In this, your weekend edition of Comics Relief, we join DC Comics in honoring on of their biggest icons, and one of the longest-running superheroes in all of comics. Read on for the details on Green Lantern’s big anniversary…

DC Celebrates 75 Years of Green Lantern

This year, one of the pillars of DC Comics’ superheroic pantheon, the Green Lantern, turns seventy five years old. Although the majority of stories at DC over the years have been about Green Lantern Hal Jordan, he wasn’t the original GL; that honor falls to Alan Scott. Since then, both have been joined by many other emerald gladiators in the Green Lantern Corps, including characters like John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Kyle Rayner. Watch the video below from DC All Access for a year-by-year celebration of all things Green Lantern. [DC All Access]

Marvel Announces Creative Team for New Mockingbird Series

Bobbie Morse is currently kicking ass on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but she has never had much of a spotlight in the comics world on a regular basis. That’s about to change though, as Marvel has announced writer Chelsea Cain and artist Kate Niemczyk as the creative team on Mockingbird, the character’s first-ever ongoing series.

In an interview with Marvel.com, Cain said, “The plot of the first five issues is rooted very much in Bobbi’s medical history; Nick Fury saved her life with a dose of Super Solider Serum and Infinity Formula, and I really wanted to explore the fallout from that.”

She continued, “She’s got to go in every week for a medical check-up. And I loved the idea of this medical clinic for super heroes — a place where they go to get stitched up and get their Prozac refilled. And the waiting room would be full of bored heroes leafing through old issues of ‘Us Weekly.'”

I know I would read a whole series of just superheroes reading old tabloids in medical waiting rooms, I can tell ya that right now.

The new Mockingbird series doesn’t have a release date yet, but it expect it sometime in the first quarter of 2016. [Marvel.com]

Marvel Illustrators Team Up with espnW for the IMPACT25 List

Speaking of fabulous Marvel heroines, a group of Marvel Comics creators have been commissioned by espnW to create images for the IMPACT25 list, which recognizes the athletes who have made the biggest mark on women in sports this year (including the espnW Woman of the Year). They are starting with Carli Lloyd, the nominee for U.S. Women’s National Team star, who will be shown alongside Marvel icon Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, in an illustration from Emanuela Lupacchino and Rachelle Rosenberg.

“Marvel’s mission is to celebrate the hero’s journey — and espnW’s IMPACT25 is a uniquely incredible way to do that,” Marvel Director of Content and Character Development Sana Amanat said in a statement. “Like our powerful heroes, the IMPACT25 have made a remarkable impression on the world and this is our salute to them.”

The full list, along with the Marvel’s artists’ illustrations, will be revealed December 7 on espnW.com/impact25. [EW via Comic Book Resources]

IDW Brings The X-Files to Humble Bundle

In anticipation of Mulder and Scully’s return to TV screens next year, Humble Bundle is teaming up with IDW Publishing for a new charity bundle featuring various X-Files comics. Among the comics in this bundle are The X-Files Season Ten (#1 through #25,) Season Eleven #1 through #3, X-Files: Year Zero, the prequel about the initial establishment of the X-Files division of the FBI, and a whole lot more. Normally, this would all cost you $179, but the whole bundle is $15, which is an amazing bargain. For more on this bundle, click on this link. [Comics Alliance]

Transformers and Micronauts to team up for new “initiative” soon

Before the Transformers ruled the toy world, Hasbro had the Micronauts, another sci-fi based toyline. Both properties had long-running comic books at Marvel, and now after many years, both of these toy properties have found a home at IDW comics. At its annual Investor Day presentation, Hasbro reportedly revealed that the Transformers and Micronauts franchise will be crossing over in a some kind of new “initiative.” Not much more was revealed, but given that both properties at IDW Comics, it’s a good bet the crossover will happen in the pages of the comics before it happens anywhere else. So keep your fingers crossed, retro toy fans. [TF2005 via Newsarama]

Listen to Stan Lee hear the news that Iceman is gay for the first time

So as you may have heard, recently Marvel revealed that founding X-Men member Iceman was gay, in a story by longtime Uncanny X-Men writer Brian Michael Bendis. This caused a wee bit of a stir online, as you can imagine. After all, Iceman is one of the original Stan Lee-created 1960s heroes, characters who are the foundation of the Marvel Universe.

But Stan Lee creation or not, it seems that Marvel kind of forgot to actually tell the man himself about this big reveal about one of his original characters. So when Stan was doing a radio show this past week on BBC Radio 4, the interviewer asked him about Iceman’s coming out, and Stan… had absolutely no idea. You can listen to his reaction in the clip below. But suffice to say, Stan is a pretty open and accepting “dad” when it came to the news about his “child”. [BBC via Bleeding Cool]

It’s “No-Glo” for Valiant’s Ninjak

Although the ’90s are back in a big bad way in comics, one way they won’t be back is with the recently announced glow-in-the-dark cover for Ninjak. Valiant has just told comic book retailers that Ninjak #10, the first issue of the upcoming “Operation: Deadside” storyline by Matt Kindt and Doug Braithwaite, will no longer feature those glow-in-the-dark covers as originally announced after all. Apparently, they just weren’t up to snuff. Maybe next year, Ninjak. [Bleeding Cool]

Featured image courtesy of DeviantArt // artist: Xionice

IMAGES: DC Comics / Marvel Comics / IDW Comics / Valiant