With Iron Man coming out on DVD (in a variety of formats and editions) on September 30, Paramount Home Video has begun letting websites sneak peek some of the extras to be found on the discs.
We have three such links for you this morning. First there’s one on the costume design, then one on flying, and finally one on Robert Downey, Jr. being prepped for the suit.
Enjoy.
Marvel and Brian Michael Bendis have teased the follow up act to Secret Invasion – it’s Dark Region and with it comes some some major titles changes as well, plus:
And we hit the comic stores and DVD racks for the good, the bad and the “they did what??” – just Press the Button!
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Schlock Mercenary: The Teraport Wars is now available for pre-order. The Teraport Wars is the fourth collection of Schlock Mercenary strips to make it into publication; in true George Lucas style, Book 3 and Book 4 were released first. This book fits between The Tub of Happiness and Under New Management, and with it the first 1000 strips are available four hard-copy volumes.
This 228-page volume is in full color on glossy paper, and contains all the strips and footnotes from November 12th of 2001 through March 8th of 2003. It also features some new footnotes, commentary, guest art, concept art, deck plans for the Post-Dated Check Loan, eleven pages of all-new bonus story, and an introduction by Brandon Sanderson. The book is expected to ship October 9.
Schlock Mercenary is a webcomic by Howard Tayler that follows the adventures of a mercenary company aboard a starship in a 31st-century space opera setting. Schlock Mercenary updates daily at http://www.schlockmercenary.com/, and has been doing so continuously since June of 2000, a near-unheard-of feat in webcomics. Schlock Mercenary was previously featured on Keenspot, and is now a member of the Blank Label Comics consortium.
Last night, Marvel hosted a presentation during Diamond Comics Distributors’ retailer summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, where their next big crossover was announced. Writer Brian Michael Bendis took the stage and said Dark Reign will shine a spotlight on the Marvel Universe in the wake of Secret Invasion, which concludes in November.
Similar to SI, the titles participating in Dark Reign will carry distinctive trade dress.
With the Skrull invasion of Earth reaching its climax, Bendis took the opportunity to discuss how the Avengers titles, which he writes, will be altered. He announced his departure from Mighty Avengers after issue #20 to move to yet another spin-off, Dark Avengers. Joining him will be Mike Deodato, who just left illustrating Thunderbolts.
Bendis also promised his next series with artist Alex Maleev, Spider-Woman: Agent of SWORD, was still forthcoming.
Marvel went on to formally announce a new Ultimates title, Ultimate Avengers, from writer Mark Millar, which can be expected during the first quarter of 2009. With the revamping of the Ultimates universe forthcoming, this is likely the replacement for The Ultimates.
Confirming that the black and white teasers that have been around for weeks now are something new, they announced Marvel Noir, a new sub-imprint that will kick off with X-Men and Spider-Man titles. No creative teams, format or scheduling was mentioned.
In the sixth production diary to be released, director Zack Snyder and his gang reveal some of the techniques utilized in filming Watchmen. In related Watchmen news, DC Comics has printed nearly one million new copies of the collected edition and you can barely enter a retail outlet of any kidn without seeing it on sale. Speaking of sales, Tower Records is offering it at less than 50% cover price while Things From Another World has it for exactly 50% off. Its sales remain brisk and it remains the number one graphic novel and number two book in Literature & Fiction at Amazon.
Marvel Comics is continuing its support of Stand Up To Cancer by offering an Iron Man 2 Vip Package over at eBay. Similar to the just concluded Spider-Man 4 auction, the winner and a guest will receive:
A one day visit to the set, a walk on part documented by the unit photographer, tickets to the Los Angeles premiere of the film in April 2010 and a chance to walk the red carpet.
Earlier today, the bidding was in excess of $5000 and the auction ends on September 15.
The major event in DC Comics in 2008 is Final Crisis, written by Grant Morrison. Unlike many summer crossovers, Final Crisis is not its own event so much as the third story of a trilogy (the first two stories being the crossovers The Crisis On Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis).
The opening premise is that all of the New Gods (celestial beings who inhabit a higher dimension) recently seemed to die, except for Darkseid, leader of the evil New Gods. Darkseid has found a way to survive through human hosts, his power fueled by the faith of his new followers under the prophet Libra. Determined to become ruler of reality, he has been resurrecting his sinister forces (an ability Kirby established decades ago) by placing their life-forces in new bodies as well. And since he has now learned the powerful "Anti-Life Equation", a prize he has sought for centuries, he is able to destroy free will in any who hear the equation, thus creating a new army of slaves.
So evil god-like forces have been freely walking among us and because the super-heroes didn’t realize it, they’ve been vulnerable to sneak attacks and manipulations. In short order, John Stewart, Hal Jordan, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman were all removed from the game board in one way or another.
