A two week break... So what have I missed? Heres the news that caught my eye.

This is in no way going to be in chronological order, I have been on holiday for a week and could not find time since returning to work to get on here for some updates, but here come some updates for what has caught my eye over the past two weeks and possibly before.

My Highlights from the Comics News

The previously announced creative team up of Jonathan Ross and Ian Churchill finally has some more info in the form of a poster confirming the title and also when to expect the first issue January 2014 is when we shall expect to see this hit our shelves, being a fan of both I am very much looking forward to this title. Jonathan Ross has had much success since delving into the realm of writing comics, Turf was received very well, combined with great art from Tommy Lee Edward. His most recent Image Comics project Americas Got Powers should be receiving its final issue some time soon as Bryan Hitch announced that the final issue has been sent to print. But at least we now have a date for Ross' next project and the image certainly creates more questions than answers.

Matteo Scalera will be lending his fantastic art to he and Remender's upcoming creator owned Image Comics title Black Science, with colours from Dean White, MTV Geek got hold of this cover by Scalera for the upcoming first issue in November. Scalera is currently illustrating Indestructible Hulk and is producing some of the best art for that series and that I have seen from him, with his high energy inks and ability to create action scenes which jump at you off the page. Scalera has previously worked with Remender on Secret Avengers and I can not wait to see them team up once more for this spiritual successor to Fear Agent. Which I must confess I am still ploughing through the Fear Agent Library Volume 1.

So first of all Winter Soldier gets cancelled and the most recent get the hit is Journey Into Mystery. Now the news has been released that in November Venom from Cullen Bunn and a great creative team of artists will be coming to an end. This is just before the big Venom arc in Superior Spider-Man. I have been really enjoying this series Bunn has done great things since taking over from Remender and with the most recent Symbiote character Mania has created another great character to join the symbiote family. Another of the highlights for the series most recently has been the covers created by Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire. It is my hope that this is due to possible future plans or even a Marvel NOW 2! title.

Forever Evil #1 and Villains month has begun, and with the announcement of 3D covers among new prices $3.99 for each title, and then the news that they have not even managed to print enough of the 3D covers to fulfill orders from retailers. With them announcing a villain will be taking over each title every week for the month I originally took up the stance of cancelling all these titles but I have since took another look and there are some I will be looking to pick up.
Justice League #23.2 Lobo
Justice League #23.3 Dial E
Earth 2 #15.2 Solomon Grundy
Flash #23.2 Reverse-Flash 
Action Comics #23.3 Lex Luthor
Superman #23.4 Parasite
Batman & Robin #23.2 Court of Owls
Batman & Robin #23.4 Killer Croc
Batman: The Dark Knight #23.4 Joker's Daughter
Detective Comics #23.2 Harley Quinn

What I've Read

An Anthology containing some great team ups from some of the best in the business in American Vampire Anthology. This was a great way to keep the American Vampire fans happy while the main story is currently on hold at Vertigo, Snyder is certainly on a lot of books recently and Alberquerque has deservedly been receiving more work soon to team up with Jeff Lemire on Animal Man and providing covers for B.P.R.D. My highlights of the Anthology, Jason Aaron and Declan Shalvey's contribution, a great tale about the arrival of "Europeans" to the shores of America. Becky Cloonan's Skinner Sweet story and also Gail Simone's and Tula Tolay's installment, the first time I have seen the work of Tula Tolay and it was great. I highly recommend you pick this up.

My book of the month for August, that I recently brought from Orbital Comics, the staff there so very kindly ordered a copy in for me. Having recently read Essex County and most recently begun his new Vertigo title Trillium. This is another heartfelt read. The hand illustration and style really suit the heartfelt story so well. I still stand by my thoughts that if you are looking for something not like your standard superhero comic books Jeff Lemire's work, Essex County and Underwater Welder are well worth picking up. I understand he has other creator owned works which I plan on picking up but for now if you are looking for something more current from him you should definitely check out Trillium!

Having recently listened to Pop Culture Hound's podcast with Sam Humphries I was intrigued about his work before Marvel Sacrifice. Humphries is currently writing Uncanny X-Force and is also the writer of Avengers A.I. This is a very good read with art that goes from strength to strength the further you get through the title. A story about a young man who suffers from Epilepsy and seizures who during these somehow ends up back in time with the Aztec's. I do not want to give anything away about this book and really would hand this out to friends to read. This has a great ending, which involves a movie like sequence that when I read it I imagine as a scene from a film. The guys at Orbital once again kindly ordered me in a copy after selling out of this and I really appreciate it!





What I've Played and other Gaming News

Nintendo recently announced the arrival of the Nintendo 2DS, this will be hitting shelves on November 12th alongside Pokemon X&Y. I will be writing more about this at a later date, but I must admit when I first read about this I laughed in Nintendo's face but in a future post I will write about how I have had a change of heart

Nintendo had one of their Nintendo Direct conferences during the week highlighting more about their upcoming Pokemon title X & Y. Mega Evolutions will be coming for the original starters. Along with news of the Poke Bank a system which will have a fee but also create a way for you to transfer Pokemon from Black, White, Black 2 and White 2 through a cloud storage system. Along with storing all the Pokemon you could hope to catch. Not long now for this to be released and I am desperately saving up to be able to get a copy, although I have pre-ordered this.

My game of the month for August and also the only game that I have completed in some time The Last of Us. This is a very very clever game, with great character development, heart stopping moments and easy to use game play. Apart from the fact that when I ever hear anyone clicking I get a little on edge. I hope to get a proper review up for this soon.


Movie and TV News

So one of my last announcements bring about the casting Ben Affleck as Batman in the Man of Steel sequel there has been even more interesting casting news since. It became strongly rumoured and then finally confirmed that Bradley Cooper will be providing the voice for Rocket Raccoon, joining the already star studded cast for Marvel's upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy.

Another heavy rumour which I am still not sure whether this has been confirmed is that Vin Diesel will providing the voice of Groot. He has been making strong hints at having some role within a Marvel film since visiting the building recently and several Facebook posts. At first it was strongly rumoured he could be playing Vision in the Avengers sequel after posting an image on Facebook, but this has since been denied, with the new title for the Avengers sequel being Avengers Age of Ultron. However most recently it has been announced that he will be voicing Groot and after having past experience with voice acting in Iron Giant it could be true.Vin Diesel during his most recent interviews while promoting Riddick has spoken of how he became the voice of Groot so this seems to be all but confirmed. Just waiting on an official announcement from Marvel.

So the news was made that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be aired on Channel 4 in the UK and now we have the official date and time. The programme will debut on 27/09/2013 at 8pm, just 3 days after its debut in America. So all Channel 4 now need to work on is releasing a HD channel before this date. I'll certainly be saving this to my Freeview+ box.

Another rumour that seems to have picked up some steam recently is that Katee Sackhoff is looking to be doing some work with Marvel Studios early next year, this has lead people to believe she will indeed be picking up the role of Captain Marvel in Avengers Age of Ultron with the impending arrival of the character to Phase 3 of the Marvel Movie Universe. Since this rmour appeared I can't stop thinking that Starbuck is pretty much Captain Marvel just without the powers.

Finally

Pick of the Week for 21/08/2013

Pick of the Week for 28/08/2013