Monday News Void: Mostly Comics Edition!

It's been a slow week for entertainment, what with everyone bracing for the release of Thor. Jaysun gave you some of the skinny on what kind of numbers we're looking at for the Odinson's first real media endeavor yesterday but I'm going to try and resist giving away what any of us thought (other than that it was excellent and you should see it) while giving you a little news. 

I have a love/hate relationship with Ain't it Cool News; they have some excellent contributors with good reporting or insightful opinions. They also have Harry. Anyway, Nordling went to visit Pixar and talk to John Lasseter, lucky guy that he is. There's some cool pictures and a little bit of info on what we should expect Cars 2 to feel like in comparison to the first one. [Source: Ain't It Cool News]

Hey! Speaking of AICN, they also write that F. Gary Gray is directing The Last Days of American Crime! What's funny here is they forget to mention it's based on a comic by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini; I've never read it but I remember when it was released a few years ago. I also seem to remember an episode of Word Balloon where Remender was talking about it being optioned. Remender's a writer I have virtually no experience with, though I hear great things about Fear Agent and people seem to be enjoying his run on Venom with Tony Moore. The only comic I ever read by him was a 2 issue fill-in on Booster Gold and I don't want to get into that here; maybe I'll save it for if we do a Book of Whatever on something by him. [Source: Ain't It Cool News]

I'm sure many of you have seen, but for those unaware, Mattel announced their SDCC exclusives, somehow expecting AOTS to give them enough air time to feature everything when G4 viewers likely couldn't care less. Queen Marlena (with a pseudo-articulated Cringer) for MOTUC turned out to be the "figure with multiple parts" they hinted at, with the ability to change switch her into her Earth Astronaut outfit for those who care. A somewhat awkward looking Swamp Thing is the DCUC get for the year, coming with the now trademark roleplay item packaging. The middle finger for those of us who can't attend the con this time arrives in the form of a pair of Un-men for Swampy and a cardback variation for Marlena. They also showed a huge mixed-materials Staypuft Marshmallow Man but at $70 and questionable construction/playability I'm ducking out. There's a Movie Masters of the absolutely awful Kilowog design from Green Lantern and a 6-inch scale Voltron figure as well. I'd be in for Voltron if he fit with my Revoltech collection but there's something off about him I haven't examined yet; maybe it's because he's $30. Strangely, I find the POP Polly Pocket figures very endearing and the mystery of the Back to the Future item is intriguing despite it's already insane price point. [Source: Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation]

Put this and the Silver Surfer back in print already! Also, mix up the variant dustjackets in both markets!

Bleeding Cool picked up on some interesting solicits for future omnibus editions and we all know I can't resist that sort of thing. Apparently the first Silver Age Avengers omnibus is already on Amazon which means it'll likely be out before the movie next year. Marvel's pretty sharp about doing omnibuses around what's being released as a movie so I wonder if this means that a second volume will be ready for next May; I love SA Marvel but there's a huge period of Avengers I often tell people is an acquired taste (namely the issues after Hank Pym rejoins as Goliath all the way until Hercules shows up as a member). This is following where the Fantastic Four by John Byrne and Amazing Spider-Man by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane volumes were recently revealed earlier in the week among others, like a whole slew of 90's X-Men crossovers. Marvel's getting really aggressive about these editions which worry me that they're going to be going out of print that much faster now.

Anyone have a bibliography yet?

DC has a few as well though I'm not sure what the Spy Vs. Spy omnibus is going to contain that isn't already in the first softcover from a few years ago; I'm sure it'll have all the material by Prohias but I'm hoping there will be something new to better justify my temptation. Most of the DC omnibuses are much smaller at a similar price; these are more akin to Marvel's seemingly departed oversized Hardcovers of which I was so fond. The Absolute editions are likely the best counterpart for Marvel's omnibuses though neither of those explains why we don't have some fancy version of 52 yet. Either way, step the paper quality up DC and I may bite. [Source: Bleeding Cool News]

Anyone reading Batman Inc.? I haven't! I can appreciate some of the ideas that Morrison is working with though. That's neither here nor there though; the real news is that the Internet's foremost Batmanologist and recent Orccacast guest, Chris Sims has a cameo as a corpse in the upcoming Batman Inc. #6! [Source: Comics Alliance]

That's all I have for now; I'm off to watch yesterday's Game of Thrones while pretending I managed my time well today.

Oh, I'll pimp some stuff too. Because I'm shameless like that.