Release date announced for Last of Us DLC

What are you plans for Valentines Day, because Naughty Dog Studios have there own plans for you, the new DLC for Last Of Us. 14/02/2014 will see the release of this long anticipated DLC expansion to the game The DLC is name "Left Behind" and is a sort of prequel to the events of the original game focusing on Ellie and her friend Riley.

Superman/ Batman delayed until 06/05/2016

The release of Superman/Batman has been delayed by 9 months. It will now release on May 6th 2016, as many sites have made note of, this is usually the time Marvel Studios release their Summer blockbusters, along with their other titles and other studios. Marvel Studios are still to announce what will be released in 2016 but it certainly looks like there will be a head to head, and currently I have my thoughts on who is most likely to win that battle.

Wolf Among Us Episode 2 release date teased

Telltale Games has finally teased the release of Episode 2 for the Wolf Among Us. It has been a long time since the first episode was released, but we have had Walking Dead in between this, could this have anything to do with the titles recently announced and the studio having to much to work on? Whether or not the delay should not be to much longer and we should see Episode 2 released in the first two weeks of February!

DC's Justice League's to receive a shake up in April 2014

After Marvel stole the show earlier this week with the announcement of the return of Peter Parker to Amazing Spider-Man in April DC have finally started announcing more titles to be coming in April and the post Forever Evil agenda.

Reminiscent of when Norman Osborn saved the day and became the leader of the Avengers team in Dark Reign. Post Forever Evil in the DC Universe will see Lex Luthor lead the team, enrolling another former villain to the team in Captain Cold. I haven't been reading Forever Evil myself, lack of time and money, but I have heard mixed responses. This does seem like an exciting  move for the team, and the new line up lead by Lex Luthor is missing two vital for Justice members in Superman and Wonder Woman. I will be keeping a close eye on how this new status quo plays out, I just hope it can be as exciting as the Osborn lead Dark Avengers was post Secret Invasion for Marvel.

Previously the next Justice League title post Forever Evil was to be Justice League Canada. It turns out this will now be called Justice League United, still written by Jeff Lemire as originally revealed and drawn by Mike McKone. The team in this one is another interesting mix, still containing several members of the Justice League of America line-up but with the additions of Animal Man, Supergirl and Adam Strange plus the tease of further new characters. The team will still be based in and around Canada but also be making the leap to some universal heroics.

Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker to return in April with a new #1

I am writing this post on Sunday morning after just reading the news, but having also read Dan Slott's tweets regarding avoiding the news and to respect his wish for people to try and not read this before Wednesday this will be posted on Wednesday afternoon once everyone has had the opportunity to read the upcoming issue of Superior Spider-Man.

Well it was inevitable and its finally been confirmed, although I must admit there have been times I believed Slott when he said Peter Parker is dead and will not return. Amazing Spider-Man will return in April with Slott continuing to scribe the tales of the wall crawler and Ramos on art.

This announcement comes as a double edge sword for me. I am happy that Peter Parker will be returning to the pages of a Spider-Man comic book but, well, I have really enjoyed Superior Spider-Man haven't you? Doc Ock Spidey has been nothing but entertaining and putting this socially deranged former super villain into the body of New York's greatest hero has turned out have been a stroke of genius.

Amazing Spider-Man may be returning, but now this means Dan Slott's masterful plan for his return will be arriving in the pages of Superior Spider-Man and if it is anything like the carefully laid out plan for the original "Death" of Peter Parker in issue #700 this is gonna be one hell of a ride in the issues running up to Amazing Spider-Man #1 in April 2014.

In an ideal world there will be a way for both Superior and Amazing to co-exist but I can't see a way this will be possible. What does this mean for the other Superior titles including The Superior Foes of Spider-Man which has turned out to be a surprising hit. Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber have done a great job on this title.

One things for sure April is turning out to  be another stellar month of #1's for Marvel and the return of there most high profile hero just before the release of his next feature film is a welcome one.

