Marvel’s done pretty well for itself bringing its A-list heroes to the big screen — Iron Man, Thor, (hopefully) Captain America — but what about some tried-and-true second-stringers? What about the Dr. Stranges and Iron Fists of the world? When do they get their time in the sun? Apparently soon, according to Film School Rejects. Marvel has reportedly filmed two shorts for the Thor and Captain America DVD/Blu-Ray releases starring some B-list heroes and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Agent Coulson, with more to come. If the shorts were filmed and star heroes with at least a little name recognition, I’m really surprised that the casting didn’t get out into the wild already. Now I’m excited for those video releases! Give me Dr. Strange, Marvel! Read more…
If you’re a Star Trek fan, then chances are good that you’ve been waiting for this day for what seems like an eternity. But the moment is here: just in time for the long holiday weekend, you can catch the entire original Trek series on Netflix Instant, along with the entirety of Next Generation and Voyager. Start and stop as you please! Marathon it! Iron-man it! It’s a matter of honor now. But Trek isn’t the only nerdy thing to watch this weekend — Netflix has also added the entire X-Men animated series for your viewing pleasure. For viewers new to the series, you’ll probably want to stop watching riiiight around when Cable shows up. Hey! Just like the comics! Read more…
Mark Bongo from Major League Mods has created a bunch of really neat Xbox 360 case mods, like the R2-D2 360/projector combo we featured in the past. But this latest project looks so cool, you’d think Tony Stark himself built it in a cave! With a box of scraps! In this case (ha), Mark teamed up with Nub Grafix from Orange County Choppers to give this Iron Man-themed Xbox a sleek, metallic paint job. The miniature arc reactor that mimics the 360’s trademark ring of lights, though, is all Mark. Put the whole package in a Stark Industries locked case, and you have the c0olest Xbox this side of S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jun 26, 2011 in Comic Books
With great power comes great sacrifice! Brian Michael Bendis wrote Peter Parker’s origins in the Ultimate Spider-Man series, one of the arguably more successful forays into Marvel’s Ultimate continuity, so it’s only fitting that he also got to write … the end of Peter Parker?! That’s right: Marvel has officially killed Peter Parker in the Ultimate universe as of Ultimate Spider-Man #160. So what’s next for Ultimate Spidey? A new hero and a new costume, though Marvel is mum on the details, will appear in the Ultimate Comics Fallout series in August, with a reappearance in Ultimate Spider-Man #161 to follow. While Bendis insists that Parker is deader than dead in this continuity, fans of the web-slinger can still catch his adventures in The Amazing Spider-Man, which is ongoing. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jun 25, 2011 in Comic Books
We’ve seen minimalistic versions of superheroes in pixel form plenty of times before, but I think this is the first time that I’ve seen superheroes represented as flags! Fabian Gonzalez created this piece, available in print and t-shirt form, giving 50 different superheroes their very own national flag. Some of them are obvious (Captain America), some less so (is that Black Vulcan?). How many can you name? And would you want to live in the People’s Republic of Spawn? Read more…
For Chris Pine, taking up the role of Captain Kirk for the Star Trek film reboot was tough — not only because of the decades of fan love that William Shatner’s Kirk had amassed, but also because Shatner is a wily old coot who’s rumored to kill and eat any challengers for his Kirk throne. Thankfully, Pine survived the filming process without becoming Shatner food, and even got some critical acclaim to go along with his Captain title. Shatner had one final plan to defeat Pine, though — stage a fake documentary titled “The Captains,” wherein he’d pretend to interview all of the other Trek captains (like Patrick Stewart and Kate Mulgrew), then surprise him with an arm-wrestling contest … to the death. Okay, that’s actually not the circumstance for the above photo at all, but the documentary part is real, at least. Read about it on /Film. Read more…
Of all the things I expected to see on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, a man in Panthro makeup performing an orchestral version of the Thundercats theme song with full backup was admittedly not one of them. Thankfully, it was forever encased in digital bronze via Hulu, allowing future generations to look at that point in history and say, definitively, “This is the point when the world changed forever. This is when we all looked at each other and realized our problems meant nothing compared to the eternal struggle between fearless Lion-O and the dread sorcerer Mumm-Ra. This piece of music was the turning point.” Read more…
It’s almost hard to believe that The Fellowship of the Ring was released ten years ago, and even harder to believe that we’re actually getting two more films with Peter Jackson’s masterful take on Tolkien’s universe. We saw a video journal of the first day of filming for The Hobbit a while back, but all we’ve heard since then is casting news (a veritable who’s-who of BBC drama stars). Today, though, we received the first big payoff of the very long wait for The Hobbit — still photos from the set showing Martin Freeman in full Bilbo getup, Gandalf looking stoned, and Freeman and Jackson talking at a table. It all looks pretty much perfect, and totally in-universe for the original trilogy. Who else is excited to go back to Middle-Earth? Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jun 19, 2011 in Dr. Who
Artist Larry Wentzel has a whole bunch of Peanuts-themed Doctor Who art on his Flickr page, but I think this one is probably my favorite. Wentzel says “I imagine after the 11th Doctor was put in the Pandorica, the villains broke out into a little celebratory dance.” I bet they did, too, or at least I hope they did after seeing this picture. Seriously, these guys are just getting down. I didn’t know Daleks could bend that way, much less play piano. Maybe that one’s a special model. Vince Guardalek?
