As mentioned and its being pimped out on CBR and Newsarama, the great Dan Slott will be leaving Avengers: Initiative to go and write The Mighty Avengers. Dan Slott’s run on Avengers: Initiative has been wonderful and I think Chris Gage will do a fine run in his absence on Avengers: Initiative.

On discussion about The Mighty Avengers, Dan Slott mentioned this…
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090828-SlottAvengers.html

Yeah. No Gilgamesh, no Death Cry — we’re talkin’ good characters. But the guys we don’t have on the roster — there will be guest appearances. But if we get to use Hank for three or four issues, I don’t want to just use Hank. I want to use Hank and Simon. If I get guest stars, I don’t just want Beast. I want Wonder Man and Beast for two or three issues.

This made me very happy to hear. Thank-you Dan Slott! Actually having Avengers in an Avengers book, who would have thought. I am so excited about this…

So it makes me wonder who else will be joining the Mighty Avengers. Some thoughts — Tigra joining the team so she doesn’t get stuffed in a fridge by Bendis!, U.S. Agent comes back from Canada, Ronin joins, Moon Knight comes back to being an Avenger and from the Secret Black Ops Initiative team, Mutant Zero joins just to get closer to Wolverine who I am betting remains on New Avengers.

An interesting thing that on the Marvel site, they have a Mighty ‘Vengers team link which leads to a page that has not been “approved” yet. Hmm…

[poll=7]

… for Doctor Strange and other characters!

Okay you know what bugs the shit outta me? The fact that recently I have put Bendis! in that same area with Warren Ellis, kinda over there —–> where I do not plan on buying their stuff unless they WOW the flying f****k outta me. That said, I do think that both are good writers and I lean more towards Ellis of late then Bendis! That said the recent words from Bendis! after this weekend’s Baltimore Comic-Con have me thinking that someone like Bendis is getting his wires crossed. Here are the posts on CBR for reference:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18250
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18245

Okay now that you have read those pages, let me rant on…

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Mega pimpage today!

So exactly one month ago today I announced that Zeros 2 Heroes had launched all the comic books with their Comic Creation Nation campaign and today I just wanted to remind everyone again! Please go and check out the books at Zeros 2 Heroes and especially Gustav Hayes and Abigail’s War — those are the books I had worked on as an Editor for Z2H!

Abigail’s War
Written by Jennica Harper and stunning artwork by Sandrine Replat, lettering by Ed Brisson
http://www.abigailswar.com/

Gustav Hayes: Lounge Singer of the Apocalypse
Written by Morgan Jeske, art by Daniel Bradford and Cristian Valdes, lettering by Chris Studabaker
http://www.gustavhayes.com/

Remember that these ONLINE Comic Books are FREE to view. Just go and click on the BE A FAN button to show your support! I would be very appreciative if you supported by Gustav Hayes and Abigail’s War but hey, you vote on what books you enjoyed!

Zeros 2 Heroes Comic Creation Nation books
http://www.zeros2heroes.com/component/option,com_prop/

Also the talented Jennica Harper is also doing the screenplay for Arcana Comics Clockwork Girl animated film and Jennica also has her second book of poetry What It Feels Like for a Girl coming out to a bookstore near you very soon (next week I think)!

If you are on Facebook, here is the launch event for her book
http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=25902854525&ref=mf

Oh and Ed Brisson, who I worked with on Abigail’s War and runs New Reliable Press, is doing a book launch of you ain’t no dancer 3 and art show at Lucky Comics tomorrow, more info:
http://www.newreliable.com/

I really wish I could go but I have plans to go see the Vancouver Giants play.

I wanted to mention this earlier but I was busy. Congrats to Ethan and all those at Elfsar Comics & Toys for being featured in the “Best of Vancouver” selection in the Georgia Straight! Good job and great store. Any time I am downtown and not LOST in PoMo, I drop by and get my hit — I mean check out the Skrully Jack post for what happened on my last visit!

Also Elfsar is hosting this years 24 Hour Comics Day on October 18, 2008. All the news regarding this can be found on Elfsars website here:
http://www.elfsar.com/24HCD/24HourComicDay.htm

Sadly I will not be apart of this years group unless plans change for me (work and all) but I will try to drop by and give support to the event. It was a blast when I did the very first one and again in 2006 (I can be seen here sporting a Mohawk and Warren Ellis Engine t-shirt — see, I used to like him) and this was a great deal of fun. I would try it again IF I could and perhaps this year I would do it both online and via post-it notes (yes, my secret formula!).

