Greeting and salutations comic book fans, and welcome to your Wednesday edition of Comics Relief! In today’s collection of news from around the world of comics, we’ve got the latest series announcement from the All-New Marvel, another digital comics subscription service arrives, and more. But first, this week, we learned how Lois Lane put two and two together and finally figured out Superman was Clark Kent. Read on for more details…

Before Blabbing to the World, just How Did Lois Lane Figure Out Superman Was Clark Kent? (SPOILERS)

Ever since DC’s Free Comic Book Day issue, we’ve known that at some point, Lois Lane figured out Superman’s secret identity as Clark Kent, and decided to reveal that secret to the world. The subsequent issues of Superman and Action Comics have been dealing with the ramifications of Clark Kent’s secret being out in the open, and in this week’s Superman #42, by the creative team of Gene Yang and John Romita Jr., we see exactly how Lois Lane figured it all out. And it wasn’t very hard, considering Clark Kent was able to beat a whole group of ninja guys singlehandedly without breaking much of sweat, and then he had a shredded suit where you could clearly see a blue onesie underneath. Did Lois really need to see the ‘S’ and the cape to confirm it?

DC Comics Origami Book Set To Come Out This Fall

If you ever had the hankering to bring your favorite DC characters to life using nothing but paper, now you can with the newly announced DC Origami. Created by origami designer and author John Montroll and illustrator Min Sung Ku, the 448-page book will instruct you on how to transform a simple sheet of  paper into Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and other iconic DC characters. The book hits in September, but you can check out a preview video below: [Comic Book Resources]

First Marvel Star Wars Collection Tops 200k

Ever since Marvel took on the Star Wars license from Dark Horse, the books have been among the top-selling comic books every month, due to the top level talent involved, as well as the current fever pitch excitement for the original cast returning in The Force Awakens. The first issue alone ended up topping over one million issues sold, a feat not done in some twenty years. To put it in context, this is about five times the average first volume trade collection of Marvel series, which average between 30,000 and 50,000 sales.

In a statement, Marvel’s David Gabriel said, “When Star Wars #1 was released at the beginning of the year we were thrilled at the reception and the record-setting sales numbers. Once again, Star Wars continues to skyrocket the Marvel name even higher with the anticipated pre-order print-run between 200K and 250K units for Star Wars Vol 1 TPB. This is an unheard of number, but given the success that we’ve had with Star Wars since January, including the insurmountable 5MM units across all the Star Wars’ series, second prints and overprints, we don’t see any issue in reaching such a number of printed copies of this highly anticipated collected edition.” [Comic Book]

New Ongoing Hercules Series Coming To All-New Marvel

Marvel is still making additions to their All-New Marvel lineup of comics coming this fall, and the latest is an old standby that really hasn’t been given his due in the last few years: Hercules. Marvel’s version of the son of Zeus has always kind of seemed like the god you go to when Thor’s not available. Clearly, Marvel is looking to change that with an all new ongoing series for the Prince of Power in November, with the creative team of writer Dan Abnett and artist Luke Ross. The new series is described as “Herc attempting to turn over a new leaf and become the hero he once was and knows he can be again. It’s a quest that will have the Avenger confronting the challenges that arise when modern day Manhattan and the myths of various ancient cultures collide.”

With Marvel’s commitment to diversity, it’ll be interesting to see if they fully acknowledge the fact that Hercules is a bisexual hero (not only bi, but technically a “bear”). There are almost no bisexual heroes from the big two companies with their own comics, so making Herc a proud member of the LGBT community gives him a distinctly different tone from the likes of Thor. And before anyone yells “Retcon!” in the comments section, Herc was actually bi in the classic Greek myths themselves, which all these stories are based on. So there. [Comic Book Resources]

Retcon of the Week: Did Deadpool Create Venom? (SPOILERS)

Speaking of Marvel and retcons, a fairly major one happened in Deadpool’s Secret Wars, which also comes out this week. This book tells of the unknown story of how Deadpool was part of the original Secret Wars (despite the character not actually being created yet). Fans know that Spider-Man got his black symbiote suit on the alien planet from the original Secret Wars series, the same alien symbiote that later became Venom.

Now, thanks to a little retcon magic, we find out that the symbiote got “tainted” because it was Wade Wilson who attempted to use it first to make a new costume, and the symbiote took a little bit of his crazy and absorbed it. Then he let Spidey use it to make a new costume, and the rest is history. As far as Marvel rectons go, this one’s not too shabby. And who doesn’t love a good retcon? [Bleeding Cool]

Say Hello to Latest Digital Comics Service, Comic Blitz

ComiXology started the ball rolling, and now we have a new digital comics service to add to the ever growing bunch. Say hello to Comic Blitz, a new flat-rate monthly comics services in the same vein as ComicsFix and Scribd, offering a Netflix-like service for comic books.

According to an interview with Comic Blitz creator Jordan Plosky, the official announcement for the service will be at Boston Comic-Con this weekend, and then the service launch will “definitely be before the end of this year.” According to an interview with Newsarama, the service is (at least for now) going to be set at $9.99 a month. [Newsarama]

Black Panther Series Also Coming to All-New Marvel

And in one more bit of All-New Marvel news, although no creative team has been announced as of yet, expect the Black Panther to make his triumphant return to comics sometime this fall. Marvel EIC Axel Alonso said on the subject of T’Challa that the King of Wakanda would return in his own new ongoing series, but no creative team has been officially announced. The character appeared on the teaser image for the All-New Marvel Initiative a few months back, and the initiative last till February, but I expect a #1 issue to be on the stands well before the chacter makes his big sreen debut in Captain America: Civil War next year. [Comic Book Resources]

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