For more on the original story check out the link below;

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/comics/exclusive-spider-man-alter-ego-peter-parker-return-death-article-1.1575793

Game of Thrones Season 4 1st Trailer

Yesterday saw the first trailer released for Game of Thrones Season 4. Check out the trailer below. Having read the books this Season should be just as good if not better than the last, and far more action packed as the Game of Thrones continues!

Last Weeks News and Reviews 06/01/2014 to 12/01/2014

Marvel to publish Star Wars comics from 2015

What I'm looking forward to in 2014!

Marvel's 2014 event announced "Original Sin"

Marvel reveal the future for the Ultimate Universe... It's Ultimate Marvel NOW! and it's All-New!

All-New Marvel NOW! continues into April 2014.

Image Expo 2014! Another exciting year for the publisher and creator owned titles!

Alien Isolation announced by SEGA

Comic of the Week 08/01/2014: Avengers A.I. #8

Comic of the Week 08/01/2014: Avengers A.I. #8

Avengers A.I #8

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Sam Humphries
Artist: Andre Lima Araujo
Colorist: Frank D'Armata

Avengers A.I #8 sees the title receive the All-New Marvel NOW! treatment. This is a series which at first I didn't believe would be any good and was just Marvel trying to cash in after the success of the Avengers movie. However, Sam Humphries has created a great series, with a great team and characterisation of Hank Pym. #8 is a jumping on point, but as with many of the .NOW titles they really aren't that easy to hop onto. The good thing for me is that I have been reading the series from issue #1.

This issue sees the start of the new big arc originally teased during the original All-New Marvel NOW! teasers at the end of last year. This sees the Uncanny Avengers join Pym and his A.I Avengers to take on Dimitrios. After what took place in the previous issues with the destruction on the oil rig, Dimitrios taking control of a super advanced Sentinel and the believed "death" of Victor, the team, who work closely with S.H.I.E.L.D., have now gained the attention of Captain America and his Unity Squad. You continue to see Victor's retreat from Dimitrios with a fellow A.I. in the Diamond, who helps Victor lie low with a group of Anti-Dimitrios A.I's. Pym knows that Victor is alive and has hatched an elaborate plan to retrieve him much to Captain America's apprehension. Humphries portrayal of how A.I's only get stronger and cleverer, thanks to our dependence on technology is clearly represented during the revelation that Dimitrios was behind the creation of an app to find cheap fuel which everyone starts using, before he destroys all the oil rigs and limiting the fuel supply forcing people to use the app to find cheap fuel as prices have risen sky high with possible rationing. Thanks to this dependence on the app Dimitrios manages to use this to somehow manipulate humans and cause uprisings across the country. This leads to another great moment where Cannonball from the main Avengers team alerts Captain America of the current trouble. These appearances of the other Avengers teams showing up is fun to see and confirming they do communicate with one another is great. Dimitrios has forced their hand and Pym, Vison, Cap, Rogue and the Doombot are forced to use Pym's tested, technically un-tested, equipment to transport themselves to the Diamond and confront Dimitrios. It comes as no surprise that when they finally arrive there they are not exactly welcome, enter cliffhanger.

This issue is the introduction to the upcoming arc and does a great job of setting up what is inevitably going to be the team taking the battle to Dimitrios. From the solicitations to the next issues and what has been set up here this looks like it should be a great arc and is quite clearly what Humphries and Araujo have been working up to since the beginning of the series. There continues to be a great balance between action and comedy while allowing the plot of the storyline to continue. One of the stand out characters of the series for me has been the repurposed Doombot bringing some brilliant dry humour to the series expertly written by Humphries. Araujo's art continues to be a joy of the series, his style suiting the title, there is an almost Artificial Intelligence look to his art, with the line work being so "pin" point and creating 3D looking characters. He also does a great job of creating interesting panels and layouts. Some of the highlights being Doombot being plugged in and trying to attack and nullify  Dimitrios' virus alongside the great panels for Pym's entrance into the Diamond. Humphries ability to continue to make the characters work together, considering there rag tag look, makes for some great moments between the original squad and also some brilliant moments between Rogue and the Doombot along with some touching moments between Pym and Cap remembering when they first teamed up together.

