Batman and Spider-Man are all well and good, but a superhero is only as strong as their villains. Fortunately for these two, Kotobukiya is prepping a pair of villainous statues that should complement recent Batman and Spider-Man releases very nicely.

This week, Koto released official images of their new Venom Fine Art statue, which had been seen in prototype form at SDCC this past summer. The statue has since received a new head sculpt and a new title - Venom Unbound.

Like all Fine Art statues, Venom Unbound is made of polystone and is designed at 1:6 scale. The statue measures about 10-inches tall and is designed to complement the recently released Spider-Man Unleashed statue. Both pieces were sculpted by Erick Sosa.

Venom Unbound is scheduled for release in June 2013. No price has been revealed yet, though we expect a price tag similar to Spider-Man's $209.99 MSRP.

Not to be outdone, Joker is returning to the Koto fold for his third statue following the original Jim Lee-inspired ArtFX statue and the recent Dark Knight Returns: Batman vs. Joker ArtFX statue. The new piece will again be in the ArtFX format and again be based on the work of a popular Batman artist - in this case Brian Bolland.

The new statue is pulled directly from the cover of the graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke. Like the Iron Man Mark VII statue from earlier this summer, the statue also features a motion-sensing light-up function. When activated, the statue will play a camera shutter sound and turn on the spotlight.

Joker too is designed at 1:6 scale and measures about 11-inches tall. Unlike Venom Unbound, this piece is constructed of vinyl material. The piece was sculpted by Junnosuke Abe.

The Killing Joke: The Joker ArtFX Statue is scheduled for release in May 2013 and is priced at $129.99.

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.

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A few months back, we learned that Spider-Man was getting a sidekick. Later, we learned that his name was Alpha and he was a total douche. Now, beginning in February, writer Joshua Hale Fialkov and artist Nuno Plati will do their best to change our minds about the character in a new 5-issue mini-series from Marvel.

Fialkov, who recently wrote a spectacular back-up tale in The Amazing Spider-Man #692 with Plati (not to mention that he writes the always rad I, Vampire at DC), told USA Today, ""He was a freak and then he became famous, and now he's infamous and powerless essentially as far as the world knows. He's that creepy kid who used to be on a sitcom when he was 5."

We'll meet up again with the depowered Alpha before his mini-series in The Amazing Spider-Man #700, the events of which will lead directly to the Alpha mini-series. "It's a classic Marvel situation where you've got a kid with power who is making some wrong decisions," added Spidey overlord/editor Stephen Wacker. "That's an inherently dramatic story, watching someone screw up and learning along with them and seeing how they change."

Alpha will move to a new city -- Pittsburgh, PA -- in Marvel's further efforts to spread their heroes, particularly of the spider variety, outside of New York. Why Pittsburg? "Look, any way I can ingratiate myself back to my hometown city and somehow inspire a free trip and free Primanti Brothers sandwiches, I'm 100% behind," joked FIalkov. "It's actually a city about reinvention. It's a city that has transformed itself over and over and over again."

As for Alpha's levels of super-douchery, Fialkov told the paper, "I genuinely believe that Alpha is not a [jerk] like everyone says. He literally is just us. The tragedy in his life is that he was given this great gift and then it was more or less taken away from him. So let's explore what that means and what that does to a kid."

For more on the new Alpha mini-series, head on over to USA Today.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. He loves superhero pets so hard.

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Oscar winner Jamie Foxx is reportedly in early talks to play the villain in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. And which villain is that?

According to Variety, Foxx would play Electro.As the trade reminds us, "In The Amazing Spider-Man's post-credit sequence, set inside Dr. Curt Connors' cell at an asylum, the Lizard is approached by a mysterious, shadowy figure (Michael Massee) who asks if Peter Parker knows the truth about his father. Lightning features prominently in the scene prompting auds to believe that Electro would be featured in the sequel."

Foxx hinted at the role with his tweet today: "Dressed up as Electro for Halloween last night. Costume fits well."

Electro, aka Max Dillon, was a criminal who gained the power to control electricity. He's one of Spidey's oldest foes, debuting back in 1964 in The Amazing Spider-Man #9. We ranked him 87th on our list of The Top 100 Comic Book Villains.The Ultimate version of Electro was retooled to be the result of bioengineering, which is in keeping with the Spidey movie reboot's emphasis on science.

Here's our bio of him:

Max Dillon's father left when he was eight years old. His mother became overprotective, which led to an inferiority complex. But we'll get to that later. He took a job as a lineman for an electric company to someday become an electrical engineer. One day, while he was repairing a power line and holding a wire, lightning struck and mutated his nervous system making him a living electrical capacitor. Thus Electro was born.

Electro's powers include shooting up to one million volts of electricity from his fingertips. When his body is charged, he is superhumanly strong and fast, can glide over power lines and can even ride lightning bolts. Doctor Octopus once got him to ionize metals for a science experiment. He can also absorb electrical equipment and manipulate those devices with his mind. But do not get him close to water. Well, unless you want to stop him.

He almost killed Spider-Man in their first meeting, just by being touched. He has been in basically every incarnation of the Doctor Octopus clubs-the Sinister Six, Sinister Seven and Green Goblin's Sinister Twelve. He's been part of the Chameleon's Exterminators and the Hood. As part of the Frightful Four, he used Spider-Man as bait to trap the Fantastic Four. He attacked Sue Storm and Reed Richards at their wedding of all places. He blew up cars with children in them, tried to take over New York's power supply and was even hired by J. Jonah Jameson to beat up Spider-Man on TV.

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There's been a real renaissance of fun, lighthearted superhero adventures at Marvel lately, and you can add one more book to the pile with Avenging Spider-Man Annual #1. Though little more than a slightly longer installment of the main series, it succeeds in offering another worthy team-up between the webbed wall-crawler and Yancy Street's favorite son.

Rob Williams and Brad Walker step in as the creators for this standalone adventure (though it's not as if Avenging has ever had a stable creative team). Williams kicks off the adventure with a clever idea -- what if two brothers go digging for relics of past superhuman battles in Central Park. The result is the uncovering of a device that makes everyone in Manhattan fill with rage and attack each other. I take it that's supposed to be a change from the usual status quo there.

Needless to say, the script is a fun and breezy read that offsets the slowly darkening tone of Amazing Spider-Man nicely. Williams doesn't always pace his humor well, with too many jokes and pop culture references flying about in the early pages, but in this case too much humor is probably better than not enough. The two brothers and their constant bickering provide a fun counterpoint to Peter and Ben's prickly relationship. The limited invovlement of Franklin and Valeria Richards also adds a ncie touch. Only Williams' choice of villain leaves something to be desired.

Walker's art offers an appreciable shift from his usual harsh style. Most notably, his facial work is more relaxed and expressive. Only rarely do characters suffer from "Brad Garrett face." Walker's Spidey is also highly dynamic and detailed.

If books like Wolverine and the X-Men don't completely fulfill your desire for goofy superhero antics this week, you might consider giving this annual a try.

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.

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