PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKES:
Cheap plug of no comic consequence whatsoever – the 411 Top 50 US Based Wrestlers 2003-04 Part One is here!
“Your comicbook tastes are really bad. You $h!t on Claremont and Millar and in favor of what? So crappy boring comic noone wants to buy like wildcats 3.0 or something. You r such old snob when it comes to comics.â€
Wow, I’ve only been here for a week and already I’m pissing people off! Hell, I’ve been doing the Thursday Anti-News Report over in Wrestling for over four months and still haven’t managed to get flamed yet. I thought Comics was supposed to be the friendly face of 411? What happened, man?
Anyway, to respond to Taylor‘s criticisms, which mainly centred around me not liking the more traditional sort of superhero comics and bashing things like Sabretooth and X-Force before they have been released, I have to say I stand by my claims. There is nothing in the world wrong with sticking to some good ol’ superhero comics rather than following the more “art-house†books on the market, but there is plenty wrong with buying bad books. Face it, if you want a good superhero comic from Marvel then you’ll be hard pressed to find it in the hard-hitting style of Mark Millar, you’d be lucky to find it in the ridiculously outdated style of Chris Claremont, and you sure as shit ain’t going to find it in the regurgitation of Sabretooth or X-Force. Stick to books like Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man, Mark Waid’s Fantastic Four and the current Robert Kirkman arc on Captain America instead. Remember – there is no right and wrong type of story, there are just good and bad ways of telling them.
Right, now let’s get on with the news. As you should be very well aware, the San Diego International Comic-Con is currently going on, with our very own Ben Morse and Tim Stevens rocking out under the guise of doing work for our Dark Overlord. You can read their latest update here, and be sure to check out Ben’s interview with Geoff Johns while you’re at it. Does it qualify as an interview when there is beer involved, or at that point does it just become all about geeking out?
Anyway, as you may expect, the SDICC is going to form the bulk of the news this week so let’s get down to it…
NEWS & VIEWS:
The movie that would not die…
On it’s fourth weekend (although the first weekend was about five days long…), Spider-Man 2 raked in $15 million to reach a $328.5 million total in the USA, nabbing the #14 position on the all-time domestic box-office charts and #28 on the all-time worldwide chart with $528.5 million. What’s more, the film is apparently on course to become the most successful Hollywood movie of all time in India, selling out theatres in Bombay for several days and pushing back the release of numerous Bollywood movies for a few weeks. I guess the mooted Spider-Man: India series wasn’t such a bad idea after all…
Meanwhile, in Britain, BBC Films recently ran a little interview with Sam Raimi, a.k.a. God, which had a number of interesting little titbits about the creative process behind the two Spider-Man movies. He also has some comments to make about the third chapter, currently slated for a 4th of May 2007 release date. Well, in the USA at least. That means it’ll probably come out in the UK by Halloween or something. Stupid distributors. Anyway, back to Sam:
“It’s going to follow the natural progression of the growth of these two individuals, Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker. It will be a love story and it will track the relationship as they encounter new conflicts that separate them. And hopefully their own will and love for each other will bring them back together in the piece. Harry will be a problem, but I’m not certain if Harry will become the Goblin or not. The thing I’m really not certain about is if he comes to feel, ‘Now I have the means to destroy Spider-Man – I was too weak before but now I have a way and I will become the man that my father always dreamed I could be.’ Or, does he feel: ‘Now I understand why Spider-Man had to destroy him, because he was a mass murderer and now my anger can drain away from me.’ It could be an answer to a question and it ends the pursuit, but I’m not certain which way to go.â€
James Franco was unquestionably the unsung hero of Spider-Man 2, something that more people shall hopefully recognise after the third instalment in the series when the Osborn legacy comes full circle. Put it this way – you need only look at Hayden Christensen’s subdued performance in Attack of the Clones to see how easily such a fragile character could have been made into a laughing stock. Personally, I started marking out like Princess Fiona at a Sir Justin gig when I heard the Goblin cackle…
Sam is being deliberately coy about the journey Harry will take in the next film, but no matter what happens we will definitely wind up with another villain. There’s just no chance of Sony, Columbia and Marvel going to miss out on such a merchandise minefield by merely bringing out slightly modified Green Goblin figures and the like. Personally, I would dearly love to see Raimi go with his original choice of Eliza Dushku as the Black Cat. Dushku would suit the role right down to the ground and would lead to some fantastic flirting scenes with Spider-Man before the inevitable disappointment as she sees just who it is under the mask (not to mention some fizzing “get-the-hell-away-from-my-boyfriend†arguments with Dunst). It would tie in perfectly to Peter and MJ embarking on their new life together, with Peter almost being offered one more chance to break it off and try to be with someone like Felicia Hardy, who would be more than capable of holding her own. After all, as Maguire said in the introduction to the first movie, this is simply a story about a girl. Using the Black Cat would allow for a natural progression of the love story angle, a few memorable action sequences, and still allow room for whatever they decide to do with Harry.
