Writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank are renowned for their many DC Comics collaborations (including Action Comics, Doomsday Clock and Batman: Earth One), but the two creators turned heads in 2021 with their decision to pivot to Image Comics for Geiger, their first creator-owned project together. That collaboration now continues with Junkyard Joe, a prequel series revealing the origin of the titular robot soldier.

IGN can exclusively debut three new pages from Junkyard Joe #1, which is in stores now. Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look, though beware of some NSFW imagery:

Junkyard Joe flashes back several decades before the apocalyptic events of Geiger, exploring that world's version of the Vietnam War. The series focuses on battle-weary cartoonist Muddy Davis, who will later go on to make Junkyard Joe famous as the hero of a popular comic strip. But in 1972, Junkyard Joe is just a killing machine fighting a bloody war, and Muddy and his platoon will discover just what sacrifices have to be made in order to make it back alive. While set in the same universe as Geiger, the series is also designed to work as a standalone war story.

"These few pages show a glimpse of what Muddy Davis and his platoon go through in 1972 in Vietnam, including Muddy’s encounter with the strange soldier that he’ll one day refer to as Junkyard Joe," Johns tells IGN. "Before diving into the present, we wanted to introduce the reader to early days of Muddy and Joe where they experience the dangers that bonded them together."

"I loved these scenes," adds Frank. "They're pivotal but it’s also fun/horrific/touching. They feel like fantasy elements but, under the surface, they're the beginning of the core story, the reality and truth that it’ll be dealing with."

Proceeds from the variant covers of Junkyard Joe #1 will be donated to two veteran support groups - The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans and Veterans Aid. Johns' Mad Ghost Productions will donate an additional $2 for every copy sold.

Johns continues to pen new comics for DC in addition to this recent push into creator-owned territory. Johns is currently co-writing the Flashpoint sequel Flashpoint Beyond, a comic that recently made headlines by revealing the Joker's real name. Flashpoint Beyond will then pave the way for a relaunched Justice Society of America series with Batman artist Mikel Janin.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank are renowned for their many DC Comics collaborations (including Action Comics, Doomsday Clock and Batman: Earth One), but the two creators turned heads in 2021 with their decision to pivot to Image Comics for Geiger, their first creator-owned project together. That collaboration now continues with Junkyard Joe, a prequel series revealing the origin of the titular robot soldier.

IGN can exclusively debut three new pages from Junkyard Joe #1, which is in stores now. Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look, though beware of some NSFW imagery:

Junkyard Joe flashes back several decades before the apocalyptic events of Geiger, exploring that world's version of the Vietnam War. The series focuses on battle-weary cartoonist Muddy Davis, who will later go on to make Junkyard Joe famous as the hero of a popular comic strip. But in 1972, Junkyard Joe is just a killing machine fighting a bloody war, and Muddy and his platoon will discover just what sacrifices have to be made in order to make it back alive. While set in the same universe as Geiger, the series is also designed to work as a standalone war story.

"These few pages show a glimpse of what Muddy Davis and his platoon go through in 1972 in Vietnam, including Muddy’s encounter with the strange soldier that he’ll one day refer to as Junkyard Joe," Johns tells IGN. "Before diving into the present, we wanted to introduce the reader to early days of Muddy and Joe where they experience the dangers that bonded them together."

"I loved these scenes," adds Frank. "They're pivotal but it’s also fun/horrific/touching. They feel like fantasy elements but, under the surface, they're the beginning of the core story, the reality and truth that it’ll be dealing with."

Proceeds from the variant covers of Junkyard Joe #1 will be donated to two veteran support groups - The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans and Veterans Aid. Johns' Mad Ghost Productions will donate an additional $2 for every copy sold.

Johns continues to pen new comics for DC in addition to this recent push into creator-owned territory. Johns is currently co-writing the Flashpoint sequel Flashpoint Beyond, a comic that recently made headlines by revealing the Joker's real name. Flashpoint Beyond will then pave the way for a relaunched Justice Society of America series with Batman artist Mikel Janin.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Bayonetta voice actress Hellena Taylor won’t be returning for Bayonetta 3.

