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Comic Book News of The Week: Grant Morrison returns to Batman and More

What’s going on in the Comic Book World? Life can be pretty busy, so we highlight recent news and articles that may catch your interest in our fifth edition of Comic Book News.

A week ago, Grant Morrison appeared on the Comic Book Couples Counseling podcast to discuss All-Star Superman and other Man of Steel topics. But what made waves wasn’t the praise for Alex Ross’s Peace on Earth or the reveal that Superman Beyond is a personal favorite. It was the unexpected announcement that Morrison is working on a new Batman project.

As Morrison explained: “I just actually took on a job that I wasn’t expecting because I don’t need to do these things anymore, and I only do them for something interesting. It’s not Superman but it’s a Batman thing. I didn’t ever think I’d go back, but if someone comes to me with something good, and it just strikes a spark and it starts a fire, then of course I’ll do it. I’m not writing it off.”

While there are no more details, this was enough to spark excitement!

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IDW Reading Order

Originally published by Mirage Studios in 1984, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a black-and-white, self-published comic created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird that quickly gained traction, helping to ignite the independent comics boom of the 1980s.

Unlike many of its contemporaries, which faded into obscurity, TMNT evolved into a long-lasting franchise. The original comics follow four mutated turtles—Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo—who are trained in ninjutsu by their rat sensei, Splinter. Living in the sewers of New York City, they battle crime, alien threats, and supernatural forces, expanding their adventures across multiple dimensions in comics, television, and film.

While the original Mirage series ended in 1995, TMNT publications continued in various forms. The property moved to Image Comics in 1996, returned to Mirage in the early 2000s, and was later acquired by Nickelodeon in 2009. Since 2011, IDW Publishing (Transformers, G.I. Joe) has produced an ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic series, spearheaded by TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman, writer Tom Waltz, and artist Dan Duncan. This iteration introduced a revised origin story and an expanded mythology, ensuring that the heroes in a half shell continue their legacy in fresh and ambitious ways.

After 150 issues, IDW decided to relaunch the main Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic series and announced Volume 2 now written by Jason Aaron. A new era of the Turtles began.

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Flash Thompson Agent Venom Reading Order Guide

So few characters really change in the comic book world, but there are exceptions like Eugene “Flash” Thompson. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, he first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 (1962), the same comic that introduced Spider-Man. A high school jock, Flash was one of Peter Parker’s biggest tormentors, constantly mocking him for his bookish nature, but also Spider-Man’s number one fan, never suspecting that the hero he idolized was the same teenager he bullied daily. From that, he would go on to become one of Spider-Man’s most unlikely allies, a war hero, and even the host of the Venom symbiote!

Flash Thompson: The Early Years

Flash was never a villain, his story is not one of redemption, but one of growth as a human being. Despite his antagonistic behavior, Flash had moments of kindness, and over time, he began to mature and became a more noble human being. His admiration for Spider-Man always indicated his sense of justice. After high school, Flash enlisted in the military to serve in the Vietnam War and returned later, eventually becoming Peter’s roommate. At that point, their relationship had already evolved into a more cordial territory, and they developed a true friendship.

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The Phantom Zone Explained: The Evolution of the Kryptonian Prison

Before Marvel Comics introduced its Negative Zone, DC Comics had presented to its readers a different type of zone, one connected to Superman‘s world, The Phantom Zone. Created by Robert Bernstein and George Papp, this prison parallel dimension first appeared in Adventure Comics #283 in 1961. Back then, Superboy found a stash of Kryptonian weapons that included the Phantom Zone Projector. Since then, the subject has been developed by multiple authors and retconned by others.

The Pre-Crisis Origins of the Phantom Zone

As explained in Superboy #104 by Edmond Hamilton and Papp, the Phantom Zone was created by Kryptonian scientist Jor-El. He introduced it as a humane alternative to replace the “orbit exile system.” Following that, Krypton’s legal system sentenced the criminals to an intangible, timeless exile in a pocket dimension. Within the Phantom Zone, prisoners exist as spectral entities, unable to interact with the physical world but still conscious and aware—essentially, ghosts stuck in eternal imprisonment without the ability to age or die.

With the Phantom Zone Projector saved from destruction, those Kryptonian prisoners survived the explosion of their planet and found their way to Earth. The evil Jax-Ur was the first to escape and torment Superboy, but not the last. The Zone quickly became a recurring plot device in Superman used for decades.

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Assassin’s Creed Comics Reading Order

First conceived as an entry in the Prince of Persia series, Assassin’s Creed is now one of the biggest video game franchises that includes thirteen mainline and several spin-offs that also spanned novels, audio drama, comic books, encyclopedias, board games, and a live-action film.

Created by Patrice Desilets and published by Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed is a mix between historical fiction, conspiracy thriller and sci-fi. It takes place across various periods and revolves around the secret war fought for centuries between The Templar Order, who wish for mankind to be united in peace under their control, and the Assassin Brotherhood, who believe in flawed humanity and fight to maintain the freedom of all humanity.

