In the latest The First Avenger: Captain America news, HeatVision is reporting that Hugo Weaving (Matrix, Lord of the Rings) is Marvel Studio’s first choice to star as the film’s villain, Red Skull. In the comic books, Red Skull is Captain America’s archenemy, engaging in espionage and sabotage as Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man.

If Weaving is tapped, it would reunite the star with director Joe Johnston, whom he worked with in this year’s The Wolfman. In other casting news, the list of Captain America contenders appears to have thinned.

We recently reported that five actors were in the running. However, HeatVision and Deadline New York have both reported that John Krasinski is no longer in the race for the coveted role. According to the sites, Marvel is now considering Wilson Bethel (Generation Kill), Mike Vogel (Cloverfield), Chris Evans (Fantastic Four) and Garrett Hudlund (Tron Legacy), who have all either read, tested, or received test offers.

The First Avenger: Captain America is slated for a July 11, 2011 release.

The siege of Asgard continues, Indigo becomes the new choice of color and Captain America “officially” returns in this latest edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews! Due to time constraints and unforeseen delays, this week’s column is abbreviated. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

Atom & Hawkman #46
DC Comics – $2.99 US
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Ryan Sook
Score: 9/10

Ray Palmer, known better as the Atom, has been knocked down more than most during his career as a costumed crime-fighter, but he always manages to pick himself up. Not surprisingly, that compassion of his has earned him an Indigo ring, and with the dead seemingly winning the war, Ray has figured out a way to swing the battle to the good guys; even if the good guys aren’t all necessarily “good” to begin with.

I would never have thought that, of all the Blackest Night-themed “continuation” issues, this would be the best of the bunch (so far), but with Geoff Johns at the helm, I should have known better. Johns uses a This Is Your Life presentation of Ray Palmer’s history as a canvas to show just how much the character brings to the table, and in doing so, the writer sets the stage for what could be the turning point in war against Nekron.

Artist Ryan Sook simply crushed this issue. Everything in this issue was pitch-perfect, from Ray’s past to the horrific present – every panel led to the next without skipping a beat. Instead, the body of work in this issue touched on varying types of visual storytelling that not only worked incredibly well, but also showed the artist’s vast range of skills.

Wrap all this up and throw in the aforementioned revelation of the Indigo rings, and you’re left with a can’t-miss issue that’s also the Pull of the Week.

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Another week, another batch of great comics from the fine filks at Marvel. This week sees the release of several books we’re looking forward to including a new X-Force, Captain America: Reborn #6, Kick-Ass #8, Secret Warriors #12 and the latest New Avengers.

As always, be sure to check out the previews of some covers for these comics after the jump. New comics go on sale this Wednesday at a comic shop near you. To locate your nearest comic shop that carrier your favorite titles, use this handy guide.

Comics On-Sale:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #619 (GNTLT)
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #32 (S)
CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN #6 CASSADAY VARIANT
CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN #6 GATEFOLD COVER
CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN #6 QUESADA VARIANT
DAREDEVIL #504
DARK REIGN: HAWKEYE #5 (DR)
FALL OF THE HULKS: GAMMA 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
FALL OF THE HULKS: RED HULK #1
FANTASTIC FOUR #575
FANTASTIC FOUR #575 SEVEN DECADES VARIANT
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #22
HALO: BLOOD LINE #2

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Welcome to another edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews! Since the hectic holiday schedule and copious amounts of eggnog have affected my time and brain cells, respectively, this week’s reviews are more of the quickie variety. While short and sweet – well, as short and sweet as I’m going to get – there’s enough yuletide cheer to make even Gotham warm over. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

Avengers: The Initiative #31
Marvel Comics – $2.99 US
Writer: Christos N Gage
Artist: Rafa Sandoval
Score: 8.5/10

The music’s pumping, the booze is flowing and the girls are dancing. Seems like Taskmaster’s right where he wants to be, until Norman Osborn decides to come to Camp H.A.M.M.E.R. for an inspection. Nobody said pimpin’ was easy, especially since Taskmaster has to get his place running on all cylinders before the boss arrives, bearing “gifts.”

Incredibly solid issue by writer Gage. Throughout the entire string of storylines, like “Civil War,” “Secret Invasion” and “Dark Reign,” select characters from both sides of the fight have begun to question whether or not they’re on the right side. Makes for some good reading and interesting dynamics as “Siege” starts to pick up steam. Artist Sandoval continues to be consistently good, especially where Taskmaster is included in the scene.

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With 2009 coming to a close, the challenge was to pick and rank the 10 best comics from the entire year. I’ve estimated reading approximately 1,500+ issues over that time frame, so obviously it wasn’t the easiest task to complete. Still, after much deliberation, these are my picks for the 10 best comics of 2009.

1. Jonah Hex #50
DC Comics
Writers: Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti
Artist: Darwyn Cooke
Originally reviewed on December 3, 2009

Perfection. Defined as the highest degree of proficiency, skill or excellence, perfection is near impossible to achieve, especially when every comic ever printed is subjective in nature. You know, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and all that jazz. Still, when I thought about all the comics I’ve read this past year, this issue of Jonah Hex kept coming back to me. While not perfect (frankly, what is?), it’s pretty close.

A wonderful done-in-one tale following our “hero” as he diligently goes about his day job, in this specific case while hunting down 50 various bad guys who had it coming to them. A fine story on it’s own. Now add a dash of romance – or the bounty hunter’s version of it – to the mix, sprinkle in a little personal vengeance, and top it off with a jolting reminder of how cruel life can be, and you’re left with a portrait of a man who makes no excuses for who he is or what he does, life expectations be damned.

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When you think of comics and comic history, one name probably comes to mind pretty quickly: Stan Lee. Having created or co-created some of the most famous and popular characters in comics history, his name has become synonymous with comics and Marvel, the company he helped put on the map.

Now, “The Man” is lending his talents to a new project for Marvel, the Marvel Digital Holiday Special. This four-part comic is available only online and features a story by Stan lee himself. For more info on the comic and where to get it, check out the official press release. And, be sure to check out some pages and a cover from the comic after the jump.

‘Tis the season to celebrate! And what better way to do so than with the 2009 Marvel Digital Holiday Special – an exclusive, four-part comic available only at Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited (www.marvel.com/digitalcomics). The legendary Marvel founding father Stan “The Man” Lee makes his Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited exclusive debut, penning a special Fantastic Four tale with art by Nick Dragotta that could only be called Marvel Digital Holiday Special: Rock of Ages. Check out a free preview right HERE!

The Thing teaches the rest of Marvel’s First Family all about Chanukah, and in turn, they impart some lessons of their own on some would-be street toughs. All this plus an art cameo by Lee’s FF co-creator Jack Kirby in a one-of-a-kind story that should not be missed!

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Even with Thanksgiving right around the corner, that hasn’t stopped Marvel from dropping some great comics this week for your reading pleasure. Some of the one’s we’re particularly interested in this week include the latest issue of Avengers: The Initiative, the new Hulk, the latest Criminal: The Sinners and Dark Wolverine #80.

Be sure to check out the list of all the upcoming Marvel comics below. And, as always, be sure to click through for some cool cover art from some of these comics after the jump as well. Now go and enjoy some Thanksgiving comics.

Comics On-Sale:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #613 (GNTLT)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #613 VILLAIN VARIANT (GNTLT)
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #30
CRIMINAL: THE SINNERS #2
DAREDEVIL #501 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
DARK AVENGERS: ARES #2
DARK REIGN: THE LIST – HULK 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
DARK REIGN: THE LIST – SECRET WARRIORS 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
DARK TOWER: THE FALL OF GILEAD #6
DARK TOWER: THE FALL OF GILEAD #6 RANEY VARIANT
DARK TOWER: THE FALL OF GILEAD #6 SKETCH VARIANT
DARK WOLVERINE #80

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With the Marvel/Disney deal looming, the race is on for studios to secure properties. Variety is reporting that Columbia Pictures is working on a sequel to Ghost Rider, with David Goyer reportedly in talks to create the story, as well as supervise additional writers for the film. Nicolas Cage is expected to reprise his starring role as Johnny Blaze.

The resurrection of Ghost Rider as a franchise comes in the middle of negotiations with other Marvel characters at Sony, Fox, Universal and Paramount. Studios must move on these properties now if they want to retain the rights to their Marvel superheroes.  If the properties languish, Marvel Entertainment can reclaim the rights to those characters. This is exactly what happened with the Dr. Strange, Black Panther and Iron Man properties. Iron Man languished in development hell at New Line before Marvel turned the property into a self-financed blockbuster last year. And we all know how well that went.

Although Goyer stated through a spokesman, that he has not officially signed on to a second Ghost Rider, plans are already under way to base the sequel on a script Goyer penned years ago. Goyer’s, superhero work includes successful screen transfers of DC’s Batman Begins and Marvel’s Blade franchise.

Columbia isn’t the only one getting in on the properties action. Fox plans to reboot Fantastic Four with Green Lantern scribe Michael Green; develop a Wolverine sequel and other X-Men spinoffs; a Silver Surfer film; and a revamped version of Daredevil.

Sony recently tapped James Vanderbilt to pen the fifth and sixth installments of the Spider-Man series, and Universal is continuing work on Sub-Mariner. Paramount will continue to be the distributor for Iron Man 2 and are also expected to distribute the upcoming Thor and Captain America flicks.

Even though many people don’t like Mondays, at least there’s something that happens on Monday you can get excited about. I’m talking about, of course, Monday being the day we find out what comics are dropping from Marvel for “new comic day” on Wednesday.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch so I can find something good about Monday. But still, it is Monday, I do have a list of the new comics this week and it looks like there’s a lot of good ones. So that’s a good thing, right? Come on, give it a shot and take a look at all the comics coming out via the official Marvel press release. Also, as we always do, there’s cool comic book cover art for you to take a look at after the jump.

Hey there True Believers, here’s your official list of comic books, collections and posters arriving in comic stores on September 23rd, 2009. For more information on any of these titles, and on upcoming mighty Marvel releases, please visit http://www.marvel.com/catalog/?date=2009-09-23 or contact your local comic book retailer at 1-888-comicbook. Stay tuned each week for a brand new list of Marvel releases so that you’ll never miss your favorite heroes in action!

Comics On-Sale:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #602 2ND PRINTING VARIANT

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #606

ANITA BLAKE, THE LAUGHING CORPSE – NECROMANCER #5

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With lots of new and wacky things going on over at Marvel right now, there was one somewhat bizarre decision that was actually made before Mickey Mouse got his paws in the door. That  decision was to reboot Fantastic Four a mere 4 years after the first film hit theaters.

The plan is for Fox to reboot the franchise with all new actors and probably a new origin story for theaters in 2013. What do the first set of actors have to say about their roles being wiped from continuity? Well, Joblo.com recently got a chance to talk to Chris Evans, the first Human Torch, and he didn’t seem very happy about the idea.

“I don’t think I’m going to be involved with it. I’d imagine the reboot, it would be a reboot. I think they’re going to start from scratch. And that’s the way those movies…it seems like sometimes they happen quicker than others, you know. BATMAN, there was a big chunk of time, but the new BATMAN movies are fantastic.

SUPERMAN, you know, THE INCREDIBLE HULK — sometimes there’s a big gap and sometimes there’s a small gap. If there’s room to reinvent a franchise in a different tone and they can make a good film out of it, then so be it. I have nothing negative to say about it.”

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