Welcome to the weekend edition of Comics Relief, fangirls and fanboys! Today we’ve got news on the Flash’s TV nemesis making his long awaited return to the comics page, Fantagraphics first ever monthly title, and a long time DC hero getting a shiny new costume. In our first item though, Marvel has finally revealed the creative team for the long awaited team up of two of their most talked about characters of the moment…

Deadpool Vs. Thanos Creative Team Announced

Although Deadpool Vs. Thanos was actually announced back in March, Marvel has only just now announced the book’s creative team. Writer Tim Seeley and artist Elmo Bondoc will chronicle the showdown of the century when the series debuts this September. Lasting four issues, Deadpool Vs. Thanos follows the two future Marvel movie stars as they go on the hunt for Death, whom both characters have pursued in the romantic sense. (Thanos once killed half the universe to impress Death. That’s love, baby.) Along with the announcement, Marvel released the cover for the first issue by Tradd Moore and Matthew Wilson, which you can see below. [CBR]

Kill Shakespeare Backstage Edition Coming From IDW

In the tradition of Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Showtime’s Penny Dreadful, which take literary characters from 19th century novels and combine them into one narrative, creators Conor McCreery, Anthony Del Col and Andy Belanger took that same idea and went back a couple of centuries furhter into Elizabethan time in Kill Shakespeare. The 12-issue limited series featured a huge team up of sorts of William Shakespeare’s greatest heroes and villains, rising up to kill the playwright that controls all their lives.

Now the series is coming out in a massive, 400-page Backstage Edition from IDW, collecting the first 12-issue series, along with never-before-seen designs, sketches, art, and perhaps most interestingly, annotations from Oxford University’s Katie Musgrave.  The Kill Shakespeare: Backstage Edition is out in June, with a list price of 49.99.[Comics Alliance]

Mr. Miracle Gets Spiffy New Duds In Time For “The Darkseid War”

One character that’s fairly major in DC’s New Gods pantheon that we hadn’t seen until fairly recently was Scott Free, better known as the escape artist Mr. Miracle. With the character due to play a big part in Geoff John’s upcoming Darkseid War arc in Justice League, the character will be getting a visual upgrade from his classic Jack Kirby attire from artist Jason Fabok, which he previewed on his Twitter account. Like most of the New 52 designs, this update is going for a more armor-like look, but for some reason, unlike Superman for instance, this one works for me. [Newsarama]

Top Shelf & IDW Team Up For Best Humble Bundle Deal Yet

Humble Bundle has proven to be the best way for fans to get great comics and incredibly discounted prices, and their current offering might be their best yet. Their current bundle, which is running through June 10th, finds Humble Bundle teaming up with IDW and Top Shelf to offer a huge amount of great, critically acclaimed comics. The bundle, which is divided up into the standard three pricing tiers, features six volumes of the Joe Hill’s Locke & Key and the later, non-DC/Wildstorm stories from Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neil’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and two volumes of Darwyn Cooke‘s adaptation of Richard Stark’s Parker novels. You can get this bundle by clicking here. [Humble Bundle]

The Original Professor Zoom Returns To The Pages Of The Flash

Nothing can make a comic book character relevant  again quite like Hollywood success; after being the big bad on the first season of the Flash TV show, Eobard Thawne (portrayed by the terrific Tom Cavanagh), a.k.a The Reverse-Flash, is making his first appearance in DC Comics since the Flashpoint mini-series that resulted in the New 52 Universe, in which he was also seemingly killed and wiped from existence. Now Thawne will be returning in next month’s The Flash #41, where he’ll take his place as Barry Allen’s number one nemesis again. As usual, he’ll be sporting an updated look as well. The Flash #41 hits comic shops on June 24. [Comic Book]

Fantagraphics Announces First Ever Monthly Book, Hip-Hop Family Tree

Fantagraphics — the alternative comics publisher best known for works like Love & Rockets, Eightball, and Hate — is producing their first ever monthly series this summer with Ed Piskor‘s Hip-Hop Family Tree, the ongoing hip-hop-history series that til now came out on an irregular schedule. Both written and illustrated by Piskor, each volume of the series has traced a few notable years in the history of hip-hop music, covering the rise of performers including Run DMC and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

The series started chronicling the seventies and has since moved forward into the eighties. The third collection will be chronicling 1983-84. The series will start off as expanded reprints, featuring commentary and bonus material compiled by Piskor. The first issue is scheduled to hit in August. [Comics Alliance]

The United Nations finally realize that comics are the solution to all the world’s problems

The United Nations has finally figured out what most of us have known for years: comics books can indeed save the world. Well, at least they can try. The non-profit organization Reading With Pictures recently announced a new working relationship with the United Nations with “plans to enrich the world through comic books.” The initiative, titled Comics Uniting Nations, is planning to use comic books to communicate the U.N.’s core goals for positive development around the globe, and are using Kickstarter to help fund the project. These comics won’t be sold in comic shops, but instead will be given out both digitally and in print all over the world.

According to Reading With Pictures’ co-founder Josh Elder, “Comics are both digital and analog, so they can go anywhere. They traverse language barriers and bridge cultural divides (Think about instruction manuals in airplanes or the signage in airports – it’s all comics and cartooned figures). So if you’re trying to communicate something important to the broadest possible audience, comics are clearly the most superior medium possible.” I’m not sure about you, but I’m sold. [Newsarama]