NOTE: The individual opinions of each Roundtable contributor is their own, and is not representative of anybody but that contributor.
First images of Fantastic Four movie cast members are released (credit: CBR)
Mike Maillaro (Super-Model): These look 1000 times better than I was expecting. If the script is good, this could be a pretty cool movie.
Jamie Hatton (Writer of Diner Talk & Nexus reviewer): Nope. I like the outfits. I think they fit perfect with today’s F4, but Alba doesn’t look right with blonde hair, and Thing looks like Grig from The Last Starfighter.
I am the first person to be open arms about a comic movie – I’m not one of the haters, but I’ve had this sinking feeling in my gut about this film since I heard Jessica Alba’s name. She’s hotter than hell, and is going to ROCK Sin City, but I just don’t see her being Sue at all”¦and here, I’ll prove my point:
and now THE THING
…now Starfighter is one of my favorite chill out sci-fi”¦but it was made at the tale end of the Star Wars craze. That’s 20 or so years ago. They could do better.
RUMOR: Nightwing is the killer of Identity Crisis and his title will end with issue #100 (credit: Lying In The Gutters)
Ben Morse (Co-Editor-In-Chief of The Nexus & writer of The Watchtower: Uhhh”¦right”¦no.
Mike Maillaro: While I wouldn’t put it past DC, I sincerely doubt that Dick Grayson is the killer. This is basically the same rumor that started about Kyle: his series is ending; he must be the IC killer.
Jamie Hatton: Okay, everybody check your ‘IDENTITY CRISIS KILLER’ bingo cards. I got to check Nightwing off mine, and all I need is Star-Spangled Girl and Swamp Thing to win. At least this rumor has some decent continuity to it. Danielle’s gonna be pissed though.
Daron Kauppauff (Co-Editor-In-Chief of The Nexus & writer of Missing The Boat): Wow…this just seems like bad reporting to me…is there any proof of this? I mean any of us can make guesses who the killer is, but I don’t think it’s right to post those GUESSES as news. Here’s the thing, it was reported last month that Nightwing was going to end, but it would be followed by a 6-issue mini written by Dixon featuring Nightwing’s Year One story. Then the series is supposed to pick back up after that. Now, sure some of this may have changed, but none of this info was even mentioned in the article. It was almost like LITG was trying to announce the end of Nightwing. HELLO, it was announced at Wizard World Chicago…
Plus does anyone actually believe Nightwing could be the killer? SERIOUSLY?!?
More information on the return of Jon Sable at Newsarama
Mike Maillaro: A six issue mini-series written and drawn by THE GRELL (and edited by longtime Grell editor Mike Gold). Plus, they will be releasing the original Jon Sable Freelance series as a series of trades. This is the best news I have heard in a long time. I can’t wait for these books now!
Second volume of Ultimates will focus on The Hulk, Tho’s origin and The Defenders in early issues and actually have covers that have to do with the contents of the issue (credit: All The Rage
Jamie Hatton: Bullshit. No Ultimate Title is allowed to showcase actual storyline details. They have to show pictures of people staring off smiling or shooting their powers. I dare them to disprove me. DARE THEM!
Mike Maillaro: I agree with James. That is true of just about any Marvel comic these days…and a good chunk of DC covers too. The covers have become just pin-ups. Hell, there were issues of New Mutants with characters who hadn’t even debuted in the book yet (Rahne twice). I hate that!
Ben Morse: On a related note: I’ll believe it when I see it”¦no, not a cover of an issue of Ultimates that has to do with the contents, just a new issue of Ultimates period.
Marvel solicitations for December 2004 released
Ben Morse: Is that Ultimates v.2 #1 I see”¦? See my quote from the last item”¦
Nothing against Stuart Immonen, but why can’t they just keep one artist on Ultimate X-Men for more than an arc?
Ethan Van Sciver actually came back to do an X-Men cover?! Cool! How did Joey Q swing that one?
Glad to see Badrock has made the transition from Youngblood to X-Force”¦
Once again, Cable/Deadpool looks like it will be amazing.
Who’s the guy with no face on the cover of New Avengers #2? Why does New Avengers #2 get such a dumb solicitation copy when people are already turning away in droves from the book before #1 has even hit?
“What if the Identity Crisis happened in the Marvel Universe?” Just”¦no comment.
Smallville premieres fourth season
Ben Morse: What a difference one actress makes…
I have never liked Smallville simply because I can’t stand Tom Welling and Kristin Kreuk isn’t so hot either (Anette O’Toole and John Schneider vary, Michael Rosenbaum and John Glover are excellent, Allison Mack was pretty decent) and the Clark-Lana thing has gone in so many circles I’m bored.
But the addition of Erica Durance last night as Lois Lane…wow, what a difference.
I’ve never seen any of Ms. Durance’s work before, but like Margot Kidder and Teri Hatcher before her, she absolutely nailed Lois and made her one of the most enjoyable characters I’ve seen on TV in quite some time. She brought an electricity and chemistry every one of her scenes, her interactions with Martha and even Clark and especially with Lionel. She’s really got me jazzed for this season and I can’t wait to see where her relationships with Clark and Lana go; I wish she was more than just a guest star.
Aside from that, Welling was his usual wooden self (he might as well be kindling), Rosenbaum was great but underutilized and Glover was brilliant as usual. Margot Kidder’s brief appearance was nice and I loved the nice references to Superman: The Movie (her being Christopher Reeve’s character’s former lover).