But this is a Morrison story so that means there are usually layers to be peeled away. There are other things going on as a result of Darkseid now attempting to break the universe down to serve his will. There is, of course, the matter of the Multiversal Monitors, beings charged with maintaining the structure of the multiverse, one of whom is also living among us as a mortal man, unaware of his true nature. And there is the return of Barry Allen, the second Flash, a hero who became energy and merged with the universe even while saving it during the first Crisis over twenty years ago. Barry’s sacrifice saved the universe during that story and in DC Universe #0, it’s implied that the universe itself has brought him back so that he can save it again. It’s also possible he is here as a reactionary force to Libra, who is his opposite number in the sense that this a villain who also seemingly died years while merging with the cosmos.
And Libra and Barry are not the only dead men to show up in this story.
The Muppets will be first returning to television before the Big Screen. NBC has announced the production of Letters to Santa — A Muppets Christmas for this holiday season. This will be the third holiday themed special following a 1970s hour with John Denver and a 1980s effort. They also adapted Charles Dickens’ immortal tale in A Muppet Christmas Carol in 1992.
This one will be set once again on Christmas Eve as Kermit and company discover three errant letters to Santa. They take it upon themselves to handle the requests so the writers don’t have a spoiled Christmas. Joining in on the fun will be Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Sirico and Steve Schirripa from The Sopranos, Richard Griffiths and Madison Pettis.
Paul Williams will supply news songs according to The Hollywood Reporter. No airdate has been provided.
As for their feature film careers, Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller are at work on a script which Stoller would direct. Their story has the Muppets rally to save an old theatre from a greedy oilman. While announced in March, no further details have emerged.
Though Star Wars fandom is full of disagreements and divisions, most of us fanboys are in agreement about a few things: Jedi, lightsabers and force powers are awesome. Anything Timothy Zahn writes is going to be better than anything Kevin J. Anderson writes. And Lucas probably would have had a better script for The Phantom Menace if he’d hired a seven-year-old to write it.
Enter the Comic Irregulars (Andrew Coker, Andrew Shellshear, David Karlov, David McLeish, David Morgan-Mar, Ian Boreham, Loki Patrick, and Steven Irrgang), who you might recall from their work on the action figure/photo capture comic Irregular Webcomic. Inspired by Shamus Young’s work on DM of the Rings, they ask the question, “What if Star Wars was a roleplaying campaign that went far, far away from what the Game Master intended?”
And thus was born Darths & Droids.
The comic is set in a universe where Star Wars never existed, and the unnamed game master/narrator has designed the world from scratch for his game. Before the game begins, the players don’t know anything at all about Jedi, or Tatooine, the Skywalker family, because they only exist in the GM’s mind. The setting is built up over the course of the story in response to what the players do, and what they do is never what the GM expects, in a classic roleplaying maneuver known as “going off the rails.”
The plot follows Jim (playing Qui-Gon), Ben (playing Obi-Wan), and three other players who join later as they demonstrate why you shouldn’t make laser swords the cheapest available weapons, why you shouldn’t bring your little sister to roleplaying group, and how much more sense the plot of Episode I makes when filtered through the chaotic lens of a roleplaying game. (more…)
In this space on Friday and Saturday, my esteemed colleagues Mr. Davis and Ms. Thomases waxed on about the political situation of the day. Whereas there is no more important issue facing us as Americans in this moment in time (and it has considerable impact on non-Americans as well), I will not follow in their wake this week. I’m sure I will in the future.
Instead, I’m going to take a point central to their themes, and those expressed to a somewhat lesser extent by Ms. Riggs last week, and talk about comic books. Specifically, about Wonder Woman.
Since I’m in a name-dropping kind of mood, I should point out that my comments have been heavily influenced by recent conversations with Ms. Adriane Nash, a frequent commenter here at ComicMix, as well as our new editorial proofreader (for those items that come in early enough to be proofread…). And, oh yeah, she’s my savvy and opinionated daughter.
So what’s wrong with Wonder Woman? Positioning. Not unlike what many people think the McCain campaign did by selecting a fundamentalist book burner as their vice presidential candidate, under the theory that women are so stupid they’ll simply vote for one of their own no matter what her position is on the issues. You know, just like the conservatives.
Back in the 1940s, Wonder Woman was fabulously successful. She had as much exposure as any DC/AA hero (but not as much as, say, the real Captain Marvel). She had her own title, she starred in a monthly anthology book, she starred in a regularly published giant-sized star-studded superhero thing, and she briefly had her own newspaper strip. All she was lacking was a cheap movie serial.
By the time the 70s rolled around, DC had a hard time giving Wonder Woman away. As of this date, she’s undergone more revisions, reboots (one, quite literally, brought her original boots back), reinterpretations, and make-overs than Madonna. What happened?
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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