The Binquirer, Pre-Con Edition: New 52 changes, Marvel NOW!, San Diego Comic Con, Amazing Spider-Man, and much more!

Comics News
The Binquirer, Pre-Con Edition: New 52 changes, Marvel NOW!, San Diego Comic Con, Amazing Spider-Man, and much more!
By The Editors
July 10, 2012 - 11:56

The Binquirer isn't just an asinine pun; it's also your best source for pop-culture news. Here at the Bin, we're dedicated to making your reading experience more fulfilling, and our new aggregated news articles, The Binquirers, will keep you up to date on comic books, films, video games, and more in one frequent and concise package. Enjoy our first installment below!

DC Comics:

Last week DC released a deluge of press releases touting their October 2012 line-up changes and events. Among the headlines were announcements of Chew and Mars Attacks scribe John Layman and fan-favorite artist Jason Fabok taking the reins of Detective Comics from longtime Batman/Detective writer/artist Tony Daniel.

The Joker will be returning in Greg Capullo and Scott Snyder's Batman with October's issue #13, beginning an arc entitled "Death of the Family," a play on the classic Batman tale "A Death in the Family" which saw the death of Jason Todd at the hands of the Joker.

Ann Nocenti has also been tapped to wrest the Catwoman series from current writer Judd Winnick, and comic book legend Joe Kubert will be helming his very own six-issue anthology series, Joe Kubert Presents.

The Green Lantern family books (Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, and New Guardians) will also experience a three-part crossover entitled "Rise of the Third Army."

The next wave of New 52 year one annuals will include Swamp Thing, Batgirl, Justice League Dark, and Action Comics in October as well.

Black Lightning and Blue Devil will concurrently make their New 52 debuts in the anthological monthly DC Universe Presents. The new arc will be written by Marc Andreyko and rendered by Robson Rocha.

The creators linked to Black Lightning and Blue Devil, namely Tony Isabella, Dan Mishkin, and Gary Cohn, have met the news with less than enthusiastic responses on Facebook, corroborating recent allegations made by Alan Moore of DC's frequent mistreatment of its creators in regards to their properties.

The full DC Comics October solicitations can be found at dccomics.com.

Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's Batman: Earth One debuted last Wednesday, and much like its predecessor, Superman: Earth One, it was met with some critical ambivalence. Of course, a greater number of poor ratings didn't keep the aforementioned Superman book from soaring to the top of trade charts, so we'll have to wait and see how its Batman-centric follow-up fares sales-wise. Read our review of Batman: Earth One here.

While Marvel's Avengers vs. X-Men #5 and 6 topped Diamond Distributors' sales charts for June, DC dominated the top ten with Batman #10, Justice League #10, and the four Before Watchmen debuts claiming the next six spots.

In other news, you should really stop buying that Before Watchmen stuff. Does your fandom know no shame?

Marvel Comics:

Marvel assures fans that its October slated relaunch, Marvel NOW!, is not a reboot, though many continue to insist that it is. The new comics, Uncanny Avengers, Avengers, and All-New X-Men, are merely being launched with the intention of shaking things up creatively for the publisher. Uncanny Avengers will be written by FEAR Agent and Uncanny X-Force scribe Rick Remender and will see the much-anticipated return of Planetary artist John Cassaday to monthly comics. The series will showcase an amalgamated team of Avengers and X-Men, with team leaders Captain America and Wolverine playing yin to one another's yang. Remender also let fans know via Twitter to expect the female counterparts, Scarlet Witch and Rogue, of the ensemble cast, rounded out by Thor and Havoc, to receive as much, if not more, focus from him than their male teammates.

Avengers #1 will be written by FF's Jonathan Hickman with art by the brilliant Jerome Opena. Though Fantastic Four, FF, and Ultimates fans are sad to see him depart from those books, Hickman has expressed that writing the Avengers was simply an opportunity that he could not pass up.

All-New X-Men #1 will be written by industry lame duck and adult Gerber baby model Brian Michael Bendis with art by Stuart Immonen.

Read more about Marvel NOW! here and about the leaked Uncanny Avengers #1 cover here.

Image Comics' Joe Keatinge, editor of the award-winning Popgun anthology books, is also coming to Marvel, writing a mini-series that will delineate the origins of the villain Thanos.

More Comics:

Last week, Dark Horse launched, on its digital reader app, the comic book companion to THQ's Darksiders II video game. The digital comic costs only 99 cents, but lamentably does not feature any involvement by Darksiders co-creator and art director, Joe Madureira. The video game hits consoles and PCs on August 14, 2012.

This week, everyone is gearing up for San Diego Comic Con, which will run July 12-15 with preview night on the 11th.

Image Comics has released a rather cryptic teaser that encourages Comic Con attendees to "buy sex" at the annual event this year. They've also got some interesting plans for October, much like their mainstream competition: Top Cow big-wig Marc Silvestri will be resurrecting his Cyber Force franchise, and the first issue will be absolutely free of charge.

Milehigh Comics, the Denver megastore featured in Morgan Spurlock's Comic Con documentary, reports that it has shipped a record number of backissues and books for this year's Con. Better yet, Milehigh will have Air writer G. Willow Wilson signing at their booth!

San Diego Comic Con's full schedule, guest list, booth map, Harvey- and Eisner-award nominations, and exclusives are currently available here.

Film and Television:

Amazing Spider-Man made holiday box office records, raking in a cool $140 million globally after only six days in the states. Read our review of the film here.

The Dark Knight Rises, the last film in director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, will undoubtedly rival the monumental open of Marvel's The Avengers, even with stiff summer competition. The film hits theaters next Friday, but ticket preorders to the midnight premier went on sale a few weeks ago. Cinemaspy.com reports that just after the first round of critics screenings of the film, Oscar buzz is already in the air.

E! Online announced yesterday that Chris Nolan has confirmed he will in no way, production or otherwise, be involved in future Batman or Justice League films. Nolan and his wife Emma Thomas are producing the Zack Snyder directed Superman reboot, Man of Steel, due in theaters next year.

A thirteen minute making-of video for The Dark Knight Rises has recently been released by Warner Bros.

Rumored, almost vehemently, to be announced at San Diego Comic Con is Marvel Comics' Guardians of the Galaxy film, and as The LA Times' Hero Complex postulates, Joss Whedon just might be the one announcing it.

Bleeding Cool reports Dredd screenwriter Alex Garland says that a sequel will be in the works even if the film only performs nominally its opening weekend and that the sequel will likely be a Judge Dredd origin story.

Video games:

iFanboy uncovered a little site called Hitmonkey.com over the weekend. The new website is promoting an Activision game slated for 2013 based on Daniel Way's Marvel Comics series about, well--a monkey who kills people.

ComicBookBin:

At the behest of the editors, the Bin is restructuring. Readers will be seeing vast improvements with reliable and regular column schedules, themed days, and more.

Also, stayed tuned as we report live from San Diego Comic Con, July 11-15!