Plus, as anyone who has seen Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back will attest, Eliza Dushku in a skin-tight cat-suit is a must-see…
X-Men Legends
CBR managed to get some brief comments from Joe Kelly about the upcoming X-Men Legends video-game for the X-Box and PS2 courtesy of Raven Software and Activision. To quote the man himself, “It’s very exciting to play the game and I’ve really enjoyed it- I can’t wait for its release in September.” He also added that no elements of his run on the X-Men comics with Steven Seagle will crop up in the game, and that we can expect appearances from Wolverine (shock, I know…), Colossus (cool!), Jean Grey, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Cyclops, Psylocke and Storm on the hero side of the fence, with Magneto, Mystique, Toad and Blob popping up as part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. What’s more, we will even be treated to the voice talents of Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier, have a four-player option and a coherent storyline mode combined with some impressive graphics for a genuinely engrossing RPG feel. It may take some doing to beat the Spider-Man 2 game, but this does at least look set to all but wipe out memories of the underwhelming X2: Wolverine’s Revenge and the unfathomable X-Men: Next Dimension. You can check out some screenshots here.
YOUR Lawsuit of the Week!
According to PWInsider.com, WWE has filed a lawsuit against Marvel Comics, seeking to keep the rights to the name “Hulk Hogan.” WWE needs the rights to the name so they can feature Hogan on their upcoming WWE 24/7 service. Marvel claims that WWE’s rights to the name expired in March; WWE claims they own the rights until March of 2005. Marvel licensed the “Hulk Hogan” name to WWE in 1985 because they considered the name an infringement on their “Incredible Hulk” character.
Hmm, okay. Pandas sue WWE… Marvel sues Mickey Mouse… WWE sues Marvel… Argh, someone stop the madness! I mean really, who in their right mind could confuse an orange-skinned, balding, overweight wrestler on steroids with a green (or perhaps grey) skinned fictional character with a strange hard-on for smashing things and gamma bombs? Still, to be fair to Marvel, Hogan was originally billed as The Incredible Hulk Hogan when he first took on the Hulk moniker back in the mid ‘80s, and with that being the era of Hulkamania and the Incredible Hulk character having his own TV show and a comic book read by far more than 45,000 people, it was in their best interests to protect their intellectual property. Likewise, it’s easy to see WWE’s point of view here. They were burned badly by their blatant disregard for their agreement with the WWF and are now trying to avoid a similar fate befalling their WWE 24/7 service before it starts. Of course, most people would attempt to reach some sort of new agreement with the opposing company in question. Vince McMahon just decides to thrust his hips in the direction of the disturbance and hopes it goes away.
Stop suing people!
Quesada the Collector:
At the Cup O’ Joe panel at SDICC, the internet’s favourite procrastinator/infuriator/editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada, confirmed that a number of people have signed exclusive deals to Marvel over the coming years.
