Normally a video game tie-in to a feature film is horrible. It is rare that one of these games is even half decent, and you can probably count on one hand how many of these games have been legitimately good. So a fair amount of skepticism will always follow the announcement of a new tie-in game, and no doubt The Amazing Spider-Man will face the same.

Funny thing about that though, now that we know some information about this game it actually sounds pretty good. Activision has just released the first details about The Amazing Spider-Man in advance of it’s trailer world premiere at this week’s VGAs. Smartly the game is set up as an epilogue to the events in the film, with an all new story set around the characters we will be introduced to in the film. The game is also being developed by Beenox, the guys who gave us the great Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and the OK Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

“The Amazing Spider-Man is in development at veteran game studio Beenox, and features an original narrative crafted by Hollywood writer Seamus Kevin Fahey (episodes of Spartacus: Gods of the Arena and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica) that continues young Peter Parker’s adventures following the events of the new film.”

More details after the jump.

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That’s right comic book fans, it’s that time of the week again. New comics are coming out from our friends at Marvel tomorrow and, as always, we’ve got some we’re really interested in reading.

Among the new ones coming out, we’re looking forward to reading FF #3, New Avengers #12,  PunisherMax #13, Daredevil: Reborn #4, and X-Men #11.

As with most weeks, new comics arrive on Wednesday, so hit your nearest comics book store early for best selection.

Don’t know where your nearest comic store is? Use this handy guide to find one.

Comics On-Sale:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #660
ASTONISHING X-MEN #7
BLACK PANTHER: THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR #518
CABLE & DEADPOOL MGC #1
DAKEN: DARK WOLVERINE #9
DAREDEVIL: REBORN #4
EMMA #3
FANTASTIC FOUR MGC #570
FEAR ITSELF: YOUTH IN REVOLT #1 (FI)
FF #3
FF #3 DJURDJEVIC CHARACTER VARIANT
FF #3 X-MEN EVOLUTIONS ZIRCHER VARIANT
FORMIC WARS: BURNING EARTH #5

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Want to jump back into your favorite comic books to check in with some of your favorite superheroes and superheroines, but unable to pick up the pieces in the middle of a heavy storyline? Marvel has you covered by introducing the Point One program. Here’s the skinny.

The Point One program offers readers the perfect starting point for new storylines spinning out of the new year. Self-contained and featuring some of Marvel’s greatest talent and characters, these Point One books will lay the groundwork for a whole year’s worth of storytelling.

For years, this is the one problem that the comic book industry has dealt with. Now, fans can start fresh and continue getting weekly comics courtesy of Marvel without feeling like there are tons of back issues and trades that they have to read.

Starting in February, the publisher will be rolling out this new program on some of their mainstream titles, and eventually roll them out to all big books by May. Take a look at the complete list of effected books after the jump, and start picking up these new books this February.

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Back in 1982, a movie called TRON about a programmer that is thrown into his own video game universe took the nerd world by storm. For decades, guys and girls alike were hot gluing LED ropes to black leggings so that they can look like their favorite science fiction hero. Now, those fans are getting the opportunity to live it all over again as TRON: Legacy hits theaters this December.

With that amount of fan hype involved, it’s almost understandable that a publishing company as big as Marvel would want to jump on into pimping the film with some awesome crosspromotion. Not to mention the fact that Disney and Marvel are one in the same now.

Starting next month, 10 different popular titles will get special TRON-ized variant covers by artists like Mark Brooks (Avengers: The Initiative) and Brandon Peterson (Uncanny X-Men).

The books you need to look for are as follows:

Amazing Spider-Man #651, Avengers #7, Avengers Academy #7, Captain America #612, Incredible Hulks #618, Invincible Iron Man #33, New Avengers #7, Secret Avengers #7, Thor #617, and Wolverine #4.

Before they even hit shelves next month, be sure to check out each of these variant covers after the jump, and get your TRON on December 17th!

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After the kid focused Spider-Man: Friend or Foe and the somewhat redundant nature of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Spidey fans have been clamoring for a change in the Spider-Man formula. Since Spider-Man 2, most titles have revolved around a sandbox view of Manhattan where everyone’s favorite webslinger traverses back and forth in the city, sometimes racing against time, to match up against his more fearsome foes and crossing paths with various small time criminals committing minor offenses along the way.

While it has proven a successful formula, it had started to grow stagnant. Influenced by that criticism, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions puts together four versions of the Marvel icon, including two who have never been seen in video game form, in a variety of diverse levels and constantly changing gameplay.

Gameplay:

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions plays differently than most previous Spider-Man titles, and not just because of the change away from open world environments. While button mashing combined with Spider-Sense dodging is the focus of combat, traversing through the levels seemed looser in terms of control.

Slinging through levels doesn’t feel as natural or fun as it did in Manhattan in days of Spider-Man’s past. Possibly because of the level design system, less emphasis was put on traversing areas at fast speeds.

Combat also doesn’t feel as diverse. Because each Spider-Man only has three individual levels, there is not a huge diversity in combat abilities. Previous titles, because of only having one or two versions of Spider-Man, had a larger number of different attacks to work with.

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With just under a week from the release of the most hyped Spider-Man video game release in years, Activision and Beenox have unveiled the final launch trailer for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.  In it, a majority of the game’s villains are spotlighted as well as the voice actors of all four versions of everyone’s favorite web crawler after the jump.

As we are sure you have seen, we’ve kept a close watch on the upcoming title. We have brought you video of the alternate unlockcable attire, interviews with developers,  and even hands on feedback from our time with the game at San Diego Comic-Con.

But we’re not done yet. Be sure to check back for our review of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions following the game’s September 7th release date. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions will be coming out for PlayStation 3, XBox 360, PC and the Nintendo Wii.

