Tagged: Secret Invasion

‘X-Men: Destiny’ Video Game Reveal Trailer

‘X-Men: Destiny’ Video Game Reveal Trailer

At New York Comic Con, Activision announced the next game to feature Marvel Mighty Mutants.  In X-Men: Destiny, your decisions will control
the fate of brand new mutants in the X-Men universe. Every choice you
make matters, from your character to your power set to your story and
ultimately your destiny. Veteran X-scribe Mike Carey (X-Men,
X-Men: Legacy, Secret Invasion, The Unwritten
) will be crafting X-Men:
Destiny
‘s narrative, and famed developer Silicon Knights (Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, Too Human) is on board
for the game’s design.  The game is set to be released in 2011.

Avengers Movie Already Made!

Avengers Movie Already Made!

Attention, all you Marvel Zombies. No, not the actual flesh eating Marvel Zombies from that alternative earth where the super heroes all became mutant zombies who ate most of humanity except for Black Panther… I mean all you crazed Marvelites who bought every issue of Secret Invasion (including the Great Lake Avenger Tie In), and memorized the Super Human Registration Act word for word. I bet you’re getting excited for that swank new Avengers picture set to debut in 2012.

Yeah you know the one. Directed by Joss Whedon. That one boring guy from 13 Going On 30 is the Hulk… it got a big hullabaloo at the San Diego Comic Con a few weeks back… you with me? Good.

It seems year ago, Marvel (still Timely Comics at the time) tried it’s hand at the moving picture show… and gave birth to the first Avengers movie. I could go into detail here kiddos, but frankly… you should just check the trailer out below, and bask in it’s glory. Cause Whedon ain’t gonna top this:

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

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

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.”

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2008 book sales figures and moments of zen

2008 book sales figures and moments of zen

First, the moment of zen:

 

So, since her next-to-last book only moved 126,000 units (we don’t have numbers on her new book yet) who should Ann Coulter be taking advice from?

Well, Stephenie Meyer, for one, who sold about 15 million books last year. (No exaggeration — her "Twilight" books held four of the top ten spots for 2008 in the US, according to Nielsen Bookscan.) Jeff Kinney, for another, who sold 721,000 copies of Diary Of A Wimpy Kid and 696,000 of Roderick Rules. (She should also be listening to Barack Obama, who sold 1.44 million books, though somehow I doubt she will; Jodi Picoult, J.K. Rowling, James Patterson, Christopher Paolini, and yes, Bill O’Reilly, who moved 387,000 of his new book last year.)

How about comics? Well, Secret Invasion moved 1.3 million issues total as the best selling comic of last year, I guess Ann has to listen to Brian Michael Bendis. And Peter David too, he sold about 460,000 issues of Dark Tower: Long Road Home. That will just make Peter’s day. Alan Moore, too, with the best-selling graphic novels of 2008– even 20 years old.

Marvel Teases Female ‘Black Panther’

Marvel Teases Female ‘Black Panther’

After breaking the news via the Washington Post, Marvel has finally begun to reveal some of the details behind the Black Panther revamp coming in February.  T’Challa, the reining Panther, seems to be replaced by a mysterious female.  Now, Marvel says T’Challa’s fate is tied to events in the aftermath of Secret Invasion and connected to Dark Reign, 2009’s new crossover event.

The first issue will be extra-sized and will carry variant covers including one in their 70th anniversary series.

A sneak peek and interview with artist Ken Lashley has been posted at Marvel’s website.

Hudlin told the Post, "Over the course of 40 issues [over three years], we … really defined the character in a way that hadn’t been done before. … Having done that, you go: "How do we up the stakes?" Marvel is great about doing really shocking changes to their character — they don’t believe in just keeping everything as status quo."

Under Hudlin, the Panther married Storm from the X-Men and has defended his country of Wakanda from foreign and intergalactic invaders.

 

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‘Dark Reign’ Teaser Image Unveiled

‘Dark Reign’ Teaser Image Unveiled

Marvel today released this teaser image for the next big event, Dark Reign, just weeks before Secret Invasion #8 is released, ending the current big event.  New Avengers: The Reunion was mentioned as a new title at an Ireland convention but no details are known.

October Comics Sales Soften

October Comics Sales Soften

As the economy went into free fall, ICv2 notes that October sales have shown some slippage. From their just released list of the top 25 titles, just two showed signs of improvement over September sales. One was Amazing Spider-Man #573 which featured the faux-Stephen Colbert for President cover while the other was Batman #680, the penultimate chapter to Batman RIP.

Despite somewhat stagnant sales, the dollars sold in to comic stores were up a “robust” 9% compared with a year ago, according to the industry watchdog. September and October were the first positive months for comic sales since January.  Of course, more titles were retailing last month at $3.99, rapidly becoming a standard, as opposed to last October. ICv2 did note that the unit sales for the title charting in the 300th position was 4200 compared with 3000 just twelve months ago which they interpret as a sign of overall industry strength.

