New York Comic Con - arguably the biggest comic book convention after San Diego Comic-Con International - coincided with the University's Fall Break. It featured many guests, publishers, writers, artists and much more, leading to some of the most important comics announcements to come out of the city that never sleeps.
Possibly the most popular story coming out of NYCC this year is one everyone's wallets will be glad to hear. Both major publishers, Marvel and DC, are changing the $3.99 price tag on comic book issues back to $2.99 starting in January next year. Of course, this slash in prices isn't without a few catches. All 32-page-long ongoing DC comic titles currently priced at $3.99 will cost a dollar less - but will have two fewer story pages. Moreover, those comics currently with extra backup features will lose those stories and be priced at $2.99. Two pages for most comics might seem negligible, but it still is a good chunk of space for storytelling. But for a dollar less, I'll happily comply.
For the comics themselves, almost every publisher had a feature to show off and hype up at the convention. As if to increase his saturation, Captain America will have two new titles coming out: Astonishing Captain America and Ultimate Captain America, written by Andy Diggle and Jason Aaron, respectively. X-Men fans will have a lot to love, too, as Marvel revealed more details in January about its new storyline, Serve & Protect. Coming off a battle with vampires, the team of mutants will surprisingly join forces with their friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to take on one of the wall-crawler's major foes. Alongside will be a new title solely about X-Men favorites Wolverine and Jubilee.
Meanwhile, at DC, everyone's favorite icons have exciting events coming up next year. The most noteworthy are new directions for abandoned superheroes Aquaman and Hawkman. Both figures will be prominent once again, and so far it is known that current Justice League of America scribe James Robinson will be handling Hawkman. And although you never guessed you would mix cuisine and comics, renowned chef, host and author Anthony Bourdain is working on an original graphic novel for imprint Vertigo. Titled Get Jiro!, the story will be an action thriller set in the future, where all power comes from food and the secrets and recipes on how to prepare it. Although one could easily deem this a joke and trivial venture, this project seems to be more of a gamble than a payoff, so count me as fascinated.
And because superheroes are in all forms of media nowadays, there was some exciting news about some new video games at NYCC. DC's big project, the massively multiplayer DC Universe Online, showed off its endless Character Create system, upping the excitement to monumental levels. To coincide with both anticipated Marvel films, Thor and Captain America will have their own accompanying video games. Captain America: Super Soldier seems the most promising, as its ties to the film are little-to-none, meaning there's no cheap cash-in here. And fans of nostalgia rejoice, as the favorite, possibly best superhero game of all time, Konami's X-Men Arcade will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network soon, featuring playable mutants Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Dazzler, and of course, online co-op. I call Wolverine, so I need five people to help me beat down Magneto and his army of Sentinels.
To cap things off, it would not be a modern comic convention without television and movie features. If you are planning to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I this November, expect to be treated to the official debut of the blockbuster Green Lantern trailer, starring Ryan Reynolds. Marvel continues to show off with the proposed live-action TV series, The Hulk, and the lesser-known Cloak & Dagger, both being developed at ABC. Believe it or not, Marvel already announced new anime series centered on a few characters, and those on Iron Man and Wolverine were the first to be showcased in New York. The biggest excitement, however, has to do with The Walking Dead, an ongoing comic book about surviving a zombie apocalypse that has been turned into a television series. Fittingly debuting Oct. 31 on AMC, look for this series to be just as engrossing, emotional and horrifying as writer Robert Kirkman's spectacular work.
Whether you want to read, play games or watch something on screen, the rest of this year and 2011 promises a wide range of entertainment for fans of comic books everywhere.
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