New Age News: Capullo to Haunt, Avengers Cancelled, Birds of Prey Returns and Video Games!

Since early last week there have been a few announcements I didn’t foresee being announced. Otherwise I wouldn’t be doing another New Age News so soon. Trust me. Now sadly for all you JLI fans I don’t have anything to say on the Generation Lost bi-weekly or really much else from DC with the exception of Birds of Prey. This will be a somewhat light edition but I haven’t been able to write much all weekend thanks to hurting my wrist so I’m just glad to be writing something at all! Now lets get to the news.

Capullo the Official Haunt Artist

Birds of Prey Reboot

Avengers Cancelled

Video Game News

Greg Capullo is Haunt’s new Artist

This one blew me away when I read it this morning. I honestly didn’t believe it when I saw it, but I read it right, Greg Capullo is the official artist of Haunt as of issue #6. Awe damn. Seems Ottley was getting a little torn between both books and when he knew he had to choose one he chose Invincible, a smart choice I figure.

So then Capullo was given an alternative as well, return to Spawn or draw Haunt. To be honest I loved Capullo’s run on Spawn but I can totally support why he’s not drawing the comic that helped make him famous. He drew Spawn longer then anyone else has I believe, and he turned in amazing work, but even legends like Kirby an Romita Sr. moved on from the books that made them famous.

So Greg Capullo drawing Haunt is excellent news for me. Now mind you I’ve loved Ottley’s work as of recently, he’s really grown to the book and he fits it beautifully so seeing him leave is sad. Hopefully he’ll still do a random one-shot every once in a blue moon and turn in some covers because his art works well with the series.

Still he left on his own decision which I totally respect. Not to mention I’d hate to see him leave Invincible even though I’ve enjoyed his work so far on Haunt. So at least I’ll still be getting my Ottley greatness, even if not twice a month.

All that and Greg Capullo is drawing a monthly again! YES! Capullo has done a random comic here and there, covers for Spawn and now layouts for Haunt but as far as a monthly gig he hasn’t had that in years. Seeing him drawing the book he’s helped make popular with his strong lay out designs is excellent.

I love Capullo’s art so seeing him on a monthly basis is great. Exactly what I love and I’m more then certain he’ll excel on Haunt. He’s already done a couple of great covers so seeing him tackle the interiors and pencils will be excellent, I can’t wait to see him on a monthly basis again after all these years.

So yeah I’ve been loving Haunt and this announcement just furthers my excitement for the series. Kirkman’s excellent and fun writing along with Capullo’s great pencils are sure to make a great comic each month and while I’ll miss Ottley the sheer fact that I’ll be seeing Capullo every month just fills me with so much joy.

Birds of Prey Returns

Silly DC, thinking you could keep a good team down. Now in all honesty I never read the last series of BoP. I heard good and bad things about it. Most of the good I heard was from Gail Simone’s writing so I figure that’s a good sign for this series since she’s the announced writer.

Then there’s Ed Benes on art…I just…I don’t know to be honest. I equate him to the typical bland DC artist. The style DC so boringly sticks with and never tries to change with new and exciting artists. He’s everything I don’t like about DC art that was left over for the 90’s. But at the same time I cant’ deny that as far as artists are concerned he can turn in good work, even if it’s not to my tastes.

Still I think I may check this out. It’s written by one of DC’s best writers and it stars some of their best characters in Gotham. Also seeing Black Canary there on a regular basis is really cool as well as seeing Oracle and Huntress along with her should be a lot of fun.

Now as for the shaded in characters my guess is that the bat-shaped girl is either Cassandra Cain (would be nice if DC didn’t pretend she no longer exists) or maybe Stephanie, but I don’t know why the hell they’d black her out when everyone knows she’s Batgirl.

Still this is a really cool reboot and when this new volume debuts, if I can afford it, I’d love to check it out.

Avengers Cancelled

All Right Marvel, I concede that I did not see this one coming. I expected that the main Avengers title would return with either a new #1 or renumbering, and I knew that Dark Avengers was doomed by issue #1 but I concede that I did not see you canceling all 4 titles. Touché, you win this one.

Now if there isn’t going to be a Mighty Avengers reboot, then I’ll be pissed. It seems Dan Slott has just really started hitting his stride with it. It’s taken some time but Slott really has engrossed me in Mighty Avengers and for Marvel just to cancel it and with the possibility of them not giving Slott his Avengers still really bugs the hell out of me.

I can understand why they made Dark Avengers an ongoing just for the Dark Reign Status Quo, but Mighty Avengers is the Avengers book fans have been clamoring for as it’s fun super heroic so to see it end and get no reboot would really be a jackass move on Marvel’s part.

I do sort of wish Initiative wasn’t getting canceled. Even though I stopped reading it long ago I still have a place in my heart for that series so seeing it get canceled is sad.

