We would like to get ahead of the curve and start the first official campaign to keep Joss Whedon’s S.H.I.E.L.D. on the air and avoid premature cancellation.
We don’t know how it will happen this time. It could be a remade pilot, or a pilot put in at the end of the season. It could have its budget cut. It could be put on Friday night, always a favorite. It could have the network shot out from under, but it’s unlikely that could happen to ABC (although not impossible). It could be a combination of all of them.
But this time, we can get a head start! Because we know that people are going to be trying to strangle this show as soon as humanly possible, we can prepare months, nay, years in advance. We can create cool social media campaigns! We can start making t-shirts, and buying up eyepatches in bulk for the inevitable mail-in to executives claiming that if they’re so blind as to cancel a show as brilliant as this, they should have Nick Fury’s eyepatches! (However, threatening to pluck out network executive eyes, while fun to contemplate, should be saved for later when we start sending telegrams.)
So we’re calling on you, faithful ComicMix reader. Retweet this post! Like it and share it on Facebook! Digg it! Put it on Reddit! Use StumbleUpon! Heck, even use LinkedIn, even though it’s supposed to be for work! There’s no time for work! This is important! This is your new job now! Click all those buttons below this article! Joss Whedon’s vision depends on you! If you don’t do it, he won’t be able to take your favorite characters and emotionally torment them… and mess with their heads… and then gratuitously kill off your favorite one, just because he was in a bad mood that day…
…nah. Joss wouldn’t kill off S.H.I.E.L.D. agents just for the heck of it, would he?
ABC has ordered a pilot for S.H.I.E.L.D, a live-action series from The Avengers writer-director Joss Whedon, Marvel TV and ABC Studios. The project is based on Marvel’s peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D (which stands for Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate or Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division) found in both the Marvel comic book and feature film universes, including the blockbuster 2012 movie The Avengers, in which S.H.I.E.L.D director Nick Fury, recruits Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and Thor to stop Thor’s adoptive brother Loki from subjugating Earth.
S.H.I.E.L.D. will be written by Whedon and frequent collaborators, his brother Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen. Joss Whedon also is set to direct the pilot, schedule permitting. Production on the pilot, which marks the first live-action Marvel TV project to get a green light, will start immediately. Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Tancharoen executive produce with Jeffrey Bell and Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb.
The project had been in the works at Marvel TV and ABC Studios for some time. Earlier this month, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that it had signed an exclusive film and TV deal with Joss Whedon, which included him writing and directing The Avengers sequel and develop a live-action series for Marvel TV and ABC, both owned by Disney.
This marks a return to series television for Joss Whedon, creator of cult favorites Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Dollhouse. Husband and wife writing duo Jed Whedon and Tancharoen co-penned with Joss Whedon Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and also have worked on Dollhouse and Spartacus.
In addition to S.H.I.E.L.D, Marvel TV has a couple of other projects in development at ABC Studios, including a Hulk series.
Well, everybody else has the Avengers gag reel, so why not us? See Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Gwynneth Paltrow, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, and somebody named Joss and how they spent their summer vacation playing Avengers vs. Chitauri. Watch it now, and you’ll feel better for the entire day.
Joss Whedon’s take on the X-Men is the series that keeps on giving. Winner of the Will Eisner Award winner for Best Continuing Series, it first it became a series of motion comics, adapting the 25 issue run, and in a few weeks, it will be turned into a series of prose novel adaptations (by Peter David, due out September 5). Why? Whedon understands character, action, and using larger than life people to work as metaphors for life. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was really about surviving high school and being a mutant in the comics is dealing with prejudice and fear of the unknown. But, unlike so many others, Whedon tends to leaven his work with humor and character traits that amuse and surprise.
Astonishing X-Men was created as a showcase series for Whedon but he was accompanied by acclaimed artist John Cassaday, who brought a photorealistic style to characters that have tended to be drawn with great exaggeration by artists ever since their 1963 debut. Grounding the visuals with Whedon’s writing style made for one of those magical pairings which seems to happen with less and less regularity.
Cassaday’s visuals work wonderfully on the printed page but less so given the limitations of the motion comic format. Serialized for the web, these have been collecting in a series of DVDs from Shout! Factory and Torn is the latest installment, out this week. As noted when we reviewed Dangerous, motion comics is this weird hybrid that is really a modern day version of the cardboard cutout animation first used in Marvel Super-Heroes back in the 1960s.
