Did you expect anything than an (almost) Box Office Bonanza for THOR? We sit with the Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Kenneth Branagh on what hay took away from the experience of the film, plus Kevin Ferge talks about how these little things lead to THE AVENGERS.
Think THE AVENGERS will work as a big movie project? Drop us a comment below!
Today I learned that Avengers Mansion, home to stalwarts like Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, and do you really need me to rattle off the full roster, is based on a real place in New York– the Henry Clay Frick house, a city-block sized mansion at 1 East 70th St., right opposite Central Park. (The theoretical address for Avengers Mansion is 890 5th Avenue, which is in the same location.) Today the building houses the Frick Collection of art and is open to the public– so it’s quite possible Joss Whedon could shoot there.
This was brought to my attention by Gothamist (yes, I know, it should be covering DC, not Marvel) which had a brief piece showing a number of the secret rooms in the Frick that aren’t shown to the general public. Of course, even Gothamist wasn’t allowed to take photos of the Quinjet hangar.
Frick himself, incidentally, was the Lex Luthor of his day, known for strikebreaking and being at least partly responsible for the Johnstown Flood, and was dubbed one of the Worst C.E.O.s in American History by Portfolio magazine.
This week, [[[Thor]]] comes to theaters! With a director like Kenneth Branagh, stars such as Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, and Anthony Hopkins, and rave reviews happening from advanced screenings, many fans old and new can’t wait for this latest film from Marvel Studios and Paramount. It stars Thor, god of thunder, who in the Marvel Universe divides his time between living in Asgard, traveling through other dimensions, and acting as a superhero on Earth.
Over the years, Thor’s had some pretty epic adventures. So let’s take a look at six tales that any new Thor fan should check out.
“BUT DR. BLAKE CAN DIE!”
Thor vol. 1 #145-153
For his impudence, Thor is banished to Earth without his powers. As he continues to act as a superhero as best he can, Thor’s allies plead to Odin, the All-Father, to return his son’s full abilities. This story keeps building up the stakes as Thor’s sometimes lover and constant ally Sif inhabits the powerful Destroyer armor. Meanwhile, Loki arrives to make another bid for power and Ulik the troll shows up to cause more trouble. Elsewhere, Hela, goddess of death, watches and waits. An epic storyline that highlights both Thor and Don Blake as heroes and is a classic tale of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby days.
Closing them on my browser so you can open them on yours…
Anything else? Consider this an open thread.
No sooner do we get tired of thumbing through the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue than Maxim gets temperatures rising with their annual Hot 100 issue. Coming to newsstands next week, we learn that model turned actress Rosie Huntington-Whitely has been crowed the top hot babe. She displaces Megan Fox, who tumbles to #17, in this summer’s not-eagerly-awaited Transformers: Dark of the Moon and has become the new It girl (at least this month). Huntingon-Whiteley tells Maxim that being named number one “is a huge honor. It’s a great title to have for a year and you can have some fun with it, I think.”
The 100 is listed below and since hotness is in the eye of the beholder, we will all have our quibbles with the order, inclusion or absence of our personal favorites. Me, I have issues with many in the top 10 alone.
Our genre is certainly well represented with Rosie, followed by #2’s Olivia Munn, future Catwoman Anne Hathaway (#7), Thor’s Natalie Portman (#8), Avengers’ Cobie Smulders (#9), and X –Men First Class’ Jennifer Lawrence (#10).
The full list, with comments from the magazine’s editorial staff, is behind the cut and let the debating begin! (more…)
Once again, caught up in too many stories. Here’s some of what’s open in my browser:
Anything else? Consider this an open thread.
I wish I could put my finger on exactly why Marvel’s animated efforts leave me cold. Time and again the vocal casting, character design or animation displays cheap production values and they are far from entertaining. The latest such offering is [[[The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes]]], which has been airing on Disney XD and is now available in two DVDs released this week by parent company Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.
The cartoons are based more on the feature film reality than the comic book source material the films were based on, but there’s enough material borrowed from the comics it feels like a mixed bag. We start with a cocky Tony Stark who chases Hydra for stealing Stark Industries technology, which was actually taken from S.H.I.E.L.D. Meantime, it’s a world of countless super-villains, captured somehow and locked away in one of four unique facilities – the Vault, the Cube, the Big House, and the Raft.