Avengers A.I. is currently my favourite Avengers title on the shelves and continues to be the the best thing to come out of Age of Ultron and I am looking forward to grabbing the next issue. Humphries and Araujo are clearly putting there heart and soul into this series and from the beginning of the series to the start of this big arc it is clear to see the title is benefitting from this and only goes from strength to strength.

Alien Isolation announced by SEGA

Alien Isolation was announced during the week from SEGA being produced by Creative Assembly. This looks to be the Alien game fans of the franchises have been after, especially after the epic fale of Colonial Marines. From the trailer it certainly looks to go back to the roots of the original film and also pays homage to the original story and characters of the film with the star character controlled by the player being Ripley's daughter, Amanda. This looks like a good game but with my track record I certainly won't be looking to buy this, these sort of horror/thriller games don't really interest me, basically I'm a woose. Its the story that got me through The Last of Us.

Image Expo 2014! Another exciting year for the publisher and creator owned titles!

Last year we had the announcement of Black Science by Remender and Scalera and Southern Bastards from Jason Aaron and Jason Latour among other exciting titles announced by the publisher. This years expo has seen the beginning of 2014 truly show Image Comic's intent to continue to publish the best creator owned titles on your comic store shelves.

The highlights for me were the announcement of The Wicked & The Divine from tried and tested collaboration of Kieren Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, who recently finished the fan favourite Young Avengers run. The title will follow the lives of Gods born to Earth who die within 2 years it will also be set in 2014. The idea behind the title sounds interesting and anything that contains Gods and Mythology tends to gain my interest. They also announced that Phonogram 3 will still be coming out for the end of 2014. Having finally read Phonogram over the weekend I loved the series it had me dusting off the songs of bands I use to listen to, it shames me to announce it would appear I went through an emo phase.

The other title to really get my attention is the long rumoured Low from Remender and Tochinni, set in a future earth where the land has been ravaged by radiation humans now live underwater behind protective force fields from the radiation. The story centralises around the return of a satellite searching for planets habitable by humans, problem being the satellite landed on the surface and now a team has to be put together to attempt to retrieve it. Some preview art has been released and Tochinni's art looks wonderful. Remender is known for writing great Sci-Fi epics from Fear Agent, his most recent Captain America arc and of course his recent Black Science.

These were not the only exciting titles to be announced there is an extensive list of creators. Joe Keatinge will be teaming up with Leila del Duca on Shutter, Brandon Graham announces a new shared universe in "8House" based in 8 magical factions along with the likes of Churchland and Rios on art. Joshua Williamson and Mike Henderson from Monkeybrain Comics title Masks & Mobsters will be producing there new horror title Nailbiter. Fraction will be producing Ody-C alongside British artist Christian Ward and also announced the return of Casanova to Image and a new volume with Gabriel Ba. Nick Spencer announces three new titles, "Great Beyond" with Morgan Jeske, "Paradigms" with Butch Guice and "Cerulean" with Frazer Irving. Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham team up again after there run on Batman Inc to produce "Nameless". Bill Williingham and Barry Kitson team up for "Restoration" with a magical theme.  Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips continue to team up together  after the likes of Fatale, Criminal and Incognito to launch there new creator owned title "The Fade Out". Finally the most surprising announcement of the expo was the arrival of a new creator owned title to come from Jock and Scott Snyder called "Wytches" this will be a horror comic taking Snyder back to his roots and obviously anyone into comics knows that Jock produces some great art work.

With all these impending titles from Image it looks to be an even bigger year than last! I'll certainly be picking up The Wicked & The Divine and most probably Low, and possibly several of the others depending on my monthly budget. The one thing to definitely take from this is that with All-New Marvel NOW!, the upcoming DC weekly titles, Dark Horse declaring this to be the year of the horse and now Image announcing all these great titles this is going to be yet another great year for the industry!

All-New Marvel NOW! continues into April 2014.

