This is seriously one of the best fan trailers I've ever seen. You can definitely pick out a lot of the movies they used, but it still looks insanely cool and makes me want to see it right now!
On a more personal note, I'm clearly not dead. Part of my absence has to do with real life, part of it has to do with Movable Type not working properly for me. It's still not, but a quick embedded file seems to work.
I am so not a fan of Frank Miller, so this bit of news actually made me smile. A reader for Ain't it Cool News claims to have seen The Spirit and writes a very long winded review of it, most of which is pretty funny (though the rape analogy just pisses me off; watching a bad movie is NOT comparable to rape in any way shape or form.)
This is one of my favorite quotes:
Seriously, how on Earth could they know that your idea of direction is to place the camera on a tripod and have your two actors walk back and forth for five minutes in front of a dimwit committing seppuku? They couldn't, of course, but they should have. You apparently storyboarded the whole film. Did they LOOK (like, with their eyes) at these? Didn't they notice the length of the scene? Didn't they notice the lack of dramatic action? Didn't they know that high school plays directed by a middle school teacher who's only directing because he hates his life has better staging than this? They SHOULD have.
This definitely doesn't bode well for the Spirit movie, but it is just one person's opinion; one that admittedly has very little detail to it other than how much he hates the movie. I guess we'll have to wait another week or so before more reviews start to surface. I for one, have no intention of seeing it; but then, I never planned to in the first place, what with not being a fan and all. I am curious to know what fans of Frank Miller and/or The Spirit think not only of this review, but the movie itself.
IGN has a little bit on the upcoming Dark Avengers series, including the cover for the first issue. This is clearly the next big hyped thing from Marvel following the Secret Invasion crossover. IGN got Tom Brevoorts comment on it:
"Who are the Dark Avengers? That's the question that all of Marveldom is going to be asking as Secret Invasion gives way to Dark Reign. Are they clones? Doppelgangers? Future Echoes? Or something more immediate and horrifying? And once their identity is revealed, that will only propel the Marvel Universe onto a path that will carry it forward towards an inevitable, explosive climax."
So basically, he told us nothing. The whole "inevitable, explosive climax" part is so cliched now, I think they've used that for everything new. For a company that employs many writers, they seem to be missing a single thesaurus.
Even so, I can't help being curious; what Marvel geek wouldn't be just a little?
It looks like this time it might be permanent; or as "permanent" as it gets in the comic industry; after almost eleven years and over 130 issues to her name, Spider-Girl looks to end her run at, well, #(1)30. Tom DeFalco, the writer for her run confirms it:
I was informed earlier this week that our last issue will be AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL #30.
On the good news front, there is talk that Spider-Girl will become a regular 16-paged feature in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN FAMILY. (I've been told conflicting things about MR & MRS so I don't know if that feature will continue.)
To those who predicted that SPIDER-GIRL would never last, you were right. (You were off by a little over 11 years, but you were right.)
I, for one, am hoping something will happen and the cancellation will be canceled again. It's not the best book ever, but it's a lot of fun and it's one of the very few solo female books Marvel puts out. I will definitely miss it.
This week's Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed asks "The writers of New Mutants had to re-write a finished comic book at the last moment because Marvel decided not to publish the original story, which involved a gay student killing himself.", which is shown to be true. What follows is the original plot for the comic and how everything behind the scenes played out. I can see it being a trigger to some; so be wary.
In 2003, Nunzio Defilippis and Christina Weir debuted their new Marvel series, New Mutants, which introduced brand new teenage mutant students of Xavier's, while using the slightly older original members of the New Mutants (primarily Dani Moonstar) as their mentors.
Another of the New Mutants, Xi'an "Shan" Coy Manh, was also an instructor at Xavier's, and in a plot designed for issue #8, parents of students at Xavier's would complain when Shan is seen kissing another woman during Parent's Day.
One of the students, Victor Borkowski (Anole) would protest his parents' outrage by revealing that he was, in fact, gay himself!
His parents would not react kindly to this, and when he turned to his two best friends (Josh and Julian) for support, they would shun him as well, leading to him killing himself in the next issue.
Today I will regale you with tales of the dark and mysterious comic shop; strange tales to chill your bones, scare little kids and...
Ah, frak it. This week is a thing I wrote last year after I worked a shift at the comic shop on Halloween as Spider-Girl. I was going to wait until Halloween to do it, then realized I probably would be writing what happens this Halloween then.
Tale #11 ~ The Amazing Spider-Girl
I love Halloween; when else do you get to dress up like something cool and not be (completely) mocked? Last year, I worked out most things, such as getting hospital booties from a co-worker to keep my feet from getting dirty (the costume doesn't have any padding or protection for the feet. It's all the same cloth), working out a hair net (My hair is long and hard to get into the mask alone) and finding a pin to hold the neck together more so I don't look like I have a massively bulky neck. :P
I went to the store out of costume and put it on in the bathroom. I can see why the Spider-people leave the costume on underneath. It takes way too long to put it on. :P After struggling with my hair and the makeshift nylon hair net and zipping the costume up over all of that, I was out in the main part of the store after 5 minutes, mask and all.
