Ex-lawyer, and renown brick artist Nathan Sawaya will be in town for San Diego Comic-Con this year. Apparently Nathan plans on teaming up with artist Jim Lee for a special live exhibition where he’ll recreate one of Jim’s Batman portraits using standard LEGO bricks. As part of the larger Darkness & Light: Art Inspired by Heroes & Villains, Hope & Heroism exhibition that’s currently on display, the live event will take place on Friday, July 13th from 11 am to 4 pm at Michael J. Wolf Fine Art Gallery. Read more…
Sadly, The Amazing Spider-Man doesn’t seem to be amazing enough for many critics and fans alike. True, not every reboot can be as successful as the last, but you can’t really blame Sony for trying. It’s been years since the last Tobey Maguire film and even I have to admit I was a little sick of the kid. Nevertheless, we’ve got ourselves a new Spidey, so we may as well learn to cope. The first step might be to picking Marvel’s The Amazing Spider-Man Augmented Reality App for your favorite iOS device — mind you, an iPhone 4, 4s, or iPad 2 on up, is required.
News has been slowly tickling out of Marvel, hinting at a possible feature film of Guardians of the Galaxy, and the most recent tidbit from Latino Review seems to confirm it. We may indeed see Marvel announce the film at Comic-Con in July – and if this happens, will we get to see Rocket Raccoon on the big screen? That’d be my number one request. Will this be the 2014 mystery film from Marvel? We’ll have to wait till their panel to find out. Read more…
Like you’re even surprised — If you’re planning on going to San Diego Comic-Con International next month, you’ll want to save the date. Marvel will be holding its “Hall H Comic Con Panel” on Saturday, July 14th from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM. The description for the event? “Marvel Studios presents Iron Man 3. Join Producer Kevin Feige and special guests as they provide an inside look at the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe.” So there you have it, mark your calenders and show up early. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jun 26, 2012 in Comic Books
Stan Lee plans on launching his upcoming YouTube channel World of Heroes at San Diego Comic-Con International on July 12th. Well, technically it’s already launched — you can access the channel here — but the real content won’t show up until the channel has its official premiere event during the convention. There’s plenty of talent lined up for event, including names like author Peter David, actress Adrienne Curry, and more. If you’re one of the lucky fans who managed to snag passes this year, the event is taking place in Room 6BCF from 11:45 to 12:45 and includes a “lively discussion” about the channel with Stan Lee and the aforementioned guests. There will also be exclusive clips from some of the content they plan to post on the channel.
Here’s our first good look at Lionsgate’s upcoming Judge Dredd reboot — though, I hesitate to use the term. Dredd 3D looks as though it’ll take on a more serious tone than the previous film, and I don’t think anyone could argue that the lack of Rob Schneider could possibly hurt it. However, as some fans have pointed out, the film’s plot seems awfully close to that of The Raid — the martial arts blockbuster Ben mentioned on our podcast the other week. Of course, The Raid is just over-the-top action with little substance in terms of plot, so that might be where Dredd has an edge. Just how much of one? We’ll have to wait until this fall to find out. Dredd 3D hits theaters September 21st.
Movie studios have been a little wishy-washy lately, haven’t they? No surprise, I suppose, given the economy, but here we go again: Paramount Pictures has reportedly halted work on Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot. You know, the one in which they weren’t teenage mutant ninja turtles, but were just ninja aliens that kind of looked like turtles. But maybe they were at least still teenagers. Or something. It was originally planned as a 2013 holiday release but with Paramount tossing out the pre-production staff and pushing the date back to May 2014, it looks less likely for the film to happen anytime soon. Who knows what’ll happen – perhaps it’ll start back up to meet the May 2014 date, or maybe it’ll just fade away till the next inevitable reboot. One can only hope!
