Acclaim Entertainment has expanded its portfolio of licensed properties by adding two prime comic series, 100 Bullets and The Red Star.   100 Bullets, a clever noir saga written by Brian Azzarello, will be the first Vertigo title to make it into a video game console when the Xbox game based on the comic is released in 2004.  The revenge-themed 100 Bullets will be a very different sort of 'shoot-em up' game, which according to an Acclaim spokesman, 'will challenge players to think before they shoot and allow them to explore the moral implications of their actions.'  Currently the100 Bullets graphic novel collection is one of the hottest books in pop culture shops.  It should be interesting to see how many elements and subtleties of the series are able to make it into the video game.

Acclaim also announced an agreement with Archangel Studios to produce video games based on the award-winning computer-generated comic book series The Red Star.  The games, which are currently under development at the Acclaim Studios in Austin, Texas, are being created for the next generation of video platforms and should debut in late 2004.  Based on the exciting visual work of the Pre-Stalinist Soviet avant garde, The Red Star takes place in a parallel fantasy universe in which a mythic empire based on the Soviet Union holds sway, and provides the backdrop for a battle of militarized sorcery and monolithic technology.

Archangel Studios, which originally published through Image and then through CrossGen, has recently moved once again to the realm of independent publishing (see 'Team Red Star Leaves CrossGen').  Upon leaving CrossGen Archangel's Christian Gossett acknowledged that CrossGen's expertise in licensing could be a help to many independent comic publishers, but he also maintained that Archangel Studios had the ability and expertise to license its properties on its own.  The deal with Acclaim appears to indicate that he was right.