New Avengers getting canceled honestly shocked me. I never thought Marvel would even consider canceling New Avengers, easily their most popular of all the Avengers titles. Hopefully Marvel doesn’t shoot themselves in the foot with this one.

Now there’s also the idea of who could write the latest Avengers ongoing that everyone speculates will happen. My best guess is that it will just be more Bendis only with the core 3 heroes, Cap, Thor and Iron Man in an Avengers ongoing and hopefully leaving Slott to do his own thing with his original team still. That’s what I hope for.

Kevin brought up Ed Brubaker and I think that one could work but at the same time Brubaker’s been a pretty busy guy and I don’t think he’s ever handled the full roster of Avengers yet. Still he’s a great writer so maybe he could do it.

Speaking of Avengers, I hope that once Heinberg and Cheung wrap up their run of the Young Avengers that we’ll finally get a damn ongoing. My writer choice is Paul Cornell with art by none other then Mark Brooks. That to me is my Young Avengers dream team, make it happen Marvel!

In the end this is a pretty big move from Marvel and I’m interested to see where it all goes in 2010.

Zero Collection, Sonic, Megaman 10

Just some random Video Game News I wanted to quickly mention my glee over. Sorry for no links, but with multiple announcements it’s better just to mention the news this time around.

First my most anticipated announcement being a Megaman Zero Collection coming in April to Japan on the DS. I absolutely loved the Megaman Zero series, easily some of the best games out there on the GBA so seeing them all together in one DS cartridge has me super excited.

It’s also funny since just the other day I was figuring I should track down 1 and 3. I have 2 and 4 and I’ve played 1 and 3 but never owned them. Now Capcom is giving us a real treat with this collection. Anyone who missed this and has a DS owes it to themselves to get 4 of the best GBA games of all time in one place…assuming it comes to America that is. Makes it happen, Capcom! Or you’ll crush my heart…

Then there’s the announcement that Sonic is the only character in his upcoming 2D side scrolling HD adventure, Project Needlemouse (Mr. Needlemouse being Sonic’s original name from creator Yuji Naka…but I’m a nerd so I remember that crap) which is easily another highly anticipated game of 2010 for me.

Now I’ve come to like a lot of the characters in the Sonic cast, Tails, Shadow, hell even Big the Cat has a place in my heart. So seeing them all get ignored like this is a little sad but at the same time I’m just excited for a console 2D sonic game so as long as it’s the blue dude with ‘tude and no one else that’s just fine with me. Can’t wait to hear more on this game.

Then finally there was the reveal of the Robot Masters from Megaman 10. Now most of them turned out pretty good, even Pumpman (the name irks me but whatever) and especially Sheepman. The only one I don’t like is Strike Man. I expected something odd, but…a baseball? I had a hard time accepting Dustman as it is, but a baseball, that’s just stupid.

Still I’m excited as all hell for this game especially in the Robot Masters department, they all look really cool and it’s going to be exciting seeing them and what they do. Can’t wait to see more for this game.

So ends the latest New Age News. It’s been nice writing again but my wrist is still acting up so I’m not sure if I’ll be writing my usual long reviews for a little while. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, everyone!

Top 5 Most Anticipated of 2010

A while back Kevin, fellow Revolutionary, contacted me and everyone else at the Comic Book Revolution for our top 5 most anticipated comic related things for 2010. I kind of lost track of the time with the holiday but got it done. I figured I’d post my top 5 here for you all, though I may post something later on to show my excitement for other upcoming things in 2010.

Happy New Year, everyone!

5. Arkham Asylum 2 Info

Funny how I’m not really all that excited with the return of the real Batman, but the return of him in a video game has me excited as all hell. Yes the recently announced sequel to my game of the year, Batman: Arkham Asylum, has me jumping with anticipation.

But sadly I’m well aware that we won’t be getting the sequel in 2010, unless it’s very late 2010. Usually game sequels are at least a good solid year apart and that’s for a steady series. So while I’m excited for the game, for now I’m just dying to find out more about it.

It would seem the original team of gave designers are behind it, and it would seem that Paul Dini, Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin will be reprising all their roles at least it would seem that way but so far we don’t really have anything definitive saying what the game will be like or any info on it.

There’s no doubt the game will be getting lots of press through 2010, trailers, behind the scenes stuff, etc. They would be crazy not to hype up this game after all the hype and praise the first one got. 2010 will hopefully give us a good amount of knowledge about the game in preparations for what I’m hoping will be an early 2011 release.

I love the first game so much and while the downloadable content has been great I’m dying for more. If Rocksteady can wake their magic wand and improve on some of the small problems the first game had then I think we could be in store for something real special here.

4. Blackest Night’s End

A typical choice I know but up until the last 2 issues of the event I probably wouldn’t have said this. Blackest Night was solid, but painfully predictable in it’s first half but now that it’s entered it’s second half it seems like the real show has begun. I’m excited as all hell to see where it goes.

