Welcome comics fangirls and fanboys to your weekend edition of Comics Relief! To start things off this week, we have news on one of the weirder comic book crossovers to come down the pike in quite some time. Read on for all the details!

Details on The Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern Crossover Emerge

Although we learned it was coming back in October, we finally have details and art for BOOM! Studios and DC Comics‘ anticipated Green Lantern goes to the Planet of the Apes crossover. Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern will be a six issue mini-series from writers Robbie Thompson and Justin Jordan, and artist Barnaby Bagenda.

According to the official solicitation, “When Taylor (that’s Charlton Heston, Apes newbies) goes missing, Cornelius investigates and discovers an ancient ring, unlike anything he has ever seen. As its power echoes through the stars, the Guardians of the Universe must reveal to their Lanterns a secret they had hoped would remain buried. With the Green Lantern Corps, led by Hal Jordan, racing to get to the source of this power before Sinestro can get his hands on it, they will discover a truth that will change them forever on…the Planet of the Apes!”

The comic will come with four variant covers, a Silver Age-themed cover by Paul Rivoche, a foil-stamped cover by Felipe Massafera, a vintage action cover by David Ryan Robinson, and a movie poster homage cover by Steve Morris. You can see Ethan Van Sciver’s regular cover for issue #1 above. Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern #1 arrives in February. [Bleeding Cool]

Philip Tan is Your New Hellblazer Artist

Along with Swamp Thing, John Constantine was one of the few Vertigo characters that made the transition to the DCU with the New 52, and retained that position when DC Rebirth rolled around. Now the current Rebirth iteration of Hellblazer is about to get a change, as the publisher has announced that writer Simon Oliver will be joined by artist Philip Tan, who succeeds the artist who goes by the one-word name Moritat. Many of you out there are very likely familiar with Tan’s work from his arc of Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin.

The new Hellblazer storyline “The Smokeless Fire” will find John teaming up with Swamp Thing. In a statememt, Tan said “I’ve recently read the original run of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, and can’t believe how amazing John Constantine’s first stories were. It’s the version that has inspired my artwork for this story.” The first Phillip Tan issue of Hellblazer hits on February 7th. [CBR]

Robert Kirkman Celebrates 25 Years of Image Comics with 25¢ Comics

Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the birth of Image Comics, and current Image Comics writer/co-owner Robert Kirkman is celebrating the occasion by making his three main comic books only 25¢ during the month of February. The Walking Dead #163, Invincible #133, and Outcast #25 will all have a list price of 25¢. To boot, each of the issues begins a new storyline: The Walking Dead explores the aftermath of “The Whisperer War”—Invincible kicks off the 12-part finale which will end the series and Outcast also begins a major storyline. It’s unknown if the non-Kirkman Image books will go for the reduced price point as well. [Newsarama]

Wolverine and X-23 Comics Will Be Cheap, Too!

Speaking of comics at a low, low price: in February of 2017, Marvel is celebrating Wolverine and X-23 (no doubt because of a certain movie coming out in March, ahem) with a new line of ten Wolverine/X-23 themed “True Believers” titles. All of these issues feature Canada’s #1 all time heroes as specially priced introductory comics, available only at comic shops.

These are the most iconic Wolverine and X-23 comic books of all time, and each is coming in for just the price of $1. Among the comics are Wolverine’s first appearance in Incredible Hulk, his backstory revealed in Origin, the original Weapon X storyline, and X-23’s own comic. You can see the cover for True Believers: Wolverine– Weapon X #1 above, which is reprinting material from Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #72 – 74. For the full list of comics, click on the following link: [Newsarama]

Disney honors Stan Lee for 75 years at Marvel

Stan Lee‘s importance to the Marvel universe cannot be overstated. There’s a reason he’s the face of Marvel—together with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he created Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, Ant-Man, The Avengers, The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Dr. Strange, and revived Captain America for the modern age. Of course, all of those properties have gone on to make a fortune in Hollywood, especially for Disney.

Now the CEO of the Walt Disney Corporation, Bob Iger, has presented Stan Lee with a special custom-built statue featuring Marvel’s most famous creation icon, Spider-Man, together with Mickey Mouse. Lee then went on social media with a post to thank Disney for the honor, which means fans can now see the one-of-a-kind statue above. [Comic Book]

Amazon Reveals Their 20 Best Books of 2016

While many hardcore comics readers are still devoted to their weekly dose of periodical comics, more and more fans are content to “wait for the trade” (as they say), buying comics exclusively as collections and graphic novels. Specifically, they are buying these mostly via Amazon. Now Amazon has revealed their list of the best 20 OGNs and trade paperback comic books of 2016, all in an unranked order.

Among the twenty are critical darlings like Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, Dark Night: A True Batman Story by Paul Dini and Eduardo Risso, and Vision Vol. 1: Little Worse Than A Man by Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta. For the full list, click on the following link: [Comics Beat]

All 50 State Variants Revealed for U.S.Avengers #1

Not long ago, we revealed Marvel was going to have 50 variant covers for the first issue of their new U.S.Avengers comic, featuring one Avenger for each state. Now the publisher has revealed all the covers in one giant image, which you can see above (for a more detailed look, click here).

It’s interesting to see which Avengers made the cut and which didn’t — the usual iconic team members are all there, but then there are D-listers like Whizzer and and Two-Gun Kid. And unloved members like Sentry get covers, but longtime member Wonder Man gets the shaft. Why is there no love for Wonder Man ever?? The first issue of U.S.Avengers by Al Ewing and Paco Medina will be released on January 4, 2017. [Bleeding Cool]

Images: DC Comics / BOOM! Studios / Marvel Comics / Stan Lee / Image Comics