The biggest name involved is undoubtedly Warren Ellis, current scribe of Ultimate Fantastic Four and the upcoming Ultimate Nightmare mini-series. Ellis will also be taking over Iron Man as part of the post-Disassembled fall-out along with art from Adi Granov. In the words of Ellis himself,
â€This is a work-for-hire-only exclusive: it means that if I do company-owned work, I do it only for Marvel. It requires me to produce something like two scripts a month from Marvel, which is actually a little less than I’m doing right now. As Joe Quesada himself reportedly hinted, it also introduces Icon, Marvel’s boutique creator-owned line, into the frame as an opportunity. Planetary is exempt from the deal, as are two other small WFH jobs I’d begun at DC. And, to reiterate, it affects my creator-owned work not at all — I’m free to continue generating new work in that field and placing it anywhere I like. All power to Dan Buckley for being really very flexible in putting this deal together with me. People like Dan Buckley and DC’s Dan Didio (who I ran this by when this first came up, and was totally understanding and very cool) are making comics a much easier place to work in.â€
Apparently Ellis has been signed for two years, which should be more than enough time for him to leave a sizeable mark on any title that comes his way. With a bit of luck he will be kept on Ultimate Fantastic Four for a lengthy run. Neither Bendis nor Millar really seemed to have a firm grasp on what makes those characters really fly, yet in just a few issues Ellis has completely turned the title around due mainly to his fondness for straight-up science fiction (and the prospect of him being lured to the Icon line for a brand new series is too tantalising for our own good). Along with Mark Waid on the main title and Roberto Aguirre-Sacassa on MK4, not to mention a certain movie due out next year, this is a good time to be a fan of the Fantastic ones.
Incidentally, Sacassa is another one of Quesada’s collectables after signing another one of those two-year deals. His reward shall be yet more mainstream Marvel titles, such as the upcoming Nightcrawler series with Darick Robertson on art duties. The bulk of the praise for MK4 has been directed at Steve McNiven’s artwork but hey, I’m prepared to give Sacassa the benefit of the doubt thus far.
Next up for the two-year exclusive treatment is Robert Kirkman, currently proving the old adage about there being no poor characters, only poor writers on Captain America and shortly due to relaunch the Marvel 2099 imprint as a part of Marvel Knights 5th Anniversary. In addition, artists Steve Epting and Greg Land, currently working on Thor and X-Men: The End respectively, have signed exclusive contracts for undisclosed periods. The reason for going on such a spending spree? Well, according to Joey Q…
“I compare it to the Cold War, A year and a half ago, the opposition decided that the only way to stop the Marvel steamroller was to start locking up talent, so we had to as well. They built a nuclear bomb, so we built a nuclear bomb.â€
Whatever you say, Joe, but this whole thing just reeks of a jilted lover trying to get back at DC for nicking Grant Morrison. Seriously, ever since he left and took his creator-owned properties to Vertigo rather than Icon, Marvel has been hell-bent on trying to undo the most basic tenets of New X-Men and switch to full-on “arrogant bastard†mode. We’ve seen the return of the dreaded variant covers, the blatant marketing ploy of Identity Disc, this latest spree of exclusive contract signings, a crossover to counter Batman: War Games… Someone needs to just lock Quesada and Didio up in a room with a bottle of vodka and let them settle their differences one way or another.
Avengers Re-Assembled:
After hyping the absolute crap out of Bendis’ upcoming Disassembled crossover (not a crossover!), the future is still looking a little murky for the Avengers. We know that certain individuals will no longer be with us, that certain individuals will be changed forever, and that there will be a brand new team line-up in place for the new #1 coming our way in a few months time. We also know that none of these things really counts for a hell of a lot in the rapid turnaround world of comic books.
Yet, there are major plans afoot to draw attention to what have been ridiculously ill-treated properties over the past few years. What we do now know for certain is that, as mentioned above, Warren Ellis is going to be taking over Iron Man. In addition to this, none other than Ed Brubaker will be taking over Captain America once Robert Kirkman’s run is finished, along with the now-exclusive to Marvel artwork of Steve Epting. Having basically stumbled his way onto the book through a random conversation with Brian Michael Bendis, Brubaker’s love for the character shines through in this interview with CBR at the previous link.