Two new titles were announced during the week coming in April 2014. Kaare Andrews will be wirintg and illustrating a new Iron Fist title in April titles Iron Fist: The Living Weapon. The last work I read by Kaare Andrews was Spider-Man Reign, which was aptly described by one of the staff at my local comic store as Dark Knight Returns for Spider-Man. I really enjoyed Spider-Man Reign and from the preview art for this new Iron Fist title it sure looks like it will be a beautiful looking book.

Another more obscure reveal this week is the announcement of All-New Doop to come from Peter Milligan and David Lafuente. Doop was a character created and introduced by Peter Milligan during his X-Statix and X-Force run with Mike Allred. I don't know much about this character but the series will be focusing on the character to begin with during the events of Battle of the Atom and Doop's role in the event.I'm not to familiar with David Lafuente's work but from the bits I have seen his style looks like it will compliment the character and the book.

Marvel reveal the future for the Ultimate Universe... It's Ultimate Marvel NOW! and it's All-New!

Cataclysm is still yet to end with the impending doom of the Ultimate universe. However this Friday Marvel took the opportunity to announce the post Cataclysm titles.

First of all there will be the new All-New Ultimates title with a team consisting of Miles Morales (Ultimate Spider-Man), Black Widow (Formerly Spider-Woman), Cloak & Dagger, Kitty Pryde and Bombshell. This new team consists of several Bendis written heroes spinning out of his current Ultimate Comics: Ultimate Spider-Man series along with the addition of Kitty Pryde, who at the moment seems to be the only Ultimate X character to survive. The other exciting revelation of this title will be written by Michel Fiffe, who up until this point has been producing his creator owned COPRA, based on a team of super villains, which is critically acclaimed, I haven't read it myself but I am on the hunt to buy the compendiums, and its exciting to see Marvel allowing new creators onto their Ultimate titles again, the same way Humphries was given an opportunity at the publisher. Fiffe will be joined by Amilca Pinna whose art I am not familiar of at all but I look forward to hunting down some work to see whats its like. My pick list has had a major reduction to save on costs but this team is something that has gotten my attention and I may have to have a look at the first issue.

The second Ultimate title to be announced is Ultimate FF, and it has been made very clear this is for Future Foundation not Fantastic Four, this team consists of Sue Storm, Tony Stark, Machine Man and Sam Wilson this will be written by Fialkov, who already has previous in the Ultimate Universe, alongside Mario Guevara on art. The post Cataclysm team titles for the Ultimate universe are both exciting and I hope, both for the creators on the books and the characters involved that these titles will a success.

Finally Mile Morales will be staying within the Ultimate Universe, well at least thats what appears to be the case, in the newly titled Mile Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man, this will continue to be written by Brian Michael Bendis and the continually impressive David Marquez will continue to illustrate the book! Although no cover has yet been released for the title Marvel's April solicitations are due to come out next week where this should be revealed.

Bendis really seems to be at the helm of the Ultimate universe which he helped to create when it initially began and with his help the universe is still creating exciting titles with exciting creators, this could be the re-invigoration the Ultimate Universe has needed, with its only real successful title of late being his own title Ultimate Comics: Ultimate Spider-Man.

Marvel's 2014 event announced "Original Sin"

Marvel have released a new image related to there upcoming 2014 event called Original Sin. The first appearance of the event will be in Original Sin #0 from the creative team of Mark Waid and Jim Cheung before Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato Jnr take on the reins for the 8 issue series. More details regarding this will be released tomorrow during Marvel's Next Big Thing press conference. The general gist so far for this event is the mysterious death of Uatu, and who else would investigate this other than the original Nick Fury. Fury puts together a team of super heroes to investigate and chase the murderer to ensure Uatu's secrets are not unleashed upon the world. I look forward to more info tomorrow.

For more check out the link below;

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=50118

What I'm looking forward to in 2014!

So what will I be looking forward to this year. Well for an easier post I've split it up into the films, comics and video games I am most looking forward to this year! It looks like another big year for all three.