I usually wear fairly tight fitting clothing every day, at least in summer. I didn't think the Spider-Girl costume would really feel all that different on me; it didn't in the comfort of my own home. I should have guessed that being in something that is essentially a second skin in a comic store would feel totally different. I felt naked, yet clothed. It's an odd feeling and for the first half hour or so I wasn't really sure what to do with myself.
Wow, it's been awhile; like not quite a month since my last post. Well, now that my life seems to have gone back to the normal pace, I actually have time to post again. So here it is, a little late, but this week's new stuff!
First, I'll go with the image, which is of Barack Obama's 6 inch action figure. Yeah, it looks more like a half-assed bobble head (minus the bobble) who's just one latex glove away from a proctology exam; but it's a Barack Obama figure!
Marvel released the second of three (not including variants) of this year's bigger releases in the Marvel Select line. Last week was a very kick ass Thor, and this week is yet another Hulk. This would be at least the third Hulk they've made (number comes from memory, not actual research) and I kind of wish they'd move on to other characters.
Today I will regale you with tales of the dark and mysterious comic shop; strange tales to chill your bones, scare little kids and...
Ah, frak it. On with the stories.
Tale #9 ~ The Truthsayer Strikes Back
It's so incredibly irritating how often people in the store (female and male), will ask me questions, get an answer, then later ask Bill or Jake the same question and get the same answer. It's annoying, though sometimes amusing. In this case it was amusing because if the guy had just listened to me, he would have saved $6.
It was near the end of the day, and I was doing inventory. Which of late isn't anything new. Inventory in this context, is defined as a level of retail hell that lasts forever. This man walks in and kind of looks around a bit. He's kind of a jittery personality, like he's had too much coffee or a cola or something. He comes to the desk and asks if the Wizard we have out is the latest. I tell him it is. He asks for an opened copy. Lucky for him, we actually had one.
Some of you may have heard yesterday about the All Star Batman and Robin recall, due to, well, an "unknown" reason. This according to the release sent to all shops:
***** SHIPPING ADVISORY: DC COMICS' ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN THE BOY WONDER #10
Dear Diamond Customer:
Please be advised that copies of DC Comics' ALL-STAR BATMAN & ROBIN THE BOY WONDER #10 (FEB080203-4D) may be included in your September 10 shipment.
At DC's request, please do not place this book out for sale to your customers. Instead, please destroy any copies that you receive. You will be credited for these copies on your September 17 invoice.
Diamond apologizes for any inconvenience this creates for you or your customers. If you have additional questions, please contact your Diamond Customer Service Representative. Thank you.
While many people were wondering what exactly prompted DC to recall the copies, many stores, including my own, already knew the reason. Bad redacting. Or rather, ineffectual redacting, as most of the pages with the "sanitized" words still had them easily visible. Fortunately, CBR's Lying in the Gutters has some scans of a couple of pages for all you curious types (and for me, 'cause I was too lazy to scan them myself). Obviously, be wary. What lies beyond the link is not work safe.
The Captain America movie rumors keep coming, this time, Will Smith is rumored to be in the running for the Star-Spangled Avenger.
...During an MTV News interview regarding his role in "Miracle at St. Anna," actor Derek Luke let slip that a very prominent - and surprising - face could be the star of Marvel Studios' next blockbuster film.
"I heard they offered Will Smith 'Captain America,'" said Luke, adding that the intriguing casting rumor "just shows you how times have changed."
Clearly this is just a rumor from someone who doesn't seem to have any ties to the film itself; though that doesn't discount it wholly. Still, it seems unlikely Will Smith would be Steve Rogers' Captain America if it was still set during World War II; though definitely possible he could be Isaiah Bradley's Captain America. Unfortunately, the US' own history precludes him from being the "official" Cap from World War II. Now if it was updated to, say, Viet Nam, that would be something else entirely.
This entire post is a pretty big spoiler, so if you're one of the four adult comic geeks that hasn't seen The Dark Knight yet, just skip over this. Like, right now, since the spoilers start now.
I warned you...
Most have wondered if Two-Face will return after his apparent death at the end of the Dark Knight, some think he's dead dead, others think it was just a ruse to keep Gotham from falling to an even darker place. In a recent interview with Super Hero Hype, Aaron Eckhart has his answer...
Review: Stormwatch #1
Stormwatch #1, the first of DC's new 52 to feature LGBT characters (before the reboot, at least) is out to add a new cosmic dimension to the post-Flashpoint universe. There isn't much to be said for our beloved broship yet (though the last page shows a handshake between Apollo and Midnighter and promises a "Big Bang"), but the issue is a great gauge for whether or not you'll want to stick with the series to see the romance purportedly unfold....