As I try to support the other comic book blog websites out there, great work from Mike Haynes and crew on the latest Podcast of Awesome #2. Go listen, check it out and hear how they talk Marvel Apes, Deadpool, Kick Ass, Red Hulk, Dark Reign, Age of Sentry, Final Crisis, POA shirts and misc. other t-shirts (like the Matt Fraction “Iron Man is Right” shirt design).

My only issue is the huge major support of things like Secret Invasion and Marvel Apes (pick of the week – WTF. Wow. Lame!), seems like the podcast is a touch Marvel wing biased but I still enjoyed it. Hell — they are doing it and I am still typing stupid keys and not. Also I will always support another Canuck Comic Blogger, Go Mike Go!

Although Mike did say he would give a shout out to BtS, I listened and… nothing. We also don’t even get the pimpage on POA re: the BtS Heroes Season 3 Giveaway thingy. I know, I know… this blog/site ain’t big, popular or for the cool kids. *le sigh and big pout*

[flash http://www.youtube.com/v/fAhGBkTKPkY&hl=en&fs=1 w=400 h=324]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAhGBkTKPkY

Hartley dishes out his love for Superman, Batman, Action Comics, Geoff Johns (gah, I do hope Johns doesn’t end up a DC version of Bendis for me) and then his dislike for Checkmate #29 along with the rest of his reviews on Action Comics #868, Brave and the Bold #15, Flash #243, The Last Defenders #6, Green Lantern Corps # 27. Since most of these titles, I do not pick-up, I can’t say if they are good / bad so yeah.

I did love both The Last Defenders #6 & Green Lantern Corps # 27 so we agree on those books!

Here is Part II with Booster Gold #11, Justice League of America #24, FireBreather #2, StormWatch #13, and the Midnighter trade vol. 2.

[flash http://www.youtube.com/v/qowfkZHcnPc&hl=en&fs=1 w=400 h=324]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qowfkZHcnPc

Hartley is too nice on Justice League of America #24 — the Zatanna bit where she just appears out of no where was LAME and I am huge Dwayne McDuffie fan but yeah, I think I ranted about this issue on this BtS Best Bang Reborn here (scroll down, I gave it two leafs outta five!)! That said, I completely agree with regarding StormWatch: Worlds End book. Hartley’s review of the Midnighter trade has me interested in the book, might pick it up now.

I also wanted to mention that I got around to making a Final Crisis theme for BtS. Feel free to use:
http://betweenthestaples.com/index.php?wptheme=The+Final+Crisis

Alright so a new agent… I mean person from the M80 marketing company contacted me (I guess my old contact got taken out or something very Alias-like) about doing a new Heroes Season 3: Villains giveaway thingy. I was lazy ass to respond but hey, any pimpage is good pimpage so I am responding now. So a giveaway of comic books. Okay. Do you want a limited edition Heroes Comic-Con exclusive comic book like the one below for FREE?!

Okay so here is how we are going to do it — YOU write a review of the first episode here in the comments section and I will choose the winner. Best review gets a comic, fair enough? Pimp all you like, dislike or love about Heroes and I will then copy & paste your review (with any images of your choosing) to announce the winner. Remember to include your email address in the comment (it is not posted but I can then email you back) so I can get a hold of you when you win. Winners will be decided later this week as I am expecting a call on Tuesday from the Human Resources Department of Massive Dynamic between 9pm and 10pm.

Good luck to everyone who submits, all 3 of you.
(I really wish the people behind Doctor Who would contact me re: pimpage and giveaways. Pls BBC, feel free to use and abuse my blog for Dr. Who!)

I have mentioned this numerous times, I find that Warren Ellis is very hit and miss with me. I wonder why he writes the same stuff over and over again when he had good stuff he was writing (Desolation Jones & Fell) to his new stuff (No Hero, The Authority... I mean Black Summer). All that said, one thing that has worked for me is his recent run on Astonishing X-Men and I wondered who would have been able to follow up the decent Whedon run but Ellis has. Here is a preview of his two issue story “Ghost Boxes” after his current story arc with Simon Bianchi. My only issue is the X-name of “Subject X” in the story *yawn*.

Also check out the steampunk-like scene with the X-Men. Now this is interesting! Big kudo to CBR for the preview:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18143

Okay so after a run-in with Skrully Jack at Elfsar Comics & Toys, I found I was missing some issues so I got those from Hourglass Comics & Toys this weekend. Some very good books in The Incredible Hercules, Scalped, Guardians of the Galaxy and Amazing Spider-man while books like X-Men and Batman RIP & The Outsiders who can’t find Bruce fell flat this week!

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