So what are the films I am most looking forward to this year. Well there is the usual comic inspired films like Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: Winter Soldier and Amazing Spider-Man 2. You also have the like of X-Men Days of Future Past which I look forward to seeing how this will work out. My top watch this year though is Guardians of the Galaxy. My surprise pick for the coming year which from the trailers so far I can not wait for and is only a couple of months away which is the The Lego Movie.

Comic wise there is a lot going on this year already, with Marvel's future event being announced this coming Wednesday and DC's next big event to be teased in there Free Comic Book Day 2014 special. As always Free Comic Book Day is one of the highlights of the year as well as DC Marvel certainly have some important teases to make in there issue with a Guardians of the Galaxy highlight and also Spider-Man's up and coming event, the return of Peter Parker? I guess we will know more come the April solicits. Another Marvel title I am looking forward to is the new Moon Knight coming in March from Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey.

                                       

Video Game wise it will be a big year, with a lot of new Next Gen titles to be released and also more to be announced. I'm holding my breathe for the announcement of Fallout 4, to hear more news on the next gen Mass Effect and finally more on the Game of Thrones title to come from Telltale Games. Also next year should be the year I buy my PS4 along with the coming release of Destiny in September! Will I be tempted into buying Xbox One I'm not sure, I also can't wait to get myself a PS Vita especially if I will be grabbing a PS4. With all these prospective new consoles a new television may be in order and also a new Television cabinet. 2014 has the ability to be an exciting year on all fronts!

Marvel to publish Star Wars comics from 2015

Well it was inevitable really and we all knew it was going to happen it was just a matter of when. Today it was finally announced that the Star Wars franchise we will moving back to Marvel in 2015 after two decades at Dark Horse. I only hope Marvel put some of there top teams on this an don't produce any mediocre sales simply for the dollar. Dark Horse have done an amazing job in producing some of the best extended universe work for the beloved franchise from there Knights of the Old Republic series to Legacy and Dark Times, one of my first comic books was Vaders Quest by Dark Horse. It is exciting to learn that one of my favourite publishers will be taking on some of my all time favourite characters but let's be honest in Dark Horse they have a ver difficult and accomplished act to follow.

                           

Dark Horse founder Mike Richardson responded to the news immediately, sending out this statement about their time with the license.

"All things come to pass. So too, do all licensed deals. I am sad to report that Disney, the new owner of Lucasfilm, has notified us here at Dark Horse of their intention to move the Star Wars publishing license to another of their recent acquisitions, Marvel Comics, beginning in 2015. This will end a partnership that has lasted more than two decades.

"For those who are new to the industry, Dark Horse revolutionized the treatment of comics based on films. After a history of movie properties being poorly handled with little regard for execution and continuity, Dark Horse took a new approach, carefully choosing licenses and approaching them with excitement and creative energy. Our goal was to create sequels and prequels to the films we loved, paying careful attention to quality and detail, essentially treating those films as though they were our own. Star Wars has been the crown jewel of this approach. We began chasing the title as far back as 1989, and with the launch of Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy’s Dark Empire, a new era in comics was born. I’m not ashamed to admit that we were Star Wars geeks, and we have been determined to spare neither effort nor expense in the pursuit of excellence.

"It is ironic that this announcement comes at a time when Dark Horse is experiencing its most successful year ever. For obvious reasons, we have prepared for this eventuality by finding new and exciting projects to place on our schedule for 2015 and beyond. Will they take the place of Star Wars? That’s a tall order, but we will do our best to make that happen. In the meantime, 2014 may be our last year at the helm of the Star Wars comics franchise, but we plan to make it a memorable one. We know that fans of the franchise will expect no less. The Force is with us still."

Well said sir! Since the news broke it has been confirmed that the current high profile titles one from Brian Wood and the other from Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Beckho will end around August. I really enjoyed both these series when they first came out and will most certainly be picking these up in trade format as I had to drop them from my stack.

Thank you Dark Horse for some of the best Star Wars stories I have read in some time!