Michael Sacco is a freelance editor and writer, currently working as senior editor at WoW Insider.
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jun 18, 2011 in Television
Darren Aronofsky may be off the Wolverine movie to which he was previously attached, but at least he’s found good company for his next project, according to Variety. He’s set to direct the pilot for Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Michael Chabon’s (above) new HBO drama series, Hobgoblin, about “a group of con men and magicians who use their skills of deception to help defeat Hitler and the Germans during WWII.” I’m assuming here that by “magicians” they mean the real-world sleight-of-hand artists, as opposed to the fantasy archetype we all know and love. If you want that, you can always go read Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis, or any number of alternate-history novels, I suppose. But Aronofsky is a great director for a project like this, and Chabon’s body of work, like his love letter to classic comic books “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay,” speaks for itself. Shame about that Wolverine movie, though. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jun 12, 2011 in Television
Genre fans the world over rejoiced when the news broke that HBO had optioned Neil Gaiman’s American Gods for production into a TV series under the direction of Playtone. Now it looks like there’s even more good news — Tom Hanks has officially signed on to the project as executive producer, with Gaiman as head writer and executive producer himself. The six planned seasons are 10-12 episodes each, and the budget ($35-40 million per season) is fairly high, but bear in mind it’s probably going to be a while: HBO is aiming for a 2013 release “at the earliest.” Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jun 11, 2011 in Comic Books
DC’s upcoming relaunch announcements started with the Justice League and now have ended with the revelation that Grant Morrison will be writing the new #1 for Action Comics, the series that Superman originally appeared in 70 or so years ago. Morrison has written some damn good comics in the past — his run on New X-Men is one of the series’ best and he’s also responsible for the almost universally well-received All-Star Superman — so it’s pretty reasonable to assume that he’ll give Supes the re-debut he deserves. The issue is also being touted in its solicitation as the “cornerstone of the new DC universe,” so it may mean far more than just a fresh start for the Man of Steel: it could be what gives everybody else a fresh start, too. Good luck, Grant.
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jun 11, 2011 in Videogames
1996’s Duke Nukem 3D was one of the most 90s video games ever made, a prime example of what was wrong with games in their teenage years. Its misogyny, crude humor, and over-the-top hero guaranteed success with its target audience, though, so it sold (and sold well). The next game in the series, Duke Nukem Forever, was announced in 1997, and suffered from what is likely the most protracted development in gaming history as its studio shuffled between owners, its technology became outdated, and its fanbase grew up. The game eventually became synonymous with “vaporware.” Now, fourteen years later, Gearbox Software has salvaged the wreckage of the game and put the finishing touches on it and released it, officially making Duke Nukem Forever vaporware no longer. So how is it? According to the reviews released so far, pretty much exactly how you’d expect a game delayed for a decade and a half to be — mediocre to awful, depending on the reviewer. After fourteen years waiting for a game, you probably deserve more than what Duke Nukem Forever finally gives you; but then again, if you were really looking forward to Duke Nukem Forever, I’m not sure you deserve anything at all. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jun 10, 2011 in Pulp Fiction
Yes, the headline only makes sense as a pun if you pronounce “noire” with two syllables instead of its more correct one-weird-syllable method. But listen, it doesn’t matter. You can get LA Noire: The Collected Stories, the tie-in novel to bestselling video game LA Noire, for zero dollars this week. Amazon.com, BN.com, and iTunes are all offering the ebook for nothing and for the portable reading device of your choosing. So get on it, copper! That’s the only way you’ll catch that dame. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jun 10, 2011 in Pulp Fiction
Legendary “weird fiction” writer H.P. Lovecraft spawned a mythos that continues to thrive well after his death, and its nihilistic, uncaring universe is populated with aliens, extradimensional beings, and regular old earthbound monsters. The funny part about most of these creatures, though, is that few words are usually used to describe how they actually look. That hasn’t stopped artists from trying, though. My first introduction to Lovecraft was my copy of Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials I got as a kid, wherein the titular Wayne Barlowe drew his closest approximation of what Lovecraft’s Elder Things — the aliens from “At the Mountains of Madness” — looked like. Michael Bukowski continues in Barlowe’s grand tradition by drawing pretty much every one of Lovecraft’s numerous horrors, using creative license to fill in the blanks that Lovecraft’s proclivity for dramatic obfuscation left behind. Read more…
Nerds love the Muppets, nerds love Firefly; it was only a matter of time before someone took those two great tastes and made them taste great together. Artist James Hance is creating an entire series of Muppet-fied Firefly images (with some Fraggles to round out the cast) on his website, with proceeds from his upcoming prints to be donated to the Can’t Stop the Serenity charity. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jun 4, 2011 in Comic Books
Webcomicker Kate Beaton is known for her hilarious takes on historical figures, but she’s no stranger to superheroes either. She’s done riffs on Superman and Wonder Woman before, and she even did a Spider-Man piece for Marvel’s 2010 Strange Talesanthology (wherein Kraven needed a prom date). This time, she’s imagined what would happen if Peter Parker was bitten by a slightly different spider: specifically, the bothersome brown recluse.