The Assassin’s Creed video game franchise is famous for telling its stories across two timelines. Most of the game takes place in the historical timeline where players control an Assassin. The Present-day timeline serves as a framing story, tying everything together, showing how past events influence the present and future.

This format is often respected in the Assassin’s Creed comic books. For this reason, this reading guide doesn’t follow a chronological order or a publication order. Instead, the comics have been organized based on storylines, key characters, or specific game tie-ins.

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Marvel Knights Comics, The Imprint That Rescued Marvel with Daredevil, Punisher, and more!

In 1998, Marvel Comics was not in the best of shape but was starting to look better. Even if the Heroes Reborn publishing initiative had not been the expected success, as it was an expensive affair, the idea of contracting exterior talents to package comics for the company was still explored. This time, though, Marvel president Joe Calamari wanted to do it at a reasonable cost. He consulted Gareb Shamus (Wizard magazine publisher), who recommended his two friends, Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti.

At the time, the two men were the founders of the independent comic book publisher Event Comics (Ash, Painkiller Jane…) and took the contract as a way to make money for their company and try to promote their books by association with the popular Marvel Comics characters. Unlike what Image Comics had to do with Heroes Reborn, their deal was not to relaunch some of the biggest comics of the company but to take over some of the weakest and try to save them. And that’s how Marvel Knights came to be.

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Comic Book News of The Week: The first biography of Robert Crumb and More!

What’s going on in the Comic Book World? Life can be pretty busy, so we highlight recent news and articles that may catch your interest in our fourth edition of Comic Book News.

This month sees the release of Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life, a biography by Dan Nadel, a curator and writer specializing in comics and art who “shares how this complicated artist survived childhood abuse, fame in his twenties, more fame, and came out the other side intact.”

If you are not familiar with Robert Crumb, here is a short introduction by publisher Scribner: “Robert Crumb is often credited with single-handedly transforming the comics medium into a place for adult expression, in the process pioneering the underground comic book industry, and transforming the vernacular language of 20th-century America into an instantly recognizable and popular aesthetic, as iconic as Walt Disney or Charles Schulz.”

Chris Vognar at the Los Angeles Times wrote about the book:

Generously illustrated with work from throughout Crumb’s career, “Crumb” is an artist biography that astutely connects the work to the life story without forcing or simplifying anything. It works as cultural history and criticism; you won’t find a sharper analysis of the underground comix movement. Nadel honors the complexity of his subject, even, perhaps particularly, when it gets ugly.

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Maxwell Lord: The Comic Book History of a Master Manipulator

« Lord was always sort of a nebulous, self-serving hard ass » said Keith Giffen (RIP) in a CBR interview twenty years ago. He’s talking about Maxwell Lord, power broker, master manipulator, cyborg for a time, spy and full-blown villain.

The Maxwell Lord appearing in the pages of DC Comics today is not the same man readers encountered when he made his first appearance almost 40 years ago in Justice League #1 (May 1987). His origins were rewritten post-Flashpoint to better align with his modern characterization. Once an amoral power broker, Lord has since become a more straightforward villain.

With a new version of Maxwell Lord set to appear in the upcoming Superman movie this summer, we take a look back at Maxwell Lord’s history, and how the character has changed over time.

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Elvira, Mistress of the Dark Comic Book’s History, From DC to Dynamite

Amateurs of horror are certainly familiar with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Played by Cassandra Peterson, Elvira is a campy horror-themed TV hostess with a razor-sharp wit and an iconic gothic sense of style–her plunging black dress and beehive hairdo are immediately identifiable. She rose to fame in the early 1980s as the Movie Macabre star, a show featuring her clever, satirical, and innuendo-filled commentary on low-budget horror films. 

Her popularity led her to host another type of horror show, as she became one of the caretakers of DC’s House of Mystery, the horror anthology comic book. Since then, her adventures in comics have taken a different path, as she became the protagonist of a long-running series—not just the hostess—before coming back in a pop-culture-heavy series that Dynamite regularly publishes. So today, we are taking a look at Elvira’s comics history.

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Mystique Reading Order (X-Men)

Some mutants are older than they look. We all know that Wolverine‘s healing factor slowed down the effects of aging granting him an extended lifespan. But he is not the only Marvel mutant to have quite a long life. This is also the case of the mysterious and dangerous Mystique.

Mostly known as Raven Darkhölme, Mystique has hidden behind many aliases, such as Sherlock Holmes, Foxx, Surge, Raven Wagner, and more. Her true identity is still a mystery, despite having made her first appearance in Ms. Marvel #16 (January 1978), more than 47 years ago.

This unknown past fit quite well with the shapeshifting mutant terrorist who found her way to the Marvel Comics page by accident. Artist Dave Cockrum simply drew a beautiful woman who was colored by Paty Greer (the future Mrs. Cockrum) and Marvel colorist Andy Yanchus. When Claremont saw the design, he asked for information about her and if he could use her. He came up with the name Mystique and included her in Ms. Marvel.

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