Welcome to the weekend edition of Comics Relief kids! Today we’ve got news on Marvel de-mutanting two of its most famous and longest running mutants, the latest  in the seemingly endless line of Star Wars variant covers, as well as news on the latest Humble Bundle, just in time for the holidays. First however, we’ve got the news of the return of a very significant writer in Spidey-history getting a crack at Peter Parker  once again….
Legendary Writer Gerry Conway Returns to The Amazing Spider-Man
If you’re a younger comics reader, you might not be as familiar with the name Gerry Conway. But he was a staple of the comics world back during the seventies and eighties, famous for having created the Punisher for Marvel and Firestorm for DC, but is maybe is most well known for his eight year run on The Amazing Spider-Man, including the famous story where Peter Parker’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy died.
Now Gerry Conway is coming back to Spidey, and will be writing a five-part storyline beginning in March that will run alongside Amazing Spider-Man as special âPoint Oneâ issues from #16.1 to #20.1 similar to the earlier âLearning to Crawlâ story. Â This story will be called “Spiral”, and for this particular arc Conway will be joined by artist Carlo Barberi. “Spiral” will find Peter Parker coming off all those crazy inter-dimensional battles of the âSpider-Verseâ into a street level crime story. The cover for the first issue is from equally legendary Marvel artist Art Adams. [Newsarama]
Highlights from Scott Snyder’s Reddit AMA
Scott Snyder is easily one of the hottest writers in the comics world right now, not only for his work on Batman, but also his creator owned work like American Vampire and, more recently, Wytches, his horror title fro Image with co-creator Jock. Recently, Snyder took to the DC Comics Subreddit for an AMA, and there were some reveals for  future projects among his answers. Talking about his Batman plans post “Endgame” (the currently running Joker story in the main Batman title) he said “[I] definitely want to use a couple of big rogues (but post-‘Endgame’ I’ll be making up some new ones, too)” Snyder dodged the question about his potential involvement with Frank Miller for a Dark Knight 3, but “no comment” is hardly a no.
On the subject of Wytches, which was recently optioned for a film, Snyder said “Plan B, (the production company that optioned Wytches) have been terrific about keeping Jock and me involved even more than they have to; We spoke to the screenwriter recently and his ideas were so good I’m stealing a couple — honestly, it’s all a bit head-spinning!” [Comic Book Resources]
ICYMI: Free Comic Book Day Unveils Their 12 Gold Sponsor Issues
This week, the folks behind Free Comic Book Day unveiled the twelve issues from their top publishers for next year’s event, which lands on May 2nd 2015. There’s a Secret Wars prelude from Marvel, as well as issues from various publishers featuring Dr. Who, Transformers, Spongebob, Pokemon, and many other well known pop culture properties. For the full run down, click here. [Free Comic Book Day.Com]
The NBA Joins The Justice League
Speaking of free comic books, you can add one more of those to this list, although several months before Free Comic Book Day- DC Comics is coming out with Justice League Goes Inside The NBA All-Star 2015, a free comic book timed to the 2015 NBA All-Star game.  The comic features the NBA on TNT crew, including Shaquille OâNeal, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley,  Kristen Ledlow, Reggie Miller and more, plus Justice League members Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and The Flash. The comic will be written by Brian Buccellato, with art by Beni Lobel and cover art by Tony Shasteen. The free issue hits your local comic shop this January. [Bleeding Cool]
Tom Taylor Leaves Injustice: Gods Among Us and Earth-2
Writer Tom Taylor has made quite a name for himself over at DC in the last couple of years, first with writing the digital-first comic series Injustice: Gods Among Us, and then following up James Robinson as writer on Earth-2. Now he has announced that he is leaving both titles behind for future projects. His final issue of Injustice will be digital chapter 14 (print issue #7), with writer Brian Buccellato taking over starting with digital chapter 15 (print issue #8). DC also announced that issue #29 of Earth-2 would be Taylor’s last issue of that book. The reason for the departure seems to be his “increasingly busy schedule”, which interestingly enough, happens to include the relaunch of  Superior Iron Man for Marvel. [IGN.com]
Dynamite and Humble Bundle Team Up For The Holidays
Humble Bundle is joining up with Dynamite Entertainment once again for the Holidays, this time offering comics like Bobâs Burgers, The Twilight Zone, and the Django/Zorrocrossover co-written by Quentin Tarantino and Matt Wagner. The Dynamite Bundle will include 56 comics with an estimated value of over $555, including books like Kevin Smithâs Green Hornet #1,Alice Cooper #1, Mark Waidâs The Green Hornet #1-3, Howard Chaykinâs American Flagg! #1-6, Red Sonja: She Devil with a Sword #0-6, Chaos! #2-3, Legenderry #4-5, Pathfinder Vol. 2: Of Tooth and Claw,Dark Shadows: Year One #1-6 and many others. [Digital Spy]
Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver…Mutants No More?
When it comes to the characters at Marvel and DC, which have movie and TV adaptations galore, the tail always wags the dog-if the movies change some part of the comics lore and the movie then becomes popular, then the comics almost always change to reflect it. The latest example is the revelation in this week’s Avengers Vs. X-Men: Axis #7 that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are not the children of Magneto, and therefore, probably not mutants either. So when Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theaters next year, and Wanda and Pietro aren’t the children of Magneto or mutants anymore (because of Fox  and their ownership over all Marvel mutants and all that) it’ll be perfectly comic book accurate. Corporate synergy at work kids. [Bleeding Cool]
The First Issue Of Star Wars Now Has A Â Giant Size X-Men #1 Variant Too
We’ve seen the retro seventies variant, the Alex Ross Darth Vader variant, and about a half dozen or so others, but now Marvel has unveiled the latest variant cover for January’s Star Wars #1, and it’s an homage to a previous #1 issue that relaunched a beloved Marvel franchise-Giant Size X-Men #1 from 1975, which introduced the world to the “All-New All-Different X-Men”. This version is exclusive to Heroes Haven in Tampa, Florida, and will be drawn by artist Mike Perkins. [Comic Book.com]
Which of these news items has you jazzed the most? Let us know in the comments!