Tagged: X-Men

#SDCC: Mondo Marvel

#SDCC: Mondo Marvel

  • News
  • July 23, 2009

If it’s a major convention, it must be Mondo Marvel. Panelists included Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, Jason Aaron (Wolverine: Weapon X), Dennis Calero (X-Men Noir), Matt Fraction (Invincible Iron Man), Paul Tobin (Models, Inc.), Frank Tieri (Dark Reign: Lethal Legion), Steve Wacker (Spider-Man editor), Jim McCann (New Avengers: The Reunion), and C.B. Cebulski (Marvel talent liaison) gathered to discuss Dark Reign, Marvel Adventures, and pretty much everything else the House of Ideas has on its plate. Newsarama’s got the liveblog, but here are some highlights:

  • Black Widow: Deadly Origin by Paul Cornell and Rom Raney is four issues, starting in October. “Some deep, dark secrets from her past,” said Quesada.
  • X-Men Noir: Mark of Cain is out in November, featuring the same team of Fred Van Lente and Dennis Calero.
  • Captain America/Black Panther is a 4-issue series by Reggie Hudlin and Denys Cowan, involving Black Panther’s father.
  • Paul Tobin talked about the “bold new direction” for the Marvel Adventures line, with Quesada saying that they’re bringing “cohesion” to those books.
  • Andy Diggle and Roberto de la Torre on Daredevil, starting in September.
  • Matt Fraction got a compliment for “giving Colossus his balls back.” Yep.
  • Quesada said that Allan Heinberg is in the midst of writing a “massive” story involving the Young Avengers.

More One More Day discussion, the return of Fantomex, and true tales of cosplay gone wrong at the full Newsarama liveblog as well as Marvel’s own recap.

Deadpool Becomes Green Lantern

Deadpool Becomes Green Lantern

  • News
  • July 11, 2009

After months of speculation and jerking around, Warner Bros. announced the casting of Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern in their forthcoming movie of the same name.

No stranger to the world of super-characters, Reynolds most recently played Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He will be reprising that character in the forthcoming solo movie. He also played Hannibal King in the third Blade movie and, at one time, was alleged to play The Flash in the movie project that disappeared in a wink.

The husband of Scarlett Johansson, Reynolds beat out Bradley Cooper, Jared Leto, and Justin Timberlake. He’ll be playing Hal Jordan, the off-again/on-again GL who dominated the continuity over the past half-century.

Green Lantern is produced by Donald De Line and Greg Berlanti and written by Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim. It will be directed by Martin Campbell for a 2011 release.

No word on who’s playing Ch’p.

The Inkwell Awards 2009

The Inkwell Awards 2009

The 2009 Inkwell Awards have come out, highlighting the art form that arguably is the most quintessentially comics.

FAVORITE INKER (favorite inker over another’s comic book pencil art from ‘08 material)
Wade Von Grawbadger (Ultimate Spider-Man) winner
Mark Morales (Thor, Secret Invasion) runner-up

MOST ADAPTABLE (showing exceptional ink style versatility over other comic book pencil artists in ‘08)
Tim Townsend (Amazing Spiderman) winner
Danny Miki (Incredible Hercules, Ultimate annuals) runner-up

PROPS AWARD (inker over others comic book pencil art deserving of more attention from ‘08)
Matt Ryan (Ms. Marvel, Wonder Woman) winner
Stefano Gaudiano (The Immortal Iron Fist, Daredevil) co-runner-up
Steve Leialoha (Fables) co-runner-up

THE SPAMI (favourite Small Press And Mainstream-Independent: ‘08
comic book cover-dated ink work over another pencil artist (Non-Marvel
or DC work))
Tim Townsend (Witchblade) winner
Tom Van Zandt (Unhappy Gran’ma) runner-up

ALL IN ONE AWARD (Favourite artist known for almost-exclusively
inking his/her own comic book pencil work and rarely the work of others
in ‘08)
Mike Mignola (Hellboy: In the Chapel of Moloch) winner
Simone Bianchi (Astonishing X-Men) runner-up

THE JOE SINNOTT AWARD (a hall of fame designation for an inking
career of outstanding accomplishment (lifetime achievement, 15-years
minimum- not limited to ‘08 comic book material)- two winners chosen
annually)
Terry Austin (winner)
Dick Giordano (winner)
Tim Townsend (runner-up)

Congratulations to all the winners, with a special shout out to Simone Bianchi– I was positive that Astonishing X-Men was reproduced from pencils.

Ask Chris Claremont about ‘X-Men Forever’ #1

Ask Chris Claremont about ‘X-Men Forever’ #1

  • News
  • June 11, 2009

While we’re still transcribing the rest of the first massive interview with Chris Claremont, he’s graciously agreed to answer questions about X-Men Forever going forward. So here’s what we’re going to do:

We’re going to collect questions from you from now until Sunday at midnight. Then we’re going to present the best questions to Chris, along with a few of our own. We’ll run the answers on Wednesday.

With X-Men Forever running bi-weekly, this will give you a fix to tide you over between issues. And we may work with Marvel to add some of these questions and answers to trade collections of the book.

Oh, and yes, SPOILERS ARE ALLOWED IN THE COMMENTS THREAD. If you haven’t read the issue yet, don’t blame us for any spoiled surprises.

