COMIC-CON: AVI ARAD ON SPIDER-MAN 2

Marvel Studios' Avi Arad, producer of Spider-Man 2, provided The Continuum with a few details about Alfred Molina's Doc Ock character.

"Alfred, as you know, is a character actor. The character arc in the movie is very close to the book, sort of a mentor relationship," Arad said.

"The accident (that fuses the tentacles to Otto) is both a personal tragedy, a major loss, a loss of pride. And everything, again, is blamed on Spider-Man.

"And he goes through a journey with his arms. What's unique is each one has a personality and they sort of take control of him. As our tradition is, our villains aren't complete villains, they're complex characters, especially in time of tragedy."

Arad talked to The Continuum back stage at Comic-Con International over the weekend, in which Doc Ock's appearance was revealed to the public for the first time. A large banner and a short clip featuring the character drew loud cheers from the crowd of nearly 5,000.

Arad also gave The Continuum an update on several Marvel projects:

* Blade 3: "We have a great script, Wesley (Snipes) is back and we are doing our thing," Arad said. David Goyer is writing and directing.

* Hulk 2: "We are just waiting for a script," Arad said. "We are going to make another Hulk, absolutely."

* The Punisher: Arad said production starts in two weeks. "Awesome. Great casting. Great movie," he said.

* Fantastic Four: "We have a release date and we are all working hard to get there," Arad said of the Christmas 2004 film. Arad confirmed that Ralph Winter, producer of the two X-Men movies, is on board.

* Others: "We are very advanced into Iron Man and Elektra. These two are something," Arad said. "Then we'll have news in a couple of weeks on Deathlok. It's a great script, and this movie is going to get made. And we just got a phenomenal director."

For full coverage of the Spider-Man panel, CLICK HERE.

MARK MILLAR'S NEW PROJECTS

Writer Mark Millar has sent The Continuum a piece of promotional art for Wanted, his new project with Top Cow Productions.

It's one of several new projects the writer has coming up. For a complete rundown, CLICK HERE.

COMIC-CON: DC COMICS TEAMS PANEL

Saying that "every creator has one really good Justice League story in them and we're going to explore that," JLA editor Mike Carlin said he is trying a new approach of rotating creative teams on the book.

Among the creative teams will be Dennis O'Neil and Tan Eng Huat for JLA #91-93 and Chris Claremont and John Byrne on JLA #94-99. Others working on the book will be Gail Simone, Bill Willingham, Dan Slott, Howard Chaykin and Killian Plunkett.

The regular JLA team of Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke will move on to Justice League: Elite, a 12-issue maxi-series featuring the characters from Action Comics #775 that spins out of JLA #100.

For more from the Comic-Con International panel on DC's super teams, CLICK HERE.

COMIC-CON: STATIC SHOCK UPDATE

Static Shock will continue to team up with other heroes over the course of the show's fourth season on Kids' WB!.

The Continuum has learned that, in addition to the previously reported team-up with Batman Beyond, Static will team with Green Lantern and have another meeting with Anasi, the African super-hero he encountered in Season 3.

Static will be meeting with the John Stewart/Justice League version of Green Lantern. Both characters are voiced by Phil LaMarr, who told The Continuum he recorded both at the same time.

"It wasn't disconcerting," LaMarr told The Continuum while signing at Comic-Con International. "It was a lot of fun. In fact, I do three characters. There's an evil duplicate Green Lantern."

Anasi's voice is done by Carl Lumbly, who does the voice of Martian Manhunter in Justice League.

The Static Shock episodes won't air until this winter at the earliest.

In other Static news, the show moves to 11:30 a.m. on Aug. 2 with a repeat of "A League of Their Own, Pt. 2." Look for more Static Shock and Justice League news very soon here in The Continuum.

X-MEN: EVOLUTION UPDATE

Kids' WB! has released a schedule of episodes of X-Men: Evolution, leading up to the first new episode of the year, "X23."

The schedule includes four weekday showings at 3 p.m.: "Grim Reminder" on Monday, July 28; "Power Surge" on Tuesday, July 29; "Day of Reckoning, Pt. 1" on Thursday, July 31; and "Day of Reckoning, Pt. 2" on Friday, Aug. 1.

The "X23" episode, which features a new character created by Marvel Studios' Craig Kyle, will air Saturday, Aug. 2 at 10:30 a.m.