“I could sit down and write a happy Captain America super hero comic, but that wouldn’t really be bringing myself to that book, that would be trying to be something I’m not. So, I came up with a mystery angle for my doorway into the character. Something awful and unexpected happens, and Cap gets involved with a sort of espionage mystery. Not like ‘Secret War’ where he’s going on black-ops missions, it’s a very Captain America-centric story, but one that makes him look for a lot of buried secrets. But still with the requisite amount of shield tossing, amazing feats, fights with H.Y.D.R.A. and A.I.M. yet at the same time the first arc is really a mystery-driven character piece.”
â€I was especially thankful to see that Mark [Waid] brought Sharon Carter back because even as a kid I was really mad when they killed her in this sort of off-handed way. At least when they killed Gwen Stacy it was a big deal. I was talking to Steve Epting the other day and told him, ‘I want you to know that as far as I’m concerned Sharon Carter is the Gwen Stacy of Captain America.’ I’m not going to make the same mistake I think everyone but Waid has made, which is, she’s going to be in the f*cking book. I don’t know to what extent at this point, but I like when Cap goes on missions and works with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Sharon’s an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who works with him and they have that chemistry. I like that Cap, the one who has a real life.â€
“I’m honestly not looking to do a lot of politically-oriented stories in the book, because it is a super-hero comic, after all, but I also don’t think writers should really push their own political agenda within their work for the most part. It’s an argument I have with other writers all the time and I know Diego Rivera said that all art is political, but I feel that as a writer you’re supposed to be objective. You write the characters. You don’t write your words into their mouths, you write their words into their mouths. And I would never want to pick up a comic book like Captain America and expect to read a liberal rant, at least, not coming out of the mouth of a guy who’s spent his entire adult life in the military.â€
Speaking as someone who has only ever read one good issue of Captain America in his entire life – issue #29, on sale now! – Brubaker has completely sold me on this one. A slice of new-style old-school (Catwoman) topped off with some thrilling intrigue plots (Sleeper) and well-crafted characterisation (Gotham Central) on a title he feels so passionate about that he has apparently already mapped out two years worth of stories for? Brubaker is your man, baby.
Hell, if you don’t trust me then just ask Daron…
And, as if Brian Michael Bendis, Warren Ellis and Ed Brubaker weren’t enough for the Avengers to be getting busy with, none other than Kurt F’N Busiek will be dropping by Fabian Nicieza’s house to get thoroughly plastered on generic American beers and write a brand new Thunderbolts series, due out in November! Former Avengers stalwarts Joe Casey and Scott Kolins will be teaming up for an exciting new project entitled Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, in which the unbridled passion of the creative team will be unleashed on the early days of the Avengers, exploring the nuances of each character and trying to capture the essence of what made the team work so well. In other words, it’s going to help placate fans turned off by the new-look team Bendis brings to the table following February’s Avengers Finale. If that wasn’t enough, the Casey-endorsed Young Avengers from the new team of O.C. (yes, that O.C.…) writer Allan Heinberg and exclusive artist Jimmy Cheung exploring young versions of Captain America, Hulk, Thor and Iron Man appearing in the wake of Disassembled will be appearing at the same time. That one sounds a little hokey, but they claim to be using Geoff Johns’ Teen Titans run as inspiration, so at least their heart is in the right place.
All in all, what with the Lion’s Gate animated feature DVD coming out next year too; this is one hell of an exciting time to be a fan of the Avengers. It’s about time that Marvel took their attention away from the X-books and back onto these guys, and there certainly seems to be some interesting books coming our way over the winter months…
Quick Hits:
– X-23 of X-Men Evolution fame (and, kind of, NYX too) shall be making an appearance in Uncanny X-Men #450 in the run-up to the debut of her own mini-series…
– Dreamwave will be teaming up with Marvel for a Fantastic Four/X-Men cross-over, which is really just a fancy way of saying that Pat Lee is doing the art…
– Runaways will be returning in January for Season 2… You know what that means? VAUGHAN!!!!!!!!
