Tagged: Avengers

ComicMix Six: Comic Book Folks to #FollowFriday on Twitter

ComicMix Six: Comic Book Folks to #FollowFriday on Twitter

  • Uncategorized
  • July 17, 2009

It’s #followfriday on Twitter, and these are some of the comics folks you should be following if you aren’t already doing so…

  1. Warren Ellis – If you’ve ever read anything by him, especially The Authority, Planetary, or Transmetropolitan, it probably won’t surprise you
    to learn how angry he can get on his Twitter. What will surprise you—and
    probably make you laugh–is how flowery his language can get when he’s on a
    tirade. Oh, and he also has a lot of really interesting links to share and
    interesting insights on the medium to discuss. Besides, who else do you know
    that’ll greet you every morning with “Good morning, sinners?” http://www.twitter.com/WarrenEllis

  2. Ben Templesmith – Possibly the handsomest man in comics, Ben
    Templesmith is the Australian-born artist behind Fell (with Warren Ellis) and
    several Steve Niles projects, most famously 30 Days Of Night. His Twitter feed
    is chock-full of goodies, including insights as to the life of a professional
    artist, many interesting links, and a healthy dose of political opinion, if
    that’s your thing. He’s still one of the friendliest folks around, too—almost
    seven thousand followers, and he’ll often still take the time to answer a quick
    question from you here and there. http://www.twitter.com/Templesmith

  3. Bryan Lee O’Malley – The mastermind behind the Scott Pilgrim
    series hates just about everything on the Internet and doesn’t mind saying so.
    That said, following him is really the best way to get news about the upcoming
    Edgar Wright-helmed movie adaptation. Basically, if BLO doesn’t say it, it’s
    not official—regardless of what Matt Fraction (www.twitter.com/MattFraction)
    might suggest. http://www.twitter.com/Radiomaru

  4. Brian Michael Bendis – His Twitter feed might be the only
    thing the New Avengers scribe has written in the last five years that didn’t
    somehow involve Luke Cage or Spider-Woman. What it does include is Bendis’s
    take on just about everything going on in the comic book world, along with
    reposted links to just about everything Bendis-related going on in the world.
    As an added bonus, you’ll get a new appreciation for comic book editors once
    you see how bad his grammar and punctuation is. http://www.twitter.com/BRIANMBENDIS

  5. Gail Simone — If Twitter gave out a prize for “crazy
    mysterious,” this Wonder Woman writer would surely win it several times over.
    Until recently, apart from the occasional fake flamewar with Mark Waid (http://www.twitter.com/MarkWaid),
    she mostly appeared, gave an assignment—for example, “TODAY’S ASSIGNMENT:  Fictional convention panels that SHOULD
    exist, but never, EVER EVER EVER will” or 
    “Today’s Assignment: Tweets as sent by participants during epic comic
    stories. What did they twitter to friends as it all went down?” —and then vanish
    again until the next time. Now, she tweets more regularly, if only to tease Geoff
    Johns about Blackest Night. http://www.twitter.com/GailSimone

  6. ComicMix — Okay, seriously, if you’re not
    reading our Twitter feed, what the heck are you waiting for? http://www.twitter.com/ComicMix
‘Curses! Foiled Again!’ Marvel goes back to 90’s cover gimmicks

‘Curses! Foiled Again!’ Marvel goes back to 90’s cover gimmicks

Yesterday I wrote about how DC was trying, with Wednesday Comics, to do something that couldn’t easily be reproduced on the computer screen to drive sales of paper. Marvel has now announced they’re doing something that doesn’t work on computers well– though it might be the return of the biggest disaster to hit comics in the 90s.

Don’t worry, says the press release:

“This is Marvel doing the nineties right,” explained David Gabriel,
Marvel Comics Senior Vice President of Sales & Circulation. “We’re
taking two of the most popular cover treatments of all time—foil and
holograms—to create an all new kind of cover, as a ‘thank-you’ to fans
who’ve been demanding this kind of variant! Retailers and fans don’t
need to worry. We’re only doing this on a limited basis. You won’t see
one on Ms Marvel #46 or Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #4. We’re using
them to mark very special occasions…such as the launch of Ultimate
Comics line.”

I had the same type of feeling when the Bush Administration said it didn’t torture, and anyway those were special circumstances.

