Last night was the opening of the 2011 New York Comic Con commonly called “preview night.” It’s a chance for press, professionals and 4-day pass holders to be the first on the show floor to see what this year has to offer. NYCC has grown by leaps and bounds and the inclusion of a preview night brings it closer to being on par with the annual mayhem at the San Diego Comic Con. One of the key attractions of Thursday night is undoubtedly the lighter crowds and we took full advantage trying to take in as much as we could in the time allotted.

So what exactly can attendees expect over the next thee days? Read on…

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The X-Men Regenesis #1 one-shot ushers in the post-Schism status quo for Marvel’s mutant heroes that will be introduced across the X-Men line this Fall. We didn’t say much about details of the recently concluded Schism mini-series here at MLD, and much of that had to do with taking a wait-and-see approach after the Prelude to Schism series didn’t connect to it at all. I still enjoyed Prelude, but it was a point of frustration that put me off discussing the details here. Thankfully, Kieron Gillen’s issue chronicling the upcoming changes has put things back on track.

Spoilers for the dawn of Marvel’s X-Men: Regenesis era may follow.

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Today sees the release of Dark Horse Comics’ Orchid written by Tom Morello, guitarist of Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave/The Nightwatchman. We received an advance copy of the book from Dark Horse, but copies on the shelves will include access to Nightwatchman music to accompany the book. The writer of the book being best known for his guitar work should have been a warning that trouble was on the horizon, but he’s always come across as a very intelligent guy so I held out hope for this series when I heard about it. Unfortunately, the writing turns out to have a very amateur feel to it.

Spoilers for Orchid #1 will follow.

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Listening to what WWE has had to say about it, last week’s Monday Night Raw from Lafayette, Louisiana was a historic night that ushered in the “Walk Out” era as most of the Raw roster cast a no confidence vote in Triple H’s tenure as COO. It was admittedly a bit surreal seeing the assembled referees, announcers, and wrestlers leave the ringside area with only Triple H remaining when all was said and done. Unfortunately, it was a poorly executed segment that’s only “historic” because we’re being told it’s historic with less than a week having passed.

Tonight’s show in Oklahoma City is being touted as the next piece of history as Triple H tries to pick up the pieces and move forward with only John Cena, Randy Orton, Big Show, CM Punk and Sheamus officially scheduled to appear.

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KevinMLD spent a lot of time here discussing what titles were expected to be hits and misses for him this month from DC Comics’ line-wide relaunch referred to as The New 52. I’ve remained relatively quiet while considering his recommendations and spending my time talking about some of September’s Other #1s. I did sample a fair number of New 52 books as well and not surprisingly, I went with almost all super hero titles choosing to leave most of DC’s “Dark” and “Edge” stuff off of my pull list. In fact, even though I feel like I invested a lot in the New 52 this month, I bought fewer than they’re shipping in one week and it’s time to evaluate whether I’ll be back for issue #2 of any of these titles.

Kevin has agreed to join me in running down these books and his perspective as someone who’s followed DC’s publishing line closely over the years should be very different from my own as I’m relatively out of touch with it.

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