This week in Super Folk, Publishers Weekly’s superhero news rundown, rumors continue to swirl concerning the future of Marvel post-San Diego Comic-Con, DC Comics in the Fall and on the Nook, Comic Con programming is released, MonkeyBrain Comic takes shape and more.

Marvel Rumors Persist

After a spate of potential creator changes among Marvel’s top creators and titles that emerged a little over a week ago, more rumors have popped up to keep fans guessing as to who’s heading to which series following the completion of Avengers Vs. X-Men.

First, Bleeding Cool suggests that writer Brain Michael Bendis may not only be taking a over X-Men franchise (consisting of Uncanny X-Men and a rebooted X-Men), but that he may be writing a biweekly X-Men title with illustrators such as Stuart Immonen (Fear Itself), Brandon Peterson (Ultimates) and Leinil Yu (Secret Invasion) on art. As for the Avengers, the new rumored “Astonishing Avengers” title (written by Rick Remender and illustrated by Jerome Opena) may instead be called “Uncanny Avengers” and star Captain America and Wolverine. And Wolverine has a rumor of its own, with artist Frank Cho (Avengers Vs. X-Men) supposedly writing and/or drawing the title in the future. Artist Ed McGuiness (The Hulk) is rumored to be working on a new Nova title, starring the intergalactic hero. McGuiness previously provided the art for a short Nova story in last year’s Marvel Point One. Finally, Marvel, in preparation of Comic-Con, revealed to Entertainment Weekly the possible return of Marvel Girl, better known as Jean Grey, the fan-favorite mutant and original host of the Phoenix Force.

Spider-Man’s Sidekick, Punisher’s War, Misc Marvel News

Two weeks ago Marvel released a Spider-Man teaser asking a simple question, “Who is Alpha?” The answer, it turns out, is a new character named Andy MacGuire, who will be Peter Parker’s sidekick. Alpha will make his debut in The Amazing Spider-Man #692, out in August.

At the same time, Marvel also has been releasing teasers depicting battered or fallen heroes and the proclamation, “This is War.” As the images appeared it became apparent that the Punisher is involved, only to be confirmed by Marvel announcing the return of Punisher: War Zone this October.

Marvel Comics announced that Fred Van Lante (Herc, Marvel’s The Avengers: Black Widow Strikes) will be writing a special Marvel Zombies Halloween one-shot. The special issue will be illustrated by Alessandro Vitti (Incredible Hercules) and involve a classic zombie apocalypse story.

To commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Marvel Comics is partnering with the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure with a series of special pink variant covers on a number of its top selling titles. The issues will also contain a one-page feature meant to educate readers on the disease and the foundation’s cause.

DC Comics, B&N Seal Deal on Nook

After a rocky few months beginning in 2011 with DC Comics’ exclusive digital contract with Amazon followed by Barnes & Noble’s public removal of all DC titles in protest, the two companies have reached an agreement to make over one hundred of DC’s most popular titles available on the bookseller’s Nook devices, as well as on Android through the B&N app. Beginning this month, books such as Watchmen, Sandman and much of the New 52 will become available each month on Barnes & Noble’s website through the new DC Comics’ Nook page.

Joker and Dini Return to Batman, Daniel Exits Detective

On Monday DC Comics released a teaser for Batman promising the arrival of the Joker to within the pages of Batman #13, written by Scott Snyder and illustrated by Greg Capullo, out in October. The issue is follows September’s special #0 issue as well as the current “Night of the Owls” storyline and involves the villain after the removal of his iconic grinning clown face. Snyder vows to give readers a more disturbing version of the villain, and compares the story to Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s seminal Joker tale, The Killing Joke.

Last week, writer Paul Dini (Detective Comics, Batman: The Animated Series) revealed he is working on a new Batman graphic novel, supposedly arriving in 2013. The writer told SFX the new book is a very personal story that “[is] going to be a change of pace for Batman and it’ll take some of the fan by surprise.”

Tony Daniel, longtime Batman and current Detective Comics writer/artist, announced his departure from the title following issue #0 in September, marking the end to his five-year run on the character. However unlike Ed Brubaker and Paolo Rivera, who left their gigs at Marvel in favor of creative-owned work, Daniel seems to be sticking with DC Comics and has some top-secret, TBA projects coming soon from the publisher.

DC’s Zero Omnibus and Blank Variants for Charity

DC Comics announced it will be collecting all of the recently confirmed September #0 issues into a hardcover omnibus edition this December. DC Comics The New 52 Zero will contain over one thousand pages and retail for about $150, similar to the publisher’s previous omnibus, which collected all the first issues of the New 52.

As part of its We Can Be Heroes campaign, DC Comics is releasing a series of special blank variant covers beginning in August through July 2013. Each month a different title will feature the blank variant and one dollar from each sale will be donated to the charity.

Comic-Con Schedule and Will Eisner Retailing Nominees

The full programming schedules for Thursday through Sunday for San Diego Comic-Con International was posted last week. The International convention is the biggest comic convention of the year and is taking place July 11-15 at the San Diego Convention Center. The nominees for the Will Eisner Spirit of Comic Retailer Award was also announced, celebrating the comic stores from all over the world that best support the industry. The winner will be announced July 13th at the annual Eisner-Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International. See a full list of the nominees and past winners here.

Monkey Brain, Bravest Warriors, Humanoids Distribution

On Monday, co-publishers Chris Roberson and Allison Baker launched MonkeyBrain Comics, the new line of digital creator-owned comics. MonkeyBrain comics will be distributed exclusively through Comixology at either $1.99 or 99 cents, and currently include creators such as Paul Tobin, Colleen Coover, Dennis Culver, Nick Brokenshire and Roberson himself. Roberson said that he would like MonkeyBrain to be to digital comics as Image is to print, cultivating creator-owned and driven work in a cheap and easy way. More titles and details will be revealed at Comic-Con.

Boom Studios' Kaboom imprint announced a new ongoing comic series based on the Bravest Warriors cartoon created by Pendleton Ward (Adventure Time) beginning in October. The series, written by Joey Comeau and illustrated by Mike Holmes, follows the adventures of four intergalactic teenaged heroes-for-hire.

Last week, ICv2 reported that Diamond Book Distributors announced it will begin distributing Humanoids, the US arm of French publisher Les Humanoides Associes, titles to the direct book market “in a limited but nonetheless significant capacity.”