A statement from PlatinumGames to Game Informer (via Nintendo Everything) has confirmed that Taylor, who voiced Bayonetta in the first two games, won’t be back.

“Various overlapping circumstances made it difficult for Hellena Taylor to reprise her role,” they confirmed. “We held auditions to cast the new voice of Bayonetta and offered the role to Jennifer Hale, whom we felt was a good match for the character.”

Hale is perhaps best known as the female voice of Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series, as well as voicing Samus Aran in the Metroid Prime series.

“I understand the concerns some fans have about the voice change at this point in the series, but Jennifer’s performance was way beyond what we could have imagined,” they said. “I’m confident that her portrayal of Bayonetta will exceed our fans’ expectations.”

Bayonetta 3 is currently due for release at the end of the month. A sequel to Bayonetta 2, the game sees the titular heroine tackling Homunculi as she travels to the island of Thule to stop an evil entity known as The Singularity.

Taylor first hinted that she wouldn’t be back for the third installment earlier this year, as fans took to Twitter to say they couldn’t imagine Bayonetta without her voice work.

“Well you might have to,” she replied.

Bound by a confidentiality agreement at the time, she was unable to confirm whether or not she would return for Bayonetta 3, but now we know.

IGN’s Bayonetta review gave it 8.2/10 and said: “Although Bayonetta has more than a few similarities to Devil May Cry, I believe that this game is worth playing... but it's hard to recommend the PS3 version when the 360 version is so much better. Even when you consider the fantastic combat system, the slowdown and load times really do spoil the fun. With that said, Bayonetta is still stylish, entertaining, and unique. If you have no other choice but to purchase the PS3 version, you'll still get a kick out of it. Just be ready to be exorbitantly patient.” Our Bayonetta 2 review was even more positive, with a score of 9.5.

Want to read more about Bayonetta? Check out our hands-on with Bayonetta 3 and find out about Hideki Kamiya's obsession with classic arcade games.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Scarlet Witch actress Elizabeth Olsen has revealed that the cast of Avengers: Infinity War didn't know they were getting blipped until the day they started filming the scene.

During an interview with Variety, Olsen was asked about her experience of working on Infinity War and Endgame, leading up to the climactic showdown between the Avengers and Thanos. She revealed that the cast of Infinity War didn't know how the movie ended until they reached those scenes in the shooting schedule because the blip was omitted from the script.

"I mean, those movies I really don't know what's going on," she admitted, shedding some light on the secretive production process. "I just get my pages, so I understand the part of the story I'm fulfilling. I get a story that is told to me from the Russos about what's happening in the rest of the movie. And it isn't in the script that everyone gets blipped."

Marvel restricted access to the script by keeping the document on one specific iPad that could only be accessed inside an office that was manned by a security guard. Olsen said she was privy to the fates of some characters in the Avengers movies, such as Tony Stark, whose funeral was referred to as "The Wedding" internally, but the blip was a total shock.

"I didn't know I got blipped away until we shot it. That was told to us that day," she said. "All of us went to the van where they had a bunch of equipment to show us pre-viz: Scarlett [Johansson], Chris [Hemsworth], Chadwick [Boseman], Sebastian [Stan]. We were all just in this van, and they said, 'This is what's happening. You guys will disappear.' And we're like, 'OK.' It was shocking. I mean, we didn't know. We thought the movie ended differently."

The Infinity Saga, encompassing Phase 1, 2 and 3 of the MCU, featured four Avengers movies across seven years, with the first Avengers film being released in 2012 and the last arriving in 2019. The first three Avengers movies were released with three years between each, while Infinity War and Endgame debuted just a year apart from one another.

The next Avengers film, The Kang Dynasty, will arrive six years after Endgame, as a "saga-capper" that will close out Phase 6 along with Avengers: Secret Wars. The Kang Dynasty will hit the big screen on May 2, 2025, and Secret Wars will be released six months later on November 7, 2025. Phase 6 will also officially conclude the MCU's Multiverse Saga.

