In today’s installment of Comics Relief, we’ve rounded up news on some cool variants coming your way if you are attending New York Comic Con. Plus both DC and Marvel drop hints at what’s coming your way in terms of some of their most major stories for 2016. But first, just for all you children of the ’90s out there, the animated X-Men make their return to Marvel a permanent one starting next year. Continue reading for all the juicy details….

The ’90s-era X-Men survive Secret Wars for new ongoing series

For an entire generation, the X-Men will forever be the lineup of characters from the ’90s animated series, which premiered back in 1992 and lasted for five seasons on the Fox Kids Network. Coming of the massive success of Marvel’s X-Men #1, which sold a staggering 8 million copies in 1991, the cartoon version featured the Jim Lee-inspired team of Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Beast, Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee, and Wolverine. As part of Secret Wars, the cartoon version of the characters returned in the mini-series X-Men’92, in which the team was featured as part of the patchwork planet of Battleworld.

Now Marvel Comics has announced that X-Men ’92 is going to continue past Secret Wars’ ending, with a new ongoing series by writers Chris Sims and Chad Bowers. The duo says that the new series will draw not only from the classic X-Men animated series, but also that same era’s comic books, toys, video games, coloring books, and even fast food giveaways. On top of all that, they’ve also announced that as part of the series, ’90s era students of the Xavier School known as Generation X will be a part of it as well. Other ’90s-era characters that Marvel has all but dropped like Trevor Fitzroy, Fabian Cortez and Exodus will be part of the book, as well as ’90s reinventions of more modern X-characters. The X-Men ’92 ongoing is set to debut in early 2016.

Now what does a guy have to do to get an X-Men ’84 book, featuring the line-up of characters below?? Pretty please Marvel? [Newsarama]

Hot Topic taps Black Mask Studios for new exclusive comics

A few weeks back we ran the news item that Hot Topic had cancelled selling issues of Double Take’s new Ultimate Night of the Living Dead zombie comics, not for any excessive gore or dismemberment, but rather for language and scenes of sexuality. So with no comics from Double Take, what will Hot Topic be replacing them with? Turns out Black Mask Studios’  excellent new series Toe Tag Riot #1 and We Can Never Go Home #1 will be offered the retail chain’s offering instead.

Although neither series is exactly PG-rated, I guess the zombies of Toe Tag Riot are a little more Hot Topic-friendly. Or maybe it’s just because they feature a member of Fall Out Boy. Who knows? (Is Fall Out Boy even still a thing with the youngsters? I can’t keep up.)  You can check out both exclusive covers made exclusively for Hot Topic stores below: [Bleeding Cool]

Jim Lee Gives us some story info on Dark Knight III: The Master Race

As of right now, we know very little about the actual story of Frank Miller’s much-hyped third part of his Dark Knight trilogy, Dark Knight III: The Master Race. We’ve seen multiple covers for issue #1, but each of them seems to be an homage to the original classic Dark Knight Returns comic, giving zero hints towards the new story. We now know a little bit more info, and for those of you hoping that Dark Knight III wouldn’t reference the much-maligned original follow up, Dark Knight II: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, well…sorry. You’re out of luck,

In a recent interview for this past weekend’s Batman Day, DC’s Jim Lee said, “It’s a story about Carrie [Kelly] and Batman, but also picks up on Superman and Wonder Woman’s daughter and all the Kandorians and what happened to Ray Palmer, [the Atom]. In Strikes Again, [Frank Miller] really expanded the world, and [DKIII] takes that and brings it back, and brings some nice closure to things that were brought up in the very first volume.”

Since Superman and Wonder Woman’s daughter was one of the cooler aspects of Dark Knight II, maybe it’s not all bad if they don’t ignore the first sequel. Just no evil floating head of Dick Grayson as the Joker please. I haven’t forgotten Mr. Miller. [Comic Book Resources]

Video game series Deus Ex comes to Titan Comics

The hit video game franchise Deus Ex is coming to comic books in a new five-issue series from British publisher Titan Comics. The series will be brought to us by writer Alex Irvine and artist Marco Turini, and will be a prequel to the upcoming new video game installment, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

Tom Williams, editor at Titan Comics, said in a statement, “The Deus Ex universe is rich with political intrigue and social commentary and we can’t wait to further explore Adam Jensen’s journey through this dystopian landscape, as well as introducing readers to some of the characters of the anticipated new installment, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.”

The first issue of Deus Ex #1 is set to debut March 2, 2016. [IGN]

Dark Horse Comics joins Hoopla

Dark Horse Comics is the latest publisher to join up with Hoopla, the digital/streaming service that’s partnered with thousands of public libraries across the United States to offer library members access to music, movies, books, and comics through your mobile device. Recently Hoopla added Image Comics to its service, which already included publishers like DC, IDW and Boom Studios.

Adding Dark Horse now means there will be close to 4000 comics alone within the app for you to borrow from the digital library. If you want to know if your own local public library is compatible with Hoopla , you can click right here, and also check out the full list of Dark Horse titles through the app itself. [Comics Alliance]

Marvel EIC Axel Alonso teases next big Marvel event

Secret Wars has been an event in the old school, cosmic Marvel style of the original Secret Wars and other classic crossover stories like The Infinity Gauntlet. But according to a new interview with Marvel’s EIC Axel Alonso, the next Marvel event, which is still in its very early stages, is a little more grounded in the real world, much like Civil War was ten years ago. Here’s what Alonso teased about the new story while on Grantland’s The Andy Greenwald Podcast:

“I feel that we’ve been talking for a while about a story that has, let’s just say a lot of meat on its bones,” said Alonso. “A lot of meat on its bones that really speaks to the world right now and the zeitgeist of the day, something that we think everyone will relate to — that reads a comic book, that watches TV, that has an iPhone or a Blackberry. We’re slowly whittling that down to the story we’re going to be very proud of. I can’t give you an estimated date for it, because we’re not forcing it, but again, it’s something we’re being patient with.”

You can watch the whole podcast episode below:

Comixology Submit to bring limited edition variants to New York Comic Con

With New York Comic Con around the corner, fans are looking for news about the exclusives soon to be available at the con. ComiXology, who is the sponsor of this year’s Artist’s Alley, will be giving away limited edition print variants of their Submit comics during each day of the show. Prints will be limited to 500 copies, available on a first come, first serve basis, so start getting in line right about…now. Included in comiXology’s giveaway are Janelle Asselin’s Fresh Romance anthology, Farinas & Erick Freitas’ Gamma #1, Chuck Forseman’s Revenger #1, Natasha Alterici’s Heathen #1, and Art Balthazar and Franco’s Aw Yeah, Comics #1.

According to John D. Roberts, comiXology co-founder and Director of Submit, “The purpose of comiXology Submit is to provide a platform that makes it easy for the writers and artists creating this diverse range of comics to share their work to a customer base hungry for diversity. Since we launched the program three years ago, we’ve seen an influx of comics that run the gamut of genres from romance and horror to action adventure and all ages comics.” [EW]

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