The Justice League is an interesting beast to tackle. Mainly because Warner Bros. can’t seem to make up their mind one way or the other what they want to do with the property. Most recently, news came out that Warner had picked Will Beall to script the Justice League film, and in fact it’s implied that this was last year this happened. So with a script finally on the way, and a new Superman film from Zack Snyder peeking over the horizon, what will Warner’s strategy be? Read more…
Major League Mods has done it again with this very nice looking Xbox 360 slim Avengers edition. This ever so cool hack a really sharp looking avengers logo with controllers that feature matching Avengers colors: Read more…
New York Comic Con just announced that they will no longer have a side show which was called the New York Anime Festival. And adding insult to injury their press release no longer refers to cosplay, but instead uses the mundane term “costume contest”. It’s been hard watching what’s happened to the show over the last few years — but you just get the feeling that New York Comic Con is embarrassed by anime. Read more…
If you’re a Spider-Man fan, there might be a reason to catch the IMAX 3D midnight showing of Men in Black 3 on Thursday, or at least, sit through the trailers before getting up to leave. Attendees will be treated to a special six minute preview of The Amazing Spider-Man. Marvel has released its fair share of footage over the past few months in efforts to promote the film, but this special six minute preview will feature the most footage to date. Hopefully, it won’t be enough to spoil the film for those of you who choose to attend.
In their quest to create a new hit superhero show, CW has tried a lot, but maybe they’ve found their mark: a Green Arrow show. Simply titled “Arrow,” it follows Oliver Queen as he adopts the guise of vigilante Arrow. He’s defending Starling City now (instead of Star City) and will attempt to right his family’s wrongdoings. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by all this good television recently, but this isn’t really striking me as interesting. The voiceover was very dull and the average “TV CGI” was present as well, particularly the bouncing tennis balls. That said, perhaps CW will have an excellent story to surprise us with when Arrow starts this fall.
Here’s our first look at the latest cover art for IDW’s Star Trek x Doctor Who crossover series Assimilation². This fourth issue in the eight-part seriesfeatures a cover by series artist J.K. Woodward, and depicts an Enterprise away-team along with the Doctor and Amy, as they stumble across the skeletal remains of several Borg drones, set against the visage of a Borg cube within the clutches of a Cyberman. To find out what that’s all about, we’ll have to wait until the issue hits shelves this August. Hit the jump to catch a glimpse of the issue’s variant covers by artist Francesco Francavilla!
Posted by Tim Sheehy on May 10, 2012 in Comic Books
I’ve always been a proponent of digital comics, so I’m pleased whenever a major publisher decides to embrace the new medium. Don’t get me wrong, I love mom & pop comic shops as well, but I’ll be perfectly honest — I have enough clutter as it is. I’d just rather keep my comic collection both clutter-free and portable at the same time. As if they read my mind, Marvel Comics recently launched their brand new digital comic store. I know what you’re saying, “Didn’t they already launch one of these last year?” Well, they did, but this one’s better, and here’s why:
It’s a question I’ve wrestled with all day. Do I spend the extra cash to witness Whedon’s superhero extravaganza, The Avengers in 3D, iMAX or just settle for the normal 2D experience. After a bit of research, it seems apparent that the film was shot with only 2D cameras, with no iMAX or 3D cameras in sight. This means any 3D or iMAX versions of the film were converted entirely in post. Generally speaking, these conversions are never perfect, and should be treated as such — but that doesn’t mean they can’t be good either. Read more…
I’ll be honest, I’m still a little pessimistic about the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man film. But this trailer has gone a long way to give me something to look forward to. The cinematography in particular is really great, and seeing Spidey swing through the streets of New York with such style makes me happy. At least we’ll get some good eye candy out of this. The Amazing Spider-Man releases on July 3rd, this summer.
It should come as no surprise at this point, but Bioware and Dark Horse have announced an upcoming digital comic based on the hit title, Dragon Age: Origins. Titled Dragon Age: Those Who Speak, the three part series will focus on the characters of Alistair, Verric and Isabella, as they investigate the death of Alistair’s father. As a bit of a spoiler for anyone who has yet to play the game, Alistair is apparently crowned King at the end of the game, with the comic taking place during his reign. The first issue of the digital comic will be available on August 22nd.
