Yearly Archive: 2008

If you’re the owner of PC manufacturer Dell, and you’re looking for a way to compete with the Apple owned online retail giant iTunes, who you gonna call? Venkman and the gang ain’t gonna cut it this round. You gotta go with the big gun: mother-frakkin Iron Man.

The Hollywood Reporter announced today that Dell and Paramount Pictures are partnering up to offer a new front in digital distribution, with an eye to taking on the mega-sized iTunes. Their strategy? Offering customers the option to preload Iron Man into newly purchased computers for $20. Bonus footage will accompany the standard film content.

"The key here is to lead off our slow immersion into content as a major piece of the puzzle in terms of what consumers want from a PC," says Dell’s director of content, Rachna Basin.

So far, Paramount is the only studio to sign onto the plan, leaving Iron Man as Dell’s lone sentinel. As more companies partner up with Dell, consumers will likely have broader options as to which films can be installed onto their computers. Further, there are rumblings that Dell is looking to open an iTunes inspired online retail presence that would allow users to purchase films after they’ve bought their computers.

Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr. and directed by Jon Favreau, is out on DVD today. Dell’s offering begins today as well. So if you’re in the market for both the DVD and a new computer, then maybe it’s time to start thinking about a Dell.

Before rushing to the store today to pick up Iron Man in standard or Blu-ray, you might want to consider the various variant exclusive editions that were also released today.

Not one or two but eight different editions were hitting stores today.  Here’s what you can find and where you can find them:

Circuit City – Access to exclusive Marvel Digital Comics featuring the artwork of Adi Granov.

Best Buy – Custom Lithograph created by Marvel artist Gerald Parel.

Target – Target Deluxe Edition includes exclusive Mark III mask packaging. Available on both the Ultimate 2-Disc Edition and 2-Disc Blu-ray.

Costco – Giftset includes the Ultimate 2 Disc Edition DVD and 3 Iron Man Bobbleheads, with all 3 Iron Man suits from the film. Giftset includes the “Battle Damaged Mark II".

Walmart – Two exclusive SKUs. Ultimate 2 Disc Edition packed with an exclusive comic book chronicling the Nick Fury story. The single disc giftset is packed with the 1st episode of the new Iron Man animated series.

Kmart & Sears – Save $5 on the Ultimate 2 Disc edition with any $25 Craftsman purchase.

Trans World – FYE and Suncoast Exclusive Steelbook Package available on the Ultimate 2- disc Edition.

Borders – On pack collectible book featuring original sketches by Bob Layton and the top 24 comic cover of Iron Man.
 

Rob Cabrera, best known as the author of United Media-syndicated comic Silo Roberts has started a new independent strip inspired by this year’s presidential campaign. Super Tuesday plays the standard political-cartoon style and focuses specifically on Barak Obama and John McCain. Updates are expected to vary in frequency as events develop on the campaign trail.

Silo Roberts, Cabrera’s previous strip, was “the story of a multiethnic middle child who struggles to find his place in today’s melting pot of a world”. The strip was syndicated by Uniuted Media from 2004 to 2006, when Cabrera ended the strip to focus on graduate school. The Silo Roberts section of Cabrera’s website is “under construction,” but promises a print collection of the comic in 2008.

Cabrera’s previous notable move was a rare crossover of comic strips with the NBA: Silo Roberts featured Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade in December of 2005. The strips and a related news piece were featured at NBA.com, and the strip was made into a series of limited-edition Topps trading cards, released in May 2006.
 

According to Shack News, Max Payne will be released with a PG-13 rating. Director John Moore had been advocating for this rating, which is significantly more financially viable than the R rating that the MPAA had granted.

Moore and his team "trimmed some frames for the sake of trimming frames," which led to the MPAA’s reconsideration of the film’s rating.

Fans will still see a bloodier cut of the video game adaptation, which Moore refers to as the "Gamer Dedicated Cut."

"It’s a little slower and a little more atmospheric," Moore tells GameDaily. "There are some rougher edges on it, but it’s not going to be a bloodfest. I want this to be the Max Payne that I set out to shoot. It’s not that I wanted to release one version in the theaters and make a cheap buck by following up with a blood-drenched DVD version. The movie you see in the theaters will be an intense experience and the movie you see on DVD will be as intense an experience with some extra sensibilities for people who really adore the game."

Starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis, Max Payne centers on a DEA agent (Wahlberg) whose family is slain as part of a conspiracy. He teams up with assassin (Kunis) out to avenge her sister’s death. The duo will be hunted by the police, the mob, and a ruthless corporation.

Max Payne arrives in theaters on October 17, 2008.

The X-Men have been going through a lot of changes recently. With the X-Mansion recently destroyed (for what I think is the third time now), and with Xavier no longer trusted by the majority of the team, the mutant heroes have picked up stakes and moved to San Francisco, a community which welcomes mutants. Certain characters have had interesting experiences trying to adjust to the west coast and Marvel is putting out a few mini-series under the banner of Manifest Destiny that tackles this subject.

Wolverine: Manifest Destiny will feature the Canadian "Canuckle-head" making his way into California only to discover that a bounty has been placed on his head. Honesty, as if it weren’t hard enough being a mutant who’s often targeted by Mafia and Yakuza and somehow divides his time between solo missions and being both an illegal Avenger and an X-Man and leader of X-Force. It turns out that Wolverine’s ex, now leader of the Triads, has summoned a quartet of mystical warriors who each are fully capable of killing the nearly-immortal hero and they’re not going to stop until the contract has been fulfilled.

This story is brought to you by artist Stephen Segovia and writer Jason Aaron. Fans will recognize Segovia’s excellent work from the ongoing series Wolverine: Origins. Jason Aaron has gotten a lot of praise not only as the writer of Verrtigo’s Scalped, but also for his hard-edged Wolverine: Origins story arc "Get Mystique" and his accomplishment in taking the Ghost Rider series and re-energizing it with interesting drama, a high-level of humor and enjoyably insane violence. With credits like that, Wolverine: Manifest Destiny is sure to be a hard-hitting, violent ride. Just perfect for Wolverine fans.

Don’t believe me? Then you obviously need to read the new Ghost RIder series and see for yourself how Aaron has made the demonic anti-hero more fun than he’s been in years. And here’s what some folks said following "Get Mystique."

James Hunt of ComicBookResources.com said, "Jason Aaron has himself an appropriate niche, telling a solo Wolverine action story that showcases the character’s brains as much as his brawn."

And Daniel Crown of IGN.com remarked, "To put it simply, Wolverine is an extremely torn character, and it just so happens that Jason Aaron is outstanding when it comes to writing irresolute characters."

The X-Men books have really risen in quality in the past few months so this story comes with high hopes.