniform, but Mr. Diggle has let everyone know that this is not the case. Look for in early 2011.

- Starting with issue #36, Astonishing X-Men will go back to a regular shipping schedule and also get a new regular creative team. That team will be writer Daniel Way (Deadpool, Wolverine: Origins) and artist Jason Pearson (covers for Deadpool). This series is not to be confused with the Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis mini-series by Warren Ellis and Kaare Andrews.

-The upcoming arc in Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four, entitled 3, will see the death of one of the team members. As a nod to another famous comic book death, Marvel has decided to release the first issue in a black bag with the number 3 on the outside. Sounds kind of cool…

-February will see the launch of Iron Man 2.0 as a new ongoing series. As opposed to having another monthly starring Tony Stark, this book will feature Colonel James Rhodes (Rhodey) aka War Machine, in a new suit of armour. The book is being planned as a stand alone series where you don’t have to read the regular Iron Man series in order to follow it, but also act as a companion piece to Invincible Iron Man which will pay off more if you read both. Writer Nick Spencer, new to Marvel, will write the book, while Barry Kitson will handle the art chores.

-Like Thor and Daredevil before it, the Iron Man series (Invincible Iron Man) will return to it’s classic numbering with the 600^th issue. Look for this in early 2011.

-Marvel announced that we will finally get an Ultimate Captain America mini-series. The series will be brought to us by writer Jason Aaron (Scalped) and artist Ron Garney (Captain America in the 1990’s). The story will supposedly feature a Captain America from the Vietnam War era. The secret identity of this new Cap will be familiar to comics fans, according to the creators.

-Brian Bendis made a few cool announcements as well. First: Brian Bendis and regular collaborator Alex Maleev (they did Sam & Twitch, Daredevil, Spider-Woman, and Scarlet) have announced that they are currently working on a new interpretation of Moon Knight. Supposedly they were tasked with taking on the character in a whole new way, and they came up with a great angle. Bendis insists that work on their creator-owned series from ICON, Scarlet (which is bi-monthly), will not be affected by this new series. The creators plan on doing both. The second announcement was that Bendis, along with another long time collaborator, Mike Avon Oeming, will be launching a new creator-owned all ages series from Marvel’s ICON imprint called Takio. The series will feature two sisters with superpowers with a mild dislike of each other. The goal with this series is to release a graphic novel sized book once a year. Bendis and Oeming are taking a page from fellow ICON talent Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips book and will rotate between their creator-owned series. Bru and Philly cut time between Criminal and Incognito, both of which come out from ICON.

-Following the all the negative press of raising the prices on many of their books to $3.99 from $2.99, DC has announced that they will be rolling back several series to the original $2.99 price tag. This change should come into effect in the next few weeks. Marvel will be following suit starting in January 2011.

-Months ago DC announced that Jim Lee and Frank Miller, the creative team behind All-Star Batman & Robin, would be coming back to the All-Star universe with a new mini-series starring Robin. Well…we finally have a date. February 2001 will see the release of Dark Knight: Boy Wonder. No word on how long the series is set to run, but the delay until February may be so Jim Lee can have the series fully penciled before an issue is even on the stands. …but I’m not holding my breathe.

-Geoff Johns announced that the first issue of a new ongoing series starring one of the new “Corps” has already been completed. No word on which Corps is getting it’s own book, but my bets are on the Red Lantern Corps. If not the Red corps, could it be the “Pink Lanterns” of Zamaron as led by Carol Ferris?

-Rumour has it that writer James Robinson is currently working on a new ongoing Hawkman series. No artist was rumoured along with the Robinson news, but we’ll update y’all when we get the update.

-J.H. Williams new Batwoman series will launch in November with a #0 issue, with a new #1 following in February 2011. The #0 issue will coincide with the release of the various new Batman series.

-…and last but not least: Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly are supposedly working on a sequel to the graphic novel “New York 5″. As the line they launched the first OGN under no longer exists, we can expect to see this new OGN (and perhaps a re-print of the original) from DC’s adult division, Vertigo.