Finally, Marvel’s Civil War comes to the PSP in a fun way (as opposed to the super-disappointing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 game) - as a digital comic! The series comprises just a fraction of the 40 new comics to hit the PSP this week - see below for the complete list of this week’s new releases.
- The Avengers (1998) #56 - #67
- Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft #2
- Nanovor: Game Day #2
- Paranormal Activity: The Search for Katie
- Star Trek: Countdown #1 - #4
- Transformers: All Hail Megatron #8
- Wormwood: Gentlemen Corpse #5: It Only Hurts When I Pee
- Doubleduck
- Fethry Duck and the Ghost Writer
- Mickey Mouse in “War of the Worlds”
- Superduck: Robber Against His Will
- X-Mickey: The Day of the Forget-Me-Rats
- 2000AD Prog #1661
- Civil War (2006) #1 – #7
- Daredevil (1998) #81-#86
Atlus has announced a classic console-style JRPG for the PSP, Hexyz Force, for release on May 25. According to Joystiq, Atlus has said that the game will have “virtually no load times”, and should last the average gamer a good 50 hours. It’s difficult to imagine anything prying me away from my XBox 360 and Bayonetta, but this does look kinda sweet.
The digital comics revolution is looking stronger than ever in 2010, with Marvel and other major publishers publishing books for iPhone apps like Panelfly and Comixology’s Comics. Comics are moving onto gaming systems too - the new PSP comic store is really impressive, and it’s likely that the XBox 360 will integrate the digital comics service Longbox by year’s end.
Digital comics publisher Flashback Universe is both a contributor to and beneficiary of the continuing history of comics’ migration onto platforms other than pulp. They’ve also done an excellent job of recounting the tale on their website - I’ve already posted a link to the first half of the piece; part two is now up, and brings the reader up to date on the state of the digital funnybook.
If you want to check out Flashback’s comics, I highly recommend another excellent iPhone comic reader app, ComicZeal. It’s a fantastic reader, and includes a library of free downloadable comics, consisting of some spectacular Golden Age public domain books (including classic early adventures of Plastic Man and Blue Beetle, among others), and of a sampling of Flashback’s offerings.
2009 saw digital comics making huge inroads, at long last. And the digital revolution continues to march forward at an ever-increasing pace - it’s my birthday tomorrow (New Year’s Eve - feel free to send me love, presents, gift certificates and strip-o-grams), and my present to myself is a 16GB memory stick for all the comics I’m gonna be downloading from the PSP store in 2010.
But it’s been a long road - digital comics publisher Flashback Universe, um… flashes back with part one of a comprehensive history of comics’ progression from paper to plasma.