One thing I’m curious about is the Earth Lantern Heroes. Could Ray still be an Indigo Lantern, or Mera still a red lantern? I know damn well that Barry will be back to normal as will Lex Luthor and probably Scarecrow as well but it’s hard not to hope this may change at least one or two of these heroes.

I’m not 100% certain I’ll be reading Green Lantern after Blackest Night. I want to, but it’s a budget thing. Either way I’m excited for this event all over again and I’m really pumped to see what Johns does next with it.

3. Batman Beyond Returns

It was announced a long while back that DC has plans for Batman Beyond in 2010. Not much else has been said since and I’ve been dying to find out what their plans are for him. I just recently picked up the animated film Return of the Joker (unfortunately it came packaged with the mediocre Mystery of the Batwoman movie) and it was great. It reinvigorated my love for the Batman Beyond series.

My real hope is that the team of Paul Dini, Bruce Timm and Glen Murakami all got together for a new animated film. While we did get a good amount of closure from the JLU/Batman Beyond story I still want one final hurrah for this series. Something really big for Terry. He deserves it.

Also I want to see Max again! Whatever happened to her? She was just as important to Batman as Bruce Wayne or Terry’s Family was. She was his main intelligence person. But she never showed up in Return of the Joker or the JLU story. What the hell, DC? She deserves to come back.

But most of all I want Terry to have his one last final hurrah that’s all him. Much as I absolutely loved Return of the Joker, that was more then just Terry’s movie. It served as filling the gap between the original cartoon and Beyond. While I loved that 10 minute flashback, it was my favorite part of the movie, Terry deserves a movie that’s 100% his.

There has also been talk about a new animated series but I think that’s a much more far off dream. DC seems to be focusing all their extra animated power into the animated films like the new Justice League film as well as the prior movies for Superman/Batman and Green Lantern. So a new animated series seems very unlikely, but if that was the case that would be even better!

Though sadly my best guess is that it’s just going to be a mini-series. While that would be nice too, I’m more used to Batman Beyond in animation so that’s how I’d love to see it. Though if the mini was written by Paul Dini with art by Bruce Timm or Glen Murakami that could be great as well.

Either way I’m excited as all hell to see what DC has planned for Batman Beyond. I’m much more excited for this then whatever the hell it is they plan to do with bringing back Bruce Wayne. We all know how that’s going to go. I’m more excited for a more interesting come back.

2. More Image

I really could fill this entire list up with Image Comics if I wanted. Jersey Gods, Invincible, Haunt, Image United, Witchblade, Angelus, Spawn, the list goes on. Image had another great year with 2009 and I expect 2010 to be no different.

Sadly Image United hit a snag as I predicted, but at least Image is trying to fill the void with new material such as Image United #0 having some extra goodies and Interlude, which will have Invincible! Everyone’s been clamoring for something with Invincible and here we go.

I’m reading Image United mostly just for the characters and the art and 2 parts in and the story has hit a snag. Already it’s feeling dull but I’m really hopeful that Kirkman can bring us back with #3 if it can make it to January on time. Supposedly something back happens there so I’ve got my fingers crossed. Though either way I’ll still enjoy the art at the very least.

Invincible returning to his old costume should be a lot of fun. Though a recent cover teases the idea of him leaving Eve over something and that of course worries me. I’m dying to find out what happens to Eve with her pregnancy. Does she keep the baby, abort it, miscarriage, who knows! Knowing Kirkman though the baby will probably die.

My best guess is that Eve either tells Mark and he leaves her. Or she gets an abortion without telling him, that upsets him that she did that without telling him first so he leaves her for that. Both would be heart-wrenching for the readers so that’s’ where I figure Kirkman is going.

Though obviously there’s a lot more to be excited over Invincible for. It’s just the pregnancy that’s at the forefront of my attention, though the looming Viltrumite war is also exciting as all hell and should be great. Also hopefully this means that we’ll have a reunion of father and son finally.

Jersey Gods hit a little delay but that’s okay. This series is good enough for the wait and it has been my favorite new ongoing series of 2009. Definitely the best new series Image is putting out (sorry but I’m not reading Chew) and it is tons of fun to read each month so I’m really excited to see where the book goes in 2010.

 Witchblade seems to be taking a little bit of a breather and having more short and easy story arcs after following up on the somewhat disappointing War of the Witchblades from this year. That’s a good thing since I’ve been enjoying the shorter and more easy arcs since they are a lot more fun and interesting to read then the long dragged out stories.

Also Angelus started this year but it wraps up in 2010 and I’m really excited to see where Marz and Sejic go with the mini-series. I think it could easily have potential to be the mini-series of the year!

