This week’s roundup of webcomic news is arriving a little late because, well… I arrived a little late to this year’s Comic-Con. It’s a long story, and involves a sprained ankle (not mine), a "security breach" at a major airport, two canceled flights and a storm that had me expecting to see cows flying across the highway at any moment. That being the case, this week’s roundup also features some images from the show floor that will hopefully be worth 1000 words — because I’m still too jet-lagged to write ’em.

Overcompensating creator Jeffrey Rowland told me this week that he’s "so excited not to be going to San Diego" — and judging by my own experiences thus far, his excitement was justified. However, be sure to check out Tuesday’s OC by guest artist (and animator) Carly Monardo, who provided one of my favorite moments of guest-ifaction in quite a while. Everyone does the robot! ‘Nuff said.

Gary Tyrrell over at Fleen has been following recent developments on the Wowio/Platinum front with great attention. And rightly so, it seems. While you’re over there, make sure to read the comment section for each post, as Fleen has become a lightning rod of sorts for creators involved with these developments.

I tracked down You’ll Have That creator Wes Molebash at Comic-Con yesterday, and he told me about his recently launched YHT website at: www.yhtcomic.com. While he described the convention as "mediocre" at this point — since he didn’t have any new projects to promote this year — he did say he was hard at work on his mysterious graphic novel project.

(more…)

The big announcement out of Marvel’s X-Men panel at Comic-Con was the news that Infernus will be the next big X event, starting in December. It apparently has ties to Inferno, a previous crossover.

Newsarama talked to C.B. Cebulski about the event:

Newsarama: First off CB, does Inferno II have anything to do with the events in Divided We Stand Book 2 and Illyana Rasputin’s return as Darkchilde?

CB Cebulski: Yes, the Darkchilde story in Divided We Stand 2 was direct set up for this story. And for those that missed it, it will be reprinted in the new Return of Magic one-shot coming out in September!

NRAMA: How does Infernus relate to the first event–nearly 20 years ago? Comic book time is weird…

CBC: And Limbo time is even weirder. You’ll just have to read to find out.

A few lucky folks at Comic-Con have been able to test out the MMO DC Universe Online, and reports are starting to come in about the gameplay experience.

Over at Newsarama, the game gets a positive early review:

The character I was playing was called Rockslide, who had earth-based powers (similar to Terra from the Teen Titans), a staff and – my favorite part – super speed. The controls are similar to other Playstation games, where the buttons allow you to perform basic movies – two different attacks, jump and pick stuff up – while holding the R2 button and hitting the buttons lets you access your various super powers. I had a proximity attack that blew the earth out from under my enemies, I could fire boulders out of my staff and I could make crystals pop up out of the ground under my enemies, causing damage.

The coolest part, though, was when I hit the right joystick and turned on the Speed Force. Throwing rocks at my enemies and slamming them with my staff was cool and all, but you’d expect that in any superhero-based MMO. Having my character run through the streets of Metropolis at super speed, trailed by what looked like the Speed Force that all comic fans know from the comics? That’s the kind of detail this game needed to really set it apart. And from what I’ve seen so far, it has it in spades.

Meanwhile, Newsarama also reported extensively on the panel and preview for the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. DCU game.

Superman battled Sub-Zero in a ruined Metropolis, slowing the icy warrior with his freeze breath. Batman battled Scorpion in hell, trading Batarangs and grappling spears. Catwoman used her agility to get in a few bloody scratches on Shang Tsung. Finally, the Flash darted around Soyna, leaving her spinning and dazed before running her off a cliff, the pair trading blows all the way down before the Flash got the upper hand and whipped his opponent into the ground, creating a small crater.