Ur W33K 1N G33K (June 8 – 14)1

by A.J. Focht

Last week the comic world was rocked as DC announced they were rebooting their entire universe. DC has since released more details, as well as first edition covers. The Batman universe is getting a lot of coverage, with Batman getting three titles: Batman, Batman: The Dark Knight, and Batman and Robin as well as appearing in the first issue of Detective Comics. Other Bat related titles include: Batgirl, Nightwing, Catwoman, Batwing, a long awaited Batwoman, and one of my personal favorites, Birds of Prey. Meanwhile Superman is starring in Action Comics first issue (wearing some farm boy getup) as well as getting his own reboot with Superman #1, both Superboy and Supergirl are getting renumbered in September as well. All of your favorite super teams including Justice League and Teen Titans are being released then as well. All the heroes are getting fashion updates, including Wonder Woman who finally gets a makeover and a pair of pants.

Marvel Comics couldn’t sit back and let DC take all the attention, so this last week they announced the end of The Uncanny X-Men, which has been in production since 1963. The next big Marvel event, X-Men: Schism, will push the relationship between Cyclops and Wolverine to breaking point, and it looks like the fight between these two will cause a permanent split in the X-Men universe.

Marvel also announced that this November they will start the second ongoing Spider-Man comic, The Avenging Spider-Man. The first issue finds Spider-Man, Red Hulk, Spider-Woman, and Wolverine teaming up against a new villain. This edition of Spider-Man will be an action packed contrast to the current, much more dramatic, Amazing Spider-Man. The book will drop monthly, and the stories shouldn’t step on the toes of the current series.

While the major comic companies have plenty to announce, it looks like the major movie studios have nothing to share. Warner Bros., Disney, Dreamworks, and more are passing up on presenting at this year’s Comic-Con. This means there will be no news on the new Superman or The Dark Knight Rises.

But there is some news being released about a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars fans received a major update on the still-to-come live action TV series this last week. After years of radio silence since the last talk of the project, new reports say it could be three to four years out.

In a recent interview, George Lucas’ producing partner Rick McCallum said: “We have 50 hours of third-draft scripts, but the problem we have is there is a lot of digital animation; we don’t have the technology yet to be able to do them at a price that is safe for television. Since we would be financing them, it would be suicide for us to do this [now]. So we are going to wait three or four years.”

There wasn’t too much fallout on the conference front from last week, mostly just more minor updates and tons of screen shots. Nintendo had the most clarifying to do after unsuccessfully highlighting the Wii U last week. Most disappointing of which is there will be no playing of the Wii U while on the toilet, the Wii U controller was designed to stay in the same room as the console. The console being the thing Nintendo forgot to really highlight at E3. Official reports are saying the Wii U console is 50% more powerful than the current PS3 or Xbox 360 — a little fact they should have definitely gone over last week.

Final announcement for all you pen and paper RPG gamers out there. This Saturday, June 18 is free RPG day. Much like free comic day, you just stop by your local participating game store and pick up some free swag. For those of you who’ve never tried a pen and paper RPG, here’s your chance to get into one for free.