Here’s the latest trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. As reported earlier, fans attending The Avengers this week will be treated to it in theaters, but we figured you’d want to catch it sooner rather than later. It may reveal a tad more about the plot, such as the reason for Batman’s absence from Gotham, and along with an extended look at Catwoman’s role in the film. Unlike previous trailers, Bane’s dialog is actually intelligible, so that leads me to believe Tom Hardy had some additional ADR work in recent months — probably for the best. Oh and we finally get a look at Nolan’s take on the Batwing. Like the rest of the vehicles to appear in previous films, it’s a bit rugged, for lack of a better term, and not quite as whimsical as the design from Burton’s films.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Apr 25, 2012 in Comic Books
Those of you planning on seeing The Avengers in theaters this May are in for another small treat. It was recently revealed that a brand new trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises will be attached to the film. I’m not usually excited about new trailers, as they often delay the start of a film by up to fifteen minutes, not to mention having to put up with comments from everyone else in the audience, but the previous trailers for this film have me craving a bit more. Perhaps its because so little about the film has actually been revealed through them. Sure there’s plenty of information out there to fill the holes, but if you’ve been avoiding that, then maybe this trailer will have you just as excited. Read more…
There’s nothing I hate more than someone who spoils a film for me, but for some reason Mavel seems intent on doing just that. The Avengers won’t even hit theaters nationwide until May 4th, but every day leading up to that will undoubtedly prove a significant challenge. Just today I received an e-mail from Marvel offering an exclusive clip from the film and asking me to pre-order the soundtrack. Clips have been pooping up on Facebook, and movie blogs since screenings of the film began earlier this month, and just this week they’ve launched an entirely new set of commercials with even more footage than before. Read more…
Beware the Batman, more like beware the bad voice acting, right? Here’s a teaser for Cartoon Network’s next animated Batman series, Beware the Batman. I have to admit, it seemed promising until I heard the voice over. Making an animated Batman series without Kevin Conroy as the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman just seems wrong. Of all the actors to ever voice the role of our Caped Crusader, Conroy’s performance remains unrivaled — an opinion that seems to be shared amongst fans. Voice acting aside, we’ll have to wait to see if the rest of the show lives up to its potential. A few story elements are being shuffled around — Alfred, for example, will be a gun-toting ex-secret agent while Katana, a member of the outsiders, will serve as his new sidekick in lieu of Robin. How any of that is suppose to make the series better is beyond me, so don’t ask. Beware the Batman premieres next year.
The Avengers hasn’t officially premiered yet — save for a few early screenings — but director Joss Whedon is already discussing some of the extras we can expect with the eventual DVD and Blu-ray release. As he revealed in previous interviews, Whedon ended up filming quite a few scenes, with his first cut weighing in at a hefty 3 hours in length. Back in March, Whedon revealed that he managed to cut that time down to 2 hours and 15 minutes. Admittedly, it would be a bit of a pipe dream to expect all forty five minutes of deleted footage to be included as extras, but in a recent interview with Collider, Whedon stated his intent to include at least half an hour worth. By industry standards, that’s a whole hell of a lot.
The last time I looked at a show with comic timing this good was when I was watching Ren & Stimpy back in the day. I have no idea if an entire episode of Super Best Friends Forever can keep up this sort of pace — but if it can it may be the best thing in a long time!
A scenic trip to Gotham City? Maybe scenic isn’t the best way to describe “getting robbed at gunpoint.” I don’t want to spoil the jokes here – Awkward Spaceship has put together a cute little video emulating the classic tourism commercial, only this time the city that’s begging for your visit is Gotham, a crime-riddled hive of scum and villainy. I certainly don’t recommend going to the opera and the walking out via the alleyway… Read more…