The hell of it is, foil covers do catch the eye and help promote books, that’s why they do it with novels, record covers, and every other kind of packaging. But if they crank up the stupid collectibles market again… or rather the collectibles stupid market… Marvel will have no one to blame but themselves.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go back to reading piles of press releases about stupid exclusive collectibles being released at San Diego Comic-Con this year. Ooh, a special Gleek action figure only at SDCC! How could I have ever survived without it…?

Interview: Chris Claremont on ‘X-Men Forever’, part 1

Interview: Chris Claremont on ‘X-Men Forever’, part 1

This is the first part of a very long interview with Chris Claremont that started on the topic of X-Men Forever and branched into a number of other areas. We start the interview today to tie in with today’s release of X-Men Forever Alpha, and we’ll be running more as we get closer to the release of X-Men Forever #1 next month.

ComicMix: X-Men Forever Alpha is a reprint of the first three issues plus an eight page bridge to the
new series, correct? What do we need to know going in?

Chris Claremont: Essentially
nothing. Those were the issues going in, to establish all the fundamental
parameters: the X-Men are a team of heroes that are based at Xavier school for
gifted youngsters at Salem center, outside of New York City.

CM: So you’re
starting up right from where you left the book in 1991.

CC: Yes.

CM: Is this House Of C, then, as compared to House of M?

CC: No, it’s the
Marvel Universe, there’s no real change to it, other than the fact that in a
very practical sense that the subsequent sixteen, seventeen years of material
following my departure doesn’t exist.

CM: So this is a
new forked off continuity.

CC: Yes. We’re
essentially picking up where I left off and the only acknowledgment we are
making to the passage of time is that if a label needs to be placed on #1, #2,
and #3, they occurred in the opening months, weeks, whatever of 2009.

CM: Then
everything that happens since in mainline Marvel continuity has not happened
and is not going to happen?

CC: Everything
that relates to the X-Men specifically has not happened. The origins of
characters that were established after I left are not necessarily the origins
that we will encounter here. For example, the reality in this book is that
Sabretooth and Wolverine are father and son. Betsy Braddock has not been
transferred into a cloned dead Asian body.

CM: Do you find
it strange that people are looking at this series and referring back to your
original run as the time when X-Men continuity wasn’t convoluted?

(more…)

Bendis & Maleev to adapt ‘Waiting For Godot’ for Marvel Classics

Bendis & Maleev to adapt ‘Waiting For Godot’ for Marvel Classics

  • News
  • April 1, 2009

Waiting For Godot, the classic Samuel Beckett play of futility and alienation, is coming to Marvel Comics, courtesy of writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Alex Maleev.

“It’s a natural,” says editor-in-chief Joe Quesada. “In all my years in the business, I have rarely seen a more natural fit of talent and material.”

Godot, for the edification of comics fans who haven’t heard of it, is the story of two men, Vladimir and Estragon, who wait at length for the arrival of a third, the unseen but much-discussed Godot. Their conversations are circular and repetitive, often ending with exchanges like, “We can’t leave.” “Why not?” “We’re waiting for Godot.” Godot never shows up, and we last see the two leads after they decide to leave, but remain standing in the same spot, doomed to remain there forever.

In an interview, Bendis wrote, “I am tremendously excited about this project. I learned all I know about dialogue and dramatic pacing from the play, and have long done whatever I could to bring its intensity and suspense to the superhero genre.”

(more…)

Marvel movie making news

Marvel movie making news

  • News
  • March 13, 2009

Marvel Entertainment, Inc. announced an adjusted release pipeline for its self-produced feature film properties that reflects (choose one):

  1. the first time individual super hero characters and story arcs will be inter-woven and culminate in a multi-character motion picture.
     
  2. The ongoing trouble in securing financing to make multi-million dollar movies, thereby delaying and spreading out the hit to the credit line.

David Maisel, Chairman, Marvel Studios has his story straight. "This new schedule strongly sequences Marvel’s movie debut dates, big screen character introductions and momentum. It maximizes the visibility of our single character-focused films, leading to the highly anticipated release of the multi-character ‘The Avengers’ film in 2012."

Either way, a Marvel character-based film will now launch the summer box office season for three years in a row, from 2010 through 2012– Sony Pictures’ and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man 4 is slated for May 6, 2011.