Secret Wars may well be Marvel's biggest superhero movie yet, one that could possibly dwarf Endgame in scope and the sheer number of characters involved. If you're not familiar with this huge cosmic epic, then you might want to check out IGN's breakdown of everything you need to know about Secret Wars to find out why the MCU's Phase 6 will be the biggest ever.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

For a while now, the PlayStation brand has been evolving. No longer simply meaning the console that sits under your television, the word "PlayStation" now applies to movies, television shows, or even the brand's console exclusive games appearing on PC.

Now, speaking to a handful of media outlets, Head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst has outlined a bit more of what's in store for PlayStation's expanding future.

One clear pillar of PlayStation's business strategy moving forward is live service games, as previously proven by Sony's $3.7 billion acquisition of Bungie. According to Hulst, Bungie's role in the PlayStation family will partially be to serve as an example of how to handle the live service model.

“I've been a long-time admirer of Bungie,” the executive told GQ. “They speak our language and so they've been doing this for a decade since the original release of Destiny. So the battle scars that they have earned, coupled with their absolute transparency means I can’t think of a better partner to have in that space.”

Meanwhile, Hulst told Axios that PlayStation has greenlit 12 total projects in the live ops space. This lines up with the number Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said back in February when we learned PlayStation plans to launch more than ten live service games by March 2026. At the time, Totoki also credited the Bungie acquisition as a key reason why developing, releasing, and sustaining so many live service games should be possible in that window.

You can likely expect PlayStation's live service offerings to be a mix of new IP and recognizable franchises. Hulst told GQ that PlayStation has "about 25 titles in development", and that roughly half of the projects in development are new IP. He also said that PlayStation is "not excluding bringing some of our beloved existing franchises into live games.”

Sony's recent AAA offerings have largely forgone multiplayer altogether, with games like The Last of Us Part II, Horizon Forbidden West, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and the upcoming God of War Ragnarok serving as solo experiences. There are exceptions to that, though, with Ghost of Tsushima Legends and Returnal's multiplayer support both arriving after launch.

As we know, some Sony studios are instead developing standalone multiplayer projects, rather than grouping them in with single player experiences. We know The Last of Us is getting a standalone multiplayer title, and recent rumors suggest a multiplayer Horizon game could be in the works.

Even though Sony will begin to spend more resources on multiplayer live service offerings, Hulst appears to remain committed to Sony's flagship single-player titles, telling Axios that the narrative-driven single-player games aren't going anywhere. They are seemingly taking longer to get here, however, with a history of delays for Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok, while Spider-Man 2 is currently the only major Sony-published exclusive on the books for 2023, outside of the company's PSVR 2 plans.

While the wait continues for new exclusives on PS5, PC players are finally starting to experience some of the best games the PlayStation 4 has to offer. Recently, franchises like God of War, Spider-Man, and Uncharted have started appearing on PC, which will seemingly continue in the future.

Hulst told Reuters that "further investments in areas that will strengthen the expansion on to PC" are a definite possibility.

It's not just a PS5 and PC party from now on, though. In the interview with Axios, Hulst also mentioned bringing more games to PS4 on a "case-by-case basis,” and discussed building up Sony's "internal capability" to make mobile games. Earlier this year, Sony formed its PlayStation Studios Mobile Division to start working on mobile games based on new and existing IPs.

Finally, when Hulst was speaking to Reuters about Sony's recent investment in Elden Ring developer FromSoftware, Hulst said it's "not unthinkable" that PlayStation Productions could work on an entertainment adaptation of a FromSoftware property. FromSoftware is the developer of Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and the Dark Souls series.

For even more on PlayStation, check out how Sony is apparently planning to make 2 million PSVR 2 units for launch. Or read about how the PS5 has seemingly been jailbroken, with people already installing Hideo Kojima's PT.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Frasier has entered the building – that’s right, Frasier is back in a new sequel for Paramount Plus.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the long-gestating Frasier revival has finally been officially confirmed, with Kelsey Grammer returning to the iconic role of Dr. Frasier Crane.

