NYCC: Morrison and Del Toro Craft Legendary Comics

Legendary Comics is still new to the publishing scene, but they've already amassed an impressive lineup of talent. The company recently debuted The Tower Chronicles from creators Thomas Tull and Matt Wagner. Back at SDCC, they announced new books from creators like Max Brooks, Mark Waid, and J. Michael Straczynski.

That talent pool grew even bigger at NYCC this week. Legendary announced that both Grant Morrison and Guillermo del Toro are writing comics under their banner. Morrison is prepping an original graphic novel, while del Toro is working on a tie-in to his upcoming film The Pacific Rim.

Legendary's press release describes the premise of Annihilator, sugegsting it'll be a typically mind-bending Morrison tale. "Morrison brings to the pages a thrilling story starring wild-living screenwriter Ray Spass, who has one last chance to save his career as he struggles to write a new studio tent-pole movie, Annihilator.

The film centers around the incredible adventures of Max Nomax; a sci-fi rebel anti-hero who’s condemned to a haunted prison orbiting a supermassive black hole, following an epic struggle against the all-knowing, all–powerful artificial life form VADA and his squad of deadly Annihilators. Found guilty of the Greatest Crime in History, Nomax has vowed to clear his name by discovering a Cure for Death itself and resurrecting his lost love.

But with deadlines looming and a recently-diagnosed brain tumor, Spass is running out of time and inspiration – until the real Max Nomax mysteriously appears in the world of 21st century Los Angeles with no memory of how he got there, only a terrifying warning of imminent destruction and a mission for Ray Spass."

As for del Toro's Pacific Rim, the comic will serve as a prequel to the film. The script itself will be handled by Travis Beacham, who also wrote the film's script. The story will be divided into three sections and explore the time between the first alien attack on Earth and the events of the film. While various characters will be featured in the story, the character of Stacker Pentecost (played by Idris Elba in the film) will be a major focus throughout.

Legendary didn't reveal the artists for these books or specific release dates, though it's a safe bet that Pacific Rim will ship some time around movie's July 2013 release.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com