Did you know that there’s sometimes comic news at the Comic-Con International in San Diego? While we all patiently wait to see what the next Marvel film will be, or if there’s any news on Rocket Raccoon casting, a few bits of exciting comic book news have slipped out of the ‘con.
Wolverine: Origin II – In 2002, Paul Jenkins and Andy Kubert explored the earliest origins of Wolverine in the mini-series Wolverine: Origin. There we watched James Howlett, a sickly Canadian boy in the 19th century, turn into Logan, the man who would one day be the Wolverine. Now CBR reports that Kieron Gillen and Adam Kubert will team up from November for a sequel to that series. Speaking with CBR, Gillen adds that the book will take place a few years after the first book, set just prior to the First World War.
“We’ve seen a lot of stories about his past spread throughout the century, and we’ve seen some stuff with his deceased lover Silver Fox, but there’s some questions about what happened, chronologically. What’s the missing link in Wolverine’s origins? We kind of went back to this period in the early days of the 20th century, so it’s me doing a period piece, which gave me the chance to do a lot of interesting research. Basically, I’m doing a weird period novel set in the Marvel Universe, which has enormous importance for Wolverine, and it’s as fun as it sounds”.
Tomb Raider – The next bit of big news is that Gail Simone is coming on board to write a new Tomb Raider comic book series for Dark Horse. Interviewed by Kotaku, Simone says “we start just a few weeks after the end of the game, and this is all in continuity, it will be Tomb Raider canon, and lead DIRECTLY into the sequel. This is what got me excited; we get to be part of Lara Croft history”. This can only lead to good things.
Cataclysm: The Ultimates Last Stand – It’s another Marvel event! This one was teased at the end of Age of Ultron, as Galactus hovered over the Ultimate Universe’s Miles Morales (aka Ultimate Spider-man). The book will be the big crossover, tying in with Hunger and seeing the Ultimate Universe discovering the existence of the Marvel 616, and that if they send Galactus back there, he will destroy their universe as well. Spider-man (all of them) are said to be central to all of this. We’re calling this now: we think this may be an attempt to streaming the Marvel line back to the main books by heroically sacrificing the Ultimate Universe. Let’s see if we’re right, and if not, we’ll edit this later. Let’s hope it fares better than that last thing with ‘Last Stand’ in the title…
Marvel NOW! – Marvel promises more #1s in 2014, a Deadpool vs Carnage crossover series and the return of Marvelman.
Other pre-con announcements included the launch of a new Harley Quinn series from DC in November, and a Robotech/Voltron crossover from Dynamite.