Paramount Plus has picked up the show for a full series order, a whole 19 months after the show was originally green-lit.

“Having spent over 20 years of my creative life on the Paramount lot, both producing shows and performing in several, I'd like to congratulate Paramount+ on its entry into the streaming world,” said Grammer back when it was announced in 2021. “I gleefully anticipate sharing the next chapter in the continuing journey of Dr. Frasier Crane.”

The show has been in the works for some time, with early reports that Grammer was eyeing a Frasier revival back in 2018.

This version of the show was said to be set somewhere other than Seattle, and it looks as though the confirmed sequel will stick to this premise. The new Frasier sequel is said to follow Dr. Crane starting the next phase of his life in a new city… and it looks as though he’s getting a clean break. Niles (David Hyde Pierce), Daphne (Jane Leeves), and Roz (Peri Gilpin) won’t be season regulars.

Although, it’s also said that they could make guest appearances.

Unfortunately, with the death of John Maloney in 2018, the new series will be forced to write out his character, Frasier’s Dad, Martin Crane.

Instead, the upcoming show will feature a new cast of characters – people who are a big part of Frasier’s new life.

Chris Harris and Joe Cristalli will write the new series and are on board as executive producers along with Grammer, Tom Russo, and Jordan McMahon. CBS Studios is producing with Grammer’s own production company, Grammnet NH.

The last time we saw Frasier, he had boarded a plane to jet off to a new life, landing in Chicago to be with his girlfriend, Charlotte (Laura Linney) despite previously taking a job in San Francisco.

It’s currently unknown whether Linney is involved in the new series… or whether Frasier has even remained in Chicago. So for now, we’ll have to wait and see.

Want to read more about Frasier? Check out the canceled TV shows that deserve a revival as well as the 16 shared universes before there were shared universes.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

The upcoming Spider-Man spin-off El Muerto has found its director – Jonás Cuaron.

According to The Wrap, the director, who’s known for directing the 2015 thriller Desierto, has joined the project, bringing the obscure Spider-Man character to the big screen.

Additionally, Blue Beetle writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer is currently penning the script, which is reportedly in early development.

El Muerto will star the Puerto Rican musician, Bad Bunny (aka Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio) as the super-powered Mexican masked wrestler. Bad Bunny was Spotify's most-streamed artist in 2020 with 8.3 billion streams, and again in 2021 with 9.1 billion streams. Primarily known as a rapper, Bad Bunny recently made his film debut in Bullet Train.

In the comic books, El Muerto (real name Juan Carlos Estrada Sanchez) is the son of a luchador who finds that he’s set to inherit a mystical wrestling mask that will imbue him with superhuman strength and endurance.

The character first appeared in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #6 in 2006 which sees Spider-Man face off against the wrestler at a charity event organized by J. Jonah Jameson… a fight which would see the loser unmasked and his identity revealed.

Whether or not this fight makes it into the movie remains to be seen, but it would certainly be an interesting way to expand the Spider-Verse, which has seen Venom and Morbius bring some of its major characters to the big screen.

Of course, the Spider-Verse is about to get even bigger, with Kraven the Hunter on its way in 2023 with Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the leading role. Then, there’s Madame Webb in 2024 starring Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney.

Adding Jonás Cuaron as director certainly lends the film a certain pedigree… and with El Muerto more on the fringe of the Spider-Verse than in the center of it, I get the feeling the film is going to need it.

Want to read more about the Spider-Verse? Check out every Spider-Man movie in development as well as what’s next for Sony’s Spider-Man universe.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

If you're struggling to find a match in Overwatch 2, Blizzard shared that it is currently under a mass distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, preventing successful matchmaking.

Blizzard president Mike Ybarra shared that the Overwatch 2 servers are under a mass DDoS attack and that the teams are working to mitigate the damage.

