Between the Panels

Marvel released another new Avengers Academy teaser today focusing on a brand new character by the name of Striker. I’m glad to see that these past two teasers have been brand new characters. Avengers Academy written by Christos Gage and drawn by Mike McKone, launches this June.

On today’s episode, the gang discusses the new Warner Brothers Animated release, “Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths”.

You can stream the episode here, or find us in iTunes.

What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments below!

From Christos Gage and Mike McKone comes Avengers Academy #1 in June of 2010. This title has been rumored for a while, so it’s not surprising to hear the official announcement. Glad to hear that Gage will still be on the title and McKone is solid artist. Here is today’s teaser!

This morning, DC’s The  Source blog reported that writer J. Michael Straczynsk will be taking over the Wonder Woman title with issue #601 and Superman with issue #701. The artists on both titles is still up in the air, but this is a huge move by DC. JMS is a very well known and talented writer, and I’m glad to see that DC has enough faith to place him on 2/3 of the fabled DC Trinity. Here’s a quote from JMS about his new tenure:

Now the dream has come fully true with the opportunity to write for the mainstream title, in a story that returns Superman to his roots in a way that will have the whole country talking about him in ways that we haven’t seen in a long time.

Similarly, the chance to write Wonder Woman — the nearest analogue to Superman in the DCU — is massively exciting. She’s a vital, powerful character, and we hope to bring a more contemporary sensibility to her character will retaining everything that makes her unique.

Certainly sounds fascinating to say the least, however my biggest concern is the promptness of the titles.   JMS is a fantastic writer, but his run on Thor was quite delayed. Time will tell, but right now my interests are peaked to see what direction these titles will head in.

As we reported, the brand new Iron Man 2 trailer was supposed to air on Jimmy Kimmel tonight after the Oscars is available now for you to watch.  The trailer actually leaked a bit earlier then when it was supposed to air. I’ve got two words for you:  BRIEFCASE ARMOR!  The trailer looks amazing and I’m very excited to see the full movie. May 7th can’t come soon enough! 2 months and counting folks! We’ve also got some screen caps from the trailer for you as well!

Here are the screen caps!

In this news episode of BTP, William and Dane talk the latest comic book announcements from Marvel, Stan Lee’s return (of sorts) to comics, and have a dramatic reading of the Captain America official movie description.

You can stream the episode here, or find us in iTunes.

What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments below!

That’s right folks, we are changing things up. Again. Starting with this issue Between the Panels will now have episodes 3 times a week.  This week’s episode is a bit different, but in the future you’ll see the 3 normal segments spread out over three days, and today’s episode focuses on comic book reviews for the week of February 24, 2010. Books covered include:

Flash: Rebirth #6

Walking Dead #70

Batman and Robin #9

Amazing Spider-Man #622

The Marvels Project #6

Fantastic Four #576

Secret Warriors #13

Soulfire Volume 2 #2

You can stream the episode here, or download it in iTunes!

What did you all think of the episode? Sound off in the comments below!

DC’s ‘The Source‘ blog reported today that after taking over the title on issue #14, Gail Simone will leave Wonder Woman sometime before June’s #600. Gail wrote an extensive column over at “Comics Should Be Good!” about her time on the title:

You can’t write the book and not be aware of it…Diana is different. A lot of people have superheroes they like. But Diana is different. I went to get my computer fixed a few days ago, the woman behind the counter adores Wonder Woman. I got my hair cut over the weekend and the stylist next to mine almost lost her mind, she loves Diana so much. Neither of these women read comics, but they adore the character—her appeal can be utterly lost on some readers, but it resonates deeply with people who have often never cracked open a comic in their lives.

It’s clear that Simone loves the character and this wasn’t an easy choice for her to depart the book, but Simone will continue her tenure on “Secret Six” as well the new relaunched “Birds of Prey” and Simone also reveled that she’ll be writing a new “Welcome to Tranquility” miniseries for DC’s Wildstrom line.

While it’s sad to see Simon leave Wonder Woman, I’m glad that she’ll be writing more of her fan favorite characters.  I’ll also be interested to see what her role in Wonder Woman #600 will be come June. We at Between the Panels wish Gail the best of luck in her future writing projects at DC and eagerly await the announcement of the new Wonder Woman writer.

Well, we are a day late and a dollar short, but in case you were living under a rock today; The Thing will join Bendis’ “New Avengers” in June. Here’s Immonen’s take on the blue-eyed wonder:

It will be interesting to see if this changes The Things’ membership on the Fantastic Four, but time will tell. What do you all think? Sound off in the comments below!