This week brings some interesting stuff, although it’s surprisingly light on new issues compared to recent weeks. One note, though: for some reason, Diamond is listing “Mondo #1″ as coming out this week. Said Hulk-vs.-chickens comic hit stands last week. Anyway!

• DC has more Aquaman and the surprisingly good “Green Lantern: New Guardians” up this week, as well as a reissue of “Sandman”
• Marvel is putting out possibly the funniest thing ever: “Spider-Man Fights Substance Abuse”, a collection all those preachy anti-drug comics and one page stories they put out covering a range of social issues. And they’re all terrible, but they’re also hard to find. Whether nostalgia is worth $25 is up to you, but it’s pretty funny.
• Image has more “Prophet”, “Chew”, and “Bulletproof Coffin” hitting the stands, which more than makes up for the “Wizard of Oz”-except-it’s-horror book “There’s No Place Like Home”, which is already resorting to boobs to push issues.
• Speaking of boobs, Dynamite has a Witchblade/Red Sonja crossover starting this week.
• Dark Horse is putting out a whole bunch of collections, including a new collection of their great Kull comics.
• And IDW is up to their usual greatly appreciated archiving tricks, collecting a whole bunch of Wally Wood’s EC comics into a hardcover volume.

As usual, drop us a comment and let us know what you’re picking up at the FLCS, and the full list is under the cut.
Read the rest of this entry »

Hey guys, thanks to science one of Spider-Man’s abilities could soon be yours! No, sadly not his ability to score an endless series of well-off, attractive women despite being a freelance photographer who lives with his withered aunt — I’m talking about his ability to stick to walls.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts have been studying how gecko’s feet work, and have created a new substance they’ve dubbed “Geckskin”. A small piece of this Geckskin measuring only 4-by-4 inches can securely hold a 42-inch flatscreen TV to a wall. Removing the TV from the wall only requires a gentle pull, and no stickiness or residue is left behind. Apparently under ideal conditions this stuff can support up to 700-pounds.

I have a feeling we may never see this stuff in stores. I foresee too many folks hitting up the K-Mart for packs of Geckskin and mittens. There’d be more high teenagers climbing the walls of the Empire State Building than people working inside.

via Blastr

It’s time for Gamma Squad’s Friday cosplay feature, spotlighting the best comic book related costuming from the cosplay community.  We’re again casting the spotlight onto those cosplayers who we think deserve special recognition for coming up with the best costumes, whatever the budget, and the photographers who capture them for posterity.

This week, we’re turning our attentions to the special villainous theme that we’ve been promoting over past weeks, showing the very best of those nefarious and quite possibly criminal cosplayers  who have submitted to our Flickr group, as well as submissions by our friends at The Superhero Costuming Forum.

So, feast your eyes on this crooked collection.

Read the rest of this entry »

How’s this for chutzpah: two bloggers have tracked down the source of Marvel’s pirated comics…and it’s from the pre-press image files. Somebody’s figured out an exploit to get into Marvel’s network and literally steal the comics before they hit print.

We don’t talk about piracy on here, and for good reason: it’s stealing, and it also compromises the long-standing tradition of freeloading in the FLCS and reading all the new issues before buying one and leaving. But this is taking stealing to a whole new level, if it’s true.

Pirated Marvel comics are notable for what they’re missing: UPC symbols on the covers, certain visual elements like musical notes, things of that nature. David Brothers and David Uzumeri break down all the smoking guns they found, but if this is true, and it’s hard to see what else it could be, Marvel’s basically got a omelette the size of Cap’s shield hanging off their face.

Next time, guys, get MODOK to program your computer security; McAfee has nothing on him.

[ via Comics Alliance ]

image courtesy Marvel Comics

The CW has greenlit a Green Arrow TV show which CW’s head of development Thom Sherman has called “very provocative and sophisticated and edgy” and “not as comic book-y as Smallville or other [superhero projects] from other networks.” CW’s Green Arrow won’t have any superpowers and is instead a billionaire playboy industrialist who uses archery, martial arts, and expensive technology to uphold the law, which is a type of superhero we’ve never seen before. Yes, that was sarcasm.

CW has cast Stephen Amell (Vampire Diaries, 90210, Hung, Private Practice) in the titular role. The role of Dinah “Laurel” Lance (AKA the Black Canary) has just been won by Katie Cassidy of Gossip Girl, Melrose Place, and Supernatural. Susanna Thompson has been cast as Moira Queen, the mother of Oliver Queen / Green Arrow. David Nutter is directing the pilot, which was written and produced by Greg Berlanti (Green Lantern), Marc Guggenheim (FlashForward), and Andrew Kreisberg (Fringe, Warehouse 13).

If the show’s casting sheet is any indication, this sounds like another CW “rich people behaving badly” show. The character descriptions read like a soap opera trying to do social commentary in a primetime slot:

Read the rest of this entry »

A lot actually got rolling this week, from miniseries and tie-ins to new ongoings. And a lot of it is actually at least worth a glance at the FLCS.

Glory

Never read a “Glory” comic? Can’t blame you. One of the more forgettable characters out of…ugh…Extreme Studios in the ’90s, “Glory” was never interesting and always lame.

That’s changed.

Don’t be fooled by the numbering, this is a reboot. And it’s actually quite a good one: it covers a lot of ground to help you understand who Glory is and where she comes from, and it has a good start to the overall arc. This isn’t quite the gloriously weird yet somehow perfect “Prophet” reboot, but it takes a forgettable character and makes her suddenly a lot more interesting.

Batman Beyond

This has both the welcome return of Norm Breyfogle to a Batbook, and some really good writing: even if you’ve never seen an episode of the TV show, it sets up the world deftly and simply. Not earth-shaking, but a fun, well-written book with a little taste of nostalgia for the ’90s.

Read the rest of this entry »