Below is Marvel Studios’ 2010-2012 updated release schedule for its slate of self-produced and financed feature films:

Marvel Studios Feature Film Pipeline
Film/Character – Prior Release Date – Current Release Date

Iron Man 2 – May 7, 2010 – May 7, 2010
Thor – July 16, 2010 – June 17, 2011
The First Avenger: Captain America – May 6, 2011 – July 22, 2011
The Avengers – July 15, 2011 – May 4, 2012

Meanwhile, in Iron Man news, Variety has confirmed that Mickey Rourke has officially signed on to play a villain in Iron Man 2, and Scarlett Johansson has signed on to play the role of Russian superspy Natasha Romanoff, better known to us as the Black Widow. Scarlett Johansson in a black leather bodysuit… what, we weren’t going to see the film anyway?

Interview: The scans_daily moderators

Interview: The scans_daily moderators

  • News
  • March 4, 2009

With all the hullaballo as to what happened to scans_daily, we decided that we should hear from as many of the players as possible, especially the ones who have been silent so far. We’re still waiting on an official statement from LiveJournal, but we have been in contact with two of the moderators from the former scans_daily group, "Stubbleupdate" and "Rabican", and they’ve graciously responded to our questions.

ComicMix: What do you know about the circumstances of the shutdown? Has LiveJournal told you what prompted the shutdown? Were you given any warning, or any ability to address the situation?

Stubbleupdate: I crawled out of bed on Saturday morning (which meant that the community would have been deleted late evening/night on Friday, America time) and saw that my inbox had a lot of LJ friends requests from people on the community. I get that sometimes, but four overnight is unusual. They all wanted to know where the community had gone, which is the first that I had heard of it. A lot can happen in six hours on the internet.

There was also an email from the LJabuse team telling me that the account had been permanently suspended. That was it. LJ tends to take a “Shoot first, ask questions later” approach to getting rid of communities that it’s been told are against its policies or laws, so that part shouldn’t be surprising.

As for correspondence from LJ, they didn’t say what had prompted it, just that it had happened. I don’t expect them to.

Rabican: The shutdown occurred overnight while the mod team was asleep, so we’ve had to pull together the story of the shutdown from multiple accounts. The most likely scenario we’ve surmised is that Peter David reported a group of X-Factor #40 scans to Marvel around the 24th; Marvel complained to Livejournal, and the Livejournal Abuse Team shut us down the night of the 28th (US time). We were given no warning whatsoever and told that the account was permanently suspended. The justification, given by form mail, was that our community existed "primarily to host copyrighted material without the permission fo the copyright holder" and this was against Livejournal’s TOS. We’re still looking into finding out the details of the abuse report made to the LJ Abuse Team.

It’s worth noting that both Livejournal and, I suspect, most of the major comics publishers have known about us for years, so it’s interesting to speculate what prompted them to move against us now. It’s possible Peter David making the report removed all possibility of plausible deniability. Or, Marvel wasn’t nearly as well-informed as we thought they were. We don’t know whether they thought the poster had uploaded most or all of X-Factor #40 rather than the half she did upload, although legally it doesn’t matter. The Peter David situation may have been a coincidence and it wasn’t Marvel at all, but Livejournal doesn’t move against copyright violations without a complaint from the copyright owner, so we know it was a comics publisher.


(more…)

Samuel L. Jackson signs as Nick Fury — nine times!

Samuel L. Jackson signs as Nick Fury — nine times!

  • News
  • February 26, 2009

Feel the Fury of SamJack!

The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Samuel L. Jackson has signed an unprecedented nine-picture deal to play Colonel Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., in a series of Marvel movies that include Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers and its sequels.

Also on the table is the possibility of toplining a S.H.I.E.L.D. movie, which is in development.

Jackson, the unoffical model for the Marvel Ultimate version of Nick Fury, first appeared at the end of Iron Man and was expected to be part of the Iron Man sequel, but as Marvel negotiated with its cast, deals proved hard to come by. Terrence Howard was replaced by Don Cheadle. Mickey Rourke still doesn’t have a deal for the part of a villain despite almost two months of negotiations.

But now, Jackson has signed for a potential ten films as the same character. For perspective, Sean Connery only played James Bond in eight films, and that’s counting Never Say Never Again and The Rock— oh come on, he was playing James Bond in The Rock, you know it and I know it.