"We're back in our old time slot, and that's a good thing," X-Men: Evolution story editor Greg Johnson told The Continuum last weekend at Comic-Con International.

Look for more news and images from "X23" soon here in The Continuum.

ONI PRESS COLLECTS TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS

Oni Press is collecting the 1992 mini-series Tales of Ordinary Madness, by Malcom Bourne and Mike Allred, into a 112-page trade paperback slated for a February release.

Tales of Ordinary Madness, a four-issue miniseries, followed a psychiatrist across the routine of several days as the pressures of the job and the patients' delusions begin to weigh on his mind.

"Tales of Ordinary Madness was ahead of its time," Oni Press editor-in-chief Jamie S. Rich said. "Allred was just starting to earn a name for himself, and alternative comics were still trying to figure out where they fit after the black-and-white bust. The comic had a certain flavor to it, one that was both real and surreal, and was a harbinger for the sort of bold and original works we find commonplace today. I was an instant fan, as evidenced by my letter in the second issue!"

"Companies like Dark Horse and the line that would become Vertigo were discovering there was a lot of room to experiment with comic books back then," Bourne said. "Vertigo in particular were working in a vein of psychological horror, and I proposed to Dark Horse that we take that term literally. I was working in the mental health system in England at the time, so I knew the ins-and-outs of the sorts of demons that could plague on a person's life, as well as the stresses that the caretakers could succumb to. It's not autobiographical, but I definitely had the inside track on how things could go wrong. And I still do. My work as a psychiatrist continues to this day."

"Allred was a new discovery for me at the time," Rich said. "I was struck by his bold linework and the distinct style of his faces. Little did I know that he'd become one of my favorite artists and an icon of the art form. Madman and X-Statix have put him on the map, but so many of his early destinations are out of print. Of them all, this was top of my list for collecting in book form."

"I am glad Oni is doing the trade paperback of Ordinary Madness," Bourne said, "because I think their line really embodies the ambitious ethos that Mike and I were exploring back in the early '90s. They're one of the companies who has really picked up the torch and are advancing comics towards a brighter future."

The color cover for the book is being designed by Keith Wood.

IMAGE COMICS FIRST LOOKS

For covers and four-page previews of Image Comics titles arriving in stores on Wednesday, CLICK HERE.

Titles include G.I. Joe Frontline #9, G.J. Joe #10, G.I. Joe vs. The Transformers #2, Legacy #2, Paradigm #10 and Puffed #1.

1602 UPDATE

GIVE'EM A CLICK

Marvel Comics on Monday released characters sketches from 1602, the eight-issue Marvel Knights mini-series by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove that kicks off Aug. 13.

The series takes place in the year 1602, in the final days of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. But if the series is set 400 years in the past, how are familiar contemporary Marvel Universe stars like Nick Fury, Daredevil, Dr. Strange and the X-Men exerting great influence over those times?

According to Gaiman, that's the question at the heart of his story.

"Although 1602 will look at first glance like a 'What If...?' story, it actually isn't," Gaiman said. "If you read it much more as a puzzle and an adventure, things will become more apparent as the story goes on. We'll learn how the world got this way, whether we can get it back, and what it means."

The first issue will be 40 pages. Look for more on 1602 soon here in The Continuum.

GIVE'EM A CLICK

EDITOR'S NOTE: COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL

Comic-Con International ended on Sunday, but The Continuum's coverage continues on Monday and throughout the week with more than 30 stories and interviews to come.

Here are some previous stories in case you missed them over the weekend.

* For stories from Preview Night, including an interview with Mike Mignola about the Hellboy movie, CLICK HERE.

* For the CrossGen Comics panel, CLICK HERE.

* For the WildStorm Productions panel, CLICK HERE.

* For a look at the Hellboy movie trading cards, CLICK HERE.

* For a look at the Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman movie, CLICK HERE.

* For DC Comics' Batman panel, CLICK HERE.

* For DC Comics' Vertigo panel, CLICK HERE.

* For the Spider-Man sequel panel, including a first look at Doc Ock, CLICK HERE.

* For comments from Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry about appearing in a third X-Men movie, CLICK HERE.

* For the DC Universe panel, CLICK HERE.

* For the Smallville panel, CLICK HERE.

BRIEFLY