Wisely, they retained as much of Cassaday’s artwork as was practical and the dialogue has that Whedon ring, although as usual the voice casting leaves something to be desired. Cassaday worked with Atomic Cartoons and Neal Adams to bring some life to his four-color efforts.
Torn adapts issues #13-18 and pits the merry mutants against the less merry Hellfire Club – featuring Xavier’s twin sister Cassandra Nova, Emma Frost, Perfection, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and the deadly Sebastian Shaw. We learn that the enigmatic Emma Frost is conjuring up a psychic project of the villainous alliance because she was being blackmailed by Nova. Whedon also pauses to deepen Scott Summers by letting us learn of a childhood trauma that manifested in his losing control of his optic blasts.
Whedon’s affection for teen characters remains evident as it is Kitty Pryde who winds up saving the day this time. He has some fun with the simmering Kitty/Colossus relationship, displaying some nice character-based humor. Similarly, when Emma plays mind games with the team, it mixes painful memories with humorous situations, giving us some fresh insights into the team.
The six chapters, totaling 81 minutes, are nicely adapted into animated installments and keeps the momentum moving even when the visuals are overly static. If you love this run in all its incarnations, then you want this. Or you could wait a bit and get all the motion comics series on a Blu-ray, coming later this year.
It’s official: the man who wrote and directed “Marvel’s The Avengers” and grossed $1.5 billion and counting at the box office is coming back to do it all over again. Slashfilm seems to have caught it first:
It was just announced on the Walt Disney Investors Conference Call that Joss Whedon will return for The Avengers sequel. Whedon is signed to both write and direct the upcoming sequel. Disney confirmed that Whedon is also involved in the development of the previously-rumored long-lead ABC live-action television series which will be set inside the Marvel cinematic universe.
Whedon had previously said that he was “very torn” about coming back: “It’s an enormous amount of work telling what is ultimately somebody else’s story, even though I feel like I did get to put myself into it. But at the same time, I have a bunch of ideas, and they all seem really cool.”
Marvel is notoriously cheap when it comes to contracts, so some fans were worried that a deal wouldn’t be made. I think everyone will be excited that Whedon is back for the next one. If I were Kevin Feige I would secure Whedon to a long term contract as an executive producer, overseeing the marvel universe on a Pixar braintrust-level. The Avengers is being tentatively planned for a Summer 2015 release, although Disney and Marvel have not formally announced a date.
Shout! Factory has announced that they will be collecting the Astonishing X-Men Motion Comics in one Blu-ray release this November, in time for the holidays. Based on the acclaimed run by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday, the four story arcs will be united on disc for the first time.
Here’s the formal press release:
The Astonishing X-Men 2-Disc Blu-ray Collection is the perfect gift for the ultimate Marvel fan. This collection is available in stores nationwide November 13, 2012 from Shout! Factory, in association with Marvel Knights Animation. The 2-Disc Blu-ray collection boasts all four Astonishing X-Men adventures from Joss Whedon, the mastermind behind the massive hit film Marvel’s The Avengers, and award-winning artist John Cassaday. As one of the most important X-Men stories of all-time, it features over 5 hours of engaging animation combined with non-stop action, as well as all-new cover art illustration by Cassaday. The ASTONISHING X-MEN BLU RAY COLLECTION is priced to own at $34.99 SRP.
Additionally, ASTONISHING X-MEN: UNSTOPPABLE will be available separately on DVD on the same day and is priced to own at $14.97 SRP.
Venture into the minds of Joss Whedon and John Cassady through Marvel Knights Animation based on their Eisner Award winning take on Marvel’s infamous mutant heroes. This must-have 2-disc Blu-ray collection contains:
ASTONISHING X-MEN: GIFTED
Can the X-Men protect the world’s mutants against a powerful new alien menace and the “cure” that threatens to rid them of their unique abilities forever? This DVD features the first story arc of the ASTONISHING X-MEN 3-part series. Extensive bonus content includes: a conversation with Joe Quesada and Neal Adams, ASTONISHING X-MEN “Rise Up” music video, ASTONISHING X-MEN – GIFTED trailer, visual history of the characters, behind-the-scenes, Marvel Super Heroes™: What The — ?, artists gallery – John Cassaday, and additional trailers.
