Going to Comic-Con in San Diego is a commitment. It’s not just the travel, the hotels, the Lyfts and Ubers, the food, and the drinks (…oh so many drinks), it’s much more. The floor of SDCC is the ultimate test of maintaining your composure and measuring your self-restraint.

And many, if not all of us, fail. New vinyl collectibles, classic non-sports trading cards, prints, sketches, autographed memorabilia, comics, nostalgia filled unpackaged toys, trades, meet & greets are just the start of the ways that your wallet can bottom out within just a few hours if you aren’t careful.

I, like many, try to go down with a plan on what I will be purchasing. As a Comic-Con veteran of nine SDCC’s (eight of them being consecutive), what I look for in advance is the list of the exclusives. This gives a good baseline for what will most likely be purchased.

When it was rereleased on XBox Live Arcade three years ago, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was the hottest title for fighting game fans, even nine years after its release. What came next was the most hyped fighting game in recent memory with Marvel vs. Capcom 3. It’s no surprise that Capcom would take the popularity of the franchise as well as the recent publicity of Marvel because of the success of the Avengers and release two of the games that started it all.

Coming in September of this year to both the PlayStation Network and XBox Live Arcade is Marvel vs. Capcom Origins, a two for one deal with both Marvel Super Heroes and the first Marvel vs. Capcom. Before the X-Men crossed paths against Street Fighter, Marvel pitted its own heroes and villains against each other in Marvel Super Heroes. After the crossover success of X-Men vs. Street Fighter though, Marvel picked its heaviest hitters and brought them against Capcom’s all-star lineup in Marvel vs. Capcom.

Josh Trank, hot off the successful directorial turn in Chronicle, has been contracted by Warner Bros. to develop and direct the long awaited adaptation of comic book and video game The Red Star.

Trank has been in talks to work on a reboot of The Fantastic Four and a spin-off Venom movie, but decided to take on The Red Star. He may still work on these projects, as they aren’t moving forward as quickly as The Red Star.

Jason Rothenberg is currently writing the script for the project.  Rothenberg recently scripted the new Twilight Zone, which is in production with Matt Reeves at the helm.

Since most of the major Marvel Universe players have found their way already into the Minimates line, ArtAsylum is now able to give some spotlight to some of the heroes, villains and storylines from the past. This time in the 43rd wave of the Minimates line, which also marks the ten year anniversary of the product, the Marvel Minimates will focus on the “Death of Jean Dewolff” storyline.

Back in the mid 80’s when comics were beginning to mature in both artistic merit and story themes, editor on the Spectacular Spider-Man Jim Owsley gave writer Peter David the task of knocking off detective Jean DeWolff. The character of Sin-Eater was created as a way to kill DeWolff. Interestingly enough, the biggest impact of this story is the indirect creation of Venom as Eddie Brock claimed to have found out who the real Sin Eater was, only to be disproven by Spider-Man catching the real killer and costing Brock his job.

You can check out Art Asylum’s interview with creator Peter David here on their site and check out the full gallery of the collection after the jump.

As always, one of our favorite parts of any convention is the sights and NYCC was full of them this year so we had to share them with the Flickcast audience. The level of dedication by the men and women who attend the con every year is staggering.

Some are picture perfect renditions that rival movie quality costumes like the Anakin Skywalker we saw wandering the floor. Others come from careful collection of legitimate television costumes and props like the classic Power Rangers Green Ranger. Still others take their own imagination and run wild with custom Mandalorian battle armor for both human and giant chicken alike to life sized Castle Crashers.

One of the things this gallery sadly doesn’t do justice is give an idea on just how huge NYCC was this year. Though it is yet to overtake the surrounding neighborhood like SDCC does, the New York Comic Con feels every bit as big and as important as its west coast counterpart.

The entire Javitts Center was filled with every major comic company to movie studios and video game publishers in every corner. This year the Flickcast was only able to spend a day on the Con floor but if things keep looking up for NYCC, we may have to tackle this show the same way we do San Diego Comic Con or E3.

Take a look below to get just a glimpse of the many sights at this year’s convention. See you next year New York!

