The Week in Villainy: April 8-14, 2007

Who's Up and Who's Thwarted

Vapor and X-Ray: This entry is a little overdue, but with the next issue of She-Hulk coming out next week, TWIV felt it imperitive to get this one out there.

Siblings Ann and Jimmy Darnell (Vapor and X-Ray, respectively) were the only two Hulk foes to escape the Hulkbusters stronghold on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier last month in She-Hulk #17.

[MARVEL] After spending days hunting down and capturing some of the Hulk’s toughest foes, She-Hulk and the Hulkbuster unit are returning to the SHIELD Helicarrier for some much-deserved rest. The new SHIELD director, in fact, is there in person to debrief them. However, not all of the foes they’ve rounded up are going to sit quietly in their cells.

Thanks to something called Project Achilles, every other Hulk baddie was neutralized-- including Abomination, Wendigo, and the Darnell sibs' other U-Foes teammates.

Writer Dan Slott took special care to make it clear that these two were the only two to escape. That's a very good indication of Big Things planned for these two villains.

Another major movement of note in the same book was Zzzax, who was thwarted by a lame device on loan from a twenty-three-year-old movie.

(If you have a suggestion for "This Week In Villainy," please let me know.)

2007 Convention Schedule

Here's a list of the conventions I'm planning to attend. I've also listed the conventions (in grey italics) that I'm considering, but haven't committed to.

The bad news is that Chicago is officially a scratch for 2007. I'm awfully sorry about that. I was planning to skip San Diego this year and attend Chicago instead, but I just did too well in San Diego to skip in this year. Unfortunately, that trip eats up the lion's share of my travel budget.

The good news is I'm adding another East-Coast con: SPXpo in Bethesda, Md.

New York Comic Con: February 23-25.

Emerald City Comic Con: March 31st-April 1st.

Wizard World Philadelphia: June 15-17

Comic Con International: July 26-29.

Baltimore Comic Con: Sept. 8-9

SPXpo (Bethesda, Md): Oct. 12-13

PhilCon: November

Since my Eisner Award nomination was announced, I've been e-mailed the same question over and over: "When are you coming *here*?" The answer is: As soon as I get invited to a convention near your town. Write the promoters of your favorite comic con and let them know! And if you're a convention promoter and/or if you help organize a comic convention please get in touch and we can discuss how to make that happen.