Tagged: Fantastic Four

Happy Birthday: Marv Wolfman

Happy Birthday: Marv Wolfman

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946, Marvin A. “Marv” Wolfman got his start in comic book fandom before joining DC in 1968. In 1972, he moved to Marvel Comics under editor Roy Thomas.

After Thomas left, Wolfman’s friend Len Wein became editor-in-chief, but  a year later he passed the position on to Wolfman. Wolfman missed writing, however, and chose to step down as editor-in-chief a few years later so he could return to creating the comics himself.

While at Marvel, Wolfman wrote for Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Doctor Strange, but he is possibly best known for his work on Tomb of Dracula, including the creation of the vampire-hunter Blade.

In 1980, Wolfman returned to DC and created The New Teen Titans. He worked on Superman and Night Force, revived Dial H for Hero, and then launched the pivotal Crisis on Infinite Earths.

During the ’90s, Wolfman focused more on animation and television, and in the 2000s he has written a novel based on Crisis on Infinite Earths, the novelization of Superman Returns, and an animated movie, Condor, for Stan Lee’s Pow Entertainment. Wolfman recently took over the writing for DC’s Nightwing series.

In 2007, he wrote a nonfiction book, Homeland: The Illustrated History of the State of Israel, which won the National Jewish Book Award and the Moonbeam Children’s Book Award, among other honors.

Happy Birthday: Steve Englehart

Happy Birthday: Steve Englehart

  • News
  • April 22, 2008

Born in 1947 in Indianapolis, Indiana, Steve Englehart graduated college from Wesleyan University and served briefly in the Army before moving to New York. He got his comic book start working as Neal Adams’ art assistant at Warren Publishing.

Art was not Englehart’s chief interest, however, and he soon switched to different areas, going to work for Marvel as a proofreader. Then he got the opportunity to write a story for Amazing Adventures, and from then on it was writing all the way.

Englehart wrote The Avengers from 1972 to 1976 and also wrote Doctor Strange, Captain America, and The Hulk before moving over to DC Comics to help revamp their core characters in Detective Comics, Superman, Flash, and other titles. Englehart left comics and the U.S. in the late ’70s and early ’80s to travel Europe and work on a novel, but later returned to design video games and created Coyote for Eclipse.

Englehart has since written Green Lantern, Fantastic Four, Night Man, and several others, and has written more videogames and several animated series as well.

Images of New ‘Iron Man’ Game Armor Revealed

Images of New ‘Iron Man’ Game Armor Revealed

  • News
  • April 11, 2008

One of the staple of comic book videogames is that players can unlock alternate costumes that the characters have had at one time or another. (My favorite is still the Spider-Man costume featuring a paper-bag head, Fantastic Four uniform and "Kick Me" sign pulled from Amazing Spider-Man #258 and available in the Spider-Man videogame that was released with the first film.)

Since Iron Man rarely settled on a suit for very long, it’s no surprise that Sega decided to include a variety of unlockable costumes in the upcoming Iron Man movie-based game in addition to the three models seen in the film.

To add a dash of "Armor Wars" to the eternal war over which console is the best, there will be exclusive armors for different systems: PlayStation 3 gets Ultimate Iron Man from The Ultimates. Xbox 360 gets the Silver Centurion Iron Man from Iron Man #200.

A gallery of 360-degree visuals of all the armor is posted after the jump:

(more…)

ComicMix Six: Worst Moments in Skrull ‘Invasion’ History

ComicMix Six: Worst Moments in Skrull ‘Invasion’ History

  • Uncategorized
  • April 2, 2008

Yes, we’ve all heard the big news: Skrulls have invaded the world. They’re everywhere, hidden from magic and telepathy, ready to do their worst. They’ve infiltrated the highest levels of government and they’ve replaced all of our planet’s best and brightest with sleeper agents, ready to bring down all that we hold dear.

But that doesn’t mean you should be worried.

Here at ComicMix, we know that the Skrull Empire doesn’t exactly have the best track record. Heck, they once replaced Alicia Masters, one of the best friends of the Fantastic Four, with a Skrull agent, then seemed to forget she was even there until years later when she was found out — which led to the FF blowing up the biggest space station in the aliens’ Empire.

And that’s not even the tip of the Skrull Empire’s iceberg of ineptitude. For the first in our new series of ComicMix Six features, we present some of the Secret Invasion villains’ least-impressive diabolical schemes through the years.

(more…)

On This Day: Mark Waid

On This Day: Mark Waid

  • News
  • March 21, 2008

Born on March 21, 1962 in Hueytown, Alabama, Waid entered the comics industry in the mid-1980s as an editor and writer for Fantagraphics Books’ fan magazine, Amazing Heroes.

He soon moved to DC as an editor on Secret Origins and Legion of Super-Heroes. In 1990, he shifted from full-time editorial to freelance writing, and in 1992 DC hired him to write The Flash. Waid stayed with The Flash for eight years and can be credited with establishing Wally West as a worthy bearer of the Flash name and costume. Waid then moved to Marvel to work on Captain America.

In 1996 he went back to DC to produce his best-known work, the mini-series Kingdom Come with Alex Ross. He also wrote the follow-up series, The Kingdom, and has since written JLA, Impulse, Empire, Fantastic Four, and others.

In July 2007 Waid joined Boom! Studios as Editor-in-Chief. He’s stated since that all of his future creator-owned work will be with Boom!

