Nerdy News for Monday, May 23, 2005

Brian Bendis is pulling out the stops to get me to buy New Avengers. Steve McNiven, David Finch, the super-babelicious Spider-Woman (I never realized how great that costume was until Finch drew it), the return of the Sentry, and now Neal Adams doing this special variant cover to New Avengers #7 (click to expand). Pretty great, reminds me of Sauron falling off that cliff in Adams' X-Men run. Though I try not to speak of Bendis, I must point you to this interview concerning his involvement in the Ultimate Spider-Man videogame, which looks tremendous.

Moving on to DC, there's a great interview with Jeff Loeb on his final Superman\Batman arc where he's out for blood: the World's Finest take on "The Maximums", a thinly veiled swipe at the Ultimates. Ed McGuiness returns to draw this arc and it looks to be a whopper. Leob reveals something about the first Pulse arc that I never realized: the Green Goblin murdered reporter Teri Kidder in issue #2: Teri Hatcher combined with Margot Kidder, get it? There's Bendis again, he just pops up everywhere. Loeb is fed up with Marvel taking pot shots and now it's his turn. Then there's a great interview with DC's head honcho, where he talks about Infinite Crisis, Grant Morrison, and the All-Star line. If you're getting excited about this like I am, check out the latest Batman and Superman issues, they are all tied into the ongoing continuity. And if you want to see Batman confront his super-buddies over getting mind raped, creating OMAC, and uncovering the truth about Blue Beetle, check out this schweet 10 page preview of OMAC #2.

More evidence that Lucas is not going to the Light Side and stopping with Episode 3: Australian actor Matthew Newton might be part of the new Star Wars TV show.

Finally, play the funeral march music, because The Flash just lost one of his greatest writers: Geoff Johns has announced he is leaving the book. Sob! And if you cross-check Didio's interview that I mentioned above, you will see there is little chance that Johns will do an All-Star Flash book. But we can console ourselves with the knowledge that Darwyn Cooke will write an arc of the Flash after Johns' exit. Nuff said, I'm too verklempt.