ASTONISHING X-MEN: DANGEROUS
In the second installment of the Astonishing X-Men arc, the tragic death of a student at the Xavier Institute reveals that a powerful enemy is working from inside the mansion to destroy the X-Men. It’s an enemy who knows all their weaknesses and can predict their every move. This new foe doesn’t want wealth, power or world domination – it only wants them dead. As the X-Men fight for their lives, they learn they’ve been deceived by one of their own. Even if they survive, the team will never be the same.
ASTONISHING X-MEN: TORN
This third installment of the Astonishing X-Men story arc brings more action and adventure as Emma Frost’s erratic behavior has the X-Men spinning in a nonstop downward spiral. Will an unlikely union be the final straw? After secretly lying in wait for months, the new Hellfire Club makes its move!
ASTONISHING X-MEN: UNSTOPPABLE
Strap yourselves in, folks! The final arc on Astonishing X-Men! After the shocking and brain-smashing events of recent issues, the X-Men are off to protect the Earth from its destruction at the hands of the Breakworld. And when it’s all over, nothing will ever be the same! No, really, we mean it! Whedon and Cassaday prove they are more than Astonishing: They are unstoppable!
Marvel Knights Animationremains true to the heritage of panel-by-panel graphic storytelling, boasting groundbreaking illustrations, sensational soundscapes, and of course, the explosiveness of the Mighty Marvel Universe. Behind every image and every word lies the genius of Marvel’s celebrated creators.
As excitement builds for this Blu-ray collection, Shout! Factory and Marvel Knights Animation will announce in-depth bonus features and additional news in forthcoming months.
I’d believe that Disney and Marvel would re-release The Avengers if for no other reason that doing so could be the spur to get Joss Whedon’s film even higher in the rank of all-time money makers– and as much as Disney wants the money, they want the ego boost and bragging rights even more.
The interesting question is whether or not it would count as a re-release, or whether The Avengers will stay in theaters from now until then. The follow-up question: will this be a 3-D IMAX director’s cut?
There’s a rumor that’s rapidly growing on the internet that Marvel Studios is going to release a three-hour director’s cut of The Avengers in theaters this August!
Joss Whedon may have already cut this longer version of the film for the upcoming Blu-ray, but by releasing that cut in theaters Marvel, Disney, and Paramount will be able to not only promote the Blu-ray, but they will make even more money at the box office! The Avengers currently sits in third place as one of the highest grossing movies of all time. Releasing a Director’s Cut could give the movie the box office boost it needs to rise to the top!
Alternate theory: Disney is padding their balance sheet because somebody thinks The Odd Life Of Timothy Green is going to do even worse than John Carter.
No matter what you are looking for – love & danger or things that go bump in the night, we’ve got you covered as we continue our talks with Jenny McCarthy from NBC’s LOVE IN THE WILD and the folks from SyFy‘s HAUNTED COLLECTOR. Plus WALKING DEAD goes black and white and yes, that’s a Joss Whedonaction figure
So I finally joined the clamoring hordes who have gone to see The Avengers and, yes, I had a really good time. No spoilers but I can define my favorite scene in two words that won’t spoil the show: “Puny god.” ‘Nuff said. Those who have seen it know what I’m talking about. I also really enjoyed the little scene at the end of all the credits.
It’s made a billion dollars worldwide, and its already on its way towards making a bazillion, I’m sure. Marvel has played it very canny, building up to it by way of Iron Man (I and II), Thor and Captain America. You’d almost think that The Avengers success was inevitable and you’d be terribly, terribly wrong.
I got two words for you.
Joss Whedon.
Joss Whedon is the real star of the film, having both written and directed it (having worked up the story along with Zak Penn who, among other things, wrote a bunch of Marvel X-Men movies, created the TV show Alphas and directed and co-wrote – with Werner Herzog – the wonderfully strange and funny film Incident at Loch Ness and, yes, that’s a recommendation). It must be really nice to be Joss Whedon right now. The Avengers is making money hand over fist and breaking all sorts of records. That translates into power out in Hollyweird – the power to get the movies you want to do green-lighted.
Yet, I’m also sure there will be those (especially those on the studio end who will have to negotiate with Mr. Whedon’s agents on his next salary) who will claim that it was all set-up by the other films and that anybody could have directed The Avengers and it would have done just as well. That sort of mind just sees us puny artistic types as widgets – take one out, plug in another. Same result, right?
To minds that think like that, I have two more words for you (and not necessarily the ones you’re thinking):
Michael Bay.