– Silver Surfer is no more after issue #14, which will upset roughly two hundred and thirty three people…
– She-Hulk is safe until at least issue #12, so I urge you all to show your love for one of Marvel’s best books on the market today…
– Origin 2 is not coming until next year, by which time we will hopefully have actually finished and then buried all memories of Wolverine: The End…
PREVIEWS:
Strange #1:
Newsarama has the first four pages of the upcoming Dr. Strange series, currently solicited for release on September 15th. It’s to be co-written by J. Michael Straczynski and one of his many protégés, Sara “Samm†Barnes. This does imply that constantly harping on about a completely irrelevant character in another book (in this case Amazing Spider-Man) will lead to you getting the chance to showcase said character of choice eventually. Still, I’ve got faith that this is going to be far better more rewarding that a mere vanity project otherwise would be. Barnes is a bit of an unknown prospect when it comes to comic books but, with JMS supervising and a character with a ready-made audience, she has a golden opportunity to prove herself here. The art looks real purty like, too…
Ultimate Elektra #1:
The latest issue of Marvel Previews is the place to be if you’d like to catch a seven page preview of this upcoming five-issue miniseries, due out next month. Truthfully, a more accurate name would have been Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra vol. 2 as the ultimate incarnation of Matt “don’t call me Affleck†Murdock is still a prominent feature of this series. Cynically, this is only seeing the light of day because the TPB will be ready to hit the shelves just as the Elektra 2 movie hits theatres. Honestly, the first volume by Greg Rucka was probably the weakest Ultimate title to date. Unfortunately, this seems to follow the same limp tone of Elektra’s father getting in over his head with some shady business dealings, causing her to over-react somewhat against Matt’s wishes. Thankfully, Salvador Larroca is back on art duties so it should at least look good. Probably, I should stop using adverbs.
LINKAGE:
Your friend and mine, Dan Buckley, discusses what Marvel really make of the Diamond Sales Chart over at Newsarama. He also gives two thumbs-up to District X, which is nice to see…
Elektra: The Hand, a five-issue mini-series due to start next month, explores the training of the Marvel Universe’s deadliest and sexiest assassin in greater depth than ever before. You can check out an interview with writer Akira Yoshida of Thor: Son of Asgard fame at Newsarama…
Marvel will be bringing back a range of horror comics just in time for Halloween, and the most eagerly anticipated is the new Tomb of Dracula mini-series featuring the one man capable of forcing Triple H to do the job – Blade. Check out the interview with writer Robert Rodi at, yup, Newsarama…
Hands up if you’ve heard of John Romita Jr.? Uh-huh, very good… Hands up if you’ve heard of Wolverine? Right, I see… Hands up if you’d like to see them working together? Oh right, well, in that case you had best head over to CBR for further details about JRJR’s upcoming stint on Mark Millar’s Wolverine…
Our very own Jim Trabold – along with random inserts from Daron – is back with the latest addition of the Marvel Handbook, which is quite simply an essential read as always.
William Cooling reviews Daredevil #62 in the form of a letter!
Jesse Baker reviews X-Men #159 in the form of Good News, Bad News!
James Hatton reviews Identity Disc #2 for you people! Show the man some love!
Oscar Ferguson reviews Marvel Knights 4 #7 and bigs up Steve McNiven some more!
Nick Piers reviews the Fantastic Four vol. 1 HC in DVD style! Dammit, Piers!
And, once again, even though it has nothing to do with comics please check out the 411 Top 50 US Based Wrestlers 2003-04 and let me or Ross know what you think of part one.
Until next time, enjoy the fantastic comics coming your way this week and remember – Claremont was popular in the ‘80s but so were Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