Marvel’s 4Q report: Studios and money making

Marvel’s 4Q report: Studios and money making

  • News
  • February 25, 2009

Marvel Entertainment announced today operating results for its 4th-quarter ended December 31, 2008 and record net sales, net income and earnings per share for the full year 2008. For Q4 2008, Marvel reported net sales of $224.3 million and net income of $63.0 million, or $0.80 per diluted share, compared to net sales of $109.3 million and net income of $27.6 million, or $0.35 per diluted share, in Q4 2007. "The improvement reflects recognition of $135.5 million in film production segment revenues principally associated with the DVD performance of Marvel’s Iron Man feature film," the company said. For the full year 2008, Marvel reported net sales of $676.2 million and net income of $205.5 million, or $2.61 per diluted share, compared to net sales of $485.8 million and net income of $139.8 million, or $1.70 per diluted share, in 2007. The revenue and net income growth principally reflects the contribution from Marvel Studios which released its first two feature films, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, in the summer of 2008.

Below is an updated look at the Marvel Studios’ product pipeline. The company also announced today that Kenneth Branagh is set to direct Thor (our spies tell us sets are already being built) which Paramount Pictures will distribute worldwide. It will be released domestically on July 16, 2010. Also, Iron Man 2 will begin principal photography in early April.

Marvel Studios Entertainment Pipeline
(According to its 4th quarter earnings report. Scheduled release dates are subject to change)

Self-Produced Feature Film Line-Up

  • Iron Man 2 (Marvel), scheduled for May 7, 2010 release, starts principal photography in April, directed by Jon Favreau, stars Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle
  • Thor (Marvel), scheduled for July 16, 2010 release, directed by Kenneth Branagh
  • The First Avenger: Captain America (Marvel), scheduled for May 6, 2011 release
  • The Avengers (Marvel), scheduled for July 15, 2011 release

Licensed Feature Film Line-Up

  • X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox), scheduled for May 1, 2009 release

Self-Produced Animated TV Series Line-Up

  • Super Hero Squad (Marvel Animation) 26 thirty-minute episodes in production with Film Roman, scheduled for Q3 2009 release on Cartoon Network
  • The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (Marvel Animation) 26 thirty-minute episodes in production with Film Roman; scheduled for Q3 2011 release

Licensed Animated TV Series Line-Up

  • Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes (Moonscoop SAS – France), 26 thirty-minute episodes airing internationally and on Marvel.com and Marvelkids.com
  • Spectacular Spider-Man (Culver Studios – U.S.) Will air on Disney XD in the U.S. beginning in March and currently airing on various networks internationally
  • Wolverine and the X-Men (Marvel Animation / First Serve Toonz – India), 52 thirty-minute episodes. Episodes 1-26 are currently airing on Nicktoons in the U.S. and are on air internationally, Episodes 27-52 are currently in pre-production
  • Black Panther (Marvel Animation / BET) 8 thirty-minute episodes in production, scheduled for Q2 2009 release on BET
  • Iron Man: Armored Adventures (Marvel Animation / Method Films – France) 26 thirty-minute episodes in production, scheduled for Q2 2009 release in the U.S. on Nicktoons and various networks internationally

Licensed Animated Direct-to-DVD Projects

  • Thor: Son of Asgard (Lionsgate), scheduled for September 2009 release

Licensed Broadway Stage Project

  • Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark, the Musical, Julie Taymor director; music & lyrics by U2’s Bono and The Edge (Hello Entertainment/David Garfinkle, Martin McCallum, Marvel Entertainment/David Maisel, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Jeremiah Harris) Slated for a February 18, 2010 opening

Interview: Fred Van Lente

  • News
  • February 23, 2009

Fred Van Lente may have one of the strangest resumes in modern comics.

After all, not many writers can give their first claim to fame as writing an award-winning non-fiction comic book series both satirizing and paying tribute to the greatest thinkers in human history; yet that’s his name alongside artist Ryan Dunlavey’s on the cover of Action Philosophers, which won the Xeric Grant in 2004.

Since then, he’s gone on to write what seems like an endless stream of series and miniseries for Marvel: Marvel Adventures Iron Man, Marvel Adventures Spider-man, Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four, Amazing Fantasy, Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK’s 11, Wolverine: First Class, and more besides.

These days, his most steady gig is co-writing (with Greg Pak) Marvel’s Incredible Hercules, a fan favorite series and critical darling that’s been praised for mixing mythology with good old Marvel superheroics. He’s also writing the X-Men Noir miniseries, a mystery story set in the heyday of prohibition.

And, just to make sure his resume keeps getting stranger, the third issue of Comic Book Comics, his second collaboration with Ryan Dunlavey, just hit the stands recently. As the title suggests, it’s a comic book that chronicles the history of comic books.

Fred took a few minutes out his schedule to talk to us about how he wound up writing for Marvel, how not to kill Jocasta, and how not to get sued when infringing on copyright.