Bay, in case you don’t remember, has directed all three Transformers movies, among other things. In many ways, I’m surprised they didn’t tap him – all three Transformers movies are big, spectacular, lots of special effects, playing with a franchise created elsewhere and made lots of money. In some ways, he’s the more logical choice – he has the experience with doing that kind of film.
Imagine what a Michael Bay version of The Avengers would have been like. This is also the guy who is producing the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, only now its just called Ninja Turtles and they’re not mutant turtles, they’re aliens from space. Go ahead; imagine what he would have done with The Avengers.
Okay, I’m obviously not a big Michael Bay fan. But plug in someone else as well (who I don’t like) such Roland Emmerich who also has experience with big special effects laden money making films like (gawd help me) Independence Day, 2012, The Patriot, Godzilla (the remake) and so much more. What would an Emmerich Avengers film have looked like?
If you subscribe to the artistic widget theory then these guys could have made The Avengers and it would have made money. Would it have made the kind of money, however, that Whedon’s version is making and, more to all of our fannish hearts, would it have been as good? Would it have been such a quintessential Marvel story? I don’t think so. I have relatives and friends who aren’t fan geeks like most of us and they’re going back to the film and seeing it more than once because they just plain enjoyed it so much.
Why? Because whether they know it or not, it’s a Joss Whedon film, a Joss Whedon story. We who know his work can see it all over the place. The respect and power of the female characters in the story. The traditional Marvel tropes (heroes meet heroes, don’t like each other, fight and bicker, and then come together) done RIGHT. The clever dialogue, insightful characterization, playing with theme that Whedon does over and over again. It’s Whedon who made The Avengers the film that we all, fan and novice alike, are really loving worldwide.
I’ll give the suits their due – they chose Whedon instead of the more logical and safer choices. Joss Whedon had never directed a film on this scale before (Serenity is great but it’s not on this scale). However, he brought a passion and respect for the source material that satisfied all of us fans and made it accessible to everyone else. There may have been some questions out in Hollyweird when Whedon was picked but there can’t be any now. He wasn’t the “artistic widget” choice; he was the right choice.
Summer’s here and the time is right for geeking in the street. In a triumph of nerd culture, The Avengers may be the most successful movie of all time. Certainly, with the second week box office results breaking all kinds of records, there is more going on here than people who read comic books going opening day. There aren’t enough people who read superhero comics to make a movie that successful.
There are, however, enough shared values among comic book creators and movie creators to make a hit. In the case of The Avengers, a lot of the credit must go to Joss Whedon. Whedon earned his cred not only by writing awesome comics, but by producing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and Dollhouse.
Those shows had loyal fan bases (which didn’t overlap enough, or we’d still have the latter two on the air). They also shared a marvelous, matter-of-fact feminist sensibility.
The critical response? Not so much.
Most of the critical reviews single out Scarlett Johansson, saying she can’t act, or she’s only there to look pretty. One comment called her a female Keanu Reeves, which irked me for multiple reasons. I enjoy Keanu Reeves. I thought he was brilliant in My Own Private Idaho. And I really like Johansson in The Avengers. I believe she, like her character, has a brain in her head.
What I mostly enjoy about her character is the fact that her motivations are similar to those of her teammates. She wants to rescue her colleague, Hawkeye. Being on the team is part of her job, which she takes seriously.
The Black Widow is not on the team because she’s somebody’s girlfriend or sister. She’s not there to provide a love interest for a more important male character. She’s not there to be taken hostage by the bad guy (a role played, too some extent, by Hawkeye). She is not murdered and stuffed in a refrigerator. She doesn’t wear a costume that is more revealing than anyone else’s, or that defies the laws of physics to keep the film’s PG-13 rating. That’s reserved for the Hulk’s pants, which seem to grow when he does during the New York City battle.
In our popular culture, we’re very threatened by women who consider themselves to be just as able and just as interesting and just as important as men consider themselves to be. If women find meaning in their own lives, a huge market in cosmetics, plastic surgery, fashion and hair color dries up. If women think they can find meaning and value within themselves, they might only wear stiletto heels as a lark, and not proof of their femininity. They might have relationships with men they like, and not for status or validation.
The powers-that-be don’t enjoy that possibility. They’ve kept it out of almost all the other super-hero stories.
As fans and as feminists, we have an obligation to hold their feet to the fire when the inevitable sequels arrive. Joss can’t – and shouldn’t – have to do it alone.
We would like to get ahead of the curve and start the first official campaign to keep Joss Whedon’s S.H.I.E.L.D. on the air and avoid premature cancellation.