Aside from Lois, the mysteries also have me piqued, from what’s going on with Lana, to those artifacts, to of course what happened with Chloe. It seems like this season is going to definitely be more than just “freak of the week” stuff and Bart is still coming!
Much better.
Bidding for CrossGen assets will conclude on September 28th
Ben Morse: Along with the Valiant/Acclaim purchases The Nexus will be making, I will personally be attempting to buy the Negation team and make them get me coffee and stuff as an FU to all the CG fans on The Nexus…I’m a bad man.
11 page preview of Uncanny X-Men #450 released to Newsarama
Jesse Baker (Nexus reviewer”¦you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry): After reading UXM #449, I have to say that I’ve gotten bored with Uncanny. The best thing for all people is if Marvel makes Claremont give up Storm, Kurt, Sage, and Rachel and let Milligan use them in adjectiveless X-Men and let Claremont use the Austen Third String X-Men team in Uncanny; since Claremont’s handling of the second and third string characters was one of the saving graces of his last two years of X-Treme X-Men.
Ben Morse: Art”¦pretty”¦what were you saying, Jesse?
Zeb Wells/Skottie Young New Warriors re-launch confirmed with a premise of the Warriors being brought in ala “Extreme Makeover” to help people with problems
Jesse Baker: Ugh…. I like Zeb’s Spidey work but this premise is bullshit. Can’t they just give the book to Fabian Nicieza? Or better yet, bring in Micah Wright and have him revamp the New Warriors ala his version of Stormwatch and have the Warriors be the watchdog group in the Super-Hero Community that keeps everyone in line despite the fact that the roster are all college age heroes (and not teens like Marvel keeps wanting them to be)?
Ben Morse: I’m torn.
I love the Warriors and am happy to see them back in any form; also, Wells is a decent writer.
But that premise just sounds way too gimmicky when New Warriors has always been a title about the characters. This smacks of when they tried to revamp Thunderbolts with zero success.
In a perfect world Fabian would be back on the book, but I’ve spent about a decade waiting for that perfect world, so I’m not holding my breath. We could do worse, so I’ll give it a shot.
I’m terrified for Skottie Young on art though; I really wish the Todd Nauck rumors had been true.
Paul Sebert (Seriously, Paul, get a job): Actually I really like this concept, but I liked it better when Todd Nauck called it Wildgaurd.
But seriously folks…if this is anything like Zeb Wells “Rules of the Game” arc on Peter Parker: Spider-Man or “I was a Teen-Age Frogman” from Spider-Man’s Tangled Web this should be hilarious.
HOT BUTTON TOPIC
As Avengers Disassembled begins to wind to a close, Hawkeye seemingly dies in Avengers #502
Ben Morse: I knew about Hawkeye’s death about a week in advance because I could resist spoilers, so I was dreading reading it”¦but, surprisingly, it didn’t bother me so much.
Don’t get me wrong, it was still a pointless and frustrating death; it was a historically clever (if headstrong) character committing a stupid act that he had to know would ultimately make little difference. But that’s what “Chaos” has been about so far: smart characters acting stupid; Cap standing around mouth agape as events transpire around him, Falcon being reduced to “I told ya so” guy, Iron Man taking his ball and going home”¦etc. About 800 Avengers/Marvel heroes standing around doing nothing in this issue; when Kurt Busiek would write these “guest starring every Avenger EVER!” issues, he’d make a tremendous effort to see that every character had their own distinctive personality, was made good use of, and referenced their own past continuity; he didn’t just have Perez do a pretty splash page with all of them.
But I digress”¦the reason Hawkeye’s death didn’t bother me so much was because it was overshadowed by just how bad an issue this was”¦like seriously awful.
The stuff I already mentioned was a big factor. The fact that this “Chaos” arc has gone nowhere for three issues and is going to need a tremendous fourth act to redeem itself is another; to be honest, it’s beyond the point of redemption”¦Bendis could write the most amazing issue in history next month and I’d still find it unforgivable that I’ve had to sit through three months of this to get there.
The arc is truly it’s namesake; there is no rhyme or reason to what’s going on and the writing hasn’t been good enough that I’ll accept the “it’s supposed to be that way, it will all make sense in the end” excuse that Bendis has been pimping. He’s writing these characters out of character and he’s crapping on the legacy of guys like Busiek and Roger Stern by having all these great characters at his disposal and just having them stand around rather than create nice moments with nods to the past or fun interaction.
I’ve heard the knocks on Bendis that he can’t write good action and that he can’t handle big casts and they were both evident in this issue.
Finc’s art was really off this issue as well. I’m normally a fan, but this issue looked rushed and lazy.
I have a feeling that both Hawkeye and Vision will be back by the end of this arc and it will be explained away as magic (and Scarlet Witch is going to be the villain), but I don’t really care at this point; the crappy writing has more than eclipsed the stupid deaths.
I am still committed to giving New Avengers a try, but I am really disappointed with the job Bendis has done on the originals.
Mike Maillaro: I agree with Ben. This arc has been pretty disappointing over all. The deaths just feel some meaningless, and you get the impression that it’s just random. Like Ben said, this feels like someone is pooping all over the great Avengers stories of the past. I am definitely curious about the New Avengers, but I am not sure if it’s worth it.
Tim Sheridan (Nexus reviewer & STUD): I thought Nightwing was revealed to be the Avengers traitor?