Graphic novel sales showed an increase of just 5% compared with last October.  Combined with comic book sales, that creates an 8% total increase.

The site notes that the company crossovers, Secret Invasion #7 (154,675 copies) and Final Crisis #4 (115,666 copies) took the first two spots on the list. Marvel had seven of the top 10 and 17 of the first 25 with DC taking the balance. IDW’s G.I. Joe relaunch  and Angel: After the Fall were the first non-Top Two titles to crack the top 100 list coming in at 65th and 66th place. This further cements IDW’s fourth place standing among comic book publishers, after Dark Horse and now ahead of Image.

In graphic novels, DC’s Joker by Brian Azzarello, took first place with an estimated 17,000 copies sold, also nabbing the top spot for dollars earned. Marvel’s best seller for the month was the Marvel Zombies trade paperback, which likely hit the top Marvel spot given its three variant covers. Wile Watchmen slipped from first place to sixth, its 6000 copies remains impressive given its age.
 

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‘Torso’ Grows Legs

‘Torso’ Grows Legs

Bill Mechanic, the former chairman of 20th Century Fox and now founder of independent production company Pandemonium, told Collider that the long planned adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis’ Torso is heading into production soon.

"Torso is moving right towards the starting gate," Mechanic tells the site. "We’ve got a screenplay and we’re waiting for Paramount to decide when to make it."

He also confirms what many have heard: David Fincher will direct the feature.

"I’m hoping we’re shooting in March or April … [so] it should be [Fincher’s next project]," says Mechanic.

And while he has a ton of faith in the project, he does admit that there will be departures from the source material, much in the way that the movie Fight Club broke off from the novel.

"Torso the movie, which may not be called Torso the movie at the end of the day … makes the book better reading because it doesn’t follow [the book] literally," Mechanic says.

Though he’s known today for revitalizing The Avengers, killing all the mutants in House of M and making Skrulls a threat again in Secret Invasion, Brian Bendis’ roots as a comics creator go back to his days at Caliber Comics. He published a string of noir crime comics with Caliber, including Fire (1993), A.K.A. Goldfish (1994) and Flaxen (1995). His most known early works are Jinx (1996), which is the namesake of his Web site JinxWorld, and the comic in question, Torso (1998). It may be hard to believe with top artists Leinil Yu and others illustrating his work, but Bendis actually illustrated a large part of his early work, including Torso. Bendis also co-wrote the novel alongside Marc Andreyko (DC’s Manhunter).

Torso is a historical fiction limited series published by Image Comics. The story focuses on the "Torso Murderer," an actual serial killer in the 1930’s who left behind only the torsos of his victims, making them very difficult to identify for police without DNA testing. The investigator on the case and protagonist of Torso is Eliot Ness, Cleveland Chief of police and one-time head of the Untouchables, the police task force that enforced Prohibition and went after crime lord Al Capone.

Though no official casting has been made, Mechanic did tell Collider that "a lot of things being written [online] about [the film] are probably true." Jake Gyllenhaal and Matt Damon are the two actors long rumored for Torso, so perhaps they’ll be the guys to star in the feature.

Who is the Iron Patriot?

Who is the Iron Patriot?

Marvle this morning released a teaser for a new event in the Marvel Universe.  No creators, timing or content was released with the teaser. We’re going to guess that it maybe a part of the 2009 Dark Reign event spinning out of the end of Secret Invasion.  It does not resemble the future Iron Men seen in last week’s New Warriors.  Any guesses?

‘Secret Invasion’ #8 to be a Week Late

‘Secret Invasion’ #8 to be a Week Late

Marvel has issued a release indicating the final issue of Secret Invasion will now be in store the first week of December, a week later than anticipated.

“The additional pages in #8 did both Leinil and the schedule in,” explained Executive Editor Tom Brevoort in a press release. “Anybody who pored over the artwork from #7 a week ago can easily see how he and Mark Morales have been putting their all (and then some) into every page and every panel, and that effort has finally caught up with us. Hopefully, retailers and fans will forgive us these extra two weeks as we make sure that everything is in the shape it should be in for the extra-sized climax—and from there, it’ll be smooth sailing straight into Dark Reign.”

David Gabriel, Marvel’s Senior Vice President of Sales, said in the release, “In speaking with retailers, Marvel decided it was more important to preserve the creative integrity of the series, rather than rush out the final issue. This not only creates a stronger product for our loyal readers, but also for our retailer partners, whose support helped make Secret Invasion a huge success.”

A mammoth event like this shipping late is no surprise and keeps the creative team intact as opposed to DC’s Final Crisis that recently announced the final issue will be illustred by Doug Mahnke and not J.G. Jones.

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