Comic-Con Day 4 News Round-Up

Comic-Con wrapped up yesterday with a relatively light offering of news.  The biggest mover and shaker had to be the Spider-Man panel with the announcement that the Brand New Day era was coming to an end.  There was also the Infinity Gauntlet movie prop on display and Grant Morrison held a panel with the fans.  Hit the jump to see a quick round-up of what I found noteworthy from yesterday's news.

Weekly Crisis SDCC'10 Coverage So Far

• Weekly Crisis Comic-Con Predictions
• Comic-Con Day 1 News Round-Up
• Crisis on Infinite Arts - Marko Djurdjevic's SDCC'10 X-Men Poster
• Grant Morrison's Vision for Batman, Inc.
• Comic-Con Day 2 News Round-Up
• CrossGen to Return in 2011?
• A Fanlad's Guide To The Eisner Award Winners
• Comic-Con Day 3 News Round-Up

The Infinity Gauntlet to Appear in the Thor Movie?

Despite not really being an announcement or even a confirmation, everyone would nuts yesterday, including yours truly, when Marvel unveiled the Infinity Gauntlet at their movie props display.  It's speculated this is going to appear in the Thor movie, but maybe it's a precursor to the Avengers film?  Or maybe Marvel is branching out to something more cosmic?  Not sure the exact details, but damn if I'm not excited at the prospect of Thanos appearing in a movie.

Brand New Day Ends, Big Time Begins

At the Spider-Man panel, the last of the major panels from Marvel and DC, it was confirmed that Brand New Day would be ending.  No, the status quo set up with One More Day is still in effect. This is simply a shift away from the three times a month schedule to a twice a month schedule and the new banner title will be Spider-Man: Big Time.  

Additionally, Dan Slott will become the sole writer for Amazing Spider-Man and the book will balloon to 30 pages, up from 22, and sport a $3.99 price tag.  This works out to roughly the same amount of content, assuming they don't use the extra pages for back-up stories, and at a lower price per page than the thrice monthly schedule at $2.99.  

Artists will continue to be a group of rotating creators with Humberto Ramos, Marcos Martin and Stefano Caselli announced for the first three arcs.  It's unknown if they will be the only artists, all on a three month rotation, or if others will join them.  I know it would be a shame if Chris Bachalo no longer draws anything Spider-Man related.  The man was born to draw Spidey.   

Other news from the panel included a 5-issue Norman Osborn miniseries from writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and artist Emma Rios. There's also a Spider-Girl series confirmed with the writer and artist, which I'll touch on in the next section.  Carnage was also announced as returning in an upcoming miniseries from Zeb Wells and Clayton Crain.  I like the creative team behind this and will be checking it out, even if Carnage isn't my favourite character.  Finally, there was a lot of love for, surprisingly, Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider and supposedly dead clone of Spider-Man, from both the panel and fans.  When asked if we'd be seeing more Ben Reilly in the future, we were told he'd be in the upcoming Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions game and to stay tuned for more on him. They even polled the audience and the crowd erupted in cheers for the question on if they'd like to see more Ben.  People loving Ben Reilly again.  I'm in Bizarro World and I likes it.

Spider-Girl Creative Team Announced

We knew a Spider-Girl title, starring the rechristened Arana, was in the works, but no creative team or details were announced. With the Spider-Man panel Sunday came that news as Paul Tobin and Clayton Henry were attached to the project.  

If you are unfamiliar with Tobin's writing, he's the man responsible for the always enjoyable and just plain fun Marvel Adventures line. Yes, all of it (or pretty damn well most of it).   Clayton Henry is also a fantastic artist and the fact that both are on this book means it instantly became one to watch for.  

The description in subsequent interviews at Marvel and CBR have me even more excited to read this title.  If you were rolling your eyes at the idea of a Spider-Girl book, I suggest giving them a read or at least reconsidering.  All signs point to what could be a real gem of a book.

Blue Beetle & Booster Gold to Appear on Geoff Johns Written Smallville Episode

Looks like that footage of Blue Beetle from a while back will be getting some use as Geoff Johns confirmed that he would be writing another episode of Smallville at the Smallville panel and that it would star Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes version) and Booster Gold.  

Superman to Appear on Smallville

In more Smallville news from their Comic-Con panel, things are looking up, up and away as Tom Welling is set to don the Superman costume.  It was teased in the image above at the panel and they even said the door was open for Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) to return to the show in what could be a return to form for a show many considered to be spinning its wheels the last few seasons.  

Grant Morrison, Multiversity, Absolute We3 and More

Grant Morrison had a fantastic interview earlier in the con with IGN Comics regarding Batman, Inc.  It left me wondering if he had anything left to say at his own panel, to which I was not disappointed.  Near the end, he spoke out about creative freedom at DC compared to Marvel and what he thought about those vocal fans that bash his work, 

The writer told the assembled crowd that as for his future, he's happy to play at DC because he's allowed a true amount of creative freedom. "Me and Geoff Johns sell lots of comic books at DC, and no one's every said 'Don't do that,' because they know it sells good. There are certain segments of fandom that say that my work is difficult, but it's the best-selling stuff in the business and has been for 20 years. So I'm not going to change."

Hard to argue with that. He also confirmed the Absolute We3, one of my favourites of his and Frank Quitely's many collaborations, and said there would indeed be extra pages for the story added to the collection.

Finally, there was also news from the panel on the fabled Multiversity project.  

As far as future projects, Morrison promised he'd deliver a classic Wonder Woman story "soon" and that as far as the release of his announced "Multiversity" project, "We can't get a concrete date because Frank Quitely's drawing one of them. But I think it's going to be next summer." The writer also said that one of the "Multiversity" issues would be called "Thunder World" – a title he came up with for the Marvel Family earth because he was tired of always having to work the word "Shazam" into the titles of their adventures for legal reasons.

Possible summer release next year?  Kind of odd that they can't set a concrete date for a project because Quitely is drawing one of the issues.  He has a full year to do it.  Not even Bryan Hitch was that slow!  I was hoping for more information, but at least this is something.

That's it for Day 4 news from me.  Did I miss anything noteworthy?   What did you think of Day 4?  What was your favourite announcement?  Let us know in the comments below!

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