Marvel Comics had a couple of big announcements today at the Cup O’ Joe panel at the San Diego Comic-Con, and one that frankly blew my mind. The big announcement of the day was that Marvel has apparently acquired the rights to Marvelman — or Miracleman as he may be better known as. (See SDCC 09: Marvel Acquires Rights to “˜Marvelman’.)

This news came as a shock to the audience, since the rights to the character have been tied up for many years in a long string of legal disputes. The announcement today states that they have purchased the rights from original creator Mick Anglo, who knows how this will work out with the other disputes, but publisher Dan Buckley went into a bit of how they were dealing with Mick Anglo and it sounds like they have everything lined up. I’m curious myself to learn more details on how this happened, but since I’ve never been able to read the work that Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman did with the character in the 80’s and 90’s, I’m very excited. Now specific publishing plans were announced, beyond a vague 2010 release, but Buckley said that they were talking with Moore and Gaiman, and the artists from the most recent stories, so it sounds like they are treating the character with a lot of respect. It will be interesting to see how much information comes out on this in the next few days.

Norman Osborn has fought the Skrull menace on home turf and won a victory for all of humanity, or at least that’s how the media portrayed the events, according to creators at Marvel‘s Dark Reign panel yesterday at New York Comic Con.

After the Skrull Invasion, the citizens of the Marvel U looked to Osborn as a hero, allowing him to gain control of the initiative and form a Dark Illuminati. Osborn wants support as he vies for power and offers to help the shadow group, comprised of himself, Emma Frost, Dr. Doom, Namor, Loki, and The Hood.

“The media is a big part of Norman’s war,” said New Avengers scribe Brian Michael Bendis, who indicated that his control over the media’s image of him will be central the theme of Dark Reign — Marvel’s non-event following Secret Invasion that will take place in several different books. Unlike previous cross-over events, Dark Reign will not have a self-titled series at all.