Okay comic book fans, here’s some new ones coming out from our friends at Marvel this week. And like we do every week, we’ve got some particular ones we’re most interested in. Not that they all aren’t interesting to someone, we just have our personal favorites.

Among the new ones coming out we’re most interested in Sigil #1, 5 Ronin #2,  Captain America and the First Thirteen #1, New Avengers #10, and 5 Venom #1.

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:
5 RONIN #2 AJA COVER
5 RONIN #2 BROOKS VARIANT
CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE KORVAC SAGA #4
CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE FIRST THIRTEEN #1
HAWKEYE: BLINDSPOT #2
INCREDIBLE HULKS #624
INCREDIBLE HULKS #624 CAPTAIN AMERICA 70TH ANNIVERSARY VARIANT
NEW AVENGERS #10
ONSLAUGHT UNLEASHED #2
PUNISHERMAX #11
SIGIL #1
SIGIL #1 MCGUINNESS VARIANT
SUPER HEROES #12

According to the Little Big Planet website,  the worlds of Marvel and Little Big Planet will be colliding on July 7th. Starting on that day and continuing each week, there will be four costume packs for a total of 20 of Marvel’s greatest heroes and most despised villains.

It hasn’t been revealed which characters will be getting paired up for the packs as of yet. It is possible that they may be grouped by team such as an Avengers or X-Men pack or it may be a complete free for all where players can get Captain America, The Punisher and the Human Torch all in one oddball purchase.

In addition, there will be a Marvel Level Kit which contains four missions pitting the Sackboys and Sackgirls against Magneto. Beating these four stages will unlock Marvel music, objects stickers and a “Rooftop” background for your own level creations.

Spider-Man 3 was not the greatest installment of the franchise. It seemed for every great moment there was an equally bad one. Take Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and Venom (Topher Grace) for example. Sandman was a compelling character you could get behind. Venom was a gimmick, tacked onto the last third of the film. That isn’t to say Grace was not brilliant as Eddie Brock, he was, but Venom just felt forced into an already busy plot.

Worse yet was having not one, not two, but three nods to The Lizard throughout the franchise by Dr. Curt Connors (Dylan Baker) but that villain never emerged. What a waste. Whether you love or hate Venom, writer Paul Wernick confirmed that Sony is working on a Venom spin-off:

“We’ve written two drafts of Venom, and the studio has it, and they’re pushing forward in whatever ways they push forward.”.  Of course, this begs the question how will this relate to the upcoming Spider-Man 4.  Wernick provided a very vague response, “Basically, the studio and Marvel and the Arads are taking our drafts and going beyond and figuring out what’s the next step.”

There is a silver lining to this.  Paul Wernick, along with co-writer Rhett Reese, wrote the highly anticipated Zombieland film.  While I’ve only seen the previews the movie looks brilliant. If they can bring that same sense of humour mixed with prevailing dread to Venom, I for one think the film may just work. No other details at this point but you’ll find them here as they develop.

Previously, we brought you the first of our two new video game trailers for today. That one was for the upcoming Electronic Arts and Double Fine game Brutal Legend, featuring the voice and likeness of Jack Black. This time we’ve got the brand new launch trailer for the highly anticipated sequel Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 from Activision.

In this trailer, you get the most complete look at the game ever released and can see just how cool its going to be. I’m particularly excited for this game because of all the great Marvel characters you get to play as. Plus, after having played it a bit during Comic-Con in San Diego, I can say for sure that its pretty damn fun.

The game is “the greatest Super Hero action/RPG of all time is back with the world’s largest army of heroes and villains in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. Incorporating elements of the acclaimed Marvel Civil War storyline, players must choose their side and team up to battle or interact with returning favorites and all-new characters, including Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Deadpool, Venom, Green Goblin, Iron Fist and Captain America, whose powers can be combined to unleash astonishing new attacks.” Once again, awesome is the word of the day.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 ships to stores on September 15th for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP and DS. Until then, click through to watch the awesome (See what I did there?) new launch trailer.

For yesterday’s The Pull List, go here.