‘Fantastic Four 3?’ Not According to The Human Torch

‘Fantastic Four 3?’ Not According to The Human Torch

  • News
  • March 21, 2008

If you happen to be one of the people who really liked the first two Fantastic Four films and were anxiously awating a third installlment, you may be waiting a lot longer than you thought. In fact, your wait might be endless.

Why? Well, according to an interview over at MTV with actor Chris Evans, who plays Johnny Storm (aka The Human Torch) in the films, a third film doesn’t seem to be in the cards. His main reason for thinking so? He hasn’t gotten any scripts or story ideas from Fox.

"After the first one was released we got wind of potential titles and plots [almost immediately], and I’ve heard nothing from anyone at Fox [yet],” said Evans in the interview. “We had all planned on doing [another] one but if there were going to be a third I think a week after the second one was released we would have heard.”

In truth, Evans doesn’t seem all that disappointed that a third film probably won’t happen. "It takes up a lot of time. It’s a big commitment,” said Evans. “I’m happy with walking away.”

Although he might be willing to walk away from another Fantastic Four film, he’s not closing the door completely on playing The Human Torch again — especially if it was a cameo appearence in some other Marvel franchise like The Hulk or Spider-Man. Said Evans: "Absolutely. If Johnny Storm wanted to make a pop in appearance in one of those movies that would be a treat.”

Of course, the opportunity for another big-screen appearance by Marvel’s favorite family might not be a complete impossibility, given the discussion of a potential Silver Surfer spin-off film.

So, now that we know another Fantastic Four film is probably not going to happen, is this good news or bad?

Djimon Hounsou Set for Comics Trilogy?

  • News
  • March 3, 2008

During a weekend press junket for the upcoming film Never Back Down, actor Djimon Housou told IESB that he’ll be taking a role in a comic book trilogy and referred to it as a dream project. The full article is right here.

Hounsou wouldn’t specify which trilogy, though, so the rumor mill can go ahead and start churning. Here’s what the folks at IESB theorized:

The obvious answer is that Hounsou is talking about staring as The Black Panther in the inevitable Fantastic Four 3. Tim Story mentioned in an IGN article nearly a year ago that Hounsou was his ideal choice for the Wakandan King. If this is the case, it’s actually perfect casting (outside of it being another Story-directed Fantastic Four film).

The other possibility, though, that I’m not entirely willing to shake is that Hounsou might be talking about Tintin.

Hounsou mentions that this is a dream project for him. While Tintin may not be the biggest bit of pop-culture this side of the Atlantic, it’s still extremely popular in Europe — especially in France where Hounsou moved when he was 13. Add in the Spielberg connection and the fact that Tintin‘s being done as a trilogy and I think its speculation with some potential.

Hounsou’s page at IMDB doesn’t have any mention of a project yet, and there aren’t a whole lot of other comic book trilogies on the horizon. Y: The Last Man is supposedly in the works, though Hounsou obviously wouldn’t have a place in that, unless the director decided to be very creative in casting Agent 355.

Marvel Unveils Ultimate Spider-Man in Spanish

  • News
  • February 27, 2008

Marvel’s PR department just sent over news that Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection Vol. 1 and Ultimate X-Men Ultimate Collection Vol. 1 will be translated into Spanish and rereleased in late March.

The collections, which retail for $29.99, include the first year’s worth of stories from each series, all redone in Spanish. This is just the latest effort by Marvel to make a play for Spanish-speaking readers, as in recent months the publisher released a special issue of the Fantastic Four in Spanish. Fantastic Four: Isla De La Muerte #1 was released in Spanish and English in January.

It’ll be interesting to hear if anyone tracks sales of those issues by language. Though publishers of all stripes are interested in tapping into the growing Hispanic population in the United States, such efforts are clearly in the early stages.

Galactus to Appear in ‘Silver Surfer’ Film?

Galactus to Appear in ‘Silver Surfer’ Film?

  • News
  • February 27, 2008

Galactus’ appearance in Fantasic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was a little underwhelming. Then again, so was the entire movie, so it was just par for the course.

When people think of Galactus, they think of a giant man in a purple and blue suit eating planets, not a vacuous gassy cloud that threatens to give Earth the dutch oven treatment.

Fans of the old school Galactus may be in luck. At Wondercon, Silver Surfer screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski commented on the status of Galactus in the upcoming film, which will be a prequel and detail the origins the giant planet eater and his silver herald.

According to Straczynski, the last Fantastic Four film refrained from showing Galactus in all his glory in order to leave his origin for the Silver Surfer film. Will we get to see Kirby’s version of Galactus or will we be subjected to another storm cloud? We won’t know for sure until 2009, when the movie will supposedly be released.

 (via SHH)

Marvel Releases New Hawkeye Skrull Promo

  • News
  • February 22, 2008

Building up to the summer’s Skrull-a-palooza, Marvel has been sending out a variety of variant covers and promo images featuring heroes depicted as Skrulls. As part of its "Who do you trust?" marketing blitz, Marvel has tried to raise suspicion on most major characters, including the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and, most recently, Wolverine.

Today came the image at right, and for once we have a candidate who actually makes sense as a Skrull: Hawkeye.

While most heroes have good alibis for the looming Secret Invasion, the purple-wearing, bow-and-arrow toting Clint Barton was killed off in House of M by Brian Michael Bendis, who also is writing Secret Invasion and has said he’s been laying the groundwork for this event for years. And since Hawkeye’s return from the dead was never fully explained, he’s a prime suspect.

Of course, this could just be more misdirection, which adds a whole metatextual layer to the slogan "Who do you trust?"

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