Sony, after fighting a prolonged battle with hackers and leaving users of the PlayStation Network without access for 44 days, finally flipped the “on” switch on all of its online services yesterday. Unfortunately for Sony (and its customers), it looks like their security war is hardly over. The Sony Pictures website was hacked by a simple SQL injection, with a million usernames and passwords stolen. Worse, the information was apparently stored plaintext — that is, completely unencrypted. The hackers who perpetrated the attack, who call themselves “LulzSec,” say that the lack of security on Sony customers’ personal information was shameful and that they were asking for an attack. At this point, it’s difficult to feel bad for Sony anymore, though I definitely do feel bad for the tens of thousands of people who had their information posted online by the hackers.
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jun 3, 2011 in Comic Books
DC’s impending relaunch of 52 monthlies — a significant portion of their comic line — may be the ballsiest move yet made in comics, or it may be nothing more than a publicity stunt. It’s hard to say until we’ve seen the products of the relaunch. But to show that they mean business, DC announced a handful of the creative teams working on the new titles. Wonder Woman’s new team looks pretty interesting, with 100 Bullets‘ Brian Azzarello writing and Cliff Chiang on art duty, but then you have some stuff that looks considerably less compelling. Like, say, Firestorm, which looks … let’s just say “a little silly.” DC hasn’t revealed all of the teams quite yet, so we haven’t heard about heavy hitters like Batman or Superman, but maybe they’re saving the best for last. Maybe a Morrison Superman run? Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jun 3, 2011 in Television
Well, not the real one, given that he’s dead and all, but SyFy’s upcoming kinda-sorta-superhero team dramadoes star James Strathairn, who made a splash playing Murrow in Goodnight and Good Luck. Strathairn was easily my favorite part of that movie, and it’s admittedly a little surprising that SyFy managed to nab someone of his caliber to headline their show. If you don’t like good films or TV (which incidentally makes you SyFy’s target audience), then you’ll probably recognize Bones‘ Mr. Nigel-Murray himself, Ryan Cartwright, in the show’s cast. Check out the first promo art for Alphas right up there.
Posted by Michael Sacco on May 29, 2011 in Comic Books
Yes, it looks like Deadpool’s efforts to break the fourth wall actually succeeded in destroying the damn thing altogether — he’s now patrolling the streets of Wanatchee, WA. Okay, so maybe it’s not quite the real Deadpool (Wade Wilson is a little more muscular, I think), but a mystery man is using Deadpool’s outfit and name and going around helping those in need. You can even email him if you have a situation that you think would merit the help of a psychopathic mercenary. Whether or not this particular Deadpool is mentally ill still remains to be seen, though, admittedly, when you’re dealing with Deadpool, sanity is relative. Read more…
Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is a scifi staple, and its unique look continues to be an inspiration for other genre works. But it’s just a movie, made by real people, which is easy to forget. Periodically we’ll get some behind-the-scenes footage or photos that help us put film production into perspective, though, like these Blade Runner set Polaroids from actress Sean Young, who played Rachel in the film. If you want to see Harrison Ford making googly eyes at a camera, or just want to see Sean looking particularly glamorous, her collection is definitely worth a look. Read more…
Peter Jackson’s in-production film adaptation of The Hobbit has a largely new cast, including Martin Freeman as a young Bilbo Baggins, but given the film’s nature as a prequel to the events of Lord of the Rings, there’s also a cadre of returning characters. And that means a cadre of returning actors, too! According to Peter Jackson’s Facebook page, you can now count on Orlando Bloom to return as Legolas, the fan-favorite elf from the original trilogy. Bloom joins Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, and Elijah Wood in reprising his role. Read more…
There were several reasons to worry about the latest entry into the X-Men film franchise, X-Men: First Class. You could worry about the film being fast-tracked and barely having its filming done in time for release. You could worry about it being set in a time period removed from our own. You could, especially, worry about it being the latest entry into the X-Men film franchise. But it looks like Marvel made a wise choice in director Brian Vaughn (Kick Ass) — early reviews are overwhelmingly positive, stating the film’s script and stars do a great job in reviving the series and shedding new light on familiar characters. It even gets a favorable James Bond comparison in Michael Fassbender’s Magneto. Sounds good to me. We’ll know for sure as more reviews come out in the next few days, in time for First Class’ June 3rd release. Read more…