But it’s a world without the Avengers. Iron Man is the only established hero, while the Hulk is on the run, and Ant-Man and the Wasp focus entirely on scientific research, preferring to keep Nick Fury at arm’s length. Then there’s Thor, who loves Earth but doesn’t seem overly engaged with its super-villains. Meanwhile, in Africa, T’Challa has just assumed the Black Panther mantle and wants revenge against, Klaw, who was instrumental in his father’s death.
Beyond the Hydra conspiracy, Bruce Banner worries that General Thunderbolt Ross and maybe S.H.I.E.L.D. want to build their own army of Hulks. Then there’s Kang the Conqueror who blames Captain America for somehow destroying his timeline and wants to alter a sequence of events.
That’s about par for comic book storytelling but everything feels incredibly disjointed. Maybe that has something to do with its origins, with the show actually conceived as a 20-part microseries of animated tales that debuted online then became edited into 22-minute episodes for cable. Mimicking the 2012 feature film, now in production, the team is composed of Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man and Wasp with tons of other heroes working solo or for S.H.I.E.L.D. including Black Widow and Hawkeye (also because of the film series). (more…)
If you can’t wait two weeks for Thor, starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, we have a surprise for you. This is the post credit sequence at the end of the movie– the quality isn’t great and we’re looking for a better one, but you can figure out a whole lot.
Seriously, we aren’t kidding: if you don’t want to see what happens in this sequence, don’t view it, as it gives clues that lead us up to Marvel’s upcoming films Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers.
You’ve been warned.
[viddler id=a379c3a7&w=545&h=349]
Thanks to the guys at The Flickcast.
NOTE: Volumes 2 and 3 will follow immediately after the release of Volume 1.
I’m pleased to announce I will be editing and contributing to a brand new anthology of short stories dedicated to the ’60s sexy PI chick Honey West.
Honey West began as a series of paperbacks in 1957 with This Girl For Hire, written by the husband and wife team of Gloria and Forest Fickling under the penname G.G. Fickling. The novels were a tad risque for their time and ran 10 novels through the ’60s, with two more in an early ’70s comeback. They became a cult favorite TV series in 1965-66, starring Anne Francis and running some 30 episodes, and while the toplessness might have been toned down for prime time, Anne was still allowed to be a slinky sexy investigator with a big pus–um, ocelot, named Bruce, at her side. She was one of the first female private eyes on television, given to quips and leopard print outfits, though the series made her a bit more like The Avengers’ Emma Peel, with Judo expertise, exploding compacts and other gadgets. Unfortunately, that very tact helped contribute to her demise on TV because it was cheaper for the network to import The Avengers than to continue with the series.
Recently Moonstone began a new series of Honey West comic books, written by the much talented Trina Robbins, who is slated to pen a brand new tale for this anthology. A number of other talented scribes have been brought aboard as well, such as Elaine Lee, Will Murray, Mark Ellis, CJ Henderson and Mel Odom, along with some surprises.
It promises to to be a Honey of a book.
Here’s the table of contents for the upcoming The Avenger: The Justice Inc Files edited by Joe Gentile & Howard Hopkins, available next month from Moonstone Books:
While at the C2E2 retailers summit a few weeks ago, a few details fans might be excited to find out about were accidentally leaked. At a DC Nation panel, the mid-western retailers were shown a few slides of “in-production” artwork, and DC’s Jim Lee and Dan DiDio were teleconferenced in with Marvel’s Axel Alonso to prime the pump for the 2011 summer event. While cameras and laptops were forced off before the event, a few local shop owners emerged from the panel with some juicy tidbits. Here’s the skinny:
• Current Marvel heavyweight Matt Fraction will be penning the five part mini-series with co-plotters J.T. Krul and Tony Bedard from DC. All that was said was “Access (from Marvel Vs. DC 1) returns a far more powerful man than when we left him.” Krul said. “He finds a way to tap into the power cosmic and gets his mitts on the White Lantern… but that’s really only the catalyst to it all.”
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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