Marvel Comics announced on Wednesday Thanos Rising, a new miniseries by Jason Aaron and Simone Bianchi that will offer what would appear to be an authoritative, modern origin of the cosmic villain who was introduced to millions of moviegoers in the closing moments of The Avengers. Beginning in April, the story of Thanos' rise to power -- which involves a birth on a Saturn moon and an infatuation with a physical embodiment of death -- would, in the words of Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso, "make Shakespeare shudder."

If you missed out on DC Collectibles' exclusive Aardman Batman last fall at NYCC, it seems a proper two-pack featuring both Aardman's Batman and Robin will join a number of new items at comic shops and online in March. Figures of the DC Nation short stars join a Mike Allred Batman Black & White statue, a 1:1 scale Green Lantern power battery and GL ring prop replica and a 1/6 scale Man of Steel Superman statue. Solicitation copy indicates that Supes is just the first in a bigger series of MoS statues, however, with Jor-El, Zod and Faora expected later on. You can scope out the full solicitation info after the cut to see if anything piques your interest.

The Gay And Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has announced its nominees for the 24th Annual GLAAD media awards, which "recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives." Included in the announcement are the nominees for Outstanding Comic Book, and while it's an impressive list, there's at least one book that is noticeably absent.

Not a dream, not a hoax - Paul Pope's imaginary story Battling Boy has been scheduled for release by First Second Books three years after everyone had initially expected it, finally giving comics fans a chance to see the character that comics savant Pope describes as "the Superman we need for today."

Following on from its uber-successful Adventure Time line, Boom! Studios has announced plans to bring another Cartoon Network series to comics with the upcoming debut of a Regular Show ongoing written by K.C. Green (Gunshow), with art by Allison Strejlav.

On sale now from Marvel is the fourth issue of Deadpool, one of the many series recently relaunched as part of the publisher's Marvel NOW initiative designed to galvanize interest, sales and stories across the superhero line. The plan was particularly successful with Deadpool, whose first three issues have gone to multiple printings and are among the best of Marvel's current slate. Written by comedians Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn and drawn by Tony Moore (Fear Agent, Venom) with colors by Val Staples (Criminal), the first arc finds the titular mercenary with pronounced psychiatric problems recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. to re-kill (and in some cases re-re-kill) all the dead presidents of the United States, who've returned all evil and undead as a consequence of some really dodgy magicking by a necromancer in a kilt.

Duggan talked with us about Deadpool and where he and co-writer Posehn will be taking the Merc with a Mouth when the next arc begins with April's issue #8, featuring new artist Mike Hawthorne (Conan: Road of Kings, G.I. Joe: Origins) whose Deadpool work you're seeing here for the first time.

In the current arc of All New X-Men, the team's resident big brain Hank McCoy uses his time machine (hey, Henry, could you have mentioned you had that before?) to bring his past self to the present day (in apparent violation of Marvel's own time travel rules, but rules are totally boresville), to brainstorm a cure for his chronic MacGuffinism (a serious medical condition that inspires really smart people to do implausible things that get plots rolling; Reed Richards is suffering a similar affliction). Consequently, the Beast has mutated. Again. Again again.

To mark this latest evolution in the appearance of the modern-day Madonna of mutants, ComicsAlliance looks back at some of the previous faces of Hank McCoy.

Art Asylum and Diamond Select Toys have been doing a pretty commendable job of balancing the ratio of living humans to zombies over the course of their past two The Walking Dead Minimates waves, and as seen in a new Skybound video contest blog post, it appears the third series will keep the trend going. The exact configurations of each two-pack (and potential box set) have yet to be revealed, but the line will continue packing a human with a zombie. Like previous waves, these figures are based on Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard's TWD comic rather than its TV adaptation on AMC, just in case you were nitpicking actor likenesses. So far the wave includes Rick (in riot gear), Tyreese, Hershel, Dexter, a farmer zombie, a zombie with dreadlocks, and a prison guard zombie. The sets will all be available at specialty stores and online, although the Rick and Dexter sets can be found at Toys "R" Us, too. You can get a better look at each figure from the third series of The Walking Dead Minimates after the jump.

After 20 years in the ensemble casts of team books like Batman and the Outsiders, Birds of Prey and the upcoming Justice League, this February will see DC's Katana taking the spotlight in her own solo series with the creative team of Ann Nocenti and Alex Sanchez. It's a big move for both the character and DC -- Katana is possibly only the third ongoing title from the publisher to feature a woman of color in the lead role -- and with her knack for drawing out the symobolism of a character through twists on classic superhero storytelling, Nocenti is poised to leave her mark on a character that's being brought to the spotlight.

To find out just what that mark may be, we spoke to Nocenti about who Katana is when she's alone, her unique approach to violence, her love of martial arts and why weapons are more than just things to stab with.

Cats: Limecat, you've got some serious cuteness competition from Pomelo Iron Man Cat. [Geektrooper]

Out tomorrow is Batman #16, the penultimate chapter to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's "Death of the Family" storyline, featuring Batman going up against the Joker in what is already guaranteed to go down as one of the more popular Joker stories in recent memory, if not ever. Already providing a few memorable moments, this upcoming issue has what should almost certainly go down as one of the greatest panels in Batman history.

You can check it out after the cut, and while it certainly doesn't spoil anything in regards to the story, we'll understand if you want to wait until tomorrow, as it is manifestly awesome.

Earlier in the day, Demon Knights artist Bernard Chang took to Twitter to announce that he's pretty excited about this week's issue #16, the debut issue of new writer Robert Venditti. Chang is so excited, in fact, that he's come up with a unique way to get readers involved in promoting it: he'll be giving away all 20 pages to fans who help he and Venditti promote the book by giving copies to friends who have yet to give the series a chance.