New Avengers #55 – Marvel – $3.99

Score: 7.5

Though beaten out by another Marvel team book this week for Pull of the Week, New Avengers is still a great read. Coming off the “Who is the next Sorcerer Supreme?” storyline, this issue finds the Avengers back in New York where they continue their gauntlet with the Hood’s forces. As dissension grows amongst the Hood’s forces, the Wrecking Crew vocally airs their disappointment in their current arrangement. The Hood defends his position along with the help of his girlfriend, Madame Masque. Another of the Hood’s men, Chemistro, finds a piece of Stark-tech that would effectively disable the heroes powers, had it not been destroyed in their battle with the New Avengers.

Instead of giving the tech to his boss, the Hood, Chemistro takes it to Doctor Harrow hoping to reverse engineer it for their own purposes. The issue also follows up on the actions of Clint Barton after having called out Norman Osborn to the world as the former Green Goblin who has now been placed in charge of the nation’s security. A meeting of the Avengers has been called and Clint apologizes for his actions and going about them without talking to the team first. He then throws down his endgame plan… to kill Norman Osborn. This idea becomes the focus of the discussion between the underground Avengers until they receive word that a villain is letting loose in Times Square, Chemistro.

Coming off the not so surprising choice of Brother Voodoo as the new Sorcerer Supreme, this issue acts as a link back four issues before all the magical nonsense took place. The New Avengers are still up against this generation’s Masters of Evil, the Hood’s gang, and the events from a previous battle between the two have started to show some repercussions. No huge revelations occur within it but New Avengers #55 acts as a great setup issue for what is to come in the series. Solicits have shown that something big is going to happen between these two factions (don’t worry, we won’t spoil what they are) and this issue, from Bendis’s great dialogue amongst the Hood’s gang to the bleak cover showing a pile of New Avengers corpses laid out do a fantastic job of continuing the hype machine behind this series.

For yesterday’s The Pull List, go here.

Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Man #1 – Marvel $3.99

Score: 7.5

(Sings) “Spider-Man. Spider-Man. Does whatever a spider can. Stops a bank robber. Eats his arm. Kills a stripper. Frames the Mayor. Watch out. Here comes the Spider-Man.” Not exactly the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler we all know and love right? Well of course not because good old Peter Parker isn’t the Spider-Man staring in this issue.

Instead, the Sinister Spider-Man is actually Venom of the Osborn sponsored Dark Avengers, a.k.a. Mac Gargan, a.k.a. the former Scorpion. For those not very familiar with the character, despite the amount of exposure he’s been getting all over Marvel lately by being tied to both Spider-Man and Norman Osborn, the issue gives a fair amount of background about who Venom once was and now is.

The issue starts out with “Genetic Terror of the Third Reich” General Wolfram, or just a Nazi with a dead wolf carcass on his head, robbing a bank in NYC. He is promptly stopped by the cities newly liked savior, Venom posing as the black suited Spider-Man. Venom, enjoying his new found heirdom, takes a moment to soak in the applause, kiss a few girls, and grab a few butts before taking off with Wolfram where he collects the money Wolfram robbed for himself and doing his own version of “taking a bite out of crime.” In other words, he ate Wolfy’s arm.

After a little flashback to his origins as a private detective and the deal he made with now Mayor J. Jonah Jameson that ultimately turned him in to the Scorpion, Venom heads to his favorite hangout, the strip club, where he finds a new favorite dancer, having eaten a previous one. Meanwhile, JJJ deals with the public scrutiny behind his mayoral run, including the rise in crime since his administration began. He is visited by a small, quirky doctor who wants to discuss a Super Villain Rehabilitation program which JJJ promptly shoots down.

Back at Avengers tower, Venom has taken his new favorite dancer back only to get yelled at by Norman for the bank’s missing money and Wolfram’s missing arm. Venom tells himself that Norman has just made his list, but he has other fish to fry first like JjJ who finds Venom’s dead stripper friend in his bed later that night. The issue concludes with a new “villain” popping his head up with the quirky doctor donning a white mask with a symbol like the Punisher’s on it, calling himself the Redeemer who sits in front of a group of villains that Venom had recently taken down.