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Recently following our developer interview, we revealed all of the alternate costumes for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Two of the most intriguing reveals for the alternate costumes include the Scarlet Spider and the Negative Zone Spider-Man.

The Scarlet Spider was the center of the infamous Clone Saga of the 90s that some people view as one of the most confusing times in Spider-Man’s history. Yet, years later, the Scarlet Spider is still revisited through flashbacks, reboots, toys and now video games. The Scarlet Spider will be the unlockable skin in the Amazing Dimension.

A more obscure costume comes from Spider-Man’s Negative Zone attire. Appearing in the adjectiveless Spider-Man title in issue #90, while trapped in the Negative Zone, Peter was lent the Darkforce powers by a hero named S.H.O.C. which altered his costume. Haven’t heard of this story ever? There’s probably a reason for that. Regardless, this incredibly dark (and we do mean dark, it is almost entirely black) costume is a perfect fit visually for the Noir world of Spider-Man which is devoid of any color in it.

Make sure to check out the two vignettes after the jump of these two costumes in motion and stick to the Flickcast for all things Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions as it approaches its September 7th release date.

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On Marvel.com, Activision has revealed all of the unlockable skins for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. By playing through the game, players will have the opportunity to unlock new looks for their favorite wall crawler across the four dimensions of gameplay. Make sure to check out the gallery at the bottom of this post for screen shots of all the new costumes.

At Comic Con, we had the opportunity to sit down with Studio Head over at Beenox, the developers behind Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Dee Brown. In our short time with Dee, he discussed with us the choices behind dimensions of the game.

He also mentions creating new villains for the game as well as the hype that has been coming out leading to the game’s release.

The Flickcast: First question I have, what was the thought process behind the four dimensions Beenox picked?

Dee Brown: Well, what we do when we start a project, we did what we always do when we start a project, a deep dive into the brand and we dug up a lot of the comic stuff of Spider-Man, and we did this big presentation to the team and the entire company.

Everybody loves Spider-Man of course, but nobody knows all the different universes and everything, so we did this presentation and showed shots of 2099 and Noir and all the amazing universes. People, like me for example, I didn’t know about Noir and when I saw it I thought “That’s amazing, that’s so great.”

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Even though many of us here at The Flickcast are looking forward to the SXSW Film/Interactive/Music Festival which starts at the end of the week, it doesn’t mean we don’t care about new comics coming out tomorrow. What are we, crazy?

Of course, being the huge Marvel fans we are, we’re always on the lookout for new books to add to our collections. Fortunately, the fine folks at Marvel are always happy to oblige. They’ve even sent us yet another list of comics coming out this week to help.

Remember to get to your nearest comic shop early for best selection. Don’t know where your nearest comic shop is? Use this handy guide to find one.

Check ‘em out:

Comics On-Sale:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #624
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #624 YF VARIANT
BREAKING INTO COMICS THE MARVEL WAY! #1
CABLE #24
CRIMINAL: THE SINNERS #5
DARK X-MEN #5
FANTASTIC FOUR #575 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
HULK: LET THE BATTLE BEGIN #1
IRON MAN 2 SPOTLIGHT

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Another week, another bunch of comics coming out from our friends at Marvel. This week sees the release of some titles we’re excited about including a new Wolverine Weapon X, a new Mighty Avengers, Stephen King’s N and Invincible Iron Man #24.

Remember, comics are on sale this week so get to your nearest comic shop early for best selection. Don’t know where your nearest comic store is, use this handy guide to find one.

Check out all the comics below.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #623
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #623 JUSKO VARIANT
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #623 QUINONES VARIANT
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #32 2ND PRINTING VARIANT (S)
CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN #6 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
DAFFODIL #3
DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #895
FALL OF THE HULKS: THE SAVAGE SHE-HULKS #1
FALL OF THE HULKS: THE SAVAGE SHE-HULKS #1 WOMEN OF MARVEL VARIANT

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Welcome to another edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews! Superboy’s Adventure comes to an end, Daytripper continues to be trippy and the Rhino gets a happy ending that may actually stick. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

Adventure Comics #6
DC Comics – $3.99 US
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Francis Manapul
Score: 9/10

Superboy has been trying to “find himself” and determine if he’s more Superman than Lex Luthor, since his genetic make-up is made from both of them. Unfortunately, it’s Luthor who finds him first and serves notice that for all his intellect and power, Luthor still has that nasty little streak in him.

Honestly, this has been a fun, engaging run by superstar writer Geoff Johns. Equal parts adventure (which works great with the title) and drama, all revolved around Superboy’s own identity crisis, this arc hit all the right buttons without coming across as preachy or whiny; a testament to the writer’s considerable talent of making relevant topics matter in the pages of a comic book.

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With the success of Siege#1 last week (it sold out) Marvel is dropping all new books this week to try and continue the momentum they’ve started in January. This week, we’re particularly excited to read Psylocke #3, Strange #3, S.W.O.R.D. #3 and the latest Invincible Iron Man.

And, as we always say, be sure to click through for some cover art from some of these new books. The overs are pretty cool. See you at the comic’s shop on Wednesday.

Comics On-Sale:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #617 (GNTLT)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #617 SOMETHING IS COMING VARIANT (GNTLT)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #617 RHINO IS COMING VARIANT (GNTLT)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #617 VILLAIN VARIANT (GNTLT)
ANITA BLAKE, THE LAUGHING CORPSE – EXECUTIONER #3
BLACK PANTHER #12
BLACK WIDOW: DEADLY ORIGIN #3
DARK X-MEN #3
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #22 ZIRCHER COVER
MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPER HEROES #19
NATION X #2
PSYLOCKE #3
PUNISHERMAX #3
REALM OF KINGS IMPERIAL GUARD #3
S.W.O.R.D. #3

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