Happy Friday everyone, and welcome to today’s edition of  Comics Relief. Today we have reveals for both Marvel and DC’s two big (and very similar) events, news on Mark Waid’s Thrillbent digital label, and the latest teaser images, this time from Image Comics, picking up the whole “teaser” thing from rivals Marvel and DC.
Marvel Set To Crossover With Manga Series Attack on Titan
Japanese pop culture magazine Brutus will be the home for an upcoming crossover between Marvel heroes and popular manga series Attack on Titan. According the magazineâs next issue preview, Brutus 790 will feature a What Ifâ¦? story that will feature he Avengers battling the Female Titan  in New York City. The issue will also feature thoughts on the crossover and the characters from Attack on Titan creator Hajime Isayama. Isayama will draw a Titan sticker and the cover for that issue, but it is still uncertain just who will actually be drawing the story itself. Brutus 790, featuring the Avengers/Attack on Titan crossover, goes on sale in Japan on November 15. [ComicBook.com]
For more on this story, check out this week’s Attack on Titan-centric episode of Nerdist News!
New Convergence Image From DC Shows Off Even More Long-Lost Earths
Earlier this week, DC unveiled the first details on the long rumored Multiverse series called Convergence, which is set to hit in April and run over the following two months. The premise of this book has a new villain named Telos pitting various heroes from the old DC Multiverse against each other, and fans are going to see some long forgotten (and some not so long forgotten) Earths in this series.
Originally DC released a teaser image for the series, which gave away many of the key worlds that would be involved, but now a new, larger image tells us even more. In addition to the Earths we know about, Convergence will also include such worlds as the Earth from Superman: Red Son; Kingdom Come, the 1980s version of the Legion of Super-Heroes; Earth-S, home of the original Captain Marvel Family; Earth-X, home of the Freedom Fighters; Grant Morrison’s Justice Legion Alpha from DC One Million;Â and most importantly, Flash Wally West, Stephanie Brown Batgirl, Renee Montoya as the Question and the Black Bat, all characters lost since the New 52 began. Excited yet, old school DC fans? [DC Comics]
Marvel’s Secret War Gets First Teaser Promo Video
Speaking of characters from various different realities facing off against one another in battle, that kind of also happens to be the premise for Marvel’s big 2015 event series Secret War. After nearly a month of teases showing various different major Marvel event series of the past several years, Mavel revealed this week, via the video below, that characters from each of these timelines are being used as part of a larger “Battleworld,” much like the original 1984 Secret Wars series, which set various Marvel heroes against one another. Interestingly enough, the cover for the first issue, done by Alex Ross, looks like a definite homage to DC’s classic crossover from the eighties, Crisis on Infinite Earths. Between Convergence and Secret Wars, this is totally going to be like that one summer when Armageddon and Deep Impact both came out at the same time. AWK-WARD. [Marvel Entertainment]
Mark Waid’s Thrillbent Partners With IDW
IDW Publishing announced this past week that they have reached an agreement with the digital comics company Thrillbent, which was founded by writer Mark Waid (Kingdom Come) and producer John Rogers to start publishing print editions of all of its series beginning in the early part of next year. Thrillbent currently  has over 15 ongoing digital series currently being serialized at Thrillbent.com, including some by well-known creators like James Tynion IV, Barry Kitson, and Tom Peyer.
In a press release from IDW, Waid said âWhile we have always proudly been digital-first, print was always in Thrillbentâs business plan–but for a start-up company like ours, it was cost-prohibitive,Once we proved our commitment to ongoing content–Thrillbent currently hosts literally hundreds of new comics, with more added every week–we were courted by several print publishers looking to partner. IDW was the clear choice–its track record for innovation is unbeatable and undeniable.â The first book to come out of Thrillbentâs partnership with IDW will be a  collection of the second volume of Mark Waid and Barry Kitson’s Empire series, as well as a reprint of the original first volume. [Newsarama]
The Bookworm Returns
Although we are only two issues in, DC’s Gotham Academy is definitely one of the best Batman universe books out there right now. And now they’ve gone and done something super cool, and the series has barely even started yet. In the second issue, we are introduced to none other than Bookworm, one of the made-for-TV villains from the old Batman sixties show, who is now presented as working at the Academy library. Bookworm has also appeared recently in Batman ’66 (naturally)Â Can Egghead be far behind? [Bleeding Cool]
More Superhero Image Comics Teases
In the last edition of Comics Relief, we talked about how Image Comics was teasing a new superhero called Luminary, who was the daughter of the President. At first we thought it was for some kind of solo series, but since then Image has released two other similar images for two other all-new heroes. Are we looking at some kind of team book? Odds are yes, but just what that time is (and who the creative team on the comic is) remains a mystery.
 R.I.P. Jeremy Dale, Creator of Skyward
Not all the comics news is good news this week, I’m sad to say. Unfortunately, Jeremy Dale, best known as the creator of Skyward, died this week at the age of 34 from a sudden illness. Jeremy worked on projects like Miserable Dastards at Image and the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comics that were included in action figure two-packs. but he will likely be best remembered as the creator of Skyward, an all-ages adventure comic published through Action Lab. Jeremy is survived by his wife, Kelly Dale, and a fund has been set up to help her cover expenses. You can see more of Jeremy Dale’s art at his website. [Comics Alliance]
The Walking Dead Top October Seller
Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead ranked in as the top selling comic book of October 2014, Diamond Comics Distributors announced this week.Issue #132 of the series, which saw the finale of the six-part âA New Beginning” storyline. The Big Two of Marvel and DC Comics provided the rest of the top ten,with Marvel claiming seven spots on the list, and DC only claiming two. Marvelâs best-selling titles were Death of Wolverine #4, âThor #1, and  Death of Wolverine #3.â DCâs top performers were Batman #35 and Harley Quinn Annual #1.[ComicBook.com]
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Which of these news items piques your interest the most? Let us know in the comments below.
Images: Marvel, DC Comics, Thrillbent, Image Comics, Action Lab Entertainment