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Comics Relief: Avengers Take A Stand Against Bullying, Betty Boop Turns 84, and the Return of the Bat-Nipples?

Welcome to this Halloween week edition of Comics Relief, where we fittingly talks about some horror collections form Dark Horse Comics, the possible horror of a return to Joel Schumacher’s Batman movie universe, and more. Because was there anything more frightening than the Bat-nipples?

Joel Schumacher’s Re-Imagined Batman Movie Trilogy Coming To Comics?

This might be the comic book project literally no one asked for, and yet it has that possible “trainwreck/can’t look away” factor going for it. When director Joel Schumacher took over the Batman franchise in 1995 with Batman Forever, he planned a trilogy of sorts. Unfortunately, the massive critical and commercial failure of 1997’s Batman & Robin killed the franchise dead for eight years until Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. However, Joel Schumacher originally had Batman Triumphant planned as a follow up to Batman & Robin.

Now, rumor has it that DC Comics has set Joel Schumacher to re-write his Bat Trilogy – the two that were made and the one that wasn’t – as one 12-issue series with art by Dustin Nguyen. Schumacher denied the rumor when asked if this was true, as did the artist, but Bleeding Cool’s source keep insisting that something is indeed up with this project. (Maybe Schumacher himself isn’t doing the writing? Who knows) All I know is I wish we were getting a comic version of what could have been Tim Burton’s Batman 3 instead, that sounds at least visually interesting. [Bleeding Cool]

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Get In The Halloween Spirit With Dark Horse’s Creepy & Eerie Archives Megabundle

Not in the Halloween mood just  yet? Dark Horse Comics has the solution for that, as they’re having a huge digital sale on their Creepy and Eerie titles, including their Eisner Award-winning Creepy Archives and Eerie Archives. The Creepy Archives MegaBundle includes volumes 1-19, and includes the work of comic book legends like the late Archie Goodwin, Bruce Jones, Al Williamson, Berni Wrightson, Frank Frazetta and Richard Corben, and this massive bundle is on sale for just now $79.99. [Dark Horse Digital]

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New Collection To Celebrate 84 Years of Betty Boop

Titan Comics announced this week that a brand-new newspaper comic strip collection of Max Fleischer’s iconic comic strip/sex symbol Betty Boop, titled The Definitive Betty Boop: The Classic Comic Strip Collection, which is set to hit stores in September 2015. According to the press release, “this beautiful new volume from Titan Comics collects together for the first time ever Betty’s adventures as they appeared in the funny pages of daily newspapers from the 1930s, capturing all the cheeky fun embodied by the character.” The collection also comes with an authoritative introduction and the history of Betty Boop. Betty turns 84 years old this year, which means this is one of the few comic book related gifts you can feasibly buy your grandma.  [Comic Book Resources]

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Rumor: Be Prepared To Say Goodbye To Some Marvel Titles

Not ALL the Marvel news this week has to do with movies, there is plenty of actual Marvel comics news, although sadly, not all of it good: some Marvel titles are heading for the chopping block, at least according to rumors at Bleeding Cool. Which titles are set to go? X-Force will be published until issues #14 or #15. All-New Invaders is also said to be cancelled around issues #13 or 15, and Elektra with issue #11, and Secret Avengers with #12. Of course, Marvel has a habit of relaunching books fairly quickly these days, so we could be seeing all-new #1 issues of these titles hot on the heels of the previous version’s finale. [Bleeding Cool]

Dynamite Entertainment Set To Launch DRM-Free Digital Comics Program

Dynamite Entertainment is celebrating their tenth anniversary this year, and to celebrate they are announcing the debut of its brand new digital program featuring DRM-free comics. Set to launch initially with comics available in PDF file format, the  new initiative makes a selection of its most popular books ready for download  directly by consumers, with an available selection of over 80 individual comic books, which includes creator-owned, company-owned and licensed titles from Dynamite’s massive library. [Dynamite.com]

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The DC “Band-Aid” Looks To Be Called “Convergence” 

We’ve known for awhile there’s a DC event coming in April/May of 2015, which is set to pit versions of the DC Universe heroes against one another, including pre-New 52 versions fighting versions of themselves from all over the multiverse. The event was nick-named “The DC Band Aid” as it would be published while the DC offices move from New York to Burbank, functioning as creative bandage of the two month transition, and then rumored to be “The Blood Moon”, but now it seems it’s going to be called “Convergence”, which makes way more sense for a multiversal type event. There will be twenty 2-issue-long comics with a weekly comic running through its spine, totalling around fifty comic books over two months, according to Bleeding Cool. Of course, this is all rumored to be a prelude to some kind of Crisis on Infinite Earths-style event also coming in 2015. [Bleeding Cool]

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Marvel Takes A Stand Against Bullying

Recently, Marvel issued a series of anti-bullying variant covers, and now they’re taking it one step further, with an all-new one-shot comic book called Avengers: No More Bullying #1, which will feature original stories by a host of  fan-favorite creators. According to the official description, “the Earth’s mightiest heroes have a new and vital mission – to make bullying a thing of the past! Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, Captain Marvel, and more have always stood up for those who cannot stand up for themselves, but this time they’re in for a bombastic adventure of the highest order! Featuring surprise guest stars from across the Marvel Universe including Spider-Man and The Guardians of the Galaxy!”  Interestingly, not showcased are any X-Men or Fantastic Four characters.  [Newsarama]

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So what’s your opinion of today’s stories? Let us know in the comments below!

Images: Warner Bros., Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Marvel

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