The Dork Knight Rises

Batman: Arkham City came out this week and since Wednesday is my birthday, it’s time to start playing. Of course, I haven’t gotten to open my presents yet so while Kris has played around with it, I have not. (If it’s not in one of these big bags with the shiny ribbons on it, it will be ordered soon after I throw tissue paper everywhere.)

While Kris and I don’t read a lot of Marvel right now, I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for the 90s era X-Men. So the news from NYCC that the Age of Apocalypse is coming back is really exciting. I’m definitely going to pick up the Point One release in November to see what they’re going to do, but I need to get a sense of how expansive the AoA storyline will be across all of their books before I decide to delve into it.

I loved Brubaker’s Catwoman series for its noir feel and I’ve heard nothing but good things about the crime noir work he’s done with Sean Phillips, but I’ve never checked any of it out. However, his newly announced Fatale series for Image might be worth checking out. A crime noir story focusing on the immortal incarnation of the Femme Fatale ideal complete with monster-headed gangsters? Yes please!

The most exciting thing that DC announced (Wonder Woman’s origin change) was actually made before NYCC announced. Most of the DC panels were still discussing The New 52 and making sure that everybody is still interested. We did finally get a date on the long-in-production Batman: Earth One by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, which will be coming out Summer 2012 with the second volume of the highly acclaimed Superman: Earth One coming out in the fall. They promised more “sex and violence” in Superman: Earth One Volume 2, which I guess is a good thing? Both of the Earth One books are in the same shared universe, so I’m guessing that we’ll eventually see a Superman/Batman: Earth One book. That will have to hold us over since DC said it will be a while before we get a Superman/Batman book in The New 52.

DC did announce that Captain Marvel will be making his way to The New 52 in a backup story to Justice League called The Curse of Shazam. Other than word that Gary Frank was doing art and it would start in Justice League #5, there was no word about what this new Marvel origin story will be like. While the Shazam family was fun in Flashpoint, I think Kris and I would both prefer to see Billy Bateson powering up again.