ComicMix: How does the writer of a black-and-white independent series about the great thinkers wind up writing all-ages superhero stories for the Marvel Adventures line?

Fred Van Lente: Well, believe it or not, my working for Marvel and me doing Action Philosophers happened simultaneously. What happened was, for two completely different career paths converged. I was doing Action Philosophers on and off with Ryan [Dunlavey] more or less for fun until we got the Xeric Grant, and I did a color independent comic with a great artist by the name of Steve Ellis, who’s now better known for having co-created the series High Moon over at Zuda. We did a super-crime mob series called The Silencers for Moonstone, and that brought me to the attention of Mark Paniccia over at Marvel. Mark invited me over to pitch for an anthology series called Amazing Fantasy. They ran a poll on Marvel.com for which characters to revamp, and they chose Scorpion. By a bizarre coincidence, Action Philosophers #1 and Amazing Fantasy #7, which premiered the new Scorpion, came out on the same day.

CMix: Really?

FVL: Yeah! And in most stores, because they were both “A” titles, they were racked next to each other. So after ten years of trying to break into the business and not really getting much traction, I not only had two comics come out on the same day, I had them sit next to each. And to add irony to irony, I had broken my ankle. So I was laid up and on painkillers, so I was unable to go to the store and see this magnificence for myself.

CMix: That’s kind of sad.

FVL: Well, my friend sent me cell phone pictures.

CMix: Gotcha. So, my next question is, how does the writer of all-ages Marvel superhero stories wind up co-writing Incredible Hercules, one of the most critically beloved mainstream titles right now?

(more…)

X-Men Forever: What was the Marvel Universe like in 1991?

X-Men Forever: What was the Marvel Universe like in 1991?

  • News
  • February 8, 2009

In light of the annoucement of X-Men Forever and Chris Claremont‘s intention to continue exactly where X-Men #3 left off in 1991, we thought it would be a good idea to remind ourselves what the state of the Marvel Universe was in 1991– before Stamford, the Super-Hero Registration Act, and Skrulls. Here’s all you need to know:

 

X-MEN:

Charles Xavier is adjusting to having lost the use of his legs again recently. The X-Men have recently reformed into two teams, with Cyclops leading the blue strike force and Storm leading the gold strike force. Gambit has just joined and is still a mystery to the others.

During the gold strike force’s latest mission, they investigated the recent death of the Hellions and have recruited the time-traveling Bishop. At this time, Bishop is still unaware who the “X-traitor” will turn out to be. Much of the world still thinks the X-Men are dead and it’s possible they are still invisible to technology (due to a spell cast by Roma).

During their latest mission, the blue strike force met the newly formed Acolytes and witnessed the apparent death of Magneto (at the hands of his Acolyte Cortez) on Asteroid M, which has just been destroyed.

X-FORCE:

Cable is still leading this team, which has only recently formed, and at this point in time all we know about the white-haired mutant is that he and Stryfe are identical to each other and that he apparently did some military missions in ‘Nam where he met Chord of the New Warriors. He also has an unclear history with Wolverine. G.W. Bridge of SHIELD is investigating Cable since he believes that Cable is also running Stryfe’s organization the Mutant Liberation Front.

As of yet, there has  been no revelations about Cannonball being an “Ex-Ternal” and there has been no revelation that Domino is actually Copycat while the real Domino is a captive of Mr. Tolliver.

X-FACTOR:

X-Factor has just replaced “Freedom Force” as the government’s mutant counter-terrorist team. Havok is in charge and is very green as a leader, still concerned about living up to his brother’s example. Wolfsbane cannot really turn to human form at this point, stuck between her half-lupine form and full lupine form.

EXCALIBUR:

The London based team still includes Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde in its ranks. At this point, half the team’s adventures seem to involve parallel realities and alternate timelines. Lockheed the Dragon has recently been revealed to be a sentient member of a telepathic race (though only we readers know that) and is recovering from injuries. At this point in time, Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde have not seen their X-Men teammates since the events of the team’s apparent death.

WOLVERINE:

Wolverine is still wearing the brown and tan uniform. In his own series, as 1991 closes, Wolverine has only just discovered the Weapon X facility and realized that some of his memories are false implants based loosely on real memories. He also now has the first inkling that he and Sabretooth are not related but perhaps used to work together for some kind of government unit. He has not yet learned about Team X, the group he was part of with John Wraith and Maverick.

AND NOW, THE REST OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE…

(more…)

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