BookExpo America 2009 recap

BookExpo America 2009 recap

As with any convention, a lot of fast, disjointed thoughts kicking around. In no particular order:

  • The most action at the con was in the Diamond Comics aisle and the e-publishers area. Other areas seemed quieter.
  • There seemed to be fewer freebies this year. A lot, in fact. When asking about getting on the press list, most publicists were relieved when I asked for PDFs over paper copies.
  • One paper copy I did get was a preview of IDW’s upcoming adaptation of The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke, taken from the Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) Parker novel. Having read the thing and knowing that they haven’t printed the final version yet, they should just save time and print “Future Eisner Award Nominee” on the cover now. Barnes & Noble is going to move a lot of these babies. (Disclaimer: IDW will be publishing the print version of ComicMix projects, and they picked up the tab for lunch on Friday. We tried, but Ted Adams insisted.)
  • DC did not have an official presence at the con, which considering the amount of backlist books they do is very surprising. Marvel and Diamond did, and seemed to be well rewarded for their efforts, with many people showing up for signings and even more showing up later on Saturday for the finger food and drinks. (Sorry you missed it, Alan.)
  • Lines for comics creators were very long. Neil Gaiman made a “surprise” appearance at the Harper Collins booth signing The Graveyard Book and handing out previews of Odd And The Frost Giants (I say surprise because I don’t remember seeing it on his blog).
    Marvel’s signings for Peter David and Chris Claremont went strongly, Chris estimated that he went through about two and a half boxes of X-Men Forever. I lost track of how many Oz books Skottie Young and Eric Shanower went through.

  • Over at the Image booth, Frank Cho and Chris Giarusso moved a lot of copies of their books as well.
  • The crowd seemed a bit older, even for BEA. Not sure if it’s an actual age difference, or if the young folks got fire from publishing houses, or if everyone at traditional houses were just muted this year.
  • There will be photos surfacing of me and Torsten Adair. I will not say which of us is the evil twin.
  • I had two publishers who knew me from my days as an e-publishing pioneer come up to me and say that their sales in paper were flat and the only bright spots were in e-publishing. Nice to know I’m remembered as a prophet, even if it’s taken a while to get there.

All in all, a decent, if not spectacular, trade show. Always fun to see many of my colleagues in a much less frenzied venue than San Diego or even Wizard World. Hopefully I’ll be recovered in time for MOCCA this weekend. Oy.

Oh, one final shot– this is from Thursday’s CBLDF party, with Denis Kitchen, Heidi Macdonald, Milton Griepp, and ComicMix alumnus Rick Marshall ordering a drink– no doubt steeling himself for the upcoming hell week starting with the MTV Movie Awards and ending with his name being pinned to an idiot in a major motion picture. Pray for him.

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…)

‘Star Trek’ exceeds industry expectations with $76.5 million opening weekend

‘Star Trek’ exceeds industry expectations with $76.5 million opening weekend

No wonder they’re smiling.

Star Trek passed Fast & Furious as the 2nd biggest opening of 2009, behind only X-Men Origins: Wolverine, earning an estimated $76.5 million (including Thursday night showings). The movie also set the attendance record for a film debuting in the second weekend in May, and made a record-setting $8.2 million from 138 IMAX theaters, which broke the Dark Knight’s $6.3 million mark.

And in case you missed it, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto showed up on Saturday Night Live this weekend…

And the photo, by the by, is of an Enterprise pimped out by Jesus Diaz and part of a series that can be seen at StarTrekMovie.com.

So what did you think of the film? Leave your comments below, and go easy on the spoilers…

Film status report: Wolverine, Deadpool, Dead of Night

Film status report: Wolverine, Deadpool, Dead of Night

Let’s take a few minutes and clear the decks of superhero film news before we all get wrapped up in Star Trek coverage…

  • Yes, another Wolverine sequel is already in the works. According to Variety, the sequel will focus on the X-Men comic’s samurai storyline, the Japanese locale setup for which is teased after this film’s end credits. In the meantime, Hugh Jackman will be working with Anne Hathaway in the big screen adaptation of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel. Since Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals did very well for him when he was playing Curly in Oklahoma… a role that was later taken over by Patrick Wilson, who went on to play Nite Owl in Watchmen.
  • Yes, there’s a Deadpool spinoff in the works at Fox. Ryan Reynolds is attached to come back for what for now is
    simply being called “Deadpool.” Lauren Shuler Donner and Marvel
    Studios would act as producers. What, you’re surprised?
  • Yes, there are now photos from Dead of Night, which is based on the Italian comic Dylan Dog. It stars Brandon Routh and Sam Huntington (where have we seen those two before) and Taye Diggs. This may be the property that keeps Platinum Studios alive. FirstShowing.net has the photos.
  • And this just in, also from FirstShowing: Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick May Work Together Again?! Coolness. Any guesses as to what, since The Graveyard Book is already in the works elsewhere?
  • Finally, we hope to have some Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen news shortly, as soon as we’re allowed to talk about it.
‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ debuts with $87 million opening weekend

‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ debuts with $87 million opening weekend

It takes more than swine flu and Internet piracy to keep our boy down.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine clawed (sorry) its way to an $87 million opening weekend, despite being widely available online a full month before its release, lukewarm reviews and Vice President Joe Biden to avoid confined and crowded spaces. The movie opening numbers beat the first two X-Men installments (although not the third) and it’s looking like Logan’s run (sorry again) in theaters is going to be pretty strong this summer.

So, does this kill the “Internet piracy is bad for you” meme once and for all? Yeah, I didn’t think so either.

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