Unfortunately we are experiencing a mass DDoS attack on our servers. Teams are working hard to mitigate/manage. This is causing a lot of drop/connection issues. https://t.co/4GwrfHEiBE

— Mike Ybarra (@Qwik) October 4, 2022

It's unclear how long it will take for the servers to be fully functioning, but it is marring the launch of Overwatch 2 which Blizzard has been planning for months.

Social media is full of players sharing their failed matchmaking attempts and extended queues, which are partially related to the DDoS attack.

According to the Overwatch 2 official issues page, players on both PC and consoles are encountering "Unexpected Server Errors," along with issues like certain cosmetics and items not showing up in their collection.

Players are also being disconnected from servers.

The official Overwatch Twitter page will likely be the best source for updated information. In the meantime, you can check out IGN's full review of Overwatch 2 to find out our thoughts on Blizzard's long-awaited sequel.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Dune: The Sisterhood has found its lead Harkonnens – Emily Watson and Shirley Henderson.

According to Variety, the pair have been added to the upcoming Dune prequel series in the show’s leading roles – two Harkonnen sisters fighting for humankind.

The show is set 10,000 years before Dune: Part One and “follows the Harkonnen Sisters as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind, and establish the fabled sect known as the Bene Gesserit”.

Based on the novel, Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, the upcoming show is thought to follow Valya and Tula Harkonnen – both characters present in the novels. The character descriptions reveal that the two sisters “have risen to power in the Sisterhood, a secret organization of women who will go on to become the Bene Gesserit.”

Dune: The Sisterhood promises to establish the foundation of the Bene Gesserit – the mysterious sisterhood that Paul’s mother (Rebecca Fergusson) belongs to in Dune.

Emily Watson will play Valya Harkonnen – a member of the Bene Gesserit who eventually becomes the second Reverend Mother Superior in the novels. Watson is best known for Breaking the Waves as well as Hilary and Jackie which both earned her Oscar nominations. She also appeared in the HBO series, Chernobyl.

Shirley Henderson will play Tula Harkonnen – Valya’s sister and fellow member of the Bene Gesserit. Henderson is best known for the role of Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. She also voiced fan-favourite Star Wars character, Babu Frik, in The Rise of Skywalker as well as starring in Trainspotting and its sequel.

IGN’s Dune review gave it 7/10 and said: “Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is beautiful to behold, a faithful adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel. Or of its first half, that is. And therein lies the problem that the film faces, for in cutting this story into two parts, Villeneuve has front-loaded Dune with a lot of set-up and no obvious way to end things… and so it lingers, and eventually overstays its welcome. This is a technically brilliant, visually amazing movie with a top-notch cast and deep sci-fi concepts. A shame, then, that it feels like a drag in its back half.”

Want to read more about Dune? Check out who’s playing Feyd-Rautha in the upcoming sequel and find out about director Dennis Villeneuve’s original epic Dune opening.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Sega and Relic Games have announced that Company of Heroes 3 is being delayed to February 23, 2023.

“As we approach the November 17th launch for Company of Heroes 3, our team has decided the game is not quite up to our players’ or our own high standards. There are still bugs to squash, pixels to polish, gameplay to adjust, and feedback to address,” the development team explained on Twitter.

Important Company of Heroes 3 Update pic.twitter.com/z0Pg7PsE10

— Company Of Heroes (@CompanyOfHeroes) October 4, 2022

They continued, “As a result, we’ve decided to move the launch date to February 23, 2023. While we know many of you are itching to get your hands on the game, we believe this to be the best decision for CoH3, our players, and our studio. This provides our hard-working team and partners with the necessary time to deliver CoH3 in a better overall state.”

Company of Heroes 3 has joined the list of many games being delayed to the next year, which includes titles such as Forspoken, Starfield, and Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals.

Company of Heroes 3 will sport features such as modding tools. In IGN’s Company of Heroes 3 North Africa campaign mission hands-on preview, we said, “It also proves Company of Heroes 3 is really not messing around with stretching your skills as a commander to the breaking point, if you're up to the challenge.”

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey