Disney XD will premiere its new animated series Ultimate Spider-Man on Sunday, April 1 as part of its new Marvel Universe line. The show was developed by Marvel Head of Television Jeph Loeb, Marvel CCO Joe Quesada, Paul Dini (“Batman: The Animated Series”), Man of Action Studios, and long-time Ultimate Spider-man scribe Brian Michael Bendis.

Ultimate Spider-Man stars Drake Bell (“Drake and Josh”) as a teenage Peter Parker trying to fit in at high school while secretly working with other heroes at S.H.I.E.L.D. Fans of Marvel’s film canon will recognize the voices of JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson and Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson.

Enjoying success with Marvel Animation’s Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Disney XD is planning on launching an entire Marvel Universe programming block with Ultimate Spider-Man as its keystone.

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In leading up to tonight’s big premiere of Cartoon Network’s newest live action series, Tower Prep, we’ve been bringing you significant coverage of the show. Yesterday, we interviewed two of the four main stars, Ryan Pinkston and Drew Van Acker. Today, you guessed it, we’re bringing you an interview with the two other stars, Dyana Liu and Elise Gatien.

This may be one of the first major shows for Dyana, but many fans of the comic genre remember Elise Gatien from season 9 of Smallville as that universe’s version of Green Arrow’s Speedy. How does it all tie in? DC veteran Paul Dini is executive producer of this series, as well as writing tonight’s pilot episode.

The series revolves around this group of teens who wake up in a mysterious prep school for kids with special abilities.

Check out the interview after the jump, and catch Tower Prep on Cartoon Network, tonight at 8pm ET/PT.

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Cartoon Network has been working their way outside of the animated box for the past few years or so, with brand new original live action programming. This was a start for the network with original films surrounding established franchises like Scooby Doo and Ben 10, and has now moved on to full series like Unnatural History and this week’s upcoming Tower Prep.

From Lost and Batman Beyond producer Paul Dini, this new show follows the lives of a group of teens who finds themselves in a mysterious school, with mysterious and unique abilities. Think X-Men meets Lost. We got the opportunity to speak with the four main stars of the film and today we’re bringing you half of those interviews, as we discuss just exactly what Tower Prep is with stars Ryan Pinkston and Drew Van Acker.

Check out the interview after the jump. Be sure to check back here tomorrow for more with the cast.

Also, be sure to catch the very first episode of Tower Prep on Cartoon Network, tomorrow October 19th, at 8pm ET/PT.

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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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Batman: Arkham Asylum has been a video game property shrouded in mystery as of late. Up until now, the only exposure the public had with the game was the opening cinematic but we were recently given some time to play through the early part of this Batman adventure in what looks like it could be the first game to finally do the character justice.

Pulling from seventy years of Batman history, the developers of Batman: Arkham Asylum had a breadth of material to pick and inevitably chose the elements they thought would work best for the game. Arkham takes a much darker tone than previous Batman games, taking some influence from the relaunched movie series.

Though not tied in to the movie, it’s hard not to see a resemblance between the character models and gritty overtones of the game and those of the movies. The game starts with Batman bringing the Joker in to custody to Arkham Island. Things go awry and the Joker escapes and in the process unleashes the other denizens of Arkham Asylum.

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