Haunt wraps up it’s first arc in 2 months and that should be exciting though really the entire series has me excited for more. 2010 is looking even better for the young series with Greg Capullo actually lending his brilliant pencils to issue #6 which I’m sure will look gorgeous.

Haunt has definitely been a very interesting series and where Krikman takes it after it’s first story arc is crucial. He’s built up the mystery and is slowly unraveling just a few pieces of it but he’s also got to make sure this series works for more then just it’s mystery, that these 2 brothers can still do the hero thing even after all is revealed otherwise this might as well have been a mini-series or something.

I hate to say it but I’m not very excited for Spawn actually, which is why Image is not higher on the list. Spawn for me was the flagship Image title when I was a kid. It was always my favorite Image comic and now it’s just all falling apart it seems. McFarlane seemed to know what he’s doing but now it’s all just crumbled.

For one he can’t seem to get the damn book out on time. #196 was solicited for September of this year, and now it won’t make it until January of 2010. I call bullshit. I did so on twitter and McFarlane said it was his fault. That Rob Liefeld (guest artist for the issue) had done his part but it was on Todd since he was so busy. That doesn’t make this delay any more frustrating.

Then after the big 200^th issue, we get a new team of 2 people I’ve never heard of. Now I am willing to give the new team a try, after all David Hine paid off big time and I’d never heard of him, but it really just seems like McFarlane has do idea what he’s doing with Spawn anymore.

I love Spawn and I always will but nowadays it’s just getting harder and harder to read this series. It’s the comic that got me back into a comics a few years ago and if not for Spawn I wouldn’t be writing this very post for you all. But I feel like I’m in a relationship with someone who I’m totally committed to and care about, but who doesn’t give a damn about me or anything else.

I really am glad that McFarlane gave some new changes to Spawn. It’s nice to see him trying again but really it just seems like he totally lost all focus and direction. First he fired Brian Holguin from writing the series which was a huge mistake. If McFarlane wants someone to write Spawn, get Holguin for god’s sakes. He’s a 1,000 times better writer then McFarlane ever has been and I can already tell he’s better then the new guy.

Maybe I’m just a scorned fan who feels like he’s been done wrong. But I love Spawn a lot so seeing the series just so unfocused and rocky is really hard for me. I’m really hopeful that by mid-2010 McFarlane can get his crap together and fix his series or I may do something I never thought I’d do, drop Spawn.

Image as a whole though seems to be having a really exciting year with 2010. Every series is doing something new or interesting and I can’t wait to read more as the new year rings in.

1. Young Avengers coming back

Ever since the initial first series ended the YA have been in a bit of a limbo. Inching their way through the Marvel Universe in waiting for Heinberg and Cheung to return for one last hurrah with the characters they created. It’s been a long time coming.

Now luckily Marvel hasn’t totally let the team just sit around and do nothing. A random mini-series here and there to keep them up with the current status quo. Teaming up with the Runaways and recently the excellent Dark Reign mini-series. So far the YA have still been fairly prominent but it’s obvious that they have yet to really come full circle from prior developments of the original series.

Sure Patriot and Hawkeye got together, sort of, and Vision and Stature got together but other then 2 hookups the characters haven’t been able to really go too far with the limitation that was set when Heinberg planned to eventually return to the characters. They haven’t been able to do all they can do.

But now that’s all finally changing as the creators are returning and hopefully going to wrap up all their developments and set a new status quo for the team that other writers could take and run with later on. It would be great to finally see all these points come full circle.

For one there’s Kang of the future, his younger self who wants to be a hero. We saw a glimpse of him in the second half of the first series but since then he sort of just disappeared. I can’t tell if I want him to come back or not. While he was a decent character, him coming back would create a love triangle with Kang/Stature/Vision and I’m rarely fond of a love triangle. They are often very boring.

Then there are characters like Patriot and Hawkeye who both have some legacies to live up to. With Cap coming back I’d think they should touch on Patriot’s thoughts on this and I’m sure Hawkeye wants to talk to Clint Barton some more. These seem like 2 obvious things they should touch on.

I would hope that Stature and Vision would still take place in the series but with their current roles in the Mighty Avengers it seems unlikely that the mini could change them too much since it could have trouble matching up with their current status. It’s all up in the air at this point.

There’s also Wiccan and Speed and the possible return of the Scarlet Witch. I believe Heinberg said he wanted to bring her back and since it would clearly impact these 2 that would be a really fascinating twist and a really interesting read.

There are other things like Hulkling and his ties to the Skrull and Krees but those seem like more far off possible stories. Right now I just hope the 8-issue/bi-monthly mini can wrap up all these plot points so we can have some closure and maybe even a fun shake up of the team. So while 2010 is looking to be an exciting year for new possible stories, I’m mostly excited for a story that wraps up a long developing group of stories. Go figure. Well I’ve always loved the YA so I can’t wait to see more of them come Summer 2010.