Before discussing the latest Avengers info and the state of the mutants post-Schism, I thought I’d produce a list of the major category winners of the 2011 Harvey Awards, presented at this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con (which, by the way, was ridiculously crowded this year thanks to Stan Lee being the guest of honor).

Major winners:

 

  • Best syndicated strip or panel: Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau (Universal Press Syndicate)
  • Best inker: Mark Morales, Thor (Marvel)
  • Best new series: American Vampire, Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque (Vertigo/DC Comics)
  • Most promising new talent: Chris Samnee, Thor: The Mighty Avenger (Marvel)
  • Best original graphic publication for younger readers: Tiny Titans, Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani (DC Comics)
  • Best cover artist: Mike Mignola, Hellboy (Dark Horse)
  • Best continuing or limited series: Love And Rockets, Vol. 3, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics)
  • Best writer: Roger Langridge, Thor: The Mighty Avenger (Marvel)
  • Best artist: Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit (IDW Publishing)
  • Best cartoonist: Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit (IDW Publishing)
  • Best single issue or story: Daytripper, Fabio Moon and Gabiel Ba (Vertigo/DC Comics)

Glad to see Marvel getting love here—but it’s a little odd that all the Marvel books are Thor-related…Anyway, hit the break for gossip, leaks, and good news…

AVENGERS FOOTAGE AND SET PIX RELEASED!  And they reveal quite a bit about the film, such as: Loki’s one of the badguys, and he gets captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. for doing something Cosmic Cube related; Banner, Thor, Black Widow, Cap, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Hulk and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) are all part of the team; there’s a crashed spaceship that looks an awful lot like a Skrull craft; Loki’s army destroys Manhattan; and Thor hits Cap’s shield with Mjolnir.  Seems like enough for one movie to me…

UNCANNY X-FORCE.  Post-Schism, it looks like Nightcrawler is coming back.  And it looks like Wolverine is gone.  The team appears to be the revived Kurt, along with Psylocke, Deadpool and Fantomex.  This may mean that Deadpool is in more monthly books than Wolverine…

WONDER WOMAN.  A movie deal with Joss Whedon and a TV deal with David Kelley have both crashed and burned.  What’s next?  Director Nicolas Winding Refn, who did Drive (due out this fall) and is currently working on a Logan’s Run remake–both with Ryan Gosling—says he’s circling Wonder Woman as a next film.  Believe it when I see it, but since’s he’s such a Gosling fan, I’d love to see Gosling play the Amazon in drag.  That would be a great movie.

THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR…Is more fear itself.  The 7-isssue series has been extended with three “point one” issues: 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3.  The issues will explore the effects of the main series on the three main characters: Cap, Iron Man and Thor.  All of whom have at least one monthly book in which these effects could (and should) be explored and discussed.

DANGER GIRL. J. Scott Campbell’s T&A/B-movie comic book is being offered to Hollywood with either Milla Jovavich, Kate Beckinsale or Sofia Vergara attached.  Sofia Vergara?  That one’s a head scratcher.

THE HULK ON T.V.  According to Guillermo “Hellboy” del Toro, the ABC pilot he’s working on with David “Battlestar Galactica” Eick will have nothing to do with the Marvel Movie Universe.  They’ve been given full creative freedom.  With guys like them attached, I just don’t see how this show can go wrong.

POWER PACK IS DEFUNCT.  I mean, I’m assuming.  Since Alex Power is in Reed Richards’ Future Foundation and it was just announced that Julie Power will join Avengers Academy.  I thought the Academy was supposed to be like Thunderbolts for kids—you had to have a checkered past?  I guess Julie will be the “positive influence.”  You know, the kid who gets stuffed into lockers.

THE DAMNED.  Showtime is developing a second indie-comic-book-based show (“Chew” was first), this time based on Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s “The Damned,” an Oni Press comic about mobsters possessed by demons.  Or something like that.  Never read it.  But it sounds cool.

THE DEFENDERS REBOOT.  Marvel is starting to run its hype machine in overdrive to promote this upcoming series by Matt Fraction.  I’m hopeful, but I see a broad conceptual problem.  What made the Defenders so cool was that they had so many weirdoes/fringe characters/B-listers (like Son of Satan, Valkerie, Beast and Iceman)—guys you couldn’t really see elsewhere.  But now, with Bendis using the Avengers brand to develop all kinds of reboots (Squirrel Girl?!), I’m not sure that there’s a real place for a b-team.  We’ll see.

DEADMAN ON THE CW.  Yes, to replace Smallville, the CW has opted against a “Flying Graysons” show and is instead moving ahead with a Deadman show.  I bet it ends up being like Quantum Leap:  A series of “I can’t believe I look like this now” reaction shots placed in a strung-together collection of unrelated adventures, with a few ongoing plotlines (My wife is mourning me!  My kids miss me!) that we’ve seen a million times before.  Do I sound cynical?  Yes!  Comic book TV lately has been boring at worst (The Cape) and mediocre at best (Alphas).  The show is being created by Eric “Supernatural” Kripke.  Can’t say I’m a fan of that show, but my wife digs it.

HAVOK…will return to the X-Factor team.  Love that book.

THE NEW 52 SEEMS TO BE WORKING?  DC is reporting over 200,000 preorders for Justice League #1, and six other new #1s preorder at over 100,000 (Action Comics, Batman, Detective Comics, The Flash, Green Lantern and Superman).  Obviously, this is a big improvement for Justice League (because JLA and JSA weren’t coming close to that number of units per month); but is it a big improvement for titles like Batman and Green Lantern, which were already top 10 sellers?  That’s the real question, because DC is hyping the new 52 as their attempt to save the industry.  By way of context, the Death of Spider-Man (Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #160) only sold 168,000 copies.  So I’m not minimizing, believe me.  Of course, the real question is how many preorders they have for Justice League #2…And how many they can hold on to when they’re more than six issues deep.

MUDMAN.  Image Comics and Paul “Jack Staff” Grist are producing a new book about a kid with mud powers.  Advance art looks great; this could be a lot of fun.