It’s time for the weekend edition of Comics Relief fangirls and fanboys, and as usual, we’ve got several Secret Wars related announcements from Marvel. But that’s not all! We also have news on how you can help launch a pretty cool comic book anthology for and about women in gaming. But first, DC Comics begins their year of celebrating the Legacy of the Scarlet Speedster with this pretty nifty video tribute….

DC Celebrates 75 Years Of The Flash

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Jay Garrick, the original Flash, and DC Comics has begun their celebration of all the Scarlet Speedsters by releasing this tribute video, which shows a Flash for each of the 75 years he’s been in publication. DC promises more “Flashiversary” comics and collected editions for the rest of 2015 (as if having a hit TV show wasn’t enough) so this promises to be a good year for fans of Barry, Wally and Jay. Check out the video below:

Grant Morrison’s New X-Men Return As Part of Secret Wars

Grant Morrison’s early 2000s-era X-Men are returning to the Marvel Universe thanks to Secret Wars (what else) although they won’t actually be bringing Morrison along with them. Instead, artist-turned-writer Chris Burnham will be writing E Is For Extinction, which was the name of the first Grant Morrison storyline from New X-Men back in 2001.

Illustrated by Ramon Villalobos,The series will feature the Morrison-era mutants in an area of Battleworld where mutants are loved and admired instead of feared and hated, similar to how things were played during Grant Morrison’s run. Expect to see certain characters from Morrison’s run play a big part, like Angel Salvadore and Beak. Although not involved with the book himself, Morrison did give Burnham his stamp of approval on the whole thing. “I definitely made sure to get his blessings first and he thought it was cool,” Burnham says. “He doesn’t own the characters but if I thought it was going to piss him off, I would’ve bowed out. He thought it sounded neat. He told me to go for it. He also gave me a couple ideas he thought I should use.” [Comic Vine]

Meet The Misfits Of IDW’s Upcoming Jem Series

While the upcoming Jem and the Holograms live-action movie doesn’t seem to be borrowing one of the cartoon’s most important elements, Jem’s rival band, the Misfits, the new comic book series from IDW knows better than to leave that important element out. The original characters have been updated for modern times though, with added elements like the fact that Pizzazz was in child beauty pageants singing country songs as a kid (no wonder she ends up being evil). Another welcome new element is the fact that the group is now racially diverse, as well as diverse in different body types, with Stormer now a plus-size girl. Check out the profiles for all for members at the following link: [Comics Alliance]

This Batman Themed Hotel Room Is A Real Thing

If you’re a Batman fanatic, and happen to find yourself in Southeast Asia, you might want to check out this Batman-themed hotel room in Taiwan. The room has a Batcave like ceiling, pictures of various Batmen (bot mostly Christian Bale) and Tumbler-shaped seating area and a giant bat signal behind the bed. In fact, there are bat-symbols everywhere, probably even in the bathroom. The rooms at the Eden Motel are meant to be booked by the hour,so I guess that’s the “millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne” part of the room, if ya know what I mean. [Nerdist]

These ’80s Style Action Figure Variant Covers Are The Best Thing Announced So Far For Secret Wars

There have been a metric ton of announcements from Marvel regarding the upcoming Secret Wars event, but as far as I’m concerned, this is the maybe the coolest one so far: Marvel is celebrating the new version of Secret Wars by paying homage to the 1984 original series, which included a popular line of action figures, with a series of variant covers.

The variants will be featured on 17 covers total from artist John Tyler Christopher, including all eight issues of the main Secret Wars series by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic. These eight covers will feature characters from the original 1980s toy line. Nine other tie-in series will have action figure variants for their debut issues, and these variants will depict modern characters done in the style of the 1985 action figure line. Below are the covers for Secret Wars #1, Secret Wars: Battleworld #1, and Secret Wars: Journal #1. [Comic Book Resources]

Help Support Chainmail Bikini, A Comics Anthology For & About Women Gamers

For all you female gamers out there who love comics as well, there’s an anthology collection coming soon of comics by and about female gamers called Chainmail Bikini, but it needs your support to happen. As described on their Kickstarter page, some 40 cartoonists have contributed 200+ pages of all new stories about the games they’re passionate about, from video games to tabletop role-playing games to collectible card games.

Chainmail Bikini is described as “exploring the real-life impact of entering a fantasy world, how games can connect us with each other and teach us about ourselves. We believe that gaming should be open to all, regardless of gender. Chainmail Bikini shows that while women are not always the target market for gaming, they are a vital and thoroughly engaged part of it, and are eager to express their personal take as players, makers, and critics of games.” To learn more, go their Kickstarter page here. [Bleeding Cool]

Jason Aaron Brings Channels ’70s Fantasy Epics For Weirdworld

Thought were done with Secret Wars announcements this week? Not so fast, we’ve got one more, and it’s pretty weird. Writer Jason Aaron is bringing back some of the stranger parts of the Marvel Universe thanks to Secret Wars, with the appropriately titled Weirdworld. According to Jason Aaron, this part of Battleworld is “basically a hodgepodge of the weirdest, strangest, more obscure bits and bobs of the Marvel Universe.” The main character of the series is Arkon, an ancient warlord type who rules the kingdom Polemachus. Arkon is known mostly to Marvel fans as a villain who has fought the Avengers, X-Men and the Fantastic Four on various occasions. Now he’ll have his own Lord of the Rings-style fantasy domain as part of Battleworld. The book launches June 3 with art and covers by Michael Del Mundo.

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Excited about all these crazy Marvel announcements, or do you already miss the old Marvel Universe? Chime in on this or any other news item in the comments below!