Tagged: Dark Reign

Marvel & DC News from Retailer Summit

Marvel & DC News from Retailer Summit

Heidi MacDonald’s The Beat has a nice breakdown of the various news nuggets that came out of the just-concluded Diamond Retailers’ Summit in Las Vegas. Here are some of the highlights from the two majors:

In addition to Dark Reign, Marvel announced that television ads will run to promote Secret Invasion and The Stand miniseries.

The company recognized the success of its Invincible Iron Man series and has planned one for next May when X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens, joining Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins and Wolverine First Class. Similarly, three new What If ?one-shots will explore fresh takes on major events.

Marvel is gearing up for its 70th anniversary and part of the plans will include a new Marvel Index, a second volume of Marvel’s Greatest Collections and the inauguration of trade paperback versions of their Masterworks, commencing in January and continuing with one title per month.

In storylines, the third Marvel Zombies miniseries will be set in the core Marvel universe and they promised the return of the mutant Psylocke. Teases included Sinister 666, a female Black Panther.
 

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‘Dark Reign’ Descends on Marvel Universe

‘Dark Reign’ Descends on Marvel Universe

Last night, Marvel hosted a presentation during Diamond Comics Distributors’ retailer summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, where their next big crossover was announced. Writer Brian Michael Bendis took the stage and said Dark Reign will shine a spotlight on the Marvel Universe in the wake of Secret Invasion, which concludes in November.

Similar to SI, the titles participating in Dark Reign will carry distinctive trade dress.

With the Skrull invasion of Earth reaching its climax, Bendis took the opportunity to discuss how the Avengers titles, which he writes, will be altered.  He announced his departure from Mighty Avengers after issue #20 to move to yet another spin-off, Dark Avengers. Joining him will be Mike Deodato, who just left illustrating Thunderbolts.

Bendis also promised his next series with artist Alex Maleev, Spider-Woman: Agent of SWORD, was still forthcoming.

Marvel went on to formally announce a new Ultimates title, Ultimate Avengers, from writer Mark Millar, which can be expected during the first quarter of 2009. With the revamping of the Ultimates universe forthcoming, this is likely the replacement for The Ultimates.

Confirming that the black and white teasers that have been around for weeks now are something new, they announced Marvel Noir, a new sub-imprint that will kick off with X-Men and Spider-Man titles. No creative teams, format or scheduling was mentioned.