In today’s brand-new, free episode of Demons’ of Sherwood, Robert Tinnell and Bo Hampton show us a skirmish between Robin Hood’s Merry Men and a band of gypsies.
When the dust settles and everyone’s asleep, Robin thinks he sees something. Something really big. Big and hungry.
Never one to miss a promotional tie-in, Marvel.com has posted a rundown of the publisher’s greatest moments in sports.
The "Marvelous Moments in Sports" roundup was clearly written before the big game, because it lacks the sorrowful tone one might expect from a post-game writeup by New England Patriots fan Ben Morse. In fact, it’s a pretty funny trip down memory lane, with bits like this one about a bicoastal game of softball played in the pages of Avengers:
EARTH’S MIGHTIEST SOFTBALL GAME (WEST COAST AVENGERS ANNUAL #2, AVENGERS ANNUAL #16—1987)
Picture the softball game at your annual company picnic between marketing and accounting, but then sub in Thor at cleanup, Captain America at pitcher and Hawkeye on the base paths—that’s what the Avengers and their West Coast branch were going for in the late ’80s during their one and only showdown on the diamond. It’s pretty easy to understand why they never gave it another shot when you consider that the cosmically empowered Grandmaster interrupted the game, killed half of each team and then forced the remainder to compete in battle for his amusement. The GM eventually resurrected the fallen Avengers, and Cap learned a valuable lesson as they resumed the game: Hawkeye cheats.
Spider-Man fans everywhere rejoiced when it was announced that the hero’s popular arch-enemy, Venom, was planned for the third big-screen installment of the "Spider-Man" film franchise. Unfortunately, the film failed to live up to expectations for most diehard Spidey (and Venom) fans. Recent reports regarding a potential Venom solo project could provide cause for celebration again.
IESB.net has confirmed that "a studio" is in talks with various movie writers to produce a film based upon the Venom character introduced in "Spider-Man 3".
The report cannot confirm which studio – or which writers – are involved in the discussion, but offers the following evaluation of the news:
Eight years ago, New Line Cinema held the theatrical rights to Venom. Since then, the rights have reverted back Marvel. But does Sony have complete control over the character since he was a part of Spidey 3 or does Marvel control the rights to the character with Sony only having distribution rights?
We have to assume that since there is movement and there has been recent meetings with writers this property must belong to Marvel since they have made an interim agreement with the WGA and proceed to develop projects during the current strike. Either way, one thing is for certain, Venom will get a second shot at the big screen.
German schoolchildren will soon be incorporating a comic book into their lessons about the Holocaust and the Nazi regime, according to Reuters.
The Search, described as a "Tintin-style" story, was created by Dutch cartoonist Eric Heuvel, and explores the Holocaust through the perspective of a fictional survivor. German officials hope to use the book to assist in the education of underprivileged children who might not otherwise be interested in learning.
The 61-page book, already available in various European languages, will be used alongside worksheets in history classes at secondary schools in Berlin for six months, after which the project hopes to go nationwide.
Today in 1999, Gary Coleman ("Diff’rent Strokes") was fined $400 and sentenced to 90 days in jail (suspended). But the real cherry on top, however, were the mandated anger management classes.
Where did all this aggression stem from, you may ask? Coleman previously attacked an autograph seeker who was no doubt pressing the short celebrity to utter his exhausted catch phrase, "Whatchu talkin’ ’bout, Willis?"
Behold the terrible woes of the Napoleon Complex!
Journalista calls out this two-part series on Bunny, The Queen of the In-Crowd, and other late-1960s attempts by Harvey Comics to market stories to hip teenagers.
With all of the hype surrounding publishers attempts (or lack thereof) to market comics to a female audience, the Bunny retrospective provides an interesting look at an early attempt to court a different group of potential readers.
During the Swingin’ Sixties, Harvey comics jumped on a bandwagon and produced their own version of an ‘Archie’ knock-off marketed towards teen-age readers.
Bunny was a happening young super-model, "The Queen of the In-Crowd", who ran with her own pack of groovy and fashionable friends.
Science-fiction fan site io9 has posted a video clip in their "Found Footage" section featuring the climax of 1994’s live-action "Fantastic Four" film, which Roger Corman produced and Marvel Comics spent heaps of money to hide from the public.
Okay, I’ve never seen the full film, but I’m quite certain its depiction of Ben Grimm, The Thing, will live on in my nightmares. Oh, and check out the animation used in the "Johnny Storm flying off to stop the Destructo Ray" sequence – it’s wonderfully cheesy.
io9 has more on the background of the film’s production, as well as some of its more questionable plot choices (an angry space leprechaun, anyone?):
How did this disaster happen? A German production company owned the rights to make a Fantastic Four movie, but was unable to raise the $40 million it needed before the rights were due to expire. So the company turned to Roger Corman, who said he could make the movie cheap and quick. … At $1.4 million, this movie had a huge budget compared to a usual Corman spectacle. After the film was completed, Marvel paid a few million to suppress it. The team worked in secret to complete post-production on it, but then Marvel ordered all prints destroyed. So it’s a minor miracle that you’re able to suffer through this clip.
Just in case you haven’t been getting enough Star Wars in your diet lately, Lucasfilm has debuted a new character for the upcoming "Stars Wars: The Clone Wars" animated series.
The new character’s name is "Ahsoka Tano," and the Lucasfilm site has this to say about her:
This young Togruta is eager to prove herself as a worthy Padawan to her bold Master, Anakin Skywalker. Able to wield a lightsaber and pilot a spacecraft with great talent, Ahsoka promises to become a worthy Jedi.
(Hat tip to Cinematical!)
The "Return of Captain America" media assault managed a few more parting shots this weekend, as the new Cap found his way onto an episode of "Good Morning America."
If you can ignore the glaring inaccuracies in the show’s presentation of the events leading up to Bucky Barnes becoming the new Captain America (Cap died in a "hail of bullets?"), the Captain America interview on "Good Morning America" is a fun little segment that features an animated interview with Cap himself, as well as live-action interviews with Newsarama Senior Editor Michael Doran and Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.
The Beat points me to an interesting panel in one of the recent Grant Morrison-penned issues of Batman. Apparently, the very, very vocal campaign for Batman continuity to acknowledge the existence of short-lived female Robin, Stephanie Brown, received a nod in Batman #673, during a dream sequence scripted by Morrison.
Girl-Wonder.org is, of course, quite excited about this development.
Way to go, Goddamn Batman.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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