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Marvel

For those who love Guardians of the Galaxy (and who doesn’t), Rocket Racoon and Groot are getting their own four issue miniseries this January entitled (wait for it)… Rocket Racoon & Groot. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning will be writing it with art from Timothy Green. Mike Mignola will provide the cover art for issue 1. How the team will manage dialogue for a comic that gives second billing to a character who can only say “I am Groot” is open for speculation.

Mark Waid will be reimagining Captain America’s return from the ice for a modern era with a five issue miniseries Captain America: Man Out of Time with Arthur Molina beginning this November.

Joss Whedon is not only directing The Avengers, he’s writing the entire script.

Also, in a move that has surprised no one who uses google or has watched anything Joss Whedon has made in the past eight years, Nathan Fillion has been confirmed as playing the role of Ant Man. Or maybe Joss was joking.

DC

First off, Batclan news. Grant Morrison will be following his The Return of Bruce Wayne miniseries with a one shot entitled Batman: The Return. Following this, he will be writing a Batman-centric team book called Batman, Inc. Morrison told the audience at today’s DC panel that the book will be about “What happens when Bruce is more in the equation and what he does with the Batman idea and turns it into a franchise”

Turns it into a franchise? That sounds, er, interesting.

Paul Cornell, late of the award-winning Captain Britain and MI13 series, will be writing Knight and Squire, a new ongoing series about Batman and Robin’s British counterparts.

Paul Dini will be writing a long story arc on Streets of Gotham entitled “House of Hush” in which an older villain wants to kill Bruce for being a Wayne, not for being Batman. The storyline will explore the Wayne family backstory of the generations before Bruce, and will be quite long, beginning soon and extending into December or January.

According to Vertigo editor Shelly Bond, John Constantine will be walking down the aisle in a super-sized Hellblazer #275. Whether the commitment-phobic magus will actually end up married or not, of course, is unconfirmed.

Also, Executive Editor Karen Berger confirmed that all Vertigo characters originating in the DCU would be returning to that division from Vertigo, including Swamp Thing and Madame Xanadu. Speculation – and Previews – suggests that John Constantine will not be joining them.

The cast of the upcoming Young Justice animated series has been revealed! The main cast will be Jesse

Dark Horse’s much beloved anthology Dark Horse Presents returns in a brand new print incarnation in March 2011 with all new work from Carla Speed McNeil, Harlan Ellison, Howard Chaykin and Mike Mignola among others.

Axe Cop, the off the wall webcomic about an axe-wielding cop, written by five year old Malachai Nicolle and illustrated by his adult brother Ethan Nicolle, is coming to Dark Horse in a collected edition this December. It will be followed by a three part full color miniseries in the spring of 2011.

Witchfinder, the comic series by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi with art by John Severin, returns in a five part miniseries Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever this February.

Web series The Guild returns to Dark Horse with a new five part miniseries written by series creator Felicia Day and co-star Jeff Lewis.

Dark Horse has unveiled Dethklok! a new comic from the people who brought you Adult Swim’s hit show Metalocalypse. Like Metalocalypse, the Dethklok! miniseries features the over the top adventures of Dethklok, the world’s most popular – and most dysfunctional – imaginary Death Metal supergroup. To quote the press release

After a series of sponsorship deals goes sour, Dethklok launches a new business venture—a line of frozen meals called HypothermiFoods—in hopes of reclaiming their metal throne.

The comic is written by Jeremy Barlow and illustrated by Lucas Marangon based on story ideas from the show’s creators Brendon Small and Jon Schnepp and comes out this October 6.

Janet and Alex Evanovich’s Troublemaker’s second and final volume comes out on November 3.

As long predicted by the internet, Dark Horse is bringing out a prequel tie-in miniseries to much anticipated child vampire thriller Let Me In entitled Let Me In: Crossroads, written by Marc Andreyko and illustrated by Patric Reynolds.

Milo Manara, Italy’s ero-comics superstar most recently in the US comics press for his X-Women oneshot with Chris Claremont, has inked a deal with Dark Horse to bring out a nine-volume collection of his works. The Manara Library will feature works unavailable in English for over 20 years in a brand new translation from Kim Thompson.

Dark Horse will also be bringing out a new comic Mass Effect: Evolution based on the popular video game series Mass Effect. The book will be written by Mac Walters, the lead writer of the Mass Effect games and comics veteran John Jackson Miller with Omar Francia as artist.

Kate Fitzsimons writes for Publishers Weekly, Publishers Weekly Comics Week, and her personal comics and geek culture blog geekiferous.com.